Placenta Bush 2013

i finally got around to taking olive's picture with the lilac bush we planted over her placenta. i kind of hope i can do this for forever.


ages 1-4


age 5


age 6

do. not. want

well folks, we've hit the parenting trifecta in the last 4 days. ear infection! puking! and today lice! YAYYY *cries* olive has been a champ. in fact her least favorite part of the whole thing has been her dislike of having a head wrap on.

three days ago olive told me that when she talks she can hear herself talking inside her head. which i figured out meant her ear was plugged. i cleaned it out as well as i could but it wasn't that, or at least wasn't only that. so i started an oil regiment of garlic/olive oil/mullein in her ear with basil, melaleuca, and lavender externally on her lymph node/behind and around her ear. we went to see my dad who gave her a full spine adjustment and a load of babying. which reminded me so much of when i was a sick kid and he did the same loving routine: make a bed/fort in front of the tv with blankets, sheets, and pillows, make up a tray with a pot of your favorite tea, a mini mug, and a plate with 2 pieces of toast with buttered and cinnamon and sugar. i mean when you're sick and someone brings your food on a tray? with a wee little pot of tea? i mean get out, you'll feel better in no time! i've been doing treatments on her feet and lymphatic draining massages. in two days the swelling was gone and her ear was drained. YAY!

two days ago before my feet even hit the floor i hear feet scuttling up the stairs and them a wet FLOP noise of vomit spraying everywhere. oy vey what a way to wake up. she makes it a triple before being done with the vomiting for the day. poor kid. she stayed home from school again and we laid around like walruses playing uno under the blankets and watching movies. she very willingly took a nap both days.

after taking monday-wednesday off from school she felt like trying to go today. i was just a phone call away in case she ran out of energy but i didn't get any messages to that effect so i assume it went well. that is until after school i noticed she had nits in her hair.

so now everything fabric is being washed, dryer-ed, vacuumed, put away, SET ON FIRE. okay not set on fire but my mind does not do well with this kind of infraction. i have olive oil and melaleuca soaking on olive's head for 2 hours at a time all wrapped up in a baby do-rag. it's adorable and she tolerates it mostly well.

GOD HELP ME THIS WEEK.

tears or near tears

last year (or approximately) we started trying to get the kids up to date on their vaccines. augustine got some when he was a baby, but selectively and olive didn't have any until after 2 or 3. oh you think you'll remember and keep all of these Super Important Details of your kids life cemented in your brain but really, you won't at all! they will get filed away and you'll wonder what the whole freaking hoopla was all about. do your research, find your path, and don't be afraid to dig your heels in OR know when to give up a fight even if it makes you feel like an idiot for being so passionate about it at one time. i'm still not budging on the hepatitis shots. ANYWAY as of thursday augustine is all caught up (except aforementioned naturally) and oh guys it was hell!

with most hard choices comes a trade off and holy crap am i getting what i paid for by delaying. meaning the kid is old enough to freak out but not old enough to show a lot of self control about his fears. so let me set the scene before i keep rolling with this. i'm sitting in the waiting room and from behind one of the doors comes the unmistakable peeling of a baby getting circumcised. i'm talking SHRIEKING, WAILING, pissed off baby screams. so my stomach is already reeling from that noise. a few minutes later the mother, holding little, angry infant walks out of the room freaking out, crying, pacing, and flees to the parking lot. so baby is crying, mom is crying, receptionist is paging a nurse to come assist them to calm down, the nurse from their room is running out to the parking lot, the dad is looking helpless. i mean this sounds like this family is having the worst day ever.

i am not kidding you when i say this baby screamed for the entire freaking hour we were there. the peel of a baby screaming is a unique torture let me tell you. so i have my children plus a girl i babysit after school with us. i am all wound up and stomach sick from the baby screams by the time we get back to the room. after a short discussion, update to the kids stats, it's go-time for shots. olive LAUGHS the whole time and goes first. augustine meanwhile has backed himself into the corner yelling, crying, and digging his feet into to ground so i am having to physically heft him onto the table. this after a 5 minute discussion about how he has control here. "do you want to sit or lie down?", "do you want the shots in the leg or arm?", "which shot goes where?" etc. nope the answer to everything was NOOOO!!!. so i heft my 50 lbs 7 yr old onto the table and have to hold him down while he bicycle kicks for his life all the while a newborn is shrieking through the wall and i'm babysitting AND I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW.

eventually we get out of there and we're all exhausted, sweaty, and tears or near tears. well except olive who honey badgered the whole thing.

Catching up from summer

- we went on a vacation. it was fun and silly and oddly a good mix of relaxing and mega-fun-time. we hit up a lot of my childhood haunts and i got lots of delicious cheese (one even had bacon IN the cheese!!!) it was a good mix of nostalgia and memory making. here's some pictures of us in wisconsin

Long time no post!

augustine is now in second grade, and olive started kindergarten! justlikethat my babes are further out of the nest. this time during the day has afforded me much coveted quiet time to work. i've been working from home since olive was an infant and i kept reminding myself when it felt overwhelming that someday, SOMEDAY it would get normalize when they would go to school. well, someday is now! i have yet to find a daily routine but i quickly realize that i am a morning person (surprising to me!) as far as production go. from the hours of 8-noon i can get as much done as the rest of the hours of the day combined. so i feverishly work on reports while the dishes are soaking or laundry is running or muffins are baking and post-lunch i start getting distracted, sluggish, and bored with work and it takes a lot of effort to stay on task.

me aside, the kids are thriving in school. the first day went almost seamlessly. augustine's gifted program officially started this week with a mini course in physics and aero dynamics. he was excited to get hopping. olive has TWO boys fight for her affection and those two boys have yet to find a place where they work together as a trio and are not constantly pulling for her undivided attention. what first world problems eh?

"mom i think henry likes me."
how do you know if a boy likes you?
"because he kissed me right on the mouth!"

well that settled it. david went into full DADDY MODE and took her on her first date, complete with dressing up and presenting her with a flower when he "picked her up." too freaking cute. she put on her favorite dress and they went to dinner and a movie. gosh i love that man.

 
the children had their first soccer game and i think olive is going to be an amazing goalie. she had 5 stops, though no one scored on either kid.

in conclusion, FALL IS ALMOST HERE.

david, chicago, men, olive

david is working what seems like constant hours these days. i don't have a clear understanding of why but it really stinks. he is, as some of you know, a high end photo retoucher (aka professional photoshopper). clients demand things done and at a breakneck speed and david is the go-to person in his position. this has lead to several nights coming home at 2 am and at least one night where he never came home at all and worked two straight days with one 30 minute nap somewhere in there. i feel like the kids and i are having such an amazing summer and it's all without david. i feel guilty saying it but sometimes it is a little nice. i mean i have a lot of freedom which means i've been reading all night long and eating whatever i want for dinner. the rare time we spend together i feel like i talk his ear off though because i miss him so much. i don't laugh with anyone like i laugh with him.

tonight augustine and my dad are taking a bro-trip to chicago to see legoland, the field museum, a cubs game, and the fireworks. it's about 6 hours there but augustine packed some books so i think he'll be fine. however david gets sick when he tries to read in the car and this is the first trip where auggie has tried to read so here's hoping it's not genetic!

okay so maggie and i were hanging out today and i was telling her about augg-os trip and she brought up an idea spread by two friends. these friends have it as their family standard to not let a man babysit their child(ren) unaccompanied. not even a family member, other than the dad naturally. for me this is a bit much but what do you think? i do think one of my greatest fears is some sexual assault happening to my children. like, i cannot even go there in my mind it seems so painful. we stress never, ever keeping secrets that have the slightest chance of hurting someone. i tell them that often. fun secrets, fine whatever but those boogers are going to spill it if it could hurt. especially if someone bullies them not to tell, that is a clear indication that they should. however, they are 7 and 5 so who knows if my words carry more weight than a peer. we saw a situation like this arise with a friend who was being bullied (and then it turned sexual) on the bus. the friend never told anyone until someone saw it, told their parents, and the parents called our friends mother. never in a million years would i have picked this cute, confident, sweet kid to be the target of that kind of thing. so what if im being naive?

olive is thriving in her kindergarten readiness class. she has had a developmental milestone just in the last week and discovered that she likes boys. well one boy in particular named brady. they each have a mailbox in their classroom to encourage them to write letters and such to each other. i found this in her bookbag today.

"dear olive. i love you. from brady"

so it begins

also, i couldn't find olive yesterday. every once in a while she will hole up somewhere, get extremely, almost creepy quiet, and ignore me calling for her (on purpose), while she is in her own little world. yesterday i found her on the top shelf of her closet reading and coloring. oy with the poodles already.


and finally, i saw this picture yesterday and haven't stopped laughing. this is SO my future with olive.

Snippets of Summer

SUMMER BREAK IN DA HOUSE


we are in full swing of summer in our home. i have so far managed to balance working from home and being at home with two children. i am blessed that my kids are not high maintenance. well no more high maintenance than any other 5 and 7 yr old. i look back at my early parenting and feel like such a spaz. do i care how much tv they watch? sure. do i need them to entertain themselves quite a bit while i work from home? YES. i restrict a bit sure, but when it is a work day i kind of let them run feral and intervene only when i have to. so far this week we have done something fun every single day, but today it is nose-to-the-grindstone-work-day. monday was a movie then an afternoon playing in the sprinkler. tuesday we went to SuperGames, which is one of my favorite places to play in Columbus. wednesday we went to Recreations Outlet then lunch with more friends. i'm blanking on what we did yesterday but it was more fun.



olive has discovered that she is quite adept at climbing trees all of a sudden. here is a picture of her at around 30-40 feet. i am probably on the high end of normal when it comes to giving my kids freedoms, especially physical ones. i do not discourage them at all from exploring what their bodies are capable of. however this did get my blood pumping a bit, seeing her sooo high. i did it to myself though by telling olive a story about climbing trees when i was a kid. so naturally she climbed up and shouted down "OH YEAH! DID YOU EVER CLIMB THIS HIGH?" in her true dauntless spirit. oy with the poodles already.



one of my greatest friends jamie has moved out of the country, to the Philippians, to study midwifery with Mercy in Action. ugh my heart is hurting. she is such a source of kindness, prayer, love, support, and friendship in my life. i like to feel we have a good circle of that going between us. our youngest children were born within an hour of each other and kind of act like twins. sunday was their going away party at a friend's farm. we had a great time but i'm still kind of reeling from her departure.


two other nuggets, before i've got to get back to work. i got new glasses! we have never had vision insurance until this month so i pounced on the opportunity to get an updated look and prescription. oddly enough just days before our insurance kicked in both david and i's glasses bit the dust! thankfully david was able to repair mine to a passable usability until my new frames came in. i really like them!


second nugget - my husband is very handsome

DITL wherein i am wearing no make up

i did a DITL oh, two weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting it. this is a very typical day for me on a monday, which is always my toughest day of the week simply because i take sunday's off from work and from cleaning. typically we have a bible stufy at our house sunday night so now only am i getting back to work (from home + with kid or kids home but im also responsible to clean the whole house and make something to eat for the potluck dinner. enjoy!


7:35am david wakes me up



7:45-8:10am switch out laundry, pack augustine’s lunch, put essential oils on the whole family (balance + patchouli for the kids and i, and a lemon, lavender, peppermint gel cap prepared for david's allergies), put on make up, shower, get dressed, get olive dressed

8:13 the alarm goes off to begin walking, walk 4 blocks with the kids + dolores to augustine's bus stop





8:30 get back home, unload dishwasher, load dishwasher, soak the rest of the dishes, tidy up the sun room


9:00 olive’s playdate zachari arrives, get them settled, start work on one urgent report, clean up dog puke, diffuse balance throughout the house



9:30 make myself breakfast, eggie in a basket-banana-black tea, still working on urgent report.


10:00 more friends show up! entertain them, get snacks, talk to my dear friend val, mediate kid arguments, finish urgent report and send it off


11:30 everybody leaves, olive and i go to the dog park to meet a friend who is dog sitting dolores while we go camping, snack on almonds-banana-water in the car



12:30 home! olive lays down for a nap, i clean up dog poop, diffused lemon and peppermint throughout the house, unload dishwasher #1, load diswasher #2, finish cleaning kitchen


1:00 make myself lunch - leftover spaghetti and homemade marinara sauce w/ salad,

1:15 back to work


3:30 walk to get augustine off the bus



4:00-5:30 finish tidying up the house/sweeping, study for our discussion tonight


5:30 david comes home!



6:00 small group arrives, we eat dinner and chat for about a half hour, then it’s my turn to watch the kids while the others talk so we walk a few blocks to the park, olive finds a beautiful clover and gives it to me

8:00 walk home, say goodbye to friends, put kiddos to bed


9-11 mad men with a friend + david + linus




11:00 do my nightly routine (brush teeth, wash face, use essential oils, take meds), call my mom for a few minutes, then i read until i fall asleep