video vednesday: they never did catch that anthrax guy.

ummmmm...

i'm panicking.

each pregnancy has come with its anxieties about the upcoming unknowns; i've been surprised at the fact that i've never gotten to a point where i feel like i know exactly what i'm doing when it comes to newborns.  if anything, each baby makes me realize more and more that i clearly don't have a handle on my life, and i'm less of an expert than i assumed i was. 

this time around, i'm not (yet) freaking out about making freezer meals, or having all the cupboards in the house cleaned out.  maybe those freak-outs will come, maybe they won't.  maybe it will eventually be like when i was pregnant with finneas and on the edge of a legitimate break down because one of the bedrooms was yellow and i needed todd to paint it RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND so the baby didn't have to come home to yellow walls or i would LOSE IT.  (and it wasn't even the nursery.)  i'm not there yet either - our bedroom is in the middle of a non-urgent paint/redecorating job right now, and i'm fine taking it slowly.  this time around, i'm mostly freaked out about our lack of structure, and my need for the big kids to grow a little more independent and responsible with their school and chores.

so i've been doing what i do best: trying to solve all of life's problems with books.  i've been reading books by mothers of large families, by cleaning experts, by organizing experts, by children from large families, by homeschool moms.  because wisdom-by-osmosis is a thing, right?


so i'm currently working on a few things in preparation for the upcoming school year, to hopefully allow me to feel a little bit more prepared for the chaos that's coming with the baby:

*a semi-flexible school plan for the year.  i'm learning about myself that i err on the side of too flexible, rather than too rigid, when it comes to our school schedule, so i need to be more disciplined about that.  i'm thinking we'll do six weeks on, one week off, because it's more realistic for me to hope to stay on track for six weeks at a time, and then have a week to spend time with other moms or meeting with younger women or whatever, without that stuff always taking precedent over our school time.

*a family schedule, which outlines what each member of the family is/should be doing during certain blocks of the day.  it may seem like overkill or micromanaging or something, but i'm learning that, in a house with a lot of people, there is a lot less bickering when everyone is given some direction about what they are supposed to be doing at a given moment.  and that seems to be the consensus among older moms with lots of kids, unless the books are lying to me.

*chore charts for the kids.  for certain blocks of the day (before and after meals, etc), the big kids now have specific, explicit responsibilites.  we're doing a clipboard system right now, because they can carry their boards with them around the house, and unlike a printed/laminated checklist, i can add or take away jobs on their lists pretty easily.  the downside is that there are a lot of clips to manage and keep track of, but once i figure out an efficient (and decent-looking) system for that, it should be smooth sailing.  here's what we're working with right now, although the clipboards are destined to become a lot cuter with scrapbook paper at some point.  but you get the jist:

early morning jobs.

after-meal jobs.  they also have some weekly jobs i sprinkle in there.

*blanket/pack-and-play time for the little kids.  last year, our biggest obstacle in homeschool was how to keep the little kids occupied and not distracting during school time.  i really don't want this year to be a repeat of that, so we're trying something new.  it will take some training, though, which i have low hopes for.  i'm guessing it will be a long and arduous process, though the payoff will hopefully be worth it.

*a daily and weekly schedule for me.  i need to get back on track with having specific days for doing household tasks, etc, instead of just being like, 'there's a lot of crusty pee around the base of the toilet.  i guess today is bathroom day,' and, 'todd owns 20-odd pairs of underwear, and precisely zero of them are clean.  that means i haven't done laundry in three weeks, so i should probably get on that.'  i used to be much more systematic about that kind of stuff, and i think it would be good for me to hop back on that train.


so there you have it.  i'm basically overhauling our whole lives, which is how i can tell this is baby-induced anxiety.  normal-person overhauls tend to be smaller and more realistic in scale, but go big or go home, right?

the black hills: day four.

so, i promise to break up the string of vacation posts with more run-of-the-mill crazy ramblings this week, but we're going to start this monday off by talking about the monday we spent in the black hills.  sound good?  okay.

the boys started the morning of day four with a good ol' fashioned gun fight, with a pause to appreciate the view through the living room window.

then we headed to reptile gardens.  i had really been looking forward to this, because finneas has been on a snake kick recently.  

by lunchtime, those non-maternity skinny jeans had cut off the circulation to my very-pregnant thighs entirely and induced horrible restless leg symptoms through the whole evening.  just looking at this photo makes my legs ache.  i make excellent life choices.

we got to see a crocodile/alligator show, which was horrifying and entertaining all at once.  see what i mean?  that guy is throwing a raw chicken leg into the gaping maw of a full-grown gator. 

the kids got to touch a baby gator.

oh, you know, we're just one big happy family, standing in front of a veritable compound of vicious animals.  cheese!

surprisingly, laurelai probably loved reptile gardens more than any of the kids, but i think it's just because all animals are babies to her, and the seeing the pit of crocodiles made her little-mama heart downright giddy.  she kept yelling, 'BABIES!  BABIES RIGHT DARE!  BABIES!'

here, we are attempting to leave the gator area and move on.

this is the funniest.

strangely, there is an entire prairie dog village...at reptile gardens.  but sure, i'm down.  it was penelope's favorite part.

there was a huge indoor area with birds, plants, and TONS of snakes to look at (through glass, thank heavens).  this was my favorite snake, partly because it was dead and those are the best kind of snakes, but mostly because OH GOOD GRACIOUS, how amazing is it?

finneas mistook this bald eagle for a chicken, but the bald eagle was big about it.  he let it roll right off him.

and lastly, this giant tortoise:

yeah, it's real.  finneas even rode it for a minute, and in retaliation, it stepped on his foot (rather, his flip flop).  the thing was very heavy and not in any hurry to move (despite what you may have assumed about an obese, ancient tortoise), so finneas was completely immobilized until papa tony shoved the tortoise's foot off of finn's.  leave it to finneas to manage getting stepped on by a tortoise.

and to end the day, Finneas the Noble-Hearted Wields a Pistol.  covering all his battle bases.

what was up this week.

this week was mainly spent playing catch-up after our week away.  i had made sure before we left to have everything as clean as possible - all laundry caught up, the kitchen deep-cleaned, the whole house picked up.  the house was beautiful and sparkling and took it took me days and days and days before we left to get it to that point.  and it took us exactly two minutes to ruin it once we got home.  water bottles, food, dirty laundry, stuffed suitcases, car bags, coolers and 'souvenirs' (including a buffalo skull; i'll defend myself later regarding that decision - you'll see the light soon enough) from our trip exploded all over the second we walked in the door.  and i spent the next three days putting it all away.

i also had to go grocery shopping right away on sunday, as there was exactly zero food to be found in these parts.  i had done a good job before we left of making meals out of things we had on hand, in order to use up meat and produce before we left, and also to put our grocery budget toward food and activities for the road trip.  which worked out so great on the front end, but meant that the cupboards were bare when we got home.  luckily, we do 'sunday funday' every week, when we get a take-and-bake pizza for lunch from aldi (and frozen aldi gluten-free ravioli for me, which is surprisingly yummy), then we all take naps, and for dinner we eat stovetop popcorn while we watch a movie together as a family.  so there was lots of rest and very few dishes on sunday, which helped a lot.

we had also come home to a very leaky faucet, which had been minorly problematic before we left.  but after we turned the water main back on upon our arrival home, it got significantly worse.  we thought it would be a small fix, and we even had the parts on hand, but after shutting off the water to the whole house on tuesday night, we found that the inside of the faucet was entirely corroded and this was a job for professionals.  unfortunately, we did not have shut-off valves for just the sink, and the faucet was entirely disassembled, so we couldn't turn the water main back on until it was fixed.  so we were without running water for 22 hours before the plumber could turn it back on, which proved to be merely annoying in most respects (we had some stored water, so we had plenty to wash hands, brush teeth, and drink) but majorly inconvenient in other regards.  namely, in regards to the toilet.

there were 22 hours'-worth of bathroom deposits that just couldn't be helped in a household with lots of tiny toileters.  and considering the fact that a long, handheld flosser had recently been flushed whole (don't ask), and was presumably caught in the trap, i was seriously concerned things wouldn't flush at the end of it all.  but prayer is powerful, and there wasn't a single hiccup in getting everything to flush.

and at the end of the day, i have a BEAUTIFUL new faucet - i'll perhaps post a picture sometime, if i can remember.  so it really ended up being a net gain, in my opinion.

the rest of the week was spent resting as much as possible, eating as well as possible (after pizza day, obviously), and getting the house back together.  i also ordered next year's school books, took some stuff in for consignment, and had an OB appointment.  and the glass guy is coming tomorrow to fix our broken window pane.  next week, we will jump into potty training laurelai, training finneas in 'blanket time' in order to prepare for the upcoming school year, and getting the kids proficient at using their new independent responsibility schedules.

pray for us next week.

in the meantime, here's the most current pregnancy photo.

happy friday!

the black hills: day three.

on sunday, we laid pretty low around the house.  it was wonderful and relaxing, and the kids had an amazing time.

they all rode the mini gator while their cousin david launched a pretty respectable surprise attack.  laurelai was not amused.

 sisters enjoyed each others' company.

then all the kids got to take a turn on papa tony's four-wheeler.  finneas did his best impression of a backpack.

 then the boys did what the boys do best: finneas whacked at a bunch of rocks with a sword, then atticus took some flying leaps off the highest peak he could find.

super smash brothers.  sons of thunder.

and another set of brothers, todd, todd's beard, and their older brother mike.

this is hardly related in any way, but we ate lunch at this local bakery (salmon BLT with chipotle mayo?! now that's ingenious) and they not only had gluten-free sandwich buns available, but the buns were so good, i freaked out at first that i had inadvertently eaten a regular wheat bun.  because a gluten-free bun tasted like regular bread.  now, that is noteworthy.

in pregnancy news, i turned 24 weeks while we were away, and got a couple of scenic head(andbelly)shots taken.  perfect for my linkedin profile as a professional preggo.  also, excellent proof that my hair really does look crazy most of time because of our godawful humidity in iowa.  take that factor out, and my hair actually does the stuff of legends: lays flat.

and the sweetest moment of the day was when the big kids felt the baby move for the first time (atticus was in awe), and they sang him the ABC's.

MELT MY HEART RIGHT OUT, WHY DONTCHA?!

the black hills: day two.

the first full day we were at todd's parents' house was the fourth of july, and i actually remembered beforehand to pack the kids some red, white and blue clothing.  look at me go, i was actually on top of stuff for once!  so we dressed the kids all up in their patriotic gear and headed for the parade in town.  (except i forgot to pack appropriate clothing for myself, so i somehow wound up wearing purple to a fourth of july parade...)  

after the parade, we did the next most patriotic thing we could think of: we headed to a flintstones-themed park with todd's brother, mike, and his son, david.  just like the founding fathers did on the very first independence day.

the kids had a blast on this yabba-dabba-dune buggy thing.

finneas IS bam-bam.

and coincidentally, laurelai IS pebbles.

all the kids had fun on the train, which ran the perimeter of the park and allowed us to see the many species of plastic dollar store dinosaurs and what appeared to be deer bones tucked among the rocks.  the kids were duly impressed and freaked out, and atticus kept asking to make sure that none of the dinosaurs were real or alive.

when we got home, the kids played in the pool and the hot tub.

todd practiced his hair-whip for his upcoming sports illustrated spread.

and, though laurelai wasn't a huge fan of the water, she did dabble in it a little while i scowled around in the background.  because i'm a fun-hater.

and that was day two of our trip!

our trip to the black hills: day one.

okay, after an unexplained hiatus, i'm back!  we took a vacation last week to visit todd's parents in the black hills, and it was really nice to unplug for a bit.  plus, i really hate letting the internet know when we're far from home for extended periods of time; it just feels like i'm asking to be robbed or something.  but i'm especially paranoid about internet stuff like that, so maybe that's just me.

anyway, now that we're back, i can fill you in on all the fun we had - and we had a LOT of fun.  even the seventeen-hour trip there was pretty stellar, with a few great stops and lots of great music and books and movies on the way.

we hit the road at 6:30 in the morning, and i'd had the kids' breakfasts packed in the van beforehand.  all they had to do was get up, get dressed, grab their pillows and blankies, and hop in.

our first stop was at a rest area in minnesota that had a playground so the kids could stretch their legs and brains for a bit.

we stopped for a picnic lunch and a walk at falls park in sioux falls.

 

atticus clearly needed to use his six-year-old-boy legs more than he had been able to do in the car, so he took advantage of all the rocks that were laying around.

after our lunch stop, the littlest kids conked out for a bit.  laurelai preferred to hold my hand in order to fall asleep; finneas just pulled a classic finneas move and sucked his fingers and rubbed his face with his blankie.  i really do thank god for babies that will sleep in the car, even if just for short stretches.  lord knows atticus and penelope never would have done this (and on the trip to south dakota when penelope was sixteen months old, not only did she not sleep, she spent six hours each way screaming bloody murder.)  which is partially why the next two pictures are so beautiful to me.

thanks to the perspective in this photo, my arm looks downright freakish.

our next stop was at chamberlain, where there was a decent lewis and clark exhibit at a rest stop, and an overlook across a lake where the crew of the lewis and clark expedition made camp a few times.  it was beautiful.

next, we drove through the badlands loop.  

and this is apparently the face i make when we're basically on the edge of a huge cliff and my preschoolers seem to have a death wish and keeping them corralled is a nightmare.

laurelai took a turn behind the wheel when todd just wanted to relax and sight-see.

the vidivan proved itself reliable yet again, so we took a glamour shot in front of a huge rock as a 'thank you.'

but the best, most fun part of the day was when finneas pooped his pants, not once, but twice while we were driving through the badlands (where, newsflash, there are no toilets for miles and miles.  he just kept saying, 'I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!' and 'I WANT TO GO HOOOOOME' and 'OH MY GOODNESS!')  he finally got to take what is probably the most scenic poop a van voorst has ever taken.  even at the time, i could not. stop. laughing.  it was one of the most comical real-life moments of my life so far.  (and thank goodness i decided on a whim to bring the potty chair along, just in case!  i think it did his little heart good to know his mama wasn't mad that he pooped his pants, and that he had a civilized potty to sit on.)  the clean-up was a bit, well, disgusting and inconvenient (we may or may not have had to drive for a couple hours with a turd in a plastic bag in our van), but whatever.  we survived.

and that was our last stop before arriving at todd's parents' house late, late that evening.  it was a great day of travel, and it was only day one of our vacation!  stay tuned for more photos throughout the week.