On Wednesday Tony and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. It seems like so much longer than that, but only 10 (plus the 2 1/2 before were married). It is also 10 years of military service for Tony this month. He'll be celebrating that in the field next week. It has been a wild and crazy ride and sometimes I forget to slow down and enjoy the moments. We have 6 amazing, happy and healthy children. We have a wonderful commitment to each other. We have stable lives with an income we can live on. I love the place we are in life and I need to slow down and just live in the moments instead of waiting for the next big thing. However I am excited to spend the rest of my life with my husband raising our family the best that we can.
This week we have been working on potty training Abbie. Whoever said girls were easier was full of it. It took us longer to get her to even pee on the toilet than any of the 4 previously potty trained boys. However we are now on day 4 and things are getting better. She is in underwear at the house and will go willingly on the toilet. She is still catching on to her body cues, but so am I and then I can help her avoid an accident. We still haven't gotten her to poop on the potty, but hopefully that will be coming soon. The biggest challenge will be finding her pants to wear since she is so skinny. And for dresses underwear are too revealing for Tony or I to feel comfortable out in just a dress.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Taking a school break
After much deliberation I finally decided that the kids and I would take a 4 week break from school. We had only taken 1 whole week off since we started school in September. It has also given me time to work on next year's curriculum. I have most of it figured out except the English and History.
For English I'm trying to find a program they can mostly do by themselves as well as one we can afford times 3. Many get quite expensive and then you have to pay for the teacher's guide which confuses me. If I could see the curriculum I could decide if I needed the teacher's guide or not. However since I have to order online it is hard to get a good feel for the layout and requirements. I do not like the books we used this year for English and Zavier didn't even have an English curriculum as a first grader his was mostly encompassed in other stuff. I also don't want to go to cheap and end up with having to supplement their learning as English is something I don't want them to fall behind in.
For History I would love something that has visuals, e-books and cd's. I do think that is out there I just need to figure out what it is and if we're interested. I read to the kids daily when the littles go down for nap so I need something that can be read on the ipad since I sit in the dark and sometimes have to juggle nursing or just cuddling Mason or Abbie. Also being able to listen to info in the car would be nice. The kids enjoy listening to books on CD. I would also prefer the interesting parts of History and not the droning on of boring stuff. I know if I'm bored with it the kids are even more bored and that's no fun.
We have 5 weeks left after we return at the end of April to finish out this year and then we will jump into next year starting in June with another month off in September. It gets pretty warm here so doing outside stuff during the summer is exhausting so we'll school all summer and then take more breaks in the winter/cooler season to maximize our outdoor activities.
Baby Mason is growing like a weed. He's about 3lbs from doubling his birth weight and he's only 6 weeks. The kids have all done well adapting to having him in the house. The hardest part for me is cooking as he seems to want to be held or nurse every time I go to cook a meal. He will occasionally let Tony or Zachary hold him so I can get it ready, but then I'm usually stuck eating over his head. Last night I ate spaghetti over his head. He is a big cuddle bug. He sleeps pretty well at night as long as we're snuggled up. Which as long as he's sleeping I can handle. Tony is getting ready to go to a little over a month in the field so Mason will have his own half of the king size bed. Now if I could just get Zander and Abbie to stay in bed all night and sleep until 7 we'd be set.
The big kids are enjoying the break from school, but I do think that they are a little bored as the fighting has increased. They have gotten to play the xbox more since that is something that we usually never allow as we prefer they play outside or with hand on toys.
Abbie turned 2 on the 1st of April. We had a nice family party for her where she got her girly dress up clothes and her fun girly toys. However the boys love playing with her girly toys and will fight her for them. She's a very naughty little girl as she is constantly getting into things she's not supposed to. Like all day long we get her out of stuff. Everyone in the house is tired of getting her out of things. She's quite the little talker though and she's so cute. She says her ABC's and counts skipping a few letters or numbers, but pretty well. She really is a fun change of pace from the boys (other than the constantly getting into stuff). She pretty smart so we no longer can out smart her with putting things up or locking cabinets. Although we do have our glass cabinet tied with a green army sock. Her hair is really starting to grow out and we need to get her more used to having a clip or a top knot to keep it out of her eyes. I keep telling her when it starts getting in her eyes she'll have to have something in her hair all the time to keep it out.
For English I'm trying to find a program they can mostly do by themselves as well as one we can afford times 3. Many get quite expensive and then you have to pay for the teacher's guide which confuses me. If I could see the curriculum I could decide if I needed the teacher's guide or not. However since I have to order online it is hard to get a good feel for the layout and requirements. I do not like the books we used this year for English and Zavier didn't even have an English curriculum as a first grader his was mostly encompassed in other stuff. I also don't want to go to cheap and end up with having to supplement their learning as English is something I don't want them to fall behind in.
For History I would love something that has visuals, e-books and cd's. I do think that is out there I just need to figure out what it is and if we're interested. I read to the kids daily when the littles go down for nap so I need something that can be read on the ipad since I sit in the dark and sometimes have to juggle nursing or just cuddling Mason or Abbie. Also being able to listen to info in the car would be nice. The kids enjoy listening to books on CD. I would also prefer the interesting parts of History and not the droning on of boring stuff. I know if I'm bored with it the kids are even more bored and that's no fun.
We have 5 weeks left after we return at the end of April to finish out this year and then we will jump into next year starting in June with another month off in September. It gets pretty warm here so doing outside stuff during the summer is exhausting so we'll school all summer and then take more breaks in the winter/cooler season to maximize our outdoor activities.
Baby Mason is growing like a weed. He's about 3lbs from doubling his birth weight and he's only 6 weeks. The kids have all done well adapting to having him in the house. The hardest part for me is cooking as he seems to want to be held or nurse every time I go to cook a meal. He will occasionally let Tony or Zachary hold him so I can get it ready, but then I'm usually stuck eating over his head. Last night I ate spaghetti over his head. He is a big cuddle bug. He sleeps pretty well at night as long as we're snuggled up. Which as long as he's sleeping I can handle. Tony is getting ready to go to a little over a month in the field so Mason will have his own half of the king size bed. Now if I could just get Zander and Abbie to stay in bed all night and sleep until 7 we'd be set.
The big kids are enjoying the break from school, but I do think that they are a little bored as the fighting has increased. They have gotten to play the xbox more since that is something that we usually never allow as we prefer they play outside or with hand on toys.
Abbie turned 2 on the 1st of April. We had a nice family party for her where she got her girly dress up clothes and her fun girly toys. However the boys love playing with her girly toys and will fight her for them. She's a very naughty little girl as she is constantly getting into things she's not supposed to. Like all day long we get her out of stuff. Everyone in the house is tired of getting her out of things. She's quite the little talker though and she's so cute. She says her ABC's and counts skipping a few letters or numbers, but pretty well. She really is a fun change of pace from the boys (other than the constantly getting into stuff). She pretty smart so we no longer can out smart her with putting things up or locking cabinets. Although we do have our glass cabinet tied with a green army sock. Her hair is really starting to grow out and we need to get her more used to having a clip or a top knot to keep it out of her eyes. I keep telling her when it starts getting in her eyes she'll have to have something in her hair all the time to keep it out.
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