Breast is best

PSA don't ever ask a breastfeeding mother to cover up or even mention nursing in a bathroom.  It is illegal in most states and completely unneeded. That is all

Craftin

I have found a newfound love of the Waldorf swaps. Basically in a nutshell a bunch of moms pick a theme, do some major crafting and then swap and share! This months theme was "Play Kitchen" so I was very excited seeing I just finished making the kids their own bigger kitchen out of a repurposed coffee table. I hope it isn't just me but I get frustrated when I look at some of the toy kitchens and it seems only 1-2 children can fit over there at a time. With 7 total its just not an option so the coffee table was a much better fit.

 My contribution for the swap is sushi so I journaled a bit for inspiration.  

and then Beanie and Koda helped paint all the pieces I had cut out from my new scroll saw I received from my dad for my birthday.

Aren't they sweet?!

Its been awhile

Cue the sappy Stained song.... Actually I like that song a lot. There has been several changes through the last few months and I realized how little I have been posting. This use to be an online journal for me and a reminder to take lots and lots of photos to remember everything. I have been taking less photos since Koda is now pursuing a photography major as she does all the work for me. Here are some of the big things I need to update on.

I had our new baby in early October. He goes by Giddy and for the most part is a very pleasant baby.

 

 

Koda is inches close to graduating and we are starting to plan graduation parties and picking out diplomas. She does not have a college picked out for the time being and is flip flopping her college path of doing criminal justice or photography first as she needs both to do forensic photography. Yes, she wants to take photos of dead people and crime scenes and this confirms she is her father's child.

Nanners is almost graduated from her Cubbies class for Awana and has started a new dance program. She really enjoys her new teacher and luckily since it’s through our local park district that I work at I can be involved and spend more time backstage with my little dancer.  

 

 

RyRy has FINALLY started talking. There was some major concern of a language delay with him as only spoke 20 words, most of them being made up. Then one day, BAM. His vocabulary just exploded and he talks about how cool and happy he is about things. He adores being a big brother and is always insisting on helping with "baby".

 

Homeschool wise I have chosen to take a different approach for the littles as Nanners is approaching school age. As much as she begs to read and many peers are reading it is obvious that it isn't clicking yet. I have done some more research and talking it over with Randy and have decided to take more of a European approach of waiting until 7 to push any real "schoolwork" and we are adding more of a Waldorf approach to their preschool time. There will be an entire entry about that change when I get a chance to write it.

 

Although it’s been summed up in a few paragraphs its been some exciting changes and I can't wait to share more of our adventures with you.

 

Slime

 

This morning we made slime. We followed loosely the recipe for Frozen Silly Putty . I went to search for glitter and of course found it AFTER we finished so we went without. 

 We used

• 1 bottle 4 oz of glue
• about half a cup of water
• 1/3 cup of HOT water
• several drops of pink/purple food coloring
• about 1/2 tsp of borax

 In the first bowl we mixed the half cup of water, glue and food coloring and in the second was the hot water and borax.

 Mix it all up, kind of slow at first and more and more. It thickens while sitting. 

throw in a selfie by a little girl who was bored while waiting.

And we get slime! 

This will only last awhile before a ton of stuff gets mixed in and gets to become unusable.

Out of the mouth of babes

" Mama, can you do my hair today?" came from a little voice over the weekend.

" Well depends on what you are wanting. I can try" ( she has been known to ask for ornate crazy things for hair that is super long and impossible with her little bob)

" Mama, I want you to do my hair like black people"

............. * kids and husband chuckling in the background*

" Well what do you mean honey?"

" Like a little BLACK GIRL MAMA!" as she hands me her hands overflowing with colorful barrettes and half of them stuck in her hair as is. 


After over a half hour searching Mr. Google. we finally figured out together that she really only wanted rainbow beads and or hair clips in her hair. It is amazing to me how children do not think negatively about other races and embraces it and wants to share a similarity, like rainbow hair. It was a very proud mama moment for me as our families come from some prejudice backgrounds and to have my daughter want to look like that encourages me that I'm doing something right with her. So sure enough we are going to have "black people hair". 



After 3 attempts we only were able to get her hair braided but she seems quite happy with the results. 

Photography project - May

I am making a conscious effort to create a new month long project for Koda for her photography. She is often the type of person that needs a push to step outside her comfort zone before she will come out and say " oh that was really cool and fun. I like that."

Our first project I found on Pinterest ( go figure). Many have seen the type of cool, trendy word art that is created in black and white photography as they piece together the letters individually.


Koda's word for this project was "forever". 

Getting closer to the end- Highschool

As the school year draws to a close I am noticing more and more of my "flaws" for the year. Between feeling rushed and that I have not completed everything I have to stop and remember often that there is always next year and they can and probably will learn it eventually.

I have prepared Koda's transcript and got a nice dose of what we did accomplish in the last 2 years. Between moving several times, bad PPD and adjusting to new jobs we have a nice long list of what we did get done. It was a great indicator of success. She has impressed me with her knowledge of what she has even picked up on without a formal "class" and we are adding it to her transcript as well. Human reproduction ( her knowing 80% of what there is to know about home birth and why positioning is important and why water birth can be more successful than land birth) and Child development with a focus on special needs as she has been highly instrumental on assisting with Nanner's OT and continuing it with preschool. Not everything has to be learned from a text book but when you overhear your kid explaining SPD using propper terms to her grandparents and WHY it is important; you know you are doing something right.

Working has also been a big change for her as she joined me in the local park district.I have gotten nothing but compliments on how hard of a worker she is and that means a lot.

And a picture of the youngest just for good measure.