Journal # 34 -- Life is Good!

Out My Window:

Well, it is dark now, but it was in the 80's today and sunny. Still summery, but not too warm.

Clothing Myself In:

Black t-shirt (advertising boots) and green gym shorts I bought back in college. Some day I will grow up and wear "adult clothes". . . probably. But today is not that day.

Around the House:

Gordie built another triple bunk bed. (Well, technically he did not build the last one, he adapted a regular two-bunk bed to work as a triple bunk, but he still gets credit for "building it" in my eyes.) This allowed us to put up Miriam's toddler bed so we had room to move Zipporah's pen into the room with all the other kids. Eventually Zipporah will sleep on one of the bunks like everyone else, but since she does not climb out of her current bed, I am in no rush to be rid of it. I  am sure her transition to remaining in her own bed -- with no physical boundary to keep her there -- will be long and painful as it was for all the other children.

Peter now has his own room and my "nest" has been moved in there (aka the easy chair and my laptop) so I can relax while nursing him. Peter is our first child to use a mat on the floor as his bed, instead of a crib (as we finally threw the crib out since it was so old and recalled). He seems to like his mat, but has already shown that he can roll off it and I am sure before too long I will have to hunt for him when I come to get him. The plan is to give him Zipporah's pen once she no longer needs it (aka starts sleeping on the bunk beds with the other kids). We'll see if the stars align for that one.

The Baby:

Peter seems to really like his room. He has been sleeping longer and longer stretches. He gave me seven hours straight a few days ago!! He would probably be consistent, too, if I were not constantly messing with his preferred schedule as I run after the other kids and entertain a social life of my own. All in all he does well to adapt. Yesterday I got home LATE - like almost midnight. I had taken him with me and he had napped some at my social engagement, but obviously a good chunk of his night was lost. He made up for it by sleeping in until after 11am (he woke up to nurse once in there).

Generally he is becoming more and more adorable. I really love his grin and his squeals. He enjoys watching his siblings and especially likes music. We have several musical toys that he is fascinated with. But nothing beat Miriam parading around him yesterday with a baby bell in her hand, shaking it for all she was worth and smiling at Peter as she did. He had been in full melt-down, but stopped to smile back at her. She was able to calm him two more times this way while I finished up the meal I was preparing.

The Kids:

Zipporah and Miriam get closer all the time. Those two girls are just hilarious together. A few days ago they were pulling old keyboards across the living room, by their cords, pretending they were dogs. My favorite, though, is when they play dress up or have a tea party. They are adorable.

Miriam really likes her "cow book." (Which is actually a Kumon Pasting book for preschoolers that happens to have a cow on the front. All the kids love the Kumon workbooks.) This gorilla came from said book.

Samuel remains the favored playmate. Jacob and Paul both love to play with him and in Paul's case, do everything he does. Paul would pick Samuel as a playmate over Jacob every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Poor Jacob. Course, he doesn't care. Jacob does his own thing. But he still likes to play with Samuel and does NOT like to be alone. The other day Rebekah, Samuel, and Paul were at play practice. I put the little ones to bed and Jacob was so lost (as he stays up for the second bedtime for the big kids).

Rebekah appears to be doing well. She is such a resilient and self-sufficient (in a lot of ways, though not necessarily all) child that I feel sometimes like I don't spend enough time WITH her if, if that makes sense. But she really likes walking and talking with me -- which we try to do every day, even if it is just around the block. She was appearing a little burned out at the end of the summer, but I think she is back to her usual helpful, joyful, creative self.

Rebekah really likes my woven wrap and is always asking to wear Peter or Zipporah. The wrap in this picture is actually a traveler (aka someone else's that we were borrowing for a week).

As I sort of mentioned, Rebekah, Samuel, and Paul are all going to be in the Hays Community Theater's upcoming production of "Gran's Guide to Stop an Ogre" I'm grateful they have the opportunity to do drama at such a young age and am looking forward to the show!

The Schooling:

School is going well now. We started out a little slow. Some of our books were late. I was very nervous for Rebekah as she is middle school now (6th grade) and that means lots of virtual classes and no more retaking tests she has done poorly on! But we are getting in a groove. Rebekah has two classes a day Mon-Thurs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, an hour at a time. And then she has a couple assignments due a week. It really is not that bad. . . so far.

Paul and Jacob are supposed to be writing letters on those little chalkboard. Oh boys.

I feel much more confident this year as Rebekah was in 4th grade, Samuel in 2nd, and Jacob in Kindergarten when we started with Lawrence Virtual School two years ago. So now I have done all the grades from K to 5th (as this year Samuel is in 4th, Jacob in 2nd, and Paul in 1st) and I know what to expect. Plus I know the system and how to make it work for us. I can set our schedule to populate as I like it and I know we can do work out of order and how to cut corners if we need to (like do three or four lessons in a row -- how long it will take, etc). Thus, it is still a lot of work, but I am confident we can make it happen.

I was stressing over how to organize the books this year. I was afraid there would be too many to put in our space her or that they would all group together and we would lose books within the shelves as we did last year. Then I was trying to find containers to buy to keep the supplies in. But alas, the boxes the books came in fit perfectly!! It might not be beautiful, but they get the job done. -- Likewise, I was delaying taking a picture, thinking I would clean the shelves up first. But then I realized if I waited for that, I would probably never get a picture taken.

In the Kitchen

Oddly enough, I thought you would never ask. I don't really understand what has happened, but the past week or so I have grown in leaps and bound domestically in the kitchen. I have no idea why.

It all started when I finally bought a griddle to make pancakes on. I used to make pancakes on the stove (like pre-children era) but then we got a gas stove and I could NEVER get the temperature just right, so they were either burned or doughy and sometimes both!! (don't ask me how that happened) Since Samuel has become our waffle man, making waffles, about once a week, I have been looking to upgrade our waffle iron to at least a double, preferably an industrial grade one, but I cannot find anything I like thus far online. So instead I picked up a griddle. Rebekah helped and it cut our cooking time in half.

This is only the beginning. We had at least three, maybe four meals worth of baked yummies by the time we were done. But what can you expect after taking a recipe x12?

I have also been slowly growing some other recipes slowly and now they make me most happy. For example, I like sausage, eggs, and sweet potatoes for breakfast. Those are three foods that really fill me up, taste good with my coffee, and keep me happy! Unfortunately, they take quite a bit of time to cook every morning. So not long ago it dawned on me to combine them. I mix up a dozen eggs with maybe half a cup of coconut oil, throw in some sauteed onion and steamed sweet potatoes, and then add browned sausage and cook for about 40 minutes. It makes this great breakfast casserole that I can keep in the fridge and warm up a piece at a time for breakfast.

I have also finally started using my instant pot as a pressure cooker. I originally bought it to replace my crockpot, figuring a little pressure cooking on the side would be nice. But suddenly I discovered I can cook a whole chicken in about 40 minutes and it is GOOD!  Then I can whip out bone broth from the bones in another couple hours and it is even better!! Plus, chicken was on sale a few days ago, so I stocked up.

This is one of my FAVORITE meals -- chicken salad. Thanks to my pressure cooker and grapes on sale right now ($.88 lb) I have been making a ton of it.

I also have a recipe for a paleo soup that I love. It is basically chicken, sweet potatoes, onions and peppers. I made a giant batch of that for myself and froze several single-serving jars.

And while we are talking food, my giant roaster has been seeing some use as well. Pork roast often goes on sale here and I picked up a couple on my last shopping trip so I could make them up. I roast them all day and then fry them up to give the meat a crunch. It is SO GOOD. 

Tonight I thought I'd make an even more special meal. To go along with the fried pork, I steamed potatoes in my pressure cooker to make mashed potatoes. But we don't have a mixer for potatoes (we use a drill to mix things -- and usually chuck in a paint mixer, that has never seen paint, mind you, to do things like 15 tons of cookie dough or 7lbs of natural peanut butter). Anyhow, using the drill to mix the potatoes was a bad idea as it gave them the consistency of gum. Then Gordie tried to make gravy from my bone broth and it ended up runny and under-seasoned (which is not typical for his gravy -- it is usually amazing). The children appreciated the sentiment, though and at the meal as if it were the best one we had ever prepared. God bless the kids, tonight. Whether they didn't notice or they just didn't say anything -- it was just great to have it well received.

My Job:

This is a new title, but I just have to share. A few months ago now I stumbled up on a job doing transcription work. I have really fallen in love with it. And I would be lying if I told you it was not so satisfying to have someone else recognize when I do a good job. I love staying home with my children and homeschooling them, but there is not solid gratification from that -- not in the same way doing a job and receiving feedback gratifies. 

((P.S. If you ever need something transcribed, be sure to check out Noble Transcription Service.))

I am also writing for a blog called Mamma Tech. I am slowly coming into the vision for that blog. Stay tuned for more on that.

Thinking About:

Getting older. I am only four months postpartum but I am so frustrated with my body lately. I hurt my back a few weeks back and then this morning I woke up with the world's sorest neck. It was bad. I made it to the chiropractor this afternoon, but I'm still feeling it. And all I did was sleep wrong somehow! Imagine if I ever actually go back to serious exercising again.

Bringing Me Joy:

*My husband. We have really been growing closer in a lot of ways lately and it is so wonderful to experience.

*The bathtub of awesome that my husband put in. This five-foot long soaking tub is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. If you ever want to take a swim in it, pop on over. You will not be disappointed.

*Peter. I just love that little guy! His ears sticking out a little bit is definitely his unique feature. I hope they always do.

Pictures to Share:

This was before moving Zipporah to the other room. She has a good daddy.