Tiptoeing Back in...

I pulled my blogs off the internet a few months ago. I decided I didn't want the internet at large to have access to family life and I just simply do not have time for much of any thing let alone blogging. Child #4 has killed all time for me. Oh yeah, we had another baby! Ziggy Joy arrived September 2015 and life has been a bit crazy every since! Every moment I might have been able to get away is full of shoulds and needs and keeping my head above water. But I'm also losing myself in there.  I enjoy writing. I think I have gotten a little tired of blogs though, they are just a tiny snippet and I feel like they are either too feely, mushy and frankly, silly. Or too perfect. Life is messy.

I want to continue to blog about gentle parenting, school, I think that is grounding and helpful to me. Not because I do it right. Not because I have some picture perfect or even interesting story to share, but because I need it in my life.

So I'm here.

A little update on us...

Roo is eight and a half and heading into third grade. Last school year was full of incredible changes and growth for Roo. She went from (still at age 8) sounding out words like "was" and "and" in January to reading fluently in March! She was still barely (with much anguish on her part, I never pushed it, but she was clearly frustrated) able to get through the Biscuit books to reading 6th grade reading level books by May. She's currently reading Poppy and Rye and I couldn't be more proud at the strides she is making. She loves reading! It happened just like when she learned to crawl or walk: frustration and struggle. And just like the older homeschool Mom's said would happen, CLICK!!
I think what really helped was enjoying books together. As well as the Reading Rainbow Skybrary App, she would curl up for hours reading book after book with the app (it narrates) and she fell in love with the solitary and relaxing activity that reading can be.

It is so validating to have a reader, it was a scary process but I'm glad we're here.

Friendly will be SEVEN in two weeks. I can't believe that she will be heading into second grade. Friendly is still struggling with some sensory processing things, she's always been my MORE kid and nothing has changed. We will be doing Brain Integration Therapy this school year to address some of her auditory processing issues, hopefully reducing her over all life frustrations as the pathways between hemispheres of her brain heals. I am really hopeful.  She is beginning to read, a completely different process from Roo. She is reading early readers and hungry for information and knowledge. She enjoys playing with numbers and seems to be very interested in math concepts, we will be encouraging that this school year.

The older two have told me they want to study The Middle Ages (we just finished up Ancient Civilizations), and are very interested in diving into our studies of space and earth science. :) We will be using Build Your Own Library again, I really really enjoyed our Ancient Civilizations and World Tour Last school year, we will be combining the girls into one grade and adding and subtracting as they need- it's so versatile and inexpensive enough where I don't feel pressure if we skip things that aren't working for us (no guilt at money wasted). It didn't feel like it at the time, we're so scattered and laid back, but when I pulled together all the things from the school year and wrote our subject summary for the school district: WOW! We learned and did so many things together last school year, it was a lot of fun!

Pip is four and a half and she is a pip and a half for sure. Four. Oh my goodness I don't know how I'm going to survive it again, it is grueling. Some thing about "Four"  in our kids- especially for our more easy going personalities- means they took all that they didn't dish out at two and three and saved it to unleash tenfold at four. It is beyond exhausting. I need a vacation. That said, she loves to have jobs, she can unload the dishwasher and fold a load of towels like a little machine and she loves to "babysit" Ziggy (she plays with him and bosses him around :D ). She is bright and inquisitive and full of ideas and wants to learn to read and do school this year. 

Ziggy. Oh my goodness this bub is amazing. I can't believe we didn't know we needed him in our family. He is just amazing. So far I haven't noticed any real difference in having a boy, except I use on average 2-3 more wipes per diaper changes, it's not as straghtforward cleaning all the things down there. :D He's crawling, cruising, pulling up on every thing. He has 6+ teeth and loves to play "so big". He's really really good at throwing, he loves to play "catch" and to throw any thing he can get his hands on, the older kids get a kick out of it. He is the sweetest little squish.

And that's about that. I hope to start blogging weekly about our school year and life again, I need the outlet.

WInter's End

March came in like a Lion this year dumping another 8-10inches of snow on us in the first week!

It was a real snow, and the first weekday storm of the season that kept Daddy Joy home from work!

There was some snow play, but it was pretty bitter cold and every one was fighting off yet another cold virus...

A common sight the last month...

 This not so much...I just find her sleep habit of folding her hands completely adorable...

 We've also been doing a lot of crafting (well 1 of these is from February as are the flowers from Valentines Day from Ryan).

THinking SPRING! Nothing says spring like marker painted Coffee Filter Suncatchers! :)

We made these heart decorations the week after Valentine's Day.

Goomba playing her silly games.

Tea Parties are the best part of winter. Making cake or cookies, making a  pot of tea...setting the table...settling in to enjoy the slow quiet time of year.

I snuck out after the snow storm to the paint shop down the street and painted some SPRING inspiration! A Cherry Blossom Tree, always pink and cheerful any day I want it to be!

Pip also draws great Cheerful people...frame...grass...sun and all

I mean, Happiest people ever!

 

Today was lovely!!! 40+ degrees and we took advantage with a walk at the park, our first trip to a park this year!!!

Traditional shot of the 3 of them together...

At least I know 4 kids will fit in the shot in a year or two! :) That's M our bonus kiddo who is with us M-F during the school year.

And yesterday...Yesterday I had my first OB appointment. I kind of put off making the appointment... 4th time going through morning sickness, I was in no rush to go feel sick some where besides home. I scheduled it for 14+ weeks.

The appointment went really well! And we were surprised to be able to get in for an ultrasound and see our baby.

Baby profile little hands rubbing the face, sweet little torso that looks so much like Roo and Daddy Joy. Measuring a few days ahead (I'll be 15 weeks on Thursday), and doing fantastic! Since we were there and the girls have been dying to know what we're having (and arguing about it quite a bit, truth be told), and technically the gender could be detected as early as 13 weeks (and baby was measuring right around 15) we decided to take a peek between the legs and see what we could see. It was a 3D ultrasound and we could have been wrong, it *very* much looked like a baby boy.
Maybe Pip was right with her little "baby brudder" story after all! I Either way, girl or boy, that little baby has all of our hearts. Watching the girls oooh and awww over him (her?) was just the best. Roo has curled up with the print outs they gave us several times today just grinning over the pictures. She is so excited! I mean it's hard not to grin at that picture (above) in particular. This is the sweetest baby, I've felt it from the start. And getting to watch him (her?) on the screen yesterday, with all the magic of 3D technology, it made it feel so REAL! Another true little JOY to add to our bunch (and if it is a HE, you can bet he's going to have a Joy name that can't be beat! :D And if it's a she, we can't wait to add to our bunch of sisters as well!).