So we moved

We're out at Post Oak Exsilium now.

Today we have killed two scorpions (Faith both times) and a red paper wasp. Saw a cute little green lizard and a HUGE black rat snake in the yard.

We have a new puppy, a new dog and a cat with four kittens.

It's all good.

driving the monster

We've had this thing for nine months and I have yet to drive it. I am a scaredy cat. Sean, the Man of Steel, has no such qualms and tools around everywhere with us. Well, no more! I must learn so learn I shall.

I do not like driving. I don't mind as much when I'm alone in the car, or with Faith and Abby, but with any of the other children - especially Dorothy - I hate it. Some of my attention is always on them, you see. But since we are finally MOVING (yay) I really need to be able to get out and around if Sean is not a few minutes away like he is now.

I will start this week, like a teenager learning. I want to go to a nice empty parking lot and get a feel for the thing.

Eek!

10 month Dorothy, math milestones, MOVING

A little girl snuck in and turned ten months old. Fully crawling, pulling up and shuffling along. She's interested in language in a new way, especially singing. What a cutie.

Faith and Abby are starting Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra next week. Well, maybe not next week because we may be packing to move! FINALLY! Our builder called today to say the floors are done, we are good. to. go.

all spelt bread

Made all spelt bread yesterday. It was quite good.

3 cups whole spelt flour
1 egg
2/3 cup warm water
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil

Mix water, yeast, egg, sugar, salt and oil. Add flour. Stir, then knead a little. Place in clean oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in warm place for an hour or until doubled in size. Punch down, form into loaf, place in oiled loaf pan, cover with dampened cloth or oil top of loaf and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise again until doubled (it will be faster this time). Remove cloth or plastic wrap and bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.

catching up

Faith is a Very Useful Engine. She made peanut butter toast for all the children, competently and without complaint.

I'm feeling all out of sorts about the Boston bombing and the Gosnell trial and bird flu in China. I can't do anything about that stuff, so I'm staying away from social media and news sites. With any luck we will be moving in the next few weeks, and that should occupy much of my attention.

All of the homeschooling kids are doing well. Faith and Abby are almost ready for Pre-Algebra. Kinda exciting! Gilbert is chugging through third grade math like a champ.

Dorothy is growing like a weed.

We have a new doctor and we like him a lot.

Guess that's it.

the milk of human itchiness

We just switched family doctors. Our old one wasn't bad or anything but she's way over on the other side of town. And so far this new doctor is great! (He looks like he's 12, but he's actually my age.) Trixie, Dorothy and I saw him yesterday. He spent almost an hour just talking to us!

He thinks Trixie's asthma and eczema are both food allergies. I have long thought so, but (because I am a bad mother) did nothing about it but fret and beat myself up because I wasn't doing anything about it. He thinks if we just cut out dairy, specifically casein, (that's pronounced kay-seen, not cuh-see-in, if you ever wondered) her eczema will virtually vanish and with any luck her asthma too. Which would be awesome because it's getting worse as she gets older.

Trixie is less than enthused about this plan. She said, on the way home, "I don't think I'm allergic to dairy. I think I was just born with asthma and eczema." I said that she might be right, but we won't know until we try it. She said, "No, I already know. We don't need to try." Today, one of the milkier days chez Glee as we have cold cereal on Saturday morning, she refused even to taste soy milk. I'm going to un-dairy along with her so she won't be alone, but she is a woman of strong opinions. Sigh. Up next, almond milk.

Glees and godparents

drama camp redux

Four of my children are gone this week. It is so quiet around here! I guess this is what it would be like if they were in school. Bede and Dorothy would be home, and sometimes Gloria.

I don't like it.

Here's what we did.

Are the other kids home yet?

I hope my messy house makes someone out there feel better about their own. The boxes are indications that there is Packing Going On, though!

just a picture post

This is what I see when I wake up!

Seven kids, 266 popes, and one historic moment.

We got some new furniture, made by an Amish guy! It is nice stuff!

There's a dining table (12 feet/3.6 m long with all the leaves put in) two chairs and four benches.

Ar ar ar

Day 1 of patching Dorothy's stronger eye.

Bede reading to Dorothy

Came around the corner to this:

Bede is reading a Bad Kitty book to Dorothy. Melt!

(I watched, quietly. Until Dorothy tried to eat Gilbert's LEGO, there on the windowsill, and I had to ruin it all. Ain't it always the way?)

easy Monday morning

Dorothy is nursing, then we'll fold diapers.

Gilbert is taking over the world through Bad Piggies dominance.

Abaigeal is doing her maths.

Bede and Gloria are computering. I think Bede has a movie logo there.

Faith is on the way to wash dishes.

Trixie is asking me why the Sphinx has no nose.

fibonacci redux

Dorothy is wearing a top/dress that I made for Trixie. 

Here's Trixie in the same dress, in 2006, when we met the Yarn Harlot:

a birthday

The bagging and boxing continues unrecorded. Today got two more boxes of books.

Today is also Trixie's seventh birthday! Happy birthday, Trixie.

Faith made her a card, which you will appreciate most if you are a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan. The brony scene is thick here.

It says "The Great and Powerful Trixie (and also Faith) wish you a Great and Powerful Birthday!

Pony Trixie is using her unicorn magic to float seven cakes around Human Trixie. Human Trixie was OVER the MOON about her card. Gonna be a tough act to follow.

happy girl

Almost 8 months.

another day, another bag

I can't remember what day it is, and simple subtraction eludes me. Anyway.

Today's bag, modeled by the lovely Faith, who mustache you a question. It's diapers - cloth ones, of course - which I am giving away instead of trying to sell. Trying to sell diapers makes me insane. Giving them away makes me happy. It was an easy choice.

death rocks from the skies

Asteroids! Meteorites! PANIC!

Today's bag o' stuff. All trash today, rundown cardboard and irreparable books.

 With bonus Gilbert.

But it did remind me that we need fire ladders for the new place, since it's two story. If anyone has any recs, please do tell. They will probably be deployed by children, if that makes a difference.

thoughts on plenty

I have some. But the crying baby makes it impossible to write them down. Watch this space!


So, cleaning things out makes me feel ashamed. Not of my clutter and disorganization, that's just who I am, but of my overconsumption of STUFF. And then, I buy more STUFF, maybe because I feel bad. And then, Tabitha pointed out, maybe because I want to feel bad, because then I'll be ashamed again and so I get to punish myself.

Which brings me to my Lenten point: shame is not a particularly good penitential emotion for me. It's so self-directed, selfish really, where I'm concerned. It quickly moves into a more comfortable self-deprecating mess of pity, and self-loathing. Not good! What is good? Repentance, which is other-directed. So there you go.

Look at all my plenty, that I don't even want! Why did I get it to begin with? Why did I purchase it? To assuage some inner emptiness? Because I was bored? (likely.) Because I thought, right then, that I needed it? Things for the kids, I get because I love them and think the thing will make them happy. But mostly things just make them unhappy. They fight over things, want more things right after getting them. They agonize over getting rid of things even more than I do. And yet the things they have slowly grind into shreds of paper and tufts of polyester fur, little shards of plastic. Nobody wants the things they have - they want to want, and not to have. Sometimes they want to have, but really they want to make another child want! And they always, always want to GET.

Am I different? Not so much.

40 bags: bag 2

Passing on some baby clothes, toys, and a DVD player. Keeping Dorothy.

40 days, 40 bags

I'll be doing this.

I have 3 bags in reserve that just got donated yesterday, and a big box of books that just went. So I get 4 days "off".

Today's bag:

(Trixie Gleeson added for visual interest. I'll be keeping her.)

Today's bag has an outgrown coat, some tee shirts, and some unused crib sheets and blankets.