Still alive. Still, apparently, a horribly slack blogger. Sorry about that.

Too tired to update properly just now, but things are just lovely. From the sweet (fast) crawling baby who can stand on his own and teeter as he winds up his bravery to take those first few steps, to the kindergartener who is soaking up everything she sees and hears like a sponge, to the long-haired boy with a MUCH shorter hair cut, to the pink-and-black-haired girl who is becoming a young woman much faster than I ever dreamed. All lovely. And tonight, all very sleepy.

It's amazing what a little bit of a change in environment can do for my mental state. I did some rearranging in the kitchen today and removed a huge, clunking shelf unit in favor of a little table my parents picked up for us at a garage sale earlier in the summer. The difference is astounding. I cleared away all the clutter, and the window is no longer blocked, and my kitchen is now sunny and light and so dearly deserving of a fresh coat of paint (and some patch for the walls, and a new floor...).

Last weekend I was so blessed to spend time with a group of wonderful, amazing, talented, fascinating women that I've known for many years. There was wine, and baby cuddling, and so much conversation that at times I didn't know where to settle in for a chat. The hellmonkeys and I loved every minute of it. I am truly, truly lucky to have the friends I do.

In other news, I'm planning the upcoming school year, missing Eldest, who is away at camp for 2 weeks, and trying to fill as many donation bags of clothes as possible. The kids have outgrown so many things and they're all just piling up around us. I'm on a clutter clearing binge lately.

Oh yes, and there was cherry picking a couple of weeks ago.



The results were my first fresh cherry pie, which was delicious.

Our life in pictures

Because I've been too busy to document it any other way lately.

First outdoor fire of the year:



Sleeping baby:



That pretty much sums us up at the moment. If we're not doing, then chances are we're not conscious.

Little things I am grateful for:

* Two recommendations for the same doctor when I put out a notice that we're searching for a new ped. That fills me with confidence about making the call on Monday.

* A baby who stayed up late enough that I know he's going to let me sleep in a bit in the morning. (But not too long, because the small one has ballet.)

* Being able to see the end of this (home)school year and look forward to our summer activities as well as the year to come.

* Getting the oldest a spot in a limited (and very inexpensive) swim lesson program that takes place before she goes to Girl Scout camp. (Her swimming skills, or lack thereof, were an issue for her last year.)

* That Middle Boy got up there on stage and recited all of his lines for our class play. Even if he was pacing in circles the whole time, he DID it.

* That Eldest was willing and able to jump in at the very last second and play a part on stage when another student realized he'd be more comfortable helping out backstage.

* The camporee I coordinated (with massive help from other volunteers) last weekend being a huge success. And all those volunteers who did extraordinary jobs feeding and entertaining 130 people.

* My upcoming Daisy troop for next year. I'm so excited about working with the little girls.

I am an incredibly blessed and lucky mama.

Gah. I close my eyes to blink and don't blog for nearly a month. The boyfriend is on the road again until Saturday, and I'm staying up so late tonight that I know I'll regret it in the morning. But we got to watch The Office together tonight in peace before he left, and the girls have bunk beds again (and a NEARLY clean room), and the thought of repainting my living room is filling me with an incredible amount of inner peace. So, anyway, what have you missed?

There was an invasion of beavers at the science museum:



Maple sugaring:



An Easter egg hunt at grandma's:



And big, BIG smiles:



You may notice that Middle Boy is only pictured once. The boy RUNS from the camera, or does his best impression of Cousin It (and with that hair, he's an ace at it). But every once in a while, I'll catch a shot of that gorgeous smile.

Also not pictured: Spring Equinox festivals, new silks for the nature table, visits from grandparents from near and far, the first trip to Abbott's and the beach, playdates galore, museum trip with the Girl Scouts, TONS of snuggling with the baby.

One class play down, two more to go. One of which I have to finish writing, but not tonight. Tonight I'm going to climb into bed with my littlest man, snuggle up around him, and try to get some sleep before the next nursing session.

Quickly for my own reference:

Week of 3/29

Eldest - Finishing up housing/Native American block. Copied "What do we plant?" verse and drew different types of Native American shelters. Will hear story of Sacagawea and finish paragraph for The Rough-Faced Girl before block is finished. Also, will visit science museum.

Middle Boy- Copied and illustrated spring verse. Still working on word families reader. Will hear one more Irish fairy tale.

Also need to do this week - Form drawing and painting.

Happy Spring!

After over a week of sleeping through the night, it was inevitable that Baby would be up in the wee hours at least this once. It's okay, though, as I finally get a chance to sit here with him on my lap and update.

He'll be six weeks old on Sunday and I'm finding that hard to believe. He's so big now, and still as alert as ever. His naps are growing shorter (but still frequent), and his smiles are more deliberate. He loves lying on a blanket without a diaper and just looking around at everyone and everything. I'd love to do a bit more knitting for him soon, but as he's such an in-arms baby, I rarely have my hands free these days.

Middle Girl, who has ballet in a few hours, finally seems to be getting a handle on her meltdowns. They're definitely related to blood sugar and she's starting to learn that if she gets something to eat early on, they're not as bad for her. She's still contemplating public school next year, but I have a strong feeling she'll settle on homeschooling. At least I hope so; I really dislike our "neighborhood" public school (which really isn't in our neighborhood at all, but that's another story).

My dad took Middle Boy and Eldest to see Race to Witch Mountain on Friday and they loved it. It was nice for the bigger kids to be out with grandpa by themselves. I think they needed a more grown-up outing. They've been absorbed with Star Wars lately, as have some of their friends, and we've been talking a bit about all the common mythology incorporated into the Star Wars stories.

Middle Boy is just starting to learn recorder, and does better learning one on one from me than in class. I figured that would be the case. He's also doing some amazing artwork lately. He thinks in graphic novel form, and every story he tells comes out that way.

Eldest's lesson block is still Native Americans/house building and she's really loving it. She's been reading a book about Sacagawea to me aloud, along with her extra lesson reader, and she's so much more fluent now than she was just months ago. She's working on some more challenging form drawings, and her writing has shown drastic improvement. She's going to be Princess Yashodora in her LCG class play about the Buddha's life, and she's bubbling over with excitement about it.

Ah, Baby is fussing and ready for sleep. Time for me to sign off.

Middle Boy has spent a good portion of the afternoon making "mail" for everyone in the house. He made comics for the girls and sent them along with a bill. Middle Girl's reaction was, "Am I even old enough for a bill?"

Anyway, she's sitting here beside me looking over her mail intently, so interested in what he's drawn there. I love these little moments.

Of course, the batteries in my camera picked today to fizzle out. So I'll commit this bit of sweetness to memory here.

So my laptop is dead, which means that I'm now sharing our main computer with the four other computer-using people in this house. Someone commented a few posts back that they had some yarn they were willing to send me, and I just want you to know that I *am* interested, but it's been a bit crazy around here, so I'll email you as soon as I get my head back on straight (and have the time to go through my overstuffed inbox). Also, I've lost a lot of pictures/writing/homeschool records that I hadn't backed up over the last couple of months, but I'm trying not to think about that right now. So, on to happy thoughts...

We started back up with our Waldorf-inspired homeschooling schedule this week and it's going very nicely. I'm back to work at Lilac Children's Garden and my class was absolutely wonderful today. At home, Eldest is doing a lesson block on Native Americans/housing and we're currently working with Iroquois stories. She's really into this lesson block, and has been writing more and more in her main lesson book. I'll try to get some pictures up soon because I'm really impressed with her progress.

Middle Boy is still doing fairy tales, and recently we've told The Emperor's New Clothes, and a few Irish fairy tales. He also just got his pentatonic recorder today at LCG, so we're going to start working with that in the coming weeks. Both Eldest and Middle Boy have been very interested in singing more in our circle, which makes me wish I were more musically inclined. But I try to muddle through anyway, and we've had a lot of fun attempting to sing in rounds.

Middle Girl's been working on a main lesson book of her own spontaneously, and she's occasionally asking me to tell her stories so she can illustrate them there. Her ugly duckling was very sweet.

Newly Youngest is a very, very sweet baby. He has his fussy periods, but mostly he's happy to eat, sleep, and look around. He adores the Moby wrap, which is what made it possible for me to get back to teaching so quickly. This is the first baby I've used one for and I'm so appreciating it for a newborn. Which reminds me, Newly Youngest was one month old on Sunday. I can't believe an entire month has passed so quickly. I feel like I was just savoring the last few days of pregnancy, but here we are in the throes of our old routine all over again.

And on that note, the baby's ready to nurse back to sleep, and I think I'm ready to rest my eyes for the night.

Five things that are making me happy today:

1. Sick hellmonkeys who are ever so slowly starting to feel better.

2. A warm fire while it's so very cold outside.

3. A mug of hot tea.

4. A baby who has finally decided to give in to sleep.

5. A fridge full of meals from generous friends.

So sleepy today. But the dishes are done, the kitchen is clean, hellmonkeys are fed, diapers are washed and a load of sheets is in the washer now. I think I'm going to curl up in front of the fire for a while and rest.

So I have a sleeping baby in my lap, the other hellmonkeys went to bed long ago, and it's quiet in my room. I have a cup of my current favorite tea, vanilla honey chamomile, sitting next to me, and the laptop here with me. The only way this could be more perfect would be if I had yarn. But alas, our financial situation is pretty woeful at the moment, so yarn is something of a pipe dream for me right now as I try to figure out how to keep groceries in the house after this month is up. (A dear, dear friend has arranged for friends and acquaintances to bring us meals regularly in the wake of the little one's birth, which has been a positively serendipitous reprieve.)

My future in-laws are in town for a couple of days, and they came over tonight to coo over the baby and lavish attention on the other three. They're so sweet, and the older kids just adore them. The visit was rather spur of the moment (they're in the process of moving from a city 12 hours away from us in one direction to a city 3 hours away from us in the other, and are staying here on their way from the old home to the new), but it motivated me to do a bit of cleaning that's been neglected since I gave birth.

He's such a happy, mellow baby, in arms. Of course this makes keeping up with the cleaning/older kids a bit of a struggle, but I'm working on it. He's out like a light every time I tuck him into the moby wrap, so he rides around in that a fair amount in the mornings. My freakishly short carnie arms make it hard to do dishes with him wrapped around the front, but we're managing. He'll be big enough to ride on my back all too soon, so I need to enjoy this while I can.

We have a spot of our own, this baby and I, in a rocking chair beside the woodburning stove, and nearly every night we spend one of the smallest hours of the morning there, rocking and snuggling, and sometimes sipping tea. (Tea for me, that is, all he sips is breastmilk.)

I took baby and Next to Youngest to the grocery store today, in some rather sketchy weather, to restock a few staples that were running low and get me out of the house for a bit. Now that my pregnancy is over, and with it the deep exhaustion, I'd like to start doing a lot more cooking and baking from scratch, and hopefully cut down on our grocery bills in the process. I've been reading up on recipes for homemade cheese, butter and yogurt, and I definately want to try them out, along with starting to make my own breads and rolls again.

The older two and I have been sorting out our Waldorf supplies and cleaning/rearranging the dining room and getting ready to pick back up with our Waldorf-inspired homeschooling in two weeks. They're both very excited about it. Eldest asks me to read her the curriculum plan daily. I never dreamed that they'd become nearly as passionate about Waldorf as I am, and it thrills me to death.

Baby's stirring... I'll end this here for now.

Newest Baby

He was born on February 8, at 2:15 pm, into his mama's hands after a lovely, long labor surrounded by friends and family and running, laughing children. A full birth story will follow soon, but for now, I don't want to look away from him long enough to write it.

41 weeks and still pregnant, and desperately in need of a blog update, I think. ;-)

We had some dear friends up for a visit last week, hoping that the baby would make its arrival while they were here, but after missing a week of school, they had to head home. I think this is how all my babies have gone, though I've never been so sure of my dates before, so I can't say for certain. With the last two, I had a vague two week window and they tended to come at the end of that (and at the beginning of the month), so I'm thinking this little one is falling right in line.

Whatever she/he's doing in there, she/he's staying active for sure. It's been hard to sleep with all the gymnastics going on at night, and I've found myself bouncing on the birth ball just to get baby to doze off again. It's funny how we can soothe these little ones to sleep before they're even earthside.

I took the older kids to Target yesterday. They got Christmas gift cards from their lovely aunt and uncle in California, and we'd been waiting until the baby came to use them. (It was going to be a special day out with grandma and grandpa.) But I need something to keep me busy, so we went. Middle Boy picked out a Tamagotchi, which he's been coveting for a very, very long time, Youngest got a beautiful wooden music box with a spinning ballerina inside, and Eldest chose Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium (which was very cute) and a package of pixie stix.

So here I am, back to waiting, and trying to keep my hands busy. What I wouldn't give for more yarn at the moment. I've almost worked through my entire stash in the past week.

Almost 40 weeks and busy as ever, so I haven't had time to update as much as I've wanted to. I had a lovely, lovely blessingway last Friday. I've never had one before. It was small, and quiet, and oh so peaceful, and a friend did a gorgeous henna design on my belly. I've always wanted to do that, and she made this incredible lotus flower that was just stunning. I didn't even tell her beforehand that I'd made an anklet for the baby with a lotus charm on it, and a matching bracelet for myself.

It's been so cold here, and I haven't wanted to leave the house at all. Today I had to make a run to the bank to have some paperwork signed and it was such a relief to get back home and spend the rest of the evening in the warm kitchen preparing dinner (baked ziti and salad, with chocolate cake for dessert).

The older kids and I have talked a bit about getting back on track with our Waldorf-inspired homeschooling, but I have yet to really get anything organized. It seems almost senseless with the baby due to arrive so soon; we'd just be thrown into chaos again. Of course, that might just be my radical unschooling mind looking for an excuse. The kids, however, are restless and eager. They've been pulling out the workbooks they bought at Barnes and Noble last year. It's tons of fun for me when all three of them are spread out ON THE FLOOR with workbooks and asking me to answer their questions and I have to hop from one to the other at 39 weeks pregnant. Ah well, that part won't last forever.

And speaking of the hellmonkeys, it sounds like they need help getting ready for bed, so I should run.

Mmm... pregnancy insomnia, how I've missed you.

Not really, but how I've missed those long, slow nights of sitting beside the window while snow drifted by outside, sipping tea and listening to nothing but the quiet.

I'm wide awake tonight, since every time I try to lie down, I'm either accosted by heartburn or by the baby trying to kick its way out of my belly button. Patience, little one, please? For the sake of my ribs.

It was my last teaching day today at LCG until after the baby comes. Next week I'll be assisting in Youngest's classroom so we can celebrate her birthday at snack time. Providing I'm not in labor at the time.

As much as I've been loving this pregnancy, and in many ways don't want to see it come to an end, I don't think I'll miss the heartburn, or the general feeling of sluggishness. I've decided it's hard being pregnant as a short person. There's not nearly as much room for the baby to hide out inside, so you either go outward toward ridiculous proportions, or everything on the inside gets awkwardly rearranged. In my case, it's been both. My freakishly short arms are not appreciating my current lack of reach (washing dishes has become almost comical).

I have one more load of baby laundry to do, and a few more nesting particulars to take care of in the bedroom, but other than that, I'm feeling quite ready for this baby to come along. After Friday, Boyfriend will be around for a long stretch of time, and I'm looking forward to that.

I'm feeling so good today. Tired, but good. It's Eldest's 9th birthday today, and two days ago it was Youngest's 5th. I'm hoping this little babe holds out for a couple more weeks, because we need a bit of a break after all the post-Christmas birthdays, but with all the contractions and "shooting crotch pains" lately, I'm starting to wonder if labor might be closer than I thought.

This birth is so different than my last two UCs. In Louisville, I had a few friends in the neighborhood, and they came to see Middle Boy the next day, but I hadn't talked all that much to them about my birth plans. With Youngest, I hadn't really connected with anyone in Rochester after moving back here just before I got pregnant, so her birth felt very secluded. This time around, I have a whole list of friends who've requested a call when I go into labor, and I have to admit that I'm very much digging the idea of a "labor party".

I'm especially hoping that my dear, dear friend Brittany is able to make it down from Watertown in time. Of course, my history of 2-3 hour hard and fast labors doesn't bode well for my dream of a long, slow labor with friends and their children coming and going as they please.

I think I'll spend tonight bouncing a bit on my birthing ball and drinking RRL tea. Tomorrow I'm going to try finishing up all my labor preparations around the house. Then it will just be a matter of keeping it that way for the next two weeks or so.

37 weeks (taken by Eldest):

37 weeks. And tiiiiiiired. Last night I slept really well, though. Better than I have in a few weeks. It was good.

Today I have tons of housecleaning ahead of me. I'm quickly getting to the point where I'm not going to be able to do all this really ambitious stuff (like scrubbing out the huge clawfoot tub) and I want it out of the way before baby makes an appearance. I think if I can start off with everything neat and organized, the kids will be more likely to help me keep it that way.

My mom and I went to the mall last night to get a few last minute things for the girls' birthdays this week. Normally, I have no use at all for malls, but with the weather keeping us inside this winter, it's nice to go somewhere and just walk for a while. I had BH contractions all evening after that, which was nice. They were very mild, but I love feeling my body start to prepare for labor.

So, my plan to post this today was derailed a bit by the unwelcome appearance of sewage in my basement. Luckily, the town came out on a Sunday to clear the access drain out front free of roots from the tree that sits on town property, and by now my basement has the lovely scent of bleach wafting up from it, but all is well, I think.

I have a few more baby things to wash, blankets and such, but I'll need to catch up on our regular laundry first. We couldn't run any water all afternoon while we were waiting for the town to show up.