Cleaning

Another busy cleaning day.  I rearranged the livingroom furniture and put down the new rug, which has made the room feel much nicer.  I'd like to scrub, but it hurts to do much.  Then some organizing.  And some managing of clothing.  I have a bucket started for thrift store donations and I feel greatly encouraged there.

And I pestered the people who run the local strawberry patch as to when they would open for picking.  Ideally I'd like another large collection of rhubarb to boil down before the strawberries, but I'll happily take what I can get since my rhubarb decided to go to seed.

Oh, this 38 weeks thing is getting to be so much.  I'm sore and tired, and there is so much to do.

Bookshelf

I like to think I'm spending a lot of time in the house decluttering it, but in reality I'm spending a lot of time making mental lists.  Yesterday I sat on the sofa looking angrily at the bookshelf stuffed full.   How had the books gotten in such a mess?  On their sides, on top of each other, all over the place.  Disaster.  I actually got up and went over to straighten it up, and realized that there were waaaay more books than could fit on the shelves and made a revolutionary decision - if it didn't fit, I had to get rid of it.  David got into it as well and together we purged a big pile of books.  David even went into the other room and pulled a few for the pile from another shelf.  Slow and steady decluttering.

I felt so encouraged by the bookshelf that I went and dealt with the crazy hurricane of a front hallway.  Including starting phase 2 of the litter box switch.  I was tired of looking at the cat's litter, so I bought a new box with a lid and a flap door.  Except the cats hated it.  So we're slowly changing it over.  First we just switched to the new tray about a month ago, and now yesterday I put the lid on but not the door - the reaction is a lot better.  In another month I'll try the door.  Then I moved the washer and dryer and collected all of the bits of things from behind them and washed the floor.

It's mid-June, but boy is it cold here.  Because we're on a lake?  I don't remember last summer when we first arrived if it was cold or not.  Fall was here so quickly then and I was preoccupied with unpacking and getting settled in the new parish and then discovering I was pregnant again and pretty much blocking the next few months of awfulness from my mind.  I looked back and wow, I have been expecting since October.  So long.  

I know I'll feel much better when the birth is done and I can move normally again.  Move and breathe.  And reach my feet.  And take a bath.  And, I don't know, go shopping at more than one store before needing a nap.

Homeschooling

Ah, yes.  Homeschooling.

Well, we are homeschooling this September, although that seems to be very surprising to some people.  We've also enrolled Samuel in the local public school kindergarten with the idea of possibly having him attend a few mornings a week just to give him an opportunity to get out of the house, enjoy the company of friends, and let me manage with one less child for a few hours.  We haven't decided whether or not we're going to do it, but we've attended the introduction to kindergarten night and so forth.  I cannot make any decisions beyond that right now.

And I've chosen some 'curriculum'.  It seems strange to consider the books I've chosen as any sort of curriculum, actually.  I mean, Samuel is only four years old.  I thought I'd share them in case anyone was curious.

We're using the BOB Books to teach phonics.  I'm getting the first two sets and if we fly through them I'll pick up a few more, but if we can only make it through those I'm fine.  I'm also using the first level of the Handwriting Without  Tears program - My Letters and Numbers Book.  I debated buying this because I couldn't really see it being useful this early, but I think I'd like to start Samuel off on the right foot with how to hold his pencil and form letters.  We're also using audio books to introduce some classic literature.  I'm getting Beatrix Potter, A.A. Milne, Herriot and possibly the Just so Stories.  Anything more than that I'll borrow from the library.  That pretty much sums up the literature section.

For math I chose Family Math for Young Children which is a book of math related games that I think we'll all enjoy.  I really don't want to jump into math books right away.

I would like to do some poetry and scripture memorization, but instead of buying anything I'll source it elsewhere.  Same with any crafts or anything we do.

Samuel will be taking swimming lessons on Fridays with a homeschool group, and that combined with practicing on his bicycle and nature walks is my plan for gym.

That's the plan!  It's very gentle, but actually still more rigorous than what he would be doing in kindergarten.

Audio Books

Samuel dislikes his afternoon rest time a great deal - undoubtedly thinking it is beneath him as a tall four year old boy - but I need afternoon rest time like I need water, and so he takes it.  And will continue to do so until Jesus returns or I suddenly become a very energetic person, whichever comes first.

To combat this (and the endless reasons-why-I-must-leave-my-room) I'm playing him books on tape.  I don't anticipate that he will fall asleep listening to them, but I don't expect sleep during rest time.  My only requirements are that he stay in his room, with the door closed, and not make huge stomping noises or dump out all of his puzzles or what have you.  Clara, at two, will still sleep, hallelujah.  She sleeps in her bedroom with a gate at the door since she is an escape artist and the thought of her being awake, unattended, and not locked away is a terrifying one.  She, of my two children, would be more likely to eat things from the garbage, or turn on all of the taps and plug the sink, or unlock the front door and wander off.  I don't trust her one little bit.

Anyway, the tapes, yes.  Cds, actually.  He's listening to Anne of Green Gables right now.  I remember audio books as having been very expensive but that was years ago and they're quite reasonable now.  I think Anne cost less than $20 and is unabridged and read like a play.

I'm really hoping that this occupies him well.  Ideally I think I'd love 2 whole hours of napping/quiet play/books on tape but right now we get about an hour.  I'm not worried about the new baby.  New babies tend to just sort of shuffle in wherever they're put.

Tuesday

In the early mornings is when I blog.  Or write at all, really.  This isn't because I'm hugely productive at this time of day or because I especially love dawn.  I do not love dawn.  No, I write in the morning because after a good sleep I am the least stressed and anxious I will be all day and that gives me the opportunity to get at least a few chicken scratches down on metaphorical paper before someone is poking someone else in the eye with a fork or one child starts screaming because the other one got to touch the cat's ear and they didn't.

I'm sitting in bed, at the ridiculously late hour of seven-thirty, hurriedly typing because I can hear my saintly husband not yelling at whomever just clearly broke that glass in the kitchen, and trying not to think of the fact that he is going to be working all day and so am I, but in our separate spheres.  He will go to the deep, quiet church and write, and then he will likely go on many visits to the various people who need to talk to him.  I, on the other hand, will spend my morning trying to make dentist's appointments for people who hate dentists, and do so to the soundtrack of the children (who have recently discovered the cd of Shrek 'music' that one of us purchased back when we clearly the stupidest pre-parents ever and thought it would be so fun for a future child) yelling "NOT MY BUTTONS!"

That sentence might have been a bit hysterical.

Full-term pregnant women should not be allowed to manage household duties alone.  Yesterday I spent a large portion of my afternoon trying to keep the children outside while I called the local wholesale shopping place to figure out why I could not find their price list online.  Eventually my customer helper person (what politically correct term are we using for this job now?)  admitted to me that she was new at her job and transferred me to a manager.  On that topic, why on earth is the phone transfer system set up the way it is?  You explain everything to someone, then they say 'I'm going to transfer you to blahblah', and then you are transferred to someone whom they have clearly not bothered to explain anything to, and you now re-tell your tale, and then THEY SOMETIMES TRANSFER YOU.  It's incredibly disheartening.

I would say that moving closer to family would help, but probably it would not.  Probably not much other than the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of the retail industry and possibly a very large coffee is going to help me today.

Hospital Bag Packing

I’m packing a hospital bag.  Well, to be more specific it turns out I’m packing two hospital bags because something something and it all sounded logical to me at the time and now I’m too lazy to change it.  I’m too lazy to change almost anything these days, honestly.  I sat down to clean the bathroom last night.  And then I sat down again to pack some clothes into storage.  I went outside to watch the children cover themselves in mud, and I sat down.  People are starting to comment on it.

Humour me with a bit of whining.  When I sit, my back hurts.  When I stand, my feet swell.  When I lie down I get heartburn and leg cramps.  So then I stand up, and I have to pee.  So I go to pee and suddenly I’m exhausted from the effort and decide to just change the toilet paper roll and go back to bed, except when I crouch, I get stuck.  Yesterday whilst crocheting I got a cramp in my arm.  In my arm.  Not a ‘oooo, cramp’ but a ‘ AAAHHHHHH HOLY HANNAH MY ARM MY ARRRRRMMMMM’ cramp.

So pretty much I am a delight to live with.  Who knows how the family is managing it all.  David bought me a cake and I sat and ate half of it while watching Gypsy Weddings or whatever that show is where the girls all 

get tans all the time.

You want nice baby news?  Well, she’s head down.  Although that could change.  And all is well with both of us, except that I’m very large.  I think I must be the biggest I’ve ever been.  Ah well, who cares.

Today we take Clara to get her inoculations updated, which should be horrific.  And I’d like to buy more cleaning products because I am hoarding them for some reason.  And then go to the stitching group and leave David to manage everything all by himself.  And come home and eat something premade from the freezer.  Perhaps those little chicken wrapped in bacon things.  I should clean out the fridge except that I really just did, and I’m rebelling against the fact that it appears to need it again.  Why should I have to do these things that God has given me to do?  

Baby Loopy

The baby is 'due' in 30 days.  All I can think about is this baby.  Not in a 'Oh wow, a snuggly amazing baby!' way, just a never ending constant loop of baby thoughts.  This is what the inside of my head looks like right now:

Do I have everything for the hospital packed?  No, I still need to bring shampoo.  I should buy shampoo.  Am I really going to use it, though?  Those little tiny hospital bathroom stalls and touching the walls.  Maybe I'll shampoo at home instead.  Right.  So I should bring shampoo.  Wait.  Did I decide not to bring shampoo?  Forget it, come back to it, what else do I need.  I need to make some freezer meals.  I'm too tired to go find a pen.  Let's look online.  Oh but first I should go pack some shampoo.  No, I'm not bringing the shampoo, okay.  No shampoo.  What else.  Freezer meals.  No, I'm too tired to go look for a pen.  Let's finish one thing first - hospital bag.  Right.  I need clothes for me.  I should buy pajamas.  Okay I need to go start a list.  No, that means I need to find a pen.  Maybe I should nap first, THEN find a pen.  No!  Focus!  Oh my word why am I having another baby.  Okay, okay, breathe.  I need pajamas and shampoo.  Possibly.  Oh for heaven's sake just pack the shampoo already.  Right.  And pens.  Maybe I should PACK pens.  Do I need to buy pens?  No, no, calm down, we're not talking about pens.  This is too hard.

So, that's that then.