HELLO!
I am sitting at the boys' musical dress rehearsal this morning and thought I'd take a minute to actually write a blog!!! I guess it is kind of obvious that we have been really busy. I'm trying to figure out our balance and MAY have overdone activities a bit.
Who is doing what?
Nathan: Work Traveling. A. Lot. He just got back from his last trip of this season! I believe that from September to mid-November he was gone a portion or all of 6 weeks. I am SO GLAD it wasn't like this last fall or I might have lost my mind!! It was easier this time not having a non-sleeping infant. I'm not saying it was easy but it wasn't all bad. The tricky part is by myself making the big guys get their homework done, everyone washed, bedtime reading/reading logs done, and then actually getting everyone to sleep!!
Samuel and Benjamin: In August/Sept they did soccer and they continue their Taekwondo program over from the summer. Samuel LOVES it. I mean he just loves going. Benjamin likes it and we wonder if he will grow to love it as he gets to spar more. They are first degree green belts now and just started sparring. (The order is: white, yellow, green, blue, red, brown, black and starting at green there are two levels each belt). I hope to get a post with pics of their TKD fun. They are also doing WALK which is a church choir program. I was able to write up this blog while sitting at their dress rehearsal. Right after WALK, we drive to our church and do Awana.
They have both gotten caught up on their Awana books from last year. There was just too much going on last spring with my mom and also snow days and they got behind. I guess they will get TWO book awards in the spring. In other news, they are in 1st and 2nd grade and I love seeing their reading improve SO MUCH this fall with all the extra reading we are doing with them. Both their teachers say they fly through their math which I believe too. They spend their free time playing with legos and action figures which go on elaborate missions and fights.
Megan: I read the Marie Kondo book "The Art of Tidying Up" and am trying to remove all our YEARS of junk from our house and discover what is left bringing joy. This book is just so good but I would caution that in a few places some I'd read it objectively but, in all those places, we can thank God for what we are given rather than the objects themselves. I feel like it is so healthy for us remove so much STUFF! In America, we just have it all wrong! To that end, the process is a great one but it just takes awhile...months in fact...with little ones in tow. I almost think now that I will have to do 2-3 cycles of this to really get us down to an amount of stuff that normal people have. I also don't think I'm going to be one of those extreme minimalists...this may be a generational thing. I am the 'oregon trail generation' (google this!)...not a millenial and these days I am old enough to notice the difference.
Jonathan & Rosie: I try to take them jumping at the local gymnastics place once a week. I find it so interesting remembering going with the bigger boys at their ages. For Sam & Ben, it was just a race the entire time running and chasing and daredevil jumping and being crazy. For Jonathan, he isn't as busy as they were but he wants me to chase him quite a bit. Rosalind likes the balance beams and hanging from the bars the most. She likes the rest too but I find it so interesting that she just loves the parts the boys mostly ignored. We also go to the park, grocery shop, play outside, and keep active. There is this 5 year gap between the older boys at this age and I also can tell that I am not as hyper as I was with activities. Maybe it is their personalities as they are more laid back but I think some of it is just being tired on my part. I was tired then too so I don't know. Sometimes we make it to a local farm day or do a special field trip to the zoo which is Jonathan's favorite place. Jonathan is just getting into dressing up. We have brought along darth vader and optimus prime to a few places in his place. He dresses up in the batman outfit on a daily basis. Rosalind is showing off her cleverness these days. She is the smallest but extremely agile. This week she got on the counter and then was reaching on top of the fridge for the leftover Halloween candy when I caught her. She is really good at doing something subtly right under our noses.
While Rosalind isn't sleeping through every night, we realized in September that Nathan can go in there and settle her back down within 15 minutes while it usually takes me over an hour cause she wants to nurse and then that wakes her up and it goes on and on. So, I am getting more sleep and feeling better in general. EDITED TO ADD: Still waking. It is hit and miss about sleep with her.
Four kids. I think for some four kids is easy breezy but for us, four is A LOT!!! So many intense personalities and opinions in our group (taking after their parents). I know it will be easier when everyone can take care of their own basic issues. I am also so happy to have four kids and know that the future will be fun with all of them. For now, the weekends are not super relaxing and tend to follow a theme of 'reduce the numbers' where each parent shuffles between 1 and 3 kids doing different things with each group to keep the craziness in check. I think even 6 months from now will make a difference but for now...we are tired parents who are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!
We've been enjoying the cooler weather and the trails right beside Nathan's work! During spring break we went hiking with daddy on his lunch break. :) I thought I would share the picture so everyone can see how much the kids have grown!
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