Our First Week of Home School

 I guess it is technically through our second week, so I better get done with this post! To begin, I had probably as difficult a time knowing where to start with school as any new home schooling mom. If you google "home school curriculum" your eyes will bleed. It's no joke, there is SO MUCH out there. That is a good, and a bad thing. Great, because you can find something that will suit your family (most likely), but bad because if you've never done it before, you have NO CLUE where to start. I have been lucky to have great people in my life who have been there and done that as far as home schooling goes, and who have been very successful at it. So last winter I e-mailed our cousin Lisa, and she sent me dozens of e-mails back with links and websites she likes and curriculum choices, and even blogs that she reads for inspiration/momspiration (I just made that up, go with it). Heather also sent me TONS of pdf files and free curriculum and unit studies she had one her computer (and she still has tons more). She has given me books to read and lots of encouragement and advice and I am just to grateful that I have these two wonderful women to ask questions to and probably cry and complain to when things are bound to get rough.

Here is something else that I suggest to anyone who wants to venture into home schooling: have a mother in law who has been teaching kindergarten for 20 years who retires and gives you tons of her stuff to use! ha. But seriously, Julie has given me so many great resources,  I couldn't be more thankful just to have some tangible things to look at and say, "Okay, I can do this." Plus, she just knows how to teach children and different ways to make things fun and I know I will be calling on that wealth of knowledge more than once. I love that she naturally reinforces what the girls are learning whenever they are with her (which is ALL THE TIME, she may re-think retirement after being out here with us for so long and little people stampeding all over her every day). It helps me a lot. My shelves are full of games, puzzles, work books, ideas, etc. It's been fun to go through everything and realize that I have a lot to keep them going and entertained, we don't have to do the same thing every day (that would get old fast). We can play a game for math instead of our work books, or do a puzzle together, or whatever.

Once I started weeding through the enormous amounts of curriculum I started to find a few things that I knew I wanted to try. It was HARD though. I still want to try EVERYTHING. I just told Jake last night, it's so exciting, there are so many things I want to study with them . . . I have to slow down and realize I have YEARS to cover it all. That's pretty cool. My major goal for this year is to establish a routine. Period. Okay, it's a little more than that, but basically I want Norah to see that we do school certain days for a certain amount of time. I wanted to set a routine with starting every day the same way, and just getting into that habit. I started off thinking we would only do it Mon-Thurs mornings, but last week we got to Friday and Norah asked for school . . . and I told her we weren't having it. And she was crazy all day. Soooo . . . I guess we are going Mon-Fri! Which is fine, because it makes our days go better anyway, and we can cover more things and have lots of time for the fun stuff too.

I spent weeks reading and reading and READING everything I could about home schooling. Organization, schedules, curriculum, bible studies, art supplies, etc. It was crazy. Good thing I wasn't getting much sleep I guess, because I was able to spend a lot of time reading while nursing Charlie at night. Once I settled on some things it was time to order them, and get everything set up. I didn't want to start school until I had everything ready the way I wanted, because I didn't want it to be random. I wanted an "official" start. So I waited until after we canned all the peaches and pears! That was stressful enough on its own, I knew adding school would be too much. So we'll probably have a mid-September start date every year, which is fine because I'm the principal, so I get to decide.

Here is a list of the curriculum I am using right now:

Phonics:  
Explode the Code (I bought these after Lisa recommended them last year and Norah finished the first book then). This year we are zooming through books B and C (not those letters, those are just the intro books - a, b, and c).

Reading:  
How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I bought this book at the beginning of last year and we did one lesson. Then I decided to put it off for a while cause I didn't want to push it. Now Norah knows all of her letter sounds (pretty much) and can sound out a lot of words already, so we're going to fly through the first part of this book I'm sure.

Math:  
Math-U-See. I read a lot of great reviews and other home school moms who were using this and it seemed to be a great fit for Norah. I just felt really good about it, and Math was probably what I was the most concerned about "getting right." I have been really happy with it in the short time we've been doing it. Norah loves it. It comes with a dvd of a man teaching each lesson, so you can either watch the lesson as the parent to know how to teach it, or watch it with your child and then go through the activities/worksheets. We like watching them. Norah loves it. She is just in the Primer book because we haven't done much with math until now, but she is cruising through that. This math uses manipulative blocks so that you "see" the math as you do it and that is why I wanted it for Norah, because she is visual and needs something to "do" so that she doesn't  get bored.

History:  
The Story of the World. Heather graciously lent me this curriculum. It's a book you can read, audio tapes with the stories on them, and a work book with activities and ideas. We have only done one lesson, which was the intro to what history means and we did a little family history. But each lesson after that is about a group of people (starting with the Nomads) and just tells a story about a child and what their life was like. It's cute. I'm excited to get further into it.

I also bought the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World to supplement the Story of the World. 

Handwriting/Printing:  
 Handwriting Without Tears. I got the first book (kindergarten) for Norah last year and we used it off and on when she felt like it. Now we got Scarlett her own little book, and I got them the small slate tablets to practice the "wet/dry/try" method where you use a little sponge to write the letter on your slate with water, then go over it with a dry towel, then copy it in chalk. You learn each letter this way, then practice in your notebook.

Keyboarding:  
Keyboarding Without Tears. From the same company as our handwriting books. This is a program you download for each grade level and I'm pretty impressed with it. It is mostly puzzle pieces (the puzzles are letters with a picture) and putting "wooden" letter pieces together to form letters, and practicing putting your fingers on the right keys and pushing the right key with the right finger. Norah STRUGGLED at first with all of it, because we have a trackpad with our computer, which is pretty hard to get used to using. She was HATING it. But I couldn't find our old mouse anywhere (Hazel carries things off like that and then I can't find them), so she had to just struggle through and now she's pretty darn good at it. At first she kept pushing her finger down so hard, it was hurting! ha. But she's getting it. There is also an app for the ipad that is the same thing, but easier obviously to use so Scarlett's been using that at the kindergarten level.

Science:
I don't have anything specific, we will just do some random experiments and explore and do whatever we want to here for this year.

Art:
we do something every day. There are so many resources online that it's overwhelming almost. But art it Norah's passion, and I don't want that to go away. So we do something every day on top of her already constant drawing and coloring on her own. I have yet to find a good source of paper that is cheap so that she can go through it like she does! We did some apple print making last week and it was fun. This week we molded beaver dams out of modeling clay. They color every day during school and after (and before). 

Norah is playing with her math manipulative blocks. This morning we learned what the different colored blocks stand for and just played some games and had fun with it.

Norah's beaver dam/lodge.

Scarlett's awesome beaver in his house. I was telling Jake that I can already tell a big difference in the girls: Norah would FREAK out if her beaver didn't look good or like a beaver, but Scarlett made this one on her own and thought it was awesome! Those pink things on the head are eyebrows, just in case you were wondering. She actually did a pretty great tail, but it's hidden in the house.

Letter B fun.

I put up some "A" animals last week and we read about them - Alpaca, Alligator, and Armadillo. The girls LOVED it, so I kept it going this week. There are a lot more B animals  to choose from, so I stuck to ones we could find in the U.S. Fun fact about the armadillo: they have four babies out of ONE egg every spring. Cool, eh? So obviously either four boys or four girls, all identical. I thought that was neat and I was surprised at what the girls remembered about each animal.

So each morning looks like this: we get up, get breakfast, get dressed, clean up, do hair, whatever. Then we sit around the table and do Calendar time. We say what day it is today, pick out the weather, and what day it is tomorrow. Then we sing our days of the week and months of the year songs (always a good time). Hazel loves the songs and claps and dances right along with us.

After that I review what we've talked about the day before (the animals, the character trait, scripture of the week, etc), and introduce anything new that we are doing today. I found a curriculum for these character traits that you teach (one each week) and they come with a definition, little lessons/activities to reinforce the trait, and 3 "I will" statements, that the girls learn to say and try to practice. At the end of the week they get a badge to put on this chart if they do it all. I didn't know how that would go over but I really wanted to do it and it was good! By the end of the week they both knew what attentiveness meant and had the "I will" statements memorized, even Scarlett! I found another thing that is just little coloring pages/worksheets/games centered around a letter of the week and scripture of the week (all from the bible). So for example "B" week is "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall see God." Norah had it memorized the first day. So those two things are something a little different that I wanted to do and so far so good.

Next up, we go to our "workboxes." This is an organizational system for home school that has really taken off with homeschoolers. I came across it and LOVED the idea so I'm running with it and I'm really excited about it. The idea is that you have these carts/work boxes and they are all numbered (when Hazel isn't pulling the numbers off, that is). Each night I go into the boxes and put in what we are going to do the next day. I start in the first box with any print outs for the letter we are doing, or coloring pages for the scripture or anything. They grab these out and we do them while talking about our letter/animals/scriptures/traits, etc. Norah cannot be lectured to for very long, so this keeps her busy but she is great at muti tasking if one of the tasks is coloring! In each box you put EVERYTHING they need for that subject. For example if you are going to be doing something they will need pens or scissors or glue for, you put it all in that box. That way they aren't running around trying to find things and it's all in one place. Then you put the subject on the outside of the box and they remove it when that subject is complete. I also put a little snack in the second or third box down (box of raisins or apple sauce). By that time they need something to keep them going, and it's usually during printing for Norah because she HATES printing so it's a little extra incentive. As it gets colder I think our tradition will turn into hot chocolate during printing. Anyway, that's basically how the boxes work. It keep me super accountable because the girls expect everything to be in there and ready the next day. So I have to have everything printed and ready to go. I love it. I am pretty sure I would have floundered big time without something like this for my own sanity.

We have been going through the boxes, but not all of them every day. It's been a little random here and there but for the most part, it's gone according to plan. One day I realized it just wasn't happening to start out with phonics, so we switched it up and made the beaver dams instead and they just loved it and it turned our entire day around. That is the beauty of home school! I can see right there what works for my kids, and try to help them learn the best way possible. Today (well last night I was SUPER sick and had a terrible reaction to gluten or a stomach bug or something - it felt exactly like my crazy episode in February) I didn't feel awesome. So we had to adjust our plans a bit and Norah was a little disappointed in that (we were going to make people out of bread and bake them). But I had to explain that sometimes things are going to come up and people will get sick and we will have to change things a little but we will still get around to it. She is very dependent on schedules and if you say something is going to happen, it BETTER. I need to be more careful about what I announce ahead of time!

After we work through the boxes, we quit and get lunch ready. We've been going every morning from about 8:30 - 11:00 or 11:30. Then in the afternoon while Hazel and Charlie are napping I shower and clean up/do dishes/do some reading, etc. while the girls play outside or in their room. We generally watch a movie later in the afternoon when Hazel is awake, check the garden for tomatoes/carrots, clean up some more, get dinner, and bed! It's insane.

There have only been a couple of times that things got hard and she didn't want to do something. If Scarlett doesn't want to do it, I tell her to go and play. She's 4 (barely) and I could care less if she is doing things with us at all or just playing with toys or with Hazel, but she loves being there most of the time. She loves sitting and doing "school" with Norah and feeling involved and she is really learning quickly. Norah though, needs to realize that now we need to put some effort into learning and school. One morning (the one hard morning) she was crying and said she didn't want to do school that day. I was frustrated and told Jake before he left for work that I didn't know what to do because I don't want her to think that we can just not do it and it's all about when SHE wants it or not. I want routine. Structure. Something. She thrives on it and needs it, whether she knows it or not. So he suggested I say, "Norah, Scarlett and I are going to have school right now. You can either join us or sit here on your bed while we are doing it (she was in trouble for something and being punished). If you decide you want to come to school with us, I don't want any complaining or whining. What would you like to do?" Or something like that. Anyway I was calm and asked her, and she said, "I want to do school." So she came to the table and folded her arms and scowled. I ignored that and Scarlett and I did the calendar and then started singing our songs and pretty soon a smile crept onto Norah's face and it was all over. She did great and loved everything after that. Small victories!!! If I  would have just given up and said, "Fine, do whatever you want. No school today." Then I know our day would have been awful. But we had a great day.

The best part about this for me (and there are several) is that I get to be right here every time they "get it." It's SO FUN to watch something click in Norah's head and see that light go on when she learns something new. This math stuff has been really fun for me, because she obviously loves it and just gets it. Plus, we do it just the two of us together each day and that is good for both of us. I know the printing will come and she won't hate it forever and I know that there will be a lot of hard days. But I know that right now, this is what we are supposed to do. I have been terrified to start because I was probably worried that I couldn't really do it or wouldn't want to do it, but it's been really fun for me. It's caused me to really get organized. I have learned that if I don't get up and shower before 7 a.m. it's not going to happen until school is over. I am NOT used to that, so it's been tough because I'm still not sleeping a ton at night with Charlie some nights so I opt to sleep a little more in the morning instead of get up and shower. But once we get that figured out, I will feel better about things. I just didn't want there to be a big lapse in time from breakfast to school, or I know the girls would get distracted or try to run to grandma's house or get doing something else and it would be tough to corral them again.

All in all, it's working out and I'm just really anxious to establish even more of a routine and get into some fun things learning with my girls. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty cool. Some days I think, "Wow, these kids will be here with me FOREVER." I will not be the mom who gets to go get groceries during the day by myself or run away and go to lunch (please, like I ever do that anyway), and my kids will just always be here. BUT. Like I have said before, I don't want those to be the reasons I send them to public school. For "me" time, or to get rid of them, or because they're driving me up the wall. I want to be the one that sees every up and down of their learning. I want to be their biggest cheerleader. I want to know all of their hopes and dreams and have them talk to me about those things while we're on a hike or learning about animals or writing an essay or whatever.

I don't think everyone should home school. If I wasn't kind of "forced" into it by our location, I don't know that I would have the guts to actually do it. Truly. It was either, stay at the farm, or move away during the school year so the kids could go to public school. I love the farm and raising my family here too much to do the latter. Two short months in the summer here isn't enough for me. I wanted more. So here we are, a place I never thought we would be, doing something I NEVER thought I would be doing, and I am grateful. Grateful that the Lord knows what we need more than we do, and that he sometimes shoves us into things before we are ready. Grateful for VERY supportive family members and friends who I know are as excited as I am about all of this. It's HARD. I spend all of my free time now looking at school stuff or reading instructor's manuals or printing things off or laminating them (I need an office depot in my house). It's CRAZY. Hazel is running around and getting into things and just wanting to watch movies constantly and it's hard to find things for her to do quietly while we are doing school. It's hard having a newborn who needs to be nursed and burped and changed and rocked back to sleep. It's not easy juggling all of that. Most of the time if I haven't gotten the dishes done the night before I find myself glancing at the sink and cringing or thinking, "It won't take that long . . . " but I made this commitment  to them and I want them to see that I am serious about it. We are going to do this, and the dishes can wait (how many times have we heard that). I just have to prioritize my time better in the evenings. I have found that if I start a load of laundry right after breakfast, then I can change it when school is out and fold and put away later in the day without a problem. It's just staying on top of things.  Doing all the dishes at night instead of the morning!

I find I am getting a lot done, but I am super busy and have to cram in what I can when I can. Clean house? Over rated. Just kidding, I cannot STAND how messy things have been the last few weeks with canning and trying to get organized for school. But we'll get there. I don't expect it to change over night. It really is hard. I have struggled to get to where I am right now, which isn't anywhere near where I want to be. But I know I have help. I am hopeful and excited about this year and the things I will learn and what we will learn together. 

WHEW. This took forever. But now it's done. Now I'm off to prepare my lesson for Sunday and my talk for New Beginnings (also on Sunday). I'm pretty sure life will never slow down again.

Norah - 6 years old

This girl. She causes  so many different emotions in me on a daily basis, it's hard to even begin talking about her. *** I have to say, I started this post and wrote a couple of paragraphs a couple of weeks ago, but I'm glad I didn't finish because since then I have learned a lot about Norah and I wrote before in a state of exhaustion and frustration.

Do I start with how sweet she is, or how spirited and crazy? ha. She is so emotionally charged to the highest degree, on both ends of the spectrum. When she is happy she is so happy and sweet and kind and thoughtful, but when she gets frustrated or mad, watch out! I have found it interesting to watch her over the last year and how she's matured in some areas. She is trying so hard to control herself more now. I see the fire in her eyes and know she wants to explode sometimes, but she takes a deep breath, clenches her fists or grits her teeth, and calms down. She will sometimes very consciously calm down and ask something nicely, where I can see she just wants to blow up but doesn't.

Norah is bright. She knows things and remembers things that surprise me every day. Her memory is awesome, and she remembers details. She is a little sponge and just wants to learn about "THE WHOLE WORLD." She tells me something new every day that she wants to learn or know about. We started school this week. OFFICIALLY. Last year for kindergarten, it's no secret that I didn't do much. We kept going with the flow, played, read books, she played outside as much as her little heart desired (or was kicked out to play because she was stir crazy or was driving me crazy), and we just didn't do a lot formally for school. I had a couple of little workbooks and we did a few big days where I actually put effort into something, but other than that it was pretty chill. This year, I had a baby. Life was crazy there for a couple of months (who am I kidding, it still is crazy).  I will post separately more about home school and what we're doing this year, but we just finished up our first full week today and I can say one thing: it was awesome.

I'm not going to lie, being a teacher is hard work. I guess it doesn't have to be, it just depends on what you want out of it. I want a lot. So it's been a long week but a very fulfilling one for me. Now about Norah, she has loved it. I have learned this week that Norah LOVES math. LOVES. I had no idea how much so because honestly, I shied away from teaching her math and numbers really until recently. I don't know why, I just didn't really know much about beginning math and didn't want to mess her up! So after all my reading I purchased a curriculum I thought would resonate with her and it really has. She is already half way through her workbook . . . on lesson 11 . . . after 4 days. She just wants to sit and do math, and it's SUPER fun for me to watch her and see her "get it." Like, really fun. More on that later . . . Norah also loves art, which I knew. We have been adding in more cool art projects and I found an AWESOME art blog for kids with fabulous ideas and resources and I just want to try everything RIGHT NOW. So we paint or draw or add in some art when it's feasible. Then she colors and draws the rest of the day it seems like. Every night Norah asks if she can take some coloring into bed. She takes markers and a coloring book or notebook and draws/colors for 20 minutes or so. I love watching her. She wants to be an artist or a scientist when she grows up! I love it.

Starting school has helped Norah so much. I can already tell she is changing. Having time set aside every day that she can count on is a big deal to her. Actually learning and challenging herself is changing her. Being able to sit and ask questions and read and learn together has been fun and it just makes me really excited for what's to come. Like I said, I started this post in a completely different frame of mind and I'm happy that my attitude is changing toward this girl. I love her dearly and she continues to teach and amaze me every day. There have been a few moments over the past few days where I just stare at her and the love I feel for this girl is huge. It has brought me to tears. And I was so caught up in the frustration of being tired and having a messy house and canning and trying to get everything done before, that I was missing it. I was missing her brilliance and her love and her desire to learn and be held and loved.

I have to remind myself that she's only SIX. She's still a baby, she just seems so big because I have three other babies!!! But she is still just tiny and has those same needs of being held and comforted and not just pushed aside. Yup, I've learned a lot in just a few days and I hope that it continues. I hope that this girl and I continue to develop a bond that just grows stronger as we learn together. I hope that she knows how much I love her and always remembers that I took time for her. I hope she sees the effort that I am putting into helping her reach her goals and dreams. I hope . . . a lot for this little beauty. My first born. My baby.

She is still mischievous, and she still teases relentlessly her younger sisters . . . she didn't turn into a perfect child over night, but MY perspective is changing. And that is changing her and how I deal with those situations. It will take time to get this new schedule down and she has cried more than once and I almost almost wanted to send her on the bus once . . . but we'll get there. One day at a time.

After "school" she still runs outside and plays. She still wants to play on the ipad and play games with Scarlett. They play and make up things constantly and I love listening to them. She loves to visit grandma and is sad when she isn't here. She loves to work with daddy (even though he's not here right now working). She LOVES the kitties. Her and Scarlett are always out hauling them around, making them houses and beds, and who knows what else. All I know is that I'm now in the habit of telling them to wash their hands every single time they walk in the door because I know they've been with the cats! Norah loves winter and snow and is sooooo excited for it to get here. She is still so tender hearted sometimes it shocks me. Like I said, RANGE of emotions in this girl!!! The other day we were watching the Shirley Temple version of Heidi and at one point (when the mean lady was trying to steal Heidi and sell her to the gypsies) both Norah and Scarlett had huge tears in their eyes! I was surprised, they were both so effected by that, it was really quite cute. Norah cries when she feels the Spirit and she cries when she is really happy or when she's frustrated or sad . . . lots of tears in our house. I guess we should have expected that with three girls, it can only get worse!

Norah hates primary. I know that sounds bad, but she does. And here is why: she is forced to sit still and is lectured to for over an hour. It's rough on a personality like hers. Our primary isn't super . . . creative . . . in how they teach the sharing time lessons. And we have joint junior and senior primary (there are only like 9 kids in the entire primary) so they have to gear everything to the younger and older kids, which is hard. But having to just sit and listen and not stand or sing a silly wiggle song or ANYTHING, is rough for her. I got a phone call from the primary president when Charlie was probably 7 weeks old, asking me how they could help Norah be more reverent. I was really taken back and didn't even know what to say. I just kind of mumbled something about it just being a hard adjustment for everyone, blah blah blah. I cried, which didn't help. But I was exhausted. Anyway, after that we talked to both Norah and Scarlett to see what was going on and they painted the above picture (separately) about just sitting and not moving at all. I wouldn't like that either! She had one really rough day and they called me about it, which I was frustrated by because she isn't like that all the time. Anyway, she is fine now and we work on being reverent and talking about it, but she still doesn't love going. She listens and she always tells me exactly what they learned about and loves and remembers what she hears, but it's tough for her to sit that long. 

I love her. Six and a half years has flown by. I have made more mistakes with her than I can possibly count. I used to beat myself up a bit for it, and had to repent almost every day of how I treated her in a quick flash of frustration or anger. The last week (I'm not joking, this is a very recent revelation) I have been humbled and have decided that I haven't ruined her. I have the rest of her life to show her that I love her and to be a better example of how to react in certain situations instead of shouting or blowing up. I haven't messed up too bad, six years isn't very long and hopefully she won't remember some of the awful things I have said or done! ha. Onwards and upwards, I am excited about this girl and her future and our family. Life wouldn't be the same without my Norah.

my kids and September crazies

Last week (or two weeks ago, who even knows?!?!?) I had a bunch of time before church so I took a bunch of pictures of the kids. Hazel wasn't into the group shot (see the face she was giving me, below - ha). But at least the other girls were loving it. They sure love their brother.

Scarlett wants to hold him the most.

Little baby, big baby.

A little interest, but not much.

Ah, I just love them all. My heart hurts. Even when they're driving me crazy, I am grateful to be their mom. The month of September is proving to be a doozy. With trying to start school, canning, and Jake now working for someone else during potato harvest, things are CRAZY. My house is a disaster and I just look around and want to SCREAM. All the time. I took a trip down to Utah and went to IKEA to get some shelves and other things so that I could finally organize my school stuff because it was driving me crazy. It's still a work in progress, but much better than piles upon piles of books and curriculum lying around everywhere. That was a really long day. I took Charlie and Scarlett and headed to Lehi to my cousin, Skye's house. She gave me two garbage bags full of clothes when we took Caylee to the airport and this time she had more for me!!! It was awesome, mostly because the majority of it fits Scarlett right now, which is fun for her because she usually gets Norah's worn out hand me downs! Then I went to IKEA and Charlie slept in my wrap the entire time (2 hours). We had lots of other little errands to run and the day seemed never ending. The last stop was to get my fruit (peaches and pears) in Brigham. The peaches were READY so the next morning Jake's mom came over and basically spent all day doing my peaches. I tried to help, but I was feeding babies and putting them to sleep, and I just felt pretty useless but we got it all done - 10 batches, 64 quarts (3 bottles broke, sad). It feels amazing to have that much done, but we still have pears to do. Then I will do applesauce the end of this month, and still have to do my beets! It's a busy time, but I always love seeing those jars lined up and my freezer full. I did plum syrup and chokecherry syrup already, and froze all of those apricots which I've been using in smoothies.

Jake is working 6 days a week, 12-15 hours a day for a potato farmer until the middle of October. We'll see how I survive that! I am not used to having him gone so much, or having him where he can't just run home for a few minutes or come in for lunch. The girls (Scarlett) already miss him, and it's only the second day! ha. I had to remind her that then when he is done, he is home with her all winter!

I have all of my curriculum for starting home school and am really excited about it. It's hard to get things started among all this craziness, but once we get going and have a routine, I will feel much better. I didn't do much last year with kindergarten, because . . . it's kindergarten? She was five and just played and colored and that was fine with me. This year though, we need some more structure in our days. Okay, I probably do the most. I have a system that I am almost through setting up and we'll see how it works for us. I'm anxious to see how she responds to it, because she thinks she "can't" ALL THE TIME and it drives me mental. Then she calms down and realizes she CAN, and it's just hard for me to be patient and wait for those moments! She is so bright, I just want her to love learning and not be frustrated so much. My main goal is to establish a routine of doing school in the mornings and getting her to expect that to happen 4 days a week, that's when we will have school. It's a lot of work on my part. I have been reading and studying about curriculum and homeschooling methods for weeks and my brain hurts!!! BUT, it's fun to find things that I think will work for us, and like I said, I'm excited  to see how things go. I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but I am trying hard to make it a good experience for all of us.

It's a crazy/busy/insane/stressful month, but we will get through it. Then I need a vacation. To Canada (I haven't been since December, that's too long). For a month. Ha. I wish.

Hazel - 20 months

Look at that face!!!

Kitties, "MEOOOOOW"

Looking for the kitties under the steps.

I will never tire of pictures of my babies running towards me with a huge smile on their face, even if they are always blurry!!!

I never want to forget those soft cheeks, kissable lips, and perfect little nose. I could eat her up, she is so dang sweet.

Hazel is now 20.5 months old . . . and this was supposed to be an 18 month post?!?! Oh well, better late than never. I have to say, Hazel is pretty awesome. I feel bad that she kind of got ripped off when I had Charlie, but she is so chill, she doesn't even notice. She is pleasant and happy and funny. We all love her to bits. Some facts about Hazel at 20 (ish) months:

•  weight: 23 lbs (36%) height: 30.5" (19%) she is still tiny and I love it.
• she communicates better without words than most toddlers do WITH words. ha. But really, with all her babbling and gestures, she definitely gets her point across. She walks to the fridge and points and babbles for her milk, she goes to the cupboard where she knows certain things (aka leftover marshmallows from summer wiener roasts) are and complains until she gets it, she points to the high counter for the ipad (she mostly only does this with dad, because she knows he will give it to her), and just generally is able to tell us what she wants. Her little "language" is hilarious and I still laugh constantly at her. She just goes on and on about who knows what, and it's hilarious. 
• says, "uh-oh," "buh-bye," "mama" (everyone including Jake is mama),  aaaaaand that's about it! She is trying more words now and says "hi" randomly, but not regularly. She says Uh-oh whenever Charlie is crying. It's cute.
• eats like a bird these days. She is addicted to milk and survives on it. She always wants her sippy cup with milk. The food she likes: pancakes/waffles, oatmeal/steel cut oats, yogurt, toast, cheese, berries, apples, steamed broccoli, tilapia, potatoes, ham, crackers/chips, granola, etc. She is a good eater, when she wants to be. She feeds herself now and is pretty good with a fork and/or spoon!
• she sleeps from 6 p.m. until about 7 or 7:30 a.m. She now takes one nap/day, going down anywhere from noon to 1:30 p.m. and sleeping for a couple of hours or longer. It just depends on how tired she is and when she eats lunch when she goes down. I always rock her a bit and snuggle and sing "You are my sunshine" to her and she immediately lays her head down on my shoulder or just reaches for her crib. Then I lay her down and put her blanket on, blow her a kiss, and leave. She is so easy to put down, she just looks at me as I walk away and doesn't make a peep.
• Hazel LOVES movies. Like, she's pretty much survived off of movies since Charlie was born and I don't even feel bad about it. Okay, maybe a little, but we do what we have to to survive, right? She either wants the ipad or walks to the computer and points to it for a movie. Whatever. Poor third child. hahaha.
• she LOVES showers/baths/water in general. This is funny to me, because she HATED the bath for the first 8 months of her life, but now she gets ticked if someone else is bathing and she isn't invited. She showers with me now almost every morning (since I have realized how much easier it is to have her in there instead of doing who knows what while I try and shower). 
• is left handed. What are the odds that a left handed person (me) has two children that are lefties??!? I think that's crazy. But I love it. Hazel will reach for things with her left hand, and only eats and colors left handed.
• LOVES to color. If there are markers around, WATCH OUT. This girl loves to draw. When Caylee came she brought a bunch of color wonder books and markers, and they have been life savers because Hazel can color with them and not get the markers all over herself and everything else. 
• she loves to play with her sisters and be involved, but plays so well on her own too. I love to see her actually "playing" things and babbling along as she drives cars or uses dolls or whatever. 
• she isn't very mischievous and doesn't really get into anything (besides markers!!!). She doesn't pull things out of the cupboards all the time or get into much and make a mess. When she does, I'm always surprised because it's super random.
• her feet are size 4, barely moving into size 5 shoes. They are TINY.
• she hates being left in nursery, but is fine after five minutes. She is like that whenever I leave her though, she is perfectly fine after I am gone. I literally dump her in the nursery leader's lap or she rips Hazel off of me screaming, and I walk away. I am not one of those moms who tries to stay and keep the child happy. They will never learn to like it that way, because you are always there! Or they know you will rescue them if they scream long enough. Maybe I am mean, but I can't do it like that, I have Charlie too now! Our nursery leader is so great too, she hates it when the parents stay and tells us constantly, "They'll be FINE, just go!!!" ha. It's great.
• Hazel is cuddly and sweet. She has just started running up to Jake and I and hugging our legs really tight, and I love it every time. She will just sit with you close on the couch and watch a movie, or want to be held and snuggled randomly throughout the day. I can't deny those huge blue eyes a good snuggle! Every Sunday I stumble into church carrying her on my hip, and a carseat with Charlie in the other hand, with my monstrous church bad slung over my shoulder. I'm a sight, I'm sure. 
• her hair is amazing. so soft and curly and awesome. 

This tiny girl is soft and sweet and lovable all around. Jake is still her favorite person, but I'm okay with that, because she likes me too. I love to get her happy face from naps and in the morning. She is so patient and just plays in her crib if I don't get her immediately (which is all the time). She follows me around the house and whenever she hears the back door open she goes running, hoping it's her daddy. We love our Hazey-cakes!