Ten things

One of the reasons I have been wooed by Facebook is because of its brevity. I can make a one-comment status update and be off the computer in a matter of minutes. Recently, a few minutes is often all I have; and I rarely have time to put together a cohesive post.

So here's my attempt to give you a little glimpse into how we're doing, more Facebook- style than Blog-style:

1. While we're on the topic of Facebook: Does any other FB user wish for a "Like" button in Blogger?

2. I wanted to let my blog readers know (those of you who are left!) that I have been much more faithful lately in commenting back to you in the comments section. If you've left a comment on one of my posts, I've likely left you one back. [I used to do this much more but had gotten out of the habit. I missed it, so I'm back at it.]

3. I think we can officially say that Audra is sleeping through the night. It's been a couple weeks of NO nighttime wake-ups. She goes down sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 at night and wakes up usually during the 5 or 6 o'clock hour. This morning it was 7:00. Hence, we are sleeping well. [Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, sweet Audra.]

4. Ella is learning how to tell time, and that's fun.

5. I had forgotten that breastfeeding means that you sit down a whole lot more! Each evening Audra does a couple hours of some pretty serious nursing, "tanking up" for a good night's sleep, and I find myself stuck to the couch. So I've been reading books and blogs (but not necessarily commenting) and watching more TV.

6. A few books I've recently finished and can recommend:
Stepping Heavenward
Same Kind of Different as Me
To Kill a Mockingbird [I just read this book for the first time ever. I can't believe I've gone this long in life without "knowing" Atticus Finch as a character.]

7. The TV shows we're watching:
LOST
Survivor
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (the one show that consistently makes both Mark and I tear up)
Finally, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I'm going to anyway: Dancing With the Stars.
And every week I say: "I wish we could watch American Idol online." It's the one other show we would watch if we could, but since we do all of our TV viewing online, it's not an option.

8. We rarely leave the house. In fact, aside from our weekly trips to church and small group, I think I could count on one hand the times we've all gone out. It's just easier to stay home, so we do.

9. I'm really enjoying Kendra's Marvelous Monday series. And Cheryl's, too. Packed with great homeschooling resources from mothers who've been doing this longer than I have. Also, I'm really looking forward to Part 2 of Kendra's Drowning in Home Management series. The "drowning" part happens to be rather relevant in this season of my life.

10. We took several pictures of all five kids yesterday after church. Here's the best one:

Random thoughts at 5:00 am

I see now that it's actually 5:22 am. I've been awake since 4:30. Don't ask me why. I'm tired and would like very much to go back to sleep, and have spent the better part of an hour trying to do just that, but sleep eludes me. My brain is too full. So, here's what I've been thinking about for the past hour:

-Adelia's nap schedule: She's been faithfully (and happily) taking a morning and an afternoon nap every day, until about a week and a half ago, when I'd lay her down for her morning nap and she didn't seem tired. Eventually she'd sleep, but then not for very long. Then for her afternoon nap, she would sleep much less (which means that I wasn't getting my afternoon nap; and that's really hard to swallow at this stage in my life.)

It never even dawned on me that she might be transitioning to one nap a day until Amy mentioned it to me last week. [Um...isn't she too young for that?] So I've tried that tactic for the past several days: holding her off until her afternoon nap. And that's not working either. Ugh. I asked Mark last night what he thought about Adelia's new nap schedule, and he said something to the effect of her being tired and cranky most of the day (he's been home for the past two days) because of it; so today we're going back to a two-nap schedule.

So tell me: When did your children make the transition? I forget when it happened with our other children.

-Family Christmas photo: Every year at this time I get severely stressed about getting a picture taken for our family Christmas card. We are later this year than I'd like: due to Adelia's chicken pox that we were waiting to clear up and the fact that, unfortunately- we don't have any friends or family members that are budding photographers and want to take our family picture.

Maybe this year we'll just go with a children-only shot. But I'd really rather have the whole family- especially since one of our children is currently in my belly. But the thing about the kids-only photo is that it's easier. There are plenty of opportunities we have to take pictures of the kids together, AND Mark and I can engage our children to smile for the camera while others can't. And then we don't have to find someone to tag along with us to take our photo. Ugh. See? It's stressful. Maybe we should skip the picture altogether this year.

-Christmas gifts: Aack! I have way too many gifts yet to buy. I wish we had smaller extended families; quite honestly, this time of year. I felt like I was doing really good until I sat down the other day and realized that most of the gifts I've bought over the last several months are for the birthdays of friends/family that crop up around this time of year, not for Christmas.

And I have no idea what to get Mark for Christmas this year, either.

And then there are the stumpers on my list, like: What on earth does a 13-year old boy want for Christmas? That age is just completely out of my range. I have NO idea. [If you have ideas, leave them in the comments, please!]

-Freezer meals: It's my goal for this pregnancy to make-ahead a bunch of meals to stock our freezer with. Then when the baby comes, I can be a little less stressed when it comes to meal-times at our house. [And yes, our church family is amazing about bringing meals when babies are born, but I'd like to have some of our own, too.]

Oh, but first: we need a freezer. Our chest freezer is older than the hills, and I want an upright freezer so that things won't get lost in the bottom of our freezer (out of sight, out of mind). Who has time to go shopping for a new freezer, pray tell me? Not us.

And I really should put off this whole making-meals thought until after the holidays, because it's not like I'm going to be able to make any meals within the next month or so. But then, if I don't? Am I really going to feel like doing it when the holidays pass and I'm a [large] 8 months pregnant?

That might be all I was anxious about. Maybe I can fall asleep now that I've dumped it all out, here? I'm going to try. I will not check Bloglines, email or Facebook. I will go crawl into bed. It's not quite six, so technically, I could still squeeze in another half-hour of sleep if I fall asleep FAST.

Ten random things...

I feel like this is such a cheater post, but I haven't had the time lately to sit down and type an entire post on any one topic, but I have lots of thoughts swirling around so here you go:

1. Today I had my 20-week ultrasound. Baby (and belly) are growing, and every evening now I hold Mark's hand over my belly to see if he can feel the baby moving from the outside yet. (Not quite yet, although I'm sure it will be any day.)

2. Adelia is about ready to crawl. I regularly tell her, "Mama is not ready for you to start crawling, sweet girl. So don't even think about it." And then there's Mark, who- every opportunity he gets- gets on the floor on his hands and knees, and tries to teach her how to get that one leg out of the way that keeps holding her back. ~smile~ I know very well why she wants to crawl: she must keep up with those busy brothers and sister of hers.

3. The Steelers play tonight in Monday Night Football, which makes this one of the happiest days of my husbands' year. :)

4. I'm making a Sweet Potato Pie later. I've never before in my life made one of those, but I'm guessing Mark will LOVE it since Sweet Potatoes and Pies are right up there on the top of his favorites list.

5. Isaac is sitting at the floor by my feet, the tub of crayons beside him; peeling the outside papers off the crayons and humming a tune. [He's got a long way to go, but seems to be really enjoying himself.]

6. Adelia is in my arms, here in the rocking chair, fussy; because she woke too early from her nap.

7. We're almost finished reading These Happy Golden Years. I love reading about how Almanzo courted Laura. I told Mark last night that I might literally cry when we finish this series. I mean, I GET that there are other great read-alouds out there, but there's this sentimental part of me that feels it's all downhill from here. :) I'm glad Adelia is so little; that means we'll get to read the series all over again in a few years.

8. The days of hanging our laundry out on the clothesline are over. This past Spring/Summer was the first time I did this consistently, and I loved it.

9. I just ran the dishwasher using homemade dishwasher detergent. I'll let you know how it goes.

10. Oh! I keep forgetting to tell you that Michelle posted on her blog about our recent road trip. Bonus: two of the pictures in that post are of my children. :)

And now I must really get dinner together. And that pie.

Love to you!

Randomness

-I think by now you're all aware of my affection for ice cream. Well. Here's some big news: my friend Talia has won me over to a new favorite ice cream. This right here: Haagen-Dazs Sorbet ice cream. Mango is especially good. Or Orchard Peach. (Talia, have I even told you this?--from that one time you and Jake brought it over here?) It's the only kind of ice cream I want to eat lately. And it's fat free. Soooo good.

-Mark has the day off this Wednesday and the plan- weather permitting- is that we will plant our garden! I am oh-so happy with the idea of beginning our garden again. Ella has told me several times that she wants her own little garden space, so we'll be factoring that in, too. [When I asked her what she wanted to plant in her garden, she said, "Those flowers daddy gave me for May Day and some fruit. But I haven't decided which fruit yet." This, from a girl who hates fruit.] And, we're going to have to come up with a plan to keep these girls out of their favorite-spot-to-take-a-dust-bath:


-In other news, we are four months behind on balancing our checkbook. Anyone want to guess what we're doing tonight? Ugh. I make it a habit to begin every single balancing-the-checkbook session with a prayer that God would help us balance to the penny. I usually begin, and go through everything once, only to find out that it's off, and then I hand it over to Mark, who goes over it all again, and who always finds all of my errors. ~smile~ Who does this delightful chore in your house?

-I'm in the market for a new sling. I love the Maya wrap of Amy's that I'm borrowing, but the problem is that in that sideways position, Addie always wants to eat. So my other option is our Baby Bjorn. Which I love- for it's support- but not for around the house. It's just not as cozy. I'd love something where she could be face up, against my chest, but more cozy than the Bjorn. Any suggestions?

-After I posted this post about doing embroidery with Ella, Randi from I Have To Say... asked me if I would write up something for her other cute blog, Me and My Girl (which is devoted to mother-daughter crafts). I said yes, and that post is up over there today. I regularly read both of Randi's blogs, so if you haven't discovered them yet, check 'em out!

-My dearest friend Amy (and family) were on vacation for all of last week. [Wonderful for them, lonely for me.] They're home again now, so all is right again with my world. Welcome back!

-Michelle tells me I should give everyone an update on the April decluttering and how that went. Oh, yeah. I'll do that. Soon.

-Mark and I are reading this book aloud to each other right now. We've tried this before, the reading-aloud thing. And it didn't work so well. [I prefer to see the words, not hear them, I can read a book so much faster when I'm reading it by myself, I'm impatient, etc] But we're giving it another go. We're taking turns, chapter by chapter. So far, so good.

-Time for me to go and make some dinner. Tonight we're having Chicken & Broccoli Calzones. Never heard of those before? ME NEITHER. I'm making it up as I go along. Wish me luck! :)