A New Baby

On d's birthday we also added another family member. We've been talking about another baby for a long time, and we specifically wanted a non-shedding breed. The opportunity presented itself last week and everything sort of fell into place at the last minute and we added Piper to our crazy clan.

Of course, we were most concerned that Penny wouldn't adjust well being that she's been an "only" for so long. There's been some adjustment, but overall things are going well. Penny puts her in her place when she nips her too hard, or annoys her, but one of the reasons we wanted a puppy now was so Penny could help teach her some manners (much like a mother dog will to her pups), and hopefully some of Penny's good traits will rub off on her as well. We're trying to give Penny extra love and attention, so she doesn't feel jealous.
People seem to have strong opinions when you add another family member, be it baby or pet, and that can be frustrating. Penny is not being mistreated. She will adjust just like siblings adjust when they get a new baby in the house. Yes, she has health issues but she's doing well and we're not replacing her at all. Lots of families have 2 dogs and now ours is one of them.
Piper is a labradoodle (lab/poodle) and she is so soft! I can hardly keep my hands off her. And she doesn't shed. I can't even say how thrilled I am about that! 
Now, on to more pictures!

Roommates

8

d turned eight on Friday. It's still hard, every year, to believe how much time has passed. He's growing into a wonderful kid, and I'm finding myself enjoying each new stage while mourning the loss of the last stage just a little.

They were both so young here! d was probably 6-7 months old and Penny was about 1.5 years. 

Now d is 8 and Penny is 9.

He's a great kid. Happy 8th to d!

Grump-a-lump

D worked on Saturday, but isn't supposed to be working overtime on the project he's currently on so he "had" to take a day this week off. We were going to go to lunch while the little kids were at preschool and the big boys were at their science class. However, C got sick during dinner last night and couldn't go to preschool, and L didn't want to go either. Now, D is running errands while the big boys are at their science class and I had leftovers for lunch. Good leftovers, but still.

Besides just having C get sick during dinner -- which required a shower for him, and a steam clean for the floor -- yesterday sucked. I've been feeling upset about the handling of some family "issues" in D's family and some of my own family is giving me a hard time about a vacation they want us to take with them. I don't take kindly to people acting like *I* make no effort when I drag my family here, there and everywhere to visit them each and EVERY year. Plus, you know, I'm not made of money.

Aside from that, I took Penny back to the vet yesterday for a follow up and her liver enzyme level is more than twice as much as it was 2 weeks ago. *sigh* (For comparison, her first level was 1,000, her second was 800 and her third was 1,800. Normal is around 100.) 
I've been shoving pills down her throat 3 times a day for over a month and things aren't getting better at all. The vet wants me to continue, but I can't see why, when it's not helping. The vet is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I find I'm not sure about giving her more and more medicine when it's not helping. My goal is for the remainder of her life to be happy and pain free, even if it's not quite as long as it could be. (She's 9 & also heartworm positive.) I don't want to put her through liver biopsies and surgeries when the damage to her liver is done. I feel torn about the whole situation, and terribly sad, of course. (and significantly relieved of quite a lot of my money)

I needed a pick me up in a big way but I'm working very hard on not eating sugar. I've stayed away from sugar since Ash Wednesday (minus coffee creamer and wine) but it's hard for an emotional eater like me. I decided that I needed chocolate and if I couldn't find a way to get some that one of the Easter bunnies in my closet was going to be minus a head or tail.  I stumbled upon this recipe for Primal Fudge on Pinterest and it's FANTASTIC. Even the kids thought so, because I wasn't sure if it was just because I was chocolate free for so long or not. Try it! It's gooooood.
(And it only uses honey, so technically it's not sugar, right?) (Don't answer that.)

Anyway, I had my healthy chocolate and some wine. Oh, wine! The Universe knew just what I needed yesterday because my wine club shipment came yesterday. Six lovely bottles of wine, just in the nick of time! 
Now, since I can't have a date with my lovely husband I think I will go eat some more chocolate (it's healthy!) and get on with my day.


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Off topic: Try this recipe for cabbage rolls. OMGSOGOOD!
(I didn't cook as long as they said, only about 4 hours on high, then 1 on low)

homeschool update

A request was made to update about how homeschooling is going, and since writer's block is still hanging around, I decided to oblige. I know a lot of people get bored listening to school stuff, and if that's you it won't hurt my feelings if you skip on by.

Homeschooling is going quite well. I want to reiterate, right off the bat, that nothing about me makes me special in regards to homeschooling. I honestly believe that if you have the desire, you can homeschool successfully.

I've been happy with most of our curriculum and feel like the boys are progressing very well. I know what I want to change for next year. The flexibility we have is pretty much one of my favorite things about homeschooling. We can work for a few hours, we can play outside, take field trips, have play dates, and go off on a tangent when we feel like it! We can study our interests!
We actually enjoy spending time together, and I find it doesn't bother me to have the kids with me all the time. I worried that I would get so burnt out, but I've adjusted my expectations and have surprised myself. We have fun. I don't have to miss the kids and in turn, they are blossoming! They are getting all sorts of experiences that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

It's not all easy, of course. All the work is on me, and if they fail I take the brunt of the blame. So far they are doing well, but it's always in the back of my mind. It keeps me motivated, but it also causes stress.
It's harder to do some things, like errands, when you always have several kids with you. I'm thinking of looking around for a mother's helper to stay with the kids one morning a week so I can do all my errands and such that day. Right now it's not a big problem since the two big kids and I do most of the errands when the two little kids are in preschool. Next year though, only L will be in preschool and I'll have all 3 boys to run errands with. Still do-able but not as easy. Ideally, D could flex his time at work and take half a weekday off and make the time up by working an hour more on the other days. We'll see.

A typical day looks like this:
5:30-6 wake up
by 7, breakfast is usually finished. I drink my coffee, watch the news/check FB & Twitter, talk to my mom on the phone
8ish we start school and work pretty solidly until around 11. We typically cover math and language arts in this time and sometimes some extras like art or music.
We take a break for lunch and a little play time.
By 12-1, it's nap time for the little kids (although they only nap 2ish days a week now), then we work on History and/or Science and the kids do some free reading as well. That's only about an hour, depending on what we do. Some days it might be 20 minutes, some days 2 hours... it depends.
Then we have the rest of the day to play or do whatever. We flex our schedule around if we have plans or the little kids have preschool, and do some work before 9AM when we leave, and some while they're in school or in the afternoon after they get home. 


Overall, I'd call our first year of homeschooling a success so far. 

Questions?

Dear,

Dear Me,
Why can't you think of anything to write?
Love,
Writer's Block