MommyCoddle

And just like that...

You fall in love, one more time...

Catherine Birdsall.

Born Tuesday.

We think we'll call her Birdy.

Her sisters call her Catbird.

We are home.

All is well.

dear baby, and other goodness

Dear Baby,

My house is clean. All the laundry is done and folded and put away. And you should know, that never happens in this house. I have had my little bag of packed toiletries sitting on the bathroom counter for so long, I'm almost out of deodorant and my chapstick is just about empty. I have made so many lists that they are stapled together on my desk. And if you don't come soon, once again, all these things will be undone...again. The house will get messy, again. The laundry will pile up, again. I'll need that pair of black yoga pants that I just packed in the hospital bag, again. The midwife is back from her spring break. My family is back in town, poised and ready to watch your sisters. All the farmers at work know your Daddy may suddenly disappear for a few days, even in the midst of the busiest time of year. Maybe you'll come out a very content baby, because you're obviously happy where you are. Or maybe, you're stubborn. Either way, I'm ready for part two to begin. Come on out. Spring is here. The sun is shining. We're ready to meet you. 

Love,

me.

In the meantime, some spring loveliness to see, do, read...

this front entry : the bench, the quilts, the artwork, the hooks, the baskets

this dream pantry/shelving :( via Molly Irwin )as Molly said, "this is what everyone woman wants." 

these beautiful printable alphabet letters : my girls have been meticulously working their way through their names. (except E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H) Thank goodness.

this quilt and this wallpaper : (via bloesem )i love them both, but the wallpaper i love the most. 

Early Reading Strategies for Little Learners : I can't remember where I found this! Sorry. But thank you! This article is PACKED with great ideas and strategies.

This Mom Story on Bloesem:Kids. I really liked what she had to say about life, parenting, living, faith.

rock star chickens

Today was a busy day on Thomas Run. It started with the gathering of all barn cats for a "field trip" to a local clinic for spaying and neutering. It is a grant project put on by the county and I am so thankful for it. There were some good people working behind the scenes. 

The only tough part is that the cats come home fairly quickly. One was still asleep, the others still too out of it to come out of their travel kennels. I have a regular hospital ward out on my mud room. 

While the cats were "tripping" Dan and I took the girls to the Susquehanna Poultry Show which was put on at our local fairgrounds. The girls were pretty jazzed up about it, especially because we threw a chicken crate in the back of the car, "just in case". 

There was even a spiral notebook being passed around between them--a list of potential names for whatever manner of poultry might "accidentally" come home with us. 

But we came home empty-handed (this very pregnant mother says, 'phew!'). The only few chickens for sale were very fancy and pretty impractical for our situation.

But we did see some rock-star chickens...

Seriously, they spent the whole time flipping the feathers out of their faces, if there even IS a face in there.

And some chickens that looked more like soft bunny rabbits...

And some beautiful geese with deep throaty honks...

And then of course, we eventually made our way home and not everyone was happy about it...

And while Dan ran in the garden store for grass seed, I entertained three grumpy, hungry girls with an in-car photo shoot....

And then, appropriately, we came home and ate egg sandwiches... 

simple schooling : part 2

{Hello friends. Still here. Still huge. Still waddling. And very ready.}

But in the meantime, more school talk....

It has been on my mind lately to do a little more writing with the girls. We keep a daily gratitude journal, which has become an invaluable part of our day, I dare-say even a habit for the girls. Emma writes in hers almost daily, even without my prompting. And Mary's is an inventive speller's work of art. I cherish both journals. 

But I also wanted to do a little more storytelling and creative writing with the girls. Their imaginations are so rich at this age and I wanted to tap into that creativity during our school day. 

When I was a classroom teacher I used to constantly scan through old issues of magazines and newspapers clipping out interesting or odd pictures and filing them away in a folder. I used them as writing "prompts" for my students. 

And I remembered this little activity a few weeks ago and decided it was high time that I got the girls doing this too. 

So with the help of the internet, some old National Geographic magazines and newspapers, I've started collecting images for them as well. 

I give them each a copy of the picture that will be the "starter" for their story. For Emma, I simply send her off to a quiet place to write, without any distraction or any "guidance" from me. With Mary, I ask her a few questions about what she sees in the picture, helping her notice details that might help her story get started or might spark an idea. But it doesn't take much. The child needs very little help from me! Within seconds, the story starts to emerge, and as she dictates, I write it all down. 

I started out doing this once a week, but I'm finding that they are asking for it more often. And it doesn't take long. I don't make them do much more than a first draft, although I do make Emma go back and fix simple things like capitals and punctuation, when she forgets. And the stories and the pictures get tucked away in a folder to be revisited, shared and read over and over. 

I asked the girls if I could share one of their stories. Emma was too shy, but Mary said, "Sure!" The picture she based this story on is below. I found it on this site, which has some great "story starters". Her story cracks me up--the drama, the tragedy, the misunderstanding, the humor...

 
 

From Mary:

Once upon a time there was a cat who got inside. The person didn't know that the cat got inside and the fish tank was open. The cat got up on the fish tank. He jumped into the tank! Uh-oh! He didn't know how to swim! So the fish rescued him and the cat ate the fish not knowing that the fish was being nice. 

There was one last brave fish. He said, "Oh ca-at! There's cat food out for you!" So the cat jumped out. The food made him sick. And the cat died. "Oh, poor cat!" said the fish. And he cut open the cat and saved all the other fish from dying, and put them back in the tank. And they all lived happily ever after, well, except for the cat. 

The end.

Other great resources are the obvious magazines and newspapers, but I also find flipping through tumblr, or the creative commons on flickr or google images are also really good. I stumbled upon this Oregon State digital collection which has some really beautiful and interesting photos. The black and whites in this post are pulled from their archives. 

Happy Writing! 

Up next, my new favorite math game...

simple schooling : part 1

I'm sure we can all vouch for the fact that sometimes it is the simplest of things that are the most successful, the most enjoyed, or the ones that make the biggest impression on our children. The box that the toy came in is more fun than the toy. The pots and pans get more attention than the expensive entertainment gadgets. A handful of homemade play dough provides longer-lasting fun than the television.

For the past few weeks, I've found that to be true with our homeschooling days. So I thought I'd take a few posts to share some simple little things we've added to our day that have made big impressions. 

One of my "parenting frustrations" lately is a very common one -- getting my children to follow directions. 

I send them upstairs to brush their teeth and put on pajamas, only to find them dancing in front of the mirror with the hairbrush. I send them outside to feed and let out chickens, only to find that they let out the chickens but forgot the feeding part. 

There are lots of different reasons for not following directions--distraction, forgetfulness, sometimes even stubbornness.  

So we've added a simple "following directions" game to our homeschooling day. 

I sit a jar of colored cubes on the kitchen table and the girls start the game by waiting in the school room. We begin the game with very simple directions:

Walk into the kitchen and bring back 1 yellow cube. 

I do not repeat the direction. And I am picky -- if they don't walk, they didn't follow directions. Slowly, the directions get more complicated.

Take 1 green and 1 red cube into the kitchen and bring back 3 green and 1 white cube.

Again, I don't repeat the directions, and I see them putting memory cues to work -- one whispers the directions to herself. One mimes the directions with her hands while she walks into the kitchen. 

Then I begin to add some physical activity to the game :

Skip into the kitchen and bring back 2 green cubes and 1 brown cube.

Do 5 push-ups and then .... etc. etc. 

Eventually I get really tough on them. I give them a task to do while holding in their minds what cubes they'll be responsible for. Yesterday, we played right before lunch...This was their final direction to follow. We had worked our way up to one this difficult and I did repeat it one extra time:

Touch your toes ten times. Walk upstairs and wash your hands. Come back to the school table and take 3 green cubes and 1 black cube to the kitchen. Bring back to me 3 yellow cubes. 

This game adds so many great things to our day. For starters, they love it. (And the mommy with pregnancy brain has to write down the directions on a post-it note in order to remember them.) It gets them moving. And we refer to it often during our day, when I do give them multi-step directions. "It's just like the follow directions game." 

It's nothing earth-shattering. It's simple. It's making a big impression. And lots of good changes.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

Have you seen the new "branch" of the Simple Living Media family? Simple:Homeschool

Happy Friday and happy weekend friends. I'll be back with a few more simple school ideas next week, barring any major changes in the size of our household. :) 

knitting for baby

Sorry if this blog is being overtaken by baby talk. But at this point, after a midwife check-up this morning where she thought the baby was weighing in at about 9 pounds, "baby" is about all that's on my mind. Well, baby and how hard it is to bend over and pick up toys, and put on my socks, and get the laundry out of the very back of the dryer, and roll over in bed to switch sides. You know, important thoughts like that. 

They say that as you go down the line, each child becomes less and less spoiled or something like that. Fourth baby. No baby shower. No registry. Using the same crib linens. The same outfits, the same car seat...But if this baby ever tries to whine to me about the woes of being fourth, I will gladly point him or her in the direction of these blog posts. Because if nothing else, this baby is being spoiled with knitted goods.

I don't know if it was the Olympics, which provides the perfect background for knitting. Or the winter pregnancy, or what, but I'm knitting more for this baby, then I have for any of my other children. 

The first fully finished project to come off my needles are these cute baby britches. I found them on ravelry--another dangerous place to hang out when you're expecting--they are the Kanoko Pants, and I loved knitting them. 

I also discovered something very important about myself as a knitter while working on them. I have always thought I was the kind of knitter who needed mindless, "knit while you watch TV" kinds of projects. But the changing patterns in these pants kept me interested and moving along quickly. I was always anxious to get the next section and before I knew it, they were done. It was such an enlightening experience! And it has completely changed what types of patterns I look at now. 

Now I just wish I had a cute baby bum to slip these pants over!

a bun in the oven

Yes, there is still a bun in my oven. My disappearance is due to "nesting" vs. a new little babe in our home. 

And equally exciting, okay not equally, but still exciting, is that there is now a working oven back in the mommycoddle kitchen! It has been so long that when I sat down this morning to plan meals for the week, I couldn't think of anything that didn't require only the use of the stovetop. I'm definitely out of practice.

I am very close to being able to utter those three little words : "I Am Ready". But there is still a short list of things that I'd like to accomplish before the baby arrives. 

In a last minute burst of enthusiasm and inspiration, Dan and I are talking about painting the old baby crib versus using one that was given to us. Thumbing through old issues of Martha Stewart baby can be a very dangerous thing when you are nesting. 

I truly mourn the loss of MS Baby and Kids. They were full of so much inspiration. These are a few clipped pages from and old MS Baby. And two are the nursery style that has always been in the back of my mind as I decorate and prepare my baby's rooms. Timeless. Simple. Peaceful.

Hope your Monday is full of inspiration and sun, as it is here. Spring must be around the corner -- my yard is littered with bicycles, skateboards and chalk. And the chickens are doing a good job of scratching through my dormant flower beds.

Happy Monday, friends.

motherhood

With all the baby talk around here, it seemed somewhat appropriate that this mama would drop her calf yesterday morning, just inside the fence on the edge of our property. She belongs to our neighbor, but my girls "adopt" these calves as if they were our own. 

There was much concern over this calf. Lots of checking in. Lots of reports coming in to me in the house. And a handful of stern warnings from me about nervous mama cows who need to protect their new calves. And the flimsy piece of barbed wire standing between you and that mama.

The patient nudging of this mama cow reminded me of where I was last week in my feelings about motherhood. I found myself in another season of feeling at the end of my rope. Feeling like nothing I was saying or doing was making a difference. Feeling like I somehow was failing at guiding my children in the right direction. Feeling like none of my children were inherently wanting to make the right and good decisions. Feeling like I had a house full of attitudes, that unfortunately and embarrassingly, probably matched my own. 

I shot an email to my husband at work -- what do I do? How do I handle this? What should I say to them? 

He gave me a few ideas. But a few minutes later he wrote me another email. Just remember, he said, it takes a long time to train a child. It’s like doing the dinner dishes. I get upset at the girl’s lack of attention but they are slowly (very slowly) getting better. It will take time for them to get in the habit of doing the job with the right amount of focus. Then it will take a while for them to learn how to do it right. Then it will take a while for them to anticipate what comes next so I won’t have to tell them. But this all takes time.

I keep reminding myself of that first and last line. It takes a long time to guide and train my children. This all takes time. 

Telling them once, doesn't equal a change in heart or an automatic change in the way they do things. They need to be reminded. Reminded again. Taught. Shown. Guided. Encouraged. And reminded again. 

Change comes. But it often comes slowly. Much more slowly than I'm willing to allow. But it does come, and is coming, if I look closely. 

If I give up, get frustrated, get angry, then no one is learning anything except the wrong way to handle a situation that requires resilience and endurance. And I wonder why I'm not seeing any change.

But the changes are there.

They're not leaving the sofa cushions on the floor when they're done.

The boots are (generally) making it back into the boot box.

She's trying to walk away from the situation instead of reacting in anger.

They're drying the dishes without complaining and reminding.

She's talking it out with her sister, before raising her voice. Sometimes.

This all takes times. 

It is the mantra that breathes an extra portion of patience into my mothering. 

Rules for My Unborn Son

(I promise, there is nothing subliminal in the title of this post. I'm not hinting at anything.)

But I am LOVING this book that arrived in the mail last week. It is written by Walker Lamond and each page holds bits of wisdom that he has written for....his unborn son. 

From St. Martin's Press, it is called, Rules for My Unborn Son .

Here are a few samples, though it was hard to pick just a few. Things every man and boy should know, don't you think? :

Never pack more than you can carry yourself.

Be a vigorous dancer. However, you're under no obligation to join a conga line.

Don't pose with booze.

Don't shout out requests at rock shows.

You can't cram for a dental exam.

Have a signature dish, even if it's only one.

Write letters. On paper.

Take your sunglasses off indoors. This includes elevators and planes.

Be nice to your sister. You are her cheerleader, confidante, and bodyguard.

Never respond to a critic in writing.

This book is packed with great advice and wisdom. Dan and I found ourselves sitting at the dinner table a few nights ago reading and nodding our heads as we flipped through every page. It made me wonder what advice I'd put in a book for my daughters. It made me wish the book were required reading for manhood. 

I think it would make a great shower gift, a great birthday gift, a great father's day gift. I'm adding it to my list and sending my copy on to one of my favorite men, as soon as I read it a few more times. 

And who knows, I may be asking for it back in a few weeks time....

I'm curious, what advice would you put in a book for your son or daughter?What bits of wisdom would you want them to carry through life?

cracking the whip

I like to think that I get more organized with the birth of each child. In reality, I think it almost becomes necessity. And that must be why my grandmother, with 15 children, seemed to have an efficient method or system for just about everything. I learned so much from her.

I've been feeling the urge "to crack the whip" (as my mother would say) around here the past few weeks. I'm at the point where my body isn't able to do all that my mind knows needs to be accomplished. I can't get it all done by myself. And my children are definitely eager to help when I present it well. 

They love a system. A routine. (And anything in chart-form that hangs on the refrigerator.) 

One of our usual "nagging sessions" comes in the morning and the evening as I dole out the daily chores. Who's going to feed the chickens? Who did it yesterday? Who feels like they always have to let out the chickens? 

I'm finding that this simple visual system is saving me boatloads of nagging and the jobs are getting done much more smoothly.

The chart I'm using is from Joan Goldner at BusyBody Books. She makes great planners, but this blank 7 column grid pad is by far my favorite. It's 3 hole punched and magnetic. Ours hangs on the fridge. (I also got an email in my inbox from BBBooks last week. They are moving warehouses and having great sales right now...)

I'd love to hear what chores your children help out with around the house. Do you have a system? A chart? A list? How do you crack the whip? :)