a Christmas countdown

6- The number of inches of snow called for overnight by the National Weather Service that caused our entire family to cancel their plans to get together at my parents' place on Christmas Day.

5- The number of trips to the kitchen Kain made on Christmas Eve to fill his plate with antipasto, dill pickles, fudge, cookies, and cake.

4- The number of nativity pieces knocked off the nativity set when Maria accidentally hurled her Wii remote across the room while "bowling". The Wii was a new gift this year.

3- The number of times Kain vomited dill pickle and fudge after going to bed Christmas Eve.

2- The number of injuries sustained on Christmas Day- John burned himself with his new soldering iron. Jack was given a bloody nose when backhanded by John with a Wii remote when he was "canoing". I think it hurt John more than it hurt Jack.

1- The number of inches of snow we actually got.

0- The number of times Kain managed to hit the toilet, bucket, or a receptacle of any kind while vomiting.

Daybook- last week of Advent!

For today, December 21st...

Outside my window...dark and cold. John had to scrape ice off the car this morning before he left. Unlike the rest of the country, we have had much of that yet. We are supposed to get hit with some ugliness Christmas Eve though.

I am thinking...about how I am never *quite done* with Christmas shopping. I've ordered everything online that needed to be ordered. I made one last trip to Wally World yesterday (Oh my WORD, that place is so INSANE right now). And I thought I was done. When I got home, I realized that I'd forgotten one of Maria's gifts (sigh). I'm going to grab it today. Then I'm REALLY done.

I am thankful for...relative good health for the kids. Kain had an appointment with the pulmonologist last week and she said he had an ear infection...we had no idea! But no flu or anything still.

From the learning rooms...we are on Christmas break! Woohoo! Learning, of course, continues, all the time. My kids are very involved in Christmas preparations. And Maria will still press on with some math over most of the break. We need to get done what I can...we're having a baby in the spring!

From the kitchen...fudge. We are making homemade fudge for Christmas boxes and to put out on cookie plates on Christmas Eve/Day. Otherwise, I'm doing very little baking this year. Even the cookies are from refrigerator dough. Scandalous, yes? My lower back and hips are already killing me from all the shopping. I'm begging out of baking this year.

I am wearing...my blue fuzzy bathrobe! Yay, it's clean, and still smells vaguely of baby bath.

I am creating...some Montessori-ish activities for Tess over Christmas break. She's *ready* already. I'm finding her doing things like trying to lace up Kain's shoes and rolling balls through the tunnel on the cat perch. She's ready.

I am reading...Matilda, by Roald Dahl. I bought a big stack of books second hand from another homeschooler, and it had a whole mess of Roald Dahl in it. :)

I am hoping...that Jack heals up. He had a nasty scratch from one of the cats and it's infected. It was *beyond gross* on Saturday, ick. I've been scrubbing it, putting hydrogen peroxide and antibiotic ointment on it, and it's looking a lot better, but not quite so much better that I'm done worrying about it. Also, I *love* cleaning up gross wounds. It's oddly satisfying to me to clean up some messy looking thing and watch it heal up. Isn't that weird? Maybe when I'm done raising kids I'll be a wound care nurse.

I am hearing...Martha Speaks on PBS...Tess and Jack woke up while I was typing and I put this on for them. And I just heard Kain get up and head for the bathroom, which is a good thing, it's time for him to get up.

Around the house...we are getting our Christmas tree tomorrow. I have no idea where we are going to put it.

The baby this week...I'm 25 weeks this week. Too early for all these back-aches. I think it's going to be a long last trimester! I started having Braxton-Hicks contractions yesterday. I read that Michelle Duggar went into premature labor and had her baby already, and she was only a couple of weeks further along than me. I can't imagine.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Today- therapy for Kain, and he will be going to day treatment today and tomorrow. Otherwise...Christmas! Christmas Eve we will go to evening mass and the Christmas pageant. Maria will be singing in the choir, Jack will be in the pageant for the first time as a shepherd, and Kain will be in his final pageant performance, a break-out role as Caesar Augustus. :) Christmas Day we will keep that age-old tradition of having the kids open up all their gifts and then forcing them, amongst much wailing and gnashing of teeth, to leave them all to go visit family.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...
Memories of warmer weather...these are from a nature walk in August. Isn't Tess' rear-end a scream? She had a disposable diaper on and it blew up like a balloon.








H/T to Peggy at Simple Woman's Daybook. Join us!

Daybook in December

For today, December 14th...

Outside my window...It is still very dark and very early in the morning. But today is supposed to be sunny and 60 degrees! Woohoo!

I am thinking...about those coffee mate flavored creamers available this time of year,,,gingerbread and eggnog and caramel apple flavored. I'm avoiding sugar in the interest of having a less-huge baby, but I've been missing them every morning!

I am thankful for...a generous Christmas gift from my in-laws that will allow us to finally finish our privacy fence. It was only 2/3 done when we bought the house and we've paid "handymen" twice to work on it and twice got ripped off. We've never been able to afford an actual fence company until now. This means that we can get a dog in the spring!

From the learning rooms...Kain is not with us for school right now. He will be going to therapeutic day treatment for a few months. He's doing ok, just more of the same, and lots of attitude problems regarding schoolwork that I just can't deal with anymore. So, his schoolwork is out of my hands. I am working on a unit on "Safety Friends" with Jack...firefighters and police officers and such. Lots of fun! Maria is learning about classification of living things, factoring, and the Greek-Persian wars.

From the kitchen...tonight we will have a cornbread-chili casserole for dinner. I've been using e-mealz lately. I'm not sure how I feel about their menus. They are pretty good and definitely handy, but my grocery bill has gone up a bit using them and I do miss planning my seasonal menus. I just don't have the gumption right now. Maybe after Christmas.

I am wearing...I'm not dressed yet! I'm wearing the grey sweatpants and white tshirt I slept in. Sexy, no? I'm also freezing. My bathrobe is in the laundry. It mysteriously got baby bath spilled all over it.

I am creating...some ornaments to put on our Jesse Tree for using *after* Christmas. We bought a little tabletop tree this year to use for our Jesse Tree. It won't count for our *real* Christmas tree of course. I wish it would! It takes up a lot less room! But I would have a mutiny on my hands if I tried that.

I am going...to have a busy Monday. I have to take Kain to TDT. Then I have to pick him up at 10 and take him to the pulmonologist, and then take him back to TDT. Then I have to pick him up at 2:30 and take him to therapy. Then Maria has dance class tonight at 7. Thankfully John is off today and can help with some of the running around.

I am reading...old back issues of Mothering. Someone gave me a stack a while back that I'm slowly working through. They date all the way back to when I was pregnant with Maria, and it's funny to see how dated the photos look!

I am hoping...that everyone stays well. Tessie has been congested with yucky stuff for a couple of days. Kain's asthma is acting up. Maria said last night that she felt queasy. I prayed that everyone would stay well through our trip to Dallas two weeks ago, and everyone did. Now I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall. We've had almost no illness so far this year. It's coming. I can feel it.

I am hearing...nothing at all. Everyone is still asleep! Oh...wait,,,I hear a couple of birds starting to cheep at the bird feeder outside the living room window. Poor cold birdies!

Around the house...we have done very little for Advent this year. Honestly, my planning for such things has been atrocious since I became pregnant. I'm hoping to pick up the ball again for the Christmas season. By Christmas season, I mean the real one that starts after Advent, not the one that walmart says starts on Black Friday. :)

One of my favorite things...my fuzzy warm bathrobe. And gingerbread flavored coffee creamer. I'm feeling whiny this morning, huh? Here's something good---feeling the baby kick. I finally feel him kick on regular basis. That seemed late in coming this time and I was getting worried about it, so it's sweet to feel him moving around.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Oh, it's a busy one. Tomorrow, John and I are going Christmas shopping together. I don't really like to shop, but this will be fun I think. Thursday- library day and occupational therapy for Kain. Friday- midwife appointment.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...from our recent trip to Dallas. Our trip was for the Southern Region Oireachtas, an Irish dance competition that qualifies dancers to compete at the national level. She didn't place, which truly wasn't expected at all...she is still a beginner and it was her first oireachtas. It was a fun experience though. It was a girls' road trip...Maria and I, my mom, and Tessie, living it up in the big city. Here's some pics of Tessie in Dallas.


Tessie's feet in little Irish dance socks...aren't they cute!

Eating New York style pizza at this *amazing* place near the hotel. It was so good we went twice!

Both of the girls were fascinated by the pigeons that let you get so close. Our birds at home aren't that friendly!

What happens when you turn on the news to check the weather and then leave the room

Kain, walking into the kitchen where I am refilling my coffee-
"There was a teenage drug-induced sex party. Whatever that means."

feis pictures

My Irish dancer at her latest feis...I have some video, but she's dancing with some other girls in it and I don't have permission to post it. I'll have to get some of just her next time.

The presenting of the colors.




Taking a break between dances...those dresses are really heavy and really hot. They wear tank tops underneath so they can cool off. Also makes costume changes easier!

Gobble, gobble

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

We are having an odd one here. John is working...he always is. Working at a hospital, he has to put in his holiday time somewhere, so he works Thanksgiving and New Year's so that he can have Christmas Eve and Day off. So, every year, the kids and I usually end up going to see family for Thanksgiving and then I make a turkey dinner here at home on another day that John is off. Well, this year, due to a complicated turn of events, we are having Thanksgiving dinner here for my family...on Sunday. Today, we started the day with mass, and now we are watching the big parade and Charlie Brown on TV, and reading a couple of Thanksgiving picture books. Later, we will make a gratitude tree (something like this one, only a version we can put on the dining room wall). But we will have chicken and rice for dinner. No pie. Not yet.

an ultrasound pic!

Meet our new little inkblot. :) Just 20 weeks old this week.


You can't tell in this particular picture, but it's a boy! No, we don't have a name yet. We are considering several, and we keep waffling...I think we might just wait until this one is born and see what fits!

It was so fun to "meet" this baby. He was moving a lot, waving his arms and legs around, which is so odd to see because I still can't really feel very much movement. They tried to get a profile of his face, but every which way she approached he kept turning his head toward the ultrasound wand! We saw all the parts...beating heart, stomach, bladder, kidneys, spine, etc. So amazing, all of that going on and he only weighs 13 ounces, about 6-7 inches long (that's crown to rump, not the whole baby)...you could just hold him in one hand.

Tess's first sentences.

Tess will be 18 months old in a few days. She says quite a few words now and will try to repeat almost anything. She says a couple of phrases/sentences too...

---"Got cheese?"
and
---"Mmmm, it's good."

One is often followed by the other.

I've got lots of backed up pictures to post, and I'm overwhelmed with the thoughts of digging through them all, so I think I'll try to do a few at a time.

Mine!

Sometimes there are issues with my children's behavior that can be chalked up to childishness or immaturity...Jack's love of streaking around naked, Tess's sudden love of running through the house shrieking for no reason at all than to hear her own voice...irritating, but things that I know will pass.

Other behaviors are more troubling, because they show character issues that need to be addressed, and I'm not always sure how to do that. And if you do address them, that often doesn't mean *fixing* them...don't we all have those character issues that we are called to constantly work on? (Ahem...I'm blogging again when my house is a mess. Sloth, anyone?)

Kain is very...greedy. I almost said materialistic, but I don't think it's that really. His greediness does often center around things, but not just things. Attention, time, physical affection, food...the greed for these things is all understandable given his past circumstances, but we have been feeding these needs as best we can for three years now, and still the hunger for all of these things rages out of control. In fact, this greed is one of the top two causes of his misbehavior I think. Have we not figured out how to fill this kid's tank? Is it not possible to do so?

Anyway, one of the more amusing/irritating (depending on my mood and how hard he is willing to do battle) ways this greed shows itself is his need to *own* things. He loves *stuff*, which is why I almost said "materialistic" earlier. He will often (twice just today) come to me with some random item and ask if he can have it. Usually this is an inconsequential item...a small toy that lives in the playroom, some trinket he finds outside, even something he's fished out of the recycling can. Often I don't even know what he means by "have it". In our house, as I think is often the case in houses with several kids, most toys, books, games, craft materials, dvd's, etc., are held in common. Even when a child receives a something as a gift, eventually it migrates to the common areas of the house and becomes rather communal. There's just not space to have "Kain's legos" and "Jack's legos" and so on. The kids know that, generally speaking, they are expected to share their things and in exchange they get to share other people's things. If something gets damaged/lost in the sharing, then the child responsible will make good on it. And any child that complains about the arrangements is bound to get my "one of the benefits of having brothers and sisters is that you will learn how to share and get along with other people and become a better Christian/wife/husband/father/mother/employee/friend/human being someday" speech.

Anyway, so when he comes out of the playroom with some random matchbox car or old Happy Meal toy, what does he mean by "have it"? Can he play with it? He already is doing so. Can he carry it around and such for a time? I guess, if no one else wants a turn with it. Can he put it in his backpack (where all his most prized stuff lives) and refuse to let anyone else touch it? No, of course not. And he knows this. And when I ask him, "What do you mean by 'have it'? What is to be gained by carrying it around in your backpack that can't be gotten by just playing with it when you want to do so?" And he can't really answer me. So why do we have to continue to have this discussion at least a couple of times a week for the last three years? And how can I teach this child to have a more generous heart? Because his need to lay claim to everything else (time, attention, food) is a constant source of struggle in this house. He receives more of all of these things than any of the other children, and it's still not enough. That is troubling...to try and try and not be enough for a child.

real-life math

Kain- How old is Uncle John?

Me- Um...46, I think?

Kain- Oh. Well,,,that's not too bad.

Me- Oh yeah?

Kain- Yeah! He still has 34 good years left.

I think he's catching on.

Kain- JACK! Quit singing that song!

Me- Kain, stop yelling at Jack. You taught him that song in the first place.

Kain- Yeah, but now it's irritating.

Me- Yes, children are often irritating.

Kain- Aunt Mel!

Me- Sorry, Kain, I meant all the *other* children. Not you.

Kain- Oh. Ok.

Pause....

Kain- Aunt Mel?

Me- Yes, Kain?

Kain- You were being sarcastic just then, weren't you?

Me- Yep.

delusions

Me- Ok, put up your phonics book and go get your spelling book.

Kain- What???!! Can't I have a break?

Me- You've done 15 minutes of work today. Why do you need a break?

Kain, voice raising to a shriek- Because I need some FREE TIME, OK?

Me- You were awake for 2 hours before we started school this morning. That's enough free time.

Kain- YOU ARE JUST RUINING ALL MY PLANS I HAD FOR MY DAY!

Why, hello there!

Did you think I had departed to that great Lego-strewn playroom in the sky?

I'm still around, and helplessly behind on posting...since I last posted, we've had a couple of birthdays, a couple of midwife visits, a minor holiday or two, a minor illness or three...I have lots of pictures to upload and too much to ever write about. So, how about some random updates...

...Praise the Lord, Halloween is over. Gathering up costumes for four kids, plus All Saints' Day costumes as well, has been just about more than I can handle. Now I just have to ride out the candy wave for a few days and it'll all be behind us.

...The first trimester is done! I am now 16 weeks along and feeling in that weird in-between stage of pregnancy, that one where I'm no longer nauseous and not really feeling the baby move either. Up until last week we'd had trouble finding the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler, and part of me was convinced that the whole thing was just a big mistake and I wasn't pregnant after all. But we did find it! There's definitely a baby in there after all! Which makes me feel lots better about the recent move into maternity clothes.

...Tess is delicious. I just love toddlers. She is a joy, sweet and happy and so funny. Today I was getting out of the shower and she was watching me intently- staring up at me as I dried off and wrapped a towel around my head, looking a little unsure, as she always does, that it was still really Momma under that towel- watching me kiss and put on my scapular, watching me put on deodorant and get dressed,,,all the while she just looked like her gears were turning and she wasn't missing a thing. Then the towel came off my head and she smiled in relief that it was still really Momma after all, and we settled on the bed for a snuggle and a nurse. Yep, she's still nursing, as much as ever. One of the sweetest things about Tess is that she is *so* in love with Daddy. Oh my goodness. I've not had a child that has been like this. It's very sweet to see. John just came home from work, and she is just enraptured.

...Jack is really growing up a lot this year. He just turned five last month. He loves his preschool class at the co-op and his PSR class at church. We are still waiting to have him evaluated for autism spectrum disorder. Waiting is hard. Some things are improving with him. Other things seem to be harder. He has this need to run through the upcoming day, over and over and over again, the exact same script. At times when I can't prepare him for exactly what will happen, he has a really hard time. He was really out of sorts at our homeschool group's All Saints' Day party...it was in an unfamiliar place, very crowded with lots of people he didn't know very well, and he kept following me around and fussing, "Everyone is in my way!" He's so sweet though, and so smart. His latest obsession is with outer space, and he sits and reads our science books about the planets. He has them all memorized and is glad to rattle them off for anybody. If Tess is a Daddy's girl, Jack is definitely Momma's boy. He's not very affectionate or tuned in to many people, but boy, he loves his Momma and is very affectionate towards me. And I sure do love him madly.

...Kain is...well, Kain has his good weeks and bad weeks. We are in the middle of a run of bad weeks. It's really difficult and really draining. I feel like we fight all day long. We do fight all day long. School is really difficult for him and I think his learning issues are more significant that he was originally diagnosed with at age 6. He was so unbelievably hyperactive then that I think it would have masked any more subtle problems. So we are in the process of having him re-evaluated.

...Maria just turned 13 in September. What can I say? She's a chip off the old block. Outgoing as can be, involved in everything, my right hand and a little mother to her siblings...except for Kain. She and Kain fight over carpet lint. She's doing really well with her school work this year. Oh, her spelling is still atrocious, her writing is certainly not on grade level. She's still dyslexic, in other words. But she's really matured in her ability to handle her school work. She doesn't dissolve into tears over her reading and writing assignments anymore! She is very busy with her Irish dancing. She has two competitions coming up in the next couple of months, and it's great to watch her have something she enjoys so much.

...I guess the main reason I have kind of subconsciously avoided writing is because I got a criticism, not particularly about my blog, I don't know if this person even reads my blog, but from somewhere else, that I write too personally, that I share too much about my life,,,a bit raw I guess. It stung, and I thought about it for a long time. This person is probably right. I sat on this information for a while. And here's my conclusion. I don't really know any way else to be. I'm just kind of a "let it all hang out" kind of person. There are people who read this blog that know me quite well in real life, including my parents and my husband, and I think they would tell you that I am pretty much just exactly the same in person as I am on this blog. I do have boundaries. I won't tell you about the latest argument with my husband. I won't say anything about my children to intentionally embarrass them. And as Maria gets older, I do try to be conscious of her privacy and not to share things that she wouldn't want me to share. I try to have some common sense about keeping my family safe, and in that vein I consciously avoid, in words or pictures, giving away any geographical information. But in general, I write this blog in the way I would chat with a friend. If I know you outside this blog, you probably are a friend, and you won't read anything here that wouldn't come out if we were sitting over a cup of coffee. And if I don't know you outside this blog, well, I guess I just don't see how it matters if some random person who tripped across my blog reads this post and knows I have that I legos on my playroom floor, you know? Trying to write differently would feel very awkward and false and just kind of defeat my reasons for writing.

...One last thing, I would like to give a shout out to my Grandma W. who celebrated her birthday recently. I haven't gotten to see her in a long, long time, but she has been keeping up with us all through my blog almost since the beginning, and it's always really sweet to think of someone else out there that enjoys reading about the kids and seeing their pictures as much as I do.

What Tess does when we are doing school....

Today she has----

---gotten the dregs out of an empty peanut butter jar she found in the trash and schmeared it all over her legs and head.

---emptied a new container of baby wipes.

---emptied an almost new case of diet pepsi, carrying each can carefully from the kitchen to the living room couch.

---stashed all of her playdishes in the giant stock pot that lives under the kitchen sink.

---emptied the recycling can so many times that I finally moved it behind a baby gate.

---tossed a hamper of clean laundry all over the dining room.

She's a busy girl!

bedtime fun

When Kain went to bed, we found that Jack, who had already been in bed for an hour, had unwound most of a double roll of toilet paper. It started down the hallway and then criss-crossed back and forth across the room many times. He said, "I'm building a toilet paper road."

Nothing new under the sun

I. Feel. Like. Crap.

There, I said it. I always feel bad being all gripey and pissy when I'm pregnant, because I know it is a small cross compared with the blessing of carrying a healthy baby, and a couple of very sweet online friends have had miscarriages recently and so I feel completely ungrateful and ridiculous griping about something they dearly wish they were still dealing with,,,but there it is. I'm sooooo nauseated and soooo tired and everything is sooooo behind, schoolwork is behind, the house is trashed, I'm sooooo sick and tired of cooking food for these people that insist on eating EVERY DANG DAY, wah wah wah, would you please give me your hankie, "PHHHHHHHHTTTTTHHH", thank you so much.

This afternoon I was thinking, "This is way worse than I felt last time. Way worse. It's gotta be." And so I went poking back in my blog and found this post. And this one. And this one. And this one. So I guess not. Also, I am a big whiner, apparently. So, I hear by promise, with this post, to stop all whining about this first trimester and all its assorted unpleasantness. Besides, I can't offer it up if I whine about it.

And now...I'm off to fix dinner.

Six more weeks to the second trimester! Come on, week 14!

midwife visit, #1

We made our first visit to the midwife today. Here's a recap----

--My tentative due date is April 14th. I'm not terribly certain of my dates. In fact, the more I think about it the more I think this may be a bit early. Which is too bad, because it always is lousy to "be late", even when you know you probably aren't even really late...by the time that due date comes, you are ready to go!

--I've lost two pounds. Which is just dandy, cuz I've got it in spades to lose. Still, I'm tired of being nauseated. It's pretty bad this time, compared to the last two.

--I'm a bit anemic already...need to get some more vitamins.

--Otherwise, everything looks good. Fairly uneventful visit...too early to hear the heartbeat or anything exciting like that. My pregnancies always feel a bit surreal for me until I hear that heartbeat, like someone will say, "Well, we've made a mistake, you aren't really pregnant after all."

Now I've got to go fix dinner...My nausea really hits in the evening, so cooking dinner is a special kind of sacrifice. :)

making room for baby

We co-sleep in our house. We have a king-sized bed in our bedroom with a crib-turned-co-sleeper (by taking one side off the crib) bumpered up against it. Tess sleeps in the co-sleeper, and by early morning she will travel into our bed to nurse. Jack sleeps downstairs in a bedroom he shares with Kain, but by morning he has also traveled into our bed and snuggles up between me and John. Now that we have another baby coming, we have to start thinking about how to manage our sleeping situation. Frankly, my preference would be to get my hippy on and throw down a bunch of mattresses on the floor. Groovy. But I don't think my husband will go for that.

I'm thinking of putting a toddler bed in our bedroom and trying to get Jack to sleep in that when he comes upstairs. Then Tess can sleep between John and I and the baby can be in the co-sleeper. But honestly, most of the time we don't even wake up when he comes into our bed. And he's not really capable of understanding what we want him to do if we discuss it in advance. If we do wake up during the night and send him to the toddler bed, he is likely to start crying and wake up Tess. He will fight it hard, because he fights all change hard and gets very upset when things aren't like they are "supposed" to be.

Another option is to wait until closer to time and train Tess to sleep in the toddler bed. This may actually be easier. Even though Tess is younger, she is more flexible and a better sleeper in general.

Or we can do both...make up some kind of bed for Jack on the floor and try to get him to eventually reach the point of going there when he comes upstairs, and then also put the toddler bed upstairs for Tess and work on training her to sleep there.

Or we could go ahead and move Tess into the bedroom with Maria. The difficulty there is that they have very different bedtimes and I'm not sure how Tess would sleep through Maria settling down for the night.

Anyway...if you've made it this far, thanks for reading my rambling, barely coherent thoughts on the subject!

those bookshelves in the school room

Two people have asked about those white bookshelves attached to the wall in my school room pictures down there...I meant to mention those! So cool! Those are rain gutters! haha! Like the super long pieces of vinyl rain gutter that you can buy at Home Depot? I bought a huge piece for something like $4, and they cut it into pieces for me at the store. My husband screwed them into the wall. Make sure you find studs, because they will hold quite a lot of weight with books in them. I love them! I wish I had more wall space to put in more! I got this idea from The Read-Aloud Handbook.

Getting our school year on

Here are some photos from our first couple of weeks of school!


Projects from Jack's first week of preschool.

The preschool table from our first week.

This came out really dark...Maria and Kain decorating new notebooks.

A school table loaded with goodies to enjoy.

More photos of our new school room, open for business...



We went on a field trip to a local nature center. I'm sad to say this picture of a distracted Jack was the only one I took. We are visiting again soon though and I'll take more.

Afterwards we went to the lake with our friends for one last picnic and swim before fall arrives.






Yes, the big kids were there too! But they were off with friends, swimming. I only saw the two littles most of the time we were at the lake.

Thank you, everyone, for your sweet congratulations. I'm feeling very tired and very nauseous and very ready for the first trimester to BE DONE ALREADY. I was having a hard time getting organized for this new school year as it was, and now some days I feel like I'm circling the drain. But we keep muddling along as best we can, and experience tells me that in a few weeks I'll be feeling much better.