Seven Months

Well, I never meant to go that long without blogging.  Life is just so full right now.  And I'm really not that good at taking pictures of it.

Olive Oil Lime cake with Crystallized Ginger Glaze, for our housemate's birthday in January

It was Lent, and then I had a baby, and then I had four kids and was homeschooling, and now it's Summer and I was homeschooling but I think we're on vacation until September now.  Gotta have some semblance of Summer Break, right?

Had my first water birth! Definitely soothing "down there" after all the pushing.  Not sure if it was worth the extra money, though.  I didn't even have time to labor in it!

This morning, some sweet friends drove the older three to Vacation Church School, so Isaac and I are chilling at home.  It's so quiet!

Newborn Isaac

And I have so much to do!  This week was supposed to be The Great School Room Clean Out.  But as it takes too long to get downtown for VCS and come back here and then go back there, I haven't done anything yet.  And what better way to procrastinate than by writing a blog post?

We actually put one of our kids in a crib.  He's doing well with it!  Sometimes he reads in bed.

You know what having four kids has finally done for me?

This is about what I see when I'm nursing.  I had a cozy little spot set up next to our bed upstairs with my rocking chair, tables for beverages, trays for breakfast my Mom so sweetly brought up to me during the time I was supposed to limit my trips up and down the stairs.

It's made me realize just how much there is to do in a week to just live day to day.  Laundry, cooking, cleaning (even the very little I can manage), homeschooling, getting outside (once in awhile!!).  I think it's taken me this long to figure out that just because I'm home doesn't mean I kind of have a free day.  Not that I wouldn't have done things in the past or thought I could sit aroundwatch movies all day or anything like that.  I made meals, did laundry, attempted to clean, played with the kids, took them on outings.  But I didn't do it with any sense of urgency.  As in, I have to do the laundry right now, today, because if I don't, I won't be able to do all the other things I have to do this week.

Maggie's still baby-crazy.  John is following in her footsteps.

This one is rather head-over-heels herself.  Thing Two, here, puts up with it.

I literally sit down and plan out my hours lately.  Or half hours—but that usually makes me rush around too much from one thing to another and I am a little too slow for that!  Now, I don't always sit down and do this until around 10AM or around noon, after John's down for his midday nap.  And I don't usually even follow it very well.  I just need to know there is some kind of expectation for my time.  Seriously, it's taken me having four kids to get even the slightest bit organized.  Because if I can't be a little organized now, I wouldn't survive!

Pascha Baskets for four!

Pascha dresses and our family basket behind the girls.  They were off to the midnight service, once again without Mama.  I think I go about every other year these days!

So, if I'm not posting very often these days, that's why.  I have very little time I consider "free" any more, and frankly, blogging is not high on the list of things I want to do with that time.  Hanging out with my wonderful husband watching some Alfred Hitchcock or Deep Space Nine after the kids are (finally) in bed?  Yes.  Going out for coffee with him with probably just Isaac (and maybe not even him) while someone watches the rest?  Yes.  Sitting outside with the kids while they play in the kiddie pool in our backyard?  Yep.  It's Summer!  I'll have plenty of time to sit around in the house in a few months!

"Sling view" on one of our first outings to a launch party for Josiah and Julia Go to Church, written by a friend.

Looking more himself.

Well, that's a quick overview of 2012 so far.  There are tons of photos in my album that would lend themselves to posts, and if I get a chance, maybe I'll try to catch up a little.  With all that free time I have when I start homeschooling again this Fall.  Ha!

That After Christmas Glow

Or is it more of "burn" than "glow"?  As in "crash and...."

Either way, I am up.  "Too many kids in the bed and too much mess in the house," I told my confused husband when he woke up for work this morning.  Of course, by the time he was down, I was online instead of whirling around the deserted (and yet stuffed beyond recognition) school room.

We have more than this today, but this was the first a few weeks ago.

I awoke sometime before 5 AM and lay there trying to be sleepy.  Mad at myself for making too many bedtime exceptions probably leading to all of them being in the bed this morning.  Resolving to be better tonight.

First taste of snow.  Literally.

Truly, it has been better lately.  They stay in their beds after we put them there.  Stay, but do not necessarily sleep.  Some kind of tweaking of the process is definitely in order.  In a little over two months, another will be added to the mix, and then I will have even less patience and energy, at least for a time.

Definite approval for this white stuff.

Why is two months nearly always the magic number?  Doesn't matter how old the older child, but it seems that two months before the next sibling arrives, I feel a sense of order, routine, peace with my household duties.  The meals get made regularly, the kitchen cleaned.  The "nearly former baby" has some semblance of routine, naps well, is cute and cuddly.... All to be displaced and upheaved in such a short time.

Why is eating snow the first thing they want to do when it starts falling?  Not that there was enough or the right kind for snowmen.

I'm getting to the stage where the baby seems to be pushing its way out... but through the wall of my stomach instead of the usual process (which is, of course, just fine since it's too early!) so that I have a large lump that I suppose is a foot sticking out of my side at odd times.  Getting crowded in there, baby?  Let's not continue the upward trend in birth weights, though, OK?  Nine pounds and 13 ounces is quite enough.

My nearly ten-pounder, all grown up into a toddler.

These photos make him look ginormous!

Back to that school room: if I can get it in order and pantry cleaned out (my brother is installing shelves in there for me for my Christmas present) by Thursday, I'll be satisfied.  Then we can celebrate Theophany that evening and Friday, and get back to school on Monday.  Which also means I'll have to look over what we need to be doing in that area.  Our Friday co-op classes resume next week as well, so it will feel like a "real week."

Watching how it's done.

And goodness, before the ten weeks of classes are over, God willing, I will have another baby.  I'll be a confirmed "crazy person Mom of four."  There's really no hiding the fact that you desire a big family and are OK with "lots" of children once you cross the line to four, is there?  I mean, two is not a big family.  Three is big to most people, but then, maybe #3 was "unplanned."  We have the added excuse that the first two are girls and the third is a boy, so maybe we were just "trying for our boy."  Surely, now we can "shut down the factory"?  (I kid you not, a man at a rest stop asked me if I was going to do that—in those words—a few weeks after we had John.)

Busy.

Well, it's been about an hour since I stopped glowing with cleaning fervor.  Time for second breakfast, another cup of coffee, and another go.

There's big sis.  She was moving so fast from project to project out there and plenty far from me (as far as you can get in our little yard) that she didn't end up in many photos.  Plenty more opportunities for snow photos in 2012, I'm sure!