I'm on a Diet.

We ate dinner at my mom's yesterday. She offered me some cookies and I said no. And she asked why. I think she thought I didn't want to eat her prepackaged cookie dough cookies :) I told her I was on a diet- which is sort of true. 3 yo Asher turned around immediately and with a very upset face and whiney voice inquired "mommy, why are you dieing?"

Lose 2 lbs in 1 day!

Just cut your hair- by a lot :) Every little bit counts right? When it's wet, my hair might reach the nape of my neck in the back. It's shorter than it's been since military days :)

Gabriel just brought me a sticker from a banana- my poor deprived children covet the stickers from their snacks. This one says LOSE Weight. Gabriel thought I'd really love it so I'm wearing it now on my sweater as I get ready to go out with my husband for dinner. I hope I remember to take it off after I drop the kids off at Cody's. btw Gabriel says LOSE Weight just like Lou's wait so I was pretty confused at first.

Another Lesson in Toddlerese

Elizabeth is our newest preschooler.. after all she's almost two! She's coined a new word, and I think I want to remember it forever...

This is a Helicoptidoodledoodledoo.

Also, let's not forget that we really like Disney's Winnie the Pooh movie, except we call it Poopoo. Micaela has spent a lot of energy trying to get her not to say poopoo- it's not working.

Student Workbooks and an Avalanche...

On Friday evening I decided to begin a project that would help prioritize and organize a lot of my school stuff- so that school wouldn't feel like a bigger Rock than it should be. Our Grammar, Math, Spelling, Phonics, and Science curricula are self-contained. All the papers are provided and are bound together- well except our science projects, but all that material is together in one big box. Everything else requires me to put it together, assign it, complete, and file it or trash it. I kinda fly by the seat of my pants and get it all done eventually, but NEVER file it. I just stack it in piles, sort through it six months later and trash most of it :) I decided to put everything we're going to do for the next 10 weeks in a notebook. EVERYTHING. I made maps, vocabulary crossword puzzles, history fill in the blank questions, cut dozens of period paper dolls, printed off lapbook pages, history overview pages, geography, composition, and craft assignment pages, reading lists, and I can't remember what else. It filled a 2.5" binder with divider tabs for each subject. EVERYTHING outside those five other subjects is contained in this one binder. I went through the overview pages and highlighted all the important stuff and bolded all the vocab words. I don't know if it will take us 10 weeks or less now because it goes way quicker when it's all together like that. It's fun. I got so wrapped up in it that I forgot the BIG ROCKS on Monday, and I let school become a boulder that rolled down the mountain and shook tons of big and little rocks loose on its way down. We were buried in the avalanche Tuesday. It was an awful day. Lest I forget: FOOD, COOKING, and QUIET TIME are MORE IMPORTANT than school. Sometimes I forget to eat myself, but worse, sometimes I forget to plan to eat. When you don't do convenience foods, not planning to eat is like commiting to a family fast. Fasting children don't make good students- or even good children. Missing your quiet time and dealing with hungry children as you scrounge around trying to find food for six is not a recipe for a happy mom or happy home. Tuesday was a BAD DAY, but student workbooks are AWESOME still- they're just not that awesome :)

In other great news, I've lost another pound since Saturday.

Can you believe it's 2010?

So here's the scoop in no particular order.

First, I'm going to loose weight. I'm trying to loose almost 50 pounds, but I'd be really happy at 42 lbs :) I lost five lbs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I've lost 5.5 more since Christmas. YEAH! Of course, that leaves me with nearly 40 more pounds to go! It sounds impossible, but I was going for a lb a week and my original goal was set for 9/4- my anniversary, as that was a lb/week + 1 week. At this stage I'm ahead of schedule- we'll see if it gets harder as I go.

Second, which is kinda part of loosing weight- I'm trying to exercise daily. I just don't like it. I don't like doing stuff alone and it seems like exercising is just one of those things that you have to do by yourself. We tried the gym thing, it just doesn't work out when your children are too old for the preschool childcare and too young to be left alone. So... we moved the tread mill in the living room, and it's working. I'm 10x more likely to use it at least. It IS very ugly and takes up lots of usefull space, but hey, at 2.75 lbs a week who can complain? Also, we got a Wii and a Wii Fit for Christmas from my Dad. I love the Fit; all the little Mii's running around (like the kids and our parents and friends) psych me into thinking I'm not realing playing by myself. Yes, I've always needed a lot of attention :) And it really does make me work- well some of them make me work.

Third, school is getting done and I'm focusing on the 'Big Rocks' as De'etta calls them. We're having fun, and I've got two boys reading well enough to read primers with some help. Micaela took a two month break from her current most hated subject- spelling ;) - and we retested for the year in the first week of January. She placed solidly in the middle of third grade, so we're skipping the last 3 lists of second grade (which was getting to be torture two months ago) and starting with the first list in third grade (which is a lot easier). Hopefully by the time she hits the more difficult spelling rules this year, she'll have matured a little more. I'm very excited about a Charlotte Mason style extracurr. class that Micaela and Nathaniel will get to do this year- artist study, composer study, nature study, and recitation as a group of 6 and 7 yos following the Ambelside Online schedule. It's FREE! It's at the home of a very godly homeschool mentor mom! And it's only every other week! All these things make me sooo happy, and I really think Nathaniel will enjoy it. I hope it goes well because this is the first time they'll be doing this and maybe it could continue in the fall and Gabriel could participate.

Fourth, adoption. Ian and I want to adopt and have always wanted to adopt. We are currently pursuing a homestudy, and are prayerfully considering opening up our home to four children in foster care. They are 3 brothers and a sister, and they look beautiful and have happy, hopefull expressions. There are many things for and against such a decision, and only God knows the correct path, so we're leaving it in his hands.

Fifth, spiritual fitness- I'm trying to be more intentional in my study of God's word and in seeking relationship with God. As a family we are reading through the whole Bible this year. Pray for us as we seek to cultivate a love of God's word in our children and ourselves. And as we read about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah tonight. Ian's in charge so I don't know if we'll read every word or not...

Sixth, work. Everyone should help, and I've give every child a job- something I read when skimming through a MOTH book at the curriculum fair. They'll work at it till they master it. It has been SUCH a blessing. Micaela does laundry- and seriously, she knows more about it now at seven than I did at 17 in college! Nathaniel does dishes, and it takes him about 45 minutes to do what takes me 15, but he's getting better. Gabriel is supposed to sweep, but he mostly complains- so we'll keeping working till he learns to be a cheerful worker. Asher cleans off and washes the table, and makes Gabriel's job 10X harder- hehe, but then he's only three so I let him. Elizabeth's job is to take regular naps. I need them :) Btw, I've done only four loads of laundry since the week before Christmas. I think that's how I lost 5 lbs- it was such a load off my back- now I'm really feeling De'ettaish ::SNORT::