Lemony Webbles

a move is in my future

We've been praying about finding the right house to move into from here: right location, enough bedrooms and bathrooms, reasonably new or updated, etc. and it has seemed like the perfect house, or at least one that met all of our criteria, just wasn't out there. Then we came home from Turkey Fest (which was SOOO g-e-w-d GEWD! on so many levels, including the gut level) and saw a for sale sign on a house on our block (which is the perfect location) and upon further investigation and a quickly arranged tour we found that it met all of our other criteria and has some really exciting features to boot! Here's the best: I am a bath person. It must be inviting, spotless, and as deep as possible to be truly pleasing. (Our current bath is all of these so I am generally pleased already.) However, the bathtub in this house is double deep and has water jets. It's a freakin' jacuzzi! I would never even hope for such a thing. And the water heater in this house is a monster. It's enormous! An enormous jacuzzi-filling monster! And the kitchen is big and brand new. And the attic is finished and the basement is finished too. And it has a wet bar in it! ha! how funny for us to have such a thing. But then I thought what a great homeschool messy art/craft/chemistry area it is. Perfect! The only downside to the house is that it's not very big. But the finished attic and basement make it very livable. Yeah!

nine months in and out

Nine months in

(Here's me looking about to pop- Teresa was born six days after this picture was taken. As with all things Teresa, though, labor was a gradual process that started oh so gently about three days before things really got going.)

Nine months out

(As always, it's really hard to capture her smile because it's accompanied by a full body wiggle, but here's a blurry one.)

Teresa turned nine months old today, so following Suzanne's lead, I have a few reflections on her equal time in and out. She is, and has been from the start, very peaceful, patient, organized, and even-tempered. How can a baby be organized? Her movements can be purposeful, and her sleep schedule totally in sync with the family's. I see peacefulness in the way she eats just enough to satisfy her tummy- not begging to nurse endlessly. She's patient in that she accepts the fact that sometimes she has to wait for mommy's attention and she often decides that she might as well be happy and play while she's waiting. (I think people tried to get me to train my first two to act this way, but it just wasn't them. They have different strengths.) She's generally a happy person, pleasant and feeling good and right with the world from the minute she wakes up to when she gets sleepy at night. She's also very loving and encouraging. When she's been trying to communicate something to me and I get it right and understand her (like that she wants to nurse or needs her diaper changed), she gives me a huge smile and sometimes even laughs with delight. She seems to like people and wants to interact with them. She's doing a little stranger danger thing right now where she leans into me if other-than-parents get too close, but she's very mild about it. And there are some other-than-parents that she will happily go to, like Katie today. (I was afraid to make eye contact with her when this happened today because I thought it would jinx it.) There are lots of people that she will talk to from the safety of mommy's arms too, like everyone else on the Urbana LSA. She makes her voice heard there as the mini-member in training.

(Dressed up for the Birth of Baha'u'llah)

She's making lots of new sounds- da da da, ma ma ma, boo, sh sh sh, ba ba ba, na na na. I can't really say that she says words yet, but she seems to be gradually getting closer to her sounds being attached to meanings. That's the thing about her- she takes a good long time to do things gradually in everything she does, from learning to nurse to sitting up, so there's a peaceful feeling to everything she does. She's not rushed. It's really a blessing to live with a person like this because it makes me feel so...content with life and thankful for everything and everybody around me.

(Playing with a miniature white rose)

As a person, I really like Teresa. I feel like we will always be great friends. This child started out making me eat apples every day with really powerful cravings. How wholesome is that? I love this kid.

I've come a long way in my development as a parent over these six years and I'm really glad that I have a child that will get the benefit of that growth. Which is appropriate since her name means 'harvester'. I need to take a good picture of her while she's still little, sitting on top of a great pile of apples.

the end of THE WEEK

is in sight. Billy gets home tonight. Yeah! I've survived by getting the kids to bed as early as possible- 8:45 last night- so the days are shorter and I have some time to myself at the end. They don't seem to be waking up earlier than usual so maybe they've needed the extra sleep. I also didn't do any big projects or anything ambitious- just the basics.

the beginning of THE WEEK

Billy's gone off to a Supercomputing conference in Seattle. He'll be there till Friday night and we miss him very much. The day turned dark, gloomy, and rainy as soon as we dropped him off at the airport. It was very appropriate moody weather. The kids were pretty moody too, Maya with still a little cold and tummy upset, Teresa probably teething, and Georgia still with her cold that I thought she was amost over. She ended up sleeping half the day, which is probably good. When it got dark (at what, like 3:30 these days?) and the evening without my partner in childrearing loomed before me, and the week for that matter, I picked up the phone (yeah, me!) and called my favorite sister and she talked me through it. Literally. For at least an hour, maybe two. I don't know, but by the end, bedtime was in sight, and somehow I managed to get them all in bed and asleep by 9:30. I think we're going into hibernating mode over here.

Wish me luck for retaining my sanity and detachment from willfulness and irritation this week.

Final Exam

We're getting our house appraised (that means an inspector's going to come look at it and tell us how much it's worth, dollar-wise) tomorrow morning. I'm so nervous! It feels like the final exam from the Renovations 101 'class' we 'took' two years ago when we bought this house and fixed it up. Wish us luck! (It's kind of fun to have some drama that does not involve a willful small child.)

Update: It's going to take a few days to find out our 'grade' on the test, but I think that with a few corrections we will at least pass in the end. I'll be sure to update again when i know.

growl..and move on

Arrgh! I just lost an entry that I had finished. It was a very cozy one about quilting and having the kids on my lap while I was typing, but then at the last second someone jostled around a bit too much and I pressed some combination of keys that made the whole window I was working in just disappear. And that was it. All gone. Shock, grief, disbelief, etc. Alright, a few minutes and hugs later, I'm over it. But I stared very forlornly at that screen for quite a while, willing it to reappear. It just feels so good to finish getting my thoughts down and ready to send out there to connect with anyone who reads this and so bad to lose that flow and connection. But I will keep writing anyway! Anyhow, I finished Lucy's quilt and I'll post pictures after she gets it over Thanksgiving. And here's something I hadn't written about, and therefore never lost: I feel for first year teachers, as I guess that's what I am in our little home school. So much anxiety and unsure-ness and trying to figure everything out and experimenting to see what works and adjusting and recreating approaches and schedules and wondering if it's going to be ok and insecurity and trying to get organized. And moments of peace and sureness are there, even though it's new. And seeing the kids flourish is very rewarding, suddenly realizing how much they've taken in while I wasn't really aware that they were learning is amazing and wonderful. I know it's only the first year once. Hey, maybe I'll even miss it when it's over. It is very much my time in that I am very invested in teaching so I can imagine looking back fondly on all this.

How bout that for school pictures?

meditation mama-style

Life can sometimes be all-consuming in it's hectic pace. And then sometimes not. Today I found myself in the grassy field across the street from our house with the girls all playing happily at their works. Georgia and Maya in the sand from the baseball diamond, and Teresa checking out the grass on her toes, and I realized that my attention was not needed by anyone for that moment. And the weather was gorgeous, by the way. So I just lay down right where I was and was totally relaxed and in the moment looking at the very blue sky and the jet flying by way up high, birds and bright yellow leaves swirling through my field of vision. It was delightful. The sun was warm on my shoulder and the grss was soft underneath me. It felt like a big hug from the earth. The peace lasted about ten seconds. Then I had to break up a fight and keep Teresa from eating the grass, and then the kids wanted to go back inside. So that was it. But what a wonderful ten seconds. Really.