How About Quarterly?

Not so good at the updates am I!  Hmmm.  I'm not sure what to do to catch you up - maybe I shouldn't try.  Here are the biggies - Megan is now ONE!  She is tiny, but maybe that's Rick's fault for naming her after her 5ft 6in great aunt instead of her 6ft and 3/4in mommy.  She is just barely 17 pounds (2%) now and just in the 65% for her height.  But since the other kids were all in the 30s for weight and 90s for height maybe I could just subtract the weight% from the height% and say she fits right in, just smaller!  She's standing and cruising and jabbering and I am completely in love with her.  She loves me best - unlike the others - and I enjoy that!

We are now HOMESCHOOLERS!  I am thrilled.  Almost 8 years ago I gave up classroom teaching to nurture my growing family and I am really looking forward to combing my passions more formally and not losing those precious hours with my children each day.  I know we will tinker a lot over the coming year but I have a plan and my kids are good sports so we will get through it.  I am excited to be able to provide my kids with the respect and education they deserve.  'Nuf said.  : )

And because I love to see what other families are doing I'll tell you what I know so far and update as I solidify our schooling choices.  I'm starting with Saxon Math all around (A in 3rd, N in 1st), The Story of the World for History, and then we'll do some reading/spelling and whatever we feel like researching for Science.  The oldest 2 will be doing a Homeschooling Co-Op on Fridays where N will do Kindergarten and A will be taking things like History, Science Labs, Writing and fun things like that.  It's not a full course, just fun enrichment activities.  We'll also do a smattering of Spanish, Art Appreciation and I'm toying with beginning Latin.  Don't you wish you could go to school here?  And we'll absolutely mummify chickens when we study Egypt.  We are that cool.

We just finished up swimming lessons.  My kids will not release the instructor from the death grip and therefore don't actually "swim".  Now that our days will free up and the babies are growing up I feel like we can make family swim a more prominent feature of our lives and work on this.  Of course, I really have no room to talk here about having Chicken Children.  I am the girl who couldn't be PAID to do a somersault in Junior High PE because I was too scared to be upside down and look dumb in front of my peers.  Yes, my PE teacher's assistant Rhamu McCoy offered me $5 to do it and I refused.  I spent our gymnastics unit in PE in a separate room from the class, sitting on a mat refusing to roll. I know, that is crazy.  And sad.  Yet it is true.  So I'm not too hard on them!

We have two sibling weddings and a Washington trip coming up - pictures of our adventures to come!  I'm thinking our Australia trip will be postponed until 2011 when we can save up vacation since Rick will be starting his new job next month (!) and won't have built up any vacation.  Hope my Oma can stay healthy another year and see her great-grandbabies!

I started exercising a little.  I would love to do more.

We have a patio now!

We have wood floors!

My front yard looks nice!

Rick and I just celebrated our 12th anniversary and I gave him the COOLEST present.  (An awesome photobook!)

I got a haircut for the first time in over a year - wowsers this has been a ridiculously trying year of mommyhood for me!

Still to do:
finish basement
homeschooling area
backyard
go on dates - I'll take anything!
move to the beach