Life happenings lately:
- Lucas, Finley, and Sebi finished up their official school year last week. Last year we decided to start the school year in early July so we could get a couple of routine weeks in before Tobin arrived, just to help ease the transition, and these boys absolutely killed it. Their diligence and responsible attitudes were top notch, and they are pretty psyched to be done with their 36 weeks of scheduled work [though, as all good homeschoolers do, we will obviously continue with random bits of schooling throughout the summer to keep habits and expectations moving along]. So proud of these fellas! Other honorable mentions: Eli is reading more and more and Aviyah is happily along for the ride, even if her repeating every word Eli reads seriously detracts from the flow of his reading 😄
- Tobin holds the title of our longest co-sleeper, reigning in our bed for the first 6.5 months of his life. It was glorious. He transitioned to his own bed/room when he started getting too mobile and wiggly at night, wanting to roll on and off his belly instead of staying snuggled up on his side next to me, and now at 9 months old he just might be our best sleep baby. He still wakes up to nurse usually once a night, and every time Jason places him next to me, it's like my whole body just exhales and relaxes. If I were to go back in time and tell my 28- and 31-year-old self one thing, it would be to ignore the voices that had me thinking co-sleeping was the most irresponsible thing you could do with your baby [which caused so much anxiety and fear any time I accidentally fell asleep after a feeding with Lucas or Finley next to me] and instead listen to that deep down instinct of "this is how it should be." I'm not sure what changed with the arrival of Sebi, but finally realizing co-sleeping made all the things infant-hood better was an absolute game changer.
- Our trusty rice cooker of fifteen years decided it was ready to retire. My hunt for a larger capacity one turned up naught [Related: Why do rice cookers measure their capacity by their tiny, rice-specific "cups" instead of standard cups? I have issues with this.], so I am now cooking rice on the stove like a normal Asian. I do miss being able to just turn it on and not have to pay any attention to it until dinnertime, but besides that, rice is rice. And now I can cook five cups of dry rice at once and actually have some leftovers for fried rice, so... I'm going to say it's a net positive.
- The middle kids are absolutely obsessed with I Spy type books. I admit, I was a little disappointed and befuddled when 4-to-6-year-old Lucas and Finley didn't take a shine to this particular activity since I remember spending hours hunting for every last little thing on every page of these kinds of books when I was little. But all is right in the world now that I have a Sebi and an Eli and an Aviyah head down and on the hunt.
- The garden has been planted and the glimpses of green are peeking up. The rabbits have already had their way with the lettuce, so Jason has fenced in the garden once again. The tree pollen has taken up residence in poor Finley's eyes. The hours outdoors are off to a grand start with 350 hours logged so far.
- As always, we have a busy start to our "summer" [which, yes, we acknowledge starts waaay before actual seasonal summer is declared (courtesy of Jason's excellent professor-ing)]. Beginning next week, Aviyah will turn 3, Jason will finish his last week at work for the school year, Sebi will turn 7, Eli will turn 5, we head to Branson for a week, and then... we will surprise the kids by, instead of heading home from Branson, driving straight down to Galveston, Texas, to meet up with Jason's parents and hop onto a cruise ship for a week. It has been challenging keeping this surprise under wraps, especially in the past few weeks as we've been figuring out all the logistics of packing. But it will be very fun to see their reaction to it all. [Sidenote: I think surprises for big kids are excellent because they finally get it - the unexpectedness, the excitement, and, to some extent, the big deal-ness of it all. With little kids on the other hand, you can "surprise" them with a second tangerine and they think it's the best day ever but you take them on a super fun outing and they are hilariously nonplussed.]
- Back in January, I put a calendar up on the wall in the kitchen. There was a specific reason for it, but I cannot remember what it was... But then, one day, I randomly wrote down the meal we had eaten for dinner that night on the calendar. And then I did it the next day. And the next day. And then we all started writing meals we wanted to have on future dates. And those days would come and I knew exactly what to make that night and could even plan for it beforehand and it was so helpful. I no longer had to dread the 4 o'clock, "What's for dinner tonight?" question because it was no longer an unknown I had to solve every single day. It has been so freeing and amazing, and I love that everyone can feel like they have a say in what's on the menu. We have a few rules [no repeat meals on consecutive days, I have the right to veto or call an audible on any meal on any day, the much requested meal of "Smoofins" can only be once a month, etc], but I cannot stress enough how much less stress there has been on me since offloading the meal planning to all the other humans in this house.
So there you have it. A completely random, stream of consciousness, thrown together on a whim post of life happenings. I am refusing to read over it and edit it because it is Friday and I have a houseful of children needing my attention and 854 tabs open in my brain. But a blog post has been made. One more thing to check off my to-do list!
Life is good, guys, and it feels like it just keeps getting better ❤
