Out With the Old, In With the New

A couple of month ago a large, metal paperclip found it's way into our garbage disposal.  Connor put it in the sink and I inadvertently rinsed it down the drain.  Boo.  It clunked around in there for a few days, and then I forgot about it.  Till our disposal started making funny noises last week.  And then it died on Friday.

*SIGH*

Since Ben had to work Saturday (again), the task fell to me to figure out how to switch out that baby.  Before I went to Home Depot, I took a picture of the old one so I'd know what to buy.  (Pay no attention to the mess under the sink.  It's a mirage.)

Once I got to Home Depot and started looking, I decided to upgrade us to the next "horsepower" model.  I mean, really.  We have a large family and I cook a lot.  It was worth the extra $30, hands down.  After watching a 5-minute You Tube video, I was ready to begin installation.  I (eventually) found the switch that turned off the power to the garbage disposal and got to work.  Two extra trips to the hardware store later (I needed a slightly longer PVC pipe to reattach it to the drain), we had it hooked up, leak-proof, and ready to go!  Isn't it beautiful?

I've never messed with electricity before.  It's oddly exhilarating...

The Rest of the Story

Well, the end of Project 31 has come and gone.  It was a busy weekend with Kelsey's birthday party, her baptism, and my in-laws coming for a visit.  Somehow things have just seemed really busy since then, and I haven't gotten much blogging done really.

So to answer the big question... how did I do??

My last week of Project 31 was one of the most stressful for me in recent memory.  On Friday, my fridge died.  I discovered it on the way out the door to a dentist appointment for some mouth pain I had been experiencing off and on for several weeks.  Since my trip to California, it had been "on" almost constantly.  At the dentist appointment, I was told that I had a filling that had cracked and chipped, and I now needed a root canal.  That would cost around $1,500 to $1,800.  I'll admit it.  I cried when he told me.  (Embarrassing, right?)  And when I left the dentist's office I was still in as much pain as I had been when I got there - more really, since he'd been messing with my teeth and gums.  But no treatment had actually been given because we'd run out of time.  The rest of that evening was a blur of Girl Scout activities and finally collapsing into bed when I got home.

I didn't want to get out of bed on Saturday.  That's the first time I can ever remember feeling that way.  I was so discouraged.  But Ben had to work and there were kids to take care of, so I didn't have a choice.  I cried some more.  I realized that part of my frustration and emotional distress was the pain that I was still experiencing with no immediate relief in sight.  And we needed to buy a refrigerator with very limited financial resources.  I spent most of the day scouring the internet and running around checking out used fridges from Craigslist.  No dice.

As frustrating as that Saturday was, I realized something very important.  It was after my kids had gone to bed and Ben was at a church meeting, so I was alone in my house.  I started scouring my cupboards and pantry looking for a snack.  I knew I couldn't bake anything sweet, and I don't generally keep junk food in my house.  However, I did find a can of Lays Stax chips that I had gotten on sale recently.  What do you think I ate?  Chips!  And though I didn't eat the whole can or anything like that, I realized that even when you take sugar out of the equation, I am still a very emotional eater.  And when I'm stressed, I turn into a compulsive eater, because I ate other things, too, even though I wasn't hungry: dried apple slices, cereal, etc.

So to fast-forward my miserable weekend a little... It was finally Monday.  Monday night I had my first real deviation from my Project 31 plan.  I had purchased a fridge from Dent and Ding Appliances to be delivered on Tuesday.  My boys were having some leftover ice cream, and I was feeding Maddox his to keep down the mess.  And I ate some of his ice cream.  Not more than 1/4 cup total, but still.  I deviated.  And then I went to a church planning meeting at a friend's house later that night, and someone had brought some high-quality frozen yogurt.  I had some of that, too.

I also ended up stopping the Project early.  Kelsey's party had been moved up to Friday night instead of Saturday, and so I had already decided that it was going to end on the day of Kelsey's party since I was making her cake and frosting.  You can't do that without getting into the frosting, right?  However, I decided on Thursday to stop that day instead.  That was my other failure to stick to plan.  (I guess I should call it Project 29 now, right??)

Despite my less-than-stellar ending of this Project, I am SO GLAD I did it.  The following week was one of desserts and falling back into my poor snacking habits.  And physically, I felt terrible.  I didn't gain a lot of weight back (only about a pound), but I was sleepy every afternoon again felt just as bad as I had before I started the Project.

And now for The Rest of the Story (<-- insert Paul Harvey voice here)

I have decided that I'm going back to that way of life, with a few exceptions.  First, I am not going exclusively dessert-free.  I am allowing myself to prepare a dessert once a week.  I have also decided that there has to be some sort of nutritional value to whatever I eat, which will make it easier for me to be selective when I am at a function and they are serving desserts.  Sure, I can have something - if it's worth it.  For example, I was at a Cub Scout Pack Meeting last night, and ended up sitting next to the dessert table because I came in late.  During the meeting, all I could smell were homemade brownies.  It was brutal, I tell you.  However, the dessert choices were: homemade brownies and sugar cookies, some chocolate molds, and store-bought cookies and cupcakes.  After the meeting was over, I looked at the table and realized there was nothing there that I hadn't had before, packed with nutrition, or would miss terribly if I didn't eat.  So, I didn't have any.

I am beginning to re-learn an important truth:

When we live by a set a standards or principles, we are not limiting our freedom.  We are granting ourselves the freedom to LIVE without being a slave to our passions, appetites and desires.

Bittersweet

Kelsey & Olivia driving a covered wagon in the rain
 (at the Mormon Battlian History Center)



Tonight the girls and I are packing up to leave California.  It's been a tiring, yet wonderful week.  My family has been scattered across 3 states.  Ben was at home working, taking care of the dog, doing some projects around the house, and enjoying the silence.  Connor and Maddox have been partying with their Aunt Gwen and Uncle Richard in Texas.  The girls and I have been from San Diego to Sacramento in the past 7 days, and have been visting my mother one last time on her mission for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  We've seen the Pacific Ocean, the Mormon Battalion History site, Sequoia trees, extended family, Old Sacramento, orange trees, snow, sunshine, and rain.  We've even climbed a mountain and ridden on a commuter train.  We are exhausted.  And as wonderful as it has been, I am ready to fly back to my baby boys tomorrow and drive home to my fantastic husband.

It's got me thinking about this word: bittersweet.  We don't break it down very much, but that is exactly what this is.  It's bitter to leave my mother and other family here, and yet so sweet to come home to my family and friends in Edmond.  I'm grateful for the internet, telephones, and blogs that keep me in touch with many of you despite the hundreds of miles that separate us.

I'll be posting about our escapades this past week once I get home and upload my pictures, but I will finish my reminiscing with another Kelsey anecdote.  (She's just full of them, have you noticed?)

As we were driving through the California country on Wednesday, we were passing countless groves of trees, vineyards, and other crops.  I was commenting to my mother about how amazed I was at the number of things that grow in California - not just the fruit trees and crops, but the gorgeous variety of flowers and plants that are all over the place.  In the middle of this, Kelsey piped up: "You know what else California grows?  It grows rocks!"

I've got to hand it to her - she's not that far off.  We've seen huge boulders everywhere!

Part One

I have been updating my ""Project 31" page.  If you are interested in how I've been doing going dessert-free, take a look by clicking here.

Now that I'm 1/3 of the way through, I'll call it "Part 1" and start a new page for the next 10 days.  It's getting a little harder in some ways, and yet... more appealing in others.

Project 31

I have made a decision.  

And it's the type of decision that I'll only stick to if I tell people about it.

My biggest weakness is sweets.  

Especially when I'm stressed out.
It doesn't help that I'm so good at baking them.

And though I'm not consuming thousands of calories a day in sweets, 

I do feel like I'm using it as a crutch for good mental health.

(Bad Day = Hot Cocoa)

But physically I feel pretty lousy.

So...

Rather than obsessing about and counting my calories,

(which is rather time-consuming when you cook a lot from scratch like I do)

I'm simply going to go on a 31-day fast from desserts and sugary foods.

Kind of like cleaning out my system and resetting my sugar-meter.

And since I've now mentioned it on the blog, 

I'm going to have to be accountable on the blog, too.

It will make it easier for me to stay on track.

I won't post about it every day on this main page, but I've created a new page in my blog (see above tabs) where I'll log my success and experiences.  Or you can just click this link here.

Here's to success!

Upside Down

My house has been turned upside down for the past week or two.  Not because we're doing anything major - yet.  But we're getting READY to do something major.  So I have been pulling baseboards and patching walls and painting and tearing up tile and moving stuff all over the house.  And since we have a very active, inquisitive, and gets-into-everything 1-year old, everything we've got has to be either up and out of his reach, or hiding behind closed doors - i.e. the pantry.

If you know me at all, you know I'm a tad bit OCD and I hate having things out of place.  Extreme clutter drives me batty, and that's essentially what I've got.

Our old entertainment center and TV have yet to find a new home or get out of ours.  Also, be sure to notice the two-tone paint job over the doorway and wall repairs on the left in the yet-to-be-painted area.

Mirror waiting to be repainted and rehung.  Incidentally, it is also serving to block... (see next picture)

...the space behind the couch where we've all the (so far) removed baseboards waiting.

Clutter on my washer (and I really need to do laundry today).

Clutter and boxes in my den.  Pretty soon this room will just have to be off-limits to Maddox so I can move stuff into here.  However, that has to wait until after tomorrow afternoon - there are people coming over to take a reading and a writing class here tomorrow.  I'm not teaching it - just hosting it for my fabulous neighbor, Terri.

Clutter in the pantry.  And here's a (not so) funny story.  Almost all of this stuff was already in here last Friday when we realized the pilot light had gone out on the hot water heater.  It's in the back left-hand corner behind a door there.  Ben realized it in the shower when the water started cooling too quickly.  He forgot to do anything about it until he heard me running the water for my own shower at 6:15.  Shucks.

 Tools and random laundry on the drier.

And this, my friends, is why our pilot light was out on the hot water heater last Friday morning. 

Thursday we put in our new (to us) gas stove.  We also had a near miss.  Apparently, most gas stoves that have been installed in the past few decades have a gas cut-off valve behind the stove.  That way, if you have to disconnect the gas for any reason you don't have to shut off the gas to the house, or have gas pouring into your kitchen should you forget to shut off the gas to the house.  Well, I didn't even think about cutting off the gas to the house, and there wasn't a cut-off valve behind the stove to remind me.  Fortunately, when I pulled out the old stove to disconnect it, the gas line was too short for me to pull the range out all the way for me to get to the line to actually disconnect it.  And since I am not currently flexible enough to climb over the counter and slide behind the stove, I called for back-up.  Fortunately, our friend and handyman Kevin was available to come over and take care of it for us.  And turn off the gas to the house.  And install the shut-off valve.  And install the stove for us.

Oh well, at least it's done.

Mother-Daughter Tea

Our homeschool group has an annual Mother-Daughter Tea that the girls and I like to attend.  This was our second year.  This year, we were asked to "host" a table, which really just means that we decorated it and brought the dishes.  They also had live entertainment by some of the various daughters in attendance.  Here are few pictures from the event.

Our table theme was "Lighthouse", and the girls came up with most of the ideas.  It turned out really nice.

Me and the girls.  Note the girls dressed to match the table.

Olivia's talent was playing "Ode to Joy" on the piano.

We didn't get a picture of Kelsey's talent because I was helping her.  What did she do, you ask?  

She told jokes.

There was a nifty craft table set up for the kids during the tea. It was already cleaned up by the time this picture was taken, but the girls were hanging out with their friends doing some extras while they waited.

Another picture with their friends!

And in closing, Kelsey would like to share her favorite joke of her performance with you.

How do you make a tissue dance?

How?

Put a little boogie in it.

How do you make a piece of toast dance?

How?

Give it some jam.

Insulted

This Sunday morning before church I was working on a musical arrangement I needed to finish for the youth choir.  I was softly singing along, and got to the end where the sopranos have a big finish going up pretty high. As soon as I finished Olivia called from across the room, "Momma, are you okay?" (She sounded genuinely concerned.)

"Yes," I replied.  "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you sounded like you were dying or something."

I'm insulted.

Talented

Months and months ago I got my hands on a metal plaque that I wanted to make over into a new Family Home Evening chart for our family.

Finally, the day after Christmas, I started it.

It involved the use of scrapbooking paper, glue, laminating, clear coat, and even magnets (so we can move the pictures around each week).

I'm so proud.

Keeping it Real

The truth is, when you haven't seen me blogging in a couple of weeks there's a good chance that I feel like my world is running about 10 times faster than I am.  Welcome to my life.

I'm beginning to suspect, however, that I am only one of many, many people who feel the same way.  Several weeks ago I read a book called Lies Homeschooling Mom's Believe by Todd Wilson (here's his website, in case you're interested).  The book was recommended to me by a fellow homeschooling mom who heard my pleas for help on my homeschool group's website.  But here's the amazing thing about this book - it applies to so much more than just homeschooling moms.

One of the things that Mr. Wilson addresses in this book is this tendency that we all have as moms and women to feel like failures.  Let's face it - we look around at some of the women around us and they seem to have it all together.  They have smart, polite, talented, well-behaved and well-dressed kids.   My kids, on the other hand, are running screaming around Walmart wearing mismatched socks and hiding in the clothing racks.  Okay, maybe just Kelsey has on mismatched socks.  But still.  You get the idea.  

My house is constantly upside down and there's clutter on the kitchen counters, table, every horizontal surface in the house.  And where there isn't clutter, there is dust.  A lot of dust.  And don't even think about eating off my floor.  There is no five-second rule in this house.  If it falls, it probably has dog hair on it so throw it away.  There are endless baskets of clean (and dirty!) laundry everywhere, and dinner is rarely planned before 4pm.  Assuming I cook dinner.

Exercise?  Doesn't happen.  Healthy meal planning?  Yeah, right.  A good night's sleep?  You MUST be joking.  Lately I am just flying by the seat of my pants getting everything done at the last minute.  Halloween costumes, church lessons, CPR class prep - you name it.  Laundry gets done when we're running out of clean underwear.  

Am I being too hard on myself?  I don't think so.  I'm not berating myself as a failure tonight.  I'm just being honest; I'm being real.  I have 4 kids, including a 12-month old and a 3-year old that don't understand picking up after themselves.  For that matter, neither do my older kids.  We've also chosen for me to be a stay-at-home-mom and to homeschool our children.  This is just my life for now.

In his book, Mr. Wilson pointed out that we women often don't show each other what is REALLY going on in our day-to-day life.  We hide our weaknesses and parade our strengths, hoping that no one will see how inadequate we really feel.  And that doesn't do any of us any good in the long run.  We continue to feel like closet failures because we haven't told our friends what is going on and so they can't try to help us feel better or put things into proper perspective.  And then the other women around us feel like failures, too, because they think they are the only ones that yelled at their kids today.

Well, I am trying to break this habit.  I had a friend once tell me that I was hard to listen to sometimes because I went on and on about eating healthy, provident living, and made whole wheat bread.  And as a consequence she felt like I was saying she wasn't as good as me if she didn't do it, too.  The truth is, that never crossed my mind.  I wasn't focusing on what she was doing or not doing at all.  I have to eat healthy or I gain 100 pounds (literally).  And I have try to live on a budget because there's never enough money to go around.  If I had my way I'd eat rhubarb pie for dinner every night and browse Hobby Lobby for knick knacks to decorate my house.  And either my kids would have a nanny or I'd have a housekeeper - maybe both.  But that's not my world, and I'm trying to enjoy the reality that is my daily life.  And that starts with being real - both with myself and with others.

So if you see me around and ask me how I'm doing... beware.  I just might tell you.

Big Decisions

Lately it seems like I keep having to tell people that I'm not a flake.  However, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... right?

Well, maybe.  Several weeks ago I told you guys that we were going to put Kelsey back in public school, which we did about 4 weeks ago.  All week I have really been struggling with trying to decide whether to leave her in or take her out and homeschool again.  I have been really stressing out because she was struggling with some of the work and I felt like we must be way behind because we hadn't covered some of that stuff yet.  I felt like I had failed her in some way as a homeschool mom, and questioned my ability to homeschool at all.

On top of all that, I felt like Kelsey's going to school was creating more stress in our lives than before.  She was bouncing off the walls all night, begging for play-dates every day when she got home from school, and I was just as overwhelmed with the kids and house as I had been before she went.

Tuesday night I reached out to my homeschool support group for some advice on how to handle this situation, and got back some great responses - not one of which were trying to convince me to homeschool Kelsey again.  However, there was one response that really struck me and was exactly what I needed to hear.  It said this:

  

"Now that you are faced with standards that you didn't create, it's inevitable that you will have some fears of inadequacy.  Try not to let those fears rule your decision making process.  I truly believe that where fear resides- all other forms of grace, peace and love CANNOT abide as well.  Take a deep breath and know that you are doing the best you can- and that is all you can do."

This gave me the awareness I needed to stop letting my fears "rule my decision making process".  Since then I have spent some time crying and talking and crying and talking.  I'm sure Ben was really, really tired of both.  But being the awesome husband he is, he just listened and tried not to let his eyes glaze over too much.  And I got to the point where I could just take it a day at a time.

Today I had an epiphany.  It happened when I saw this:

We had decided to keep Kelsey out of school for a few days to teach her the material she had not yet covered so she wouldn't feel so behind in class.  While we were taking a break, Kelsey asked me if she could dig up some dirt because she wanted to see what was in it.  I gave her permission and told her where to dig.  A few minutes later, I saw her and Connor outside.  That's when I remembered the biggest reason I'm homeschooling in the first place.  Kelsey is exploring her environment.  She's teaching her brother to explore.  The reading and math?  It's important.  And she's going to do it all - even if it's not on the Edmond Schools schedule.  We are, after all, following the Oklahoma State PASS skills.

But exploring?  Digging?  Creating? 

That's why we started in the first place.  And although we are still going to just take it a year at a time... we're going back to being crazy homeschoolers.  All of us.  Even if it makes me look like a flake.  Quack.

Cleaning Out the eClutter

Recently I've been trying to figure out how to simplify my life.  One way I can do that is by reducing the number of blogs I author.  A couple of years ago I started this one about cooking, and then a couple of months ago I started this one about our school work this year.  I started this one when I was going to start doing more Red Cross training earlier this year, and this one when our family bake sale started getting really popular.  I even started this one last year when I was struggling with postpartum depression. 

I already knew that some of these blogs were not ones that I would keep up with, but now I am making it official.  I'm not going to be adding any more to the cooking blog, or the CPR training blog, or the homeschool blog, or even the depression/food addiction blog.  And I'm not going to be starting any more new ones.  I'm starting to feel guilty about all the cyberspace I'm wasting...  The only blog I'll be updating (besides this one, of course) is the one about the bake sale blog, and that's because we have some business by "word of mouth" and I'd like to direct people I don't know to a website for information without having to divulge too much of my personal life.

That means, my friends, that anything I feel like blogging about is going on this blog, and no where else. 

Consider yourself warned.

I Could Be the Perfect Mom IF...

Tonight, Olivia had the audacity to tell me that I wasn't a perfect mother.  Can you believe that?  Isn't she supposed to be older before she starts figuring that out?

As I continued to think about this, I realized that it's not my fault I'm not perfect.  After all, aren't we all just a product of our environment?  What's keeping me from this crown of perfection?  Well, I'll tell you.


I Could Be a Perfect Mother IF...

1. I never had to take my kids to Walmart.
2. The kids didn't have to eat every stinking day.
3. The house cleaned itself.
4. Laundry didn't happen.
5. Back-talk was punishable by death in a court of law.
6. Babies were born potty-trained.
7. Sharing came naturally.
8. I could survive on 4 hours of sleep a night.
9. Kids' television programming hadn't been invented.
10. Vegetables were dessert.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

What I Did Today

Several weeks ago it started with a couple of these:

This is Kelsey's school bag, and we have another one with horses on it that Olivia uses for her band bag.

Since Kelsey needed to also have something with horses on it, we ended up getting some extra fabric to make the girls throw pillows for their beds.  Which we finally started last night.  Today, it progressed to this:

 

And this:

(It should be noted that I started this apron over two years ago for my mother-in-law's birthday.  Talk about a belated present!)

For the record, this was so easy that I'll never buy another couch cushion again.  We're really digging our nice, fluffy cushions!

Overwhelmed

Disclaimer:  I hesitated to write this post because there are some friends I have done things for this week that might feel like they were adding to my stress.  So let me say this right in the beginning - don't go there.  I promise that this isn't about you.

Sometimes I feel very, very overwhelmed.  This is one of those weeks, though I can't pinpoint one thing that is causing it.  In all honesty, I guess I feel like I'm being beaten to death by feathers.  In addition to some sick kids this week (why can't they be sick all at once and not take turns!?), there is a multitude of things that are hanging over my head that apparently only I can do and I can't GET to them during the day because they involve having a quiet period of time that I can work uninterrupted.  Yeah, right.  With a toddler and a baby?  Not happening.  They don't even sleep at the same times some days.

So what do I do about it?

To be honest, I don't really know.  Oh, I have lots of ideas.  And the more desperate I get the more radical they become.  Some of them will actually work.  For example, one of the things on my plate that doesn't need to be there is paying the bills and handling our money.  Ben could do that.  Granted, he may not run the fancy reports and do the fancy spreadsheets that I do, but that stuff isn't essential.  And if we just pay cash for most of our expenses, it's not really necessary anyway.  So I'm going to pass that on to him.  And I've already passed the girls' laundry on to them.  Maybe in some ways I'm just setting my expectations too high about how clean I should be able to keep my house.  But I sure do feel a lot more relaxed when my house has been cleaned.

Now I need the voice of experience.  I know some of you who read this blog have been here and can give me some good advice.  I really need some at this point.  I don't want to spend half of my life feeling like I have too much on my plate.  Yet I also want to have a respectable house and be able to do things for other people.  Is that even possible at this stage of my life?  What do you think?

Creative Genius

I've never been that good at make-believe.  I never made up stories with my Barbies, ponies, dolls, etc.  The few times I've played with my kids, THEY have to come up with a story line.

Today I was cleaning out some junk drawers in my pantry and came across some books that I had made in 3rd and 4th grade.  My teacher must have been a genius, because she actually had us MAKING our own books with a cover and everything.  Although there were a few original stories, most of the books I wrote were patterned after a favorite book of mine.  For example, this work of creative genius: The Giving Boy (patterned after Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree).  I read it and laughed so hard I just had to share the joy...

Once upon a time there was this boy who loved this little seed.  The seed was happy, but not happy enough.

One day the seed said, "Boy, plant me so I will grow into a big tree."  "Okay," said the boy and he did. 

And the seed was happy, but not for long.  One day he said, "Boy, water me so I will grow."  And he did and the tree (that used to be a seed) was happy.

But not for long.  One day the seed said, "Boy (who is now a man) climb me."  The man wanted the tree to be happy so he did, and the tree was happy.

But pretty soon he was bored with just the man climbing him and he said, "Boy, get married and have some kids so they can climb me, too."

So the boy did.  And the tree was happy, but not for long.

And the tree said, "Boy, kill your wife and kids so I can be alone with you."  And the boy said, "No!" and he killed the tree by cutting him down.

 

 

Seeing Purple

People just don't know what to think.

Is it purple jelly beans?

Did I feed him blueberries?

Did he get into the markers?

NOPE.

It's Gentian Violet.

What is that, you might ask?

It is a way to treat thrush.

You can read more about both of them here.

Naked in Front of a Crowd

I feel very exposed, but I also feel the need to post about what is really going on with me these days.

I have postpartum depression (PPD).  I started to consider the possibility that I had it a little over a week ago when someone made a comment about depression in church.  I realized that what she was describing was exactly how I felt.  Then I called a friend of mine who had gone through PPD before.  She had talked about it on her blog (to see her post, click here).  At her suggestion, I called my midwife and went in for an appointment.

I don't feel like I'm going to hurt my child.
I don't feel like I can't get out of bed in the morning.
I don't cry all day long.

But sometimes I do cry.
And other times I am just numb.
Sometimes I laugh, but not as much as I used to.
And there are often times when I get very overwhelmed.
And angry.
And irritable.
And sad.


I know it'll get better, but at the moment...

I just wanted you to know.

The "Whale-mester" Begins

I am officially there.  It's the last trimester of what I expect will be my last pregnancy.  I have affectionately dubbed it the "whale-mester" because that's what every pregnant woman feels like at this point: A Whale.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

There are a few perks to being this pregnant.

First: At this point I actually look more pregnant than fat.  That is definitely a bonus.

Second: I can no longer easily bend over to pick things up off the floor.  This gives me lots of leverage for getting out of picking up toys, books, and other things that collect on the floors in this house.

Third: Tying my shoes is becoming a problem.  This means I should go shopping for new, comfortable shoes that I can wear every day, right?  Flip-flops just can't cut it for me when I have a lot of walking to do.

And finally... I know in my mind that I'm closer to the end than to the beginning.  The baby is doing the tango on a regular basis and other members of my family are finally able to feel the baby kick, move, and hiccup - which is the fun part of being pregnant.

We're... almost... there.

Homeschool Field Day

It seems like we have had such an eventful week!  And really, we have in some ways.  At least, we've had 2 very busy weekends in a row.  So rather than trying to cram it all into one monster blog-post, I'll take it a topic at a time...

A week ago Friday the 21st was our first Field Day with our home educators group. We all met at a local park and set up chairs in the shade.  (And for you South Carolinians who have never been to Oklahoma... the shade here makes a big difference!  It's actually comfortable in the shade, even when it's hot outside.) 

Because I was helping out with one of the activities, we had to be there early.  There were a couple perks to that - #1 we got a great parking spot and #2 we got first pick of where to put our seats.  They started off the day with some foot races and a hula-hooping contest, neither of which Olivia wanted to participate in.  Just as she was starting to complain that she was bored, our buddies (the Z family) arrived!  Their youngest daughter, Leeann (not pictured here), is one of Olivia's best friends.  And the baby, Logan, loves me and Connor equally.  He is such a sweetheart!

The next activity of the day was a three-legged race.  Since LeeAnn is still 8, she and Olivia weren't originally in the same age group for the races so Olivia found another partner and they tied their legs together for the race. 

On your mark... get set...

... go! 

Poor Olivia and Anna lost their bandana about 20 feet into the race - tough luck, girls!  But they re-tied it and kept going, which I thought was great.

And then came the jump rope competition.  Look at her go!

Then came my favorite - the bean-bag toss.  It has to be my favorite because I was in charge of it.  Which is why I didn't get any pictures.  However, Connor competed in the 3 and under group and got 3rd place!  I promise I didn't even cheat for him.  He's just got a really good arm and a lot of practice throwing things at his sisters.

Yet as fun as these activities were, none of these were the highlight of Olivia's day.  That came just before lunch with the water-balloon fight.  The adults sitting in the chairs were off-limits so I stayed dry, but Olivia got just a teensy bit wet.

It was such a fun day, and we can't wait till next year when Kelsey will be there with us!