callista at four months.

Oh, this tiny gal.  She is just the absolute best.

 

She is also exhausting.

She is still waking up often through the night to eat - sometimes as often as every two hours - but she's also started waking up for the day at 6:25 on the nose, pretty much every day.  To say I'm tired is the world's hugest understatement - I am fall-down dizzy-tired at 5:00 p.m.  My body hurts.  My eyes hurt.  Being awake just hurts.

But this lady makes everything so worth it.  She is just perfection in a tiny twelve-pound package.  She's happy, she's adorable, she's super snuggly and warm and good-smelling.

She's still the same 'her' that she's always been - she likes being held, preferably by me or Todd.  She sleeps best on her tummy or snuggled up to someone.  She can get herself to sleep, and will frequently rock her body back and forth with her left leg to fall asleep.  She finds the big kids hilarious, and has especially big heart-eyes for Finneas, who rough-houses with her and gets right up in her face and screams his lovey-dovey brother words, and for Penelope, who snuggles with her and bounces her.  She laughs when the kids growl at her, and cranes her neck to see what they're up to.

She's starting to grab things and pull them to her mouth if you put them right in the way of her hands.  (She doesn't really reach for anything yet.)  She loves hanging out on her tummy, looking all around, and can roll over both ways.  She adores sitting in her bouncy seat, and has mastered kicking her leg in rhythm to keep herself bouncing.  She has two crazy-tiny teeth in the bottom front of her mouth.  She's super strong and loves to be held up so she can stand on her feet.

She was dedicated this month!

She's starting to stretch her schedule to more of a 2.5 hour cycle during the day, which is nice, and nursing is still going well.  I have no idea what she weighs at this point, but she's outgrown her newborn clothing, which tells me she's growing!

She joined us outside for pumpkin painting this week.  She doesn't seem convinced she likes the chilly weather, but she didn't complain at all.

Now, if she would only sprout some hair...

seasonal clothing switcheroo.

Whoa mama.  It's that time of year again: the season of switching out summer clothes for cooler weather clothes, inventorying everything we have, and shopping for everything we need.  Sounds simple enough, but I swear this single task sucks about a month of my life every fall and every spring.

(A friend asked why we don't just do this once per year and keep all the kids' clothes out year-round.  First, our kids all share dressers, so they already have limited personal drawer space.  Second, I find that it's helpful to limit their options in order to allow them to be totally independent in dressing themselves.  I don't have to battle them about what's seasonally appropriate, or pick out their clothes for them.)

So.  The process of changing out seasonal wardrobes at our house looks like this: first, I pull all the bins we'll need for the upcoming season.

A couple of our kids are between sizes right now, so I'm not only changing seasonal clothing, I'm changing sizes as well.  Hence the millions of bins.

Then, I sort through them all and get rid of anything that's beyond salvage, or that didn't fit the kids right the last time someone was in that size.  I put that stuff in a bin to take to consignment.  I was shocked at how much I needed to sell off this year - that entire bin in the foreground of the picture is stuff I was getting rid of.  But in thinking about it, I realized that there was still stuff in the Boys 2T bin that I had bought used at garage sales when I was pregnant with Atticus nine years ago, and then have gone through the older two boys since then.  Those clothes have lived some life, and it was time to replace a lot of it.

Once I get all the bins weeded out, I take my handy dandy lists (there is more detail on these, as well as links to the documents if you'd like to use them yourself, in this blog post) and tally what we currently have, and what we'll need to buy.

Then I take everything to consignment to get cash to help offset the cost of the new clothes we'll be buying.

Then we go shopping.  A couple of weekends ago, we spent two hours in Old Navy.  (Here is why I currently prefer to buy kids' clothing new rather than used.) I had a clipboard with all my printed sheets, and I was shouting orders like, "Two church shirts for Finneas! Three church sweaters for Atticus!  One pair of 2T jeans!"  So Todd would head off to find said clothing, and I would highlight and check line items like crazy.  It was intense.  We even had an occasional audience of various shoppers and workers, because we're a freak show like that.

This past Saturday, we headed out to do the same thing at Target and Walmart to pick up the few little straggly items we hadn't found at Old Navy.

Soon, I'll empty their dressers of their summer stuff, wash it all, and put it in the appropriate bins.  (Here's a post on my system of keeping everything organized in storage.)  I like to do this one kiddo at a time - empty one kid's dresser, wash all the clothes as a single load, and then fold it all at once and put it in the proper bin.  Once their stuff is weeded out, I'll put the new season's stuff in their drawers, and move on to the next kid's dresser.

And by the point that I get all of this accomplished for all six kids, it will likely be close to Christmas and I'll get to look forward to about three months of calm before I have to do it all over again for summer.

I feel like this part of parenting has aged me more than any other part.  All the current wrinkles I'm getting around my eyes are cry-lines from the many moons of having to sort clothing bins for all the kids.  Take pity on me and pray for me.  Parenting is hard.


In case you missed those links, here are some past posts on this same topic.

How I Store Kids' Clothing (1)

How I Store Kids' Clothing (2)

Why We Don't Typically Buy Used Clothing

My Super Efficient Master Clothing List

what was up with us this week. (ly.)

This week we did approximately zero schoolwork.  We just had one appointment after another, and by about Wednesday afternoon, I was like, "Who am I kidding?"  So we just called it a week.

Saturday morning, after my book study girls headed out, we loaded up the kids in the van and headed to Old Navy.  I'll tell you more about it next week, but it's the time of seasonal clothing switch-outs, and I spent last week getting organized for a shopping trip.  Once I knew what all we needed, it was time to shop, and shop we did.  It took us two hours to get through Old Navy, and we still have a few things to gather from Target yet tomorrow.

Here is our receipt.  Todd looks very sad.

Monday, the kids and I headed to Kansas City in the morning for Atticus' orthotropics appointment.  Orthotropics are basically like orthodontics, but instead of focusing on just straightening the teeth as the primary goal, the main goal is to encourage proper development of the face and jaw that will support the teeth coming in well.  (Plus prevent TMJ, mouth breathing, restricted airways, improper neck posture, headaches, poor sleep, etc. etc.  It's all really amazing.)  I'm super excited to get started with all of this... except that it's in Kansas City, and we'll be needing to go pretty frequently.  Plus, braces are expensive.  So... huge bummer there.

We spent two hours in the car, two hours at the doctor, two hours in the car, and then home.  It was such a long day.  I just grabbed McDonald's on the way home because I was exhausted and just wanted hot food.

TUESDAY WAS TODD'S BIRTHDAY!!!  We didn't do much for it that day, since he worked and Atticus had a speech appointment and we had Connection Group that evening.  We'll be celebrating tomorrow with pumpkin painting and a fun birthday meal.

Wednesday, we headed up to the Amish.  While I was up there, a friend of mine texted, saying she had the day off of work and asking if I'd want her to watch the kids for a bit so I could run errands or grab a coffee or something.  UM YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.  So I went grocery shopping.  Hot stuff.  (I posted a short Facebook video of what all I got at Aldi, if you're curious!)

Yesterday, Atticus had a dentist appointment to get a cavity filled and a tooth pulled.  He was a total champ, and we stopped at Sonic afterward to grab him a shake.  

Also happening yesterday: This little lady turned four months old!  She accomplished her first belly laughs this weekend, which melted me into a puddle.  She looks confused here about her outfit, and I don't blame her.

Today is totally open, so I'll either be using it to catch up on a little school, or to catch up on some reading so that I can have another book or two finished by the end of the month.  I'm currently working on Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis, and a book by the Duggars.  If that doesn't sum up my life, I don't know what does.

In other random news, Penelope started her own blog this week, which is the best news I've had the privilege of conveying in a long time.  Unfortunately for you suckers, it's private, but just knowing it's out there should reignite some of the fire of being alive.

Finneas also started his own Google Doc.  It's a story called Bug Day with a Lobster and the title alone just slays me.

And here are the Sisters, showing up to wish you a great weekend with their sweet, cuddly faces.

happy birthday, bestie!

This wonderful human has officially graced the world with his presence and his humor and his physique and his golden teeth for thirty-nine whole years, as of today.

As one of the mere mortals that has had the privilege of knowing him for some of that time, I can tell you the world is better because he's here.  People are being discipled, good books are being read, idiots are being sized up, and our kids are being adored (and also being made in the first place) because he's here.  Trash is being taken out, bills are being paid, jokes are being told, and I am experiencing frequent gut-aching laughter because he's here.

So two very enthusiastic, pyrotechnic thumbs up to this guy, without whom my life would be very bleak and drizzly.  Happy birthday from your #1 adoring fan, Todd Van Voorst!

the library.

When we moved from the Ames area to Cedar Falls, one of the things I most sorely missed was a decent library.  I mean, the CF library was fine and all, if you were a middle aged guy looking for a warm, dry place to look at internet porn in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately for me, I wasn't that guy, so I never fully appreciated the CF library.

After we moved here from Cedar Falls, I distinctly remember the first time I saw the library - it's memorable because it has these huge, scary statues of fire-claws or something outside, which I respect.  I felt like they were challenging-slash-beckoning me to come inside, like, "If thou be most brave of heart and pure of spirit, we bid thee enter and shall grant thee unlimited access to New Release Fiction and vegetarian cookbooks."  Basically, I figured that nothing could be more epic than that, and got super stoked to use our new library.

But it turns out I only heard part of the Fire Claws' schpiel.  I was about to learn that it gets even more epic.

This is only one of the Fire Claws.  It is actually not recommended that you take a photo of both of them at the same time, unless you're looking to launch the impetus of the apocalypse.  The More You Know.

After spending more time doing life with the statues, I have decoded the second half of their message to passersby: "Get thyself inside with haste, for within these walls abides a vast spread of knowledge and wisdom, a delectable feast for hungry pilgrims.  And more importantly, we don't charge late fees."  And then they make this big whooshing, crackling sound as they flare up, as if to say, "The Fire Claws Have Spoken."

So, with impunity I can check out millions of books and fail to return them in a timely fashion?  Well, if the Fire Claws insist, then who am I to argue?

So I've been saving all the money that I normally would have had to pay in late fees (an inevitability for someone with my level of commitment to apathy), and I'm getting really close to being able to install that Duck Tales-style pool of gold coins I've been talking about for years.  I don't need to save that money up for the kids' college educations, either, because our library has pretty much all they'll need for a liberal arts education, minus the idiotic co-eds.  So by my calculations, our local library has saved us approximately $8.3 billion in tuition and late fees while also imbuing our lives with depth, knowledge, and a pool full of money.

Does your local library do that?

it's the weekly 'what's up!'

Annnnnnd it's Friday again already.

I already shared with you the biggest news of the week (Penelope got baptized!), but I hadn't yet mentioned that the four littlest kids were also dedicated that same morning!  It was a really special day for us.

Because we had all of this going on, our families were incredible enough to come down to celebrate with us.  My mom and stepdad, Todd's parents, my sister, and our nephew David all came to join in the festivities.  It was a full house and a great time.

After such a full weekend, the week itself has kind of felt like a letdown.  We definitely weren't as busy as we have been recently - the only extra stuff we had going on was a speech therapy appointment for Atticus and a date night with a couple of friends - which was really nice.  But you know that thing where, even though you have a lull period sandwiched between two really intense periods, you don't do anything productive with it to get caught up or get ahead?  That was my week.  Just one underutilized lull period.

I should have cleaned out the garage.  And I should have worked on switching out seasonal clothing.  (UGH, I started this the other week and it is just hanging over my head!)  But I'm also totally drained from the last few weeks, so I was super unmotivated.  And I'm dreading starting up the intense pace of life again, so I didn't want to start anything I couldn't guarantee would be totally finished before launching into next week's hectic schedule.  So I did nothing.

Like, literally nothing.

There's a load of laundry sitting in the washer that's been in there for about three days now.  I went nearly four days between hair-washings.  Apparently hygienic life habits are the first things to go when I give up any semblance of productivity.  But you know what?  I kind of don't even care.  It was kind of nice.

Playing my favorite game: Paint Mommy.  Basically, the kids just take paintbrushes and pretend to paint my face.  It's the best free massage I can conjure up around here.  I felt the need to draw attention to the following aspects of this photo:  1) Lauren, I wore your sweatshirt once, as you can see.  I'm sorry you had to find out this way.  I promise I didn't stretch it out, and I promise to wash the spit up off of it before I give it back to you.  2) How tiny does my head look compared to my body in this photo?!  3) I feel like I now know exactly what people will see when they come to my wake, though maybe the outfit will be different.

Although.  I will say I have been in the. worst. cooking rut lately - pretty much 100% of our meals have been of the "baked chicken/veggie/salad/rice" or "grilled chicken/veggie/salad/rice" or "burgers/veggie/salad/rice" or "brats/veggie/salad/rice" etc. etc. variety over the last few months.  This week I made salmon tacos, lasagna, pulled pork.  My family was blown away by the freshly rediscovered knowledge that I know how to use a stove and open a cookbook.  So that was a win.

Other than that, I have nothing to report.  The laundry is still hanging over my head, although I did shower yesterday, so that's a step in the right direction.  I think today I might try to finish up inventorying the kids' cold weather clothing and shoe needs so we can go shopping for that stuff soon.  OR I'll just lay on the couch in a near-coma like I've been doing for the last four days.  Either/or.

penelope got baptized!

Yesterday morning was a baptism service at church, and Penelope chose to get baptized!  It was so great, and I am so proud of her.

A few months ago, we were in Aldi, and Penelope suddenly said something like, "I think I'll get baptized when I'm 23 or 24."  So I asked her why she would want to wait so long.  "Because I'm afraid of going under the water." 

So we talked about how the Bible tells us to "repent, believe and be baptized."  She had already done the first two items on that list - God tells us that the next step is to be baptized in obedience.  Without pushing her, I asked her if she thought obedience gets easier or harder the longer we wait, and I asked her why she thought she'd be less scared of the water when she's 23 or 24.  Advancing age doesn't always cure our disobedience problems or our fears.

Something in her just 'clicked.'  She started talking about wanting to get baptized, and Todd started discussing with her what she thought it means to be baptized, and asking her about her testimony - the story of her life before faith, how she came to know Jesus, and her life since becoming a Christian.  After a few months of gentle discussions (and a time or two of choosing not to sign up for earlier baptism services, because she was afraid of sharing her testimony from stage), she finally decided to dive in. (Bah dum bum CHHHH.)

She looked so tiny up there, reading her testimony, and even tinier once she got into the baptism tank.  (We're a church plant that meets in the conference room at a local hotel; our baptismal is a horse trough.)

It was indescribably amazing to watch my tiny daughter tell our church family about her faith in Jesus, and the truly supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in her life.  It was even more amazing to watch Todd baptize her.  One of the best days of my life, by far.

After she got dried off, she got to get dressed in a new white dress, and we had a small little lunch party at our house for the family that came into town to celebrate with us.

I am so proud of my girl, and so happy for her!  The friend that takes photos and video of things like this at church told us that he'd send us the video - when I get that, I'll be sure to post it!

the weekly 'what's up.'

So.  I've been AWOL around here this week.

The last few weeks have really ushered in a hard new season.  I'm surprised I don't feel more overwhelmed by it all than I do, but I do feel really, really drained.

To start things off, Callista has been giving me a really hard time overnight, and I'm just exhausted.  For the last six weeks or so, she's been waking multiple times through the night, even though she'd been voluntarily sleeping all the way through before that.  The most recent development is that she wakes up to eat, spends nearly an hour nursing, and then spends the next 45 minutes or so wide awake, just talking to herself and making all kinds of noise.  So every time she wakes up, I'm up for nearly two full hours at a time.  One night this week, I logged a total of three and a half hours of sleep, which I got in three separate chunks.  It has been rough.

And, of course, our schedule is just chock-full.  This week we had three eye doctor appointments, two dentist appointments, a speech therapy appointment, and I had four meet-ups with discipleship gals.  We made our regular drive to the Amish, I made a big grocery shopping trip, we babysat for some friends, and we tried to get school squeezed in there the best we could.  The kids have enjoyed doing their work while they lounge around in the girls' room this week.

And remember my motto?  You know.  "In order to be fruitful as a stay-at-home mom, you actually have to sometimes stay at home."  We have been out of the house so much lately, things are really starting to fall apart.  Because we're only home long enough to make a mess, but not long enough to actually clean it up, the piles are starting to spawn.  The house is a serious disaster zone.  In the name of authenticity, here's what our house continually looks like at this point:

Just when I think I couldn't dislike my green-and-orange kitchen any more, I see it in a photo.  One of these days, I'm really going to have to find the time to paint.

And because we have to get dressed in our 'going out into public' clothes so often lately, I have tons of extra laundry to do, but I'm never home to actually do it.  And I started switching out seasonal clothing bins this week, so there's that extra laundry chaos happening.

Luckily, some of my favorite and most relaxing parts of our weeks have remained the same.  The kids are still so very sweet...

..and.we still prioritized together, like during family movie night.  (This week, we watched "B.F.G."  Have you seen it?  It was so. wonderful.  We loved it!)

I do have to say, though:  it looks like we will be averaging about four out-of-the-ordinary appointments per week for the next four weeks or more.  And I have no idea if, or when, Callista will settle back in to a normal sleep pattern.  I'm giving myself permission to blog less during this season, and use the time I usually take to write each day to nap, shower, clean up the house, or just relax so I don't end up going insane.  So if I'm a bit spotty around here for the next month or so, I trust you'll understand why!

a little more on postpartum recovery, and my goals moving forward.

A while back, I posted on a few things that have helped me recover incredibly well from this birth.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I've ever had a more restful, nourishing, smooth recovery period after a baby, and I really think it's because of how intentional I was in preparing for the postpartum phase, as well as how committed I was on the back end to protecting and sticking with those decisions.  This post goes into detail about how cocooning, napping and good nutrition have made a world of difference for me.

There are a couple of other things that I feel have helped, too: Ab Rehab exercises during pregnancy, supplements, and not pushing my body to be 'normal' too soon.

Diastasis recti exercises during pregnancy. 

I started these exercises up again toward the end of my second trimester, after I stopped feeling so sick, and did them until I was too huge to do them comfortably.  (About six or eight weeks total.)  I'm going to go into more detail on this later this week, but it significantly narrowed the ab separation that was very large during pregnancy, and my current gap is much smaller than it was after Rocco (Baby #5) was born.  I have much less work ahead of me to get it to close again completely.

Supplements. 

I go into more detail in this post about the supplements I take, but I was very diligent through pregnancy and postpartum to supplement my diet with thyroid and hormone helpers.  Right now, I take a raw prenatal, vitamin D, kelp, selenium, magnesium, calcium, collagen and zinc.  I also take fermented cod liver oil - in capsules, because it's disgusting and I don't want to have to taste it!  These helped me reach equilibrium again after my health crashed in the postpartum season after Laurelai, and I try to stay on top of taking them now to help my body continue to run smoothly.

Not getting physical, physical.

I had told myself that I would wait at least twelve weeks before even starting to try to get my body back to 'normal' functioning.  I think this is so important!  I try to think about it like any other intense physical recovery - surgeries, injuries, and illness all require a bit of waiting and resting before getting too physical.  I wanted to honor what my body has done, and protect myself from injury.  So I really have spent the last three months resting and recovering, and am so glad I have.  But now here I am, fifteen weeks postpartum and ready to start moving again.

I'm getting ready to begin again with my diastasis recti exercises, and I'm going to start some other light exercise as well.  I'm also gearing up to tighten up the reins on my diet.  So get ready, because throughout the rest of the week, I'm hoping to fill you in on my current ab separation, and my plans for moving forward with that (I'll even post current photos), as well as what exercise I'll be taking up so that I can get moving again without pushing myself too hard, too quickly.  And I'll hopefully give you a rundown of the nutritional plan I'll be focusing on to help me start looking and feeling like myself again.

weekly 'what's up.'

Whatta week, whatta week, whatta week, whatta mighty good week.

It ended up being better than I'd anticipated.  We had tons of appointments scheduled, all during morning school time, and I was kind of dreading it.  But we survived the really unusual schedule, and even enjoyed ourselves - eye doctor appointment for the boys, a speech therapy appointment for Atticus, a dentist appointment for Penelope, and a couple out-of-the-ordinary get-togethers with older women from church. 

These gals, by the way, were so outrageously refreshing to me.  If you have any older women in your life who will let you pick their brains about faith, family, trials, cheesemaking, etc., TAKE ADVANTAGE.  I mean, for one thing, they each brought over gluten free cookies.  So, there was that.  But on top of it, it was so grounding and helpful to hear their stories, ask their advice, and learn from what God has taught them.  I really hope to make room for so much more of this in my life.

Other than that, I would say that the two most defining things about this week were, 1) the fact that I got my hair colored.  It is now very dark.  I am still very pale, and 2) we finally got a replacement for the camera lens that broke a while back, so I don't have to use the zoom lens for everything anymore.  I'm so giddy over it, I could dance a jig.  Or something.

Other news?

Todd gets to come home to the best sight in the whole world: screen door-smooshed baby faces.

Penelope is basically my mini-me in so many ways - not the least of which is the fact that she likes to write stories while she simultaneously bounces a baby.  She also asked this week if she could make a video tutorial teaching other kids her age how to make tuna salad by themselves.  I'm thinking about handing over the family "blog-and-FB Live" business to her, and sitting around drinking margaritas by the pool for the rest of my days.

Atticus and Finneas logged an outrageous number of hours honing their drawing skills.

This is an Atticus original - no tutorial necessary.

Laurelai turned my bookshelf into Ponyville.  In her words, it's looking very 'fashionable.'

The kids got the rare privilege of opening the piano.  I don't know if it's simply this season of motherhood, or whether I'm still dealing with some latent issues with my adrenals, but I just cannot. stand. the extra noise of the piano on top of the normal din of life around here.  So it is indeed rare that I let them play.  (I even tried plunking out a few notes myself, for nostalgia's sake, but I'm very rusty, and I discovered it's extremely difficult to play piano when a toddler is literally straddling your arm and sitting on your hand.)

Lastly, but far from leastly, I have finally started reaping the true benefits of motherhood: I have shystered my kids into thinking it's a game and a privilege to brush my hair.  They don't know it's all puppetmastered by Yours Truly in order to get a free head massage.  I have discovered Finneas and Rocco are my most gentle, relaxing stylists; the girls seem to understand that they've been given an opportunity to retaliate against me for all of the detangling I've perpetrated against them in their short lives.

And, in case you missed it, my reading goals for October:

1. The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
2. Ragweed by Avi  This one came highly recommended by Penelope, who insisted I read it.  So I will.

3. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
4. The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot
5. L'Abri by Edith Schaeffer  This book literally changed my life.  I am so excited to read it again!

6. A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther My friend Karlee sent this to me recently, and I can't wait to dig into it.

7. The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson I started this one this week, and it is so stinking funny.  I have actually snort-laughed.  There are so many bad words in it, because the author is an old British-y curmudgeon.  But, like, not in a bad way...?

8.The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey Another classic re-read.

9. Trim Healthy Mama Plan by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett Yet another re-read.  (It was also on last month's list, but I didn't get to it, so it's staring me in the face again this month.)