I can honestly say that - with 2 weeks left until my due date - I am finally starting to slow down! With the exception of today (and only because I had a Dr.'s appointment) I've been spending the majority of my time lounging around in t-shirts, baggy sweatpants and slippers all week. I drive only if it's an absolute necessity. If I go out of the house, it's to go for a short walk with the kids or sit in the backyard and watch them play. I'm keeping up with the household chores, but I'm not going overboard. I think my "nesting" days are behind me for good, now! And, despite feeling a little bit nauseous here and there, I generally feel pretty great (pregnancy wise!) most of the time! When I'm not pregnant I find my bed to be so incredibly comfortable but right now I'm finding it very difficult to get in and out of so I've moved myself onto the couch from now until the baby arrives. I don't particularly care for sleeping without Jim, but at this stage of pregnancy finding a comfortable position to rest in is top priority! And I'm sure Jim is happy to not have his sleep interrupted by me trying to haul myself out of bed multiple times during the night - I spend more time in the bathroom now than I do anywhere else!
The kids are adjusting well to this new, slower pace. Typically our week is chock full of activities - playdates, parks, the library etc. but the time has come to spend a little more time at home. As the colder seasons roll in the kids will need to get used to being indoors more and once the new baby is here I have no intentions on taking him (nevermind the rest of them!) out too often. He's going to be born smack dab in the middle of cold and flu season, with multiple kid-type virus' popping up on a daily basis. I want to shelter him - just a little - from being exposed to too many people..until he builds up somewhat of an immune system. Of course we'll still spend time in our own backyard, especially when the baby is sleeping, but our activities will be limited. Even still, there are plenty of things to keep everyone entertained around here!!....
The girls have taken a big interest in doing various arts & crafts projects - they've made scarecrows out of paper bags, black cats out of construction paper, colorful trees using their painted handprints as branches, halloween wreaths and pumpkin pictures, etc.! They love to color (Savannah has become obsessed with markers!) and paint. Kyle keeps himself busy playing with his electrical kit, remote controlled toys (trucks and helicopters) and Legos. When he's not playing, he's reading, writing or drawing. He goes through phases on a daily basis - for a while he was keeping himself busy making his own comic books! And then there are times when the kids all play together, although that can be hit or miss on any given day. Usually they play together in pairs; Kyle and Bella or Bella and Savannah. It sounds strange, but things tend to work out better for them when one is left out!
School continues to go very well! We're in a fantastic routine now. Typically I give all of the kids their lunch around 11:30'ish. Immediately following lunch (so around 12'ish) Kyle starts his work for the day. He rarely has any complaints about his workload anymore! His penmanship is not the greatest but I'm pretty sure he's doing his best so I don't get on him too much about that anymore. All of his school work is done in cursive. I'm not too pleased with A Beka Arithmetic this year; it's a very big book and it seems like much of it is review from what he learned last year. We might consider switching to a different math curriculum for next year, but we'll see. In general I really love the concepts behind the A Beka curriculum. I'm not sure if I'm willing to stray from it now. Bella is absolutely thriving. She really loves to write!! On any given day she will grab a piece of paper and copy down random words from books. Once a week I have her write a short letter to a family member, too. I don't have her on any sort of a set routine yet, but I always make sure that we jam as much reading as possible into any given day. Reading can be a bit of a challenge for us at times. It requires a lot of patience on my end as well as a lot of focus and determination on her end but I make it a point to never give up or give in. We always finish what we start, even if it takes twice as long as usual. We are approx. 65 lessons into the 100 lessons book. My goal was to have finished the lesson book over the summer but I guess we took one too many days off! Just this week I've started to incorporate Level 1 Early Reader books into her "homemade curriculum". The variety helps to keep her interested. Overall I'm pleased with her progress. She definitely understands the concept of sounding out letters to figure out any given word and I'm noticing that she's memorizing some of the more repetitive words such as "the", "is", "and", etc. Technically I'm not at all schooling Savannah yet, but I do have her practice things like numbers, colors and letters on a regular basis when she's playing (i.e. how many cows are in that farm? what color are they? what letters are in the word cow?). Just recently I've noticed her coloring in the lines more and using a variety of colors vs. using just one crayon/marker to scribble across the paper/picture. She is determined to learn how to use scissors, although she's not quite ready to yet. Both her and Bella enjoy doing puzzles, too.
I'm truly blessed to have children who enjoy learning. It makes my "job" so much easier!
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