X vs Y

So here is a model of a Greek trireme in bad lighting, LOL. Observe the "bronze" battering ram in the front, and the 3 rows of oars (yellow, green, and red). This is what we made for our craft at TNT yesterday, and it was a big hit. It also underscored again the difference between boys and girls.

Boys: "Look, mine has guns pointing out the back!" "Mine is breathing fire!"

Girls: " I made a king and queen to sit in the back, and they are holding hands!" "I'm going to put the table and chairs right here in the middle."

I was worried that the girls might not be too interested in the lesson, since it was mainly focused on the Greeks and war. I had no need to worry, however. They were very interested in hearing about Spartan girls, who had a lot more freedom than other girls in Greece--they were taught to read and write and also had to participate in gymnastics and combat games so they would be fit to bear lots of strong little Spartan baby boys to grow up to be big, strong Spartan warriors. Wow, I would have been like a goddess back then, LOL! Also, we talked about Xerxes, who led the an attack on Greece to try to punish it for his father's punishing defeat at Marathon. All the girls were quite interested in hearing this other information about Esther's husband! He was a real character too--when he had these bridges built to cross over the Hellespont, and a storm came up and destroyed them, he ordered the sea whipped 300 times. That got a big laugh. Also, he had this big throne built on the shore to watch the battle of Salamis, like he was at the Super Bowl or something. Too bad his team got crushed. LOL! So we had a fun time, but I was sure exhausted when I got home! I put Anna down, and then I crashed on the couch for a nap while the boys watched a video.

Now, one more week to go. Next week we're covering the alphabet and language, as well as some of the famous scientists and thinkers. I've got to organize my experiments, but tonight there's a women's night out games night with the ladies of church, so I guess I will have to start tomorrow!

Spinning Plates

This weekend I felt like the guy spinning plates, and mine seemed like they were all getting ready to fall! I just felt so overwhelmed. We still haven't heard about our waiver request, which weighs heavily on me. I've been worried about gestational diabetes with this pregnancy--I know my risk increases with every pregnancy, and plus, I have a mother and an aunt with diabetes, plus I've had 2 babies over 9 pounds. So I have been being fanatical about exercising almost daily, and also adopting eating habits that possibly might prevent GD, such as eating small meals often, having protein with my snacks, and having some protein before I go to bed. But it's one more thing to keep track of during the day, and sometimes I feel like I could do that full time OR homeschool, but I'm having a hard time with both. I'm also concerned about all of Anna's spitting up, so I'm thinking about starting to pump again so she could have at least one more breastmilk bottle in the evening (but when do I have time to pump?!). And then I had to teach at co-op on Tuesday, so I was scurrying around trying to collect materials for the craft, type up my notes, hand-draw maps, etc. Whew!

But what really caused me to about throw in the towel was a small thing, mainly that Luke started losing things. Luke is my orderly one, the one who I can depend on to notice things and help me find things that are lost. But we spend about an hour before the soccer game on Saturday looking for his other purple soccer sock. One sock was beside his uniform. The other sock was nowhere to be found, and I mean we really turned the upstairs upside down looking. Finally he went off wearing black ones, but it really bothered me. Then thet next day we discovered that he had left his jacket at the field. This may seem very inconsequential to you, but that is because you are not a hormonal pregnant woman who has a system that is hanging by a very fine thread here! I have one jacket for about every size or so, and I just pass them down each new season. So Luke losing his light jacket means that I am missing one, and what will Caleb and Jonathan wear when it is their turn for this size? What if this new baby is a boy? What will he do?!! Iin tears, I told Bob that I didn't think I could keep track of any more people's stuff for this family, since I am obviously the only one doing so. It's too much!! Fortunately I then had the thought to call my Aunt Claire , who encouraged me and made me laugh. And then the Lord reminded me of a verse:

"To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy--to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!" Jude 24-25

So first of all, this took my focus of me and my woes, and put it back on God, where it belongs. And secondly, it reminded me that I am not able to keep any of my plates from falling--that's the Lord's job. And through Him, I can have great joy! I felt much better, and I have continued to do so, thinking about this verse.

This Week

I finally got my wish--Bible study is going to be at our house tonight, which has motivated us to clean. Once we made it through the paper morass in the kitchen, things really started looking up! The boys have been working on the playroom and basement today. Anna is improving her crawling speed by leaps and bounds each day, so I told the boys that now that everything is clean, this really is how it needs to stay, since Anna can go wherever she wants now (and, unsurprisingly, she wants to go where the boys are!) and pick up whatever she wants, as well. I also told them I would not be picking Bionicle pieces out of her poop, and that any she swallows will just be given up for lost. They became much more motivated to keep all the Bionicles upstairs in their room after that conversation, LOL.

We start the Ancient Greece unit in our homeschool co-op on Tuesday. I was looking forward to 2 more weeks to prepare, since I teach the second 2 weeks of the unit, but then the other teacher called me Thursday afternoon to say they had a death in the family and were driving down to Alabama for the funeral. Could I please teach Tuesday? Ack! Of course, I said yes, realizing, frankly, that I often procrastinate on these things anyways, so I might as well have the crunch time be this weekend. I have been up to my eyeballs in Greek military stuff though. This first Tuesday I will overview the main city states and then discuss Athens and Sparta in more depth. Then we'll talk about the war with Persia, and then the Pelopennesian wars, and finally deal with Alexander the Great. For our craft, we'll make models of a Greek trireme (that's their fighting ship, which has 3 rows of oars, for all of you not current on your ancient Greek naval terminology). That should be very interesting to the boys in the class (I'm teaching the third and fourth graders), but probably not so much for the girls. Oh well. I know the other lady is going to talk about art, architecture, and drama, which probably will not be of as much interest for the boys! For my second week, I'm doing the language, as well as some of the famous scientists. We're going to recreate some of the famous experiments, like Archimede's principle and maybe even build an Archimedes screw. I found what looks to be an easy one in a book.

We're also looking forward to Caleb's birthday, which is now less than a month away. Every day he asks how many more days, so it is having quite the lead-up. He also spends a lot of time thinking about what kind of cake he wants me to make. At first he said Larry-Boy, which I thought would be pretty easy. But recently he has changed his mind and wants "bug party--but not with ugly bugs, only friendly ones." Soooo. A lot of "friendly" bugs are sort of "girly" bugs, right? I'm thinking ladybugs, butterflies . . . I'm a bit stymied as to what to make for a cake. I guess I need to feel out the concept a little more with him. But hey, now that I'm not teaching the week right before his birthday, I will have a lot more time to do the cake!

Big Families Gain in Newspaper Coverage

The Washington Times has had two articles in the front section this past week dealing with large families! one of the them, entitled "Bigger Families Gain in Popularity", started out this way:

Laura Bennett isn't bound by convention. Professionally, at 42, she's pursuing a
midcareer switch into big-time fashion design. At home, she's a mother of five
-- with No. 6 due next month. "It was nothing that we planned ahead of time,"
Mrs. Bennett says. "It's more that we were enjoying all the kids. We have a
happy home. Why not have as many children as we can?"

The article goes on to discuss how people are more open now to more than 2 children, even in wealthy areas like Connecticut's southwestern suburbs. It does say that really big families (over 3, presumably) will remain rare because so many women are waiting until later to start having kids, so they might be having their third child in their early 40s, when it would be too late to have any more.

This quote towards the end of the article made me laugh. It is by a woman, Mrs. Clark, who has 5 children and lives in Minneapolis.

Mrs. Clark, 38, is aware of the buzz that large families -- in the suburbs, at
least -- are a new status symbol. "I thought it was kind
of funny," she said "Most people who have a lot of kids don't have the time or
energy to care what others think."

"A status symbol"? LOL!

The second article is called "In Defense of Big Families" , and it was about a woman named Leslie Leyland Fields who is a mother of 6 and wrote a book called Surprise Child: Finding Hope in Unexpected Pregnancy. The book does not seem to really be so much about big families as about welcoming a baby, even if it wasn't planned, but she starts out the article talking about what big families offer a culture.

Family size has a cultural significance, she says. "My
defense of the larger family is more of a question," says Mrs. Fields, who lives
on Alaska's Kodiak Island. "What do our cultures lose when our families shrink
to one or no children or 2.034 children?" Large families
offer social and interpersonal benefits, such as teaching children to be more
tolerant, conserve resources and work as part of a group, practicing good
citizenship on a daily basis, she says. However, Mrs.
Fields explained in a recent issue of Christianity Today, mothers of large
broods in contemporary America face a stereotype. "The
smart, ambitious, fully realized 21st-century woman chooses career. The
ambitionless woman has children." This stereotype is
specially true in a society that celebrates "individualism, the pursuit of
'unfettered time,' and the freedoms of self-fulfillment and self-actualization,"
she says.

But as soon as she makes this comment, the article switches gears and talks to some researcher with 2 children. Parents now want to have "high-quality kids rather than quantity of kids," said Mr. Mintz, adding that each child requires emotional, financial and psychological investment. The next portion of the article talks about only children and how they learn to turn friends into family, relate well to adult, and benefit from being the sole focus of their parents' attention, growing up with strong self-esteem. All true, but not much of a defense of big families.

More disturbing to me was the quote about having "high-quality kids rather than quantity of kids." I think this is what many people think when they see a big family--"How can you possibly give time and attention to each member of the family--you must be leaving someone out and damaging them forever!" There was a quote saying basically this in the first article:

Yet Mr. Morgan, who has three children of his own, doubts there will be a boom
in extra-large families. "No matter how much money the
parents have, most think each of their kids should have their own place and
time," he said. "More than four -- that's when people start thinking you're
crazy, that you're shortchanging the ones you already have."

And I guess if you don't have that many kids, then you might never really understand that God gives grace to allow you to share yourself as needed for the amount of children He gives you. It really is a mystery! Also, each older sibling also gives plenty of devoted attention and care. There are sacrifices involved in having large families, that is for sure. Sometimes, though, it is not all bad. For example, we can't afford to give our kids every new electonic toy. But even if we only had 2 boys, we still wouldn't want them to have X-boxes and all that, so no big loss there. I do sometimes feel guilty that Caleb and Jonathan most likely will never be able to take gymnastics like Nathan and Luke did. On the other hand, Nathan and Luke didn't have so many people around to play games or whatever else they wanted when they were younger, so it all evens out. There is rarely a time when Caleb or Jonathan can't find someone to play with them! And the boys feel sorry for people who don't have big families--"What do they do all day? They don't have anyone to play with!"

The thing is, I want to raise children who are Godly leaders. And the Bible says that whoever wants to become great must become a servant (Matt. 21:26). In a large family, you are living in a "servanthood lab", where you have to serve all day long, instead of just being served, as might be the temptation in a small family with lots of resources. We can't pay for a housekeeper, and the boys, the older ones especially, do the cleaning--vacuuming, bathrooms, etc.--even if they weren't the ones who made the big crumbly mess on the floor. Nathan wipes bottoms when I am nursing and can't easily get up. Luke goes upstairs to get Anna every time she wakes up from her nap so I don't have to go up and down the stairs so many times (he volunteered). They help Jonathan and Caleb get dressed and get breakfast so I can sleep later. They make sandwiches and snacks for their brothers. Caleb loves to scrub the carpet whenever Anna spits up on it. Caleb and Jonathan are still learning that they have to be patient because I can't always just leap to whatever they want or need. Some people don't learn that they are not the center of the universe until much, much later! That will serve them well in life and I think will certainly help them be better husbands and fathers (may my future daughters-in-law love me, LOL).

It is interesting to me to watch family-size trends. As I have said before, we live in an area with a lot of REALLY big families (over 7 kids), so I still think of 4 as on the small side. I love to watch these big families interact at our homeschool co-op. And the moms are not unambitious women, but highly educated professional women, many with advanced degrees, who have chosen to teach their children and hopefully raise up a generation of Godly servant-leaders. They inspire me!

A Sabbath Perspective

I'm going to copy an article from the Veritas Press epistula about the Sabbath and education that I found very interesting and thought-provoking. I have never considered the Sabbath as a gift, like grace, not a reward for service done the past week. I looked on the website, but there was no link to their epistula, so I'm just pasting it in here. Enjoy reading it!


The Sabbath and Education

“Sabbath” is one of those words which has vastly different connotations to different people. To some it is a bitter memory of strict regulations. To some it is just a quaint Jewish custom. To others it conjures an almost militantly enforced holy day, about the same idea as Ramadan, the Islamic fast. It takes some back to a time when Puritanical people ruled the earth, and you could not buy beer on Sunday. For many conservative Christians it’s quite a long list of what you can and cannot do—mostly cannot.

Let us gain a fresh taste of the Biblical idea of sabbath in order to relate it to education. Is the taste of the sabbath bitter or sweet? Back in Genesis, we first find the idea of sabbath. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:2–3). Right away it appears that this is God’s example for our benefit.

It is surprising to think through the creation pattern. Adam’s first day was a day of rest. He was created on the sixth day, thus his first full day of life was not a day of labor, but a day of sabbath. Unlike the day of sin when they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God” (Gen. 3:8), after the first man and woman were created, they awoke to a day in their Maker’s presence.

I believe this is a clue to the purpose and full meaning of the sabbath. No one works to earn rest in the presence of God. It is a gift before one labors. Originally it was not a six-then-one day pattern for Adam, it was a one-then-six pattern. This should remind us of the structure of salvation. It is redemption then service. The order is always grace then faithful obedience—not works, then grace. The sabbath gift was certainly not a meritorious reward of rest for Adam’s works. At this point we may need to adjust our thinking. Many of us believe that Sunday is the last day of the week, though on the calendar and in our theology it is the first day of the week. Sunday for Christians should not be the last day of the weekend, but the first day of a new week in which to have dominion in the world. We are to be future-thinking people, not those who cling to passing hours, begrudging a coming week of fruitful labor.

Later in the Old Testament, the sabbath commandment was expressed in the Fourth Commandment. It is striking that among many, “Thou shalt nots,” the form of this command is, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”(Ex. 20:8). The Jewish sabbath observance included their synagogue convocations. “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings” (Lev 23:3). That is, they were to gather in congregations. This seems to be the origin of the Jewish synagogue. But it is important to note that there is an explicit connection to celebration. The next verse says, “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times” (Lev. 23:4). It goes on to reference Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, both of which begin with a day of sabbath celebration. The sabbath was for instruction in the presence of God and His people. This has a very congregational sense, but notice it applies to homes, “in all your dwellings” (Lev. 23:3). It is not enough to go to church, but the character of our homes is to rest from labor and celebrate God’s presence.

Here too, we may have reason to repent. The sabbath is not about rules. The very heart of the sabbath is “remembering.” The word here (zakar in Hebrew) means “call to mind” or “recall.” What do we recall? This is a little clearer in the second giving of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy. The sabbath was a memorial occasion for the emancipation proclamation of Israel. They were to remember their release from bondage by the power of God. “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day” (Deut. 5:15). This release from bondage even applied to the land, which also was to be given sabbaths (Lev. 25:4). It applied to debtors in the cycle of restitution, the Jubilee, which is called a sabbath (Lev. 25:8–10).

Perhaps the more important lesson for us is to see that the fullness of this rest and release from bondage is the work of Jesus. Jesus is our sabbath rest. We can see this in the anticipation of His coming. The very paradigm of time leading to the “fulness of time” (Gal. 4:4, coming of Messiah) is a sabbatical pattern (“seventy sevens,” Dan. 9:24). After doing works of healing and restoration of the needy, Jesus was accused of sabbath-breaking. But it was the Pharisees who misused the sabbath (Mark 2:24–28). The sabbath, ironically, had become a kind of slavery. What was meant for the celebration of freedom, was made into a yoke of bondage. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). It is just because of this that the True Man, the Last Adam was “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).

The Pharisaic accusations did not end with minor infractions of permissible sabbath activities. Their zealous bondage created murderous hostility to the Life-giver and Healer. After He healed a man, we read, “For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath” (John 5:16). Jesus’ answer to this charge is very interesting. “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. . . . For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will” (5:17–21). In other words, the Lord is working for our redemption and that redemption is in the resurrection. He became a slave so that we might be free. He died so that we might live. Jesus is our sabbath. We were slaves, but now we are free. Does this sound legalistic?

The very heart of this is rejoicing in the grace of God and the reality of new life. Like the Jubilee, we need a fresh start. We need the weekly renewal of taking to heart our freedom and life in Christ. Our children need this, too. It does not take much imagination to find ways to grant release to our captive children after a long week. I attended a seminary which mandated that no work (even Bible research) could be done on the Lord’s Day. We all bucked against it as legalistic sabbatarianism. But given the workload of “two hours outside of class to every one hour in class”—and this was carried out with Pharisaical precision, believe me—not doing class work on one day a week was a slowly realized blessing. The purpose of a day of ceasing from labor to enjoy the presence of God and His people is not a bitter pill. God has not commanded us to eat green persimmons. He tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Rev. Gregg Strawbridge

Gregg Strawbridge is the pastor of All Saints’ Presbyterian Church in Lancaster County, PA. He encourages you to worship with us when you are in the area.

Weekend Update

I guess the big news is that Anna started crawling Friday afternoon. She is still quite slow and spaceman-like in her efforts, with lots of stops for more rocking, but she is rapidly improving. As my friend Christine says, "Crawling is over-rated." I'm not ready to train her to not pull papers and books off the bookshelves, avoid the 3 (!) staircases we have, and be super-duper vigilant about keeping Bionicle pieces off the floor. Ah well. She is still spitting up a lot, and I think it is because of the soy formula. She is not unhappy about it at all, but she sure does smell bad! I am still pretty sensitive to smells, so I want to change her outfit about 25 times a day. I asked the doctor about it at her well-baby appointment on Friday, telling him about her sensitivity to real milk in my breast milk as well, and how she stopped spitting up entirely after I stopped having milk. His solution? "Put some rice cereal in her bottle to thicken up the formula. Probably a little bit of reflux." Hmmm. I don't think it's reflux. Sigh. I keep thinking, "When Bob retires, we'll get to pick civilian doctors!"

Before the big pregnancy news, I actually had big plans for this 3 day weekend--"Let's go to Philabelphia!" We're in the American Revolution time frame of history, so it would be perfect! But somehow I just never was motivated in the slightest to plan the trip, and so here we are, at home. I used to be such a great traveler, ready at a monent's notice to trot off somewhere, towing along several kids! What happened to me? I'm just. so. tired. Maybe Veterans' Day weekend? Yeah, don't hold your breath!

It was nice to sleep in yesterday and not drive somewhere or be in a hotel. Bob and the boys made some major inroads in our cleaning tasks. The kitchen is no longer buried under a mound of mail and other papers, and you can walk through the basement without tripping over castle pieces. That doesn't sound like much, but actually quite a lot got done! That just goes to show how messy it really was! I didn't feel too well yesterday, so I mainly just laid around on the couch. I feel better today. I guess I just needed the rest. It's still hard for me to really believe and act on the amount of rest that a pregnant and nursing mom of 5 actually needs, and of course, most days it is simply impossible. How nice that it was doable yesterday!

I have just remembered that I put a load of laundry in earlier evening and never transferred it to the dryer. I guess the fish oil MUST be working, since I realized only hours later, and not tomorrow, as I go to start the next 3 loads, as can be the case! Off to battle the laundry . . .

College Comparisons

My friend, Jenna, with whom I went to both high school and college, is back at Cedarville today--must be Homecoming! Anyhow, she had a fun post comparing her life back at Cedarville with her life now. I linked it because I thought all my Cedarville friends who read this might enjoy it--I think we're all in the same boat (I mean minivan, LOL).

Please pray . . .

We are planning on faxing in our waiver request for off-base OB care tomorrow. Bob found the letter we wrote last year (almost literally--we wrote it on Sept. 8, 2005, LOL), and we modified it for this pregnancy, so we are ready to go. There is a new person in the position this year, so who knows what he or she will say about this?

To recap the situation for those who weren't in on last year's stresses, I am seen at a primary care clinic that is off-base, but is still a military treatment facility. It's about 35 minutes away, but it doesn't have OB care. For that, I have to go to Ft. Belvoir, which is an hour away by the Beltway and I-95, making it a real crapshoot for how long it could potentially take to get there, given the traffic situations on those 2 roads. You are automatically granted a waiver for civilian care if you live 40 miles away from the hospital, but we live only 33 miles away, so we have to beg and plead for a waiver. Obviously, having the waiver denied would mean incredible inconvenience for routine appointments, as I would either have to take everyone on a 3-4 hour trip, or I have to find someone to watch them all for that amount of time. All of our close friends here are homeschoolers, and I don't want to take up their entire school day with babysitting, not to mention adding 5 kids to already large families is certainly added stress. But we are also pretty concerned that if I were to go into labor during rush hour or when there was an accident on the road, we very likely could end up delivering on the shoulder of the Beltway. It certainly has happened here before. So please be praying that the military powers-that-be will take mercy on us and our situation and grant the waiver to us, and also that it wouldn't take long to make it's way through the system. Thanks.

Happy 80th birthday!

This past weekend we were in Bob's Pennsylvania hometown, where we celebrated his mom's 80th birthday. We had a really nice party for her Saturday night, and all 6 of the siblings were again in attendance! Twice in one year--a record!

Ann was born to Polish immigrants, and she was towards the end of 13 brothers and sisters. She met Bob's dad, Frank, because their houses' back yards were catty-corner to each other. They were friends all through high school, but Frank went off to war before they were married. When he came back, he had a mysterious injury/metal plate in his head, as well as a drinking problem, but she married him anyways. She birthed 9 children, but only 6 are still living. One was still-born, and the oldest 2 were killed in a car accident while Ann was pregnant with the third one. She never had a driver's license, so she either walked or was at the mercy of someone else to take her places. She and Frank still live in the house they bought right before Bob was born. It is in the middle of a depressed steel mill type town outside of Pittsburgh, and it has 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. That one bathroom is upstairs and doesn't have a shower--only an old fashioned tub. Bob's dad later put one in the middle of their basement, but I don't think Ann ever uses it. She is in remarkably good health--no hip or knee problems, even with all that stair-climbing, and the only thing she takes medicine for is an underactive thyroid! Amazing!

Ann has not had an easy life, and she has sacrificed a lot to keep her family together. She is a real inspiration, and we're hoping she has many more big birthday parties like this one!

Something old, something new . . .

I've decided to go a step farther with the whole "something old, something new" theme--past marriage and into pregnancy! The "something old" part is easy--that would be my maternity clothes. They've served me well, and they are still in my closet from the last time I needed them. And with each pregnancy I am needing them earlier and earlier! I am definitely showing now--at about 9 or 10 weeks--and having gained only one pound, after loosing all my pregnancy weight from Anna. Sigh.

The "something new" is fish oil supplements! I've never taken these before during pregnancy, but I'm expecting great things, LOL. With almost each pregnancy, there has been some incident of great mental lapse, completely unlike my normal self, that has made me run for a pregnancy test (or at least realize in retrospect that is what I should have done, LOL). For example, with Caleb, we were staying with my parents because we had just PCSed back to Ohio, and I was thawing ground beef in the microwave for dinner. After a couple of minutes, I took it out and was horrified to see that it was cooked instead of thawed. The crazy thing was that I couldn't even process what had happened--"What is wrong with the microwave?!"--instead of realizing that I obviously put it in to cook instead of thaw! And with Jonathan I made a big pot of spaghetti in the crockpot and then waltzed off to ladies' Bible study without ever turning it on. Both of these incidents immediately preceded my taking a pregnancy test because well, I just usually am not so scatter-brained.

This current pregnancy was the worst, however. On Sunday, Sept. 10, I was sitting in the study talking on the phone with my brother, when I happened to galnce at a stack of papers and see a party invitation for Caleb. Then I realized that the party had been that afternoon at 1:30, and I had totally and completely forgotten about it, even though it was on our calendar, and I had talked about it the day before. Oh, I felt so bad. This is pretty much the only thing just Caleb has been invited to, and he was so excited about it. I was literally in tears when I went up to tell him that I had forgotten, and we had missed the party. Fortunately, Caleb is a pretty easy-going sort of little boy, so he was more bothered by the odd sight of me crying (another pregnancy sign right there--how did it take me another several days to test?!) than by missing the actual party. But I just felt so awful.

So my point is that I usually start pregnancy off with some sort of dumb thing, and then I feel like I am sort of in a mental fog the whole rest of the way through, like I'm not really all there. But now I have started taking these fish oil supplements, and so surely all this craziness with go away. Right?!! I've heard such great things about them, and how they stimulate both the developing mind of the fetus as well as the mother. I need some of that!

Breather Week

This week we aren't doing anything new for school, and we are accomplishing some of the other things that I just haven't been able to stay on top of. I think we're going to have to build these weeks in on a regular basis now. We are reviewing Latin vocab, math facts, and our memory work, and we are doing some history. We're also finishing another Classical Writing project. That's it for school.

On Monday we went to the commissary, and I bought tons of chicken to cook and chop for meals, as well as tons of squash, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables with which to make baby food. I got the chicken finished yesterday, but I still haven't tackled the vegetables--maybe tonight while the boys are at soccer. Yesterday Jonathan had a follow-up doctor's appointment. Good news--his poor little bum looks great, and the doctor thinks the strep is all gone, although she reswabbed to make sure. Also, I took the official pregnancy test, and now I am in the Tricare system, so we can start trying to get the waiver for off-base OB care.

Today we did something fun and different--we went to see the Washington Capitals, our NHL team, practice! They are building a new practice facility in Arlington, but it's not quite ready, so they have been practicing in Ashburn the past few weeks. And the best part is it was free! I realized how little I know about the Capitals, though. Without names on the back of their jerseys, I only recognized the big star, Alex Ovechkin, and that was mainly because we happened to be right there when he walked onto the ice, and he stopped to say something to some kids who were right by the rope (not mine, of course, LOL!). I have always read about how unfailingly nice and polite he is. Anyhow, then the only way I could keep track of him was that he had snazzy yellow shoelaces on his skates. Everyone else I was absolutely clueless about, including the head coach (although not anymore--his name is Glen Hanlon. I looked it up.) The other spectators seemed much more knowledgable. Many of them even had notebooks to scribble notes! They were not reporters either--I heard them talking about how they work over at AOL and were taking long lunch breaks.

The team was all wearing different color jerseys, with about 5 players for each color jersey--black, red, white, teal (is that a manly, hockey-player term? Because that is definitely the color), and gray. And 2 goalies. I could not tell which goalied was the starter one, Olie Kolzig, although I guessed he was the one with the snazzier helmet down by our end of the ice. The man sitting next to me came in after us, and after sitting down, proceeded to get out his own little notebook, divide the page into 5 areas, and then write down every player's last name under the appropriate color. I kept trying to look sideways at his notebook to figure out a few of the players' names, but I just couldn't do it without being too obvious, LOL.

So we saw about 24 players and the 2 goalies, and the paper said they have to be down to 23 by opening day. I couldn't tell if one color was the starters (Alex was in black, in case you were wondering), or if they were grouped by position (unlikely, based on how they were running drills). Anyhow, if one group were the "on the bubble" ones, I would have to say it was the gray guys. There were only 4 of them. But what do I know?! They all looked good to me! I love watching men play hockey--they are so confident on their skates, and they go so fast! Hockey is definitely a fast-moving, exciting game! I miss watching the Air Force Academy hockey games back when we were stationed there.

Anna is 6 months old!

Look at this big girl! Anna pushes up on all fours all the time, but then she just stays there, rocking away. Eventually, when she gets really excited, she will go into her parachute mode, with her arms spread and her legs straight. No concept that, if she just moved her knees and arms, she might actually go somewhere! But that's okay with me. She already gets around enough by inching and scrunching and rolling to qualify as mobile--she's just not very fast.

She's still a happy baby, and why shouldn't she be, with all the love and adoration showered on her by her 4 adoring big brothers?! She is definitely the princess of our home (while I, of course, am the queen, as Caleb so often reminds me!).

And here's a thought to leave you with--in 6 more months, she will almost be a big sister. Wow. I hope she will still be just as happy when that event comes about, LOL.

Would someone come visit us?!

Please?!!! We need about 2 days notice. That is because our house is so cluttered right now, and that's how long I think it would take us to get ready. All flat surfaces in the kitchen are covered in miscellaneous paperwork, the floor needs to be mopped, there is a castle set up in the family room instead of the play room, there are books and more papers on the couch--it's cluttered. And I am finding that I am not at all motivated on my own to really clean it up. I want to snap my fingers and have it be done. Sigh. So come over--motivate me!

Let's see--I haven't been blogging much lately. Don't worry though! You haven't missed much of real importance! Yesterday was a busy day. I went to a MOPS consignment sale while the boys were at soccer. This is a big deal around here--hundreds of consigners, if not over a thousand. I actually consigned some stuff this year (and if you know me well, you can guess where the stuff came from--not from anyone who might actually be reading my blog, LOL!). I picked up the stuff that didn't sell in the afternoon, and out of 63 or so items, I had 17 not sell. One thing I forgot to put a price on (airhead! LOL). I am always amazed at how different people's taste in clothing are. The best part of yesterday was that the time between when the soccer games finished (next door to the sale) and when I could pick up my unsold stuff was only about one hour, and so Bob took the kids home in the van, and I WENT OUT TO LUNCH ALL BY MYSELF!! Wow, that was a luxury! I went to Quiznos and had a regular turkey bacon guacamole sandwich on wheat bread which I did not share with anyone. And I only used one napkin. How nice to just sit with my own thoughts, using my mouth only for eating and not for talking.

This afternoon after church we went on a wild goose car hunt. The credit union was having a sale down at the George Mason Patriot Center (with THOUSANDS of new AND used cars priced under invoice!!), so we thought we go take a look at Siennas to see if they really were cheaper there. As we parked, a guy in a Sienna drove by and asked if he could give us a ride to the sale. "Umm, no" I said, thinking, "That's odd--why would we ride with a perfect stranger somewhere." Duh, was I clueless. Soon after, a guy in a golf cart drives up and asks the same thing. We ask how you get to the actual event, and he points vaguely off in the distance, in a different direction than we were preparing to walk. So we assume that it must be a long ways off, and the event is providing shuttle service. However the golf cart is very small, so I am not sure how we can fit, but the guy is sure we can do it. So Caleb, Jonathan, the stroller, and I ride up front with "Charter" (that's his name, LOL), while Nathan, Luke, and Bob ride in the back, facing backwards, with Bob holding Anna. Yeah, that's got to be safe. And to think I didn't think we'd all fit in the Sienna! Well, the guy turned out to be a Nissan salesman, so he delivers us to where the Nissans are, which is a long ways off, pretty much where he was vaguely pointing. After looking at a Quest, (which he told us on the drive was big enough for 8, but in fact only has 7 seats no matter what), we wandered off to find the Toyota lot. Eventually we found it--practically right across the street from where we parked, where we were intending to walk in the first place, but a good deal away from the Nissan part. And then they had no 8 person Siennas there at all. Ah well. So, to recap, we could have ridden over with the first guy, who I now realize was a Toyota shuttle driver, and not some weirdo stalking parking lots to kidnap large families, and he would have taken us right there. Or we could have walked in the direction we were planning and found it right away on our own. Instead we let someone "help" us, and it took a lot longer in the end! A good object lesson for the kids on how sometimes people help you out of their own agenda, not yours. I told them I felt like Jill in The Silver Chair--I didn't recognize the signs, so it cost us lots of time, LOL! But we are no further along in our car search, however many object lessons we may have had. I think Bob and I are both convinced now of the wisdom of doing all our car shopping on the internet, LOL.

Proverbs 19:25

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Prov. 19:25

I think this is my theme verse for this year. We have settled into a routine that is working fairly well for all of us, but it certainly isn't the routine that I had in mind for this year! I have been nursing Anna the first 2 feedings of the day, and she gets rice cereal after the second one. Then for the third feeding, she gets a bottle of soy formula and her vegetables, and then I nurse her again for the fourth one, and give her more cereal. Then she gets one more bottle before bed. This plan is making her a lot happier, and she is back to waking up at 8:00 in the morning and having good naps. Poor girl--she just wasn't getting enough for a few weeks there. We'll see how long my dwindling milk supply will last with only 3 feedings a day. I don't think very long, but that's okay. The boys all love giving Anna her bottle.

I have actually not felt as tired with this pregnancy as I was with Anna. My theory is that I just am used to being tired, LOL, so a little more tiredness is not such a big shock to the system. That, and God is merciful and won't give us more than we can handle. Anyhow, we have been able to continue on with our normal school routine in the morning. The afternoons are pretty much shot, however, as I am quite tired then and must nap. So no errands are being run or "fun" afternoon subjects being done (like history and science). This is deja vu, because that also happened last year, and that's why we didn't finish Story of the World 3 then. Maybe we'll being doing it for a third year! But all is not lost--I get alot of the books on the reading lists in the activity guide out of the library, and the older boys like to read them on their own. The necessary things are getting done, and I see progress being made, even if we're not getting in all I had originally thought we would.

People have been asking how I'm doing with the pregnancy, as in, "Are you accepting it", and really I am fine with that. Clearly, this baby was put there by the Lord. My neighbor told me that not being fertile while nursing was the oldest wives' tale in the book, but you know, for me it wasn't. I have never been fertile until I wean, which is always around 9 months to a year. I can appreciate that this is not the case for some people, but for me, I have 4 other data points, which are more than most people for this sort of thing! So I have to say that this baby is the Lord's timing, and I'm okay with that.

My problems are more in the area of my plans not working out. I already HAD the year of not getting anything done in the afternoon--that was last year, and I wasn't planning on it being this year too! And not just school projects either. I would love to do more scrapbooking, even just keeping up with my little books for each boy. I have lots of organization projects I would like to tackle. I wanted to finish stripping and staining a dresser that is in our garage, where it has been since we moved into this house in July of 2004! I would like to be able to keep the house "clean", not just "habitable", which is all I have energy for right now (actually, what gets done, the boys are doing right now). But currently I nap all afternoon, do dinner, than have no energy for anything more strenuous than reading, being on the computer, or playing with Anna. That is what I am having a hard time accepting.

Also, I have sailed through 5 pregnancies with just a few twinges of nauseousness. This one, however, has hit me a lot harder, and I've been much more queasy. This, combined with my afternoon fatigue, has made fixing dinner a challenge! Yesterday I made white chili in the crockpot, and I spent the day being absolutely repulsed by the smell (although it did taste really good to me when I actually ate it, LOL). Today I forced myself up from my nap at 4:30 to make pork tenderloin--no smell issues, but boy, was it hard to get moving! So I'm still not sure of the best plan, especially when nothing sounds appetizing at all!

In summary, I'm giving over my plans for the year to the Lord, putting them off for another year at least, and that's been the hardest thing for me to deal with so far. But I am resting in the promise of Jeremiah 29:11.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Fourth Grade

I remember 4th grade as being a really fun year. It was our last year in Okinawa, where I went to an off-base school called Okinawa Christian School. My teacher for 4th grade was named Mrs. Freeman. She was really young--fresh out of college, I would say, and she was married to a young airman. I think she had some classical teaching in her past because one thing she really emphasized memorization. And I clearly remember much of what she had us memorize-- such as presidents, states and capitols, hymns, The Star-Spangled Banner (all 4 verses, LOL), and lots of Scripture. We didn't just memorize verses scattered here and there; we memorized big chunks, like Psalm 1, 1 Cor. 13, Ephesians 6:10-20, and Revelation 5:6-14. It's all still there, albeit a bit rusty, in King James English!

This year for the boys, I have decided to really stress memorization. We always did some before, but I wasn't as faithful in continually going back over what we memorized, so things like the poems from First Language Lessons are not really stuck in their brains. So far we have already memorized the Preamble to the Constitution, and we are definitely going to do the presidents and states and capitols. We've started on 1 Cor. 13 as well--we've done 4 verses so far. Latin involves a fair amount of memorization anyhow, but we are more faithfully reviewing our prayers. I also think we will start memorizing a poem a month--I think that is about all I can handle right now.

Since we are not doing AWANA this year, we really have to be faithful with our Scripture memory work. I always felt like it was so much more rewarding to memorize a big chunk of verses than just random scattered verses. AWANA is really good for the important scattered verses, so now we'll just work on some continuity and context. We are working on some single verses just for our family life, such as Eph. 4:32

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

I'm sure you all can imagine why we would need to have this verse memorized! Maybe we'll go back and memorize the verses around it too, which are also very helpful for dealing with our words!

So Mrs. Freeman, wherever you are, I just wanted to say thanks for putting all that important stuff in my brain and helping it to stick! You were a great teacher, even though I did think you gave too much homework!

Now that I've come down off the ceiling . . .

I think I am becoming a little more adjusted to the idea of having another baby so soon, at least in the theoretical sense. Everyone else in the house is thrilled (well, everyone who can express thoughts, LOL).

Caleb: "Now Anna will be a big sister! Except . . . she's not big. So she'll be a little big sister."

Nathan's thoughts immediately turned to his schoolwork.

Nathan: "Another baby?! Luke, the last time this happened, we didn't have school for a WEEK!"

Me: "A week?! It was more like a month!"

Nathan (dancing happily around): "Even better!!"

The new baby's gender has also been a source of conjecture, but some people are confident they know what it is.

Luke: "I'm pretty much expecting this baby to be a girl, because, well, we already have 4 boys, so we need to stock up more on girls." I guess he had already placed his order, LOL, so all we need to do now is pick it up.

Anna is happily unaware that her world will be rocked in a few short months. She started pushing up on all fours and rocking today, so I'm confident that she will be very mobile soon, probably just right around the time that I feel pregnant enough to not want to chase her around, LOL.

As for me, I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast today, officially stopping my no-dairy diet. I've had some cheese lately on lasagna and such, and Anna has actually done just fine with it--no spitting up, eczema breakouts or anything--so I'm hoping she's worked through all that now. I just feel like I need more than muffins for breakfast right now. I'll eat the muffins for snacks. I'm also increasing my protein intake in other areas. When we went to Sams yesterday, I bought a big thing of roasted almonds to snack on, as well as a ton of eggs so I can hard-boil some. I think I need lots of protein, with nursing and being pregnant.

In a fit of prescient procrastination, I never got around to putting the box of maternity clothes back in the basement, so they are still conveniently located in my closet for whenever I will start needing them (soon, I am sure). I was a bit hasty in giving Amy hers back when we were home in July, however! I'm so glad that I lost all the pregnancy weight from Anna, although my tummy never shrank down to my satisfaction. And that won't be happening for awhile now either! The pregnancy does answer the question of why my weight loss had plateaued right at my prepregnancy weight, as well as why my tummy had actually started to look a bit bigger over the past 2 weeks or so. I was getting pretty discouraged!

So my plan right now is to just keep on keeping on with a normal routine and everything. We'll see how that all pans out . . .

Well.

You know, life has been going pretty smoothly lately--no big stresses or anything. But things have changed rather dramatically. First, we have noticed within the last week that our church is going off in a direction that we are not really comfortable with. That has been a big shock to us, and we're still trying to figure out exactly what our response is going to be.

That, however, was nothing compared to the shock I received today when I took a pregnancy test and found out it was positive. Whoa. Now I wasn't completely floored--obviously I suspected something was up, or I wouldn't have taken the test, right?! I've been pretty queasy the past few days, and also very emotional. Mainly queasy, though. I had an extra test from the 2-pack I bought when I tested for Anna last July, so I figured I would go ahead and use it, just to "ease my mind". LOL. Well, it answered the question of why I've been feeling funny, but it has certainly opened up a whole 'nother set of them. Like, for example, what are we going to do about another vehicle? We have no more room in the Odyssey. Fortunately, we had been discussing getting a Toyota Sienna, the kind with 6 rear seats, so it looks like we'll just do that sooner rather than later. How about another crib? How will I work the room situation? Do I stop nursing? The always helpful Well-Trained Mind board ladies said to keep on, so I guess I will for a little while longer. Anna hasn't been napping really well this past week, though, so maybe I am just not keeping up with milk supply.

Another question is when on earth will I be due? My LMP date is June 22, 2005, LOL. I would guess I'm maybe around 7 weeks, since I'm having symptoms, but that's a big guess. I saw absolutely nothing to indicate impending fertility. I know sometimes you don't, but, well, I always have, and it's always been around the time I stopped nursing! I'm still nursing Anna 5 times a day, so getting pregnant was not a thought that even remotely crossed my mind. I think I will be lucky if Anna and the new baby are 14 months apart. I've never had kids that close together before! I am a little overwhelmed, although not as overwhelmed as if these were my first 2 babies. Nathan and Luke are such big helps, both with Anna, and also around the house.
Jonathan has a follow-up appointment at the clinic next Wednesday, so while we're there, I'll go ahead and take the official test to get into the Tricare system. Then we can begin all the fun of applying for the waiver for off-base OB care again. Please start praying now that we will be granted one!!

A Clean Slate

I think we can officially say now that we have "started a new school year". I started a new lesson plan book on Monday anyhow. Right before we went to WSS, my order from Rainbow Resource came, and Monday was our first day for some of the new things for this year. We started the new spelling program, How to Teach Spelling, with a review of short vowels and consonant sounds. Might as well build up Nathan's confidence level with stuff he knows! The program focuses on teaching the various letter combinations that make each sound, and there really isn't a list of words for each week and a test a the end. I think that will be good thing for Nathan. Every day there is dictation, both of nonsense words (that just use the rule, so you really have to think about that rule), and of real words, and you are always reviewing the past diphthongs and blends that you have learned. We'll see how it works!

We also started Classical Writing. This writing program is based on the progymnasmata which is a "carefully graded set of composition exercises to prepare the students for the study of formal rhetoric" (from The Latin-Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell). The idea is to study the theory of writing skills you use, then analyze and imitate great writers who are using those skills, and then practice by writing a composition on your own.In the first level, we are studying individual fables. Each week (well, every 2 weeks for us), we take a different fable, analyze it according to what skill we are working on, and then eventually they write their version of the fable, using the skills we've worked on. For me, this is so much better than the old "write a story where you are a historical figure" or other types of creative writing. Some people are really good at that. I'm not, and so far, the boys haven't seemed to be either. This way you are studying what great writers do, and then imitating them, so that eventually (in high school) you can write using a variety of different styles depending on the situation at hand. This is what great speechwriters of the past, such as Abraham Lincoln, did, and it is very effective, especially in situations requiring logical arguments or persuation. Those seem more likely situations for the boys to some day be in, given their personalities, as opposed to needing to creatively write a 500 page novel. So we'll see how the program works. I like the idea of it! We started off Monday with "The Tortoise and the Hare", that old classic.

So that is the new stuff. Luke is still in Saxon 3 for math, and Nathan started mid-August Saxon 6/5. We're still plugging through Story of the World 3 for history. That got short shrift last year with the new baby. We only have 7 more weeks of Latina Christiana 1,and then it will be on to LC 2. That also came in the big box o' goodies from Rainbow. What else . . . for grammar, we're doing Easy Grammer this year, and we're only doing it maybe twice a week, since we do so much grammar in Latin, and also in Classical Writing. I think it will be more on a need-to basis, if I see weak areas or areas we need to review in particular.

I started Caleb officially doing school back in August when Nathan and Luke were at art camp every morning for a week. We're using Veritas Press Phonics Museum, since I already had it all, and Saxon 1 for math. That's pretty much it for him, although he listens in to history and whatever science we do. He picks up some Latin too. I've decided I'll start Prima Latina with him and Jonathan when Caleb is in second grade and Jonathan is in first, like I did for Nathan and Luke. That worked well.

Oh, one other new thing we've started is reading poetry. I went to a homeschool support group meeting the end of August, and poetry was the topic. That has never been a huge interest of mine, but after that night, I went home feeling like I should do more with it. So I dug out my book of classic children's poems and started reading them every morning after our Bible/prayer time. The boys are really enjoying them! I also got a book of Shel Silverstein poems the last time I was at the library, and those have been big hits too. Who knew?!

Our homeschool co-of, TNT, started today. It was Caleb's first time to be in a class, and he was so very excited. He gets to take his backpack with his lunch in it, as well as his pencil box. He skipped the whole way across the parking lot. The first unit is on problem-solving. The next unit (end of October-November) is Ancient Greece, which is what I am teaching this year. I guess I should get on that, LOL. Anyhow, at home I only have Jonathan and Anna. It was so quiet!

So now you are all caught up on where we are for this school year!

I would like to nominate myself . . .

. . . for the Worst Mother of the Year award. Anna checked out just fine yesterday at her doctor's appointment, but I have now come to realize that the sole reason she was so fussy had to be the Lord's prodding so that I would make an appointment, and while I made one for her, I would also make one for Jonathan. You may recall that back here, in the beginning of August , I posted about how Jonathan had been bleeding when he pooped. Well, it got a bit better for awhile, but then we started traveling every weekend, and so he simply wasn't as regular, so he started bleeding and complaining again. After White Sulphur Springs it was worse than it has ever been, so I was going to try to get an appointment this week or next, but it was certainly not a priority. I am so not confident of the Fairfax Clinic's competence, and it takes at least 35 minutes to get there, and so . . . I kept putting it off. But after Anna's bad day on Wednesday, I decided I might as well call at 6:00 Thursday morning and try to get 2 appointments, which I did.

When the doctor examined Jonathan, she found 3 big fissures, which she swabbed for strep. She said that they would never heal on their own, since everything was so swollen, and any time he had the least hard bit of poop, they would just open again. She put him on antibiotics even before the strep test came back (it was positive, by the way), and a stool softener. We also have bactoban ointment and a hydrocortisone cream for the swelling to put on the area. Poor boy! I can't believe he's been so normal and chipper this whole time! So this was a lesson to me that the Fairfax Clinic is not always completely incompetent. I really liked this doctor, who we have not had before, and I will definitely be asking for her again. I feel so badly that I didn't take him in right away. I was so afraid it would just be a huge waste of time, and they wouldn't be able to do anything for him. So it took Anna and her nursing issues to force me to take him in, and I'm so thankful for them.

White Sulphur Springs Family Picture

Here is the traditional "wagon" shot in front of White Sulphur Springs. My eyes are closed, but ah well. The picture is a little blurry, so maybe you can't really tell!

A Better Picture

Anna loves to swing in the back yard, and fortunately for her, she has plenty of big brothers who are ready, able, and willing to push her! She usually has a great big smile on her face, but here she is staring at all the "red-eye" lights from the camera.

She nursed this morning 2 times without problems, but I went ahead and made an appointment anyway. I have to call between 6:00 and 6:15 to get a same-day appointment, so I didn't know then how she would do today. Also, I've been giving her a lot of Motrin, so I don't want that to just mask any underlying problem other than teething. I'll let you know what the doctor says, but I'm not counting on it being anything helpful, since that is how the clinic is!

Anna's Bad Day

Hey, Blogger let me post a picture! Quick, I'd better try some more, especially since this is not one of our better shots!

Amazingly, being able to post a picture is one of the better things that has happened this day. Anna has had a rough day. Well, actually I should say that I have had a rough day with Anna. It started out just fine, with her waking up at 7:45 and nursing fine. And all was well this morning, and she nursed again at 10:30. Something happened between 10:30 and 1:30, when she got up to nurse again, and she is no longer remotely interested in nursing. Nada. She won't even put my nipple in her mouth. I finally gave up around 2:00 and gave her a bottle (with frozen breast milk) because we were trying to get out the door to Sam's. I figured at 4:30, she'd be fine, since now I was really full of milk, but she wouldn't suck for more than about 1 second. Grrr. I checked for thrush but don't see anything suspictious, and I don't think she has an ear infection, because she is perfectly fine except when I try to put my nipple in her mouth. Then she starts crying a mad, loud cry! Eventually I get tired of her wailing away in my lap, so I put her down on the floor. She stops crying, looks around, and starts playing with whatever toys are nearby. It's me!!! Seriously, I am so frustrated with her. I imagine it is teething, but I gave her tylenol around 5:00, so you would think that would have kicked in by now.

I should explain how all this relates to the picture. After the failed 4:30 nursing attempt, I decided to try rice cereal with her, since I was planning on starting solid food soon anyways. She was fine with that, and happily ate it. Still not interested in nursing afterward, however. Bob is giving her a bottle now before bed, after an hour of on-again-off-again attempted nursing (with no success).

I have never had this problem with any of the boys, so I am not sure what to make of it. I guess I will try to make an appointment tomorrow to make sure there is nothing wrong. What fun!! I am not ready to stop nursing, especially with potential allergy problems, and since I haven't been pumping regularily for awhile, I can no longer pump more than 3-4 ounces at a time. I suppose I could build that back up again, but good grief. Like I have all sorts of extra time to be pumping AND giving bottles. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Anna is definitely NOT on my good side tonight. Good thing she's cute. (To be honest, she doesn't even look that cute in the picture. I need to find a better one!)

Thoughts on Russia

I mentioned yesterday that our speaker, John, spent many years in Russia. He was invited there by the Russian government to teach ethics classes to their military officers, and he was free to use the Bible as a source. He also had home Bible studies and discipleship opportunities with many of the Russian officers who wanted to participate.

John said that when he and his team first went over to Russia, they used materials and methods that had been developed and worked fairly well in the U.S. to talk about spiritual things, for example the Four Spiritual Laws. They had no impact whatsoever in Russia, and gradually he realized that he was dealing with an entirely different type of culture. Here in America, we've always been primarily a guilt-based society. Most people know things that they are doing wrong, even if they are not particularly religious, because our country has a strong moral foundation and moral laws that transcend various religions. When people go against these things, they feel guilty, and they look for things to absolve them of their guilt. So something like the illustration of Christ being the bridge between a holy God and us sinful people works.

In Russia, however, they are a shame-based society, and they don't have a concept of "what I did wrong", but rather "who I am" that makes them unworthy. This especially affects men. Russia is a matriarchal society, and the years under Communism basically stripped men of their manhood. A police state works because people live in fear, and men have no power to save those who they love, so they just anesthesize themselves, with alcohol being the drug of choice. Also, they make very little money, and it is hard to support their families, so again, they are beaten down and hopeless. Women there think that men are useless, and the men accept that, and to compensate, they have a false machismo such that they are more violent and abusive, because then they are acting "manly". John said the officers he dealt with were very aggressive and confrontational, both with him and with each other, because that's just how they operate.

So how do you approach a shame-based society? Like Jesus did, you meet their needs. You model Godly relationships, you give them scripture, and you allow the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. The stories John shared were really amazing. Every 2 weeks they would have a big dinner and Bible study in their house, and any officer and his family could come. John's wife Rachel would cook tons of food,because first they would fill their empty stomachs. The officers would bring their whole families, knowing that this was one time that week that their kids could have a full balanced meal. Then they would have a Bible study for a few hours, and then they would have dessert and socialize for a few hours. John made it a huge point to serve his wife and the others. He would serve dinner, and then he would jump up and start clearing the table and washing up. That really got the women's attention, since they felt that all men were useless, and then they were glad to send their husbands off to spend time with John, even if they themselves were atheist! The men were astounded too. No one had ever seen people serving each other. Their society is very much "take care of yourself", so this was pretty radical. After seeing how John and his wife related to each other, the couples had a model for how marriages are supposed to work, and it was very attractive.

One phrase John lived by was this: "Radical responses to personal injustices earn us the right to speak truth." He based this on Matt. 5:39-42 (the "turn the other cheek" passage). He gave several examples. Bribery is a huge industry in Russia, since policemen and other groups in power are not paid well at all by the government. Before John went over there, he felt very convicted to follow Biblical standards and not pay bribes. So he would be walking down the street as a typical Westerner, and he would see the policemen ahead lock up on him. They would ask for his papers and then tell him there was a problem (this was signal to pay a few dollars of a bribe). John would say there was no problem, so they would take him off down to the station. After harassing him for several hours, they would finally let him go. Then he would turn back to the policeman and ask if it was hard to provide for his family. "Oh yes," the man would answer. "Very difficult with little money." "I want to give you a gift," John would say. And then he would pull out a roll of rubles and give it to them to the man, who would be absolutely astonished. So John didn't pay the bribe, but he understood the system and the problems, and wanted to help them. This shocking response led to ministry opportunities.

He also used a lot of humor to relive tense situations and put people off-guard, because of course, after an aggressive statement, they were expecting him to escalate the argument with more confrontation. He told of one man, a military colonel on the fast track to general who was a leader in his class. The man felt compelled by his position to try to intimidate John, so each week he would stand up at the start of their class (the ethics one), and say some aggressive statement out of left field ("My MiG-31 is better than your A10." [? I think that's what he said!]) Then he would stand there, glaring with arms crossed, and John would answer something like, "Well, I appreciate your observation, and I am glad we have never had to put your theory to the test!" Everyone would start laughing. After many weeks of interacting with this man, he came up after class and suggested that they trade pictures of their aircrafts. John took the picture and looked at it later on the subway, and the man had signed it "your brother in Christ". How neat!

Another man came to John's house one night for Bible study, and introduced himself by saying, "My name is Sergey, and I am an atheist!" John gave him a big old hug and said, "Great! I love you, man! Come into my house and eat a good dinner!" This was not the response Sergey had expected! John took a photo of Sergey and his family that first night. He and his wife are just sort of staring into the camera with absolutely no expression (John said that basically no one smiles there--everyone just tries to stay blended in). Several months later, he and his wife became Christians, and John took another picture. Wow, what a difference--they are smiling, he had his arm around her, and they have a look of hope.

He had a lot of other great stories, but John made an interesting point at the end of the session--he said that when he came back into the States, he noticed that we are becoming a shame-based society as well. People no longer feel any guilt based on what they have done wrong, in part because they have no real moral compass, or they feel the rules don't apply to them. But because of the high incidence of abuse, broken homes, etc., people feel very shameful, as if these things happened because of who they are, and they have no hope of feeling worthwhile. This would change how we minister to people, since going at them from a "forgiveness" aspect entirely is not going to be very effective.

Sunday John talked a lot about spiritual warfare, and I'll have to come back later to talk about those points.

Great Weekend

We're back from a wonderful retreat at White Sulphur Springs. Although the weather was rainy Friday and Saturday, everyone still managed to have fun with rock-climbing, foosball, and a square dance. Sunday was much nicer, weather-speaking, and Nathan got to go horse-back riding, and all the boys got to go canoeing with Bob in one of the ponds. We had a fun smore campfire and skit/game/song time Sunday night. One of my favorite things was staying up late talking each night with old friends. I did a lot of laughing! Anna was a pretty cooperative baby, napping very well so that I could be up and around while she was napping.

The speaker was really excellent, and I will try to write more tomorrow about some of his points. His name was John Voss, and he was a Navigator staff member in Russia for 10 years, from 1995 (I think) to 2005. His insights on the Russian military and culture in general were fascinating, and his insights into spiritual battle here in our country were also very compelling. So, more later . . . Right now, I have 4 very stinky boys who are in desperate need of showers and baths!

Packing

We leave tomorrow afternoon for White Sulphur Springs, for the OCF retreat. I should, technically, be packing for the trip, but instead, here I am on the computer. Some of this computer time was legitimate--I typed up a Latin review worksheet for the boys for tomorrow. But now I am clearly done with all the valid stuff, and I should be packing. But I'm not. I think I'm just packed out. Also, this trip is going to take more packing brain cells than the last few weekends have. WSS is in the Allegheny mountains, and I know it is going to be chillier up there, so I need to pack sweatshirts, jeans, etc., as well as shorts and t-shirts for the warmer times. You know, for one person, packing for varying weather is no big deal. Packing for 7 people, however, makes that not a very fun task! Time to haul out the big suitcases!

Well, that answers the question of who all is going on this trip! Yep, it's all of us. Pam, I typed out a response to your comment, but it disappeared into thin air when I tried to post it, and I never got around to retyping it! Although we are all going, there will be classes for the kids (and a nursery for Anna) during the adult teaching sessions, so it will be still a nice break for Bob and me. Also, my parents are going to be there (yay!), so there are some more pairs of hands to help, especially with Anna. She has not been as crabby today, so I'm hopeful that the worst of this bout of teething is past though. My mom has already volunteered to stay at the hotel with Anna so I can square dance Saturday night. This is good because I've already got a partner--Nathan has asked me to dance with him again! : ) It will be twice as much fun, since I'm not pregnant this year!

Alright, alright, I hear you . . . enough stalling. Okay, I am logging off. At least I can pack my stuff tonight!

*Update* Well, it's now 1:00 Friday afternoon, and I am proud to say that we are all packed up, the van is loaded, and we're now just waiting for Bob to get home in another hour and a half, hopefully. Whew! My biggest issue was that I had to find long pants and sweatshirts that fit each boy, since I haven't gotten back out the winter stuff. Everyone moved up a size, and I really had to scrounge for Nathan. I knew his jeans didn't fit anymore, so we had bought some Wedensday at WalMart. Fortunately, a friend of ours gave us some hand-me-downs last year, and they included some sweats that him fit now. Praise the Lord for good friends! Poor Anna will have to wear a boy's jacket, though, because I have no little pink or purple ones yet! : )

Something funny for Grandpa

We were in Trader Joe's Tuesday afternoon, and a nice man opened up a new checkout lane for us (because he could see I was "traveling with such a herd", LOL!). As we're checking out, Caleb whispers up to me that "He looks like Grandpa." Well, I could see somewhat of a slight resemblance through the face, but I couldn't get past the earrings . . . 3 gold hoops on one ear, and 4 on the other. Just like Grandpa, for sure! Pirate Grandpa, anyhow. LOL!

We were at Trader Joe's this particular afternoon to look for soy butter. Thanks to the randomness of the commissary stocking system, they have ceased to carry it, in favor of not one or even two, but three varieties of natural peanut butter. That's all very well and good, but of course it does nothing for those who can't have any peanut butter, natural or otherwise. I know the health food store near us carries the same brand of soy butter, but I figured Trader Joe's would be cheaper (and it was!). We bought 2 jars of it, so hopefully it tastes the same as what Caleb eats (and loves) now, and we also bought a jar of almond butter. As I was looking at it on the shelf, I was musing aloud to the boys about how that sounded good, and a man stopped and told me that he and some of his friends had held a taste test of all the natural nut butters Trader Joe's carries, and the "crunchy unsalted almond butter" had won, hands-down. Well, after a recommendation like that, how could I not buy it?! People are so friendly at Trader Joe's! So we rushed home to sample it. Well, Caleb hated it. He spit it into the trashcan, that's how much he hated it. The other boys were more neutral, LOL. I loved it though! I have started eating it on my toast in the mornings when I don't have any muffins cooked (I'm still on that no-diary thing, remember). I would have to say I don't prefer it in a one-on-one test against Skippy, my favorite peanut butter, but I like it a ton better than natural peanut butters. I've never been able to stomach them at all. So hey, here's to trying new things!

Back Home Once More

Well, we made it back again, this time from Rose's house in northeast PA. We left Sunday afternoon around 3:00. We had wanted to leave by 2:00, but Bob had the sort of last minute idea that we should print out some pictures from Ann and Wally's anniversary celebration and put them in a frame as a present for them, since we didn't give them anything other than a card last weekend (obviously they came up to Rose's for the weekend too!). We did that, and it turned out really well. They were thrilled, because now they don't have to rush out and print their pictures right away to show people. Do people ever just rush out and print pictures off their digital cameras? We sure don't. It seems to me, even after having finally printed digital pictures at Sams, that there is just something quicker about finishing up the roll of film and dropping it off there. But I digress . . .

We listened to "The Silver Chair" (one of the Chronicles of Narnia) on the way up. We haven't listened to Narnia for awhile. We have the Focus on the Fmaily Radio Theatre ones, and they are just so well-done. I love listening to them. There is not a sound from the boys while the story is playing! Anna was still teething, and she's not as into C.S. Lewis, so we did have to turn it off occasionally and wait for her to cry herself off to sleep, poor thing. Her second tooth came through sometime Sunday night. Thank goodness for children's motrin!

Rose's girls were with Chuck Sunday night, so Bob and I slept in their twin beds, with Anna in her pack-n-play. The boys were back in their sleeping bags on the floor in their playroom. The hearing was Monday afternoon at 1:15. Chuck dropped the girls off at about 11:55 (he had to have them back in the morning), and I babysat them while Bob, Rose, Ann, and Wally went off to the hearing. Chuck and his lawyer had requested this hearing because want to revisit the amount of support Rose gets. of course he is not feeling more generous! Well, even though Rose's lawyer had requested a whole bunch of his tax records and other financial papers, Chuck had never bothered to send them. So the afternoon was spent with Chuck on the phone have his accountant fax papers over. But because Rose's side didn't have the info in time to look it over, nothing could really be done, so the hearing was postponed. Rose told Bob the afternoon cost her $3000. I think Chuck is jsut stalling to try to break her financially. Also, Rose's lawyer told her that Chuck has appealed the custody judgement, which gave Chuck one more overnight per week than he was getting. Chuck wants to split custody, with him having the girls one week, and then Rose the next. Wow, I can't imagine a more disruptive schedule to the girls than that! Chuck and Rose aren't exactly next-door neighbors--they live about 40 minutes apart in completely different school districts. How would that even work?!

Anyhow, nothing much happened, and they got home around 3:00. We were really thankful that Wally was there. Since he is an accountant, he could look over Chuck's documents and make some sense of them for us. Chuck has his own business, and the general consensus is that he is making a lot more money than he is telling anyone about, at least based on his buying patterns and what not. He has not been above "shoddy" bookkeeping in the past. He's something.

We ended up leaving last night after dinner to drive back home. It was a nice visit, but well, let's just say that our big family can overwhelm Rose's 100 year old septic system, for one thing. LOL! Also, we weren't sure exactly how the sleeping arrangements were going to work out for the night. The girls were back, and they had their first day of school today. We figured it would be better for them to sleep in their own beds before that, but then where would we go? And by going back yesterday, Bob could save a day of leave, which is always nice. We left after dinner at around 6:00, and we made it home by 10:30, having listened to "The Horse and His Boy".

It's finally here . . .

[WARNING: This is being posted at 11:00 at night, after a long day of loud and crabby children. There will be no spell or grammar check. You are lucky I am posting at all. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!]

Today was a big day--Anna got her first tooth! It is her bottom left one. She was really crabby all day today, as well as most of yesterday. Bob ran his finger inside her mouth tonight and found the tooth had poked through finally!! We knew it was coming because she has been madly gnawing on anything within reach. I've even given her Tylenol a few times, knowing that it must be teething that was making her so cranky. She's 2 days shy of 5 months. That's fairly early, but she's not my earliest teether. Caleb got his first tooth one day before he turned 4 months old. Before you get too impressed with my steel-trap memory, let me put in a plug for baby sticker calendars . Who has time to meticulously fill in those thick baby books? Not me! So for each child, I have a sticker calendar, and all I have to do is put the appropriate stickers on the date blocks of the calendar pages. It's easy, and even a little fun. And then I can look back at each calendar and see when each child teethed, slept through the night, started solids, crawled, etc. Unfortunately, stores like WalMart and even Baries R Us have stopped selling the calendars and are only selling these huge, unwieldly baby books where you are supposed to fill in all sorts of esoteric details about your baby's first year of life. Maybe some people really do have that kind of time and inclination. Since I couldn't find a calendar in a store, I had to search online, and the one I linked above (and bought for Anna) is at Amazon.

In other news, tomorrow we leave to drive up to Rose's house. Her support hearing is Monday afternoon. We will come back Tuesday, and then we leave again on Friday for the Wright-Patterson retreat at White Sulphur Springs. I can't wait! But, as much as this may surprise you, it is actually a little bit stressful to have to keep packing and unpacking for these little weekend jaunts, so I will also be glad when we are home for a weekend once.

An oracle of the gods?

"This is the most anoying speling test ever."

This cryptic message was found written on an eraser several weeks ago. What could it possibly mean?! Who could be trying to communicate with me? Well, the last one was easy--it's obviously Nathan, since there are 2 big spelling errors in the message! Yes, spelling is his big bugaboo, and it's been frustrating for me too. Sometimes he will get the words right on Friday for our spelling test, but by the next week, it's as if he has never seen the words before. Sometimes he doesn't even get them right on Fridays! So I have really been looking for a new spelling program for him, one that would just turn the spelling key in his mind. Several people told me that once he really learned how to read, spelling would just come naturally, since he would see all those words in print. This never happened though. He is an excellent reader now, with a huge vocabulary, and he still can't even spell "they", which has to be one of the most common words in any book! I mean, he ALWAYS spells it "thay". Ack!

The past 2 years I have really wanted to go to the HEAV homeschool convention because I saw in their schedule that Andrew Pudewa was teaching a session called, "Spelling and the Brain". Maybe he could help! But 2 years ago we were in Colorado during it, and this past year, I was still nursing too much to be able to go and enjoy it. Finally I got smart and just ordered the CD from the HEAV website! It finally came, and I was able to listen to it last night. First, let me say that now I can agree with all the people who have told me about what a wonderful speaker he is. He was so funny and interesting! I wasn't all that excited about listening to what is basically a lecture after the boys went down, but it just flew by. Now I wish I had also ordered his session called, "How to teach boys who would rather by building forts". LOL--that also sounds pretty applicable!

He did have some good points about spelling. One thing he said was that I should be mainly doing oral drill with Nathan. Auditory pathways develop sooner than visual pathways. Also, auditory input is sequential, as is spelling. So when you spell out loud, the brain stores the input in the sequential order. This is very counter-intuitive for me. I am very much a visual learner. If I see something, I will really remember it, like a map. But if someone just tells me directions, I have a very hard time remembering them. And I also have a hard time hearing words spelled out and putting the word together from that. But apparently I am in the minority, especially considering boys! So we have been doing exactly what he said we should not do--have a workbook-based spelling system, with games and stuff, and then have them copy the spelling words each day. Whoops! But for me, that would have been very helpful! So I've started drilling him orally. We'll see if that helps cement things in his memory. In a side note, I have also started drilling math facts orally. That was also something that he mainly did on a speed drill worksheet every day, and there's not been much improvement in his speed there. Hopefully oral drill will help there too. It's so interesting how we can all learn so differently!

He talked about the methods of storing information in the brain. There are 3 of them--frequency, intensity, and duration. The repetition must be sufficient to permanently store the material in the brain. If the stimulus is powerful, then you don't need as much frequency (but spelling is not very exciting or whatever, so this probably won't apply!). Duration means you stretch out the frequency, and this is the most effective way to remember things (be reminded of things over the course of a fairly long period of time). He said that most spelling plans simply teach kids how to not learn words. They get a list of words, practice them, miss 20 percent on the test, and then get a new set of words. He said really you should keep giving the same test until the child gets 100%--then move on! There's not enough duration.

He also said we needed to help the child categorize the words based on the letter blends (esp. vowels) that just don't make sense, so they have a system of storing info and retrieving it. For example, you would have a separate list for each vowel pair and sound. "'EA' says EEE" would be one category, and you'd list words that fit there--spear, leaf, bean, etc. Then as you learned others, you could add them to that "house". But you'd have another house for the "'EA' says eh" words, like bread. And so on. This makes it seem a little more organized and less random, although, as he says, we have a language built on spelling anomalies, so anomaly becomes the norm!

I think the Lord has been putting all this together for me. A few weeks ago, my friend Christine (who also has a very poor speller) showed me a new spelling curriculum she was planning to use this year called "How to Teach Spelling". It basically teaches each vowel sound separately. Then a few days later, my friend Amy P. let me borrow a book she'd just ordered called, "ABCs and All Their Tricks". This book also talked about each letter and all the possible sounds that it could make, and what words have what sounds and spellings. The goal of both books is to help people see that spelling is not as random as it seems. I had already ordered both of those books by the time my CD finally got here, but listening to it just confirmed my order. I guess this year will be the year of breaking down spelling words into categories. Vowels are a big problem of his, but he also has lots of problems for example remembering that an "er" sound at the end of a word is an "Er", not just as "r". Or that an "el" sound at the end is usually "le", like mumble. So we have lots of sounds to work on. I'm sure it will be a lot more time-consuming, especially for me, but hopefully it will bear some positive fruit. Now I'm just not sure what to do for Luke! He is obviously doing just fine with a traditional spelling program, since he learns mainly like me. I'm afraid he might be a little bored going back to the basics like I am planning with Nathan. When my new books finally come, and I really have a chance to put together a plan, then maybe I'll be able to figure out what to do for him. I already have the next Bob Jones spelling book, so he could just go ahead and do that.

Celebrating 30 Years

This past weekend we went down to Richmond to help Bob's sister Ann and her husband Wally celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary with a renewing of their vows. Bob's parents were there, as well as 4 of Bob's 5 siblings and their families. We just spent one night there, going down Saturday and coming back late Sunday night. The worst part of the trip was the drive down I-95. It's about 110 miles, and it took us 4 hours. Not fun! We knew it would be crazy coming back up Sunday night, so we went some backroads. It took us about 2 1/2 hours, but at least we were moving! But I digress . . .

We had a wonderful visit. Really, it was one of the best ones. I will confess I was a little worried, given how our last visit ended up, but it was great. No problems. The ceremony was just lovely. It was actually during the church service. Their pastor, whom we liked very much, preached a sermon on God's purpose and plan for marriage, and then they played a brief slideshow of pictures of Ann and Wally that a friend put together. He did a great job. Then Paul and Bob walked Jane and Rose down the aisle, followed by Ann and Wally's 21 year old daughter Christi, who carried their rings on a pillow. Then Maddie and Amanda, Rose's daughters, acted as flower girls, and were so cute. Then their son Matthew walked Ann down the aisle. They went through their vows again, as well as putting on the rings. It was really neat.

My friend Christine said something neat about celebrating anniversaries. She said that when you celebrate a couple's marriage, you are really just celebrating the love they have for the IDEA of each other, but when you celebrate a couple's 30th wedding anniversary, you are celebrating the love they have for each other, because now they really know the other person, and have chosen to stick with him or her! The pastor made a good impression on Bob's parents, in part, I think, because he talked up their 58 year marriage, and said they had left a legacy behind them. And it is certainly true that except for Rose, the other siblings have had very long marriages--Dennis and Dotty for 28 years, Paul and Sherry for 22, Jane and Terry for 21, and then last but not least, us at 13. Yes, we're by far the babies of the group!

After the service was over, we took a bunch of pictures and then went back to their house for an open house. A lot of church friends came, as well as some neighbors. Anna reveled in all the attention, as I don't think she got set down one single time! The boys had a fun time with their cousins, running through the sprinkler, playing volleyball, having a water balloon toss, and so on. Boy, was it steamy outside--I think even more humid than here! It was a good weekend. Next weekend we are gone again--this time up to Rose's. She has a support hearing next Monday morning, and Bob is going to go with her as a show of support. Ann and Wally are going up too, so we'll just continue the party then!

I'm forever in debt

Well, that "Lord of the Rings" party that Caleb McC had 2 weeks ago is yielding even more fruit! Luke is deep into "The Hobbit"!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Luke is such a good reader. He basically taught himself when he was about 4, and he's been a strong reader, and an excellent sight-reader, even since. But he has been a reluctant reader too, unwilling to challenge himself at all in his reading selections. In fact, he would rather play with Jonathan and Caleb or play on the computer or well, do about anything else, than read. Nathan suggested books he thought Luke would really like, and I did the same. Occasionally he would read one, but he would never just pick one up and read it for pleasure. I always had to tell him it was "time to read". The only books he would really read on his own were Bionicle books (can you say "TWADDLE"?!!!), Dragon Slayers' Academy (more twaddle, but at least funny--and now the boys comunicate to each other in Pig Latin, which they learned from them. LOL!), and the odd Encyclopedia Brown ones (which have short chapters, his big sticking point).

But last week Nathan flew through "The Hobbit", and now he's not too far from finished with "Fellowship of the RIngs". I guess Luke had a good time at the party, and he felt left out of Nathan's and my LOTR discussions, so two nights ago he asked if he could read "The Hobbit". Well . . . let me think about it . . . hmmm. LOL! No, I said sure in as casual a manner as I could possibly maintain. I really doubted he would get too far in it. Not only are the chapters quite long by his standards, the print is really small! But he has read steadily last night and all of today, and he's about halfway done. I am over the moon! Maybe NOW he will decide to give "Henry and Ribsy", 'The Boxcar Children", and all these other great books we have a chance! I'm hoping anyways.

Switching Things Around

Parenthetically, still no pictures. Oh well.

So, while Nathan was away this summer at Camp Caleb, our Caleb slept with Luke while Jonathan slept by himself. When Nathan came back, Luke thought he should get a chance to sleep in Jonathan's room, so we did that for a few nights. Then Nathan thought it wasn't fair for Luke to get to sleep with Jonathan while he never had a turn, so then he had 3 nights with Jonathan. Then Caleb wanted to go back with Jonathan, and so on. So we've worked out an every 3 night schedule for who sleeps where, with Jonathan always being in his futon bed, and everyone else switching beds and rooms.

Having all this flexibility really surprised me. I really thought that Nathan and Luke would never want to sleep with the little guys. This has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. For example, I really want to get another set of bunk beds for Jonathan's room. I really want a set with a full bed on the bottom and a twin on the top. I've been looking on craigs list, but so far I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for (I want some kind of storage too--like drawers underneath--and since I'm not desperate, I can afford to wait!). I've been thinking about these bunkbeds for awhile now, but I just couldn't figure out how it would work, since Caleb really isn't ready to be on the top bunk yet. But now I see that Nathan and Luke will just take turns up there, while the other one will be on the top bunk in their room!

Also, it has been so helpful to have an older boy in with Jonathan. When he and Caleb are together, there is more giggling and goofing around. Also, Jonathan has started having to go poopy a few minutes after he is kissed goodnight and the door shut. This morning Luke casually mentioned that Jonathan had gone last night. I was surprised, since I had never heard him get up or call or anything. Luke had wiped him and put his bedtime diaper back on him! Woo hoo! When I put the boys down, I really like to be TOTALLY done, and the whole potty thing with Jonathan has been quite frustrating. I am so delighted with this new turn of events! How nice!

Nathan's lost!

Lost in Middle-Earth, that is. Last Sunday Nathan and Luke's good friend Caleb McC had a "Lord of the Rings" birthday party. The McCs are reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" (borrowed our copy, in fact) as their read-aloud, and they are almost done. Nathan was so interested in the whole idea that I told him he could try "The Hobbit" if he wished. He sped through that, finishing it by last Friday. He absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to start "Fellowship". The McCs have a few more chapters to go, but hey, I understand really wanting to read something, so last night I got a copy of it out of the library for him to start on. It's a huge book, but he has had his nose buried in it the entire day, taking only forced breaks for meals and art class (he and Luke are in an art camp each morning this week). He's over a quarter of the way through it. One thing I really love about my children learning to read is being able to share my favorite books with them and hear them enjoy them as much as I have. "Lord of the Rings" is one of my favorite series of all times, and I have read all the books several times. I told Nathan that these will be books he too can read over and over, and each time he will come away with more things from them--different things will make stronger impressions, some scenes will come alive in a different way--but each time you read a great book, you get something deeper. In fact, right off the top of my head, I would have to say that sharing books with my kids is one of my favorite parts of having children.

P.S. Sorry there are still no pictures to post. I can't get Blogger to upload them, and Pam, I tried Photobucket too, but they wouldn't work there either. I think my dial-up connection is just too slow. The site says it's uploading, but eventually all I get is a blank screen that says "done" at the bottom, and no pictures. Ah well. Sometimes I get lucky with Blogger though, so I'll just keep trying randomly.