Helloooooooooo!

I really am still here and I appreciate your comments and emails wondering about us! Man, oh, man has life been busy over the last couple months! To catch you up, here is a quick top ten list of things I haven’t blogged about:

1. Part 2 of our trip to Disney World, dedicated to our trip to the Bippity Boppity Boutique. It was the most amazing part of our Disney experience, and we’ll definitely be making appointments again next time we’re there!

2. My grandmother’s death. I’ve started this post in my head a million times since she passed away on January 2nd, and I just can’t do it. I can’t put it into words because my words won’t do her life or my grief justice.

3. Heading to Blissdom! In just 10 days, Sunshine Doodle and I (and my little sister!) will be hopping a plane to Nashville for the fabulous Blissdom Conference. I’m excited to connect with other bloggers, spend time with my sister and some of my best friends, and enjoy some kid-free time too! Oh, yeah, and Harry Connick, Jr. is performing live just for us. My husband says I’m giddy!

4. The fact that a certain baby is killing my sleep habits and therefore my productivity. Yeah, I went so far as to buy a Keurig single-cup brewer because I NEED the caffeine to get through the days!

5. Big changes coming! We are in the process of selling Sean’s Tastykake route. He will be a stay-at-home dad while I continue to be a work-at-home mom, and we’ll homeschool together. He is going to be fabulous at it, and I think my girls will be pretty lucky to have both of us at home! I’m looking forward to being able to focus on work during work time and my family during family time, so we’ll be a building a new office in the loft as soon as the sale goes through!

6. The Blizzard of ‘09. Holy moly — 2 feet of snow. The girls spent a week playing outside in the snow, coming in only to warm up, and they LOVED it! Sure hope we get another good one before the season’s over!

7. 31 Days of Organizing for a Better 2010. I took on this massive series at Organizing Your Way this month, and it’s been a lot of fun! Writing a full post every day has been challenging, but I’ve learned a lot about myself as a writer and blogger. (But I am kind of looking forward to the end now that we’re on the home stretch!)

8. Chubby, chubby cheeks. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the rolls on this baby since she nurses half the night, but don’t you just want to squeeze her?!

9. A homeschool update. Eh, it’s going  okay. Been trying to balance a lot in preparation for Sean selling the business and me earning the primary income, so we’re a bit off-kilter again. We’re not behind, and I know plenty of people who unschool succesfully, especially in these early years, but it’s not my preferred style and I’m looking forward to getting back on track with an actual schedule.

10. Done, done, done. Well, I can’t say that we’re actually done, but for the first time, I do not feel the baby itch. I’m pretty sure what I feel is the opposite of a baby itch…I’m enjoying Sunshine Doodle but looking forward to moving past the baby stage!

Visit Oh Amanda! for more Top Ten Tuesday!

P.S. I think I should start blogging here again just to get in my daily allotment of exclamation points…LOL!

I have so many posts in my head to share with you, it isn’t even funny, but before I tell — and show! — you what’s been keeping us busy, I wanted to share this great Christmas book with you! It was written and published by my friend Angie’s husband, Jay Foreman, and it’s a beautiful story of grace and hope written for children.

Raccoon’s Christmas tells the story of two raccoons who set out to steal Christmas presents from three homes. At the first home, they encounter a young squirrel who shares the hope that we have because of Jesus’ birth in a manger. Next, they discover that they’re the answer to prayer when they accidentally break into one of the raccoon’s mother’s home! And finally, they discover the power of new beginnings from an old bear.

This is really an adorable story with a great message for children and adults alike, and I hope to see more from Jay to add to the collection!

You can order a copy directly from Cuckoo Publishing, and I think there’s still time to get your copy in time for Christmas!

Sweet Doodle

Well, thanks for asking! LOL!

It’s actually going really, really well, but the reason I haven’t written this post before now is because it’s taken us until very recently to find our groove. (The flu might have played a part in that taking even longer than I expected.)

We actually made some pretty drastic changes this month to the way we spend our day, and those have made a huge difference. Now, we get up, do morning chores and eat breakfast, and then we head straight upstairs to the loft/playroom and spend the morning up there. I had Sean build a makeshift table when I first came up with the idea, so we read on the couch and then move to the table for our workbooks.

Benefits of doing it this way:

:: The downstairs living area stays clean and straight! YAY!

:: Sweet Doodle can easily move between sitting at the table with us and playing with toys, so she’s not nearly as disruptive, which means I can pay attention to Monkey Doodle AND Pumpkin Doodle so that neither feels left out. (It helps that they both have started taking a much more independent approach to their workbooks where they don’t want as much help.)

:: I don’t get distracted by things I need to do around the house during school because we’re “isolated” in the loft.

:: When I put Sunshine Doodle down for a nap downstairs, I don’t have to worry about 3 little hooligans waking her up.

:: The girls can get out new toys and put the old ones away much more easily since they don’t have to drag them up and down the stairs.

:: Did I mention my downstairs stays clean and straight?

Moving upstairs has made our whole day feel more intentional and less chaotic. We still haven’t quite figured out a rhythm for the afternoons, but we’ve been spending our mornings up there for the past week-and-a-half, and it’s had a big impact on everyone’s attitude and our ability to focus on school each day.

As far as the nitty gritty, I’m still having trouble fitting in formal language arts. Pumpkin Doodle writes and makes up stories regularly on her own, so I’m not too worried about it, but I would like to incorporate more dictation and copy work, at least a couple times a week.

Overall, I feel good about where we are. We may need to do a little bit of catching up in the New Year since we ended up taking 2 months off, but we’re all enjoying it, and I think that’s what matters most at this point!

(I have no idea why my pictures have these gray areas at the bottom !)

There’s just something about fall crafts that I can’t resist! Even though the last 2.5 weeks have been hectic and stressful with fighting the flu, we’ve done more crafts than we’ve done in a while.

And these fall suncatchers are one of my favorite projects (of course, anything made with tissue paper squares is a winner in my book!).

To be honest , I did them on a whim one afternoon, so I kind of made it up as I went, which is why ours are a little wonky and uneven. It wasn’t until after we were done and I saw how cute they were that I took the time to actually make a template for them (and if I didn’t have a newborn and 4 sick kids, I would have made a template for you all to print out — sorry!).

But these are SO easy.

Materials:
:: Green, blue and brown construction paper
:: Wax paper
:: Tissue paper squares in fall colors
:: School glue
:: Foam brush
:: Scissors

Instructions
1. Take a piece of green construction paper and a piece of blue and cut both in half.

2. On the blue, cut out either a hand (for a turkey) or a large flower shape (for the top of the tree). The easiest way to do this is to cut straight up from the bottom to start, since your green “grass” will cover that cut anyway.

3. Take your green paper and cut it in half in a wave pattern, as if it were a small hill.

4. Cut out a trunk from brown construction paper if you’re making a tree.

5. Cut a piece of wax paper to fit behind the cutout. It should be larger than the cutout but smaller than the blue paper itself.

6. Spread glue on the wax paper and layer tissue paper on it. Spread another layer of glue on top. We use small foam craft brushes for this.

6. Glue the layers together.

7. Hang in the window and enjoy!

Sweet Doodle

Would you pray for us? Early last week we were hit with H1N1 (it’s been confirmed with a swab test), and it’s still hanging on.

Pumpkin Doodle seems better at this point, but Sean just got it last night, and Monkey Doodle’s cough returned with a vengeance. I’m not sure if Sunshine Doodle’s is still progressing or if we’ve already seen the worst of it, but obviously we’re watching her very carefully.

I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep all week, and I’m running on fumes. Prayer would be much appreciated.