Articles from October 2009

Today – at two days beyond my due date with my third child – I have reached a peak in the emotional ups and downs which characterize the feelings of awaiting a childbirth. I mean, really, these days are total freebies. It is like a snow day – you thought you had assignments due and meetings to attend, but then everything got canceled and you are home with 24 free hours. That is kind of how it is around here. This was “supposed” to be the early days of sleeping and nursing and getting to smell the new baby, but instead we are just waiting. There are no more clothes to be washed or car seats to be assembled. Tonight we even threw away our homemade October calendar, with the words “due date” scribbled on last Thursday. Before us stretches the great unknown. Yet I am now trying to think of these blank November days as freed up calendar days in our “box-it-all-in” human mentality and enjoying every unexpected free day with my mother, husband and two (out of utero) great kids.

When the kids are sick and mom doesn’t feel so hot either…

If you are going to be trick or treating this year, I wanted to post this now so that you can gather some supplies if you like.

I make myself feel better about all that candy consumption by turning Halloween into an extended, hands on, math lesson for my children. This can take on a number of forms. In the past, we have counted, sorted and graphed our candy. We have used bar graphs and line graphs and venn diagrams. You can do addition and subtraction, and even division as the candy is shared. Since Halloween falls on the weekend this year, I may have Dad sit down with the oldest and do a little Excel lesson to expand our candy graphing, too.

We are not quite un-schoolers, but often I find that our homeschooling works best when we can take what we are doing in real life and make it fit our curriculum. We will wind up skipping many of the graphing lessons in Saxon Math because we have already covered the material with candy math.

Last year, B-Mama discussed Halloween etiquette, and I will surely be talking to my children before hand about kindness, respecting lawns, and thank yous. I will also take Red’s advice and give my kids a real meal before trick or treating and tell them how candy on an empty stomach can make you feel. I think our “Health, Safety and Manners” course will come to real life as well!

We are all so busy trying to figure out how to fit it all in, but maybe if we put first things first…

World Series Game 1 begins tonight. Even baby Claire is ready with her first Phillies tee.

Go Phils !

…Sometimes the kids step up to the plate and help mom out!

Since everyone from my son’s neuropsychologist to my spiritual director has encouraged me to exercise recently given the stress of taking care of our son, I took it as a sign that I needed to get back in the saddle.

Last year at this time there was a builders race in the works. I was given a bye since I lived several thousand miles away and had just had an emergency appendectomy and a baby. Well, this year Red has a newborn, AWOL is getting into the zone for a foreign natural birth and we are praying for Kat’s back.

But that still leaves 4 of us. I know B-Mama is always on board for a good work-out, Juris Mater would probably rather give up wine and chocolate than her elliptical and Mary Alice mentioned something about needing a little kick in the pants.

I’ve been back at running for about 2 months now. It feels good. Not great, but good. Oh, sure, there is that little voice in my head that, as I am wheezing after 4 miles, asks me if I am indeed the same person who ran 22 more miles than this for fun. So it’s humbling to say the least. And that precious hour when all the kids are down simultaneously is spent on the treadmill and taking a shower (which explains much of my absence from this blog). I do not have marathon or IronMan aspirations. I just need to be able to stay one step ahead of my boys and maintain my sanity.

My family’s Thanksgiving Day begins bright and early with a Turkey Day run and we are heading home this year. The last time I was home for Thanksgiving I was 7 months pregnant pushing a one year old in a stroller. This year, it is just me versus the cold. I am totally a fair weather runner since my critical bodily functions such as circulation shut down in the cold. I may be able to run at a good clip on a flat treadmill at a balmy 74 degrees, but I may just curl up in a ball on Thanksgiving morning and refuse to go outside. Except now I have all you readers to hold me accountable.

So that’s it ladies. Get in a workout routine now before the holidays start. You know you are going to eat most of the cute holiday treats you make with the kids when they are napping! We can do it…it is so very important for us to take good care of ourselves for the sake of our families. Pick a race…a turkey trot, a reindeer run…set a goal, and start sweating!

If your community is anything like ours, there is mass chaos ensuing over the microscopic H1N1 tyrant. Schools are on alert, parents are abuzz with talk, and the pediatricians are working plenty of overtime. As of Wednesday, our ped had 15 new cases in her small town practice!