We’re busy around here, with a crawling baby, cool summer weather, kitchen experiments, and laundry. I have lots of pictures to post soon, but until then, I leave you this:

 

Scholastica is four months today! Can you believe it? I sure can’t! And last night, this little one slept from 9pm to 6 am, I was surprised and happy. We put her in the pack and play that is set up on the main floor, so we could get some chores done. She fell asleep in there, so she stayed there while we watched a show. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 330 and started to head upstairs when I realized that Joshua had left her in the pack and play. Since she was still sleeping, I laid back down on the couch and went back to sleep, only waking up when the chicken alarm went off! It was wonderful.

 

She’s on the move, or trying to be, she rolls from front to back and back to front and yesterday was up on her elbows and knees. She manages to get around the floor to play with toys as well.

 

 

She is still nursing, with the help of the Lact-Aid, no bottles yet either. She has gone the longest without a bottle and I think she’s closing in on the longest breastfed as well, but I’m not exactly sure when I quit nursing the other babies. I credit the nursing success with using the Lact-Aid for supplementing instead of the SNS I used previously. I still have milk too, and I know I’ve been all but dry by this point with the others. I have also become a lot more comfortable nursing in public with the Lact-Aid, so I think that helps to keep me going. That and she loves to nurse. She gives me a look and turns her whole body to try to get in to position when she wants to nurse. Sometimes she will just latch on for a minute or two then be done then want to talk or play.

 

 

*I went to Tampa by myself this week. Well, with baby Scholastica, but without Joshua or the other kids. I went for the IHM Catholic Homeschool Conference and boy am I glad I did! I got to hear four wonderful speakers, Dr. Ray Guarendi, Mary Ellen Barrett, Dr. Catherine Moran, and Father Edwin Palka. Each speaker was wonderful and each said something that I needed to hear.

*I even met a fellow blogging mother, Michelle Reitemeyer, who is now writing over at Reit This Way, go check her out! I’ve never met a blogging mother in real life that I didn’t already know in real life before reading her blog. (It’s late, I’ve had a beer, I’m not sure that sentence makes sense.)  There is sort of a stalkerish feeling when you can talk to someone about her life when you just met her 10 minutes before.

*I booked a hotel for the trip through hotwire. I learned the last time I used them that I needed to request a room three and a half stars or better. This time I lucked out and stayed at a fancy hotel where wi-fi and breakfast aren’t free and it costs $45 to have a fridge in your room. (Valet parking was only $18 a night though, a  real bargain, no I self parked.) The bed was really comfortable, with more pillows than I would ever need, there was a nice chair for nursing, and the remote control worked. I was happy.

*I found a booth selling the books we use for religion for $5 each, so I bought them through the 5th grade. I also bought two books by Dr. Ray and look forward to really reading them. He autographed them as well. I also picked up a VBS sort of program from Holy Heros. I look forward to doing it with the kids here in the next few weeks.

*I have the order for school all set up for the two older kids for the fall. We are still doing some catch up work from when I had Scholastica, mainly history and some spelling. I figure we’ll be done by August 5th and then we’ll take the rest of August off.  I’m doing kindergarten for Caecilia this year but will not be using a program, just work on letters and numbers plus reading.

*It’s been pretty rainy here this summer. The kids all had fevers last week, and Benedict broke out in blisters, I’m pretty sure they had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Do you know how hard it is to keep little fingers off the baby and out of her mouth, when all her big brother wants to do is love her? It wasn’t fun.

*Ten years ago, yesterday, I received a call from a friend to let me know that he wasn’t going to be returning to the seminary in the Fall. That same day I threw a party for a good friend of mine who was celebrating his 40th birthday. Today his wife threw a surprise 50th birthday party for him. Where the heck does the time go?

*Speaking of time, I may not get carded when buying wine or beer anymore, but I did have two people exclaim that I did not look old enough to have five kids.

*Speaking of speaking to other people, I knocked the socks off of one of the venders this week when I told him Scholastica’s name. He’s a third order Benedictine and has never heard anyone use that name before. Trend setters that’s what we are.

*Speaking of Scholastica, she was not a happy camper on the way home from Tampa. I stopped at every rest area on 275 and 75 to feed her or to check her diaper. I’d hold her on my lap in the (parked) car and she’d be smiling away, then when I stick her in her seat, screams. Because this isn’t her normal behavior, I felt so bad for her.

*I did stop a Trader Joe’s in Gainesville and was pretty happy with my purchases. The baby was happy as a clam, but very upset as soon as she was put back in the car, so I picked up dinner at a drive thru and parked to feed her and eat my dinner. (At this point we were on the road for 4 hour and still had 2 hours to go. The trip to Tampa is four hours from my house.)  I ate, she ate, then she cried. I made it to Lake City and pulled off again, got a coffee and sat in the parking lot nursing. She finally fell asleep and stayed that way until 330. I finally made it home at 11. We left Tampa at 4.

I’m sure there’s more to tell you about, but I’m falling asleep typing, so, until later, have a blessed day!

This little one is over three months now! How’d that happen?

 

It is raining here in Georgia, much needed rain! We are to get up to 4 inches this week, so while that means we can’t do outside things (and really it is South Georgia in July, who wants to be outside anyway?) I’m not complaining. I’m hoping this means we will be out of our drought!

Here is a picture of Caecilia, who is very proud that she has learned to write Gs and can read a few words!

I haven’t forgotten about my little blog! I will be back with a post soon, in the mean time, enjoy this picture of Benedict guarding the tomatoes.