Catch-All Post

I've been meaning to blog about several things, but I just haven't had the time or inclination, it seems. So here is a post of odds and ends, in no particular order.

1. Praise the Lord, I had a really good OB appointment on Thursday! I saw the same doctor that I saw last time, and the first thing she said to me was how great my numbers looked, and how it must have been just all the stress and sickness that made me have some higher readings the end of December, as opposed to a great increase in insulin resistance! So, no mention of pills. Yay! I go back again next Friday. My numbers have been really good this week too. Being back in a good routine, with healthy kids and good nights sleep, plus tons of exercise, does wonders for my blood glucose numbers!

2. Grace is picking back up on her eating again, thankfully. I weighed her yesterday, and it looks like she is back around 20 pounds, so that is good. She is enjoying all the chocolate protein drinks and extra snacks, LOL. Best of all, she just seems happier, so she is obviously feeling good. She got her shots Thursday afternoon after my appointment, and thankfully she didn't seem to get sick or have any problems from them.

3. We are in the throes of the Upward basketball season. We're doing it at a different church this year, and we are liking the program. We also really like the fact that it's only about 5 minutes away from our house! This is Luke's first year to play on a team, and it turns out he is an excellent basketball player (taking after his cousin Pilot?!). Even though he is small, he is very athletic and coordinated, and he just moves well with the ball. Who knew he would be so aggressive? Plus, he is a good shot, so he usually makes most of the points for his team, even though he is not a ball-hog, and he passes the ball often to teammates so they can take shots. Unfortunately, most of them could not hit the broad side of a barn, so . . . He is definitely the best player on his team, but that hadn't mattered, because before yesterday, his team had lost every game. This was very discouraging for Luke, who is very competitive. We have had lots of talks with him about how his lessons from this season might have to do with just improving his skills, and those of his teammates, while learning that winning just isn't the most important thing.

That is all in contrast to Nathan, who, although this is his third year of playing, is just an average basketball player, who handles the ball okay. He has made some baskets, which is great, but he is definitely not the best player on the team or anything. But that hasn't mattered to him, because until yesterday, his team was undefeated! It's just been funny to see the differences in attitudes.

4. We are sputtering along in school, at least that's how it feels. Since we got back, we have had tons and tons of appointments, so our normal schedule has been very disjointed. I wanted to get all these things out of the way before the baby comes, though.

In co-op, they are working through a writing unit. In the fifth and sixth grades, they are writing a short research paper on a country in Africa. Nathan picked Madagascar, and so writing this paper has been taking a lot of his time. He sent in his rough draft yesterday, and they'll get that back n Tuesday. Then they have to make corrections, and they also have to put together a little display of pictures, etc. for the fifth week activity, which will be on Feb. 3. All the other kids in the co-op will go around at look at all the displays.

Luke's class is working on writing short stories. I was amazed when he came home the first Tuesday and typed up a story about a boy named Jake who wanted to play football but was too small to ever make the team. Hmmm . . . wonder where he gets these ideas?! He has since revised the story, but still . . . he is not a very eager writer, so I was happy that he took the initiative to write something on his own, outside of class. Other than that, however, co-op hasn't taken any extra of his time, so he is pretty much doing regular school stuff.

The one thing we haven't been doing much of lately is Latin, which is highly unusual for us. We are soooo close to finishing Latina Christiana II--only 3 more lessons--but somehow I am just not motivated to really work on it. Each night, when I normally think of sentences for them to translate in the morning, it's like my brain is just fried and I can't come up with anything. I'm definitely blaming that on pregnancy, but it's all I can do to review vocab during the day.

We're still working through the Story of the World IV cds in the car. Good thing we've had all those long trips to Bethesda! I've really enjoyed doing that, and it's led to good discussions. We finally finished listening to all the chapters we had previously read (as a review) and are onto new chapters. We are doing some mapwork and other things at home for chapters I think are particularly important, like the one on the peace agreement at Versailles, which was at the end of World War I.

Well, I am sure there are other things I meant to post about, but that's all I can think of right now. That will at least catch you up on us! I'll be sure to let you know if and when anything starts happening. I'll be 37 weeks on Tuesday, and my parents will get here, Lord willing, Monday, Jan. 26. We are all excited to see them again, and it will be so nice to have the extra hands! In the meantime, I will be trying to knock things off my at-home to-do list--things like washing the infant carseat material, which is dirty from being in the garage, and cleaning out our walk-in closet so the pack-n-play will fit in there. Plenty of stuff to keep me busy, but not so much running around!