Oh, boy! I'm at it again.

I thought the nesting was supposed to end after you have your baby.  Or not.

I got to thinking about where I could put Calvin's new collection of Ballantyne books, which in turn got me to thinking that I should really rearrange all our homeschool books.  Then there are all those language books left over from my last book purge.  They've been residing in the bottom of my closet for over a month now.  I just couldn't let go of them.  I mean, you never know when someone in our family might want to learn French, or Polish, or even Yiddish?!  I know, they make tv shows about people like this.  I bet you can guess what's on the top of my Christmas list.  That's right, another bookshelf.  Are you reading this Mom and Dad? 

Well, it's not all crazy and disorganized around here.  I did buy a couple of baskets to manage the clutter in the kids' school shelves.   Their daily books and workbooks are easily within reach here and our bulletin board rests on top of the shelf.

I even finished a little project in our bedroom that's been bugging me for a month.  I should have taken a before picture, but I'm sure you can imagine the chaos of baby clothes and blankets, cloth diapers, and other baby paraphernalia strewn about our bedroom and stacked on every surface.  My dresser was literally covered up with baby clothes.

Now Calvin has his own drawer in my dresser.  I think it's about time.  We've been living together for a month now, might as well make it permanent ; ) .

Adapted homeschool: Knitting keeps hands busy!

Our homeschool has had a few gaps in it since Calvin's arrival has kept me a little preoccupied.  One of the ways Twinkle Toes (9) and Mealse (7) have filled some of their spare time is with knitting.  Their grandma gave them knitting lessons last summer and our housekeeper has been helping them when she's here, too.  Once they seemed to be getting the hang of it, Grandma bought them fancy yarn so they could make winter scarves.  The girls are very proud of their progress and are hoping to finish up their scarves before the first snowfall.

What do you think?  I'm impressed!  I never learned to knit... or crochet... or sew... or do anything crafty!  Debbie from A Journey in Motherhood and her kids came over Saturday and her daughter showed the girls how to finger-crochet.  They've been busy making necklaces and bracelets in every color this week.  It's so nice that my blog friend and her family have moved here and become our friends in real life!  What a blessing!

Not your run-of-the-mill baby gift- and I'm so glad!

My mom and dad like to give us a special baby gift each time we give them a new grandchild.  I don't know if I can list all of them, but for the first few kids they were buying us designer baby furniture (that has stood the test of time, by the way).  Now that we have 6 children, we already have all the big ticket baby items, but my parents wanted to give Baby Calvin something special that would survive his toddler years.  My parents love books as much as we do (see where I get it), so they decided to give us a collection of books for Calvin's baby gift.  We decided on the R.M. Ballantyne books.

I know he doesn't look terribly interested in them yet, but that will change.  Now to clear off another bookshelf somewhere.

Saxon versus Teaching Textbooks: the saga continues

Many of us started homeschooling with Saxon math.  Then as time went on some of us were enticed to try different math curricula.  The main complaint I've heard about Saxon is that it's too hard- either it takes too long to complete an assignment, or the child sheds tears, or the parent sheds tears, or some combination of the three.  We decided to make the switch to Teaching Textbooks for Algebra I this year.  Monk (11) has liked it and has done well.  It takes him an hour and a half to do each day, so it's not exactly easy for him, but he's making A's, so he seems to be getting it.  Twinkle Toes (9), not wanting to be left out, begged to also make the switch this year to Teaching Textbooks.  She completed Saxon 5/4 last year, missed a couple of questions on the TT placement exam for grade 6, so we decided she belonged in TT 5 this year. 

When the books came and she actually started with her math, I was disappointed.  It was taking her 10 minutes or so per day and she was getting them all right.  It seemed too easy.  So she started doing two lessons per day.  By the way, she was using the computer for her math and loved it.  I didn't love it, though.  The program gives a second chance to get the right answer.  That would be fine if it were after assigning a grade, but the second chance comes before the assignment is graded.  Anyway, I finally decided to test the effectiveness of TT by giving my daughter an assignment from Saxon 6/5 today (we have all the books since Monk used them).  Guess what?  It's taking her FOREVER and she's had to ask for help twice.  In other words, now I remember what we do AND don't like about Saxon. 

What have we decided?  To run back to Saxon, immediately.  It served Monk well.  I know it's hard, but it also works.  I'm happy with TT for Algebra I, but not for grade 5.  I don't understand how TT 5 is so easy, but the TT Algebra I seems more in line with what we've come to expect from Saxon.  I'm sorry Twinkle Toe's days of easy math are over, but I feel much better now.  She'll finish up Saxon 6/5 this year and then complete Saxon 7/6 next year just like her brother did last year.  Then she can go back to TT for Algebra I.  At least, that's the plan for now.  This experience has also convinced me to keep Measle (7) in Saxon.  She's about half way through Saxon 2, but we've been supplementing with Singapore workbooks up until now (she loves the pictures).  From now on Measle will work exclusively in Saxon 2 until she's ready to promote to Saxon 3.  My kids may not like Saxon.  In fact, they may hate it.  At the end of the day I'd rather they be good at math than enjoy learning their math.  We all have to do things in life we don't enjoy at one time or another.  I want math to be fun for my kids because they love a good challenge, or because one can always find the right answer in math, not because it's easy.

How about you?  Are you happy with your math?  Have you compared your child's progress in one math curriculum to another?  How do you know your child is really getting it and not just whizzing through an easy math program?  Do you prefer one math curriculum for primary grades and another one for more advanced mathematics?   

Adapted homeschool: audiobooks to the rescue!

Since bringing Calvin home 3.5 weeks ago, we've been doing adapted homeschool.  Monk (11) and Twinkle Toes (9) have been so great about keeping up with their independent work and even reading all the extra readers I bought them.  Measle (7) and I have been trudging along and her dad has been spending time with her each day on flashcards.  We've pretty much put our Language Arts time together on hold which means the kids haven't done any writing lately.  I plan to phase this hour back into our day as soon as I start getting decent sleep again- hopefully in the next couple of weeks.  Another stumbling block for us has been our read-aloud time.  I'm not so great at multi-tasking so we let our read-aloud time slide for the first two weeks Calvin was home.  Fortunately, we had gotten ahead before having the baby, so it worked out ok.  On a whim, I had purchased the audiobook of Carry on Mr. Bowditch a couple of months ago and we have LOVED listening together each day while I nurse baby.  Twinkle Toes and I went to Amazon and found 7 more of our read-aloud books available on CD and ordered them.  I know it's kind of a pricey solution, but I'm so excited about our being able to continue with our read-aloud time, not get behind in our Sonlight IG, AND all while I nurse baby boy. 

Meanwhile, Prince (4) is making great strides with his reading.  We're at lesson 37 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and he's taken off with the Bob books now.  We continue to enjoy our Five in a Row together as I make time- often on the weekends.

I'm sorry to report that I have NOT been getting the kids up at 6:30 and spending time with them in Bible study.  For this season, I'm just making sure that Monk, Twinkle Toes, and Measle work a little each day on their Community Bible Study homework.  I do the same lesson each week so I'm trying to initiate discussions in the car while we drive along.  I know it's not a long-term solution, but hopefully we can get back on track with our devotional schedule in the near future, too.

So that's our adapted homeschool for now.  It's not ideal, but it will work for now.  And what better reason to be temporarily derailed than a new baby brother!

November is national adoption awareness month! Here's why we love kids!

Monday when my husband was home enjoying his day off, I took the opportunity to get out and buy some clothes.  I'm at that point of needing regular clothes again, but I'm not back to my pre-pregnancy size 4 yet.  I always hate to buy much in this in between size, but I needed something, so off to Chico's I went with baby in tow.  I love Chico's.  Their sizing alone endears them to me.  I'm not an 8 or a 10, I'm a 1.  Don't you just love it?  Anyway, as the store clerk was oohing and aahing over Baby Calvin she asked whether he was my first one.  I don't know why she would ask this other than just making coversation because I've been plucking out gray hairs for a few years now.  When I told her no, that he was our sixth child she looked dutifully shocked.  Then she asked if we had planned on having so many children and for heaven's sake, WHY!  I gave her my usual reply that our children are a blessing to us and that we enjoy them immensely.  Just for fun I added at this point that not only had we planned to have each and every one, but that we had adopted our fourth child and would love to adopt again.  The poor girl was speechless then so I made my purchases and left her alone with her thoughts.



The kids welcoming Baby Calvin home from the hospital.



I wanted to begin my posts on adoption this year with a few of the reasons why we welcome children into our home.  Adoption is about children, after all.

1.  God says to have them.  Did you know that of the 613 commandments found in the Law of Moses, the first is to "be fruitful and increase in number" (Genesis 1:28)?  I value everything God's Word says, but also want to acknowledge the emphasis that the first command deserves. 

2.  The older we get, the more my husband and I realize what a waste much of what we invest ourselves in really is, in the greater scheme of things.  In other words, we try to have an eternal perspective on what we choose to invest our time and resources in.   I love buying a new car.  There's a real buzz that comes from that, but 2 or 3 years later, it isn't new anymore.  I love peace and quiet and being alone, but then I remember that God said it isn't good for man to be alone.  Kids just seem to make it more difficult to have time for studying my Bible, reading other Christian living books, making time for worship, and having the money to help support ministries of the church.  That may be true, but God says that He delights not in sacrifice or offerings, but in a contrite heart and in obedience to Him. 

Our hobbies are not eternal.  The time we waste watching television, we can never get back.  Only relationships will transcend this world.  Our relationship with God, our family, our church family, our neighbors.  Even my relationship with the guy who carries out my groceries for me is more important than the car I drive, the book I'm reading, my checkbook balance, or my mood (and yes I have to remind myself of this each and every time I walk out of the store with him because otherwise my inclination toward solitude ruins a perfectly good opportunity to rub elbows with another human being.)

What's my point?  That children have eternal souls and are called a blessing by God.  What better investment of our time and resources could there possibly be?  Parenting is the hardest thing I've ever done.  It's harder than doing calculus or trying to teach anything to Gen X college students.  It's harder than any physical training or even passing a kidney stone (yes, I know this first hand.)  Parenting is unrelenting.  You're never not parenting.  It's non-stop, 24/7, never a day off.  And messing it up is not an option so you're constantly praying for grace and guidance, apologizing for your short-comings, and seeking help from others.  Many times you feel like a complete failure, but you press on through it all, because at the end of the age there will be these living souls that you influenced for the good or the bad and you can never for all eternity go back and undo what you've done or do what you neglected to do with them while on earth.  Sound daunting?  It is, but God seldom asks us to do anything easy that we are already naturally inclined to.

3.  Kids have a great sanctifying effect on us.  The goal for the Christian is to become holy, we call this sanctification.  We are supposed to embrace those things that help us become more sanctified and shun those things which tempt us to sin.  Our children continually bring our sins before us in a way that we somehow suppress on our own.  Sometimes we fail to see our own sin in a specific area until we see it in our children.  Other times it is our reaction to our children that shows us how far short of God's standard we fall.  Our children drive us to our knees in prayer- for them, for us, for God's wisdom and for His grace.  They force our attention off ourselves and cause us to be more others-centered.  They teach us about the unconditional love God has for His children.  So, if having children helps us to become more like Christ, then why wouldn't we desire that?

4.  Kids are a LOT of FUN!  Our children bring us so much joy!  They provide us with so many opportunities to thank God for blessing us with them.  They bring laughter even in the midst of sorrowful circumstances.  Children truly make the heart glad in a way that nothing else on earth does.

Seat drops in the sanctuary and breast milk in the eye: it's been one of those weeks.

I've shared with you before about what a challenge it has been for me to train Queen (2) to sit quietly through church.  I really struggled with her from around 1 yr to 18 months, but then she seemed to get it and we settled into a routine.  Now that Calvin has arrived, Queen has been testing her limits... again.  I've been sitting on the end of our row in church with Calvin in his carseat/carrier in the aisle and Queen on my other side.  Though I try my best to participate throughout worship, my eyes do tend to dart back and forth as if I'm watching a tennis match.  First I check on Queen then move my attention to Calvin then to Queen again and back to Calvin, giving Queen the eye when needed and rocking Calvin's seat when he stirs or makes a noise.  At one point yesterday when swtitching my attention from Calvin to Queen, I caught the tail end of her doing a seat drop from standing in her chair (we were standing singing) to sitting on the floor.  She immediately realized her folly and began pitifully rubbing her bottom and complaining that "that hurt me".  Thankfully, we were still singing so no one else noticed Queen's acrobatics.  The rest of the service was pretty calm except for when Monk (11) took Queen's hair clip away from her.  In his defense, he said she was poking him with it.  Needless to say, he returned it quickly to her when she cried out, "That's MINE!"  Unfortunately we were not singing at that point.  Let's just say I got two messages in church yesterday, the one my husband preached on from Mathew chapter 10 and the one my children reminded me of:  I need God's grace.  It would be an understatement to say that things have been a little chaotic since Calvin arrived.  I thrive on schedules, order, quiet, calm, clean, and organized.  We've had none of those lately.  I need an extra measure of God's grace to get through these chaotic days without losing my patience with my kids.  I'm so thankful that His strength is manifest in our weakness.  I know that's true, even when it doesn't feel like it.

Now you're probably wondering about the breast milk in the eye.  Calvin's left eye started oozing gunk Saturday and I was so upset about it.  He could barely open it and it looked terrible.  I'm not a doctor, but it looked a lot like when my kids have had conjunctivitis.  I happened to have some opthalmic antibiotic drops, but was afraid to use them on him since he's so young.  I fretted about his eye, applied warm compresses, prayed about it, and called my husband at the church to give him periodic updates.  Then at some point Saturday night I remembered hearing or reading somewhere that breast milk, since it's rich in antibodies, can be applied topically to help fight infections.  I know this sounds crazy, but I started right in treating his oozing eye with breast milk.  It's almost totally healed up today.  I know it wasn't exactly a cotrolled experiment, but whether the breast milk did it or not, I'm just grateful his eye is better.

So there you have it.  It's been a crazy week.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit and slowly begin to return to normal.