Toes

Well, I'm up. Before everyone else on a Saturday morning. Thinking I should take this time to spend on me, made some coffee, and now I might paint my toe nails, lol.

The game of life (Catching up with the Druba's)

Well hello there.......remember me?

I promised more than once that I would write and I never did. I have had a million reasons not to.

   Life here has been crazy since.....well really since Thanksgiving, but it rolled into Christmas, and on and on. I realized that I was way behind on photos as well, so I thought I would post some from the last two months. Not all, because after all there are a million I have taken between now and then, but I can spare some time for a few. I guess all the real crazy started around Christmas, and now it seems like months ago, not just one.
   The tree went up after Thanksgiving, and the kids and I decorated it. Norah was confused at why there was a tree in the house and why we were decorating it, but as soon as she saw all of the pretty treasures we were going to put on the tree I could see the approval on her face.

Speaking of faces, lol. We have had an amazingly warm winter this year, and several weeks ago the children were out playing in the back yard. Norah loves to play outside, loves to, and she was playing in the dirt while I was chatting with my aunt, when she turned around and I saw this!

Could you just die? Lol. She completely racooned herself with dirt, and was so, so proud. Here she is saying "Cheese".

Love my baby Girl!

She is such a character and I know I say this all the time, but she truly is, and I feel so lucky to have her my daughter. So here are a few more of her silly and cuteness, lol.

Norah is such a light in our lives, she definitely adds some more fun around here. 

Back to Christmas......

It was probably the best one we have had this far. The kids are truly loved by everyone, and we are so blessed to have all of the financial support that comes for Christmas. We were able to purchase some items for the children we really had wanted for them, and made the day special. Norah received a doll house for Christmas and a ride in push car. Patrick received a Lego table and new Lego's. The kids got oodles of other things, but those were the big ticket items. We did stockings and all, and a feast at my mothers later that evening. It was a perfect day, and Norah got the hang of opening gifts really fast.

Before Christmas, I wanted to get Christmas cards sent out, so I dressed up the kids and took some pictures. I took several of the kids together, but Patrick demanded his own photo shoot. Patrick is such a unique little man, and I love him so much, he will always be my baby boy, and it is so hard to look at him and see how big he is getting. Here are a few of my favorites of Patrick, lol.

He is a hoot, and loves to make funny faces and be in funny poses for pictures.

After Christmas Patrick got the stomach flu, as did Norah, but here he is all set up playing a game on the computer while he was sick, with Norah of course.

So like I said a lot going on. My sister moved in last week, and will be here for a while, and I am hoping for it to be a great experience for all of us. We worked really hard the two weeks before she came, and cleaned out our extra room, tiled the bathroom and painted, and so much more. By the end the room was set up for comfort and relaxation....I hope.

And last but not least today I wanted to talk about my husband, who I love dearly.

He is the best dad on the planet you know, I mean really. Here he is wearing Norah in the sling. She loves hanging out with him.

And they play so well together now. He loves her like a father should, and she is completely in love with him. And to top it off, as if he could not be even more awesome, he is an amazing husband as well. And this morning when I woke up, I found little love notes left all over the house for me. It was special for me, and made me feel loved. With all of the activity and stress the last few months it was a great way to cheer me up a bit. He is the best father and husband ever.

What?

I keep meaning to blog, but it just hasn't happened. Every day I tell myself I need to, and every day I find a reason not to, meaning no time.There has been so much going, but hopefully I will have more time soon.

Summer is doing well, finished her first semester of college.
Norah is getting over a cold.
Patrick got his third stripe on his belt last week in tea-kwon-do.
Jerry has been working hard, and still loves his job.
Jerry and I are doing great, so much in love, 7 years together now.
Annie is moving in with us for a bit.
And so much more, but thats a quick update. Will post pics of the kids soon.

Whats Up!

I have not blogged in a bit.
I have busy, as always.
I promise a blog soon, I have new photos of the kids to upload and will get to that later today...maybe.

Patrick's schooling is going well, we are working on Jj and the number 12 this week. Our reading is coming along, slowly but surly. He always wants to guess the words by looking at the pictures instead of sounding them out. It is a work in progress.
Patrick has had a cold this week, but is much better today.

Norah is doing well, working on that 7th tooth of hers today, a molar, and they always cause her great pain and a fever. She has trouble nursing and gets easily  frustrated because of her swollen gums. Norah has developed quite the temper lately, and I am still trying to figure it out. She is very opinionated and makes herself known when she wants something or disproves. Norah also has been learning new words daily and is so proud of her ability to communicate and be understood.

I have been crocheting, meeting at a friends home once a week, and I am loving it. I have been sewing as well, and can never find enough time to tackle the projects I want, but maybe one of these days. Most days I stay busy with cooking, cleaning, naps, and school teaching. Tuesdays are my crochet class, Wednesdays are playgroup and in the evening we have takeout and family game night. Fridays are tae-kwon-do, and so that really only leaves me Mondays and Thursdays without having to be anywhere by a certain time, so those days tend to be our laziest and most relaxed.

Jerry has a cold right now, he sounds horrible, his voice, and I got him set up with some meds that might help. I may end up sending him to the dr. if he does not get better soon. Work for him is going well, and he has signed us up for the upcoming Christmas parties next month.

We are heading to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. We will be there for a couple of days, and will be visiting family and friends. We usually hit up Missouri and Oklahoma on any holiday trip, but Jerry's sister and brother are both expecting new babies in the new year, and he wanted to make a separate trip to visit when the babies arrive. Can't wait.

And ......thats about it, for now. I will post some new photos of the children soon!

My handsome Brother

Jacob came by yesterday and had me take a few pictures of him. He does not have many of himself, and was hoping for just one good one. So I thought I would post his favorite one here.

Sunday update

It looks as if Sunday's are a good day to blog. Saturday's are always busy because it is the first day of the weekend and we have lots to do, but Sunday's are a much slower pace.

This morning the kids slept until after 10am, and I made pigs in the blanket per Patrick's request. He asked me to make them Thursday, so I went out yesterday and picked up what I needed to make them.

I had a great talk with my sister today on the phone for an hour and a half. I miss her so much, Love you Ann!

Patrick got his Halloween costume in this week, he is going to be Harry Potter.

Norah is talking so much, it amazes me every time I hear her try to say something new. She is getting so big.

Finally got her social security card in the mail, that was nice.

I had my hair done, and really like it!

Norah and I

Our Week

Last week is over, and now we are heading into a new one. I have not blogged in at least a week.

We went to the pumpkin patch!

   Our week was a good one, changes, fun, and we made a lot of progress with our home schooling this week.

I thought I would also share some photos tonight as well, since I really have not posted many recently.

What went on this week.

   We have been cleaning house, getting rid of things we don't need or really have a place for. It has been a long hard process simply because our time is precious and limited to do projects as that. We have the back, extra room nearly cleaned out to make a space for Norah to have her own space. Right now it will be a play room, and eventually, her own bedroom. I have her room already decorated and done in my head, lol, and someday will make it reality. Very excited about it.

   We quit co-op, lol, after two weeks. We decided it wasn't for us. Why, you ask? Well......It's a Christian co-op group. In theory this sounds great, and welcoming, but I found it the opposite, and was actually quite disturbed by some of the things I saw and heard there. 

   The fact is that as a standard "Christian" most believe that God is both good and evil, a hypocrite, an abusive father, and that he can change his mind at any given time causing confusion for no apparent reason, other than to "Teach us a lesson". They have created God out of their own image, and believe he has all of the characteristics of them, including the desire to control, confuse, manipulate, and discipline their children with physical, corporal punishment. The first issue for me was just that, most of these parents seemed to fully embrace the old testament and the belief that physically disciplining their children is of god. I obviously disagree with this. We do not spank in our home, we implement positive reinforcement and time outs, and my children are very well behaved. I do not spank, because spanking is hitting, and hitting is wrong. Spanking hurts, I have no desire to hurt my children. I have no desire to threaten them with a spanking to get them to comply, I have no desire to put fear in my children. How can I possibly teach my children that hitting is wrong, and then hit them? I can't, this causes confusion, it teaches them that I am better than them or elite because I am an adult and they are not, (as if they have any choice in the matter). It also teaches them that I am a hypocrite, and that the "double standard" is okay. I respect my children, I love them, and their innocence, and in our home we use our words to communicate, and we don't kill their right to express themselves. Patrick knows the rules, and he knows the consequences as well, but we do not hit. We practice Attachment Parenting in our home, and spanking is just one of those things I believe is wrong, based on my own experience, based on my heart, and based on documents, studies, and research that prove that spanking injures your child in more than one way. 

   So that was the main reason, we just don't fit in. I see these women snarl, threaten, and lead children by their arms with a firm grip. They exercise their "eliteness" over them, as if they have no worth, feelings, as if they are not human and deserve respect. What ever happened to, "Treat others as you would like to be treated"? So as you can tell, I had an issue with this, big one. 

   I also hated the fake everything. The, "Hi, I'm 35 but look 50, I have 10 kids, and home school, and my husband is never home but I am extremely happy and I always have a smile plastered on my face" kinda thing I kept running into. I also had issues with some of the things they were telling the kids. Anyway, we are not going back.

   We have started our own little home school group, a non religious one, just me and a few friends, who knows it may grow.

   Patrick has been doing so great with his schooling and I am so proud of him. He is learning so much. He is starting to read, is learning to tell time, can now count to 100, and we have started on 1st grade math because he is that awesome. This last week we were doing the Letter D and the Number 7. Here he is writing his 7's.

This is Norah, Friday morning eating her eggs for breakfast in her adorable long johns, lol.

   She is communicating so much. She shakes her head yes an no when you ask her questions. She talks constantly, and voices her opinion 24/7 with screams and squeals. She is running, and wrestling with Patrick. She loves to hand out "High 5's" to everyone she meets, she climbs everything, and she loves animals. She now has her two top and bottom teeth, and I suspect more are coming very soon.

   This week I went by Lowes to see what was on sale since fall is in the works and I found a Mexican Lime tree for $13.00, so I bought it. I picked the only one that had a "big" lime on it, and the day after I bought it I potted it and took a photo. Little did I know someone with sneaky little hands would follow shortly behind me and pluck it from it's little branches. Have a look.

Oh, I made mittens for Patrick today. I went yard selling about 2 weekends ago and found an old mens wool sweater. I cut it up, and made mittens. Patrick will be in style and comfort this winter. I lined the inside with fleece, they feel mighty fine he tells me.

And thats about it for now. We have a new week starting tomorrow, and we are excited about what is before us. I still have some blog catching up to do, and maybe I will find time tomorrow.

Good Night!

My day, in a Nutshell

Hey there,

We have been busy the last two weeks.
We are doing Home School every day of the week, with the weekends off.
We have been doing Home School co-op every Friday for the last 2 weeks, and will for another 4.
We also have Tae-kwon-do every Friday evening.
We had two play dates this week, which was great, and will be adding one of those as a regular Wednesday visit.
I have been cleaning out all of the stuff in the house that has no place, and have continued my desire to downsize, I have been getting rid of a lot of things, and this makes me happy.

A rundown of my day, (typically) unless it's Wednesday, or Friday, lol:

I get up in the mornings with Jerry at 6am.
After he leaves at 7:00-7:30 depending on the day, I sit and get online with my cup of steamy coffee in hand. I check my email and my facebook page and see what the world has to say and who is up earlier than I am.
I get anywhere from 1-2 hours alone before baby girl wakes up and wants to nurse. In this time I do different things, fold laundry, read, look at a magazine, work out, just sit and think about the day.

I listen to the monitor for Norah to let out that one cry she does to let me know she is aware she is in bed alone and I need to join her. I usually slip back into bed at that time, and nurse her back to sleep while I watch something on t.v. and try to sneak back out of bed, this of course does not always work.

Once Norah is awake, it is all about her, lol. First order of business? Breakfast! Norah loves food, and it is the first thing she wants in the morning besides her brother.

Eventually Patrick emerges from the bat cave, either by choice or from me calling his name 900 times, either way the first thing on his mind is food as well.

We eat and get dressed, and try to start our Home School day as soon as possible. We start around 9am and go until about 11-11:30am. We have to finish before 12, because Phineas and Ferb comes on and Patrick will die if he knows it's on and he can't watch it, lol.

We start off the day with the day of the week, and the weather. Then we mark off the calendar, and say the Pledge Of Allegiance. Then we start on a lesson, or theme. Each week we focus on a letter and number. We write, read, do a word of the day, memorization, shapes, matching, bigger than, less than, science, and we have even started on 1st grade math because he is supper smart. Oh.....did I mention my son is reading? He is! Every day he gets better, but he is doing so good, and he is so proud of himself.

Then comes lunch, and a little lite cleaning if possible. Patrick watches his t.v cartoon, and Norah goes down for a nap around 1pm. I now have about 2 hours to hang with Patrick, and do some things around the house.

By 3 or 3:30 Norah is up, and in a great mood ready to eat again, (the girl can put some food away). At this point I attempt to finish whatever I was doing, and get the dishwasher and washer going, vacuum, things I could not do while she slept. Now it's 4-4:30 and it's time to think about dinner. Jerry walks in the door anywhere between 4:50 and 5:20 and so starts the process of dinner, conversation, cleaning up dinner, jammies, teeth brushing, and bed by 10pm so we can begin again.

Wow, I feel tired just from writing it all down

School Days

We are in full swing of things now, I tell you.

Home School Rocks!

Patrick is loving it, and I am too, it just seems like the way it should be. No separation anxiety, no worrying all day, not parent teacher conferences, or required time in the classroom, I don't have to worry about him eating something he shouldn't because of his food allergies, or kids being mean to him, or teachers belittling him. The thought of being away from my child all day, freaks me out, and no one can teach him like I can.

I hear from several moms about a certain elementary school in town, "It's the best", all the mom's try to get there kids enrolled in kindergarten there. However.....this particular school only has two kindergarten classes, and each has 28-30 students. 1 teacher, 28-30 students. How could this possibly be conductive to a good start in education? There is no possible way that teacher can meat the needs of the children. I see schools like feed lots now, lol, no really, they cram as many in there as they can for the cost, the health, wellbeing, sanity, emotional stability, or quality of life are of no value.

We joined the local home school co-op and  joined in a pic-nic last night as a kick off for the fall co-op. We are really excited. It was really neat to be among all those people, our own little community of home schoolers. The cool thing is, we all have at least that one thing in common. I can't wait for co-op to begin. It is a Christian group, which does not bother me either way, (we don't go to church) and we will be meeting every Friday afternoon for 6 weeks. Very exciting!

We ran into some acquaintance's of Jerry's last weekend, and the woman present started talking with Patrick. (I was not present for the conversation, but Jerry told me about it after the fact)She started asking him things like , "How old are you?", "What's your name?" and so on. She then starts to quiz him in a sense, and then comments on how bright he is. She asks what school he is going to, and he proudly says, "I go to home school". She seemed to be a bit taken back, and then asked him some more questions, as if to determine whether or not I was doing a good job, lol. She then tells Jerry how impressed she is, and how smart he is, and how much he knows for a five year old, which is awesome, but Jerry is telling me this and I am thinking, "Why does she care?" He smiles at me and tells me that she is a kindergarten teacher in town. So the moral here is, that I rock, lol! Sometimes I doubt myself and my ability to teach him, teach him well, but it was so nice to have the compliment from her. She was impressed, and I should be too. Patrick is smart, and a great, enthusiastic learner, and I love making learning fun for him.

This week we did so much, I am so proud of him.

He memorized in one day a limerick, and here it is.

There was an old man from Peru,

who dreamed he was eating his own shoe,

he woke in a fright,

in the middle of the night,

and found it was perfectly true.

Lol, we thought it was cute and fun to learn.

Things Patrick can do thus far:

Can count to 100

Can count backwards from 10

Knows his ABC's

Knows all of the sounds every letter makes

Knows all of the days of the week

Knows how to Spell and Write his name

He knows all of his shapes and colors, has since he was 2 1/2

Some of the things we have been working on:

Phonics/Learning to read

Five senses 

How to tell time

Adding and Subtracting

Money

She has my heart

Reflecting back.

This day last year, I was a full 9 months pregnant, and a good five days over my due date. I had been going in and out of labor for a week, which seemed like a month, lol. I had not had much sleep, and more than once had tried to kick labor into gear by going to the track and walking. Honestly I could have stayed pregnant forever, I love being pregnant, but it was the going in, and then out of labor several times that was getting to me. We determined later that the reason labor would start and then stop was because Norah, was sucking on her hands and moving her head in and out of the cervix.

A year ago today, I started labor for real. I went into labor around 6pm, and Norah would eventually get here, but not until 1:56pm the next afternoon. Boy was that a challenge for me.

Patrick was 10 days late, we lived in MO, and midwifery was illegal, so my only option was a hospital birth. We carefully chose what we thought was the best one, and had mixed feeling about the experience afterwards. Patrick was an induced baby, I thought I had no other choice, my doctor told me how much danger I was putting my child in, being 10 days overdue, and showed up for my induction. Of course this induction, immediately led to an emergency c-section, so I never got to experience labor, at all.

Most know I wanted Norah's birth to be different, and I defended my choice to all that had concerns. I am so thankful for the family I have, and even though some thought I was not making a smart decision, they still supported me in my choice.

Having Norah at home was amazing, and it is very hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that a year has passed, I don't think I will ever stop being amazed at how fast time goes by.

Laboring the whole 20 hours or so with Norah was incredible........and painful, but I am so glad I had the experience. I wanted the pain, I wanted the blood, sweat, and tears. I wanted to be able to tell my child that I brought her into this world the best way possible, and that my labor was one of love, and sacrifice. It was hard, it was my first labor, and everything everyone told me about the end of the journey was true. We didn't know Norah was a girl, I hoped she was, I prayed she was. I remember like it was yesterday, pushing her, and then my beloved midwife saying to me, "Michelle, grab your baby." I leaned forward and I grabbed her under her arms and lifted her out and onto my chest. In that moment, complete and utter happiness. The pain was over, and I had just birthed my child, a 8 pound, 12 ounce child. I was so thrilled, proud, overwhelmed, and tired, that I had not even looked to see if she was a boy or girl. My midwife asked me, "Well, is it a boy or girl?" I looked and low and behold, she was a perfect baby girl.

I will never forget that day, it is so special to me, and it was the day I became a mother again, and to a daughter. She has my heart forever. I wish so many things for her in her life, and I hope I can be a good teacher.

Tired

I am tired. I feel so worn out. Is this a bad thing for me to be saying here? I really don't have any other place to say it.

I hate to complain, and typically, I am the positive energetic type, but lately.....well..........

I feel misunderstood, under appreciated, and invisible.

I don't know what to do about it.
Normally, it passes. I usually tell myself not to sweat the small stuff and to accept whatever has happened with a grain of salt. See the positive, put a smile on my face and move forward. But it has been harder for me to do, especially lately. I can't help but think that some things need to be addressed if they keep coming up, but I don't know. Am I making to big of a deal of it? Should I just let it go?

I got to that point this evening, where I felt just so tired, so overworked, so done, that I was having trouble even talking, as if I laked the strength to mutter the words, "yeah, I'm fine", which you all now know is not truth.

When I sit and try to think of what truly is the problem with me at this point I tell myself the same thing over and over. "I am just so tired.........of everything." I feel like I am eighty. My body hurts, and is neglected. I am mentally exhausted beyond belief, and my stress level is through the roof, and even though I know it may not be true, feel like a complete stranger would get me more than my husband right now.

Why is that?

I pride myself really, in usually having it together. Most of the time I feel incredibly happy, and love my life.

And don't get me wrong, I do. I have everything I need, and some. I have some of what I want, and am thankful for all of it. I have two children I adore and love more than my life. I have a husband who treats me well 99% of the time.

I sit here and go, wow, I have it pretty dang good, what the hell is the matter with me? Like many, I am sure, I have complaints, who doesn't? But, still..........something is bothering me, and I hate being in a funk.

Well, can't blog anymore, now I am sick of myself as well, lol. I feel like the donkey Eore.

Sleep

I woke up this morning with a headache. I have not been sleeping all that well lately, suffering from some insomnia perhaps. Or maybe it has something to do with this, lol.

I love this illustration from Hathor the Cow Goddess.

Coffee

I love to start off my morning with coffee. I feel like the walking dead without it, and I don't even think it's the caffeine, I can have decaf and it still wakes me up. Maybe it's the hot drink itself. In any event, I brew a small pot every morning, and eagerly wait for it to be finished. Then, if the kids are still sleeping, I will take my coffee, and the baby monitor, and go drink my hot, steamy, cup, out on the front porch. 

Yummy Dairy Free Mango Dressing

I had to share this salad dressing recipe because it was so yummy, and I was so excited because it was so creamy, without having any dairy in it. Most dressings that are not a vinaigrette, or Italian, contain dairy.

We struggle to find yummy, dairy free alternatives, and sometimes I find myself wishing so badly that I could eat what others do, but I realize that this allergy is a blessing in disguise. We are so much healthier because of it.

Anyway, here it is.

And here is my salad.