Operation Baby Prep!

We're 2-6 weeks away from meeting this sweet little one and I'm in full nesting mode.

36th week!

Some Friends came over yesterday and we had fun crafting a banner for baby Ziggy. He won't have his own room at this point, but I wanted to do some thing that we could put in his room down the line, and just some thing to do to celebrate a new baby.

They also helped me puttogether 6 batches of biscuit mixes and 3 batches of banana muffin mix!!!!

This will save so much time and mess and energy after he arrives!

Which leads to other preparations...

The menu planning worked so well to get us through the first trimester I've decided to give it another go for after baby is born. It was a little more fun this time because I didn't have to worry about keeping things on the bland side or worrying about smells wafting through the house making me miserable!
 After having two unexpected rough births and subsequent long and hard recoveries (and starting back into real life too soon). I learned with my last baby to take it easy the first week. Full bed rest that first week made a world of difference in my overall feeling of well being and my recovery time. Even after my rough births, I tend to feel really good the first week, flying high on adrenaline and the thrill of not being big and pregnant any more. The joy of snuggling that fresh new squish. I'm done with the waiting and ready to dive back in to LIFE!
It's HARD to stay in bed, but seriously it made a world of difference last time and I'm hopeful it will help this time as well. I am trying to set every thing up so that I can literally stay horizontal in bed with my baby that entire first week.

My personal postpartum rules (and recommendation of my MW) are...

• WEEK #1: IN the bed, up only 5 minutes at a time to use the bathroom or take a quick shower (or do some gentle stretches once a day). Rest restores the body. No stairs. It's one intense, some times monotonous week in bed. ONE. If you need company ask friends to come hang out with you in your room. I spent most of my first week in bed with Pip staring at her, it was heavenly. If you can set things up to do this (as I am with meal plans and Hubby Joy and my Mom being around to take care of the big kids), revel in it. It's amazing and you will not get down time like that ever again (or until you have another baby ;)! And? It helps your body recovery on every physical level. Rest is a gift and it is worth it. Nursing baby and taking care of baby is the only thing you need to worry about in week 1. I plan to have snacks in my room and Hubby Joy will bring the meals I've planed out up to me after he's fed the kids.
• Week #2: ON the bed the second week. Limit stairs (hard in my home). Camp out on the couch. I don't have to stay indoors or in bed, but I need to be limiting time on my feet and care of other children. I need to be laying down in bed for at least 3 hours in the afternoon resting. Stay reclined at least half the day and limit time on feet carefully! No cleaning.
• Week #3: more freedom. Take it Easy, for every hour I am up I need to take an hour to rest. Shoot for 2 hours laying in bed with baby every afternoon. When I have a chance to rest, do it. No cleaning! But cooking easy meals is fine...Short outings are fine if you have a way to sit down and rest and there isn't a lot of time on your feet involved.
• Week #4 through #6: return to light Mom duty. When there is a chance to rest, DO it! You don't need to sleep, just lay down with baby. Get quiet when you need it. Close your eyes and take deep cleansing breaths to get more energy.  Baby's first year isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. The better you treat your body the easier your adrenal glands and lymphatic system (helps your liver function and cortisol levels, quality of sleep and so much more!)  recover and deal with the interrupted sleep you'll likely be dealing with for many many weeks and months to come!

Pretty much the goal the first 6 weeks is to have the house run as smoothly as possible with me curled up with the baby as much as possible. My goal is to see how much I can stay off my feet. NOT how much I can get done. NOT how fast I can get back to normal. NOT to feel bad about doing this for myself. I'm worth it and so is my new precious baby, you only get to do this once with each kiddo, it's worth it!

Autumn to December- what a rush!

self portrait by Friendly (aged 4)

 It's been a while! Our school year is going well... Friendly is just blowing my mind with her hungry little intellectual brain. And Roo is growing in leaps and bounds and asking such thoughtful and deep questions I am some times at a loss how to answer her (youtube to the rescue lol...well at least it answers "how are cars made?" But things like "why did Eve eat the fruit?" well geee...ummm)...

The girls can't get enough "school", it's a new kind of exhausting- but also a ton of fun!

I am still mostly loving a lot about Heart of Dakota curriculum. I love how short and sweet it is! We can do it "all" in 20 minutes, or we can stretch it out and take 3 hours and just soak in all the stuff.  It is very underwhelming and a great spring board for these ages- I definitely am glad I went with it this year. It has given us lots of time to spend outside during the sunshiney days of October and November....Lots of sweet moments:

Pip's favorite thing, ever: holding her sisters hands and being "big".

"The Heart of God" 100% by Roo

  We have been pretty much moseying through units 12/13 since Thanksgiving- skipping a lot of days to rest, run errands, work on house projects (more on that on the family blog shortly!) or just do other stuff.

At Thanksgiving we attempted finger print turkeys:

 What we actually ended up doing for the official was letting the girls finger paint a chinet plate and then we traced the girls hands on to it the next day and they added turkey features to their "hands".

 It has also been snowing a shocking amount for this time of year. We built a snow man together last weekend:

 Her name is (Roo declared): Miss "Lady"

 

In school this year so far we've covered The Old Testament from Creation up through the New Testament where we've just started in on Jesus' Ministry and the recounting of Jesus turning water into wine.

We finished "The World God Made" Kindergarten science book and have moved onto "Our Father's World" first grade science. Both are creation science books (covering the days of creation, the elements, animals, human anatomy, weather, seasons, months etc)...We're almost done the first grade book and I'm really not sure what to move onto next. Honestly all the Charlotte Mason-ish curriculum I have seen are not that big on science- and its' some thing that is a ton of fun to study together. I think researching new options is going to be my goal for Christmas Break.

What else have we done? We have followed the story of Reddy the Fox, Peter Cotton Tail, and are now in our 3rd book "Danny Meadow Mouse" - the girls are loving the books but Thorton Burgess and I love how bite sized they are and how HOD hones in on themes and draws out activities from the chapters.

So 4 months in, what do I still think of Heart of Dakota? I like it. Will I use it next year? I am not sure. I think it actually works really well for Roo (nearly 6). But I feel like I almost need some thing more driven and faster moving for Friendly (4). I am considering My Father's World Curriculum for her next year. We shall see.

 Another exciting thing (that has filled up many an afternoon!) was that Roo and Friendly got their *very own* library cards. It has been fun to take them on individual dates- cheap dates- and letting them walk out with a big stack of book they picked out themselves!

ADVENT....
We've been doing advent activities every day and are reading "The 24 Days of Christmas" by Madeline L'Engle

A tradition: paper chain!

wrapping paper, paper chain!

Tea times...

Decorating!

Glittery snow flake making (because nothing says "Christmas" like cleaning up glitter for the entire month!) Friendly took the initiative and taped her snowflake to the front door- isn't that great? Lots of tape too! :)

And typing out all that above and looking through the girls "binders" (we've been putting their projects and special papers in their own binder- the things are BURSTING they are so full of stuff they've written, created, and done in "school"). Well it feels good. Really good, I really like homeschooling. So much as a stay at home Mom I feel like I do a ton of things that get "undone" or that aren't really quantifiable...Some times it all feels pointless. I like check lists (though I try to be flexible), I like the reward of seeing I have accomplished some thing. And reading the above ...Well we have accomplished a lot this Autumn...It's been so much fun to learn and grow together.


I am hoping next year will bring more time to blog...to ponder and process. 2013 has been ridiculously amazingly busy and full of changes and blessings... Here's to a new year and more things to learn and grow in!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the "Joy" Family (and Nana Joy too- oh and if you're wondering about our expressions- the person taking our picture their tree was falling over behind them- ha!)

It's been a while...Biding Time

I'm all about "what's next". It started around my 4th Birthday, I was starting to get a grasp of past/present/future concepts and I realized, the future is AWESOME! The future is full of possibilities! I don't mind growing up (yes, I am not growing older- I am just growing up!), I like it. Yup that 4th Birthday - I have a good memory- I started dreaming about my 5th. And then my 6th...7th...It went on for... Oh, well over 20 years and counting.

I like making plans. Sure, pretty much my entire life has been disappointing at points, my adolescence was full of disappointments. The magic of childhood died, the warm fuzzy moments harder to find.But to the future I looked- the future will be better, the future can be ANYTHING. Some times I dream kind of TOO big. It has been a process of having BIG dreams but learning to take reasonable launching points in the process of getting there.

Unrelated picture of my sweet children.

And I do like baby steps. No really, I will write these To Do checklists most days and I will write down things like "brush teeth" or "change baby's diaper" - I have to do it, I might already have finished doing it (for that time), but I get a little thrill of checking things off.


This summer has been full of pages and pages of check lists. We are preparing to move, and remodelling the house we are moving into- and it is just severely awful the amount that has needed doing. But I have been having so much fun doing it!

But while I'm digging through all the painting, de-wall papering, re-tiling, replacing, painting, putting furniture together, laying laminate flooring, painting (I have painted A LOT), and caring for 3 small children day in and day out. The though keeps coming to my mind "Oh I wish I could do __________"

I wish I had time to devote to music. It would be so fun.
I wish I could devote that time and grow in skill so I could start teaching- that would be so fun!
I wish I could get really into fiber/yarn/knit work so that I was so amazing I could design my own patterns and make amazing creations (I may or may not have been browsing a pattern book). That would be so fun!
I wish I could take some courses and become a postpartum doula.
 I wish the hubby and I could go do that together...I wish we could finish a sentence with out 3 interuptions. I wish we got more sleep..Wait getting off subject here.

Some times being future oriented sucks. There are so many things I'd love to do. But here I sit snuggling and chasing and feeding (over and over and over again).

 I don't really have time for any thing but the day to day. I am almost done with the renovations and then we will be moving (well once the contractors do their thing). But then we will start home schooling (Roo girl starts 1st grade with Heart of Dakota and Friendly will be doing their preschool/kindy curriculum).

I have devoted the last 5.5 years (and counting) to mothering, nursing (which - at least with my babies has felt like quite a job), and trying to just focus on my family and this season of life. And this summer with all of the projects and busyness - well that hasn't changed any thing. It's made me realize even more strongly that this season is for my kids. I have been trying to figure out where the balance is though. Now that my youngest is getting past the baby "must have mama all the time" stage I have a bit more freedom. There are so many things on my "to do lists" and I have been trying to weed through what I can try to nibble away at while staying present.

How do I keep my priorities on my family...While still chipping away at things that interest me?

Just some things rolling around in my head the past few weeks.

How do I balance...And how in the world will there ever be enough hours in the day?

Oh painting...another fun thing I'd like to do more!

Eyes to See...You have ARRIVED!

Whenever I write a blog post I feel like I need to write some sort of "I hope I don't sound presumptuous- I'm 5 years in to this gig...This is coming from a heart that is learning...I don't claim to have any special..hmmm...Well, any thing. I write to process...And I've come up for air, so hang on!! Also, my spell check is UK English, so if some thing is spelled wrong- ha!"


It's been a very busy and full few months. We haven't gone anywhere much, or done any thing special. And yet it's felt so very busy. Most of that has been inside my head. I'm an internal processor and when I'm learning a lot, or feeling stretched, I climb inside my brain and baten down the hatch.

Which makes me think of a submarine or a bomb shelter...Let's stick with submarine. Some times I feel like I am going through life as a