November 2018

November had gorgeous fall weather as well as cold, winter weather.  We enjoyed both immensely because the fall colors were so magnificent, and because snow in November is exciting and new and not at all like snow in April.  My favorite picture below is Emma being pulled on a sled by Will, over a leaf pile covered in snow.  The snow came before we had finished cleaning up the leaves for the fall!

At the beginning of November we celebrated what my family calls the Outlaws Birthdays - my sister in law and Will have birthdays close together, and so we celebrated them at my parents house.  The kids all flock to Will - both his own and his nieces and nephews and I found it cute that they surrounded him at cake time and present opening time.  The bottom, left hand picture below shows all of the cousins, with a little decorated pumpkin to represent the missing cousin Hayden who lives in Florida.  It was one of the kids ideas, as Hayden's parents had bought her that pumpkin when they visited the month prior, but they left it behind as they didn't think the airline would appreciate bringing along a pumpkin.  It's such a happy occasion when all the cousins are together!

We kicked off the holiday season the week before Thanksgiving with a visit to a gingerbread train at a local hotel in our town.  We met friends there and had a lovely morning.  In the top, right hand picture below is our annual visit with my oldest friend who comes to town from Chicago each Thanksgiving with her family.  She got to meet Opal for the first time which was sweet and my kids got to play with her kids which was special - despite the fact that I think my kids may have traumatized her kids by convincing them to put on a hastily choreographed show for the parents in our basement.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house this year, and although it was a small gathering by my large family standards, it was still a lovely day.  My aunt came to town for it, and brought crafts for my kids which made for some great memories, especially since she did the crafts with them.

Thanksgiving weekend is when we usually put up our Christmas Tree.  Will and I pride ourselves on our efficiency with our pre-lit tree and only two boxes total of decorations.  But, the saying goes, pride comes before the fall, and although Liz of Christmas Past had thoughtfully put a note on one of the decoration boxes telling us that we needed white Christmas lights, we didn't notice the note until after everything was out and ready to decorate and the top third of our pre-lit Christmas tree would not light up.  We bought the lights the following day and resumed our decorating.

This was Opal's first Christmas Tree experience, and she fortunately has handled the tree better than I thought she would.  We only put baby-friendly ornaments within her reach, and we also secured the tree by surrounding it on two sides with walls, and a third side by a couch leaving only one access point for her, and hopefully decreasing the chance of her knocking the tree over.

Once the tree was up, it did add a nice ambiance to our home and the kids enjoyed doing school by it's twinkly lights in the mornings.  Here we are below, 'doing school' as we call it.  Sometimes on the couch, sometimes on the kitchen floor while I cook (and in the below photo, Violet helps cook), and most of the time at the table.  We have a small kids desk in the living room that Emma or Violet will use sometimes, and if Emma is extra wiggly, I have her stand on a balance board while she works as seen in the bottom, right hand picture below.  Opal loves eating paper, and instead of Emma having the excuse that the dog ate her homework, she had the excuse one day that her sister ate her homework.  See photo evidence below.

The top two photos below depict Emma in one picture fixing our dishwasher, and in another picture asking Will how the vacuum works.  It is very interesting to see her curiosity about how things work.  She definitely takes after Will in this and I'm always happy to see Will and Emma share this common interest and ability.

 The other photos above depict Emma and Violet each reading a poem at our weekly Poetry Tea Time.  It seems our favorite rhymes are Limericks and if you look at the one pictured in the photo above, almost any variation can be made in this style and it gives us funny games to play while on a walk or waiting at an appointment or on errands.  The below photos in clockwise order from top left are: Lucy and Emma with their piano teacher during their piano lesson, Violet at dance class, Emma and Lucy with their art teacher, Lucy enjoying an end of semester treat at the end of art class, Violet in her dance class, and Violet and Opal reading books together while we wait for Lucy and Emma to finish their piano lesson.

Pictured below are drawings for a "create a coloring page" contest that their yoga teacher encouraged them to enter, with the theme of yoga.  Violet drew flowers, Emma artfully made the word Yoga to be colored in, and Lucy made a mandala to be colored in.  I'm assuming as we haven't heard back from the contest that they didn't win, but it still made for a nice project for them to tie in their knowledge of yoga and their love of art.

 One of my favorite things to do with my kids is read them stories - from picture books to beloved chapter books from my childhood and new discoveries as well.  It's easiest to do this when I am feeding Opal, otherwise the sisters take turns playing with Opal on the floor while I read aloud to them.  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: the girls snuggled on the couch watching a movie, Violet being goofy with a pair of fashion glasses, Lucy displaying some embroidery she created, Emma and Violet making markers from a Marker Making Kit they got last Christmas, and finally, all four girls enjoying their time with our babysitter who was home from college over Thanksgiving break.

The girls love making art, and I happily caught them coloring the same page in utter peace and harmony and took the risk of drawing attention to them in order to take a photo.  Usually, once attention has been drawn to this rare and peaceful encounter, the spell is usually broken.

While Lucy and Emma were in their art class this past month, Violet, Opal and I would go to the library just a few blocks away, as well as the fruit market for a fun and bonding early morning samples circuit that we looked forward to each Friday.  We've learned through experience that the best samples are out in the morning, and almost nonexistent in the afternoon.  Now that Lucy and Emma's art class is over for the semester, we are missing our delicious samples routine.  The lefthand photo below shows Violet using a chair to get what she needs off of a library shelf while I feed Opal. Usually I have to wake Opal up for the day to take the kids to art class, and I always wait until the very last moment as I hate to wake a sleeping baby, especially when my babies sleep so badly.  But, waiting until the last moment means no time for feeding her, and so after dropping the kids off at art class, we go to the library first so that I can feed Opal while Violet browses the books and videos.  Once Opal is happy, we make our way to the "sample store" as Violet calls it.  The bottom, right hand picture below shows all three older girls at a newly decorated part of the library, done in a Alice in Wonderland theme that is really beautiful.

It's tough having to get Opal's winter coat on for each trip out, and it's tough to coordinate her nap schedule for the various classes and appointments that we have.  We find a way though, and for the most part, Opal rolls with it.  Here we are below at the doctor's office, and in the bottom pictures, Opal for the first time in the fort the kids always build at the Chiropractor's office.

 Other fun places we ventured this past month included my brother's house for dinner, a friend's grand opening of her new bakery complete with face painting, and me out on the town one night with a friend.

 I taught Lucy how to sew this past month, and I think I can officially say she is as good as me now, and very soon will be much, much better.  The project that she learned all of the steps of sewing was making herbal eye masks - from pattern making and cutting, pinning, sewing, stuffing and packaging.  She is selling them, and has received great reviews so far.  It is a project that we work on together, so it has been both challenging to find the time to do this with her, but also very rewarding to have this special time with her.  We work well together, I must say and I look forward to many more projects with her!

 My bees are still alive as of this past month, which is better than I can say some years have been!  We made lots of comfort food meals at home this past month too, and my favorites included homemade chicken noodle soup in my pressure cooker with homemade biscuits.  There is nothing I like more than homemade soup with fresh, warm biscuits.  Winter has it's perks!

For the most part, I do not mind the colder weather.  Besides the difficulties of getting Opal into a snowsuit to go anywhere and her resulting crankiness at being confined in what must feel like a baby straight jacket, I do enjoy winter walks, watching snow fall, reasons to drink tea and hot chocolate and all of the comfort foods like stews, soups and roasts that just aren't as appetizing in warmer weather.  I like to be cozy in the house after a crisp winter walk or upon returning home from errands, and I like planning my garden and flowers with anticipation of the spring.  As I write this, we still have about three months of cold weather before us, and if Will is correct, I always embrace each season with excitement but by the end of it, I am a whining mess.  It's a good thing I live where there are four seasons, as my attention span may not appreciate otherwise!

Opal at 9 Months

Opal is nine months now and has officially been in my arms longer than she was in my belly.  I am so grateful for this little lady, and wish that I could slow down time.  I want to savor every smile, giggle and snuggle.  Opal for the most part does not nap independently, which is a great way to get extra snuggles in.

The biggest development this past month is that Opal can now crawl.  She started crawling just days before we put up our Christmas tree, so this year we put the tree in a new location - surrounded on three sides, instead of open on three sides in the past.  All three older sisters did not start crawling until after Christmas so this is new for us - keeping the baby and the Christmas tree safe!  Besides wanting to chew on the electrical cord for the lights or the ornaments, she has done pretty good with the tree.  The newness has worn off by now and she just likes to play underneath it.

In the below photos we found her using the squatty potty in our bathroom as a backrest which we found hilarious, if not a tad gross.

 Opal loves taking baths and is my first child to not have issues with getting her hair washed.  She loves splashing in the water, and playing with two little Sesame Street Characters - Ernie and Elmo - that are reserved just for bath time play.

Opal loves getting pushed in her sisters' doll stroller, and this past month, was finally old enough to ride in a shopping cart.  She loved it!

 Opal now says Dada and Bye Bye, bringing her vocabulary up to four words - Mama, Dada, Hi and Bye Bye.  She also understand sign language for "read a book", "more" and "all done."  This little lady is so loved by her mama, her dada, and her big sisters that I can't imagine our family without her.

Opal Marie, you are the center of joy in our family, and we are so glad you are here!

Finding Balance in October

We had a busy and memorable October, celebrating fall, Will's birthday and Halloween.  We also continued the tradition of a pumpkin photo shoot with our newest member of the family.  I love that I can compare and see all four of my girls at the same age (about 6 months) together!  Below in clockwise order from top left: Lucy, Emma, Opal and Violet.

Here is some of our fall decor pictured below - Lucy arranged the table centerpiece on the left below, and I bought the arrangement on the right at the Farmer's Market.

The color of the leaves this past month were spectacular.  There is something about the yellows, oranges and reds against a blue, October sky that is gorgeous beyond words.  We enjoyed as many fall walks as we could in October, knowing all too well what kind of weather comes after the glory of October!  Here we are below on various walks, most of which were enjoyed in the local cemetery as the fall colors there are top notch.

Emma decided to make a maze in our backyard out of leaves which was fun to run through, and in clockwise order from top left: the leaf maze, Emma hanging upside on the swing set, Emma using Will as her ladder to pick an apple from our neighbor's apple tree, and the kids on top of a hill near our house, ready to run down at full speed.

The girls and I went apple picking for the second time this fall when my brother Joe and his family came to town.

It wasn't the best weather, but we still had fun.  The highlight was watching Opal and my niece Hayden enjoy apples fresh from a tree for the very first time.  They both loved them!  

Here are the cousins all reunited below.  The last time they were all together was when my brother and his wife came to town with my niece for her double baptism with Opal in June.

 The energy levels are hard to describe when all nine cousins are together, but it is one of the best feelings in the world to see my kids playing with my siblings kids!  I hope that they will all be lifelong friends.

We celebrated Will's birthday with a hike and really enjoyed his weekend birthday with him.  Lucy told me several days prior to his birthday that she believed that, "Dad was just itching to scratch off some lotto tickets" and so I took her and her sisters to the corner store with cash in hand and let them buy Will some scratch offs.  I felt a little judged as they fed their money into the lotto ticket vending machine but hey, it was for their daddy!

We celebrated Will's birthday with his parents the night before Will's birthday and enjoyed watching a newly mobile Opal try to open his presents.

We went pumpkin picking at a garden center close to home this year, and a short hayride brought us to the pumpkin field, as well as a corn maze.  I hadn't been in a corn maze in years and I realized that I actually don't like them when we were lost in the maze and about ready to miss the tractor that would take us back to our cars.  We found the way out, and Will helped lighten my anxiety by sticking pieces of yellow corn in his teeth and talking with a silly accent. 

We went trick or treating at our Farmer's Market this year with friends, and again, the weather wasn't great but we made the best of it.  Opal was obsessed with trying to eat the umbrella handle and I kept worrying that she was going to get her tongue stuck to it as it was freezing outside.

The girls drew the design they wanted on their pumpkins with black marker, and then Will did the honors of carving them up.  They made a great team!

 Lucy was a fashion designer, Emma a leopard (or Cheetah depending on her mood), Violet was Anna from Frozen, and Opal was a cabbage patch doll.  We came up with the costumes just about a week before Halloween which is the latest we have ever pulled it off.  This caused anxiety on my part, but it all worked out in the end.  Will never feels anxiety about creative endeavors and I need to take it from him and realize that sometimes creativity thrives under pressure.  In the bottom, right hand picture below, I caught Violet breathing into her opened Halloween candy bag.  I asked her what she was doing and she told me, "Mom, doesn't this just smell sooooo good?"  I breathed it in as well, and let me tell you, that one sniff brought back so many memories of my childhood and as much as Halloween candy doesn't really agree with me these days, that smell will always be one of such pleasant memories!

 Below are the kids at dance...

 ...and the kids "at" school.  Opal is a tough distraction for them as they would much rather play with her than do schoolwork.  Any little peep Opal makes, and they scoop her up.  This is a good problem to have, but not good for school work efficiency!

We are accomplishing quite a bit this school year, and one of the things I am the most excited about is our weekly Poetry Tea Time.  We read poetry, make up poetry (our favorite being limericks), and eat cookies and drink tea and hot chocolate.  We are doing school on a four day week, leaving the fifth day for Poetry Tea Time, field trips and house cleaning.  It has helped us to stay on track and the goal will be for us not to still be trying to complete the school year in July.  That extra grace day each week also will help us not fall behind when we take a day off for each of the girl's birthdays, holidays and even snow days.  I think this is our seventh year of homeschooling, and we have started a Morning Time for the first time this year where I read from various books on subjects like history, geography, science and art.  I also read a morning devotion, we say the Pledge of Allegiance and we sing hymns and songs to learn by heart, and sometimes I even read aloud a chapter book - we just finished The One and Only Ivan which I highly recommend!

 As much as I am happy with how our school year is going, I do feel like other areas of our family life are not going as well.  For instance, getting enough outdoor play, free play and house cleaning as well as making more homemade meals.  I realize you can't have it all and priorities are important, but I guess it's to say that I have yet to achieve the perfect balance and I'm starting to wonder if that is a lifelong process.  Plus, I feel like out of all four of my kids, Violet is getting the brunt of the balance issue, and I really want to enjoy this time with her, as it is her last year of preschool.  I keep reminding myself that she is learning independence, but it is sad when her older sisters' schoolwork and her baby sister's high needs keep me from getting all of the stories and couch snuggles I want with Violet, and I would love to not feel rushed when she is telling me a story or showing me something she is proud of.  So, right now, that is my goal - to make Violet more of an equal with her sisters in our hierarchy of needs.

 It has been amazing to me to see all four of my girls playing together this past month, even if it is just Opal playing nearby while her sisters' play.  I do think with the birth of each of my kids that it takes a full year to feel like our lives are in equilibrium, and perhaps it is a one year learning curve from adding a new member to our family, or it also is the fact that it takes about a year for the newest member to become less demanding.  Either way, I wish there were more hours in the day for me to spend quality, one on one time with my babies.  The beauty of time constraints though, is that it does force you to prioritize and realize what is important and what is not.  The below picture shows what is important to me!

The kids have enjoyed putting on shows for us in the basement now that colder weather has set in, and Opal is a happy audience member.

 The shorter days are making us crave comfort foods and I am missing the free time to bake.  There is a delicious donut shop near us that has been filling in for my lack of baking, and Will has taken on some more cooking as well.  Keep in mind, if we are both home, Will is the one who usually makes dinner.  He has gone onto Pinterest though and made queso dip and even humored a craving of mine and tried to make dairy-free and bean-free white chicken chili.  He followed the recipe to the T, and it turned out disgusting.  Mindful of the sacrifice that animals make to feed us, we strained the chicken out of the soup and saved it for enchiladas.  It was still painful to throw out the rest, but at least the meat did not go to waste.  You know the food is gross if Will and I cannot even bring ourselves to eat it.  The girls watched us gag on the meal with complete fascination, as they saw for the time what they look like at most meals.  Lucy was probably the most entertained, and said in a sarcastic voice at the table while pretending to be on the phone, "Hello, yes, I'd like to place a carryout please."

A friend of mine rescued three kittens this past month and brought them by for a playdate with my three girls.  It was such a fun afternoon - made all the happier by the fact that the sisters did not have to share, and the kittens went home with my friend at the end.  Charlie is feeling neglected these days, and fortunately did not witness the kittens in our house receiving snuggles.  The top, right hand picture below is Charlie forcing his way into my hand for snuggles.  

It's difficult to get out these days with four kids, and I'd like to say that because of that we stay home more, but with the kids in art class, piano lessons, yoga, dance two days a week, catechism and doctor appointments that we are out at least once every day.  While the kids are at various classes, I squeeze in any errands I have.  Below in clockwise order from top left - Lucy and I in a fitting room while shopping for fall clothes when we noticed a peeping baby, Violet having me take a picture of toys she found while running errands with me when Lucy and Emma were in a class - the picture was for Violet to show her sisters so they wouldn't be sad they missed seeing them, all four girls at Will's work raiding his coworker's candy closet, Violet at the local cider mill with me while Lucy and Emma were at art class, and finally, Violet in a play fort she made during our bi-weekly chiropractor appointment.

Finally, Lucy, Opal and I met a friend of mine at a local craft show one Sunday this past month and had a great time.  Opal slept almost the entire time, and Lucy got to have special time with my friend and I while we enjoyed a bond we all share - handmade items and small, locally owned entrepreneurs.  Emma and Violet were welcome to come as well, but they opted for staying home with Will to enjoy games, a football game on TV and Dad endorsed snack foods.  Needless to say, we were all happy with our decisions.

Here's to the never-ending journey of finding balance in life, and staying present in the moment so I can enjoy each of my girls to the fullest!

Opal's 8th Month

Our little lady is 8 months old already!  She has four teeth total and still does not prefer to eat anything besides milk and apples.  

She loves her mama, daddy and her sisters in that order and will push your face away if she is needing space.

 Her first word was officially mama, and she can also say "Hi" while waving.  When she sees me she will start whine/crying "mamma maammmaaa" and when she sees Will, she bounces up and down and waves.  I am her comfort, and Will is her fun.

 Her sisters are great entertainment and still fight over who gets to help me with her.

Opal will be one tough little lady, as inevitably bumps and bruises and head bops happen when the sisters play with her.  They feel terrible when Opal gets hurt on their watch, but I do know that their love for her is fierce.  I overheard Violet tell Opal, "I love your kisses!  I'm never washing this slobber off of my face!"

Opal loves playing outside, but hates her pink snowsuit.  I'm not sure what the alternative is for her, but I am hoping that she can resign herself to wearing it or it is going to be a long winter for all of us.

Opal officially outgrew her little bassinet called a Rock and Play this past month by falling head first out of it.  Fortunately, she landed on a pile of dirty laundry that one of her family members had left on the floor.  It scared us more than it scared or hurt her, but now we have no place to put her where she will stay besides her jumper and her crib upstairs.

Opal plays well on her own for the most part, and loves to play with items that aren't toys - she is obsessed with books not meant for chewing babies, pencils, remote controls and cell phones, as well as paper and tags.

 Opal, you are the source of most of our smiles, laughs and giggles and we love you so much!