Six Years Old and So Grown Up

Rachel turned six years old yesterday.  Seriously, it takes two hands to tell you how old she is!!  She took her own phone calls when people would call to wish her a happy birthday and she could carry on a conversation like a teenager (probably even better than some...)
She wants to be more grown up and asked for fancy clothes and wanted lots of lip gloss and nail polish.  Boy, did she get it, too!  I realized last night that none of our closest friends have daughters.  We are surrounded by boys everywhere we go, so these other Moms love buying girls stuff for Rachel and Ruby.  (and they love getting it!)
Rachel is a true introvert and loves one-on-one attention from anybody.  She chose this year to go to the mountains for her birthday and Dr. Ed and Ms. Lisa have been kind enough to let us come to their mountain house this weekend.  They are coming, too, because Rachel didn't want to go if they coudn't!  She loves getting Ms. Lisa all to herself, so while the boys go watch basketball on Saturday, hopefully Ruby, Baxter, and I can nap so she can get her "Ms. Lisa time"!
On her actual birthday, she wanted to go find a mermaid costume.  She got the special surprise of a snowfall big enough to keep Allen home from work.  The night before, she and Papa got some great time together sledding in the backyard.   Then yesterday morning we went to Baba's early to get her birthday present which was a sled.  Allen took the kids sledding one at a time down Mom's driveway.  Rachel definitely prefers the backyard, but I think Ruby and Ford liked the gigantic hill!  We then went home and they did a little more sledding in the backyard.  We all got changed and headed out to find a mermaid costume.  Baba came along to get Rachel a new raincoat and buy something from GG. By the time we got home, Rachel had an Ariel costume and a cute new raincoat from the Disney store, plus a Hello Kitty purse with lipgloss.  She also got to ride the train and carousel and eat frozen yogurt with about 15 different toppings!
For dinner she just wanted to go somewhere fancy.  We took her to Macaroni Grill and it was so nice.  We all got a little bit more dressed up and everyone was on their best behavior.  Rachel was exhausted by this point, so she got a slice of lemon cake and then we headed home.  It was a great day and when she got in the bed she was sad because she didn't want the day to end.  She did, however, go right to sleep!
Today we went and ordered a birthday cake to take to the mountains.  Rachel stood at the counter and told the lady exactly what she wanted it to say and look like.  The girl taking the order thought she was so cute.  I was so proud of her!!  Rachel knows what she wants and usually isn't afraid to say it or ask for it.  Sometimes that can be annoying or embarrassing, but I am mostly proud of her confidence in herself and I don't want her to lose that.
This has been an awesome six years.  I love this girl so much.  She is the reason we are parents and why we continued to have  children.  She has such a kind soul and is so loving.  I try to remember that when she's being bossy or breaking the rules!  She is my best helper and even though she can drive me up the wall, I don't know how I'd make it through the day without her.
Happy Birthday, Rachel!  I love you!!!

Highlights

We learned a lot about mammals today.  Rachel learned to subtract doubles.  Ford worked with place value and wants to spell.  Ruby made letters out of play-Doh this weekend, so she stuck to cutting.  Everybody did some watercolors.

The real highlights of the day, though, we're these:

-Ruby and Ford went to put on their shoes for a walk and I heard thm talking about how to spell "Jake".  Ruby says, "It's j-a-c-a.". Ford responds, "No, Ruby, it's j-a-C!". They'll get it one day...

-While we're out on our walk, I look over and realize just how adorable the girls are.  They are holding hands just because that's what sisters do.  Then I look at their outfits...Ruby in red tights, pink leg warmers, Tinkerbell costume, pink sweater, and sunglasses.  Rachel in a paisley multi-colored shirt, striped pants (with some of the same colors), a silver glittery sweater, sunglasses, and cowgirl boots.  I love it!!

-On the last leg of our walk, Ford and Ruby take off together.  We were close enough to home that I let them go ahead and they were walking in the neighbor's yard instead of the street.  I have no idea what they were talking about, but Ford had his hands in his pockets and Ruby was holding her plastic microphone.  Out of nowhere, Ruby takes off running, gets to our yard, turns around and yells, "I win!". Then she puts her microphone down on the porch and goes inside after telling the whole neighborhood that she has to poop!

-At lunch, there is a lot of conversation about why girls and boys don't like the same thing.  Ford is adamant that boys don't play "girl" games.  After lunch, I go change Baxter's diaper, then walk in the living room to find Ruby being Ford's assistant at his beauty salon.  They are dressing up their animals with barrettes and bows.  Please don't tell Ford it's a "girl" game!  He spent 30 minutes getting his Bunny dressed up for the Easter contest!!

Bear with me, I think I have a new approach

I have another blog.  I used it to keep track of our family life.  I got really bad at keeping it up to date.  I mean REALLY BAD.  I started this blog with the intention of keeping track of our school work and trying to keep the rest of our day out of it so that it wasn't so much anecdotal as it was a place for me to refer back to when each kid starts a new grade.  Well, let's face it...when you homeschool, life blends in with school and school blends in with life and sometimes it's just hard to separate the two.  I had made my other blog private which means no one ever reads it and those of you who do read this blog probably like the stories about our kids better than the curriculum or lesson plans!  So, in an effort to compromise, I'm going to just use this blog and throw in more personal reflections and stories outside of school work.  I really just want a place to go back and read what was happening in our lives when these kids were little.  So, without further ado...
Baxter...back up to his birthweight at his 2week check up.  Grown almost an inch.  All of wounds are healed so he took his first bath this morning!  Eats every two hours and sleeps most of the day.
Ruby...LOVES scissors and stickers.  I think she could cut and paste all day!!!  Need some quiet time?  Give her construction paper and her orange glitter stickers!  She still loves to throw a tantrum, wants to wear a costume at all times, and has recently become increasingly interested in brushing her hair!  We're slowly entering the world of writing capital letters.
Ford...ready for soccer, loves cutting if it means cutting out trains of different colors and pasting the parts together.  He is getting good at place value and writing.  He has become more curious about how to spell things and I'm wondering if he's close to trying to read....there may be Bob books in his near future!
Rachel...We're working very hard on subtraction and improving her handwriting (she can form the letters, but we're working on neatness).  She is doing really well on her violin.  She and Ford both start art classes next week.  We're exploring animals in science and I think I've decided to finish animals before starting Early Explorers in Social Studies...better to do them each well instead of trying to rush through both at the same time.  Today everybody picked an animal to learn more about and we'll also start talking about mammals, reptiles, birds, etc.  She will be SIX next week!  I can't even believe it!!!  We start Daisy Scouts back next week, so her social activities will really be picking up!
Papa...starting a new job soon!  Allen is switching to a different Middle School after he works his 30 day notice at his current school.  He will miss his students and some of the comforts of ths school, but the new school is more about the business of education rather than management and "getting-by".  I am so proud of him for leaving his comfort zone to go to a place where he will be treated as a professional and can teach what he loves.  He's still teaching 2 nights a week at a community college and he loves it.  Somehow he's still driving the same car for more than 6 months!!
Me...trying to manage all four kids and nursing every two hours.  We are doing surprisingly well and most days I can get in a little rest or tiny nap to make up for the lack of sleep at night.  I've been amazed how quickly this last 3 weeks has flown by and how quickly we've all adapted to a newborn in the house!  As long as we get some school work, some crafts, some imagination time, and possibly a dance party in every day, I feel like I'm doing my job!

Okay, that's my long winded update.  I'm going to try my best to get back to blogging more often and (shock!) maybe even adding a picture in every now and then!

Another biology expert

I was going to write about yesterday and talk about what a hard day it was, but I really just want to forget about it.  Coldplay reminded me last night that, "Nobody said it was easy...". I haven't been able to get that line out of my head all day!
Tuesdays always seem to be better around here regardless of  how pregnant I was, how much we have to do, or how old the newborn is (12 days if you're counting!).  We had a great day of school.  Everyone except Baxter got to cut with scissors (always a treat!), Ford worked on place value and letters, Ruby built and wrote some letters with her Tinkerbell markers, Rachel did great on her math test, did some reading, learned more about animals, wrote and learned about "Look before you leap", and practiced some violin.  Everyone ate their lunch without whining and rested or napped (Baxter took a record breaking 3 hour nap!).  My aunt came for a short visit.  Allen was able to come home for a little while, so we took a family walk (Rachel was anxious for him to see Baxter ride in his new stroller).  Then, when Allen had to leave, I somehow miraculously managed to feed and bathe all four kids and because they had such a great day, we watched a movie together.  Now 3 out of 4 kids are asleep (Ruby has become a night owl).
Oh, and that biology expert?  Well, you may remember that Ruby taught us all that Moms have big ribs.  While I was feeding Baxter and Ford was finishing his dinner, this was our conversation:
Ford:  So, Moms have two squirters on each side of their chests to feed their babies?
Me:  Yep.
Ford:  That's what I thought.

Our first week back to school

It's been a great week here at Ingram School.  There have definitely been some tense moments and some irrational yelling, but Ruby and I have kissed and made up and Rachel and I have come to an agreement that I'm not irresponsible and she is not Baxter's mom!  So, moving right along...
We're starting back slowly to school. So slow, in fact, that Ford and Ruby did very little of anything educational this week.  I promised Ford we'd get back to math on Monday and he is finally okay with that.  Rachel has learned how to subtract 9 this week and she's been reading a book to me and a book to herself every day.  For Language Arts, we've been talking about a different saying or proverb every day (the idea is that it will help with understanding when she comes across these in her stories).  So now she knows that a dog is man's best friend, the early bird catches the worm, she's better safe than sorry, etc.  I have had her write out the saying each day to practice handwriting since she finished her book over Christmas break.  Next week we'll get more intentional about her science unit on animals and her Social Studies unit on early explorers.  Baxter is learning to sleep pretty well at night and to take naps despite all of the noise!  We are ready for the rain to stop or the snow to come...cold and rainy are the worst combo!!  However, we made an awesome masking tape obstacle course inside today that pretty much saved my sanity!

Let me tell you about our new student!

I couldn't sleep last night.  I was feeling achy and I went to the bathroom so many times, I was starting to wonder if my water was leaking (I think it's called a slow trickle).  Allen couldn't sleep either.  We started talking about what we were going to do with the kids and how many sick days he had and all of that.  He finally just got up and took a shower because it was really looking like Baxter would be enrolling in Ingram School today.  While he was showering, Ford ran in the room saying he'd had a super scary dream about Snow White sneaking up on him!  He snuggled in with me and we all eventually got an hour or two of sleep.  Allen decided to go in and leave sub plans.  I called Barbara's office to see if she could check me instead of going to the hospital.  I really didn't want to wait and wait just to be sent home.  We got everybody dressed, brushed teeth, to the potty, and headed out to Barbara's.  Allen took the kids to a new park nearby while they started to hook me up to the monitors.  Before I could get hooked up, Barbara came in, said I was dilated at 4 cm and called the hospital to let them know we were coming.  I called Allen and they had just pulled in to the parking lot, so I rode home with them to meet Baba at our house.  Allen and I left for the hospital and were checked in around 10 AM.  I wasn't really doing much or feeling much but after Barbara broke my water, things started going quickly.  I got an epidural but it was only working on one side, sothere was a lot of stress and pain until we finally got it working.  Then the nurse checked me and immediately went to get Barbara.  She came in, got Allen dressed, got herself ready, and I was pushing.  Apparently when they checked me, he was already crowning and I didn't know a thing!  Baxter Tharrington Ingram was born at 12:57 weighing 8 lbs, 8 oz, and was 21inches.  He has a full head of hair just like Ford.  He loves being sprawled out like Rachel.  He can cry as loud or louder than Ruby.  He's also got his own little look and his own little personality.  He is so sweet.  He didn't need any help eating (which he's been doing nonstop).  He already has a huge fan club!  These kids love their little brother!  Ruby is so excited to be a big sister and Ford is so excited to have a brother.  Rachel just wants him to hurry home so she can change his diapers!  He's got a little jaundice so we might stay another night, but other than that he's a healthy handsome little guy.
We've also had some awesome visitors.  Uncle Hobo just happened to be in town today with his camera, so he was able to come get some awesome pictures.  Lisa was helping out with the kids, but Ed came to check on him and hang out for a little while.  Tom came by for a prayer and to check him out.  GG came to see her namesake and Busy One came to get her baby fix.  It's been a great day and noe, hopefully, we'll get some rest!
Welcome to the world, Baby Baxtie Bax Baxter!

New Year's Resolutions 2014

While I continue to wait around on this sweet baby to enter the world, I thought I'd post my New Year's Resolutions.  Making them public seems to help with the actual follow through.  I want to keep things simple this year and I have come up with two goals to reach by the end of the year.  I figure every month I'll need to rethink and reevaluate the means to the end, so there's no need to have a long, detailed plan.  Just goals.  And here they are:
1.  Pay off the remainder of our consumer debt (and be done owing anybody money).  This is a goal we've been working on for 5 years (because the debts were that huge) and the end is finally in sight!!
2.  Complete a half marathon.  I expect that some time in February I'll be ready to get back to running and it's going to be a long, slow process, but I feel sure that by the end of the year I will be able to run 13.1 miles (not in a race, just on my own).
If these two things are in my top three priorities (next to family) all year, I will consider myself successful!  I think 2014 is going to be a great year!!