Diary of Motherhood #2

Monday August 23, 2010-




I got up much more rested today and I enjoyed the serenity of the top story of our cozy new mountain home. I sat having my coffee reading Pocketful of Pinecones, but it was hard to concentrate because there were so many beautiful blue jays out talking this morning. I was interrupted so many times, I finally gave up reading and sat watching out the open window while 2 large blue jays got into a bit of a squabble. They flew and dove at each other, actually crashing into each other a few times. It was rather fascinating to watch. I had to wonder what the fight was all about. Soon thereafter, messy-haired babies started coming up the stairs to give me morning greetings one by one.



Grandpa brought up lots of veggies from our old garden at our last house as he is the landlord and it still is not rented out. My mom also sent several bags with him from her garden filled with tomatoes, green beans, squash, zucchini, nectarines, apples, peppers, and corn. So today, I figured lots must be done in order that we do not let any of these delicious veggies go to waste. I got to work making and freezing 3 batches of spaghetti sauce with a zucchini pureed and hidden in the sauce for some extra vitamins. Next, I prepped tomorrow nights side dish which will be a crock pot full of green beans with garlic, onion, 2 slices of bacon, several tomatoes cut up and thrown in and a smidge of olive oil. By that time, my feet were swelling from all the standing and I reheated last nights veggie lasagna for lunch.



After lunch we of course worked through our lessons. All the while, Tanner kept running around disrupting our reading because his tooth was really loose. The big kids were trying everything to coax this tooth out for him. Lessons turned into a pretend dental office with Tanner as the patient. It was rather funny so I let it continue. We did finally finish what we set out to accomplish this afternoon though. As we were finishing up, the kids and I started daydreaming about Jesse and Everett mentioned what it would be like when Jesse was 3. I casually said, “Well that is 3 years from now, you will already be 10 and Wyatt will be 11 and Kayla 13!” The strangest thing happened, Kenna walked over and mentioned, “Mama, I be 6 then.” Ummm yes, she was correct. Either it was a very lucky guess or she is picking up much more than I realized by listening and playing alongside us during home school times.



Evening took a long time to get here today as the heat was causing me mild suffering and swelling. It reached 81 in the house today, which is a very hot day for these mountains. We do not have a/c, which is a luxury I rarely miss, but I missed it today. After dinner, Tanner finally asked me to help him with his wiggly bottom tooth. I wrapped a little floss around it and gave a good yank and out it popped. Everyone laughed in delight. Its so funny how fascinated everyone was with him loosing this tooth. Kenna seemed rather horrified that Tanner’s tooth was no longer in his mouth and to boot was bleeding a tad. She is not one to be able to stand even a drop of blood…….she is a very girly, self-proclaimed princess.



I am sitting here in peace typing as all the kids settle down and watch some television, winding up a long summer day. Its still warm tonight, the air is completely still and the birds have all gone for the evening. The setting sun is peering quietly in orangey purple hues through all the pines and I can barely make out the faint line of the horizon between the trees. I pray for a cool night so the swelling can go down some. Overall, I know summer is coming to an end pretty soon and so is the pregnancy so I remind myself daily that I should be grateful for each day I hold my sweet baby Jesse within me alive and kicking. God will see me through to the end and it is His strength I must rely on more and more each day as discomfort grows along with my belly size.



Nate just called and is working late so I suppose I will head off and sneak in a few more chapters of my book before tucking little toes into beds. Goodnight-

Diary of Motherhood: Homeschooling, Homesteading, Homeloving

Trying something new. I added a new label for my diary entries. I plan to keep a diary this year about random happenings of motherhood and I was thinking I would post the entries here as well. I am just keeping the diary in my Word Processor, but after typing it, I thought....hmmm why not add these entries to my blog. I will sometimes need to change things a bit in order to keep privacy as I obviously did not want to post the name of our small town, but otherwise it will all be true to life records of our lives.

Diary of Motherhood:


Homeschooling, homesteading, home loving



Sunday August 22, 2010-



It was a late night last night, however, with Grandpa having stayed overnight for a visit in the house, it was an early wake up. I took a few minutes to get going this morning under the haze of only 6 hours sleep in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. I sat drinking a small cup of half-caff coffee while reading from Pocketful of Pinecones by one of my favorite authors, Karen Andreola. I have gained so many wonderful insights about Charlotte Mason home schooling through her works even though I do not follow ALL her ideas. This book is a lovely, refreshing book about enjoying nature and note booking it with your kids. It has really livened our passion for the outdoors especially since moving to the mountains where we are surrounded by so much beauty and nature.



After church today, we opened our home schooling up as we usually do with our Scripture CD and then our Geography CD which we all love. Kenna and Madelynn enjoy dancing so much and we love watching them swirl and shake to the music. Then we moved on with lessons which consisted of Bible, an Aesop Fable, 1 page from Dinosaurs Unleashed(the most fascinating book about humans walking with dinosaurs from a new earth Christian perspective), Chapter nine of Little House in the Big Woods, writing about our favorite things that happened this week, 1 lesson from Rays arithmetic, character and spelling copy work from queenhomeschoolsupply.com, reading, and finally we looked up the trees the kids drew in their nature notebooks yesterday so they could put labels on them.



As silly as it is, I searched almost 30 minutes trying to figure out the name of the tree Wyatt drew and finally I realize it is the name the town we live in……..SURPRISE it was a (name of town we live in)! We got a pretty good laugh from that one. I must say too how much Wyatt’s drawing is improving from keeping a nature notebook. He’s never been into drawing as his fine motor skills aren’t as refined as most 8 year olds so he lacks the confidence to take on drawing for pleasure, but as time passes and he makes more entries into his nature notebook, he is beginning to develop confidence and refine his fine motor skills. I can actually tell what he is drawing now and truly admire beautiful details he adds. Kayla drew a Bur Oak, which we found much more quickly, however, I am realizing the benefit it would be for us to have Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study more and more each day. I may splurge for the twenty five dollar book soon. Back to her drawing, it was gorgeous. She is my little artist. The leaves looked more lifelike than the actual tree. Everett also drew the Bur Oak tree leaves. He is only 7, yet he is quite the perfectionist and though he enjoys drawing, he prefers to do it from imagination so doing real-life nature objects has been a good stretch for him to push him to develop new skills and techniques. The kids are currently baking cupcakes from their new kids cookbook that my mom picked up for them. The house smells yummy and like home usually does here. Its time to go put the leftover taco soup in the freezer and pop in the veggie lasagna for our dinner.



I look forward to this school year so much as we will be welcoming a new baby, experiencing snow and cold like never before, enjoying lots of indoor activities this winter like baking and cooking and having friends and family come up for a meal of warm spaghetti and garlic bread or soup with crusty bread instead of BBQs which can be done year round where we used to live. It will exciting to follow nature in these mountains and watch everything turn white and crisp. For now though we are enjoying the last bit of summer by heading to the local lakes each week, hiking, walking, taking the dogs for day trips, BBQing, and being outdoors as much as possible.



Okay, off to put away the leftovers and start that dinner! More yummy smells headed our way, I am actually surprised the bears haven’t broken in because of all the homey, delicious aromas that come from here :0)