Update

It has been quite awhile since I've blogged. Seems there aren't enough hours in the day. We were doing quite well over here....until early this morning. Ethan came into our room complaining of his stomach hurting. He crawled into bed with me and sure enough it was really hurting him. After awhile he threw up and is now in a much better mood. I am thinking this is just the residual of strep throat that he is still getting over. Of which he is still taking antibiotics for. I don't really know. I have not had coffee yet this morning and have been up since about 3am (first with Anna, I let her cry it out last night. It is time to stop nursing her at night. It was time to do that awhile ago but I never quite got around to it). We will see how the day progresses. I suppose we will put all activities on hold yet again for a day or two. And these were the busy days coming up! Today the kids have gymnastics and tomorrow they have The Cube, our co-op where I teach two classes. I'm not sure what to do about that. I missed last week because of Ethan's strep throat. I guess we will just see how the day goes and then decide.

I did finally post a bunch of pictures on my Picasa site. http://picasaweb.google.com/lesliehargus I tried to post them on the blog but it was such a pain so I just decided to keep them at Picasa. Much easier to do. I need easy and I need fast! The kids and the house keep my busy! You know, I had to laugh yesterday when on three separate occasions people asked me, "Are all these kids yours?" With a look of surprise and amazement in their voices. :) ha ha ha! Sometimes I am surprised I have this many! They keep me busy. But overall things are getting easier. Austin is pretty well potty trained. Yay! That makes life much easier.

Ok, side note, as I am typing this Austin burped (he is sitting at the table eating) and said, "Mama I sick. There's too much Frosted Wheats in my mouth, that's why." The logic of a 3 year old. He is my funny boy.

So Austin is pretty well potty trained, as long as I remind him to go. And Anna is on a good nap schedule which makes it easier for me to do schoolwork with the kids. She's also eating more solids which is a nice break for me. :) And as I get more sleep the better I feel and the better I am able to deal with all that comes my way during the day.

Ethan and Emma are doing really well with school this year. Emma has whizzed through her handwriting book and is writing out her bible verses from Sparks now as her handwriting assignment. She's also doing quite well with Math. I am amazed at how much she already knows just from listening to what I have been doing with Ethan. And Em is also doing great at reading. We are halfway through her reading book. When we finish the book she should be reading at a second grade level. When I finished that book with Ethan last year his reading skills took off. I can't wait to see that happen with Emma. Right now she is still hesitant and not quite confident in her skills. It won't take long and she'll be getting out her own library books to read!

Ethan's attention span is much better this year. I can see improvement in every area. It's very exciting to see! He catches on to math easy. He figured out subtraction before we got to it in his book. He didn't know that that is what he was doing tho. His handwriting is also sooo much better! I didn't expect such a huge improvement in that area yet. I had heard that for boys it takes until second grade for handwriting to improve. I don't push it, but we do a little each day. I think that works well for him since he still doesn't like it.

Princess Anna is growing like a weed. She is funny. A serious little thing like her oldest brother. She's quite fond of her daddy these days. She reaches for him as soon as he gets home from work. He is "Happy Fun Dad" after all. That's his job. :) Anna likes to make new noises with her mouth, she likes to dance (she's a headbanger), and she is learning how to wave bye bye. Her biggest achievement is that she is standing up on her own for a few seconds at a time....until she starts to dance. :) She took two steps towards me while holding on to only one of my hands yesterday. She is well on her way to causing all sorts of trouble!

And Matt is enjoying his new job as well. He is finally getting his weekends off. He actually got to work on our bathroom shower last weekend! and I bought some paint for Emma and Anna's room. Not sure when I'll get around to painting tho....

Sick

Well, today Ethan is sick and we are going to head to the dr to get his very swollen throat checked out. I am really hoping none of the other kids get what he has. He also threw up last night and this morning. Off I go to take him to the dr.....better get a bucket to take in the van....:(

Back from the dr with a pitiful child and prescription in hand. He has strep and is having trouble keeping much of anything down. Poor kid. Pray for him. Pray for all of us, that it won't spread.

Girl Weekend!

My beautiful girls and I got to go up to MI for our annual 'Girl's Weekend'! This is the third year we have be able to get together. My sister, Penny, and I and our respective girls head up to MI to join our other sister, Patti, and my mom and our lifelong friend (our 4th sister really!), Heather. We like to make our visit in the fall to see the fall colors on the trees and go to the Cider Mill. It's the best time of the year up there! We also get together with the family and have Thanksgiving dinner while we are up there. (OK, I'm not sure how this section got underlined....)

The cider mill was fun as always! There were alot of things for the kids to play on, animals to pet, and of course cider and doughuts to eat! Sooo yummy! Sigh! I look forward to the cider mill every year. I don't think I will ever tire of it.


This year was the first year we all dressed up in costumes and went to the Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo. Most of our group were characters from The Wizard of Oz. In my opinion, my costume was truly the best! And mostly because it was made with love from Heather. :) It was great! Originally, Heather had a Tin Man costume and I was going to borrow it. Well, when the time came to get everything together she couldn't find it! So, she threw something together...literally! I was held together with duct tape! And lots of it! And to top if off, I was pieced together outside of the entrance to the zoo! It was hilarious! But I loved it. My costume was also the best because I was the warmest! :D It was chilly out that night!


Ok, after I added the pictures everything became an absolute mess. I am not sure how to fix it at the moment. But I am going to head to bed now b/c it is too late. :) At least I got something put up here!

My First Time

So, I colored my hair today for the first time. All by myself...well, Anna was crawling around on the bathroom floor while I was doing it. I think she may have gotten her foot colored in the process. I believe I ruined a towel and a shirt in the process. I'm not sure though. It's 'semi-permanent' color. Anyone know if it will come out of fabric? I didn't read that part in the directions. Not detail oriented, you know. :) So, the box said it was a, and I quote, "Light Golden Brown." Well, let me just say that there is no light or golden showing up. In fact I see more brown and even red! How in the world did that happen? It looks nice thankfully! And it will wash out eventually. But I was expecting one color and got something very different. My hair is darker than when I started! I didn't expect that. Oh well, live and learn. Right? :) My goal was to cover up the gray. And I think I covered most of it. There are a few resistant ones, but I got the majority of them. I was trying to be at peace with my gray hair. That didn't happen. I'm 35 now. Aren't I at the beginning of my midlife crisis? 

It's Loud at My House

I am sitting here in my living room listening to the chaos around me. There are 5 adults and 9 children ages 6 and under in my house. And there might be more to come. I am not sure. Becky and Jesse Griffin and kids are here to visit from Arkansas this weekend. And then other friends from in the area have come to hang out with us too. There has been football-watching (not by me), video game playing (also not by me), and soccer playing (again, not by me). The kids have kept themselves busy with legos and a train set. The adults have been doing most tv activities. I took Ethan to his soccer game where they won their first game of the season! Yay! Ethan played well. I had to bribe him with a doughnut, but you know, if it works...I told him that if he kicks the ball at least 4 times then he could have a doughnut when he gets home. And he did! He usually just likes to run alongside the soccer ball during the game. I might use the doughnut trick again next time. :) Then Becky and I went to the homeschool store and bought some books. I found some great books for Ethan to read in the morning. "Why Does It Rain?", "Where Does Electricity Come From?", "What Is In Space?". Books like that. He will love them. Those are exactly the questions he has been asking me lately. Then home to get the kids dinner and have a rest myself. When I next came downstairs all of our guests were gone! They had gone to a church function at a friend's church. But by then Matt was playing Rock Band at an obnoxiously high volume and so I took Anna, Austin and Emma to the park. It was beautiful out this evening. In the 70s I think. It was perfect. After we got home I took Anna upstairs with the intention of putting her right to bed. But after I changed her diaper and put her jammies on she was wide awake again. I missed my window of opportunity! We played and read books and finally she started rubbing her eyes and I put her down. So here I am....listening to another playstation game. Thinking that it's time to escape from the noise again....having a baby is great for that. :) Oh, I think Anna is fussing...better go get her!

Camping

This past weekend was the Scout Family 1171 campout. Ethan and Emma were both given an award at the awards ceremony so of course we had to go! But the question is, did we have to stay the night?? I think the jury is out on that one. I now know that my loving husband would say "NO". I learned this weekend that he is not really interested in going to all the trouble to get the sleeping bags out, get the tent set up, bring a cooler full of food, and all the other stuff that is required to camp out...he does not like to do that for what he says is "One crappy, cramped nights sleep." Ok. Maybe he has a point. I'll admit it was challenging at times. The hardest part was that the kids were so excited to go camping that they did not nap at all, got to bed late, didn't get a good night's sleep, and thus, were somewhat cranky and disobedient. But the good points were that the weather was absolutely beautiful! It was in the 80s during the day and the 60s at night. A gorgeous breeze was blowing. NO BUGS!!! We got to see dinosaur footprints, go on a few nature walks with the kids, and just spend time outdoors. No TV's or computers involved. It was nice to get away and do something completely different for awhile. I still enjoy camping. But I have a feeling we'll just put the tent up in the backyard for a few more years until the kids get a bit older.

So, I'm beginning to think I'm not detail oriented....

I attended the first bible yoga class 2 weeks ago. I stayed for the yoga part, but I did not stay for the bible study afterwards. I did not realize there was a bible study after the yoga and I had not sent enough formula or diapers with Anna into the nursery. As I was walking out of the class I glanced at what book they were using for the study and even asked someone what the name of it was.

Fast forward to this morning, I actually got to class on time (and it's quite an effort to get all the kids and myself ready and then to get them into childcare by 9am, but it's worth it!!!). I was ready! I had my new exercise pants, new exercise shirt (all my 'exercise' clothes were the old ratty shirts that were all worn out and were almost ready to be thrown out but since I used to work out to tapes at home and no one saw me, who cares? I'm sure some can relate.), my yoga mat, kids were dropped off with all the paraphernalia, and my book. The book that I made a few special trips to buy because I didn't find it at the first couple of stores I went to. So, I go through all the yoga poses almost tipping over at times. Rediscovering muscles that have not been used in years, learning how inflexible my body has become, but feeling good and really enjoying it all. Bible yoga is fantastic! It is a class for beginners at my church and the lady who does it reads bible verses and different quotes during the poses. It is a time of focus and meditation. Really nice. Something I need right now. Afterwards we get in a circle to talk and I hold up my book and comment on how I bought it but have not read it. That is when my friend, Jenny, next to me says ever so politely, "You have a different book than me." I thought, "Maybe just a different cover." I look over and nope, a completely different book. I just started laughing and you know, I'm not surprised. With the birth of each of my children I have developed selective hearing and have lost attention to details. I used to be detail oriented, but with each child I have focused less and less on the details b/c I just don't have time for them. So, I kept looking at Jenny's book and just laughed inside. I thought I was so on-the-ball this time!! ha ha ha! But you know what, the book I did get, "The Power of a Praying Woman", the book I thought I heard I was supposed to get, is perfect for me right now. I was excited when I bought it and read the chapter headings. I thought, "This is just perfect!" :) So, now I have to try and find time to read both books.