I need a break

I've had the most incredibly stressful day. And its only noon or so.  And been neglecting my kids.

I need a break.  Heading to the garden now.

The Facebook Fast

So yesterday I decided that I was spending way to much time on Facebook and that we needed some time apart.

I would check it several times a day. Typically when I would sit down to nurse I would check it on the IPAD. I decided it was to much.

I started my fast yesterday morning.  It was funny how many times I went to type in the website and had to stop myself.

today I've had some other projects to distract me so it hasn't been as noticeable. 

How long will this fast last? I don't know. But fast and last rhyme and now I'm a poet. 

Yeah. I don't know. I'm going to try for a few more days. Maybe a week?

Still hanging on

So here we are in the middle of June, still fighting the cold.  I've named this one George so as to differentiate it from the other colds we've been dealing with.

Quinten and Nolan are being as cute as ever.  Quinten is crawling everywhere and exploring.  He loves the freedom.  He has recently found that he can stand by the open dishwasher door.  
Nolan is a good 2 lbs heavier than his twin and has a bigger frame.  He also gets around, but its more of a push with his legs and dig in with his elbows at the same time.  It sort of looks like he is doing a swimming stroke.

They are both babbling a lot more than before.  They both are growing lots of hair, but no haircuts yet. Just a small trim at the ears to keep them looking like boys.

They are both sleeping through the night like champs.

Ned, on the other hand - isn't.  He sleeps through the night most nights, but about 1 out of 3 nights I find him in our room wailing. A wail isn't a normal cry. Its a mouth wide open yell with tears.  At least that is the only way I can think to describe it.   We've always kept a blanket near my side of the bed since kids aren't allowed in our bed. But beside it every now and again is ok.  He's slept their 2x in the last week.

Last night I had a bad dream around 4am and woke up to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom to reset. I heard Ned giving his wail and went to his room to comfort him. I found him at another part of the room. He had picked up a few pieces of laundry and was bringing them to the side of his bed. I don't know what he was doing, but tucked him in and patted his back. He was asleep within a minute.  I'm starting to wonder if it could be sleepwalking?  Of course this possibility could have popped into my head because I had heard my sister talk about her kids and their sleepwalking earlier in the evening. He is sleeping in the same room as his brothers... but could he be scared?

Cecilee and Mia had a birthday party on Saturday.  We had 16 girls come.  They had invited about 24 so I was happy that everyone had not come.  We rented a blow up water slide and obstacle course.  The girls loved it.  They played and played and popped up every now and again to eat chips and hot dogs, get a drink of water, paint nails, make lip gloss and even play with the squirt bottles we had out.  It was a lot of fun.

However, it was weird to hear all of the birthday wishes. See, the girls birthdays are in the fall, but I got this great idea to give them a summer party. I told some of the parents, and offered it if it came up, but I still felt like I was trying to deceive everyone. Especially weird as we were saying goodbye and a couple of girls wished them happy birthday on the way out.  Oh well.  It was probably just me making it a big deal in my mind.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and seemed like a success. We are still cleaning up today.

 One interesting thing was that only a couple of the girls were from school.  Most were from their soccer teams and church.  So any worries I have about the kids being non social if I were to choose homeschooling are not bugging me much.  They meet a lot of kids at church and at soccer.  Right now they are in softball and are meeting even more kids.  The nice thing about all of these sports is that you see a lot of familiar faces along the way. you have parents who have their kids in soccer and softball and basket ball (like us sometimes) and you have those who choose 1 of the sports and you see those kids once a year for 6 or so weeks.  So you find old friends again and also have familiar faces.  I think the kids have many social opportunities.

The kids are starting softball and this week is the 2nd week of games.  They seem to be enjoying it. The whole family is going today and we'll see how that goes.  I'm sure the twins will behave. Its Ned I'm worried about.  A few weeks ago he tripped on the pavement and scraped his nose and lip.  It is healed despite his constant picking at it.

We've been working in the garden and remodeling it a bit this year.  Working on drip lines and not watering the weeds.  We are battling weeds since we kind of let the garden go last year because of me being so pregnant.

I don't know that we will have much fruit to deal with this year. We lost an apple tree to a bore last year and had to replace it this year. So no apples.  We had a weird series of late frosts so the apricots and peaches and nectarines are probably not going to do well. Also, we ripped out our pie cherry bushes and replaced them with a cherry tree. So we don't have any cherries on the other tree because they didn't get pollinated.  But, the golden raspberries look good. :)  And the boys are eating up all of the peach and nectarine and apricot puree from last year. So yay for that.

Summer is upon us

So we have another cold.  This time it is one that is fleghmy and sticks in the back of your throat. Sore throat, irritated cough. Its a good one.  Here is hoping that this endless cold ends soon. We're tired of it.

Summer is here.  We have so many things we want to do and so little time it seems. 

Still looking at homeschooling options. We are now looking at http://www.idahoidea.org/Main/Default.aspx Which seems to fit a lot of our criteria, if only I could really take the time to sit down and look through everything.  Hopefully this weekend.

I made mozzarella cheese yesterday that was a total failure.  It never stretched and just became crumbly.  Hmm.

The girls have given me a list of things they want to learn to cook this summer as well as other things they want to have classes in. 

So far we have worked on Waffles and pizza.  My miserable mozzarella was used on the pizza. The girls were successful with the pizza. I ruined it. but it was edible. So I guess you take what you can get.  I've enjoyed these classes so far and wonder if they will enjoy the next lesson, which is how when you cook, you also get to wash the dishes.  

Another thing the girls want to do this summer is make quilts. Thanks to Aunt Alyson who gave us bags and bags of extra fabric this is possible.  However, I'm not sure when we can find the time. Perhaps in July?

Ned is finally saying Yes and Yeah.  After months using No for and answer for both, this is a breakthrough.

This summer feels packed.  We went to a birthday party last year where they had a blow up water slide and it was a lot of fun and seemed easy. So this year we rented one and both the girls will be having a birthday party despite the fact that their birthdays are in the fall.  We printed up 25 invitations and they invited at least that many friends and a few more who had siblings.  I just hope that only about half of them show up. We will also be making lip gloss and painting nails, along with snacks and birthday cake, I hope everyone has a good time.

Then about 2 weeks later we have a family reunion.  I have sooo much to do for the reunion.  Its hard to not feel crazy.  but I'm just trying to get organized and its gotten better since I asked one of my sisters to work with me on my family reunion assignment.

After that our summer is free. I'm thinking of signing the girls up for swimming lessons for 2 weeks.

Why is summer so busy?  I thought it was a break, but I've found myself more busy now that when school was in.  Weird.