Bliss

My two clients gave birth, one right after the other. Beautiful births, both of them. The look on the mom's face when she first sees her baby is really what I live for. That look of pure bliss is so amazing and special...

I missed my interview for nursing school because I was at a birth. But they were more than happy to reschedule it for me.

The kids are doing great. The girls are making cardboard houses for a Girl Scout project. The Mermaid is making a house and The Guppy is making a fairy house. This is one of those projects I delegated to The Knight to do with them. Since I started my second job as a server at a local hotel I've had a lot less time, but The Knight was able to quit his second job and he's had a lot more time to spend with the kids, which is great.

The kids also got their first vaccines recently. I was not vaccinating but now that they are older I'm going to have them get a select few.

Other good news - we were able to pay off another credit card. Our debt snowball is moving along quite nicely!

Things continue to look up for us, an it's amazing!

Bliss

Monday Rambling

It's Monday morning, I'm sitting at the computer drinking my coffee and all I can think is "I hate burpees."

In an effort to get more tone and build strength, I'm participating in a 100 day Burpee Challenge. Today is day 6. It was not pretty, at all. But, I am so so so sooo close to my 60lb weight loss goal, I can taste it. And so I will try to get through all 100 days in an effort to get to my goal before my birthday in June.

And that's my life right now. I'm with the kids all day, and I work as a server at nights, and I squeeze in my workouts whenever I can.

I'm on call for two clients right now and I'm really excited to be at their births.

The girls are doing great in school, The Tadpole is being his usual sweet and destructive self.

Things are....happy.

I have my interview for nursing school in a couple of weeks. This program will make me an LPN in 10 months. Then a year after I graduate, I can take the exam to be an IBCLC and open a private practice. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about that. Knowing that after over 7 years of staying home with my kids, I will actually have my own thing. A career. Like most adults do.

I LOVE my children with all my heart. I love AP parenting. I don't regret staying home with them at all. But...they're getting older. Even The Tadpole doesn't need me nearly as much as he used to. I will still be there, with them, the majority of the time...but it will be nice to get out of the house and have something on my own to do, that I actually get official recognition for.

I definitely feel like I'm going through a transition. I'm still a breastfeeding mother, but I am done having children. When The Tadpole decides to wean...that's it. So I'm trying to decide what I will eventually do with this blog. These days it's hard to keep up with updating it. For now, I will keep posting about our lives...but don't be surprised if the topics of focus aren't the same as they used to be.

For the first time ever, I feel like I am growing up. Does that make sense?

Monday Rambling

First Badges

The Guppy is loving being a Daisy Girl Scout and has already earned two parts of the Daisy flower: the promise center patch and the Tula the Tulip Petal. She was so excited when I ironed them on that she could barely wait for her tunic to cool off before she insisted on wearing it. She is very excited to show her new friends at the Girl Scout meeting tomorrow morning.

The Mermaid is also loving Girl Scouts. She loves the idea of being a Brownie Elf and is on step three of earning her first badge, the Painting Badge. They both also want to earn the Safety Badge next.

The girls had both chosen a Journey book to do, and I'm not really sure how they are supposed to earn the Journey badges, so if there are any other GS moms out there who can chime in, let me know :)

First Badges

Blossoming Reader

My voice is literally hoarse from all the reading to the girls that I have been doing. They are determined to earn their Six Flag tickets! The Mermaid has been reading up a storm, both to herself and her siblings.

We decided to create a new reading chart. The Mermaid did most of the work. Each cloud holds ten cotton balls. She gets one cotton ball for each book she reads on her own; when she fills up a cloud, she gets a small set of Squinkies from Target.

For so long I wondered why The Mermaid struggled so much with reading. The Knight and I LOVE to read. We read every night, the TV is barely on, and the girls see us read so often, I guess I just thought they would follow our example and learn to love reading as well. I'm so happy to see The Mermaid finally blossoming as a reader and finally starting to enjoy reading, after all the struggles we went through. I really feel we have turned a corner and I am so grateful that I was able to be with her and see her overcome her obstacles with reading.

Blossoming Reader

March Goals

Tomorrow is the first day of March and I've thought of some goals that I want to commit to for the month.

Goal #1: Get to the gym at least four times a week.

Since I've had some setbacks with my running and had to change my racing plans, I really want to get back on track. I plan on running in Diva Dash in September, and a half-marathon in October. In order to do that I need to get my butt in gear and stay committed.

Goal #2: Track what I eat, every day.

This just keeps me on track with my eating. I use SparkPeople to track my food and exercise, and DailyMile to track my running. I find tracking my eating makes me more mindful of my food choices and keeps me honest.

Goal #3: Finish my CBE Certification. I've been dragging with this for what feels like forever and I'm very close to being done. I just need to schedule the time in and do it already!

Anyone else have any goals for March? What are they?

March Goals

Books, Books, Books.

We're year-round homeschoolers. I find it works better for us because then if I need to take some time off from homeschooling during the year, there is still plenty of time to play catch-up without worrying about it cutting into our "summer vacation". Take January, for instance. For some reason, January was a crazy month for us, and we ended up taking most of it off. And it worked out well. We got to breathe a little, straighten some things out in our lives that had fallen to the wayside, and get back on track.

Right before Christmas, The Mermaid finished The Story of The World Volume I. She also finished up the first volume of The Complete Writer and we are starting the second volume today.

For the most part, The Mermaid enjoys all the subjects she studies (especially math and science) but she really struggles with reading. I know that she can read, but she is such a perfectionist that it gets in her way. If she sees a word that she doesn't know by heart right off the bat, she gets frustrated and wants to give up. I try to explain to her that it's okay if she doesn't know the word, that's why we sound it out, but she doesn't like that answer. I've finally resorted to bribery - for every book she reads, she gets a star. Ten stars means she can pick out a small treat at the toy store. Since we've started her star chart, she's been a lot more willing. Then recently the Six Flags reading program was pointed out to me and I signed her up. What a motivator! As I'm typing this, she's in the other room, reading books to The Tadpole and The Guppy.

The Guppy is enjoying school as well. I read to her a lot, and she is working her way through Math U See Primer and doing very well with it. We're also doing The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and she enjoys it a lot. I'm glad I switched from How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - that book just caused a lot of frustration with The Mermaid and I didn't want to repeat that!

For all you other homeschoolers out there - what are you working on? Unit studies? Lapbooks? I love to see the great ideas floating around out there!

Books, Books, Books.

Dare to Dream

This past Friday, my cousin and I took the kids to see Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream. The girls LOVE Disney on Ice, and once again, it did not disappoint.

Dare to Dream focuses on the story of three princesses and how they made their dreams come true: Tatiana, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. The Guppy's two favorite princesses are Cinderella and Rapunzel, so she was especially excited to see the show. And The Mermaid was practically jumping out of her chair with excitement.

This show was also the first time The Tadpole showed any interested. Well, for some of it, anyway. When the story focused on the princesses, he looked rather bored and uninterested:

But, he LOVES Mickey Mouse now, so whenever Mickey came out between sets, he was thrilled. He was pointing and yelling Mickey! Mickey! with a huge smile on his face. It was the best.

If you're interested in going to see Dare to Dream with your kids, you can check out ticket information here.

Dare to Dream

Summer Plans

I remember every summer growing up, I went to camp. I LOVED it!! Making new friends, having such fun activities to do all day...it was the perfect summer getaway.

I'm so excited because I just signed The Mermaid up for her first summer camp! She's going to be going to Oasis Day Camp for two weeks :)

Looking at all the camps in the area, I really liked what Oasis has to offer. I had an opportunity to speak to Bernie Tessler, President and CEO of Oasis Camps. Bernie took the time to explain that Oasis takes pride in the hiring and training of their staff; Oasis camps are highly sought after as employers for teachers and students studying childhood development and education.

Established in 2000, Oasis has had over 50,000 children attend their camps and has built its programs around the Oasis Core Values:

1. Oasis gives children the tools they need to succeed in school and in life.

2. Oasis creates communities for children that are safe havens emotionally and physically.

3. Oasis staff members build self confidence by being positive, supportive, and kind.

4. Oasis encourages children to embrace new experiences and to learn new skills.

5. Oasis staff members are role models who teach through their own behaviors and attitudes.

Oasis camps offer activities in art, drama, swimming, sports, and other outdoor activities. They are highly respected and are the ONLY camp allowed in Central Park.

I'm so excited to see what memories The Mermaid will create. I think she will love her camp experience just as much as I loved mine!!

Oasis Day Camp of Worcester on Facebook

Disclosure: This post was compensated through a promotion between MomSelect and Oasis Day Camp. All opinions I write about Oasis Day Camp are 100% my own.

Summer Plans

Training Setbacks

January pretty much sucked in terms of running. I was having problems with my back, leading my chiro to suggest that I get x-rays done to see what was going on. Turns out I have a really weird curve to my lower back. Now I need to get physical therapy to build up the muscles around the spine and hold it in place, to keep it from curving back again.

With all the back pain, I had to stop my half-marathon training. The race I was training for, the American Cancer Society DertermiNation, is at the end of this month, and there was just no way I was going to be ready. I am so bummed!! But I need to take it easier and not injure myself even further.

Last week I had a stomach bug and was still dealing with back issues, so I missed running for an entire week. Not cool!! But, I finally got to the gym this morning and ran an easy 3 miles, it felt great! I am still hoping to run the Run For Your Lives Zombie Run in May, and I think I'm going to then train for another half-marathon in October: The Amica Half-Marathon in Newport, RI. I'm excited about this one because I love Newport, it is so beautiful!! And since it is in October, that gives me plenty of time to take it easy and train at a healthy pace.

I've got a list of books going on running and marathons and such, including Chi Running, The Runner's World Running for Mortals, and Marathon.

Any runners out there with other books they would recommend?

Training Setbacks

Nurture

This girl cracks me up every day. She's funny, sweet, and very caring. Always trying to help others, especially when she's sick.

Now she's the one who is sick, with a yucky stomach bug. I get her some juice and cuddle her close, and I'm happy to be able to be there for her, poor baby.

So far this stomach bug has gone through me, and now The Guppy. Hopefully it ends there.

Nurture

Hiding The Chairs

My how it has been a while.

Our holidays were great. Christmas was one of the best ever, with The Tadpole being old enough to open presents and play with his gifts, he was too cute! Then things got busy and kind of stayed busy, until finally I realized that it had been a month since I lasted posted here.

So, here are some updates:

 The Guppy is still taking dance, and still loving it. She is also loving her "school time." Right now she is doing Math-U-See Primer, handwriting, and learning how to read. She spends most of her day drawing and asking me how to spell words, then carefully writing them down on the paper.

 The Tadpole...well, there is so much I can say about him. I can tell you that he is the main reason why I haven't had much time to write here. It started right after Christmas, when he suddenly wanted to nurse constantly, throughout the entire day. He had teeth coming in, a growth spurt....it was all fine and good. But it continued, and continued...and then, two weeks ago he decided that he was going to get into more mischief than he normally does. He is so sweet, so easy going, so cute, so cuddly....and such a pain in the butt!!

This is my typical day with The Tadpole: after breakfast, he nurses. And nurses. And nurses. I try to convince him to play with some toys, he refuses. Finally I tell him "No more na-nas" and start the girls school. While I'm getting their books, he drags the kitchen chair over to the counter, stands on it, and tries to smash the coffee maker. Or turn the water on in the sink. Or play with the knives. Or turn knobs on the stove. Or get into the dishwasher...you get the picture.

I come back in, take him down, push the chair back to the table, he immediately walks over and pushes back to the counter. And we repeat. All day. Every day.

I have a dear friend who has a darling little boy, and once I went over her house and she had removed all the chairs from the kitchen. At the time, I thought it was over-kill.

I totally get it now.


Oh, how this little boy drives me nuts. I recently found my first grey hair, and when I found it, I really wasn't surprised.

He drives me dearly, and I couldn't possibly love him more.

And now, The Mermaid. My little mother. She's so caring and kind to her younger siblings, always helping them, always reading to Hunter or playing with him, and comforting him when he cries.

She's really enjoying astronomy and history, and of course math. She still struggles with reading a little, however, but it's something we are working on.

She's also taking art classes and tomorrow is her first Girl Scouts meeting.

That's pretty much what we've been up to. My goal is to post at least 3 times per week. You know, in between hiding the kitchen chairs.

Hiding The Chairs