7 Quick Takes Friday - Vol. 3

Over the past month, we celebrated two birthdays and have three more coming up in the next month! Mine was first :-) The day after Thanksgiving I celebrated my 31st birthday with Michael and the boys, and it was a wonderful, relaxing day. My big gift was a digital picture frame! I've always wanted one, but it was never one of those things I'd actually buy for myself, so it was the perfect gift. To be honest, though, I haven't even set it up yet - I have waaaaay too many pictures to go through and its really hard to narrow it down to my favorites! Speaking of pictures, here's one of me and the boys (goofy faces and all!) on my special day:

The next birthday in our house was another big one - Isaac turned 10!! It is so weird to think I have a child that is a decade old, into the double digits. He's growing soooooo fast! I think its going to be great, though - even though the challenges change as age increases, the blessings do, too. Isaac is such a helper, taking initiative to take care of things he sees needs to be done, and always eager to assist when asked. He's a voracious reader, and his appetite for books is hard to keep up with! While still young and carefree, his maturity is starting to peek out, and its such an awesome thing to think about what kind of young man he's quickly becoming. Here's his happy mug shot on the big day!

You know I've posted before about Motivated Moms and how much I love their inexpensive, easy-to-follow chore lists. Well... exciting news for those who are in the high-tech world, they've now come out with a Motivated Moms app for iPhone!! It looks so cool - the very features I wish I had on my paper list is available through the app - deleting tasks that don't apply, moving tasks to different days, that sort of thing. Here's a bit more info if you want specifics! The sad thing is, I don't own an iPhone. So for me, I'll be sticking to the regular pdf version for now, which is fine, since it has worked great for the past two years I've used it. But I can always dream of how fun it would be to have an iPhone and the new app!

School is going really well! I still love Sonlight, and we're finishing up our 16th week - already almost halfway done! My hope is to make it to 20 weeks before baby arrives, and then take a month or so off for some rest and recovery time. My biggest mistake is always trying to do too much too soon after a baby, which just ends up with me being exhausted, irritable, and burned out, so hopefully we can avoid that this time. Its been tricky trying to juggle our main curriculum choices with all of the neat things we've been able to review, but I'm practicing "going with the flow" and it seems to be working. All in all, this school year has been one of the easiest, most relaxed, but also productive, yet!

Speaking of homeschooling, I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but one of the reasons I love it so much is purely a selfish one - I *love* learning. And learning right along with my children is all the more awesome. I have discovered so much that I knew but had forgotten, or just never knew, by homeschooling. One thing that I've been loving is this year's science - Apologia's Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology. Wow! I am so enjoying learning more about the amazing human body that God has created and given us! This week we've started on the cardiovascular system, and here's a fun project we're making to help us understand the components on the heart a little more:

Ok, so it doesn't look exactly like a heart, but come on, how can colored frosting, graham crackers, and marshmellows NOT be fun? And everytime I walk past our creation, I find myself repeating what the different parts are - "atria, ventricles, pulmonary veins..." (Oh, and for those who have noticed, yes, there are important parts missing - we are finishing it up a little at a time!) It is just so exciting to me to be learning this stuff! I don't know where my brain was during high school anatomy, but I'm absorbing all this stuff like a sponge. I love it!

I love this!

(HT: Fish in My Hair)

I've saved the biggest and (for me!) most exciting news for last, as a reward for those who make it this far ;-) Over the past few weeks, after much prayer and discussion, Michael has agreed that this baby can be born in the comfort and intimacy of our home!!! I have desired a homebirth for at least the past 3 pregnancies, but he has always been reluctant. I resolved not to ever nag him or try to manipulate the situation and had pretty much given up on the idea (although the desire never died). Out of the blue, I mentioned it in a casual comment a few weeks ago, and that opened up the discussion. He agreed to meet with a Certified Professional Midwife that lives nearby, and after the meeting spent another two weeks in alot of thought and prayer... and finally told me YES! I was floored, to say the least. And I'm so happy that the decision came about on his own accord, not because of any nagging, manipulating, or driving him crazy that I did. The years of my patient silence actually paid off, and I can't wait! It is making the arrival of our newest little one all the more exciting, if that's even possible. You can be sure you'll be hearing (reading) more about this new development over the next few weeks!

That's about it at our house lately! Thanks for stopping by :-)