Feeding the Baby

I was going to call this post "breastfeeding," but I didn't want to scare people (like my dad, who may want to avoid reading this post anyway).
Every baby is a new experience, and I've learned the following things from baby Phil these last three weeks:

1. I cannot nurse the baby and knit at the same time. I have tried my hardest, but it's just not possible. Maybe there's room for an invention here...some kind of hands-free knitting device that you can rest on the baby's head?
2. Asking, "Phil, do you have a poopy diaper?" will probably continue to make me giggle until the poor kid is potty-trained. I'm not sure if this is a pro or a con of naming your child after his grandpa. 
3. Babies can pee on you and you don't even know it. Either they're in your lap and you suddenly feel pleasantly warm, or you're changing them and then your face and the walls and the floor are being sprinkled on. Comprehending that it's pee takes a few seconds, even after the 20th time. During those few seconds, the experience is actually kind of nice. Who doesn't like a warm lap?
4. Car seats are a pain. A large, unwieldy, spit-up covered, impossible to latch into the stupid base part, life-saving pain.
5. I can nurse the baby and use the bathroom at the same time. Strangely, this has been necessary more than once already.
6. Babies are not good at keeping their feet in the proper leg holes of their pajamas. Both legs get stuck in the same one, and then they squirm and make it impossible to figure out how to get the snaps together in the right order. All baby clothes should have zippers, not snaps. Or babies should be born with enough fur to just remain naked all the time. Hello, evolution? Where are you when I need you? 
7. I can also check Facebook while nursing the baby, while simultaneously watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix (4 seasons in just 3 weeks). 
8. Esme and Grace will be great mommies someday, as long as they eventually figure out the difference between patting the baby gently and smacking him.
9. When it's the middle of the night and you're somewhat sleep-deprived, having a newborn baby stare at you can be very unsettling. You start thinking that he's going to start talking or read your mind or steal your soul (depending on your level of sleep deprivation).
10. Baby diapers are way better than toddler diapers. To avoid changing toddler diapers, wait for the toddler to poop, then announce to your husband that you have to go change the baby's diaper for the 50th time today, thereby guilting him into changing the nasty toddler diaper. I've almost got Grace trained to poop during John's lunch hour. Genius.

Girl Scouts "Leadership" Campaign

The Girl Scouts have decided to make it their mission to put as many women in business and political leadership positions as men within the next generation. As part of this mission, they did a study of young women, which found that girls think that "while women can succeed in business, they rarely become corporate executives; and many believe they are more burdened by family than men as they try to succeed in their careers." Later, a woman who is the co-founder of the Girls Leadership Institute says, regarding women balancing family and career, "It's almost impossible to do both well." So...what are they saying? They want girls to grow up wanting careers and not families? That if you have to choose - and apparently they think you do - you have to choose career over family? I don't have time to go into the many ways that this study and this project disgust me, but I'll tell you one thing: I am not buying any more Girl Scout cookies, no matter how much I love those Caramel Delights. And furthermore, or perhaps more importantly, the Girl Scouts support Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services, and is therefore in my book staunchly anti-women...regardless of what they think they're promoting. 

Paper, Paper, Paper

We are so un-green at my house when it comes to paper. We probably use 30 sheets of paper a day, and most of those end up, eventually, in the trash. My kids are huge doodlers; Simon alone can easily use up a notebook in a day or two, and he gets very testy if I try to get him to use the back sides of the sheets or the edges of the page. I print things off the internet that I know I could just use electronically, but there's something in me that has to see it on paper. I go through an ink cartridge every couple of weeks. In fact, right now, I've been out of black ink for two days and it's killing me. I also have a thing for books. I love buying books, and even though I know that I'm not likely to read them more than once, I feel like I need to buy them rather than get them from the library (although we usually have at least 20 items checked out from the library at any given time). John and I have been drooling over the Kindle forever, and I have a friend who just got the Kindle Fire and refers to it as "the best homeschooling investment" she's ever made. Would this solve some of our paper problems? It would mean that we have three "computers," so Isaac, Simon, and I could all look at the same things online at the same time...that would solve some of our problems. But I'm afraid of giving myself that much easy access to Amazon.com. Would I go nuts buying and downloading stuff? I looked up some of the books on my wish list, and they are a lot cheaper as e-books, so maybe I'd save money...or maybe it would just be so easy to buy/justify things that I'd waste money. Sigh. I think I'll just daydream about it for a while. And maybe start a recycling bin for all of our doodles.

Piano

I used to really enjoy playing the piano. I took piano lessons for years, and I even have a piano in the living room, with a bench full of music. I hadn't played it FOREVER until yesterday, when I got sick of looking at the book that I had staged on the music stand, so I dug through the bench looking for something else. I think I still recognized most of the notes and started practicing a song, but it was hard without a metronome (you know, the thing that ticks so you can keep time). Then, it dawned on me - I bet there are a zillion online metronomes out there! Sure enough, I found one right away: http://www.metronomeonline.com/. How cool is that? There was a cell phone version too, but I think you had to buy the app for it. You can buy metronomes too, although a lot of them are digital, which I don't think existed back when I took lessons. I like the old fashioned ones with the stick that ticks back and forth. There are plenty of both kinds for sale online: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=metronome&x=0&y=0. If I can manage to master a song, maybe I'll post a video of it. Give me a while...I don't want to embarrass myself.
Today, we're studying the second fruit of the Spirit - joy - in kids' church. Here's our "joy" memory verse:

Psalm 28:7 - The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

We're going to make shields, which the boys will love, and give thanks to him in song, which the boys will pretend to hate but will secretly enjoy. Have I shown you our favorite fruit of the Spirit song? Here it is:

Bad, bad blogger

I was reading someone else's (is that not a word? why is it underlined in red?) blog the other day, and I couldn't help but notice that not only was the writing much better than mine, but the content was actually organized, meaningful, and useful. There were metaphors, there was style, there were long words that I didn't recognize...research was apparently done beforehand in order to provide the reader with helpful tools and resources. I bet this woman even got dressed before she blogged. Or, at least, she wasn't wearing a robe with baby snot on the shoulder (I try to wash it regularly but it takes up so much room in the washer.) Anyway, it made me feel inadequate and hence, I have not blogged for a while. I'm over it now, though, and surely my goal is not, in the immediate future anyway, to be the most literary blog out there. Or the most useful. Maybe some of those bloggers look at blogs like mine and it makes them feel good. I've decided that this is my niche...along with sharing photos and the occasional useful tidbit with my close friends and family. So, that being said, this is the end of birthday week in my family: Alyssa Thams on the 9th, Isaac on the 12th, Grandma on the 13th, Grace on the 14th, Great Grandma on the 16th, and me today. I am now 34 and I suppose I have to admit to being in my mid-thirties. Here are some birthday photos (Isaac celebrated at least 4 times and had a sleepover that involved almost no sleep, for anyone):

 Birthday Breakfast

 The "Sleep"-over

 John and all of the girls

 Jen, David, and Grace at the Schoonover Christmas/Birthday Bash

Come on, Grace! Blow! Yes, I know the cake looks like a 10 and Isaac is actually 11. I didn't have enough room in the bundt pan for all of the angel food cake batter. Should have done this one last year.

A New Song

I'm excited to go to my Wednesday morning bible study today, because we're starting a new book and I think I might actually get caught up on the reading beforehand. We're on our second book in the A New Song series, which is a Lutheran study based on the book of Psalms. Each book in the series studies 6 psalms over the course of 6 weeks. It's very cool, and several of us are not even Lutheran. There is a lot more focus on baptism in the Lutheran church than in mine, but that's the only thing I notice...and I guess it doesn't really bother me.
Here's the verse I'm studying right now from Psalm 9: "The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Yeah!
I take all of the kids with me, and the older two get $2 if they do a good job of helping with the kids in the nursery, so we ALL look forward to this study. If you're in Carroll, and you're free every other Wednesday at 9 a.m., come and check it out! Oh, and you have to be a woman.

No more Exercisetv.tv

I am now hooked on P90X (although I don't do the workouts in order or follow the diet, so don't expect me to start looking like the Terminator anytime soon), but I still like finding workouts online. I just discovered that ExerciseTV.tv is NO LONGER in existence, which makes me very sad, so I had to find a new source for free videos. Instead, I've been going to Hulu, which has a bunch of free workouts - yoga, pilates, and even cardio workouts with The Firm. None of my favorite Firm ladies are still around, apparently, since my DVDs are way old, but The Firm still exists, and you can check it out at http://www.hulu.com/, on the Health and Wellness page. You don't need any of those blue and purple steps for these workouts, which is nice. I even found a few of my old favorites from ExerciseTV on Hulu, although Hulu has commercials, so you have to figure out what to do for 60 seconds while the commercials are playing. Standing around works just fine for me. I wonder if anyone else cares about this...am I the only one who gets up early to bounce around in her living room and develops a bond with the so-fit-it's-disturbing online trainers, or are there more of us out there?

Cute Fuzzy Bags!

If you're in the mood to make gift wrapping a little bit softer this year, I have a brilliant idea (which was not, originally, mine). You can make drawstring pouches from a little bit of fleece and some ribbon - and it's not that much more difficult than wrapping, especially for odd-shaped gifts. Here's what you do:

1. Buy enough fabric that you can cut at least one, 20-inch circle out of it. I can't remember how much this is...a yard? Maybe 2? I remember that the fabric all came in 18-inch width, so I had to get more than I had wanted to. I got two bags out of each swatch that I bought.
2. Buy a lot of ribbon. One bag used one spool of the ribbon I bought at the craft store.
3. Cut your circle. I tied a 10-inch piece of string around a piece of chalk to trace my circle, but if you have a gigantic bowl, that might work too. None of mine were big enough.
4. Cut slits for the ribbon to go through. I cut mine about an inch and a half from the edge of the fabric at 3-inch intervals. I wouldn't go any more than 3 inches apart.
5. Weave the ribbon through the slits. Use enough ribbon so that you can go all the way around the circle (with it laying flat) and tie the ribbon in a bow. I hot-glued my bow together so it wouldn't come untied. And because I use every excuse I can to get out the hot glue gun.
6. To create the bag, just pull the ribbon at the point where you tied the bow. When the bag is cinched up, you have a perfect little carrying strap.

Thanksgiving is Coming!

And I think I'm ready. I downloaded this wonderful workbook for the kids from http://www.scriptureadventures.com/ called "Give Thanks" - 102 pages of activities, crafts, memory verses, games, journaling, and other cool stuff - for only $7. I bought the Christmas one too. I think these would work for any elementary-aged kids; ideal age is maybe 2nd - 5th grade. I haven't fully explored the website, but it looks to be full of good stuff for homeschoolers (and church school too - pretty denomination-neutral from what I saw).

I also have our Thanksgiving dinner all planned and the cupboards all stocked. I raided the Food Network website and came up with the following:
Oven Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter and Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing
Classic Stuffing
Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes (you boil the potatoes in milk and cream...yum...)
Creamy Sweet Potato Casserole (topped with marshmallows and candied pecans - no, there is no such thing as "too sweet")
Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes (obviously a Paula Deen one)
Then, the piece de resistance: my grandma's green bean recipe. Beans, onions, bacon, vinegar, and brown sugar.
Have been depressed lately about the lack of time to do any of the following things: exercise, adequately plan school and church lessons, dust, read, knit enough to stay on schedule for Christmas presents, sleep, blog, pray, maintain my childrens' toe and fingernails, etc., etc. I'm not sure what I actually have been doing, but it's been keeping me very busy. One neat thing we did last week was to deliver our church's shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/) to the drop-off site in Boone with our pastors. It's too late for this year, but if you've never been involved in this, you should check into it for next year. You pack shoeboxes full of goodies for kids in impoverished countries, and they receive the gifts, along with the gospel message, as Christmas presents.
I'm in the middle of knitting John's birthday present and it is going SLOWLLLLYYY, but I do have seven gifts done and another almost done. Scarves, cowls, gloves, toys, and more. Next year I'm starting way earlier. I wonder if anyone is interested in a knitting all-nighter sometime soon. Would that be fun? I'll have to ask the Yarnivores (my knitting companions). (Isn't that a clever name? I thought of it while I was feeding my way-too-old-to-be-getting-fed-at-1-am baby at 1 am the other night.)
My goal this week is to blog every day. Something useful. Can I do it?

Knitting Retreat!

My favorite knitting friend and I went to a knitting retreat this Saturday at the yarn store in Carroll, and it was heavenly. We knitted all day, learned three new scarf techniques (one of which was horrible and frustrating, but still a wonderful time), and ate like queens. I bought new yarn, which I shouldn't have done, but I think I'm all set for knitting my Christmas presents. It's impossible to just look at all of that gorgeous yarn and not get something. I may have to stay up all night for a few weeks, but everyone on my list is penciled in for a knitted masterpiece this year - scarves, cowls, hats, fairies, gloves...how exciting.
I also was eavesdropping and heard about a website for knitters that I didn't know about: http://www.ravelry.com/. Membership is free, and you can search zillions of patterns - some free, some not. There were all kinds of neat things you can do that I didn't look at, like mark your patterns and rate patterns and other stuff.
This was the busiest weekend ever. It started on Friday night with our First Thanksgiving, which I prepared for to the nth degree and was attended by...one other family and my supervising teacher. And my ex-husband. Sigh. Oh well, I guess I'm super-prepared for next year. And I learned all kinds of interesting things about American history. Then, the knitting retreat on Saturday, followed by shoebox preparations at church for Operation Christmas Child (it's not too late to fill up a shoebox with goodies for children across the world; go to http://www.samaritanspurse.com/ to see what it's all about). Sunday was church, my 31 Gifts party (much better attended than the First Thanksgiving), and a church leadership meeting. I haven't had two coherent thoughts in a row for days.
The kids had a great time with Grandpa at the Iowa Hall of Fame. They got to ride in the Mini-Cooper and eat out for breakfast and lunch, so this one was pretty much in the bag no matter what the actual hall of fame was like.
I've been forgetting to end with a Bible verse - today it's Psalm 100. The whole thing. So you'll have to go and look it up, but I'll give you a hint: it's about thanksgiving. The lower-case kind.

Routine, shmoutine

We have been terrible lately at sticking to a schedule. Grace is wailing in her crib right now because I know it's not naptime, but she's so crabby that I don't know what else to do with her. I had forgotten how high maintenance almost-one-year-olds can be. She is everywhere, and she only likes to play with stuff she can choke on (especially paper, legos, and hair bands), and she falls and hits her head ALL the time. So if she's fussy (read: awake), doing anything else with anyone else is almost impossible, including school. And, as you've noticed, blogging. I never get to work out in the morning anymore, because she gets up early and smiley and fights to climb all over me while I try to vinyasa. And now, Isaac and Simon always want to get up "early", so mornings to myself are totally out. I think I'm going to start getting up from 2-4 am to enjoy some "me" time. I read somewhere that "me" time is selfish anyway, so I suppose I should be willing to get up at 2 if I think I need it.
The only useful information I have to pass along today is that you must read the book, Free Range Learning, by Laura Grace Weldon. It's an excellent book on homeschooling. You also must read As Always, Julia, which is a collection of letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. I will probably never get to the end of either of these books, because of the aforementioned problem with me-time, so don't expect me to be able to talk intelligently about either of them. I can only vouch for the first 30 pages or so.

Yoga for Grown Ups

Yoga. Sounds kind of lame to those of us who like to sweat and pant and brag about how long we were on the treadmill this morning and how many reverse crunches we did. However, I found a great yoga workout online that made me wince and grunt and sweat, which I thought was pretty neat. Maybe yoga isn't lame after all. Here it is: http://www.exercisetv.tv/workout-videos/body-sculpting/yoga-sculpt-7642.