How weird is it that my 1111th blog post had 11 comments on it? OK, the winner is posted at the END of this very long post, so if you don't want to read my answers just scroll on down and see if it's you!
Shoeaddict wrote: tell me how you named your children. Family names? Names you both liked? Who picked? WHo gave in, etc....
d (d a n e) was easy. His was a name we both loved before we even had kids and we wanted our first born to be a boy and when we found he was - that was that! His middle name is D's confirmation name, Patrick.
O (O w e n) was harder
. We discussed it forever, and D didn't like ANY of the names I liked and vice versa. We were on a long car drive to visit my parents and I had brought the baby name books with us so we would be trapped in the car with hours to decide. (I'm so fun...) He suggested it and I wasn't sold right away but it started to grow on me until I loved it too. His middle name was supposed to be Pierce but we decided to change it to Zachary, which I think goes much better.
C (C a d e) was impossible. The poor boy wasn't named until he was born, at least in D's mind. We had lists upon lists and D likes to make spreadsheets (engineer...) for everything and we ranked and rated and blah, blah blah. He wanted Trey, I didn't. I liked Seth and Cole but he wasn't sold on either one. I still love the name Seth and if we had another boy (not going to happen) that is the name I'd push for. I suggested C's name because none of the other names were agreeable to us both. We went to the hospital with Trey and C picked out. We said we'd decide when the time came, but really I knew he was going to be C all along. I planned to use the "I just had a baby" card to my full advantage. His middle name is Alexander, because it's a nice name and for no other real reason.
Miss L's (L i l a) name was picked out since pregnancy #2. I heard the name and loved it and I just had to wait a few years to have someone to use it on. Her middle name is my confirmation name, Katherine.
Cindy said: If for some random reason D's job involved living outside of the country
for 2 years but YOU got to pick which country it was, where would you
live? And why?
Wow! How exciting would that be?! It would have to be somewhere where a lot of people speak English because the language barrier would probably be too much for us. I have to admit that I have no real interest in moving out of the country, although the IDEA is exciting, the actual
doing seems daunting.
I've always wanted to see Australia though...
Allyson asked: Well, you are a year or so younger than I am (I think) and have 4 kids.
I'm pregnant with #1. Are you glad you had your kids at a young age, or
do you ever wish you waited?
Overall, I'm pretty happy with having kids young. Sometimes I wish we had traveled more when we were kid free, but I have a feeling we wouldn't have appreciated it as much as we will in the future. When I'm 50, my oldest will be 26 and my youngest will be 21. That still gives us lots of years to do fun stuff, and we'll actually have the money to do it, which we didn't have when we were in our early 20's.
Fine For Now said: Can you explain how it felt to go from 0-1 kid, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4. Did it
get easier/harder? What specifically changed for you guys and your
family? :-)
At first, it got harder. Each time. There's just no easy way to add a new person to the family without some growing pains. However, you learn to juggle and as the kids get older there is no doubt that it is AWESOME for them to have play mates! They entertain each other all the time and it's great, except when they're fighting. Getting one on one time is harder now, and I feel bad about that.
There are certain things that are hard now, just because we're outnumbered. It's hard to go some places, eating out is stupidly expensive, as is paying for a babysitter, and
some days it feels like there's just SO MANY OF THEM.
Tracy asked: where and when should our next girl's trip be. I'm already day dreaming about it.
Hmm, Atlanta? I want to go to IKEA. Although, there is no way on earth I will drive there so that might be too much. I liked the last place we went and Nashville is "open" again so either of those! Frankly, anywhere. LOL
Saly asked: What is your all time favorite song and why?
Tough one! My favorite songs change all the time! A song that will always hold a special place for me is this one by Mark Wills,
Loving Every Minute.
D and I danced to that at our wedding.
Mommy Attorney asked: I'm interested in hearing more about the potential homeschooling? What's moved you towards that?
I'm still not sure on this. I can't stop thinking about it but there is so much to consider! While we haven't made any decisions yet, I feel like I could teach him more individually at home (and O too, in the Fall) and work with them where they are. Their school does so little science and social studies and I could work a lot more of that in. The environment at school isn't always the best either. They hear/learn a lot of stuff from other kids and some of it is not good. So much of the year's success depends on the teacher and while there are SO many good ones, there are also some not so good ones. d's teacher this year has done great at giving him harder work but she is a yeller and the whole class often has to miss recess for weeks at a time, or have silent lunch, and although I'm all for consequences I feel like she is too harsh
sometimes. She has said some things to the kids that are completely inappropriate and that is really what pushed me to consider homeschooling. I realize teachers are people too, and as a former teacher, I know how hard it is to teach a room full of kids and how hard classroom management can be so I don't want to sound like I think teachers are to blame for everything. I do NOT. Granted, I do not know who their teachers will be next year, so that really can't play into the equation.
I guess the biggest thing is I feel like they are forced into so many standardized tests and have to grow up so fast in school. I think some structure is good and absolutely necessary, but I think there is
way too much for K & 1st graders. I felt the same way when I was teaching, and I think it's only gotten worse since then.
On the other side, I worry about the socialization and such of homeschooling. I know there are co-ops and the kids will have
lots of opportunities but it's still not quite the same as being away from home from 8-2:30 every day, with other adults and children in real world situations. Also, I wonder about the logistics of hauling around the other kids with us when we need/want to go somewhere. I already know it's hard for me to do things by myself with all four, so it's something I need to think about. Furthermore, homeschooling would be temporary, maybe ending in 5th grade or 8th at the
very latest. I worry about transitions for the kids from a homeschooling environment back into a traditional school environment.
There's so much more, but this is so long already... I guess there are pros and cons to each situation, and I just need more time to weigh them.
The truth is that I'm not sure I WANT to do it. It might sound terrible, but having all 4 kids, all day, and teaching them too, is not something I take lightly. I'm trying to be realistic about my own limitations and how this would work out.
Stacey asked: You are given $500 cash, it cannot be spent on your family, bills or home. What do you do with it? Another hard one! Some of my favorite things are buying stuff for the kids or house! Can I spend it on shoes? haha. It would probably make me feel sick to spend that much on shoes.
Maybe I would buy a new purse, and maybe
one pair of shoes, and donate the rest. There are always plenty of charities I want to give to.
Misty asked: What's your favorite thing you ever got in a CDP?
Hmm, I'm a sucker for pretty notebooks. I also loved the owl note cards I got, and the sample size coffee. Oh, and I looooved the pretty mug I got last time!
I have a real thing for lovely mugs.
Jamie said: what is the one thing you hope to see accomplished for each of your children?
My greatest wish is that they grow up to be good, moral, happy people. There are so many variations of that, of course.
Carmen said: My question: what is your favourite food and do any of your kids share that love?
My favorite foods change so often, but I especially love vegetables of almost any kind (except celery. EW.) and chocolate. Those 2 things never change! O loves veggies, but raw, and actually all the kids eat a good amount of veggies. The younger three of them love chocolate, d takes D in that regard.
The winner is comment #3 - Allyson! (sorry it's so huge, I couldn't get it right!)
Can you contact me? Or post a comment with your email? I can't get the email link to work to contact you!!
