Summertime

We are on our summer schedule... which means I've been kinda lazy!  I'm keeping up with laundry, and school, and that's about it.  Our afternoon goal is to be out in the backyard at the little 2 foot deep pool that Daddy so graciously empties and fills for us once a week.  I've not been online much, at least not when my thoughts are coherent!  And I'm soaking up all of the sleep I can get, for I know it won't be long until I am up more than once a night, for long stretches.  The heat has been getting to me a bit, and I've spent more time than usual with my feet up.  I'm not sure if its contractions or Braxton-Hicks, but the doctor isn't going to do much for contractions right now (unless they are sending me into labor), so I've not bothered calling about it.  They aren't regular, and last less than a minute.  No big deal.  Just drinking lots of water, and sitting as much as possible.  It probably hasn't helped that the temperatures have been in the 90s for the last week or so!

We are still doing school.  Currently, we are working through the Get Ready for the Code books, as well as some supplement activities.  I am also focusing on numbers this summer.  My ultimate goal is getting Bella to read, and she is finally showing signs that she is ready for that.  The letter sounds are soaking in, and she's starting to write more words in her drawings, as well as ask what things say.  I'm so excited for her!  Reading is one of my favorite pastimes.

I have some pictures to upload and blogs to get done, but all of my available time recently has been spent outdoors, running errands, crocheting a baby blanket, or during a time when its a struggle to put two coherent thoughts together.  The past week or so has been very busy with home showings and Bella's birthday.  I'm looking forward to and enjoying our lazy days of summer after this week.

A little bit of this, A little bit of that

Some random thoughts I've got going on right now.....

• I have been working on increasing my readership in hopes of becoming a place of reviews, giveaways, and fun stuff, as well as a small income from affiliate programs.  SO, I've been doing bloghops, commenting like crazy, following, and it just doesn't seem to be working.  I'm just curious what has worked for you?  I've been doing lots of research as well, and working on lists for topic ideas.

• I would like to get my own domain name.  The problem is, I'm not sure where to host it.  Nor do I feel qualified to do the research on this, as every time I find a host sight, I feel as though I am reading a foreign language.  Maybe I should start majoring in that! I'm also thinking of switching from blogger to wordpress, or somewhere I can do advertisements that I choose.  Any suggestions in this area are VERY  welcomed!

• On a totally different topic, I am SO grateful to my inlaws who are allowing us to stay with them until Scott gets this real estate thing off the ground.  (He's doing AWESOME, by the way!)  However, I am SO wanting to have my own home again, to decorate with my things, and just feel really settled. It's very comforting to me to have my things around me, and not feel that we are living out of boxes.  I know that some of this is impatience, and some is nesting, but mostly, we haven't fully unpacked our boxes in over 2 years.  Its frustrating, but I know that it is what is best right now.  Pray that I have patience.  I have faith that God will provide for us.  He gave us the nursery decor I have wanted for years (really random story I'll share another time), so I'm trusting He will provide the room!

• I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself this summer.  I am not the outgoing type, I like to hang back and see what's happening, but I'm also new in town.  Though I've met a lot of people, and made some friends, I don't exactly feel established.  Playdates are few and far between, and with the house on the market, I need to get creative (I can't have a house full of friends and get an hour's notice that we have a showing scheduled!).  I've been thinking of starting a women's Bible study, or a book club, or something of the like.  Well, really, ANYTHING that would be regular and help me get to know some other moms better.  I also think Bella and Bianca would greatly benefit from having some good friends.  They love to play together, but Bella gets tired of Bianca always being right there, and Bianca doesn't really know what to do with herself without Bella most of the time.  Bianca will be attending part time preschool in the fall, and I'm sure Bella will enjoy that!

• We are starting homeschool again, after taking about 3 weeks off for home improvement/cleaning projects.  (Scott's parents decided to put their house up for sale about a month ago, and we've been working hard at getting it ready.  Its finally listed!)  I plan to continue through the summer.  Currently, we are focusing on letter sounds and numbers.  I want to get Bella reading, and Bianca familiar with her numbers and letters.  I'll pick up science and history in the fall again.  We briefly discussed sending Bella to public schools this fall.  It was during a time of high frustration for me.  Since then, I have been connected with a homeschool group in the area on facebook.  I haven't actually done anything with them, but its nice to know that they are there, and I'm starting to establish a support group that I didn't have before.  I also met a new friend who is also in her first year of homeschooling, and having the same frustrations as I, so I think we'll be a good encouragement for one another.  Prior to these, I felt like I was the only one here who was homeschooling.  Its going to take stepping out of my comfort zone to get the support and encouragement I need, but I know that it will be worth it!

All about Bella and Bianca

1. Bella is liking math again. We abandoned our Horizons curriculum for the time being, and are reviewing what we've learned so far, using, GASP, the preschool workbook I bought at Wal*mart. And she loves it! Its colorful and simple, one problem/skill per page. In fact, she begged to do it yesterday, on Sunday, and sat there for about 45 minutes doing multiple pages. Yippee! Now maybe I can sneak in a few new skills from the curriculum and get her going again.

2. Bianca is a Mama's Girl, capital M, capital G. If she isn't playing with Bella, she is my shadow. She likes to be the 'cooker' and has started making her own sandwiches (with Mama's help). Maybe she'll be the next celebrity chef! Her favorites are peanut butter and jelly, and ham and cheese with mayonnaise (not ketchup, as I learned after sneaking it on because I didn't feel like searching for the mayo, when I had to subsequently scrape it off and cover it will mayo). She loves a good lettuce and spinach salad, especially when you put tomatoes on it. I have to hide when I eat mine, or she'll eat ALL of it!

3. My girls tend to get injured when I leave them. No, really! Last time, Bella fell of a bar stool and hurt her knee. This time I leave for an hour, and I get a phone call that began with, "Bianca's okay." Apparently our "Walking Collision Course" as we so lovingly call her, got tripped up in the wrong place and lost a battle with a small end table. This picture is the next day, but even today, it looks more like she's wearing purple eyeshadow. Oh well, I guess maybe they are just gently preparing me for my boy.

4. I forgot to get a picture of them today, but they love playing princess (especially Bianca) and dog. Or mommy and baby. Or baby and kid, with a pretend mommy. So all day today, I heard Bianca say, "Moooooommmmmyyyy!" and I got into lots of trouble for answering her! "Not YOU! My other mommy!" I guess I've been replaced.....

Life is now

Its been a week of enjoying life. I am moving on to the point in pregnancy where I feel like we really are going to have a baby. That's a good spot to be! (and yes, I realize that there are all kinds of things that could come up, but for my history, this is my less stressful time) My morning sickness is getting better (but still here, even as I type!), and my energy is returning. I'm even starting to feel some flutters! Early, I know, but by the third pregnancy, I'm SURE that's what that is! And, in about 2 weeks, we have an ultrasound with the perinatologist, where I'm hoping we'll know what gender the baby is.

The girls are looking forward to spring, and so am I. Today is a dreary, cold, rainy day, so we're relaxing a bit, and playing a lot. Yesterday was very productive. We (and by we, I mean I mainly) got 4 loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away, schooling done, house picked up, dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, and dinner. I think we get a down day after that! Soccer practice is starting soon for Bella. She is excited about that! I am excited that maybe she'll run some energy off.

I finally got pictures from Christmas loaded onto the computer last night. Unfortunately, the computer is with Scott, so I can't share them here, but you can check them out on Facebook. I've been working on a crochet piece for my niece that I'm hoping to finish up in the next couple weeks. Its so close to being completed, but I can't tell you about it because its a surprise! When I finish that one up, I have another project I'm hoping to start on. I accidentally ordered blue yarn when I wanted green, but I decided to take a risk and keep it, and make a blanket out of it. Maybe it will be for our little one! I guess we'll see soon.

School is going well. Bella was struggling with the language arts section of the Sonlight curriculum. I didn't feel that there was enough material for her to really learn to read. I think they are pretty relaxed about when the child actually learns to read. However, Bella really wants to learn, and was getting frustrated at the difficulty she was having. I just learned recently of a local store, Mardels, that carries a lot of curriculum and books, so we took a little trip to check it out. They have so many things! I could spend all day and a lot of money in that place! I behaved myself and came out with only one extra book, aside from what I planned to purchase. We bought the first three books of the Explode the Code series, and one book of reproducibles with little books for each letter plus suggested activities, books, and poems. Bella is really catching on with the Explode book, and flying through it. I have to make her quit just so we can do the rest of her tasks. I can already tell that this is going to greatly help her. Bianca likes it as well. If I can sit one on one with her, she is also able to do the pages verbally, though she can't quite write letters yet. She is trying though.

Math is coming along. At first, it was Bella's favorite, but it was really easy for her then. Now we are getting into addition, and she just drags it out. She's starting to do better, but she tries to shut down when she sees those problems. We may have to look at a different program for her for next year in this area.

Science and history are good. I don't even feel like we are "doing" history usually, its just reading, which is great! I have learned new things right along with the girls. Science is about mammals and fish right now. We read two pages from the encyclopedia and then answer some questions. All in all, pretty simple.

Hello World! What have you been up to?

Well, here we are again. I have so much to tell you, and so few words to tell it in. Life has changed much since my last post in September. There were many things going on then, there are many things going on now. But at least I can talk about them now. Back then, I didn't feel that I could share much in a healthy way, so I just resisted sharing.

We now live in Kansas. Wow, never thought I'd say that one, but then, I'm learning that God has many surprises planned for our lives, and that they really shouldn't be surprising to me anymore! We're also living with my in-laws (see, there's another surprise!). We're homeschooling. And I'm pregnant (they just keep coming, don't they?!).

So let's break this down....

Living in Kansas... This one wasn't really hard when it came down to it. We felt called to do ministry in Pennsylvania. We also didn't feel that it would be our home forever, we just didn't know it would only be a year. It was a year filled with learning, new experiences, meeting some great people, and some difficult times. We couldn't wait to get a taste of life outside of the Midwest, only to learn that we really truly are Midwesterners through and through. Living out east gave us a new perspective and appreciation for living in the Midwest, near our families (mainly our parents). (We did have some family with 2-4 hours out east, which we really enjoyed) We realized that it is very important for us to be closer to our family, where our girls would enjoy knowing their aunts and uncles. It was hard to leave the relationships we formed in Pennsylvania, and even harder to know that what we were doing didn't make much sense to most people, but we knew in our hearts that it was the right move for our family, and that God was fully leading our lives.

Living with my in-laws.... Has been a blessing! Scott was feeling unsure of his next move in ministry, since the 'normal' thing for a youth pastor to do when you reach an undetermined age was to become a senior pastor, which was not in his calling. He still wishes to have a ministry, just not in the typical format of full time position. So he started job hunting. And that led to a few really good opportunities, of which I know there are people out there begging for, and for which we were very thankful. But they didn't seem to fit into our life. So we kept waiting and praying, and exploring. Thankfully, we were able to move into a few spare bedrooms at his parents' home. This allowed Scott to fully explore his interests and not feel as though he had to go out and get a J-O-B, but search for something he could really enjoy. One day we were walking through some model homes in nearby new neighborhoods, and Scott turned to me and said, "Man, I really wish I could get a job where I could just look at houses all the time." Well, duh?! Isn't that called a Realtor? And so, about 2 weeks later, I was married to a licensed Realtor of Keller Williams Realty (his name is Scott, have you met him?). I'm so proud of him for taking this new adventure. He is so excited about his job, and I, along with others, can see that he really enjoys helping others find their new home.

We're homeschooling... And we're all enjoying it. We went with Sonlight Kindergarten curriculum. I really like that it is literature based, so there are no textbooks, but lots of fiction and nonfiction reading. I've been supplementing the reading portions with some Hooked On Phonics, and I'm thinking of adding the Get Set for the Code books as well. Everyday is different for us, whether its our location, time, or subject. I try to change it up a bit to keep it interesting for the girls. While we're really only formally schooling Bella, Bianca is listening in and learning some of the same things as well.

I'm pregnant... God truly has a sense of humor. This was one surprise I really didn't see coming! Usually its Scott who is in denial for a few weeks, but it was definitely me this time. It doesn't make sense, we don't have room, we barely got insurance in time, but it is all working out. I know that God has a plan for this child, and I am in love with it. We have an awesome doctor, and I know that we are being taken care of well. I have been seen by a high risk doctor once, and the doctors concurred that I do not need the Lovenox shots as we thought previously would be required, but that a baby aspirin regimen would be sufficient. Recent studies have shown that the risks of having Factor 2 Mutation/Prothrombin is more for the mother due to the increased risk of blood clots during pregnancy, and not to the baby. (So, we still do not really know why I've had 3 miscarriages, we just know that I have this condition because they went looking for something.) That being said, I will see the high risk doctor at least one more time at around 16-17 weeks (in about 4 weeks). My due date is September 2nd.

Well, that is where we are right now. I would include some pictures, but Scott has them all with him right now, so that will wait til later. I'm also looking forward to sharing with you some projects on which I am working, mostly crochet items!

Oh, and if you need a good Realtor, or help finding one, contact Scott! (Shameless plug, I know:)