In Transition...

So here I am...AGAIN...practicing for what usually ends up being the 2nd nursing session in the night. Between Faith working on perfecting her pole vaulting skills over the top of my ribs, and my battle with mucus overload...the next hour will be spent wide awake.

Last night started getting really uncomfortable. I mean REALLY uncomfortable. Ill uncomfortable. Ken and I pulled out Blokus while we watched football this evening, and I ended up finishing the game on my hands and knees in an effort to avoid going insane from the feeling of tautness. Stretching out on the couch is useless, and a warm shower did little to soften things up.

No matter what I do, I can't seem to stretch beyond feeling the dig of her heels under my ribs. It is almost like Chinese water torture - just a small annoyance you can't escape that gradually sends you into flip out mode. But when she starts POLE VAULTING I find myself taking extreme measures and instantly running for the Pepcid, sometimes cheating and taking more than 2 in a 24 hour period. I'm so sick of Pepcid tablets. I feel like I have a constant taste of metal in my mouth from those pink little pills. But without them...I would already be in the nut house.

This has been such a bummer week, and on top of it, I am admittedly a complete baby when I get a sore throat (it is right next to mosquitoes on my hate list). And I know my blogging has hardly been in the realm of uplifting over the last few days. I need to remind myself of the beautiful scenery that will soon be before me:

Positive and exciting days are ahead, filled with laughter, baby sounds and that beautiful smell of a newborn. I'm not far from feeling that instinctual and maternal love that occurs when as I study my newborn child from head to toe: the little hairtufts at the top of their ears (Jack), their exotic eyes (Grace), their tiny button nose (Jack), that special something about their mouth (Grace). What unique discoveries will I find as my eyes roam over little Faith?

And lastly, almost what I look more forward to then the birth of Faith herself, is sharing this newborn treasure with my two very loved children. They will both be old enough to know and understand that their sister is here. I long to study every inch of their faces once again, as they meet and hold their new sister for the first time --- what an awesome and moving event that will be for me.

When Sick...Sew

I'm feeling slightly better this evening. I passed the time this afternoon sewing a baby bunting for Faith. It is basically a sleeveless fleece sack that zips up. They usually cost a good $20 at a children's store, but you can make them for about $4. I'm all for babies and comfort, so I plan on sewing a good number of these in different colors so that Faith can freely hang out sockless around the house in just a onesie and one of these snugglies.

I'm a decent seamstress when it comes to sewing anything rectangular, but throw neck holes and arm holes into the mix and I'm a mess. Poor Faith ended up with a straight jacket. Sewed right over the arms holes. Did I mention how dangerous it is to sew when you are sick? (It involves a lot of seam ripping.)

Maybe it was more of a subconscious thing...after all...she is my tiny tornado.

I'll add pictures tomorrow.

What Happens When The Teacher Gets Sick?

Today I was less then capable of being an effective teacher. The teacher has managed to get sick and lose her voice the first week back in school. With the heavy Charlotte Mason emphasis on reading and living books, it is especially difficult to carry out my duties. But it was fun for the kids since they got to swarm around Dad as he read the material for Friday, and Grace was able to show off her narration skills she's developed so well.

I tried my best to rearrange our school day schedule and get the kids to enjoy a little of the good weather in the morning before the storms rolled in by noon. It was short lived, but I was pretty impressed with their scavenger skills. Laid up on the couch, I told them to go outside and bring me back 5 interesting things. Apparently that was too broad, as they were back in 30 seconds, saying they couldn't find anything interesting. So, putting on my CM hat and keeping our current rodent nature study in mind, I asked them to find the remainder of a nutshell that had been eaten by a squirrel. They bolted out the door all excited, and I actually scolded myself for giving them such a hard task (fully thinking they wouldn't find anything). To my astonishment, Grace and Jack were back in 5 minutes with their find: two acorn caps still held together by a small twig - both caps showing clear evidence of being broken on one side by the teeth of a squirrel who extracted the acorn. Unbelievable...they actually found it.

The second request was for a stick that had something interesting. They came back in another five minutes and said they had found a tree that was brown on one side and had green on the other side, but that they couldn't bring that in.

The third (and last) request was cruel. I told them to find a coccoon. I was tired and was trying to have them get a little more air time then 5 minutes here and there. That didn't happen.

So the children huddled up in the green room with me and we watched a Netflix movie called Winged Migration - a full hour of footage with little narration about the migration of various bird species. When the rain hit in the afternoon we cracked open the books.

The Playroom is STILL a Mess, But...

The playroom is STILL a mess, but the children don't mind. We're schooling at the dining room table, until I can pull my energy together to finish the cleaning I started.

Last term, I must confess that Beethoven and Renoir took a back seat to our other studies. Even Grace mentioned that we didn't do much on Renoir. This term, I'm determined to be less relaxed, so every Tuesday we will be incorporating something Claude Monet, and every Thursday will incorporate something on Puccini. Today we played our newly created Claude Monet Bingo using Dover Publication's sticker books for Monet. The children really like playing Bingo, and this was an easy way of introducing the names of paintings.

Besides the nailing of shapes, this peg board with various card designs to follow has been a large hit. Here's Jack working on an arrow that took him a good 15 minutes to follow and put together.

Stepping it up a knotch has gone smoothly. About an extra 1/2 hour has been added to our school time. I have inserted the Montessori activities inbetween the Charlotte Mason assignments, which is just enough break between CM activities to keep the children moving forward and interested.