Baby Day Set!

Sorry, my posts have been so slow in coming! Life gets busy and blogging gets put on the back-burner. So I post two quick things today.

I had an appointment with the Doctor who does my c-section this past week and we set the date for Baby Day! It will be the first Friday in November and while that wasn't my ideal time (okay, I know most people don't get to choose) it will work out. There is so much to think about in planning child care for the rest of the gang. This is one advantage to a c-section. It makes me just a bit nervous as it is only 10 days before my due date where my past sections have been 2 weeks earlier. Insurance rules have changed that. If I would go into labor before the set date I need to get to the hospital pretty quickly and they will do a c-section at that time as the doctors do not want me getting into hard labor. I know that God is in control so I need to rest in Him.

I am getting excited as we enter the home stretch. I still stumble out of bed in the morning trying to regain my balance and think, "Am I dreaming or am I really having my sixth baby?" In addition to holding my precious gift I look forward to having a bit of energy back and not having a big watermelon sitting in my lap weighing me down so.

Family Olympics

I love family traditions and last month we had our annual Family Olympics. This tradition began when I was a little girl and from what my Grandpa said, it began with endurance and strength type activities but has become a mixture of also fun and crazy games as well. The games are divided into categories of men and women and the children are divided into age groups. It has always been something I really look forward to and now I enjoy watching my children doing some of the games that I used to play. One of my cousin's and I fondly remember how I dangled a donut dripping with chocolate syrup from a string over his head while he lay on the ground trying to eat it.  So many fun memories of time spent together as a family. This year similar to a game I played as a child, our children lapped up chocolate pudding to find the gummy worms. Yummy fun! I am so thankful for my family and for traditions that bring us together.

George & Pete finding the gummy worms

Re-Pete was the winner!

The men played a similar game but they cleaned their plates.

The women dressed a model using newspaper. My Mom is in the middle and looked like June Cleaver but my team won with the crazy outfit on the right, because of the shoes my sister designed. Do you see my scallop work on the hem? :)

Tank competing against my nephew. They were so cute!

Missy Blue with Mommy trying to find coins in the ring -- Grandpa's traditional game for the children.

School Days

We officially started school this week despite my desire to be completely organized. (I am not sure if it is possible for me to ever be organized!) I am taking it slow and working our way into a routine to see what works best. This is my first year of officially teaching three children and while I did work with Pete and Re-Pete a little last year I am beginning phonics and more math with them this year. My challenge at this point is our two little distractions. While Tank wants to do some things with us, Missy Blue just wants to be in the way, trying to get attention. I am trying to schedule our time so that one or two children are always playing with the little ones while I work with another child. Hopefully that will work out better as everyone gets adjusted to actually having a routine again. I also am going to try spending one-on-one time with Tank and Missy Blue right away in the morning to see if that helps them to not be so needy for attention. Despite the distractions I was thankful that George was excited to be doing school work again. He has dreaded it most of the summer but he told me yesterday that it actually was fun. Now, if only Mommy can keep the learning fun!

I am very thankful that we will be doing history in the evenings with Daddy. It is sure to be a good time as a family and we will be able to do more hands on projects which we all enjoy. We will begin that next week. For any of you using history timelines please let me know what works best for you. We will use Mystery of History but I am not sure I like the idea of a big timeline on a foldable sewing board.

Unfortunately I have no pictures for the moment. My camera battery is dead and of course the charger is in some location that I have not found as of yet. Things walk off so easily around here and I will find them in the most bizarre spots! I sure feel as if I am losing my mind at times!

The baby arrives in 8 weeks! All is well, although I am ready for the fall temperatures to arrive when I usually love the heat. I have braxton hicks aplenty and a very active baby who doesn't seem to be able to ever get in a comfortable position. Ouch! I can't even fathom how I did this when I had our twins.