Thursday, November 12, 2015

Belated Yarn Along





I am a day late but I wanted to share my progress on the blanket I am knitting for our family's newest addition (due March 2015).  I am knitting Jared Flood's Shale Baby Blanket. I am using Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage yarn in the charcoal colorway.  It is soft and I know from making Atticus's baby blanket that it opens beautifully upon blocking to display lacework.  By the way, I don't enjoy knitting with typical baby colors so I just picked a colorway that I love.

I am currently reading  Tulipomania by Mike Dash.  It is a well written and absorbing read about the tulip craze that struck the Netherlands in the 17th century.  I am currently halfway through the book and look forward to finishing it.  I am not typically drawn to history books, but this one is definitely a satisfying read.

Linking up with Ginny!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Happy 4th Birthday, Liliana!

2011

2012

2013

2014


2015


Happy 4th birthday to my sweet and spunky Liliana!  You are such a good sister to your brothers.  You keep me on my toes with all of your interesting questions.  Your zest for life and curiosity never fail to amaze me.  I love you sweet baby girl.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Atticus's Foliage Photoshoot

Last week a ton of the leaves fell off of the sycamores in front of our home.  We had a day where there was a lot of wind and rain so it was to be expected.  I was feeling pretty awful the morning after all of the rain, and Atticus was begging to go outside.  I wasn't really feeling up to it, but I also wasn't feeling up to laundry, dishes, or anything else at the time.  Upon opening the door to see what the weather was outside, I realized that the blanket of leaves would make for some beautiful photos.  I dressed Atticus for a photo shoot, grabbed my camera, and we headed outside.  Not wanting to interfere with his play, I just followed him around and snapped away.
















Saturday, October 31, 2015

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Life Lately

It's been a while since I have updated on the day to day goings-on of the children.  The past month has been busy with lots of appointments, obligations, and events.  Here is a peek into what the kids have been up to.

Little Ish

Little Ish is wrapping up his 2nd month of his Kindergarten homeschool year.  He is making a lot of progress in learning to read and I find him in corners all around the house sounding out words.  He also spends a good amount of time writing be it lists, stories, or just words he is interested in knowing how to spell.  He is currently very interested in the Where's Waldo books. One day last week he assembled his own Waldo costume and when Lily wanted to play hide-and-seek outside with him, he renamed the game as Where's Waldo.  He has taken a lot of interest in preparing food this past month so we have done a lot of different cooking and baking tasks together. This has given us a good chance to talk about all sorts of math topics in a really natural way.

In not so homeschool news, Little Ish has developed a real appreciation for Atticus's sense of humor and they spend a lot of time playing and laughing together.  He also surprises me daily with his joy in little things and his generosity with his siblings.

Liliana
Lily is quite the busy little girl.  She is always doing something and never complains of boredom. In the past month she has become really good at writing her name.  She has started to enjoy playing board games with me and Little Ish.  She particularly likes playing Trouble.  She has an affection for nonsensical rhyming games and has started to try to figure out knock-knock jokes.  She has joined her big brother in enjoying preparing foods.  Her favorite kitchen task is cracking eggs and she has quickly mastered it (we rarely end up with any shells in the bowl).  She loves to be read to and often gets into a pattern of asking me to read the same book a few times per day. This month Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco has been the most favored book.  Lily still loves music and dancing and has been on a Weird Al kick thanks to her cousins.  One of her newest pretend games involves washing things.  Last week she played "wash the kitchen floor"; she was entertained, and I ended up with a clean kitchen floor.  This week she has taken to playing Curious George Takes a Job.  Thankfully this has involved her washing windows and has not involved her mischeviously painting jungle scenes on the walls.

Atticus



Oh my sweet, Atticus!  There is so much I can say about this boy.  His vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds and he is speaking in sentences a lot of the time.  He has a few speech quirks that I find endearing.  He can make an f sound but only uses it when he says the word fish the rest of the time he replaces every f with an s or an sh.  His word for dinosaur is tiny-sword. He really enjoys language.  He tells the interrupting cow knock knock joke and loves asking "Guess what?" and answering "Chicken butt!" After months of sheer distaste for being read to, he has started to enjoy books.  He asks me to read to him by saying, "I read to you?" He is also happy to spend 30 to 45 minute time blocks sitting on the couch looking at books by himself.  Another activity he happily invests long amounts of his time in is coloring with markers.  One afternoon this past month he sat and colored for nearing 3 hours.  He loves when airplanes fly overhead (we're on a flight path) and he insists that airplanes say "Choop-choop!"  He spends a lot of time throwing frisbees and frisbee like objects.  He likes playing basketball and has taken to shooting all sorts of things into the kitchen trash;I have rescued several shoes this month.  He is a sweet, happy, affectionate little guy.  He has a great sense of humor and knows how to make everyone in the family laugh heartily. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Better Late Than Never



Once again I won't be writing much along with my weekly menu plan.  Atticus started yesterday off with a fever and this morning it morphed into a stomach bug.  So I am just stealing a quick moment while he naps to post my menu for the week.  Also, if you could spare a prayer for the little guy that he feels better soon, I would very much appreciate it.

Monday: Chicken and biscuits with green beans.  I had some leftover buttermilk from the cake and the chicken last week and it was exactly the one cup needed to make these biscuits.  Ish used the fried chicken gravy recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook for the gravy. It was a delicious and satisfying meal.

Tuesday: Irish rice

Wednesday: Chicken curry over squoodles (otherwise known as spaghetti squash)

Thursday: Steak, baked potatoes, and zucchini from the garden.

Friday: Family wedding.

Saturday: Dinner with friends

Sunday: Pizza

Linking up with Simcha!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Apple Picking 2015

















Since Ish had Labor Day off from work, we decided to bring the kids apple picking.  As much fun as the kids have each time we go, I usually find it to be an incredibly stressful outing.  I was pleasantly surprised that this year didn't feel stressful to me at all.  We arrived at the orchard before it got too hot or too busy which probably helped make things run more smoothly, but upon some reflection I think the biggest thing that made a difference is that the kids are just that much older than they were last year. 

Ish and Lily knew exactly what to do this year and delighted in finding trees with apples at their level.  Atticus really enjoyed himself, but we had to keep a close eye on him to make sure he wasn't putting the drops in our carton.  This year after picking we went and took refuge in the shade of a huge sycamore that we discovered last year and enjoyed some of our harvest.  It was a fun trip and we hope to go one more time before picking season is over.