We're back...

Well, it's been almost a year since my last blog post. I'm not sure exactly why I stopped last fall, but it was probably a combination of lots of things - our first year homeschooling, coaching Joseph's soccer team, Sarah starting dance classes, Joseph and Sarah starting piano lessons, attending a homeschool co-op every week where I taught a Spanish class to 3rd-6th graders, teaching an online Spanish 101 course for the college, writing the Primary program, singing in the annual Christmas concert, arranging and performing in a flute trio, and David getting called to the High Council (meaning he is super busy on Sundays) -- either way, blogging fell off my to-do list.

So, I decided to start again. I'll tell you a little about what we're up to now and do a "flashback" post every now and then to share some pictures and stories from the past year.

For Grandma Carol - This is the bike you helped Kathryn buy.

August has been a crazy month. We went to Redding for a week and celebrated Joseph's birthday there. (That trip deserves it's own post...I have tons of pictures!)

At the lake

They built this in Redding...can you guess what it is?

7th Birthday - Wild Kratts "Cheetah Power" cake

Along the way, Sarah and Rachel got sick and had terrible coughs, which they passed to the other kids while we were all trapped in the van for the 12 hour drive.

The week after we got home the older kids went to a "Little Farmer" camp at a friend's farm here. They had a great time learning about all the different animals and life on a farm. They got to collect eggs, milk the cow, pick veggies from the garden, make butter, and do lots of fun crafts too. (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of that). But, their favorite part was swinging on the rope swing that went over the creek and then "accidentally" falling in the water. =)

This past Tuesday was Sarah's first day of school. She is attending an elementary level Montessori school that recently opened here. Her teachers are great and her class is small (11 kids, 2 teachers), with mixed ages from 1st through 3rd grade. So far she is really enjoying the peaceful routine, personal attention, and ability to choose her own work during most of the day there. One day she went on a nature scavenger hunt with her class at the adjacent city park. Another day she played a rousing game of chess with a classmate.

First day of 2nd grade

Joseph and Kathryn are starting homeschool on Tuesday, and little David will start preschool at Montessori in the mornings a few days each week. We decided to NOT do soccer this year, at least not formally. We plan to play a lot of family games in the backyard. Sarah's going do ballet again and, new this year: Celtic soft shoe and hard shoe (tap). All three of the older kids will be taking piano lessons of some variety (either a private lesson, group class, or lesson with mom).

David and I are "back to school" too. Classes have started at the college again and David is teaching his regular load. I'm teaching Spanish 101 online again (this is my 3rd year now). We're doing a homeschool co-op again this year. So, it's looking like another busy fall. I'll try to keep you all updated.

Heather

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We're Back!

David and I are both finally feeling well again, but what a week we had!

Saturday was rough for us. We both felt terrible and wanted to sleep all day, so we had to alternate watching the kids and taking a nap. On Sunday, I felt pretty good and the kids wanted to go to church. David was super sick, so I let him sleep all morning while we went to church. We tried to be nice and not share germs. Kathryn and I just sat at the back of the Primary room. Joseph and Sarah got to go to class. I put baby David down for a nap at home and checked on him every 45 minutes or so (it's so nice to live a block away from the church!)

Monday was the hardest day for me. Aside from having the cold & cough, I also had a fever and was so exhausted. (I am accustomed to being tired -- getting by on 5 hours of sleep on a regular basis -- but I just felt like I'd been hit by a truck, like I had less than 3 hours of sleep, even though I'd gone to bed at 8:30 the night before). Once the baby went down for a nap, I went back to bed and begged the older kids to watch a movie. No such luck -- they're always wanting to watch movies, until I need them to. Instead, they just made huge messes all over the house and I didn't care because I was too sick and tired to get out of bed. I took Sarah and Joseph to school, then put the babies down for a nap and took another nap too. By Monday night the fever was breaking and I was starting to feel human again. David had a rough Monday too. As soon as he finished teaching, he came home and took a nap too.

Tuesday was a little better. I felt like I could function again. I washed a load of dishes for the first time since Friday and did a few loads of laundry. I took a nap while the older kids went to school. Then, I went grocery shopping that night.

The house is also recovering. Yesterday (Wednesday), I felt pretty good and was getting fed up with the messy house so I cleared off our counter tops--including the one where we stash all our junk! Today, I tackled the ever-growing stashes of toys, trash, and "treasures" in Sarah's room, the living room, and the play room. We found the floor again, put everything back in it's proper place, and then tonight I vacuumed the whole house. Life is finally getting back to normal. Now, I just need to unpack those suitcases from our Utah trip. (Don't judge me too harshly!) I was just getting around to that early last week when everyone started to get sick.

Sarah and Joseph are doing great, they've been well all week. Kathryn and little David haven't been well this week--they both had runny noses, a little cough, and occasional fevers. They're getting better now too. I'm still waiting for those baby teeth to break through. I can see them all, they're so close!

Today we had nice weather today, so we went out to enjoy it after the kids came home from school. Sarah and Joseph spent half the morning outside too, which really helped my clean up efforts because they weren't inside making new messes.

We now have 2 infant swings. The yellow one was sent in December because the green one was back-ordered, but it doesn't match the set, so I tried to send it back to get a the green one. The company said to just keep it and they sent me the green one this week finally. It's working out very nicely because Kathryn still prefers the infant swing and Davey sure loves swinging too. Joseph is a pro at getting started, pumping, and swinging really high all on his own. Sarah doesn't want to work that hard to swing high. She likes that little swing that's under the fort - she can stand on it and go side to side. There's also a trapeze bar with rings that she likes to hang from too, but I took them down to hang up the new baby swing. I LOVE having the swing set in the backyard!

In other news, I bought "Go Fish" (the card game, only $2.25) for the kids because they had earned a new game for going to bed 10 days without coming back out or asking for 10 different things before they went to sleep, etc. etc. Sarah has been doing exceptionally well -- she goes straight to her room (she now has her own room), and goes right to sleep when it's time. Can you believe it?! She really wanted to earn a new game, I guess. Each morning, I let her put a check mark on our countdown sheet and she calculates how many more days until she earns the game. They liked playing Go Fish and are now working toward getting another game. This time, they have to go to bed for 20 days. The whole scheme was David's idea, and it's been working like a charm! We've tried similar reward sheets before, without much success, so I was surprised at how motivated the kids were to get the game and how well they remember the rules and to mark off their chart every day. Now, if I can just figure out a way to get them to put away toys and clothes... any ideas?


Thank you to everyone who offered prayers on our behalf! We're also grateful for friends here who made us soup on Saturday and Sunday. We're still eating the leftovers and it's been such a blessing to not have to cook this week.

*Cough-Cough* Everyone is Sick Here!

This week has been rough. Everyone has been sick (except Kathryn) to a certain degree at some point this week.

Sarah was down early in the week. She was feverish and wanted to lie on the couch or sleep all day. If you know Sarah, this has never happened! We took Joseph to school, then after napping all morning, she couldn't wait to get back into bed fast enough for an afternoon nap. I thought for sure she would be up all night after all that sleeping during day. Nope--by 6:30pm she was sound asleep again and didn't make a peep until 7am or so the next morning. She took another nap that morning and has been doing well since, aside from the cough. Sarah is prone to coughs and they last a long time whenever she gets one. Too much coughing causes her to gag and vomit, which she did once this week, on the couch.

Joseph has "the" cough too, a runny nose, and slight fever. He has good days and tired days. Twice this week he has fallen asleep around 5pm, woken up around 7pm to nibble a few bites of food, then gone back to bed for the rest of the night.

Baby David is cutting teeth, at least 4 of them to be exact. He has had a fever too. Last night he woke up every 2 hours starting at 8pm until 6am. He decided he didn't want to nurse anymore and will only take a bottle, which was the only thing that got him back to sleep those 6 times he woke up. All day today he would wake up for 30 minutes for so, then sleep for 2+ hours. David put him to bed at 5 pm and he hasn't made a peep yet (it's 11pm now as I write this--I did check on him, he's still alive). Maybe he's getting better too?

David is really sick too -- coughing (sounds like a deep, dry, hacking cough), fever, achy muscles, dizzy. He looks worse than ever. He's probably down to his lowest weight since we've been married. Finishing that dissertation really took it out of him (waking up at 5am, going to bed at 11pm or later every night). Getting him to eat 3 square meals is almost impossible. He frequently eats only dinner, with maybe a small piece of fruit for lunch. He is starting to look like a holocaust survivor--and I'm not being trite or exaggerating! He must be under 130 lbs now. Anyway, he's totally swamped with work still and we both feel like we're trying to dig out of a huge hole. We finally called the home teachers around 9pm and they came to give him a blessing. I was thinking the whole family needed one.

Me, I'm not feeling too great either. Between his coughing and the baby crying last night, I didn't hardly sleep at all. I've got the cough and runny nose, etc. too, but thankfully I'm well enough to be able to take care of everyone else. Why am I awake at 11pm? I've been busy taking kids "potty", changing wet bedding, and administering medicine to all the sickies.

On the bright side, it's been nice and toasty warm here this week, compared to the rest of the country. I'm grateful that we didn't have rolling blackouts or frozen pipes.

We set up the tent inside and had a pretend camp-out.

Joseph & I built this "house" for his trains.

(Sorry, no other pictures this week.)