It's been a long time!

Well I had decided to nix the blog... but it' been a year so I decided- what the heck. Maybe this time I can do it. Well school is just around the corner and I am SO excited about it! I will have 4 in school this year; Linden in 4/5, Judah in 2/3, Stella in 1st and Quincy in kindergarten. Then of course there is Ezra, who just learned to crawl, who will also be there.. A little nervous to see how that will work, but feeling pretty confident he will be flexible with our homeschool schedule. Once again this year, my kids will be in the (awesome) Super Singers homeschool choir, my art club, Book Ends book club, violin, piano, gymnastics and soccer. And I'm sure Ezra will be learning to walk somewhere in there. I'm going to get our curriuculum this week and will hopefully have our school room makeover done in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait!

Cha cha cha changes...

Well Eli has officially decided the career on an R.N is not for him. I am totally happy about this, because for the past 2 years, I have had a husband who cannot make it home in time to eat dinner with us, and barely makes it home before the kids go to sleep.. He arrives home at around 8:30 every night and I hate it!! I know lots of people and their husbands' have careers that bring them home late at night, but I don't think I can deal with it for years to come. As our kids are homeschoolers, I need some relief around 6pm or so.. I think this is a good traditional, husband intervening time. I have been repeating in my mind for these past 2 years "I will get used to this! Lots of people have lives like this" Hoping this mantra with change my mind and feelings about our lack of Eli on his work days. And on his end, he works in the IMCU at the hospital, so things are always busy and stressful, he never has time to take a lunch break in his 13 hour day, or even just sit down. He is utterly spent by the time he gets home and just needs to crash.. I know I should be grateful that he has a good job, and I am.. but now, I'd like my husband back. So Eli has decided that he wants to go back to school for something unrelated to the medical profession. We are still discussing this, but as we both agree on the crapiness of schedule, I'm sure some big changes are in store for us. I just hope our mortgage cooperates with these new 'going back to school' revisions in our life :)

Wonderful people who make bedrest bearable :)

I feel so much happiness and gratitude right now for all my wonder friends helping us out right now. I truly didn't think bed rest would work, and I surely didn't want to ask for anyone's help. But sometimes it's so relieving to accept it. First, I must say that Eli, my awesome husband (who is still downstairs cleaning up the house), has spent 3 days doing all the kids' lessons with them, cooking, cleaning and putting the kids to bed AND taking care of me. Without complaining at all :) Yesterday, one of my sweet visiting teachers from church, brought us a delicious dinner and dessert. Today my sweet friend came by with her kids to visit, brought us another delicious dinner and beautiful cake, and a get well card. Tomorrow, another sweet sister from church is picking up all four of my kids to take them to a primary activity. And we have meals coming the rest of my bed rest week. I am so incredibly thankful for all the support of all my wonderful Relief Society sisters. I realized tonight, as my kids excitedly ate our delivered dinner, that they have really been lacking well rounded meals lately. With morning sickness constantly plaguing me, I have been throwing together whatever I can. They were truly overjoyed. (isn't that sad on my part? :) I am so happy that I will be able to finish out the remainder of the bed rest sentence with the help of such great, caring friends :)

Book Ends Book Club

My kids participate in a kids' book club, hosted by my awesome friend, Cindy Scott... This club has become one of my favorite things about our homeschooling year. It had kids ranging in age from 3-13, and we try to keep the books on about a 4th-6th grade reading level. Eli or I read the book aloud, for our little ones who can't read yet. We meet at the beginning off the year, and then again in January, after the holidays, so each family can pick a book. Every 2 weeks from there, we read a new book, then meet at Cindy's to have a fun discussion, games related to the book and treats. I always have great intentions to keep up with reading my kids good classic books, but book club has really helped me make sure I am reading on schedule. Deadlines are great motivators :) Book club is being wrapped up for the year, with Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale, being the final book. My favorite book we read this year was Charlotte's Web by E.B White. The book by far, blows all the movies away. Linden and I actually cried as we finished it. All the kids were really touched by Charlotte's death. Other books from this year are:

The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
Jess by Mary Casanova
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
The Holly Joliday by Megan McDonald
Dragon of the Red Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne

My favorite breakfast ever...

Mmmn.. Pancakes with whip cream and strawberries is truly the best way to wake up in the morning..

Baby Quincy and Stella

Ahh, those first years with Quincy and Stella.. Stella was about 2 here and Quincy 1.. Their relationship is similar today :)

On theft, being poor, and hobby lobby

I had a new experience today, when my new Sequoia was broken into while I was inside Hobby Lobby with the kids. This was revolutionary in a few ways. 1) I realized that I was driving a car that someone thought was valuable enough to have valuables. This in itself is quite strange for me, for anyone who has seen my previous vehicle would understand. I never even locked the doors to my van before.. the appearance was obviously enough of a theft deterrent :) Even my house before this one.. the one we rented from our dear landlord Mohammed... that house was the worst one on the street. Not to mention, it was probably the worst neighborhood for at least 15 miles. I would lock the doors when we were home, but was not afraid to leave them unlocked when we were gone. If someone was that desperate, that they would break into MY house in Tallowood, then they had problems beyond a lack of material goods. But such has been my creed for so long.. "No one would ever want to break into my house/car when there are so many other better ones all around.." I really got comfortable in this thinking. It made me lazy. And trusting! There are many benefits of being the worst house in a good neighborhood, and many disadvantages of being the best in a bad one. So today, when I left my purse in the passenger seat, in plain view of passersby, I was violently shaken from my former motto and forced to realize the truth: We aren't that poor anymore! We have stealable things! So despite the annoyance of having a vehicle vandalized, it was kind of complimenting :)
Moving on the #2 I realized what a sociological/moral lesson this was for my kids. Of course, they know stealing is wrong (Linden was even loudly quoting the commandment for others to hear.. just in case they have never heard that one) but I think that this is something kids never think about until it happens. And what I noticed most about the situation was how they looked at me and just waited to see how I would handle it... how I would react. And of course that constructive mother in me outweighed all other parts that may want to get mad.. and honestly, I really don't care about the car that much.. I do love it, but it's just a car. Just more so the inconvenience.. So when Judah started about how a bad guy did this, and that he wanted to 'beat up the bad guy' and so on, I decided to be as happy as I possibly could (for someone loaded down with bags, waiting in the lobby of a store with 4 kids for 20 minutes, for a police officer :) I told Judah that maybe this guy wasn't bad, but just desperate. Maybe he's had a really bad life. And shouldn't we be glad for all that we have? Now I'm not this optimistic and caring, but these are influenceable minds.. and I could see a memory forming in their little brains. So they kept trying to freak out about it, and I kept telling them to chill out, that everything was fine.. We swept the glass out of the seat, cleaned out the window and went home and played with blocks. But not before we said a prayer for the guy that did this to our car; that he may have his heart softened.. and change his life and repent and choose the right. (and that our car wouldn't cost a ton to fix:) All in all, it was a good lesson on forgiveness and gratitude. I mean, at least we have stealable things, right? Now that IS something to be thankful for :)