Good-bye Summer

It seems as if summer is over. I hate to see it go. I am not a fan of winter. While I do enjoy fall, I do not like that it opens the door for the cold winter months. We have a few more weeks of nice weather before I dread opening my door and leaving the house. Last winter I was very pregnant so I had an excuse. This winter I'll have to deal with it. Joy.

We've been having so many busy days. It seems as if we're always so busy but it doesn't feel like we do much at all. Where is the time going? We started a reading competition. They had such fun over the summer with the program for the library that I made sheets for them to fill out at home. Zach and the girls can fill it in for reading and playing on Starfall.com. Chris gets points for his co-op work and reading. I think that's pretty fair.

We're having fun with our new friends. It's great to find someone else who love board games the way I do. I could play them all day! I've developed a new obsession for Bananagrams. I've been playing on facebook and found myself reading the dictionary for fresh new words today. Who knew that fe, qat, qoph and ka were words? I can't say I know what they mean but they sure help me place tiles! The kids are having a hard time getting used to friends who aren't homeschooled. They are always asking if they can come over during school hours. It's something I have to get used to as well. I haven't had a friend with kids who actually go to school in such a long time.

Tomorrow is apple and banana day. We found apples on sale. It was an incredible sale too. There has to be about 45ish pounds of apples and we paid $5 for the box! We got about 10 pounds of bananas for 99 cents. So now I need to do something with them. I'm thinking apple butter, apple sauce, apple pie....not sure what else. Tons of banana bread and I'll make smoothies with a few of them. You can freeze them in the peel if you just want them for smoothies and bread later. I need to think of a few more ideas. I love projects like this! I will have to head over to walmart for canning jars in the morning so I can put apple butter in them.

Aaron has 2 teeth now! They are so cute when he's not biting me with them. He's learning not to but this past week has been painful. He has a habit of turning his head to look behind him while still latched. Not fun. It wasn't so bad when he didn't have teeth but now...ouch, is an understatement. He's also army crawling everywhere! He can take a few 'steps' crawling on hands and knees but seems to prefer getting around by wiggling and pushing off with his toes. It's absolutely adorable!

I'm enjoying my classes. I'm taking 2 classes towards a nutrition degree online as well as Bradley classes toward my doula certification. I really look forward to my Sundays. The class is fun and I get to take Aaron. Pregnant women really love babies. They ohh and aww over him and he flirts with them shamelessly. He's such a boy already.

Back to being me!

Mack isn't around all the time anymore. He's been working on and off for the last couple years now. He really likes the security thing but it's really unstable in our area. He got a new position with MUCH more stable hours and comparable pay that isn't in the security field. I'm so glad he's not home all the time anymore, not to mention that we'll have extra money again. I can't be me when he's around. I get lazy and cranky. Since he's been away I have been early for all my appointments, the house stays clean and the kids don't fight or mess up around the house as much.

My girls are HOME! No more school, I couldn't take it anymore. I feel so much better, the stress was killing me! I missed them so much and I was really tired of feeling like the school owned my children. I found the work they did before they started school. Amanda has lost so much of the phonics she tried so hard to learn. Frankie hasn't improved but she hasn't lost any ground either. Now I know for sure I haven't done anything wrong aside from put her in school that is. I'll keep letting her go at her own pace. She's really interested in history and geography right now so I guess that is where the focus will be. We made a really cool time line the other night and she found a history of the world sticker book. She wants to put the things we read about in the sticker book on our time line. It should be a fun project. She is also into sight words. I ordered Picture Me Reading a couple years ago and the words are pictographs. She really likes those and she has a thing for flashcards. She put them some in the pockets of my pocket chart and is now 'teaching' the words to Zachary. They both seem to enjoy it. Amanda is all into writing stories. She spends most of her days asking me how to spell things. I put all the words she asks me to spell up on the wall so she can see them and doesn't have to interrupt her writing to ask me again. She wants to learn to write in cursive so I'll order her a Handwriting Without Tears book. Their approach is easy and not too stressful. I think it'll be fun for her. Chris isn't into anything right now. He still loves his rats but isn't reading much on them. He's just enjoying holding them and talking t them. Zach loves to have books read to him so I'm either reading to him or his Tag is. I really like the Tag system and so does he. I didn't think he would. He had it for 3 months before he decided he liked it. He's also hunting unicorns. It's really cute. I promised to build him a cave and buy him a bunch of toys and food for it if he finds one. No luck yet, but he hasn't given up! Yesterday we had a great day at Morton's Arboretum. I got teased about the girls being at group instead of school again but this time they WERE at school. Everyone welcomed them back officially. It was a great feeling!

Aaron had his 2 month check up today. I went because I had planned on getting the newborn screening redone and forgot the card so it's still not done. I will get around to it one of these days. He's getting so big! He's 24 inches long and 13 pounds 7 ounces. He's grown out of his 0-3 months clothes but he still wears them around the house. If he gets much taller he won't be able to, not to mention they are getting pretty snug.

I'm getting back into bulk cooking slowly. I made a HUGE pot of meat sauce yesterday before and after group. I browned the meat before we left and finished it when I got home. It tastes wonderful! I thought I burned it. Nicky took a spill while it was cooking and I forgot it was on. In the end Nicky was fine, though he did limp a little for the rest of the night, and so was my sauce.