7QT... Halloween, Homeschool Photos, and Sentimentality

November 07, 2015

7QT... Halloween, Homeschool Photos, and Sentimentality

Hey friends! Some quick takes to wrap up the week!

--1--

Halloween was a huge success!

Two Spider Girls and one Super Girl.

And one lobster.

The date of our town's Halloween parade was approaching and there were some rumblings about making an Anna (from Frozen) costume for N, and a general state of indecision among the other girls. After Mommy failed to make time for any costume sewing, the day before the Halloween parade I took the girls to Toys 'r Us, prompted by a promotional email advertising 50% off Halloween costumes, hoping to maybe find an Anna costume for sale. We did find an Anna costume-- it was $50!!! Can you believe it?

Then we happened to see the superhero costumes were only $15 each. The girls were thrilled.

It was more than I would normally spend on a Halloween costume, but my girls have been good lately and deserved a little treat. Mama is short on costume-making time with the new baby, and our dress-up bin admittedly needs a little sprucing up.

It turned out to be the best $50 I ever spent. I think these costumes have been worn more than their clothes in the past few weeks. And not just around the house-- there have been various Halloween events (planned and unplanned) and so they have gotten a lot of mileage. First it was the Halloween parade the weekend before Halloween, then C got to wear hers to preschool, then L wore hers to gymnastics, and then of course there was actual trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

It was a mild night for trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, so the candy stash was plentiful!

Auntie Bethie came, and I actually went along too. In past years we have only gotten 1-2 trick-or-treaters at our house and so I figured there was no need for me to stay home and hand out candy (plus I forgot to buy any). It was such a great night and I'm so glad we all got to go together!

--2--

Speaking of a mild night, our Indian summer has continued into November this year.

Highs have been in the upper 60's this week, and the girls have enjoyed so much outside time. They are crashing hard on the pillows every night lately thanks to long afternoons at the playground or in the backyard (thanks also to daylight savings time for making them feel like it's one hour later!). It has been so wonderful for everyone's mood and I'm really thankful for this last glimpse of warmth before we head into winter.

We are also to the point where the girls are very responsible about being outside by themselves and I trust them pretty well to stay away from the road and be safe. I have been inside by myself with little J for much of this week as they have been playing so happily... today was an amazingly productive day as J smiled and cooed while I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed and did dishes, then she slept while I made some blueberry bread and a tomato salad with our abundant harvest from the garden. The girls gave each other wagon rides around the yard and munched on the last of the apples from our trees. Hooray!

--3--

We are on a break from homeschool-- we have 10 weeks under our belt so we are to the end of my initial planning. I had figured on a break at this point in our year so that I could tweak things if necessary and plan the next two or three 5-week sessions. We will be taking this week and next week off. It has been nice for everyone having a bit more of a relaxed schedule and lots of free play time, especially in the beautiful weather. I sort of feel the phenomenon that happens to Moms... you know when you have your second child, and then having only one feels like a piece of cake? Only for me it's that I've been taking care of four children plus homeschooling, and so now that we're not homeschooling for a little while, *just* taking care of four children feels like a piece of cake.

I don't think I will change much, curriculum-wise; for the most part we will just continue with what we're doing. The only big change is that I'm pretty much decided that I will re-vamp our writing curriculum. Write Shop has been good and the girls have learned a lot but I have a few ideas for making writing more time-efficient for everyone. More on that later, if I get the chance.

I am also considering adding maybe one more away-from-home activity now that we are falling into more of a routine with new baby. I really tried to under-commit for the fall so there wouldn't be too much driving around. The girls aren't really begging for anything, so I'm still on the fence about it. There are so many opportunities that it's hard not to say yes to everything... but I want to be careful with our time and gas.

--4--

We did a homeschool picture day this week-- I had borrowed my Dad's nice camera and we got some pretty good shots.

The one above reminds me so much of the last time we did this:

How quickly they change. *Sniff sniff*

--5--

Speaking of sentimentality... you know how, when you're having a new baby, some people wonder how they will have enough love to go around for the other sibling(s) when the new baby arrives? And then when the new baby comes and the parents instantly fall in love with him/her, they realize that they were silly to think they would have any trouble loving the new baby as much as his/her older sibling?

I have definitely felt that, and even more. Not only did I instantly fall in love with J, but I also feel like I love my other children even more (if that's even possible) now that our baby has arrived. I see how each girl relates to J and cares for her, and it just makes me see more and more wonderful things about each one of them. It's a major love fest for me right now. Maybe it's just all the oxytocin coursing through my body with every nursing session.

What's not to love, right???

I'm not sure if this is related, but along with that love has come a heightened sense of worry about my children. I've had a few nightmares lately about terrible things happening to them. I'm not sure if that's pregnancy hormones still clearing my body or what. But now that there are four, my prayers for their safety are that much more fervent! So J, in a way, is keeping her bigger sisters safe :) Has anyone else experienced this, Mamas?

--6--

Little J is changing so quickly and every day I think she looks like someone else in the family. Early on she reminded me a lot of baby N but lately I think she looks a lot like baby pictures of me.