We’ve had a couple days of light sprinkles and showers. The girls love it and spend a lot of time either in the rain or sitting at the window watching it. Just a couple moments ago it began to rain and all the kids crowded around the window to watch.

I happened to overhear DD1 explain to her younger sisters the origin of rain.

“When water comes down and mixes with oil, it makes rain. That’s where rain comes from.

Silly girl. I have no idea where she came up with that idea. Maybe because I always talk about roads being slick with rain? At any rate, it sounds like we need to do a unit study on weather.

Last night DD1’s soccer association had their end of season banquet. Dh had to work, so I wrangled the kiddos and we went out to enjoy the evening with DD1’s soccer team. Her coach gave each of the kids a framed picture of the team, as well as a few images of each kid on their own. In fact she had a whole goody bag filled with neat little “thank you for being such a great team player” type gifts. DD1 was blown away.

She was even more excited once she realized that she was getting a trophy. She’s been obsessed about the idea of getting a trophy since she started dance and noticed all the Dance trophies on display. She already has cleared out a spot on her shelf for the trophy. She won’t stop talking about it and desperately can’t wait until she can show it to her Grandma P.

Last night on the way home from the Banquet I overheard her in the backseat talking to herself:

“I’m going to call Grandma to tell her about the trophy. She’s going to be sooo excited! She’s going to say, ‘Oh my! A trophy. How wonderful. That is sooo special.’ Then I’m gong to say to Grandma, ‘I know. Thank you very much.”

Hee hee.

Yesterday kicked off the Olympics. (In case you were hiding under a rock and you missed it.) I wasn’t planning on watching the opening ceremony. For no other reason except for I get totally annoyed that it takes so stinking long to get to “United States of America” during the Parade of Nations. As it turns out, though, my two eldest were interested in the fireworks (giant exploding footprints… doesn’t get any cooler.) So, we left it on and watched the ceremony. At least we watched most of it. I kept it on through a third of the Parade of Nations and then had to convince the girls to go to bed.

Ironically, we still missed the US entrance, even with the unique character stroke scoring system they used (instead of the standard Alphabet listing.) So this morning we watched the important portions that we missed on nbc’s olympic site: www.nbcolympics.com

Olympic kick-off aside, the girls and I also celebrated 08-08-08 by going to the Children’s Museum with a friend and her kiddos. The girls really enjoy the Children’s discovery area. They have a new hot air balloon exhibit that fascinated both DD1 and DD2. We talked a little bit about hot air rising and they enjoyed pressing the button and watching the whole process in practice.

If I remember, I plan on taking them back to the Plano Balloon fest again this year. We went last year when DD3 was just a few days old. I know they’d enjoy returning and seeing life size hot air balloons in action.

I’ve sat down, on more than one occasion, to update everyone on how things are going on this end. I open up this page to start typing and without fail I am interrupted.

Wish me luck. Because, at this point, it feels like it’s been so long since the last update, I’m not sure where to begin.

So, let me start by saying that DD2’s speech therapy continues to be a success. She is saying spontaneous two word sentences now. A quantum leap from December. There has been some concerns about speech apraxia, but as of yet no official diagnosis. I think that as long as she continues to show marked improvement, we are all reluctant to stick too large of a label on the delay.

DD2 continues to be a very shy and concertedly organized little person. She likes to have things in order and could care less about being in the lime light. Quite the polar opposite of DD1. Whom craves attention like the air she breaths.

DD1 is currently in gymnastics and adores the exercise. She desperately wants to do the flips that the big girls do in “team” gymnastics. I’m all the time catching her in her room trying to do round offs and other such craziness. So, with the help of her coach, we’re working on getting her backbend strengthened and I’m trying to have her do more stretches. Anything to keep her mind off flipping off her bed! (I have pictures to prove the devastation that can occur when a four year old meets the footboard of her bed after attempting a hand spring.)

In addition to her physical aspirations, DD1 has become quite the negotiator. It’s a fantastic trait, that is easily abused by overuse. Still, we’re enjoying the “grown up” conversations. Even if she insists on saying “misappeared” instead of “disappeared” and “skunk screen” instead of “sun screen.”

DD3 is 9 months old now. She is cruising around the house. Using the wall for leverage when she runs out of furniture. She can stand on her own now. Although it scares her when she realizes she’s doing it. DD3 is saying all kinds of words. My favorites include “nonono” complete with head shake. And sometimes she mimics me and hollers “RA-RA” (her attempt at her eldest sister’s name.)

I had to leave DD3 with my mom last Saturday for an all day Behavior Management training. I was reluctant to be separated for such a length of time. But as it turned out we all survived. It’s so bitter sweet to think of my baby girl being so independent. Thankfully, though, it will be a whole year before I have to do that training again. So we won’t (or shouldn’t) have to test the waters of independence too frequently.

Our son is doing well. Because of privacy rights I can’t really update you on how things are for him. But will say that his smiles have become such a highlight of my day. I wish everyone of you could know him. Because he’s pretty amazing. It’s hard to imagine life without him at this point. I’ve really enjoyed being a mother to four. Even if I sometimes wonder at my own sanity.

As far as me…
I’m staying busy. Between FP training, workshops, LLL, playgroups, spinning guild and general parenting, I find that my calendar remains full. I only have one more project that I’m attempting to find a way to fit on my plate. And that is homeschool this fall. I’m joining together with some local friends to start a cooperative. And hope to order Sonlights P4/5 curriculum. I went back and forth on what I really wanted to do this fall, and when it came down to it, what I wanted more than anything was to open up DD1’s world of learning, introduce Handwriting Without Tears, and just take it easy. The Sonlight program is closest to what I want. A literature based curriculum that is not heavy handed with workbooks and seat work.

I’ve heard suggestions for other approaches and have made a pointed effort to just take it easy and not get too hung up on philosophies. DD1 adamantly wants to do “school” this fall. She keeps talking about the yellow bus and her “teachers.” I’m not sure how to explain it to her that she will not ever (if I can help it) ride the yellow bus, and at least for right now she won’t have any teacher except for myself… I’m hoping that between her enjoyment of homeschool and the extracurricular opportunities she will realize she has got a good thing going.

I always feel terrible when I allow days to drift by between posting. I used to update daily, now I’m lucky to get something once a week. I guess life got busy? Who knows.

Anyway, I wanted to share a link to Faith Comes By Hearing. They have the entire New Testament available for free download to your favorite mp3 player. As I type, I’m downloading the dramatized NIV version to my player. The site also offers a variety of pod-casts. Including an entire page of stories for children. I just recently listened to one of the KidzBible podcasts and think that DD1 might get a kick out of them. Some of them are quiet and relaxing enough, that she might even be able to have the on to listen to before naps.

Speaking of naps, I stopped by the library today to pick up three books for this weeks theme. (”Eyes,” with the vocabulary word being “iris.”) Usually I bring in a list of 5 or 6 recommended books and then choose three of the most interesting options to check out. I limit our selection to three books because A) It’s an easy number to remember and B) three books is my pre-bed limit. The problem with today was that there was only ONE of the books on the list even available at the library. Which would have been fine if the book hadn’t been mis-filed. Dh and I searched that place up and down and never located it.

So then we decided to just find something that would work instead. Except, we couldn’t find ANYTHING that had anything to do with seeing or eyes. No “I Spy” books, nothing. It was so frustrating. When I asked the librarian for help she told me I needed to stop looking at the fiction books and go check out a book on anatomy.

Gah.

The whole point is to find three STORYbooks that follow our week’s theme. Not to go check out a textbook.

In the end we found three books that only sort of relate to our theme. One ended up being a horribly boring selection about “spectacles” and a little girl that found out she needed glasses. The other book was a book about dreams. The third is a book about “seeing” the moon. All three are quite odd. We probably should have just scratched the theme all together and just tried to find three fun books. Except, by the time I started thinking about that option, the girls were starting to get restless and we bailed.

About the only other real accomplishment for today was the fact that I finally picked up ringsling material for a sling I’m making for my cousin’s baby. (He doesn’t read my journal, I don’t think. So this shouldn’t ruin the surprise. I hope.) My plan is to make the sling tomorrow and have it in the mail by Wednesday. We’ll see how ambitious I get.

I have two more craft projects on my list. A bag for a friend and three heavy capes for the girls. The capes can wait, though. They’ve been waiting for a couple months already. So a few more days won’t hurt. I have a photo shoot concept that I want to do with the capes. Stay tuned for that adventure.

Oh, before I go. I wanted to mention that I just found out Sonlight is offering a Core A curriculum for 3 and 4 year olds? We’d thought about getting the Core B for DD1 in the fall, but now I don’t know. We’ve been trying to do the Letter of the Week Pre-school curriculum and may just continue on that course. I guess it just matters how far we get with LOTW.

It’s been a tad too serious around here lately. So, to lighten the mood, go check out this endearing home-school video. It’s made our whole family smile this morning. And smiling is really essential, ya know.

Not to mention this is Advent week of JOY.

In other slightly related news, I stumbled across Gwen’s blog and saw her entry on “paying it forward.” Here are the rules in a quick sound-bite:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this pay it forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Comment. Be creative. And, Pay it Forward.