Life is Good

Life is good and busy here at our home.  We are organizing, working, landscaping (when I make the time, as it is a hobby of mine, not a priority, unfortunately!), changing diapers, making meals, cleaning up after meals (and kids), and sort of developing a routine.  It's a nice routine, but busy.

I've made the decision to keep schooling for most of the summer.  We have one week off in July for a camping trip, and then the last 2-3 weeks of August off before we start again with Kassia in 2nd grade and Nadia in kindergarten.  I'm a little nervous about that transition (schooling 2 instead of just 1, and schooling Nadia who is sensitive and perhaps not going to adjust smoothly to the change), but I know I will feel a lot better about it if Kass and I keep up our schooling discipline for most days, keep Kassia "fresh" in math, and we'll be doing a bit of final "catch-up" from the many days I took off from schooling after Sophia was born and during her first year! 

I am liking the curriculum I've chosen (math is still up in the air - I think the problem is not curriculum, but just a situation of unreadiness for some of the concepts of traditional 1st-2nd grade math.  My guess is that I will continue to kind of "invent" my way through it, unless I come across something else geared toward those who learn at a slower pace or take longer to achieve mastery.  But no matter - she more than makes up for any trouble she has with math by her skills in reading and language.  Wow - she's a champ at that!  She memorizes poetry and bible verses well, she shows her comprehension by asking amazing questions while reading anything, and she reads very quickly, too.  Our favorite series are the Boxcar Children books, but she really also loves the Magic School Bus chapter books (and I love them, too!) and I think I'll work on building up a collection of those to complement her science learning.

Kassia and Nadia just started swimming lessons today - it's their 2nd time with lessons - their first experience was for 6 weeks last summer, once a week.  This summer we are doing 2 sessions a week for 6 weeks and I am SO IMPRESSED and THRILLED at how well they both did.  I spent some good time praying for Nadia especially throughout the day and God really blessed us with a wonderful teacher for Nadia who made her feel safe and secure and even got a number of giggles out of her!  After 2 days of her fretting about the lessons (yes, I purposely didn't tell her about the lessons until 2 days before - and that was news actually given to her by Kassia, who was excited), I think that her opinion of swimming lessons has greatly improved.  I am looking forward to Thursday, for both of them.  I am so proud of my little budding swimmers!  I think Kassia is a little fish but doesn't know it yet!

And, Paul couldn't watch the littles as he had to work out of town today, so we hired a babysitter and she, of course, was great.  I knew she would be, since she is the daughter a dear friend of mine and always flocks to care for the kids at gatherings.  I feel really, really blessed to have finally found a babysitter who lives close, loves my kids, and has a family that I love, too.

Still no sale on our house, but God's timing is perfect.  He's never let us down, never will, and so we are mostly trusting and not worrying.  It will all work out, I'm confident.

I've got my next baby checkup tomorrow.  I can't wait to hear the heartbeat again!  The girls want to hear it, too, so I will likely take them along.  Then we are taking Grandma to Pizza Hut for lunch, since she always provides lunch for us.  I have to be honest and say that the reason we picked Pizza Hut is because it has a good buffet, and because they have a "kids eat free" summer lunch buffet promotion.  But we also know Grandma likes pizza, so it works out well!

And back to baby - Paul and another person both have had strong feelings towards the gender of this blessing.  And I'm not at all sure what we'll decide, but we are both open to and considering, for the first time, learning the gender of our baby before he or she is born!  Fortunately, we have plenty of time to make that decision!

And now, since baby makes sleeping a little difficult lately (aside from the nightly trip to take care of the ever-shrinking bladder, I am just not sleeping very well with this little one), I am going to relax a little and then go to bed, I think.  Unless baby makes me suddenly crave something and then I'll have to add a snack to that plan.  Actually, I'm pretty sure a snack is a given.  :-)

Oh, and I've been reading some classics that I've never read before, and I am enjoying it!  Swiss Family Robinson - the book is AMAZING!  The father has got some wisdom that is parallel to Solomon, and it comes out within the first three pages!  Wuthering Heights - yeah, it's a classic, and written by a talented author, but it took me awhile to follow, and then it just was kind of a continuous emotional drain as I waited for the "resolution" of the madness of Heathcliff and Catherine's love.  Finally, I just finished reading 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea.  VERY cool - we are going to go to the library to check out the movie sometime soon.  Paul thinks it's tragic that I've never seen it, you know!  :-)