our first day

What a GREAT day!  It amazes me how my days are SMOOTHER when we are doing school than when we aren't.  Does this make sense to ANYONE?  It is a reminder of how much my boys need structure, a task and someone to help focus them.

For the most part we stuck to our schedule.

Here is  a quick run down of our day.

6:45am- slept in so I wasn't able to get my run in, made a yummy breakfast of cinnamon oatmeal.  
8:00am- ate breakfast as a family and did our devotions & character study, this week we are going over  selflessness, something I REALLY want to work on.  We kissed daddy goodbye, I sent the boys out to play and I did dishes, vacuumed, started laundry, fed and changed the babies.
9:15am- Time for school.  Our subjects today:
Bible Memory
Poetry
Phonics
Math
Handwriting
P.E. (a family walk/run this evening)
Kipp and I also reviewed colors and shapes.

We will aslo be doing CC Memory Work (I will explain this another time), Grammar, Latin, Science, Geography, Music & Art.  These will be on other days and some of these subjects are included in our CC Memory work. 

To see the details of our curriculum see Cael's Kindergarten Curriculum 2011-2012.

While Cael and I work on school, Kipp plays nearby or outside (today he was using my duster to dust daddy's grill!).  The babies should nap, but of course Finn slept in so he was up playing and Remy was roaming around the living room looking for anything the big boys may have dropped.

In between subjects we take a 3-5 minute break.  While Cael & Kipp go outside to play, I prepare the next subject,  switch over laundry & change diapers.

Now with all the little ones napping and Cael HAPPY to be playing (school makes him appreciate his play time so much more!!) I am blogging.  YAY!  Although, I hear the laundry calling my name.  I have already done four loads this morning, but I still have at least 2 more and it all needs to be folded!  Oh, and DINNER, sigh...  If only we could all just forget about the dinner part of the day.

Here are a few pictures from our day

While I was taking pictures of Cael coloring, he started posing all on his own for me!  Love that boy!

I am very thankful for our great start! 

Classical Conversations begins tomorrow!  We are super excited.

and school begins

Tomorrow is Cael's FIRST day of Kindergarten!  He of course is sleeping peacefully, but I have butterflies in my stomach.  This is a big day for us.  We are officially beginning our homeschooling journey.  My prayer is that I can keep everything in perspective and Cael will learn nothing matters without the Lord.

If he could also learn to read and write that would be FANTASTIC! :-)

Please be praying for us as we head down this new path.

Remina

Since my brother is in town this week.  I sat in the back of the van with the big boys, which gave me a great view of the babies. It seemed the perfect time to snap a few photos with my phone of my precious sleeping babes.

Before Church

Remington

Finnian

After Church

Remington in a "daddy's girl" onesie

During church Remington had an "explosion" and of course today was the ONE morning I didn't bring a spare set of clothes (we were running behind), usually I have so many extra things my bag weighs a ton.  Thankfully, a very kind, prepared mom of a DAUGHTER had an extra onesie to lend us.  Thank you to the random mom for lending me clothes for my poor naked son.  

And you thought it was bad to take your child to the store in a diaper!  Remington almost had to strut the diaper at church!

August

Another exciting month around here!  My brother is in town visiting for a week, we bought the boys a used redwood play structure (that's about the size of our back yard), Sean is best man in his best friend's wedding and Cael is starting KINDERGARTEN!!

We officially have a school age child!

Can you believe the summer is for the most part OVER?!  It went so fast.  There were so many things I was hoping to do that never got done.  We really need to have a week where Sean stays home and we do a complete overhaul of the garage and "hot spots" in the house. 

I am officially giving up on the garage sale I have been trying to have for OVER A YEAR now!  It obviously is not going to happen.  A few of the big items we will put up on Craigslist and the other stuff we will donate.  All I want is a BARE garage!

Before the summer ends I still need to...
figure out a space for school supplies
write thank yous
meal plan... ugh
take family photos

Maybe by the end of next summer it will get done? ;-D

love my gluten-free life

Can I just say I LOVE my new life?!  I have been gluten-free for over a year now and what a difference!  My life has drastically changed.  Even my attitude has changed.  Life seems so exciting and cheery!  Yes, CHEERY!  No longer does that darn glass look so empty!  My house is cleanER. I am happy. I can go hiking.  I can care for my children all day without feeling like a total failure, because I am so exhausted that I cannot meet their needs properly.  The funny thing is before I was diagnosed with Celiac's Disease (CD) I thought, "I must be lazy.  Why can I not spend all day on shopping spree with the girls or do the basics like CARE FOR MY FAMILY?!"

When the doctor told me I had CD I cried.  Let's face it I LOVE to eat!  I have ALWAYS eaten whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and however much I wanted.  A diet change was not something I wanted to do... SO I went out, ate some glutinous cake and cookies and moped around the house (having no energy to do anything else).  It took me a few weeks to work up the courage to begin the diet.  Never in my life have I dieted and this wasn't going to be a "lets just make healthy choices this week, this month or this year" type of diet.  This was not a New Years resolution I could let go by the wayside in the middle of February.  This was going to be LIFE, FOREVER, PERIOD.  No cake, no cookies, no pasta, no teriyaki dinners, FOREVER.  I was discouraged.

That was last year.  THIS year I am rejoicing that the doctors discovered I had Celiac's.  Yeah, sometimes it sucks to watch everyone else eat birthday cake, BUT I have energy. Nothing taste as good as life.   I am healthy.  I am happy.  I can LIVE LIFE!  No longer do I have to send my husband and kids out hiking without me!  I can strap on a baby and go too!  I am so thankful that we discovered WHY I could barely function.

Please, do not feel sorry for me.  Yeah, I cannot eat the same things you can, but I am finally enjoying life.  Be happy.  Getting up and dressed is not the chore it was (and I didn't even realize at the time how draining every little activity was, but now that I am healthy the difference is amazing!) The Spoon Theory says it perfectly.  In a nutshell it explains life through the eyes of someone with less energy and how difficult that can be.  How thankful I am that CD can be corrected with just a diet change.  At the time it seemed huge, it was huge, but now I am able to put it in perspective and be ever so grateful for my CD diagnosis.
 
I even have the energy to cook, IF I want to that is... shhhh... don't tell my husband!  Right now I am LOVING recipes I find on Everyday Foods.  They are NOT specifically for Celiacs, but they are recipes with fresh ingredients that are realistic for me, a busy mom of 4 to make without doing a million substitutions and of course they are so TASTY!

Now I am having FUN experimenting with different flours and foods.  I am learning so much about them!  Really, who wants to learn about flour?  I sure didn't, but now I cannot wait to figure out what Teff is and if I prefer millet or quinoa flour (really enjoying quinoa right now).

My gluten-free life is a wonderful life.

If you have just been diagnosed with CD don't despair, you will be happy in the end I promise.