Summer!!

For the first weekend of summer we went to the lake. It was a very hot and humid day but it was so nice near the water. We went home and barbecued and then relaxed. It was nice.
I looked in my flower garden and found that some new blooming had gone on. I only know the name of the lily. The red flower and the yellow I have no idea what they are, but they are very pretty.


The vegetable garden is doing well now. The tomatoes and peppers are still very small, but we will have peas soon and there are flowers on the beans, the squash and zucchini. I have blueberries too. They are green right now but we can tell they will be big and many. The girls decided to play a trick on me and told me there was some ripe blueberries. When I got out to the bushes I saw they had placed some store bought blueberries in places around the branches. It was very funny. Here is a picture of my 'ripe' blueberries.

Alaska again!

My first son is in Alaska working again this year. I was secretly hoping he would decide to come home, but he needed to work and also enjoyed Alaska so much he couldn't wait wait to go back. The friend that went with him is also back again and he is blogging again. Take a look at http://whileinalaska.com
We do miss him, but we understand he is growing up and wants to do his own thing. He had a great second year at Swarthmore.
This is a picture of us when we met in CT to all be together. We thought it may be the last time until October break, but to our surprise our oldest son decided to come home for a week before going to Alaska. Boy was this mama happy!!!

I am back, for now.

Here I am with my second son who just graduated this year! He was 6th in his class. We are very proud of him. He will work this summer and then head to Swarthmore College in PA. He will be joining his brother who will be a junior. I can't believe it all. It was very hard for me to let my first child go, and I felt it would be easier the second time around but it is not.

I have not posted in a long while. I got very busy, plus with the camera being broken I just didn't have the motivation. But now I have a new camera and more time so I will give it another shot. Also, no one even knows about this blog other than my immediate family and I guess I felt no one would miss it. I do want to post more now though because I have been thinking it is a good way to journal, and look back on things we have done, or that was said. I am thinking of sharing this with others. That would be a good way to motivate me.

As I said I have been busy. I cannot write about everything now, but it really has been a very busy time. Plus, I do not manage my time very well. I am sure there are people out there with more to do than me and can still find time to blog, and exercise, and keep a clean house, and, and, and, ......
but not me. As I said, my family is most important and our family has been very busy.

I am working now. I got a job as a personal care attendant. I am also certified too. Since I work weekends I get paid pretty well. We need some extra money right now (who doesn't) so it is work time for a while. I do like my job. I take care of older adults who cannot do the daily tasks that we all take for granted. I like old people. They have so much to offer. I do get attached easily, but I am dealing with it.

So this is it for now. I really hope and plan to visit here often.
I will leave you with a little craft we did recently. The bongo drum man was made by my son that just graduated. The others were done by the girls and me.

Last day of January

This picture is about a year old, but it is all I have for now. My camera is still broke. I have not been able to justify the money to get it fixed. I really miss it. There have been lots of 'Kodak moments' since it got dropped.
This was a busy but fun week. Except for the girls having colds. They only have colds though and they both are getting better with no ear infections or asthma.
Last week started out with a 5 hour track meet. Yea, it is a real fun time. I do like watching my child though. I got some letters out to friends and family. I also brought the little ones to a bounce room in town while my son was not in an event. That is where they got their cold. One of my daughters told me that a girl told her that her brother was contagious. Oh well.
The week was filled with regular stuff like music, math, biology, lots of stories and play too.
One thing we did this week that was different is we invited lots of kids over for a sledding party and potluck. We had about 17 kids here and their moms. It was a lot of fun. There were teens, to infants. The sledding was great. The food was amazing.
I finished a rag quilt. Pictures will be posted at some point. It is pink and blue and has one fabric with both colors and paisley's. It is my first rag quilt and I am in love. I think I may make one for my mom and sister and brother. They are so comfy.
The week has ended with another track meet, (not as long), grocery shopping and an invite to dinner from a friend. We played Quibbler. It is a very fun game.
Maybe this week I will see how much it is going to be to get the camera fixed.

A nice week at home

It is so far been a wonderful week at home. We have cooked, built block houses, played princesses, read, and made snowflakes. We played out in the snow too. This is the way I would like it every week. But I know that is unrealistic.
We did some school work too. The first girl is doing Math U See Alpha. She likes it and it is enough for her. She is also reading to me now. We have been reading and learning about snow and snowflakes. I recommend a book called 'Snowflake Bentley'. My third son and I did Biology. Not really that fun. We are learning about proteins and lipids. I wish I was a more exciting teacher. Oh well. We are reading a book called 'Flowers for Algernon'. So far that is good. He also worked on Adverbs and Adjectives and did his math independently. He uses Teaching Textbooks. It seems good for him.
Second son did midterms at his highschool. Plus track, Science Olympiad, and honor society meeting. I don't know how he does it. I would be so tired and worn out.
First son had his first week back to college. He says he likes his classes so far. Seemed pretty excited about one called 'Racism in America'.
The baby, well three year, old played and got into lots of things. The pastels all over her body and my over sized chair was the favorite.
I worked on my rag quilt and cross stitch pattern. I made bread and brownies. I even had time to clean out the chicken coop.
My husband worked and snowplowed most of the week. He is napping as I write this. It is ok. He deserves it.
It was a very nice week though and I am hoping next week will be too.

Perfect Example

I have a perfect example of how I get off track. The first two weeks of January seemed to be fine. I rode my bike, walked, did school with the kids, got meals together on time, even had time to get some sewing in. Monday was ok but after that it was downhill the whole week.
I got a stomach thing so I couldn't exercise. Three of the kids had doctor appointments. My oldest needed a ride to his girlfriends school which is an hour away. I had to drive two of the kids in to school because my husband had an early meeting. Then of course it was grocery shopping week. So, nothing happened as it should have. But, I am trying to keep a positive attitude about it and I plan to get right back on track next week. Also I am trying to see the positives of last week. I brought the two youngest to a children's museum when I went to drop my son off. They had a blast. I was able to get caught up on some rest while my stomach did flip flops. While in town on one of my many visits I was able to see a very good friend for tea. So much got done outside the house last week that I can only enjoy the inside of the house this coming week.
Next week will hopefully be calmer and we will have more down time. When the days are all coming and going I feel stressed and it makes the day feel chaotic.
I did plan a couple of sewing projects. I am doing a block a week that I found on Jen's blog. http://cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com/ I am working on a rag quilt made out of 8" flannel blocks and I picked a hand project too. I had a throw that can be cross stitched on and I will cross stitch some of my favorite things on it.
One thing that happed last week is my camera broke. Funny how just when I start a blog it breaks. I am hopefully going to find someone that can fix it. For now I will have to use old pictures or none at all. I wanted to post my blocks of the week but I will have to do it later.
It is late here. I am without a husband for the night. He went to bring our oldest son back to school. We will all miss him. The family feels so whole when he is home and we feel his absence when he is not.

17 Years of Breastfeeding!!

Here I am nursing my youngest child. She is three. My oldest child will be 20 soon. My children are long nursers. So far the oldest children nursed until they were five or a little over. Yes, if you do the math I tandem nursed almost all of them. My oldest and second nursed together, then the second and the third nursed together. Then there was a three year break when no child was nursing. Then my fourth child was born and she weaned a little after she turned five. Now the last baby is still nursing and showing no signs of stopping.
I have heard of nursing children that have weaned on their own at various ages. Most well before five. I also have heard of children nursing past the five year mark. I personally think it is the best thing for a child and for me it has made parenting easier.
I thought of all of this the other night. I was sitting on the couch and all the other kids were downstairs spending time together. I was just thinking of how the years have flew by and I happened to be nursing my youngest and thinking about how she probably will wean about the same time as the others. Then I started counting how many years I had actually been nursing a child. I was amazed.