Well, tonight I have been dealing with a bout of mastitis due to Karina not nursing much during our busy Sunday. I had a low fever, major headache, and achy legs. I napped a little this afternoon, which is probably why I am still awake at 2am!
It's hard to believe summer is drawing to a close and it's almost time to begin another year of homeschooling. It's been a good summer, full of lake house visits with NY family, Marissa getting baptized, swimming lessons, VBS, and beginning a membership at a local recreation center. Marissa finally came into her own with swimming this year, and can tread water, swim underwater, float to rest, and is learning the crawl. She finally gets why swimming is so fun! Roman is a pro at maneuvering around deep water wearing his froggy life jacket, and Arianna is finally venturing beyond her comfort zone to duck her head under. We plan to keep swimming at the rec center so they can progress even further in their water skills.
Karina will turn 1 in a few weeks and I'm struggling to hold onto her babyness. She has 4 big front teeth, not much hair, and the cutest grin. She doesn't like to sleep longer than 2-3 hours at a time (even at night), but I try to remind myself that I'll miss nursing her like crazy and getting to kiss her cheeks every 2-3 hours all night.
I started attempting to get some running exercise in this summer. After 4 babies, my super skinny days are over and I'm finally resigning myself to actually needing some exercise. So far I still hate it and am really bad at it, but that's mainly because it's so hard to find time to do it kid-free. I'm hoping the rec center membership will help in that area.
This year Marissa will be in 3rd grade, which is weird because I actually have memories from my 3rd grade year. Arianna will officially begin kindergarten (although she is reading fluently thanks to her big sister and completed her K math book already), and in my spare time (HA!) I hope to do some preschool activities with 3-almost-4 year old Roman. I'm sure this year will be challenging because of teaching 2 kids instead of just 1 and dealing with a toddler and 3-4yr old, but I'll do my best and that will have to be good enough.
We are using Classical Conversations again this year, doing new-to-us Cycle 3. It's our final year before Marissa starts Essentials and next year Roman will join the fun as well. This year Roman and Karina will be in the nursery together, which will give me the freedom to roam between both big girls' rooms.
Marissa and Arianna will start their second season of soccer this fall. They were in a short season this past spring, and both decided it was something they wanted to do again so we signed them up in the homeschool league. I'm looking forward to them having fun, but not looking forward to the soccer part since I still hate it! I will try to embrace being a "soccer mom" for their sake though, and Roman and Dan love watching them play. I wish Roman could play in their league too because he is crazy good for a 3 year old (so says Dan). I'm really hoping for NO RAIN every Saturday!
Our church recently had a big push to raise funds for a new children's area to be built, and as of last week, God provided OVER the requested amount. It's an exciting time in our growing church and I can't wait to see the new building completed.
I don't expect to ever get back to blogging on a regular basis, but I do like to fill in the blanks when I can. The cooking/dishes and laundry of a family of 6 are enough to kill me, to say nothing of TIME, especially during the school year. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I wouldn't say no to a maid or cook!
