And together we learn

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The light breaking through

Thank you all SO MUCH for the encouragement and love. This is why I keep blogging, I think.

I feel like the clouds have parted and I'm me again. For a day or two there, I wasn't sure. Crazy hormone surges, perhaps, or some weird brain thing, but it was scary for a bit. I couldn't stop crying all day long, and couldn't get a single thing done. It took me until 3 in the afternoon to take out my kitchen garbage. I'd go in there, look at it, pace a little and sob, then go back to just sitting. It was a very very weird time. I knew, rationally, that there were dozens of people who would have been more than happy to come over and help me out, but admitting to needing help seemed so much more than I could do. So I just cried. My sweet kids would try and kiss me and love me, and once Chloe was so delighted when I smiled at her. OUCH!! But I couldn't make myself function. It was a bad bad bad day. Never had one quite like it.

But then I woke up yesterday, and I was me again. Like someone had turned a switch off in my brain. Sure, the aches and pains are still very much with me, but with my own brain intact it's amazing what a difference it makes in the outlook on life. I'll tell you, if that craziness had continued, I'd have marched myself straight into some kind of doctors for some serious medication! Too scary.

Anyway, my Steve comes home in a few hours. AND, too just make things more wonderful, his only sale for next week canceled, so he's home for the entire, whole, every single minute of the week!!!!! He'll be traveling the week after, but that's the last one. I'm going to make it through this. Yahoo!!!

Now if that nesting instinct would just kick in, I could start to make some headway in the many projects that need to get done before this baby comes.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Don't read this. Really.

Ok, Dy, I'm feeling the guilt!!!

I'm just feeling so very very...blah. So pregnant. So absolutely not feeling like opening my mouth, because whenever I do, I just complain! And really, who wants to be around that??

I'm grumpy, tired, and so completely unmotivated. School??? Well, Hazel did a page of math today, and that is the first anything we've done all week. My sweet kids are so patient with me--Chloe prayed the other night, "please, Heavenly Father, help Mommy to not have any pain with our little baby."

They color, play dolls, dig in the garden, and we read stories. We are getting scripture reading in consistently, but that's about the only structure that's left. I just can't seem to do anything!!

Since we're all friends here, I'm going to whine. I'm going to let you all in on the aches and pains and bliss of week 36. So I have this lovely pubic bone/pelvis pain with each of my pregnancies. I'm not sure the percentage of women who get it, but if you've had it, you know!! Rolling over in bed, putting on pants, walking...all not so fun. Then I've developed this rib pain, but not the normal one in the front--this one radiates around my side to the back. I'm seriously doubting my ability to manage through the next couple of weeks. My chiropractor is wonderful, but my body seems to be falling apart faster than she can put it together.

Oh, yes, there is more!! I've started throwing up again and feeling nauseous half the time. I did this months ago! No fair to have to do it again. Other than this, physically I'm doing great. But the whole no husband thing is really really getting to me. He's done traveling in 2 weeks, and really we're at the end of the worst trips, so there's just another couple of days. But I'm so tired of being alone. So tired of not being able to go anywhere alone, of being the one responsible for it all. But he works so completely hard, and I can't whine to him (I do anyway, but I really try not to) but I'm so ready to be done!!

This is why I don't post!! Isn't silence better than the ranting and ceaseless complaining? Sorry, dear friends. I'll try to come up with something even remotely interesting, and I'll stop the pity party!!

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Kids gone wild

In the aftermath of a party here, I found an admiral hat behind the couch and a pair of panties on the piano.

Exactly what kind of a frat party was this??

Homeschool science co-op. We're a wild and crazy bunch!

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Friday, April 11, 2008

A day in the life

We get up this morning. I'm not telling what time I actually hauled my very pregnant self out of the bed, nor divulging just how much Playhouse Disney my kids might have watched before I did. That's getting just a little too personal.

We had breakfast of cornflakes with fresh strawberries sliced on top. Can you believe my kids have never had cornflakes before? Steve found some amazing deal on cereal for $.30/box. We stocked up, and now have around 30 boxes of cold cereal. Guess they'll get quite familiar with the taste of cornflakes before too long!

We do chores and I start some laundry. Hazel colors some pictures from the Felicity books, and announces that since two of the girls in the picture are from another country (England), they need different colored skin. Gold skin.

Scripture time goes well. We have a discussion about when Christ will come again, and why it's important to have our hearts continually prepared. Hazel asks if there are any 'clues' about when his coming will be, so we talk about some of the signs of his coming. We talked about the gospel being preached all over the world, but Chloe mentions, "not China or that place where Christ used to live." How do they know this stuff?

After discussing rudimentary Chinese politics, Hazel has the bright idea to stage a coup of the Chinese government man and his family. When I discourage this idea, the girls launch a half hour discussion of all the different ways a cook for the chinese government could insert lots of cayenne pepper and salt and lemons into jelly beans and cake, thus shocking their palates into allowing the gospel in. Chloe, in her list of horrible ingredients, included "10 cups of salt, 6 cups of pepper, and just 2 butters, because you know, their veins? We don't want to hurt their veins too much, huh Mom." Nice to know that the sabotage doesn't include any artery clogging!

Chloe read a couple of Bob books to me (my that kid is doing amazing with her reading! She's far more fluent than her older sister. In fact, her learning to read has been how I pictured the whole process--very organic and natural), and Hazel narrated a composition on the piano about elves and witches and birds. It was very dramatic. Chloe skipped off to do some math pages while I did reading with Hazel.

She called me to task for letting my eyes stray off her face while she was reading. Getting through two Bob books takes us a loooong time, and if my eyes are anywhere but on her she comes unglued. If there is another child in the room she melts. Distractions are not permitted, period. Good heavens!!!

Hazel does some math, then I look at the clock and realize we're late to pick up Steve from the airport. We pile in the car and listen to some music. They correctly identify violins, flutes, piano, trumpet, and cello. I tell them the story of Narcissus, prompted by Hazel's lovely behavior during school. Chloe actually knew the story far better than I, and filled in many details for me, including a description of the narcissus flower. Thank you, Jim Weiss! I told them the story of the Mormon pioneers and the seagulls and crickets, and they loved it.

While in the car, I realized that despite my innumerable deficiencies as a homeschooling mother, they are learning. Happy thought!!

Steve is home for 4 whole days!!!! We're so excited, so we go straight from the airport to the bowling alley. The cuteness of watching Calvin lift up his ball to bowl almost shreds my heart! Chloe bowls with flair--she has a special 'duck waddle bowl', and the super running start approach. Hazel gamely tries to bowl like a grown-up. So fun!

We veg all afternoon. Outside play, some computer time, and a quick nap. My mom and sister dropped by and were told by Hazel that "my mommy and daddy are in bed together, sleeping together so don't go in!" Unfortunately, not that kind of 'nap'. This was the real deal with drool and a sprawled out Calvin in between us. The other kind will just have to wait!

And now we're going for game night with my siblings. Such a fun, typical, crazy, day in the life kind of day!

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

A Day

So Calvin had a day yesterday. Maybe that should be capitalized. He had a DAY. He was tired and cranky, but I HAD to get to the chiropractor, so into the car we went. I'd just fed them pizza and slushies (please don't judge me!) but even sugar water couldn't soothe his savage beast. It was one of those wrestle the screaming flailing child into the carseat moments, but I can totally deal with that. Continual screaming? Doesn't faze me. Crying so hard he vomits everywhere--ok, now he has my attention.

Not a wet wipe in sight in the whole car. Napkins, nope. Bottled water? None of that either. Fortunately, being the stellar prepared mother that I am I DID have spare diapers, so I mopped up the mess with those and some stray socks that were floating around the van. And all the time I'm trying just to like this little offspring of mine. Not succeeding too well. But he eventually got a 15 minute nap in the car, and all was beautiful again.

We get home, and he decides that the worst thing in the world is for me to get him OUT of that carseat. Another major tantrum ensues, I unbuckle the kid, drag him in the house, lock the van and the house and think I've outsmarted him. Well, after going to the bathroom, he's disappeared. The little stinker got into my purse, found my keys, unlocked the van and buckled himself back into his carseat. He's 2. Good grief!! Fortunately, I'd just gone to the library, so I had some brain candy book and I sat in there with him in the driveway while he sniffled and moped and fell asleep again.

But holy cow!! So much willpower and determination and butting heads over stooopid stuff. He's normally such a delightful child, but wow, when he has a DAY he does it up right!

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Rachael Ray I'm NOT!

I seem to be in some kind of major bloggy funk lately. Sorry.

About 3 months ago I was asked to teach a class on Indian cooking to about 25 of the women in my ward. Sure!! No problem! It's very easy to say yes to things occurring 3 months in the future. It's amazing how fast the future creeps into the present!

So last night I played Rachael Ray and did a cooking demonstration. I made Chicken Tikka Masala, a lentil dal, yogurt raita, saag aloo, and a spicy beef dish. YUM! It all turned out delicious, and for that I was oh so relieved. I have this really bad habit of trying brand new recipes whenever I cook for people. The saag aloo I was making during the demonstration was an untested recipe. That could have been disastrous, but thankfully it turned out really good.

Yesterday I was getting Calvin out of the tub, and I slipped on the wet bathroom floor while I was carrying his little wet self. As I went down, I felt my very pregnant pelvis do all kinds of not good things. An emergency trip to my wonderful chiro kept me walking yesterday, but the whole cook for 6 hours straight didn't help things at all. Can't move today!!!

Since yesterday was April Fool's Day, I woke my kids up with a surprise breakfast of ice cream with chocolate sauce. They thought that was undoubtedly the funniest thing they'd ever seen, and I won some major good mom points. No good nutrition points, but one breakfast a year isn't going to kill them!