Amanda's finished story

She started this several months ago but just got around to finishing it.

There was a princess and her name was Adnama. She loved horses. So one day she went horse back riding but then the horse carried her too far into the woods. She got off the horse to see which way to go. She named the horse Sunshine. The horse ran back and she said, "No, wait Sunshine!" but Sunshine just kept going. She couldn't figure out which way to go. Her father and her mother came looking for her but they couldn't find her so they got very, very scared. They just didn't know what to do. Then they saw Sunshine run out of the woods. When they saw him run out, they knew that she was lost. They sent their knights to go look for her. Along the way they saw the horse's path but the princess was not there. They went back to tell the king and queen. They were not very happy. They waited for three days. All of a sudden the princess saw somebody and she said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am the prince." And then she said, "Do you know the way back home?" He said, "No I do not." So they were both stuck in the woods but he had his horse. So they went on the horse to find the way back. They were hoping that they would find the way but they didn't. They went way further in and it was dark, very dark. They didn't know what to do.They traveled through the forest day and night looking for the castle but they just couldn't find it. Then one day the princess saw a friend of hers. She said, "Hi, Hello! Do you know the way back to the castle?" Her friend said, "No, I do not but my brother does. I'll take you to him right now." So they went to her brother. And then she said, "Hi, these people need your help. They need to get back to the castle." So he showed them the way to the castle and when they got there everybody was so happy to see then again. And when they got back home the prince and the princess got married and they lived happily ever after.

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.

another update.

Busy, busy, busy! We've had a pretty good year so far. It didn't start so well, since our van started falling about about 3 minutes after the year started. We're buying a new one once we've moved. I'm shopping around now. It's not exactly easy to find a 12 or 15 seater in good, used condition. Maybe we'll hit the auto auctions. We don't have a sure plan just yet.

The baby is walking! It's so cute! While he still does crawl some, he seems to be enjoying walking more and more each day. I'll miss these baby days. He'll soon be off into toddlerhood. His first birthday is next month. How could it have been so long already? He's got 6 teeth and I wish he had none. Biting is one of his favorite past times. He's still the easy baby he always was. I've been out more lately and he takes it so well. With Nicky, I couldn't be gone more than 15 minutes before he caused problems.

The girls started a handwriting class. I knew Frankie was a little bothered by her inability to write neatly so I signed her up. Amanda also wanted to attend because....I guess simply because she felt like it. They started a week ago and are having a great time. They got to catch up with some old friends. Hopefully I'll remember to stay in touch with their mom since they are enjoying their time together so much.

Zachary is completely obsessed with wii boxing. I must take a video. It's absolutely hilarious. He's still having a hard time refraining from kicking while he plays. He really gets into it! He really likes the puzzles he got for Christmas and is completing one as I type. A kid after my own heart.

My Nicholas will be 3 next month. He's getting so big and he's so funny. He says some of the funniest things. Lately he's been trying to get me to put Aaron places so he can nurse. Last week at the Y, he asked me to put Aaron in the pool. He tried to convince me that Aaron would be fine because he could swim laps. Yesterday he wanted me to put Aaron outside. In the dark. Alone. So not happening but I have to give him kudos for trying.

Chris is really enjoying his Xbox. He could spend all day on it. We had to talk a little about TV sharing. To pass the time until the TV is available, he started reading a book called The Lightening Thief. I offered to read with him but so he hasn't taken me up on the offer. He has books on drawing ancient history. There are three books in the set, Egypt, Greece and Rome. He has an Usborne book on Ancient Rome he wants to read before he starts drawing his Romans. I've always known where that book is and now that one of the kids has interest, I can't find it. So figure. I have a couple other history books around here he can look at. He's been asking to play Made For Trade daily for the last few days. I really like that game and am very happy it's being used. I bought it for Christmas in 2007 and we've only playing it once since then and now it's being used everyday.

My quarter has come to an end. I got the same grades I got last quarter and am again disappointed that I got a B. I really hated that class though. I can admit that I did learn quite a bit. This was one of those classes best taken in person and over a full 16 weeks.

I started my breastfeeding peer counselor class at WIC. I come in 2 hours early to help and observe the lactation consultant. I'm really enjoying myself. I'm attending breastfeeding coalition and La Leche league meeting with my mentor as well. I think I finally worked out how to to get my certification. While I'm happy about that, I'm still a little worried about the whole process. I just want it to go well. It's much more complicated than I'd hoped but I'm committed!

The first weekend in February is my doula training. I worked out childcare, Mack's taking a few hours off so I can get it done. A friend is driving me so Mack can keep the van. The second day is 13 hours long. I'm worried Aaron won't be okay for that long. Mack will be able to bring him to me if he needs to. After that, I just need to worry about doing 3 births. Anyone have a pregnant friend who'd like a free doula? :)

I made soap last night! I hope it comes out as pretty as I'm hoping. It's in my favorite scent. Once my labels arrive I'm stocking my store with shea cream. It'll be 3 weeks before I'm able to stock my soaps. The one part I don't like about soap making is the cure time. I'm so impatient.

I guess that's all for now. I really should blog more often so I don't have to do these update posts. I can never remember the fun stuff I plan to write about.

Excuse the errors. I can't proofread because I'm being paged by the tiny one.

New Year!

It's been a while. The holidays were so busy! We had a wonderful Christmas. I think the kids were happy with what they got. The major gifts were the X box 360 and the Wii. Chris is very happy to have the extra time with his friends. It seems he was missing so much of the social stuff with the other boys in group. They talk quite a bit on the X box. Zach LOVES the Wii. It's all he talks about. His favorite game is Wii Sport.

We took the tree down Christmas night. We just don't have the space for it. It was up just about a week and I was not sad to see it go. The house is finally back to normal. We're actively looking for a new house to rent. We need more space. No luck yet, hopefully soon. The owner asked that we leave by March so he can try to sell this house in time for the new owners to get a home buyers grant. That makes me really stressed, hopefully everything will work out.

My quarter is almost over. It looks like I'll finish with some decent grades again. I'll probably have 2 As, if not an A and a B. I'll be glad to get my week long break between classes. It'll give me time to work on everything else I have going on. I have an online store for my soap now. I ordered supplies and will be working over the next couple of weeks to stock it. I can't wait until all my supplies are here. I feel like a kid at Christmas. Last week I started a breastfeeding peer counseling class at the Elgin WIC office. The class goes for 8 weeks and then I will start volunteering under the lactation consultants towards my certification. I'm hoping I'll get my 500 hours by the time the year is up. Next month I have my doula training! The class is only for three days. I'm a little worried about leaving Aaron for so many hours. The middle day will be the longest, I'll be there for 13 hours. He's a pretty easy baby. Hmm, I wonder if I have enough to do, lol.

The kids have been great. I have some awesome kids. We've been building and reading and having so much fun around here in the last month. Yesterday Chris opened the little green house he got for Christmas. We planted tea. Amanda got mini greenhouses that look like eggs. They are coming up so well. We'll probably go next week to get something to replant in. I guess we should have thought before planting so many of the seeds at once. Lesson learned. Amanda is loving the toy bugs she got for Christmas. We've been talking about bugs lately. I got her a insect facts game that's actually pretty fun and leads to some really nice discussions.

I guess that's it for now. Maybe I'll actuary blog now that the holidays are over and I have more free time.

Food

This blog was supposed to be about eating habits but I seem to have neglected that. Today we had homemade veggie burgers for lunch. I hate veggie burgers from the store. I think Boca burgers taste like warm cardboard. These were really good!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Black-Bean-Veggie-Burgers/Detail.aspx


We had them with chips and celery sticks. No one has wanted meat yet. Last night we had spinach pizza. It's funny, it's easier for me to give up meat than juice. I'm not sure what we'll have tonight. Mack got me a few cookbooks from the library. I'll have to go grocery shopping to grab a few things. Nicky ate his burger with no problems. That never happens. It seems like he survives on breastmilk alone some days.

Big day

Today is my 10th anniversary! No one thought we'd make it this long. It's quite an accomplishment. Aaron is 9 months old today. He can stand all alone for at least a minute. I bet he'll be walking next month. I spent the day cuddled with the kids on the couch. I did hair, read books, played games and watched movies. Mack left at 7am. He works 13 hours on Saturdays. He left me a card, it was very sweet.

Today I also watched Earthlings. WHY did I watch that movie? Every since then I get nauseous at the very thought of meat. I wonder how long, if at all, it will take for this to pass. We ended up with peas and carrots, brown rice and butternut squash for dinner. I'm half tempted to try the vegetarian thing....again. It'll be my 20th time and I never last longer than a couple weeks but then again, I hadn't seen this God awful movie before. Honestly, the movie wasn't bad. It was a good movie but it was very gory and I'm not sure I wanted to know those things like I thought I did.

Ode to couches and cars

I'm feeling kind of poetic, lol. This isn't what I had in mind but I got rushed and....oh well. I'm sure I'll fix it if I ever get a spare second.

The poor old couch fought a good fight. It withstood the wrath of Nicky's tantrums, endured the mighty Zachary's bounces. It's been a comfy bed for a tired father after work, a soft spot for a mom to relax and cuddle her new baby. It's had been a comfy reading spot for the big boy and a cuddle spot for tired sisters watching good movies. The signs of wear had started long ago. A few loose threads, a small rip on the back. It soon became apparent the old couch had to go. But it just wasn't ready; it had more love to give. So it was covered with blankets and the fluff was stuffed back in. This lasted a while longer before the old couch said no more. It was ready to go but had one last gift to give. Inside there were treasures! So many lost treats. We gently opened the bottom to see what was in store. We found dominoes and shoes, our new remote control. We found socks and old cookies, games pieces and lost coins. The greatest gift of all was a little toy car. This wasn't just any car it was THE YELLOW car! Nicky long lost friend had been found, once again it was handed over. Nicky's eyes shown with love as he held his old buddy. An old friendship started anew. The car's hiatus was over. Its old job was back. While the car's job was long and tedious the rewards were great. He slept in a comfy bed with his young friend. He'd taken many trips to the park, his favorite part was the slide. He was always safe in the hand of young Nicky and when he was lost everyone cared to find him. It was a good life. As the car watched the old couch retire he was happy to be Nicky's favorite toy to have many more years of love ahead to give and to receive.