April update

It's been a couple months since I've updated. Much has happened! I have since trained to be a doula(through DONA international www.dona.org) and a breastfeeding peer counselor. I'm working on hours for to take my lactation consultant exam next year(or the year after, it's slow going). I've been to my first birth and have been assigned my first client through Chicago volunteer doulas. She is due this month! I've just finished another quarter of school. I fell very behind and was worried if I'd make it but I think I will without any need for repeats. The kids and I have been sick with strep throat so we've been mostly out of commission for the last month with illnesses. Zach and Nicky ended up with scarlet fever. We're all just finishing a round of antibiotics. We moved in early March as well and have still not finished unpacking.

The kids are great! Amanda has taken to lapbooking and really likes it. We have yet to finish one with everyone being sick but are hoping to very soon. Chris is busy reading the Tale of Despereaux. He's been reading it for a while, I'm hoping he'll finish soon.

We're so excited for the warm weather. We have big plans for our garden. We're planning a square foot garden. We have 2 of the 3 boxes build. They are 4 X 8 boxes made of cinder block. We'll also be planting in the holes. We have quite a few things planted in our window waiting for last frost. I still need to buy what is needed to fill the boxes. I'm having a hard time locating affordable vermiculite.

We're hoping to actually finish our museum passports this year. We didn't last year but did the year before. The kids love visiting the various museums and nature centers. It should be fun.

We may start working on this as well: http://our.windowfarms.org/2009/07/30/how-to-build-a-reservoir-system-window-farm/ Chris says it looks interesting and I think it would be a really cool project. I'm going to send in our 4H paperwork for next year. Maybe one of the kids will use this as a project if they stick with it and it goes well. We should start drinking water now I guess. We'll need quite a few bottles for this.