Lists

I have a bunch of lists (mostly in my head – must remedy that!) for things that I will do during my second trimester burst of energy.  I’m hoping that it comes, because I have a lot of things on my lists.  I’m also hoping that my lists use the burst of energy, because here’s what I did in my second trimesters of previous pregnancies:  moved, redid the kitchen, and moved.  Umm…yeah…I’m hoping that major remodels can be avoided this pregnancy, and we’re definitely hoping to stay in our current house. 

I realized, though, that one of the list items was something that I could easily do while sitting on the couch, which makes it a much better project for NOW than later, since second trimester is not, historically, when I spend a lot of time on the couch.  This item is updating Naomi and Simeon’s little photo books.  I got sets of 3 small photo books for each of the kids, with a book for newborn, first year, and toddler.  Hannah’s are all done.  Naomi’s were almost done.  Simeon’s were…started.  SO…I began going through photos (ah! digital photos on the computer!) and selecting the ones to finish Naomi and Sim’s books.  And there were some darn cute pictures.  Here’s a small sampling (and you should be able to click on the picture to see it bigger):

I can remember spending lots of good times looking through photo albums when I was a little girl, and I still love to look through photos.  I’m more motivated now to get them into a format that the kids can get to easily, because they love it, too.  It’s good to have the reminder that they were once darling pudgy little things with no hair. 

Too much injury

It’s a sign that we’ve perhaps been doing a bit too much in the way of jumping and other dangerous activities that this joyful announcement this morning was so heartwarming:

Naomi:  Mama!  I think that I’m NOT LIMPING!

This week, my girls have taken turns injuring their legs with various jumping games.  My boy does the jumping games, too, but appears to be made of rubber, so he’s not hurt. 

Happily, none of the injuries have been anything like serious, so we’re counting our blessings. 

We like nicknames

Michael has been reading The End and the Beginning, by George Weigel, which is about the last few years of Pope John Paul II’s life.  At dinner, he will often share with us some stories from what he read during his bus ride. 

We also have recently read to the kids a children’s book called Lolek, which is about JPII’s life starting in his childhood.  Lolek was his childhood nickname. 

This evening, when Michael started a story, Naomi had apparently not been paying attention.  She asked, “Who is this about?”

Michael responded, “Pope John Paul II, the last pope.”

Naomi responded, “Oh, Lolek.”

Morning sickness

was, I'm sure, named by someone who had not ever been pregnant.

Okay, but count your blessings

We’ve been studying herbs and their uses in school.  Hannah loves it, and is very interested in doing all kinds of different potions that can be cooked up with the recipes in the book.  There’s a fly in the ointment, though.

H:  The trouble is, Mama, that we don’t get sick enough.  We don’t need any of these things. 

Update

Morning sickness:  not fun this time around, either.  In the interest of Not Whining, we’ll just leave it at that.

Sim:  Loves to pour, especially liquids that he’s not supposed to pour.  Especially if it will spill.  Especially when I am busy with something else. 

Naomi:  Dolls.  Dolls.  Dolls.  Did I mention dolls?  And dress-ups. 

Hannah:  Crafts.  Herbs.  Plans for more crafts.  “What is needlepoint?  Will you teach me?”

Michael:  Meetings.  Karate.  Picking up the slack of chores that I can’t do while I’m lying on the couch (my hero!).  Playing with kids.  Testing the new stove with the wok – passed with flying colors!

I also really like this post.  It’s a guest post on one of the blogs I follow.  Enjoy!

Logistics

Certain school subjects must be done at the beginning of the day, when everyone is fresh from a good night’s sleep (we hope) and everyone still feels in “school mode.”  Math may or may not be one of these subjects. 

However, there are certain subjects that I save as a kind of school dessert.  Hannah LOVES the herbal study we’re doing in nature study at the moment.  She, in fact, comes to me to remind me that we haven’t yet done that part of our school yet.  Sometimes that’s right after I’ve awakened in the morning.  Haha!  Just kidding.  But it works really nicely to save this subject for later for Hannah, because I know for sure that it will get done, no matter when it’s presented. 

If I bring Math up at 4:30 p.m., we will NOT have a good scene.  But Hannah is happy to create the Elder page for her herb notebook at that time…or any other. 

Cravings

I’m craving savory things, particularly beef.  Meatballs.  Mmm.  Asian beef dishes.  Mmmm.  Not steak, though.  Beef incorporated in a dish.  Yeah, and I still don’t want beef jerky.  I don’t like jerky when I’m not pregnant, either.  Gross!

I also had a ridiculously strong craving for homemade whole wheat bread and butter today.  We can easily do that one. 

I’m not interested in eating sweets.  Which is bizarre.  I have a box of Joe-Joe’s (like Oreos, but with a mint filling) that I got in my stocking from my dear husband.  Normally, that sort of thing would not last a week here, but it’s still in the cupboard.  Not full, since my weird food cravings and aversions didn’t start RIGHT at Christmas, but not gone, either.  Oh, and I made cookies and DIDN’T WANT ANY DOUGH.  And my sister was talking about Baskin Robbins’ peanut butter chocolate ice cream, and it didn’t sound good.  (Which is just as well, since Sim’s milk allergy means that I should avoid most dairy this pregnancy.)  This is much weirder than any cravings or aversions I’ve had in pregnancy before, but I guess it’s much healthier, too, so I shouldn’t complain. 

Of course, I still like the vegan cake doughnuts we get on Sundays, so I’m not entirely off sweets. 

An attempt to explain free will…

…to an almost five year old and a seven year old.

H:  Mama, why does God let bad things happen?

Me:  [hoping that I can answer at least somewhat adequately]  Well, Hannah, God created us with free will.  Which would be better, if someone was forced to give you a present, or if someone decided that they really wanted to give you a present?

H&N:  If someone really wanted to.

Me:  Well, God wanted people to love Him, and He could have made us so that we have  to love Him, but would that be a really good present from us, to love Him because we have to?

H:  No.

Me:  God wanted us to be able to choose to give the gift of our love to Him, because it’s a better gift that way. 

H:  But that means that we can choose not to give Him the gift of our love.

Me:  That’s true, and when that happens, bad things happen.  God gave us free will so that we could choose to love Him, but we can also choose not to love Him, just like Adam and Eve did in the garden when they disobeyed Him, and then bad things happened.

H:  Oh.

I think I started to have a good answer there, but where are the philosophy and theology courses for preschool and early grammar school?

Guess what?

Woohoo!

Now I need to go take a nap.

New sound effect

Simeon, when giving a kiss, says, “bloop!” 

Simeon’s Christmas

Yeah, this is the “gargoyle” shot of our kids.  Hannah actually looks just fine, only with eyes closed.  Sim looks like…somethin’.

Simeon appreciated Christmas very much.  He was much more aware of what was going on this year.

He also thought that he should get to open any and all presents and stockings.  Once he got started, we had to be pretty careful, because he would probably have opened everything.  In fact, he cried when we told him he couldn’t open other people’s gifts.

Not that he didn’t take time to enjoy his gifts, but he didn’t let that get in the way of some good present opening.

He doesn’t seem to have retained the concept about it being Christmas, though.

(Here he is, helping Grandma Ellie open her stocking.)

He keeps asking for the things he got “for my birthday.”  For example, “I want to color with the crayons I got for my birthday.”

I don’t think it’s necessary to correct his mistake, because by next year he’ll have it all figured out.  Plus, it’s pretty darn cute.  Hannah and Naomi are both somewhat concerned about it, though.  They first take him literally (“He didn’t get any crayons for his birthday”) and then want to explain it all to him.  Poor kid.  He gets corrected far more than they did when they were his age.  However, he hasn’t let it affect his outlook.  Those gifts are still all ones that he got for his birthday, as far as he’s concerned.

Naomi, poor thing

is doing fine now, but had LOTS of bad dreams during her fever.  It was very sad.  On the third night of fever, she woke up crying and said, “I don’t want any more bad dreams!  I’m tired of bad dreams!  I want SWEET dreams!  I want FUNNY dreams!”  I couldn’t believe how coherent she was about it in the middle of the night.

Now she’s well over the fever and isn’t having feverish dreams any more, but she’s worried about it anyway.  I can’t really blame her.  Feverish dreams are the worst.  But she was saying that she wasn’t going to go to bed.  OR she’d go to bed if one of us would sleep with her.  OR she’d go to bed if she could go in our bed with us.  Since none of those options looked any good, we had to think of something else.

The answer partially came about because of a Christmas gift that the kids gave me:  A Kid’s Herb Book.  Hannah has stolen it and read most of it already (this happens with a lot of my nonfiction literature, by the way, including my magazines like Family Fun and Better Homes and Gardens.  What does she get from Better Homes and Gardens?  Oh, and my book Large Family Logistics.  I’m hoping I either get that one back sometime soon or Hannah starts implementing the ideas from it herself.).  When Naomi had the fever, Hannah insisted on going to the herb shop and getting what was needed for fever tea.  She also thought we should make the elderberry syrup, since it’s good for cold and flu. 

Michael, who is a genius, put two and two together on Naomi’s fear of sleep and came up with a “sweet dreams sachet.”  He took some chamomile leaves (necessary for fever tea, of course) and put them in a handkerchief and gave it to Naomi to put under her pillow.  She happily puts it under there each night now and doesn’t complain at all about going to bed…or about bad dreams, either.  Hannah, once clued in to what was happening, requested one, also, so we should have nothing but sweet dreams from those two for a good long time.