finneas' birthday party, and our trip to the science center.

Well, everyone.  Finneas turned six.  I know, I know.  Considering his history of sticking forks in electrical sockets, and his penchant for hazarding brave and dangerous deeds, it comes as somewhat of a shock that we've made it this far.  But glad I am to tell you that he has indeed survived, and so far has maintained all his fingers and toes.  (Though one tooth has been lost to the fray.)

We celebrated with a Knights and Dragons-themed party at my mom's last weekend, and she made him a cake out of Krispy Kreme donuts as the starting gun for an exciting rest of the day.

 

 

 

Oh, you know.  Just eatin' and flexin'.  What's up with you?

This photo cracks me up.  The troll-guy is going all Tonya Harding on the dragon, and the dragon is  just like, "Whoa, man.  I didn't want to start any trouble."

After cakenuts, Finneas got to open his presents, and a grand time was had by all.

Once Callista woke up from her nap, we headed to the Science Center for some more fun.  ...Well, at least one of the kids seemed enthused.

Once we got inside, the nature area was a big hit.  This snake seemed to vibe that he was in the presence of a 'freshly-six'-year-old, and got pretty excited.

We were mesmerized by this Foucault pendulum clock.  It was so relaxing to just sit and watch it, and we all started getting very, very sleepy.  Luckily, Finneas was so entranced by it that he didn't notice he was standing next to two kids with red hair.  If there's anything Finneas loves to rudely point at, it's a person with red hair.  Usually, the point is accompanied by an ever-demeaning, "Look!  It's A Ginger!" 

I don't love that.

 And, because we're human, and the kids were experiencing insulin crashes from Cake For Breakfast, we experienced a couple of meltdowns.  Todd and I can't decide whether to caption this photo, "Mad-icus," "Sad-icus," or "Dramatic-us." I think all would apply.  Poor kid; he deserves better parents.

 I hate breastfeeding in public.  I always have.  I just don't like nursing around strangers, even while covering up.  But ever since Laurelai, I've had to get realistic about the fact that I can't just hide in bathroom stalls or in the van all the time, though I'd honestly prefer to.

 After the clock, Finneas announced that he was finished at the Science Center and was ready to go home.  Well, okay.  As you wish.

That was our Fab Fun Finn Day!

what's up weekly.

I'm channeling my inner Rebecca Black today as I celebrate the fact that another Friday has rolled around.  I love Fridays.  First of all, it's PIZZA NIGHT, which means I don't have to cook.  Second of all, it's Family Table night, which means I get my head back on straight for a little while.  And third of all, it means another week has been logged in the books and I can look forward to the weekend.

We started this week with a trip up to Iowa to visit my mom.  We left Friday night and got in late, and woke up early to get a jumpstart on all the activities planned out - we were celebrating Atticus' birthday, which meant for a full day.  We did a pancake breakfast, a trip to the military museum, lunch, and cupcakes.

Then, while the kids napped and played that afternoon, Todd and I left for a bit to see my sister's new house, and to get Callista's ears pierced!  Oh man, guys.  She looks A.DOR.ABLE.  Unfortunately, we haven't yet gotten any photos of her smiling and showing off her new bling; the best I can do is this semi-heartbreaking photo.  (No worries, she cried for about two minutes and hasn't paid any notice to them since, including when I clean them.  We've gotten all the girls' ears pierced in infancy, and have never had any issues with the piercings getting infected, or with the girls messing with them at all - it has made the whole ordeal such a nonissue in the long run.)

On Sunday, we partied for Finneas' birthday.  I'll tell you more about it next week, but it involved a cake made out of Krispy Kreme donuts and a trip to the Science Center.  Daaaang, that's a good birthday party.  (And I should know; I've thrown and/or attended approximately a million of them by now.)

After the Science Center, we hit the road for home.  We hadn't even been in the car for five minutes before Rocco completely conked out.  It was a fun weekend, but it was evident we were all exhausted by the end!

Long road trips always mean having to stop to breastfeed in random gas station parking lots.  I am loving that Callista is still wanting to nurse, but I'm starting to look ahead to weaning her in a few months (if she doesn't do it on her own first) and feeling a bit of relief at the thought.

Since we needed a day or two to recover from the trip, it was great timing for the natural break that came in our homeschool schedule this week.  We had just finished up our second trimester the previous week, and all we really needed to get done was a little bit of catch-up reading, and oral exams.  No biggie.  (I also should have spent some time grading and organizing the past term's papers, but I didn't.)

We spent the week recuperating and enjoying the beautiful weather.  I also did a bunch of mapping out our current schedule, and brainstorming ways to streamline things a bit once May comes and we hit 'reset'.  I've been trying to visually organize our daily and weekly routines, so I can get a better idea of where the trouble spots are, and where I would like to set some goals. 

I'm really visual, and stuff like this helps me.  I have schedule ideas doodled in all my planners and bullet journals; I have schedule ideas scribbled all over bits of loose paper stuffed in my purse and in random corners of the house; and now I have this giant thing taped inside the basement door.  I'm beginning to worry that this is the stuff psychopaths do.

Anyway.  I'll tell you more about that in its own separate blog post, but for now, it's enough to just have it up where I can look at it and move things around as I get ideas.

And last but not least, we started working in the garden this week!  It requires its own post because it was just so glorious, but I'll tell you this much: Penelope and I are loving the prospect of this year's garden.  We're going to be trying a few things we've never done before, like strawberries and potatoes, and finding lots of reasons to get our hands in the dirt!  (The boys could really not care less about gardening itself, but any excuse to wield a big dirt fork is enough to arouse their interest for at least a little while.)

Did anyone else take advantage of the amazing weather to get some work done outside this week?

atticus turned nine! ...a really long time ago.

For the past six months or so, we have been throwing the kids' birthday parties at my mom's.  Atticus' birthday was in December, and we have had to cancel the trip multiple times.  On his actual birthday weekend, it was storming, so we weren't able to make the five-hour drive.  Then, on our scheduled make-up weekend, Callista started vomiting the day we were set to leave.  So obviously we stayed home.  Which is how we found ourselves celebrating his birthday in March.  Better late than never, right?

Last weekend we finally found ourselves at my mom's, and we were ready to par-tay.  We kicked off the morning with pancakes and a trip to... (drumroll...)

The. Military. Museum.

Atticus was in heaven.  There was a display room full of guns.  There was a simulation of being in the trenches of WWI.  There was a real, working periscope.  There were dozens of real military vehicles... some of which were outfitted with things like missiles.  Hot dang.

As we drove up, Atticus saw this and said immediately, "That's an M4 Sherman tank!"  He was... well, not even a little bit wrong.

After a couple of hours exploring, we loaded into the car to head back to my mom's.  I suppose I should clarify that the boys got the honor and the privilege of riding in my brother-in-law's Bronco like absolute bosses.  The loved every second of it.

Todd and I drove behind them, and could clearly see the moment when Atticus found a poster tube in the Bronco and started pretending he was shooting a bazooka at legions of advancing Nazis.

When we got home, we had lunch, and then continued the party with cupcakes.

It was such a fun day, and so very 'Atticus'.  I have a feeling this is going to become an annual tradition.

memo: change of plans.

Oh, lordy.  It is not in the stars for me to be able to post vlogs on Vednesdays anymore.  Tuesdays are just pure chaos, and it's time I start getting realistic about the fact that I don't have time to get them uploaded in time.  So this is just an uber boring, office-wide memo I'm sending out to say that I'm going to be finding a different time to post the week's vlog.  I'll let you know what I decide... or I'll just post a vlog at a different time, and you'll find out that way.

Also, while we're dealing with in-office notifications, someone needs to clean out the microwave.  Also, it's Pretzel Day.

Stanley Fastwalk GIF from Stanley GIFs

'it's the end of time, and garbage is all that has survived.'

I've decided I'm giving up on trying to keep my house clean.  The place constantly looks like a war zone, and I feel like I'm some little war-wizened widow trying to dust my bomb-desolated, craterized hovel with a single goose feather.  At a certain point, the smartest thing to do is to just sit down, relax, and let the swirling dust slowly suffocate me to death while I watch Netflix.

Let me itemize all the current detritus staring me in the face as I type this:

1.  Aldi bags that I need to take back out to the van.  I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that I have to keep track of those things.  Sure, I don't have a million bajillion disposable plastic grocery sacks popcorning out of my pantry every time I open the door, and yeah, okay, so I'm not filling up the landfills and blahblahblah.  But my Aldi bags make me feel like I'm having to add another kid to the constant headcount.  "Oh, now, where did Aldibags run off to?  Is he in the van?  Is he in the kitchen?  Is he wandering the parking lot?"  Too much responsibility for me, thanks.

2.  A Razor scooter.  Finneas got it for his birthday, and I have full intentions of letting him ride it in the driveway tomorrow, which means I didn't let it disappear into the basement or the garage, and which also means it's sitting in my leather armchair and developing a sense of entitlement, like a dog that should sleep outside but you just can't seem to get off of your very own pillow.

3.  35 total pounds of sugar and flour, and three bags of barbecue potato chips, to take to an Amish friend.   Because the living room has seemed like the most logical place to store it for the past week.

4.  The kids' notebooks, colored pencils, military encyclopedias, play calendars, school books, etc. etc. etc. strewn all over the floor.

5.  A wagon.  I'm not even kidding you.  I have an actual two-seater wagon in my living room.

6.  Diapers, more sizes of diapers, packs of wipes, boxes of wipes, plastic sacks the diapers came in.  More diapers.  There's a wrapped up, used diaper sitting on my dining room table.  (Maybe I should wash the table before breakfast tomorrow...)  Also, more diapers.

7.  A plant that has been dead for at least the full eight months of Callista's life, and which I haven't yet thrown away because I kind of feel like looking at a dead plant is better than looking at no plant.  But I could be wrong on that.

8.  My own 'home office' and all its necessaries:  Bible. Pens and highlighters.  Planner.  Bullet journal.  Swimming lessons brochure.  Light reading.  Heavy reading.  On-deck reading.  Refer-back-to reading.  Kindle.  Phone.  Other phone.  Pink apron.  Nail clippers.  Dog tags.  A lapel pin shaped like a can of La Croix.

9.  An empty suitcase.  Also an empty backpack.

I think you can see that things are beyond hope here.  Once I claw my way to the top of this rubble pile, I'm going to skitter out and abandon it, and instead find some other burrow to huddle into and fill with my crap.

Problem solved.

what's up weekly.

This week was a long one.  I usually feel like the weeks just fly by: we're busy doing lots of stuff we love, which is a pretty fail-proof recipe for smooth-sailing days.  So it's really unusual for me to feel like a week takes for freaking ever to get through.

via GIPHY

But it is also March now, and I'm getting antsy for the school year to wrap up... which is stupid, because we do year-round school, and we only just finished up our second trimester this week.  We're on schedule to be done the last week of May, so I still have quiiiiiiiiite a bit of time left before it's reasonable to be getting impatient.

Then again, though, I don't think it's homeschool, necessarily, that I'm most concerned with.  Being so intensely involved in the rhythms of college life has me eyeballing the university schedule more than our own.  I'm ready for the breather of spring break; I'm ready for the finish line of graduation weekend.  I'm ready for the slower pace of summer, during which I have big plans to reflect and reprioritize some of my obligations and the allocation of my time.  (Though, I seem to say that every year and very little ever changes.)

This week I sat down and put together large, visual poster board schedules of our days and our weeks, and I felt like I was mapping out military strategies for the Pentagon.  It's high time I start freeing up my schedule, and May will be a perfect time to start.  It's just such a shame it's so far away...



Anyway.  Enough yearning for one post.  It's time to cut to the facts.

Finneas turned six, and I once again marveled that he has survived this long - with his penchant for risk taking, his impulsiveness, and his gung-ho stick-to-itiveness, I'd figured he'd have been eaten by a bear or marched off the end of a gangplank by now.  So every birthday party we throw for him is also a celebratory middle-finger to all the bears and pirates skulking around these parts.

The older kids each bought him a gift with their own money, and though he'll be having his party this weekend, they wanted to give him his gifts on his actual birthday.  It was so sweet.

I went grocery shopping without Callista.  She spent the entire time I was gone expressing her feelings about getting left at home.

Atticus had a speech evaluation at the public school in our neighborhood.  It was SO weird to take all the kids in there.  I'm not usually ruffled by the homeschool/public school debate all that much; it doesn't stir up heat in me.  I rarely wonder if I'm being scrutinized, and I don't really enter into mental competition about it.  I just like flying under the radar, doing my own thing and feeling confident in my choices.  ...And then I haul six kids into the school office in the middle of the day and suddenly all that unaffected disengagement goes away.  It just felt foreign and weird.

And last but not least, here's this week's vlog, in case you missed it.  (Wednesday got busy, and I forgot to post it on here!)



And... that's that, I guess.  It doesn't really look like all that long of a week when I write it out, but trust me, I'm glad it's Friday!

happy birthday, third-born!

Ohhhhhh, Finneas.  Your sixth birthday was on Tuesday and, according to you, it was 'totally ruined.'  We didn't have time to have special birthday pancakes before we had to leave for speech therapy, there were sibling tussles throughout the day, and certain discipline issues continued to come up as much as they do any other day of the year.  You had it rough.

But one thing guaranteed that it wasn't a total bust of a day: you. turned. six.  You turned six!  We have had six privileged years of knowing and loving you.  Of hearing your funny jokes and watching you run around in your underwear all day.  Of cuddling next to you during family movie time and witnessing you teaching yourself to read.  Of talking with you as you, in your extroversion, beg to be allowed to introduce yourself to pretty girls at the store.

You still suck your fingers at night (which the dentist has started giving me crap about, so you really should stop) and carry your blankie everywhere you go.  I somehow wash more laundry belonging to you than that belonging to any other kid, even though you wear decidedly fewer clothes than any other kid.  (I still haven't figured out how that math works.)  You help me with the littler kids and can make tuna salad by yourself if someone opens the cans for you.  You love people, and feel deeply, and I have a lot to learn from you.

You're a constant puzzle, a source of constant surprise, and I just marvel at you.  You will do great things with your life, I can just feel it.

well, i'm a cripple.

I'm pretty sure the stomach flu gave me arthritis.

Remember when we all got the stomach bug, and I was pretty sure I was dying?  Well, I was so consumed with the daily effort of keeping myself alive that I forgot to mention my thumbs had started killing me.  In fact, it was the first symptom that I was coming down with something: my thumb joints were really, really achy, which then developed into outright pain.

I figured it would go away when I overcame the virus.  No such luck.  Then I figured it would take a little longer to work its way out of my system, but would go away eventually.  But it's been six weeks, and I can still do embarrassingly little with my right hand.  I can't open jars.  I can't open snap-lids.  I can't carry or pour bottles of milk.  I can't wipe the table or the counters.  I can't text.  I can barely write my name.

It's bad, guys.

I have had a chiropractor adjust my hand and wrist twice.  I have been taking supplements like collagen and turmeric for joint repair and decreased inflammation.  I'm at the point where I'm considering seeing a regular MD and having it looked at (which is kind of a big deal for me.  Unless it's a midwife, I never go to the doctor.  Like, ever).  I seriously don't know what else to do!

Also, I still can't drink coffee.  This has nothing to do with my thumb, other than that my coffee aversion started with the same illness and still hasn't let up.  I went from drinking 3-4 cups a day (!!) to only being able to stomach a couple of swallows, if any. 

Whatever that bug was, it wrecked me.  Without the use of my hand, and without my trusty coffee, I feel like a sad, sad shell of a person.  I'm now gladly accepting any advice or condolences.

marriage monday: be his bro.

what's up weekly.

This week was packed full of get-togethers, chats, appointments, meetings, and weirdly enough, photos.  To be honest with you, I'm kind of exhausted from it all, so I'm going to let the photos do the talking.


Callista turned eight months old, and is not only continuing to sit like a champ, but also learned to crawl.  She's a baby on the move.  She still only has one top tooth, and it seems like it might be a while before its partner shows up.

Todd snapped some photos of my Saturday morning book group - my Connection Group gals and I are going through The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler.  Saturday mornings are so fun!

Rocco started pulling his own weight.

Atticus climbed a tree.  I mean, first he built the ladder that allowed him to climb on top of the play house.  Then he climbed the tree.

I don't often let the kids draw on loose paper or individual coloring sheets.  (WAY too messy when you multiply it by five colorers.)  So each month they get a fresh new spiral bound notebook.  March 1st dawned, and they were all in heaven - they'd been chomping at the bit for the last week, since their February notebooks were getting full.

This little Thumbelina turned four-and-a-half.

And, Extra! Extra! Extra! - we all love this life together!