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I know, I know, I know. Great huge gaps in the record again. My notes for November and December are in the paper notebook.

Highlights, though, for the blog, since I so much prefer paging through old posts than my notebook scrawl.

November was eaten up by doctor appointments. Bleh. But also: good things: a visit from my parents (hooray); a week of deeply satisfying decluttering; the children's singing group; Shakespeare Club; a very happy Thanksgiving weekend.

December has been lovely. Our morning rhythm is working pretty steadily this year. Lauds, talks, math, Latin, The 24 Days Before Christmas, a smattering of other things. Flylady. Macbeth. Lots of Christmas carols on the piano in preparation for next week's recital.

My sewing machine came back from the shop at last, and I got a couple of VQB quilt squares done. Here's the cross block I made for Melanie: I was going for a sort of stained glass effect and was pretty happy with how it turned out. 

Only a tiny slice of what filled our week, these notes. Mostly I keep this blog to record what we read (together) so I have a record of our travels, but it's only a bare sketch, the stick-figure version of our week.

MONDAY

ENT appt for WB; Scott took day off so he could take him. Jane went along (no science).

Home with 3 middle girls, baby. Read Beatrix Potter books, Rose made cookies, lots of Sim City that day.

TUESDAY

Bean LOG helping verbs

Jane Adler chap 1, discussed with me, writing like a ball: pitcher (writer), catcher (reader). Active reader.

Big utopia/dystopia discussion. Green Lantern connection; she started writing an essay on this.

Plutarch: good quote (see prev post)  sparked great discussion.

This was the day my back was killing me all day, put a bit of a damper on things.

WEDNESDAY

Jane busy at activities all day—piano, sewing circle, girls' club

Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd & the response

THURSDAY

Latin, math, Odyssey (eagle omen passage)

Yeats (tread softly)

Jane: Royal Road to Romance, Microbe Hunters

Bean: Parables from Nature, Linnets & Valerians

Rose: Greek

K worked on essay

gym

FRIDAY

Supposed to be park day but they wanted to stay home! Just lots of reading & playing, cozy day. Made sausage bean soup.

Jane finished her Latin book!

Watched geometry lesson.

Looked at Journey North hummingbird & monarch stuff, entered a hummingbird sighting. (We see them daily but have never entered the data before.) We actually saw two monarchs later in the day—one in our yard and one at the park—and plan to enter that data on the monarch page today.

Rosary, singing.

Latin review with Beanie.

Rose played piano and did more frenzied writing on the story she's working on. (No, I haven't been allowed to see it. Gotta respect the process, doncha know.)

The Odyssey. I hadn't planned to start it yet, and then suddenly the time was right. Rose read along on my iPod, the more modern prose translation at Classics. I read my college translation (Cook). The girls were unanimous in preferring the language of the Cook translation, which is poetry. Phrases like "shamble-footed, crumple-horned cattle"—how can one resist? 

As with The Iliad (which no, we didn't finish, not even close, but we read a nice fat chunk of it last year and had fun with it, and they remember it fondly, so: success!), their favorite part is the use of epithets, especially whenever Athena addresses Zeus—"Oh mighty Zeus, son of Cronos, wisest of rulers!" The girls have decided to always address their own father in this manner. O powerful Scott, son of Joel, finest of fathers...

Snacks, diaper change, I took some photos, wandered out back to visit the garden, saw that rogue butterfly!, Jane did some coloring, Beanie played with the baby, Rilla's nose ran and ran, Rose went back to the piano.

Yeats, Wandering Aengus (a favorite of mine)

Morse code practice

Tried to read Winter Holiday but couldn't finish chapter, too much background noise

(notes: referenced Andersen's Ice Queen, should read that to Beanie)

Noonish. Bean made sandwiches for herself & sibs. I ate a turkey wrap. Packed up for park outing.

Balboa Park day! Another wonderful one. This time: Natural History museum, dinosaur exhibit, discovery room with snakes, frogs, diving beetles (awesome), other cool stuff. Big girls watched 3D dino movie; littles and I wandered the other floors, bought chips, snacked while waiting for girls to come out. They loved the film. Wanted to stay for the next viewing. :)

Headed to the lawn near the lily pond, our favorite spot, but woe! There were people lying on towels right near the opening to Rose's secret house under the palms. (A visit to this 'house' was the entire impetus behind our outing.)

We walked through the Botanical Building instead, *my* favorite spot. Sniffed the plants in the fragrance garden. Admired the sundews and pitcher plants. Hightailed it out in a hurry when Steve had had enough.

Found another nice spot on the other side of the lily pond, near the museum of art. Rose spotted a spiderweb in the sky—strung high up between two trees, quite amazing. Big fat spider sitting in the middle. Tried for a good photo, couldn't get it.

Spread our blanket, snacked, the littles ran around, Rose found a new 'house'—in bare, dry dirt—and the three middle girls coated themselves in dust. Oh, quite accidentally, they assured me. 

Jane walked over to the Timkin art museum, a (free to the public) private collection near the main Museum of Art (which is pricey). She saw some notable works; post forthcoming; I can't wait for my turn.

Long slow walk back to the van; met friends in the parking lot, nice chat; tough reloading of tired peoples into the vehicle; diaper change; all buckled? Whew. Home. No traffic (miraculous since it was 5pm). 

Chicken, corn, pears.

Rose resurrected Lucy in the Sky, her piano recital piece from last year. Played it loud and long after dinner.

Scott's current bedtime readaloud is A Wrinkle in Time—first time for Beanie.

Dollhouse. Which started well and turned stupid. Really stupid. Stop it, show I want to like.

Diamond Age. Which fell off the bed in the night, and this morning the baby knocked my water cup off the stool and soaked the book. Dagnabbit.

But all in all, a fine, fine day.

Hello, freaky new Typepad layout! Will you prove to be friend or foe?

Well. Hrm. Today. Tuesday, right? Busy morning: math, Latin, Plutarch, Our Island Story. Singing. About an hour of yard work: cleaned & swept patio, pulled an army of weeds, began digging up garden corner. Think we'll plant more sunflowers there since the salvia and cape honeysuckle have taken over the fenceline where they came up under the feeder last year.

Jane read something from her list. I don't remember what!

Beanie read Timmy Tiptoes to a very snuffly Rilla, which (except for the snuffles) was perfectly adorable.

Had an audiologist appt this afternoon at the university. First time at this office (since we no longer get it free from the school district). Great parking (wonder of wonders), looong waiting room wait, nice people. Major bummer. We were there to get impressions made for new ear molds, which he urgently needs. But: too much ear wax! Not safe to make the impressions (risk of the stopper compacting the wax deep in the ear canal). So we'll have to see the ENT for a cleaning & then go back for molds. I managed to get an ENT appt in two weeks, and the audi appt a week later, but that means we're still looking at a minimum of five weeks before the new molds will be ready. Eek. 

The FM transmitter isn't working, so the audi is sending it to the manufacture in hopes of an easy (read cheap) repair. One hitch: this model was discontinued shortly after we bought it in 2003. We may need to buy a whole new transmitter, which: OUCH.

Home, girls playing games, boys watched a show while I mowed the lawn.

MONDAY 9/21

During WB's Signing Time, Jane did Latin, Bean did Gamma 2C, Latin; Rose got Rilla dressed.

(This has become the routine: as soon as Scott leaves for work, WB asks for his ST. The girls are finishing morning chores and doing math or languages while it's on—it's about a 25 minute dvd.)

Trying to work it so that both Jane and Rose can get piano time in before ST goes on, but so far we can only manage one or the other. This day it was Jane; Rose practiced later on.

Laud
Doxology (hymn)
Mere Christianity ch 1, Law of Human Nature (read half, discussed)-->grew out of discussion about right and wrong

Jane science lab
Bean & Rose read Sparta/Athens chapter (14) in CHOW as background for Plutarch. Both narrated the chap to me.

Discussed Swift's A Modest Proposal with Jane.

Jane: English Lit Boys/Girls (Marshall), read Defoe & Swift chaps, 1st newspapers, satire, discussed extremes of overzealousness, moral relativism

Lunch, quiet time, games etc.

House is back!

TUESDAY 9/22

all did Latin (Greek for Rose), math

Plutarch time! First time for Rose & Bean. Exciting. At least, Jane & I are excited. We're using Anne White's excellent study guide from the Ambleside Online site, tackling Pericles this year. Began with some background info & a discussion of virtue/ qualities worth imitating/ all sorts of meaty stuff. This is why I love Plutarch.

Rose snacked on bread & olive oil b/c she'd read about it in a book about ancient Greece.

Jane read Of a Feather.
Rose: Shakespeare Stories / Macbeth (to prep for Shx Club)
Bean: Round Bldgs

Winter Holiday / littles napped

Jane wrote about Plutarch.
Bean read Pollyanna.

I worked on family tree stuff w/ Jane for hours. FUN!

My Betsy Tacy post was due that night, so I worked on it in the p.m. before my dentist appt.

Ham, potatoes, broccoli.
Jericho.

WEDNESDAY 25 SEPT

usual Wed stuff
Shakespeare Club
my notebook is blank re the rest of the day

THURSDAY 26 SEPT

Hot hot hot weather!

Jane MUS
Bean LOG
Rose Inkspell (all during Signing Time)

gathered, lauds, prov, discuss
OIS, finished battle of hastings, jane wrote N
Rose math
Bean Pollyanna, reading journal
Jane reading journal, Latin, more math (her idea), Of a Feather.

time with Rose

Lunch/ broken bead bracelet
this was the day we spilled two cups of iced tea!

quiet time -- I read SWIMMY to Rilla, then she looked at books until she fell asleep.

Rose is doing a ton of writing in tiny notebooks, stories she isn't ready to show anyone yet. Asked me for clarification on how/when to use semicolons.

Rose & Bean played Zelda, Rose didn't feel up to gymnastics, I dropped Jane at friend's house for tea party

Zelda scared the dickens out of Rose. She declared she would not be playing it again for months or years. I can't help but note that she is playing it RIGHT NOW, as I type up these notes. Or rather, Jane is playing (better spider slayer) while Rose directs the action. Ha.

Scott made fajitas when he came home: SO GOOD.

Watched The Office (yay!), the rest of Castle, finished Room with a View (began two months ago when I was reading the book...or was it three months ago??).

FRIDAY 27 SEPT

Signing Time / Latin (Jane) / math (R & B)
Latin (B) / Greek (R) / math (Jane)

another hot one!

10 a.m. baby down for nap
lauds
Landmark: Irish Potato Famine, Erie Canal (funny discussion re Charlotte book)

Yeats: Stolen Child

Tried to read more Tempest, littles too loud. Gave up, sang toddler songs instead.

Bob books with Rilla.

Jane read Royal Rd to Romance (7 chaps)
autobiography of Ben Franklin, opening

Bean looked at The Young United States (Tunis), we talked about fashions
she read Pollyanna

Rose had an early lunch, read comics

All girls did ASL lesson online. I did about half of it, need more review.

Lunch, quiet time, Wonder Pets. Rilla asked for Swimmy again. She looked at books for a while, never napped. Hmm.

Rose working on a project for Rilla

Rilla & WB have been loving making their own pb sandwiches—I give them small dishes of pb and cheese spreaders, and they stand on stools and spread away. Sometimes they even eat the sandwiches.

Computer or Wii time for all big girls (continuing right now)

Opened door to get mail, smelled fire, heard sirens. Haven't found any news about it. Saw no smoke, but strong fire smell. Hot winds. That time of year again already?

Stuff they were reading early this morning:

Jane: Mysteries of Udolpho
Rose: Dogsbody
Bean: Encyclopedia Brown

Jane had her science lab, the rest of us got donuts & went to the park
eucalyptus trees

Home:
Winter Holiday chap 3
two poems, Frost's "The Runaway" (colt in winter) and the perfectly charming "The Bad Kittens" by Elizabeth Coatsworth, both from the Ferris anthology

Jane: geometry
Bean: Latin: 1st conjugation (amare)
Rose: read a kittens book, curled up with her cat: after "The Bad Kittens," this was inevitable!

lunch, quiet time, games

_______
Cooler today, quite nice at the park, a light breeze. Overcast. By late afternoon, heavy clouds looking rainish, but no rain. Yet.

Too much going on, not enough time to write it down!

Today:
—speech
—Jane glued to her old Jacob's Mathematics (which we never used as a math text, it has always just been fun reading for her), working on drawing 'impossible shapes' a la Escher, reading us all interesting tidbits about everything from satellites to lizards.
—Rose reading Milly Molly Mandy, playing lots of Harvest Moon
—Bean ditto the Harvest Moon, I forget what she was reading
—more garden work for me
—many phone calls re the frustrating IEP question
—painting class for Jane, who came home with some AMAZING pictures
—intense discussions between Bean and Rose re farming strategies, ore mining, profit margins, time management, growing season, cookery, and jewelry making (thank you Harvest Moon)

Great day!

First thing this morning I packed a bag full of sketch books, art supplies, etc, for easy hauling to the backyard. Project Bubbles, day 2—though still no actual bubbles yet, as I haven't been to the store!

The girls and I began reading As You Like It. It's fun to have enough people to fill parts right in our own family. I was really wishing Scott could be in on it, though. Beanie did a fantastic job with her parts (Oliver and Touchstone, so far)—I was pretty impressed, considering her age. Rose makes a lovely Celia, and Jane dove into Rosalind with spirit. This is going to be fun.

Mid-morning, time to change things up. Cinnamon toast was proposed, prepared, munched. Yum. Rilla and went outside (baby in tow) and cleaned up the backyard. I'm falling behind on the weeding, though. Have to catch up this weekend.

Semi-lunch, kind of snacky, all still full from the toast. Quiet time: Rilla seems to be giving up her nap. I watched a couple of Signing Time episodes with the littles while the big girls read, played, crocheted.

Then Jane hung out with littles while I mowed the lawn.

Big girls took turns on Runescape. An hour each. I went out back with littles & the art bag. Rilla and Wonderboy had such a good time painting. A girl down the block dropped by to play with Jane. They started a game of Blokus. Rose and Beanie came outside and discovered their new sketch books. (I'd bought them for Christmas and forgotten all about them! Found them in a box with some scented pencils this morning.)

5pm, inside for a tidy-up and dinner prep. BBQ chicken (crockpotted), baked beans, roasted broccoli & tomatoes.

Baby fussy, time's up, more later maybe.

Trying a little experiment here. Am going to use this blog to keep notes on it. Forgive the incoherence!

Today:

speech
piano
journey north

Spent time before piano helping Jane work on her JN clues. We think we have figured out where her city is. We need to get hold of some Chinese sun cakes for the party in two weeks!

Ran into Henry's for produce, bread, cheese during Rose's piano class.

Home with the 5 youngest while Jane was at JN. Lunched on butter rolls (a happy impulse buy at Henry's). Little watched a Signing Time while I cleaned up. Big girls played Runescape.

Afternoon: took the old blue tablecloth outside to spread on grass. Took cheese and crackers, Rose made lemonade, Rilla got so excited: "We're having a picnic?!" Watched hummingbird at feeder. Big girls played tag. Jane brought out her book & crocheting. Littles played on slide. Baby got passed around. Lovely perfect weather, delightful after yesterday's heat. Took photos of the sunflowers.

Went inside for diaper change and the outdoor play seemed to collapse the second I was gone. Interesting. I played puzzles with Rilla. Beanie was dying to play dollhouse with Rose but Rose wanted to finish her book first. A bit thorny at that point.

Big girls got back on Runescape. Littles watched Backyardigans while I made dinner, talked to Eileen Smithdeal on phone. :) Potato soup with leftover ham.

The paperwhites opened: lovely.

Read Iliad to girls.

Bean did a zillion pages in a LOG wkbk for fun. Synonyms, homonyms, antonyms. "May I please do some more, Mommy?"

Jane, Rose: Latin

Rose: journal

Jane read stuff from her list, I didn't track what: King Arthur for sure.

Watercolor painting.

Lots of outdoor play in the afternoon: cooler today, though. I tried to weed a little and accidentally squished a slug. UGH UGH UGH. Will leave the weeding to the children henceforth.

WB is trying so hard to sign the alphabet these days. Has trouble maneuvering fingers into certain letterships. "You help me, Mom?" Both he and Rilla just about have the (spoken) alphabet down now. Rilla likes to "read" to me—mostly this means pointing out every capital A on the page. Sometimes it means a story: "Once pon time, dere was a boy. He had a fwend. She had a mommy." etc.

Jane has crocheted a battalion of hair scrunchies in the past two weeks.

The baby sleeps a lot.

LOST last night: when obnoxious Neil showed up, I said to Scott: I love how they put him in a red shirt. He is clearly toast. Didn't know how right I was!

Twitter log:

Oh he can't be a week old already. Not possible!

Lisa left early this morning, when most of us were still in bed. Scott drove her to the airport and I woke in time to catch them in the car and say goodbye over the phone. Sob!

A sad little Rilla staggered to the couch and quivered out, "I miss Grandma." (Who had left the day before.) That makes two of us!!

We all watched the inauguration together. Sean had his one-week dr appt, so we had to leave right after the swearing-in. Scott packed up several kids and dropped me & baby off. Everything's ducky with our big boy. He had dropped from 9 lbs 12 oz at birth to 9 lbs even two days later, when we left the hospital. Today he is back up to 9 and 6. Sweet little chunky thing.

Home for mandatory underdoing it. Bean and Rose spent almost the whole day outside, lovely mid-70s weather, building beanpole teepees and stocking them with supplies, firewood, etc. Adorable little hearthstone rings in the middle. Two big teepees for each girl and a little one for Rilla. All this was inspired by Lisa's video of her girls' amazing months-in-the-making fairy fort. Stunning! (Sarah, we so enjoyed seeing your girls in the video!!)

And Jane got a package full of Muse back issues, a late Christmas gift, so I didn't see much of her.

I read for a long while in the afternoon, snuggling Sean: one of the nicest things about a babymoon.

Another delicious dinner was dropped off in the evening. Yum. Our friends are awfully nice.

Daily Twitter log:    (new idea that just popped in my head)

Thursday already. Early morning, sparrows kicking up a ruckus at the backyard feeder.

Yesterday was our busy Wednesday. Shakespeare Club was great fun, as always. Rose decided to give it a try, for the first time. It's very sweet to see how she is poised between the big kids' world and the little kids' world, feeling pulls in both directions. She's ten, certainly old enough to be in Shakespeare (we have a couple of nine-year-olds this year), but until yesterday had been expressed a total in being a part of it. Which was fine: she looked forward to the playtime with her friends in the younger set, either here (last year) or at Erica's (this year), and Shakespeare days have been lots of fun for her in their own way. But yesterday, out of the blue, she announced that she thought she'd sit in on Shakespeare today. She didn't want to read a part (I think that's been one of her major hesitations—performing holds no appeal for her; that's why she opted out of choir as well) but was so happy sitting with the group and listening. And afterward, when everyone was gone, she was all chatter about the play, and she told me that SC had been better than any playdate ever (I think she really loved hanging out with the big girls during the free time afterward), and she wants to read the whole play from the beginning so she'll know what's going on. And she roped Jane and Bean into sitting down with her and starting from the top, taking parts. It was awesome.

I have a hunch today will hold a lot of reading Taming of the Shrew. :)

No speech for WB this week—the PS is on fall break.

Costco run yesterday a.m., and also a trip to the library (my first to the new branch). Tried to go down the Cybils nominations list on my cell phone but it was too slow & unwieldy. Pulled a bunch of likely-looking books from the "new picture books" shelf—we'll see if I guessed any titles that are on the list. Have begun requesting them for delivery to our branch instead.

The morning light is changing with the season...I'm getting blinded by a ray of sun coming through the front door window that didn't use to be there.

Ah, feet thumping down the hallway: here comes my sweet boy. :)

Lots of picture book reading to the littles before breakfast:

G is for Golden
Count
Color Zoo

Books I saw big kids reading:

Jane: Little White Horse, Linnets and Valerians
Rose: Penderwicks on Gardham St
Bean: Quiltmaker's Gift   

bean has fever, all girls have a cold
jane & i organized embroidery supplies

jane did latin activity book for fun

cable box/dvr is on the blink, apparently on the verge of death, according to the service guy, and Scott had JUST taped a Superfriends marathon, so the girls are watching several eps a day in a mad rush to get 'em in before they disappear forever. Scott is doing the same thing at night with his music shows.

I started a little embroidery project: am making and decorating a felt case for my iPod. Copying a bird image from Doodle Stitching. Enjoying it immensely.

Littles: lots of drawing w/ crayons yesterday.

B & R played game of Cranium, lasted two hours I think!

Dinner: teriyaki chicken in the crockpot, steamed veggies.

speech therapy, quick grocery pickup
home for usual morning rhythm, sort of
they are all having so much fun with Latin these days!
we read about St Brendan the Navigator, fun talks about that
read some Secret of the Andes
cable guy came, that changed the flow of the morning
(too funny, though—he remarked upon WB's resemblance to the little boy in Jerry Maguire--and JUST LAST NIGHT Scott had run across that on cable and paused the screen at a shot of the boy so the girls could see, and we were all laughing about the likeness)

I had to go to a FCH prep mtg at church in the evening.

Amusing day yesterday. Didn't start out so funny, though: Rilla woke at 5, tossed and turned for an hour and a half, and then threw up all over my bed. Got her changed and cuddled her on couch, watching Little Bear.

Canceled WB's speech therapy b/c didn't want to put sick toddler in car.

Rilla fell asleep on couch and slept until nine or so. By then everyone else was up & dressed & fed etc. It was a chilly morning and Rilla looked so cozy on my lap in a blanket that the others wanted to curl up too, so the day began with everyone reading in blankets for a while. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Greek Myths, Agatha Christie, it was, going up the ladder.

Later the girls all did Latin and MUS. I found the German songs CD I've been hunting for weeks—of course this time I was looking for something else, which I never did find. We listened to/practiced several songs. I've got one of them stuck in my head right now. Nein, nein, nein.

Jane and I finished reading Poplicola!

Rilla woke up after an hour's nap and never did get sick again, so I don't know what's up with that. She was clingy and cuddly and sweet, incredibly sweet, all morning. "I love you, my Mommy," she says, one hand on each side of my face. It's always "my Mommy" these days, for some reason—"Fank oo, My Mommy!" when I give her something, or "Where we goin', My Mommy?" when I reach for her shoes. LOL.

Round about this time, Rose and Beanie decided they wanted to play "real school." The elementary school in our backyard is back in session and we're hearing a lot of recess clamor again. (My kids are somewhat horrified by how few minutes of the day are devoted to recess. They see the neighbor kids heading to school at quarter of 8, when we're all still in our pajamas, and know they get out at 2:30. And most of the rest of the time in between is silent over there on the other side of the fence.)

So I obliged by morphing into "Mrs. Peterson" and digging some old grammar books off the shelf. ;) The two of them started by making "real school lunches"—i.e. the same thing we eat every day, but pre-made and wrapped up, LOL—and after lunch they spent the next two hours at the table happily doing grammar and spelling lessons and making lists of the homework I assigned. It was hilarious, I have to say. We read a chapter of TCOO and they gave splendid narrations.

At 2:30 "school" was dismissed (LONG day!!!) and they trundled out the back door with backpacks stuffed full of books. Went around the house, came in the front door, and I got to greet them as mommy with warm hugs and "how was school today, my dears?" I gave them a snack and then they went off to their room to do their homework. LOL LOL. By this time Rilla was napping. I put on a Blue's Clues for WB and took a break.

(Jane spent most of this time reading an Agatha Christie novel.)

Rilla seemed all better in the afternoon, so maybe it wasn't a bug after all. At any rate she did an awful lot of running around the house with WB and her "tisters." Bean and Rose kept bringing me their finished "homework" to look over. Around four they were done with the game and asked if they could watch Hercules. (Rose is thick into another myths binge.) I took advantage of the lull to finish my book (King's Fifth).

Jane made English muffin pizzas for dinner. Yay!

Scott and I are watching season 4 of The Wire.

Might as well keep writing entries until I decide not to. <grin>

Speech therapy, Latin in car. High-tide morning at home: things like MUS, Wonderboy's speech games, singing, poetry (Lady of Shalott), German, TCOO (led to interesting discussion b/c the chapter said the men Columbus left behind on Haiti after the Santa Maria wrecked were the first colony of white men in the New World—not true, hello Vikings!).

Lunch, quiet time (ahhh)

I have yet again given up on tracking what the girls are reading. Too many books to keep up with. Can't do it.

Afternoon? A blur. Phone calls, I think, and computer games for the kids. Oh, and Jane and I finally carved out some more Sense & Sensibility time.

She (Jane) is working on a knitting project: making perfect squares by knitting them diagonally, starting with one stitch and increasing by a stitch each row, then decreasing after the midpoint. She is asking for more read-aloud time b/c she likes to knit/crochet while she listens.

Oh, I began teaching Beanie how to knit. Her reaction was absolutely priceless. At first: It's too hard. I don't think I like doing this. I will never learn. Me: "Honey, if you stick at it just a little, you'll soon get the hang of it, and I guarantee you a day will come when you'll be glad I showed you how." TWO (short) rows later, no kidding, maybe ten minutes tops, she was beginning to chug along. "Mom, this is really cool!" (Pause. Giggle.) "I guess that day came sooner than I expected, huh?"

I tried to read for a while in the afternoon (still reading King's Fifth, still loving it) but the littles had other ideas.

I had had grand plans to get out for a walk in the cool of the evening. Made it no farther than the front stoop, where I sat and watched the little ones draw with chalk. I am just so wiped out by the end of the day.

Let's see, Scott and I had watched Batman Beyond Sunday night but I fell asleep. :( Sad to say I don't have the stamina to make it through a whole movie these days, not with our starting at 9:30 or 10 as we do. Last night (Monday, I'm writing this on Tues) we watched the end of Ever After on cable and then began the first episode of Fringe. Intriguing opener, and the fact that I fell asleep halfway through is no reflection upon the show. 

I cannot believe we are halfway through September already.

I have finally, finally, finally found the perfect paper planning system, FINALLY, and this has changed the way I jot down notes about how we spend our days. In a nutshell, I'm doing it on paper now instead of here at Up Close. So now I don't know what that means for this blog. It may have suddenly (as of two weeks ago) become redundant. The longer anecdotes belong at Bonny Glen, and the notes are now in the pretty blue notebook that goes everywhere with me.

On the other hand, sloppy informal notes about hanging hummingbird feeders or getting lost en route to a bakery are not the sort of thing I like to post at Bonny Glen—too unpolished, I write lazily here—but don't like writing out by hand either. Ugh, wrist cramp.

Hmm, I say.

Continued reading Child's History of the World with R & B. Fun talk about river valley civilizations. Got out the markable map and they named a bunch of rivers & countries.

LC

Jane: Ourselves
CKLH

Beanie read The Story of Ping :) Because of the part about the Yangtze River in CHOW.

after lunch, headed to KZ's and dropped girls for swim date/babysitting while I took WB to his PT eval.

Stuff we read today, in various assortments of people:

Sense & Sensibility (Jane & me—she wants me to keep reading it aloud, fine by me!)
Child's History of the World (aloud to Bean and Rose)
Ourselves (Jane) **
St George and the Dragon (pic bk by M. Hodges, read half to Bean & Rose)
Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (Rose)
Murder for Her Majesty (me)
CKLH (Jane, me, separately) *
PP (me to all) *B

Listened to Mozart's 40th w/ breakfast

fun looking at German book w/ Bean
also: while I made lunch, she read to me from baby name book

Rose: worked w/ her new calligraphy set, drew w/ watercolor pencils (thanks, M&D!)

MUS (Rose, Bean)

sang Molly Malone 'cause I'm on an Irish/Scottish ballads kick

spent long time poring over a blank world map (the kind you can write on, laminated) w/ Rose & Bean. They had a lot of fun pointing out all the places they knew.

As always, much reading of Barton & Boynton books to the boy! :)

Girls played a game of Life.

Saw camel cricket on front porch this morning.

Tortellini for lunch. (Am writing this day all out of order.)

Jane poked around a kids' current events site, enjoyed the political cartoon (took some deciphering, which is the part she enjoyed)

Girls are now playing computer games; I am on couch with little ones, watching Little Bear, all taking a breather after our afternoon tidy-up. 

It is time to make dinner and I do not feel like doing it. Nope, I don't.

Mass

home: celebrated with a bowl of M&Ms

at Rose's request, began read-aloud of Windeatt's St Therese book

then the boy wanted his turn: "Read to me, Mom!"

Beanie started a Mrs Piggle Wiggle

Jane began work on a mysterious sewing project which involved much whisking-materials-out-of-sight whenever I walked through the craft room

housework

lunch, quiet time

mellow afternoon

phone call from JD to discuss starting speech therapy back up on (yikes) Wed the 20th.

dinner was a green salad with the shredded mojito pork (getting a lot of mileage out of this)

A home day, we thought at first. Turned out otherwise, but in a good way.

Morning:

a bit of housework

read stack of boynton books to boy
girls reading, playing, watching end of Enchanted
Jane checked Grandpa's blog (cool CoCo pictures!!)

sorted some books on craft room shelves
found Rosemary Wells Mother Goose just as Rilla wandered toward my lap;
sat there on the floor for half an hour, we two, reading

meandered toward lunch
Scott called, needed something delivered to him at the office. Change of plans!

headed to La Jolla
met daddy outside building, walked down to shore,
watched seals and pelicans and waves

back up to visit office
marveled at the embarrassment of riches (i.e. comic books)

said goodbye, headed home
snacks

more boynton books for boy! a binge!
computer time for big girls

much reading of this and that by girls

Scott pointed out hummingbird sitting on telephone wire. Sitting! Missed the photo, but such an ususual sight.

kids played outside
dinner

Piano. Costco. Von's. Home. Lunch. Crockpot. Pork. Mojito. Orthodontist. Home. Dinner. Collapse.

Monday:

Home day. Snippets:

read Understood Betsy to Bean and Rose

looked at Raphael paintings w/ Bean (What Makes a Raphael a Raphael)—she especially liked puzzling out the symbols identifying saints in the various paintings & remained poring over the book long after little ones called me away

WB's Boynton books binge continues

Jane was absorbed in a project for part of the day, am forgetting now what it was, must ask when she wakes.

Girls ran in sprinklers in the evening. Leftover chicken (from Sunday) for dinner.

Tuesday:

Busy day number one. Worked on the OT eval scheduling in the morning (still not successful) and then the whole gang went to my new OB's office for my ultrasound appt. Short version: hour-plus-long wait, stuffy waiting room vibe, very nice dr, healthy looking baby, no peek at gender.

Home for lunch, then back in the van sans Scott, dropped Bean, Rose, and Rilla at Erica's, took Kate (with boy in tow) to orthodontist. About which: no surprises: braces needed. Question is which route to go. But am taking Bean & Rose for their turn today, so we'll decide after that.

Nice (but brief cuz I was tired) chat with Erica when picking up the other girls. Home to collapse. Kids played on computer & stuff. Rilla took late nap. I was jealous.

Jane made the kids frozen pizza for dinner, bless her. I read to WB in his room. Scott came home,  hurrah.

I didn't know until this morning (when he didn't get ready for work) that Scott had the day off today. Once a month during the summer, his office has a Friday off. I forgot all about it. Woohoo!

The day filled up with lots of things it's hard to do alone with the kids. I've been putting off getting my labwork done (standard prenatal bloodwork) for, eek, two months, just because the thought of dragging the gang into the hospital lab was not exactly an enticing one. So as soon as the happy news of Scott's day off penetrated my pre-breakfast brain, I realized I should (sigh) take advantage of his presence by heading to the lab.

But first: one more attempt to reach PT/OT for scheduling WB's appts. FINALLY got through to a person (have been leaving messages on their machine for a week, messages never answered of course) who said they didn't have the referral from his ped yet. The referral my ped promised to send two weeks ago. So I called the ped's office and the office manager said the referral had been "entered into the system" but I would need to get the fax number of the PT/OT dept so the paperwork could be faxed over there. This is the PT/OT dept at the children's hospital, and I would think the ped's office would have it on hand or could easily get it; surely they have to use it all the time; but whatever. I happened to already have the number on hand myself. Will try again on Monday to set up the appointments.

Then FINALLY I zipped over to the hospital for the bloodwork, and amazingly they got me in and out in about 20 minutes. Target is right across the street, so I popped over there all by myself to pick up a few things that have been on the list forever: curtain rod for WB's room, swim goggles for Bean and Rose, Tamagotchi batteries. Essentials, you know.

Grabbed a few items for myself off the maternity clearance rack. And some gummy bears. Zipped home.

Forgot the swim goggles.

Then Scott took the three big girls to Wall-E. Bean's first movie in a theater. They all loved it. Very glad they had a chance to squeeze this in.

While they were gone Rilla napped and WB and I did housework.

Scott brought me home a Schlotzsky's sandwich so now I love him even more.

After I ate, I tried on my maternity clothes and discovered they didn't fit (shirt and pair of capris). Argh. But we needed those goggles for swim lessons tomorrow anyway. So back to Target I went, exchanged the clothes, found the goggles. Had a nice chat with the clerk about Venus flytraps.

Home, hung out a while, then we all piled in the van and went to Joann's Fabrics to look for fabric for WB's curtains, and also for the craft room. I have never made curtains before and I find fabric stores enchanting but intimidating. I don't know the protocol at all. Found two fabrics I think will work, and am hoping I remembered the measurements right. Got lining for WB's set but not the others.

Home, dinner, then pinned the lining to WB's curtain fabric and (gulp) and cut the two panels. I am following instructions at mormonchic.com, which makes me giggle. Decided that was enough adventure for one day, left the sewing for tomorrow. Here's hoping I don't totally botch the job.

This whole day felt like a Saturday, and now we get another Saturday tomorrow. Yay!

Wrote a big long post here, and stuck it over there instead.