Week one, as a family of SIX!

Wow!  Annabelle has been home for 9 days now, and she's slipped right into (the center of) family life.

 It has been an absolute joy being home with her, David, and the kids this week. Jonathan, Abby, and Joshua each dote on her lovingly and have welcomed her with tenderness and enthusiasm. I've lost track of how many times I've heard, "Mommy, she's just so CUTE!" from all 3 of her older siblings.

Joshua sharing his blanket and toys with his sister.

We certainly tried to take it easy for the first week following her birth.  But the resting life quickly resumed normal pace, and before long Annabelle simply joined in all the usual family activities. In her first 8 days, she made it through two shopping trips to Target, dinner out at the local Italian restaurant, two trips to the neighborhood park, two sibling soccer games, Sunday morning church, and a half a day in Galveston for Dickens on the Strand!  So far, she's a pretty happy, sleepy newborn who has been content to nap through most of that and nurse and cuddle happily wherever! 

Jonathan and Abby wrapped up a wonderful soccer season. As Abby received her trophy from the coach of her team, the Light Blue Cheetahs, he acknowledged Abby as the player with the best attitude :). We couldn't ask for more than that!  Jonathan was delighted to finish an undefeated season with the Black Ninjas. He has done very well as goalie and blocked a few goals again this Sunday. 

Joshua has enjoyed David's extra time at home immensely and has kept his Daddy busy playing "werewolf" and hide and seek. He's a 2 1/2 year old bundle of energy, totally obsessed with Spider-Man, and still at that adorable stage where he doesn't mind that you see where he hides, nor can he wait for you to find him before popping out from excitement. 

Now 10 days old, Annabelle is spending more time awake during the day -- 30 minutes to an hour after a few feeds a day. It's so fun to watch her look around, and she's taken to gazing right into my eyes the past two days. I love those totally in love moments of just studying her face as she looks at mine. She's also begun smiling in her sleep or while nursing the past 3 days or so, but then this evening she smiles right at her Daddy as we prayed together tonight. I can't wait to see more of her smile! 

Welcome, Little Annabelle!

These are my favorite moments... The quiet, dark ones, when others are asleep and the happy tears of joy come. 

After a labor that was either a quick 4 hours, or 12 hours spread over 4 days, depending on how you count, Annabelle is snuggled in my right arm, warm and sleeping soundly.  Her Daddy is recovering from the eventful morning with a nap on the couch. After dozing a while myself, I'm left to reflect on the utter joy it is to have my daughter here, healthy, with me, with all the anticipation of the years ahead of getting to know this dear little person I have only just met.  

We are so grateful. She's been long anticipated, by the two of us as well as her big brothers and sister. I'd question whether a child has ever before been born to a crew so eagerly awaiting her arrival!  The fun, affection, and devotion shared by Jonathan, Abby, and Joshua will make them a delightful little gang to grow up with, and I'm richly blessed to watch them grow together. 

Welcome, my little Annabelle. You are much loved! 

Abby, upon hearing her little sister would be born today!

Notes on Nature Study in the Armpit of Texas

Another homeschool post, this one on our days outdoors:  http://amotherscelebration.blogspot.com/

Grace, Beef Hearts, Plantain Crackers, and Spelling Lessons

This post is cross-posted from the homeschooling blog: A Mother's Celebration

So this was our line-up for Jonathan's lessons yesterday, after we'd completed our Morning Time activities together with Abby and Joshua.  See, this photo makes me happy, really happy, because I LOVE these books.  And I love how much he loves (many of) them.   Our day was fun.  Of course, we try to fit it all into Joshua's naptime, and sometimes that works.  And sometimes it doesn't. 

I've had to sort through the Fables and identify only the ones where nothing bad happens to the characters (that's a limited selection, let me tell you), because he refuses to read them otherwise.  :)  He's loving Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, and we're both really enjoying the series of American history biographies by Jean Fritz.  Jonathan fell off the couch laughing yesterday as we read about Patrick Henry's dramatics, and those of his audience.  The second photo is Jonathan's request for documentation that he was winning the subtraction game.  He did win, for the record.  Some of these things we didn't complete, and some I slipped into he bedtime routine.

But I've got a pretty good list of things I'd like us to complete each day.  In fact, I strongly suspect that as I learn and grow, I'll cull the list and further simplify our schedule.  There's just so much I would like us to do.  I started the year telling myself that school would be a bit consuming at first and may many evenings of planning, but that once we settled into a routine, there would be more margin in my time.

It's true.  We're rolling.  I scrapped History Plan A the first week of school and went with Plan B, which we're loving.  Plan B is Story of the World (AUDIOBOOK version -- woohoo!  It's wonderful.)  And school is juuuuust getting to a place where we're ready to do more on autopilot.

But now I'm approaching a season that looks more intimidating.  Dealing with a chronic migraine that has markedly worsened the past six weeks has made this season rough.  Adding in a new autoimmune condition, that seems to be worsening rather than resolving, adds an element of the unknown, as well as additional appointments.  After considering the situation and my health, we've decided to embark on a new diet.

And it looks intimidating.  Every time I pick up the book I start to cry.  David looks through the cookbook and is excited and fascinated by things like Stuffed Heart Roast (oh yes, they mean get a cow's heart, I have NO idea where, and cook it stuffed with... well, stuffed with stuff).  His enthusiasm really helps.  It does.  But I'm not sure I have the creativity and the skills to deal with the moment at 11am when I realize I'm hungry and getting a migraine, the toddler's asleep and I'm trying to get through the spelling lesson, and if I can just grab some cheese and crackers we can keep rolling and my brain might not explode.  That's apparently the point where I'm supposed to grab some plantains and turn them into crackers in my kitchen.  See?... It makes me cry. 

But today I also see the window for the motif of grace to enter again into our lives.  This is very likely a season to identify which are the more essential elements of school to remain on the "to-do" list, and which will happen on a more fluid "when we can, if we get to it" basis.  The process of identifying what stays and what slides on days and weeks where tensions are higher and time is shorter reveals our priorities.  Limitations always do that, don't they?

See, I could go into this with new spreadsheets and schedules.  I could assign the subjects we don't complete in the day to be done with Daddy in the evening, ensure they're completed on weekends, or resort to "educational apps," and look for opportunities for them to be completed more independently.  And all of those will sometimes be helpful.   But when I prioritize "getting it done" as my goal, well... that's what I am teaching.  There is value in being responsible for the tasks given to us.  But if instead our primary goals are the teaching of wisdom; teaching the skills of self-education; fostering a love -- no, a passion, for learning; developing children who can determine what they need or want to learn and how to do so; and... above all, my heart tells me, raising children who have an intimate understanding of Grace, such that they can readily receive it and readily give it.  Well, then... getting spelling and history and geography complete and checked off, with our mapwork and our timeline and the history spine and biographies, and practice reading out-loud and poetry recitation and on and on ... those really are more the means than the end itself.

And so, as we make plans for how to foster my health and our family's health, I don't think we're going to be getting it all done.  And we won't instead send them to school to get it all done there.  We'll be prayerfully identifying the priorities and setting the pace, and letting the lesson of grace seep in deep this year.  We may learn more anatomy than we would have otherwise if we're eating "offal," which is, from what I understand, eating parts of an animal that didn't previously seem like food.  We may be learning fractions a little early if we're spending excessive time in the kitchen, and we may scrap the math manipulatives and use our veggies for addition and subtraction.  And we may not complete all the books started, or even start everything that was on the list in August.  But I think we'll be learning a lot this year.

"I'm doing responsibilities"

Abby came up to me this afternoon and said, "Mommy, I'm doing responsibilities.  I cleaned my room, and I'm picking up toys.  Do you have responsibilities for me to do?"

Seriously. She's three-and-a-half.

And sure enough, she had picked up her room, and put her toys away.  Her folded clothes were in their drawers.  At a loss for what to give her, I handed her a jump rope I had picked up while decluttering a few minutes before and suggested she could try it out.  "No, Mommy, this is my time for responsibilities.  I can help you clean."  Okay!  So...I showed her how to take Joshua's laundry from his room and load the washing machine.  She brought in the laundry from her room as well, and I showed her how to start a wash cycle.  She helped with trash and put a few more things away before going off to play with Joshua.

Abby has always had a desire to be helpful.  She's eager to help me fold clothes, carefully puts them away, and loves to help in the kitchen.  In fact, when we stayed in a rental house in San Antonio this spring, my parents discovered after we'd left that Abby had opened a chest of drawers I didn't even know she had used and had carefully put away some of her clothes!  They had to mail us the dress and shoes we'd almost left behind thanks to Abby's attentiveness!

This is from an evening when Abby helped me with dinner by cutting up the bell peppers (with a butter knife).  She carefully showed me exactly how big she was cutting the pieces :)

I love having her company as I'm working, and I look forward to working alongside her for years to come.

A few more summer photos of Abby:

Puzzle complete!

Nature study.  Drawing bugs in the front yard.

Playing her home-made "string instrument" of rubber bands on clothing hangers :)

Moo, Baa, La La La

 

Much like his brother at this age, Joshua absolutely loves sitting in our laps to read.  Until he turned one, he really wasn't interested, but since his birthday he has been absolutely obsessed with books.  There are few things in life I love more than my sweet toddler holding a book and backing slowly until my lap to plop himself down and lean back against my chest for a read.  He's all into barnyard animals and their noises right now, so this book (also one of Jonathan's favorites as a toddler) is a big hit.  Listening to him "Moooo," "Baaaaaa," "Woof Woof" and "Quack" is soooooo much fun.   

Happy 6th Birthday, Jonathan!

We celebrated Jonathan's 6th birthday this weekend.  Excuse the cheese, but I can't believe it's been six years since we brought this little guy home from the hospital!

The preschooler with all the funny quips about things he didn't nearly understand has grown into a boy chock full of curiosity and creativity with loads of enthusiasm for life, learning, and play.

I've realized Jonathan's interests the past 5 years have continued to revolve around vehicles and machines.  As a toddler, even under 1 year old, he was fascinated with garbage trucks.  I remember his first nanny holding him outside so he could watch the garbage trucks go by as I left for work.  His arms and legs would flail as we stood on our corner, watching and hearing the large trucks whiz down the large street behind our house.  He'd even watch videos of municipal garbage trucks emptying trash cans on YouTube, just driving down the street, emptying trash can after trash can!  Shortly thereafter was the elaborate construction phase.  We collected tons of construction vehicles, and he began his own "construction site" in the backyard, which was his usual place of play for a good two years.  Last year, as he developed an interest in space exploration, he suggested that we could learn about a different "space vehicle" each week.  All I could think of was the space shuttle, but before long we was watching documentaries on the moon rover and Curiosity, the rover currently on Mars.

Jonathan's interest in space continues, and for his "special day with Daddy," he asked to go to NASA with David for his birthday.  Last week the two went to spend a day at the space center and received a special tour complements of the spouse of one of David's former patients. 

(Heading out to NASA with Daddy)

Of course, they returned with a space station Lego set, which required quite some time from the both of them :) 

Jonathan spends loads of time with his Legos.  While he can build a kit from instructions quite quickly, I really love seeing the wealth of creations that come from his own ingenuity.  After we brought home a kit for making Admiral Ye's Korean warship, he's been into designing ships of his own.  He and his buddy, Nathaniel, each design ships and then take them into battle against one another.  Nathaniel recently received a mobile police unit set of Lego's, and Jonathan's been eager to get working on some police units as well.  For his birthday, he requested the Police City Command Center and some additional police pieces.  He was delighted to receive them, and set to work right away.  

 The police Lego extravaganza was actually the day before Jonathan's birthday.  The day after his NASA trip, he woke quite sick, and we had to postpone his birthday party.  As consolation for a Saturday spent indoors instead, he got to open his gift from us early and get started on his Legos.

On Sunday morning he was feeling much better and enjoyed a wonderful birthday, starting with cinnamon rolls for breakfast

 
 and ending with a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, with planet-themed cupcakes.  Our budding engineer is enjoying a week of delving into his gifts, from a beautiful book on The Elements to his Snap Circuit set. 

 Jonathan's goofy sense of humor, sweetness towards his little brother and sister (most of the time!), and cuddly nature make him such a joy to raise.  It's been fun to see the interests he has developed this year that I would never have anticipated.  He's the most patriotic kid I've ever met.  It's not unusual for him to break into the National Anthem while marching around the house with a flag, and it's hysterical to see Joshua mimic him by picking up any flag laying around (and there are quite a few), thrusting it into the air, and begin "singing" loudly while marching around!  I'm really looking forward to studying American history with him this year.  He also really enjoys geography and was absolutely tickled to receive a world map puzzle and an American states and capitals card game among his birthday gifts, both of which we played today.  It'll be interesting to see if he continues "Country Class" for this next school year.  I'll confess I burned out before he did about 2/3 the way through the Caribbean countries, and I promised we could pick back up with South America this fall.

My Jonathan, being your mother, and having the privilege of learning with you at home, is an absolute joy.  You are so fun, and I'm excited about our year ahead together!  

Two wheels!

Last week we (finally) got around to taking Jonathan back out on his bike without training wheels.  Knee- and elbow-pads in place, Daddy by his side, he was ready to go. 

While the protective gear may have made him less concerned about a fall, he really didn't need any of it. 

It was fun to see him take off.  Learning to ride a bike in our neighborhood isn't an easy task, with cracks in every slab of the sidewalk and cracks and repairs lacing the streets.  It's no easy suburban stroll, and we might should have considered getting a mountain bike or dirt bike for the job.  But Jonathan did great, and it was so fun to see him ride! 

Abby got in some mileage on the tricycle, toting her current favorite book (Hello Kitty's World Atlas) in the back,

and her "Baby" in the front.  Notice the kitty's head band?  That's minimal when it comes to stuffed animal accessories these days.  Her puppies, kitties, and tigers are well adorned with bows, ribbons, collars of fresh flowers from the backyard, and rhinestone bling.  But I guess Kitty was keeping it simple on Sunday.

 And Joshua?  He was out there with us.  On a leash.  This little guy is into EVERYTHING at the moment.  If we were going to be on the street, watching two kids on wheels, with a camera in front of my face... Joshua was going to have to be physically attached to me. He stayed busy, nonetheless!

The Summer According to my iPhone

Abby reading to Joshua as he waits for his 15 month well-child-check at Dr. Pate's office.  I love her tenderness with him! 

Mac-and-cheese, the toddler's favorite!

If you look closely you'll see all three of the kids up on the spider web.  Joshua watched Jonathan and Abby climbing and quickly ascertained the point of the structure, and up he went, too!

Zoo Day with the Robinsons and Culpeppers.  The boys were full of all kinds of goofiness, while the girls chatted quietly together, and the toddlers strolled or snoozed.

Walking around down town with David on a night out. 

Another evening at Daddy's work, with the kids and Daddy running the halls and playing hide and seek.

Last day of preschool Duckling class -- Abby with Mrs. Hall.

Joshua gets treated to morning stories with Jonathan and Abby.

Abby got really into dissecting a chicken heart, instructing me where to cut and exactly what to show her next :)

At Ikea -- Joshua has a thing about climbing into boxes :)

Swim lessons -- Jonathan with Mr. Tony, Abby with Mr. Grayson.

 Rough day with a fever.  Solution: hours of YouTube funny animal videos.  Big hit!

Abby examining the fungal growth on bark chips from our front yard.  Nature study!

Craft day at the Barr home.  Finger weaving for the boys,

and braided bracelets for the girls.

Abby got really into the Handwriting Without Tears iPad app for a while. She took this part of "school" really seriously :)

Grandma and Grandpa Day!

 

Making handprints for Daddy's Father's Day gift.  

 Zoo Camp with Peter and Danielle Hazen.  Cousin time!

Abby chose to spend a Special Day with Mommy picking wild flowers and going out to eat ice cream.  She invited Aunt Kara to join us :)

Birthday cupcakes for Daddy!  Worms for a fisherman ;)

Watching Joshua march around "singing" and waving the flag makes us laugh to no end.  He's imitating his patriotic big brother, and so crazy adorable to watch.

Abby's snow leopard's special tea party.

Lunch with Julie G :)

Exploring the Soto art instillation at the Museum of Fine Arts.

First time at the roller skating rink!

The boys were too fast to photograph!

 Off to the circus!  It was a huge hit!  The opening act was a big construction themed show, Abby loved the tigers, and Joshua went wild over the jumping poodles.

Yeah!  Abby put on her sunscreen.  Ready for the pool!

Kids Cooking Night.  Spaghetti and Meatballs.  THREE kids helping in the kitchen!

 Tastes even better when you make it yourself!

A little brother water time.

Date night at Miller Outdoor Theater, seeing Two Gentlemen of Verona with a wine and cheese picnic.  Such a nice evening out together!

Mommy's fancy hair, complements of Abby.

Look, no training wheels!

Silly ham thinks its hysterical to bite his corn cob and shake it around like a dog.