Finally An Update!

Well, it's been more than a year and a half since I last posted here. We've taken lots of fun trips in that time:

Last January, Adam and I spent a weekend in San Diego while my sister graciously watched the kids. 

That spring, we went to Pittsburgh for my brother's college graduation and then spent several days sightseeing in D.C. 

For my 30th birthday last May, Allison and I got to see Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. 

At the end of the summer, we drove to Edmonton for my cousin's wedding and spent a couple glorious days in Jasper National Park on the way home. 

This January, we went to Oahu, Hawaii with my family to celebrate our 10th anniversary. (Six months earlier because you want to escape from Seattle to Hawaii in January, not July.) 

But, I really wanted to give an update on my last post, when I talked about finding more space to just be *me* in the midst of motherhood and taking the six months before I turned 30 to figure it out. While, of course, I feel like I could always use more time to fit in everything I'd like to do, I did eventually give myself guaranteed breaks during three weekdays. 

1. Bible Study. Last winter, a new friend from homeschool coop invited me to join the bible study at her church. It met every Tuesday morning and provided childcare for homeschoolers! Claire's class of elementary-age homeschoolers would have study hall and then play games like kickball in the gym. (Middle and high schoolers would volunteer in the little kid classrooms.) Everyone was very welcoming and accepting of my Catholic faith. I learned so much about the bible and about running a really successful ministry. They did such a great job with the studies themselves and the childcare, down to the littlest details. I did have to devote extra time to my homework and to packing lunch and snacks for the kids the night before, but it was totally worth the delightful morning off.  

2. Ballet Babysitter. Taking Betsy and George to ballet was very stressful. Not only did I have to get Claire and Maggie completely dressed beforehand and have dinner ready to go when we got home, but I also had to pack a myriad of snacks, books, and toys for the little ones. I couldn't leave during class because the parking lot was so small that if I gave up my space I would never get another one. George was constantly trying to escape out the automatic doors outside or sneak into the classrooms. Finally, last spring I went on Care.com and hired a babysitter to come for two hours every week. Claire and Maggie could get changed and I could do their hair in the locker room at the studio, freeing up a little time in the afternoon beforehand. While they were in class, I had one hour to work on the computer - responding to email, paying bills, ordering necessary items online, editing photos, making a grocery list. Not the most exciting tasks, but it was the only hour a week I had *during the day* to do any computer tasks, so it gave me back some valuable leisure time in the evening. 

3. The Gym. We joined the fancy gym really close to our house right around George's first birthday. It had never been an option for us before because childcare was an additional fee per hour. It would have cost us more than $20 for all the kids every visit. When we found out that they'd finally made childcare free, we signed up immediately. The fancy gym was particularly appealing because they offered tennis lessons, something Adam and I thought would be really fun to learn together. But first, we had to get George used to the childcare enough to willing spend an hour playing there. For the first six months, I didn't leave him for longer than 20-30 minutes and I'd just use the treadmill. I made some progress on the couch-to-5k plan but didn't come close to completing it as I only visited once a week. Finally, in June, we started tennis lessons every other week and had a really great time. We even started playing racquetball together on the alternating weeks. Unfortunately, in January Adam got really busy at work and I was in the first trimester of pregnancy feeling quite sick. So...our tennis lessons came to a halt and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I started using my weekly gym time to sit in the coffee shop and catch up on more computer tasks. 

We've continued to feel very grateful for being able to simplify our life by hiring a teenager from church to help with yardwork and a house cleaner who comes every other week while we're at homeschool coop. We always use curbside pick-up for groceries and stick to the same favorite recipes. Simplicity is key! 

In the winter (October through March) we eat a lot of: 

- spaghetti 

- chili 

- tomato soup & grilled cheese 

- spinach quiche

- pierogi & sausage 

- pork chops with shake & bake 

- pork roast or pot roast if I'm feeling fancy 

In the summer (April through September) we eat a lot of: 

- hamburgers

- tacos 

- tortellini 

- grilled chicken, pork chops, or steak 

- brisket or fajitas if I'm feeling fancy 

I'll usually get a rotisserie chicken with my grocery order - in the winter I'll use the leftover chicken to make chicken noodle soup and in the summer I'll use it for barbecue chicken sandwiches. We eat pizza (frozen or delivered) once a week year around. We'll often give the kids hot dogs while we have pot stickers. Fish sticks and frozen fries pop up on Friday evenings quite frequently! 

George stopped taking a morning nap shortly before his first birthday. For the next year, we moved all of our homeschool work to the afternoon during his nice long nap. But, when we got back from Hawaii he learned to climb out of his crib and stopped napping altogether. I briefly tried to get him to do quiet time but he'd come out every two minutes which is even more disruptive to our school work. We moved school to first thing in the morning - I begged Betsy to play nicely with him while we did Maggie's school and then she'd run off to play with him and was usually a much bigger help. It was much more chaotic and I'd frequently send Adam desperate texts about how I just couldn't handle it.

Then, the pandemic hit. Adam started working from home in early March. While that has certainly made his work much, much more difficult, it's made homeschooling considerably easier because he's around to help referee Betsy and George's fights and crazy antics. We've been going on a family walk every afternoon, so I've been getting much more regular exercise. And I no longer have much to do for my big volunteer commitment (I'm now the American Heritage Girls troop coordinator) so I've had plenty of time in the evening to catch up on editing photos and making our yearly photobook. I really doubted I would ever finish that...and now I've even had time to write here again! I've actually started dreaming of sewing projects! 

September and October Happenings

We've spent a lot of our time lately preparing for George's arrival. Of course, our biggest task was moving all three big sisters into the same bedroom. It's going surprising well at bedtime, but everyone keeps waking up ridiculously early. I'm typing this at 5:50 am and already two of our children are awake, which is highly unusual for them. Hopefully they'll quickly learn to sleep a little more deeply. It's been fun to redecorate the two kids' rooms. I really want to post pictures soon! My dear friend, Bethany, kindly threw a baby shower to celebrate our little guy in early September - now his dresser is stocked with the softest blankets, cutest sleepers, and most darling tiny button-down shirts. 

Adam and I have gotten to enjoy three date nights this fall. Last winter, we put the Christmas money from our parents towards a Broadway Across America subscription, so that we could see Hamilton when it comes to town in February 2018. For much less than the cost of tickets in New York City, we also get to see several other musicals. And the two that didn't really strike our fancy can be donated to the school auction. In September, we went to the first show of the season, which was almost as exciting as Hamilton for me, The Sound of Music. It was so thrilling to see my favorite movie brought to life on stage. 

A couple weeks later, my parents drove in for the weekend just to watch our girls overnight. Adam and I spent a fantastic twenty-four hours in downtown Seattle. On Saturday, we did some fabric shopping for George's monthly photos/birthday quilt, had dinner at Le Pichet, our favorite French restaurant, and went to see Jim Gaffigan. (I gave Adam tickets for his birthday back in the spring.) On Sunday, we enjoyed a very peaceful Mass in which we didn't have to wrangle any small children and actually got to sit next to each other. We had brunch at a new-to-us French restaurant because apparently we like to pretend like we're in Paris and then walked around Pike Place Market before heading home. We had an amazing time and are so grateful to my parents for making it happen!

So, when they came to visit again for Maggie's birthday party last weekend, we jumped at the opportunity to take them out on the town! We bought two more tickets to Aladdin, the next show on the docket for our musical subscription, and had a great time spending the evening with them. Aladdin was such a fun, colorful show with some really neat special effects, especially the classic magic carpet scene. It was very different from The Sound of Music, which was not flashy at all, but just as enjoyable to watch.

Even after five years, we're still on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin patch here in Seattle (Pittsburgh had some really great ones!). This fall, we tried out Bob's Corn Maze and Pumpkin Farm with our friends and fellow former Pittsburgh residents, the Clarks. It was a delightful morning, but I don't think we're ready to end our search just yet.















Because I somehow didn't get a solo picture of Maggie at the pumpkin patch, I'll include this one from her birthday invitation. She planned every detail of this photo meticulously.



She's just so adorable and we are very excited to celebrate her fourth birthday tomorrow!

The First Month of Our First Child in Kindergarten

Claire started kindergarten at our parish school right after Labor Day. It hasn't been a perfectly smooth transition, but so far we are all enjoying the new schedule and we feel very confident that we made the right decision for this school year. 

She has school from 8:30 to 1:30 every day - all the other grades stay until 3:15, but the afternoon time is optional for kindergarten. Claire will probably be our only child who gets the opportunity to leave early, except for maybe our youngest. But she seems to appreciate the extra time at home to play with Maggie and has not asked to stay yet. It's been working out great because Betsy's pretty flexible at almost two and I can just put her down for a nap after school, rather than having to wake her every day for pick up. 

Kindergarten has two recesses and a different "special" every day - library, gym, music, art, and school Mass. They go on two field trips a semester and have parties for just about every holiday. I know kindergarten is way more academic than it used to be, but it's still a lot of fun.

Claire gets to buy her lunch once a week, on pizza day, and brings homemade "lunchables" (cheese, ham, crackers) the other days. I like to have all the components already sliced up so she can assemble it herself. Only on weekdays, she has about five to ten minutes of homework, usually a simple math worksheet and handwriting practice. I try to sit with her and get that done right after I put Betsy down for a nap after school. 

We were most worried about getting everyone out the door by 8:15 every morning in a relatively calm fashion, but it's gone much better than we imagined. Adam and I try to get up at 5:30 so that we have some quiet prayer time before starting on chores. We're significantly more successful on Mondays than on Fridays! As long as we wake up at 6:00, we have enough time to get ready, make our bed, empty the dishwasher, and make breakfast. We get the girls up at 7:00, eat breakfast together, make their beds, get them dressed, clean up the kitchen, and then we're all out the door. 

The best part about school is that it's added the structure into our life that's been missing for the last five years, since Adam's job as a software developer is very flexible. Now that he spends from 8:30 to 5:00 at the office, he hasn't had to do work at night once in the last month! (Before kindergarten started, he usually left for work about an hour later but came home at the same time, so he almost always had work to finish in the evening.) Since we have to make Claire's lunch, we have been so much better about packing Adam's. I've been trying to plan meals that will provide leftovers for him to take, which makes it a no-brainer and is really great for our budget, especially now that we're paying Catholic school tuition.

Another great part of school is that daily Mass starts at 8:40, leaving the little girls and I with just enough time to swing by the parish library to chose a picture book for each of them and then head into the church. We don't go every day, but we've made it two or three days a week thus far. I love going to daily Mass, even if it's a bit crazy with two small children tagging along. I couldn't imagine getting out of the house that early before! On days we attend Mass, we often head to the Y afterward, then come home for lunch and play/chore time before getting Claire. It's basically my idea of a perfect morning.

 

But, of course, things haven't been perfect. Claire has been very tired as she adjusts to kindergarten and a tired five year-old is obviously more likely to whine or throw tantrums. Transition times have been especially tricky - when it's time to leave for school in the morning, when we get home from school, and when it's time to clean up toys/eat dinner/get ready for bed. Maggie has been demonstrating similar behavior. I'm not sure why she would be more tired than usual, but I imagine it's just been hard to adjust to life without her best friend around in the mornings. Betsy actually seems happier, though, because Maggie has been sweetly playing with her while Claire's at school. Before the dynamic was the two older sisters playing while the baby sister messed up their game, so it's been really nice to see Betsy included in play time.

Claire and Maggie sometimes have a hard time reconnecting and playing together in the afternoon without constant squabbles. Reading a couple picture books together once Betsy's down for a nap seems to help. A few times when the fighting has been really bad, I've had them lay down in bed and listen to a chapter of our current read aloud.

Claire has been playing CYO soccer and we all have mixed feelings about it. She has practice on Monday afternoons and games on Friday evening. The practice is pretty early in the afternoon and she always complains about how she doesn't have enough time to play that day. But she does really like the two other girls on her team and Adam and I have enjoyed getting to know the other parents. We're glad we gave it a try, but I don't see us signing up again next year. Only three more weeks! We had our first American Heritage Girls meeting (I am leading the kindergarten girls this year) and the next day, Claire said, "I really liked going to the girls' club with you, Mommy." So I'm counting that as a big win and hoping she feels the same way about going to children's choir with Adam when it starts in November.

Both Claire and Maggie go to Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Claire also has religious instruction in school, but it's just workbooks and CGS, being Montessori, is very different. She doesn't seem to mind going at all, although she's never really told me much about it. I've learned more from Maggie in the last month than I have from Claire over the past two years!

Maggie has a little music class one morning a week and a little art class another morning. I know I said in my last post about schooling decisions that we would have to say goodbye to our beloved music class, but when I emailed the teacher to tell her we couldn't afford it on top of Catholic school tuition, she generously offered to subsidize our monthly fees. She is the best! It will be hard with a newborn tagging along as well during the spring semester, but Maggie and Betsy just love it so much that I couldn't possibly refuse her kind offer. Art class is actually taught by one of the kindergarten instructional assistants, in her home. It's been really wonderful thus far. I know Maggie would love to be in preschool, but she very much appreciates and enjoys the three activities she's enrolled in. All together, they're significantly cheaper than any preschool I've found in our area.

Basically what this all boils down to is that Claire is enjoying kindergarten, Maggie is enjoying her preschool activities, Betsy is enjoying having one-on-one play time with her next oldest sister, and their parents are enjoying have more structure imposed on our days. Things are going quite smoothly for the most part - just in time to add a newborn into the mix. We're actually moving Betsy into the big girls' room tonight in preparation for their little brother's arrival. Wish us luck!

Summer Memories

School has been in session for almost two weeks now, but before I write about how Claire's doing in kindergarten, I've got to record some of my favorite summer memories. First up, how I spent my weekdays with all three girls at home.

Well, we spent A LOT of time at the park with friends. We loved going to the Tuesday morning kids' concerts at the beach, playing in the water, enjoying a picnic lunch, and sharing ice cream sandwiches from the snack stand for dessert. We joined the Y again and made it there at least once a week. We were sad that our parish didn't have vacation bible school this year, but Claire and Maggie did a little tennis day camp at the park and had a weekly soccer clinic there as well. All three girls did swim lessons - the place where they've done dance/gymnastics for the last couple years also has an outdoor pool and starts lessons for kids at eighteen months. We started on Betsy's half birthday in August! Even though she didn't really learn anything, it was worth it to have her happily splashing in the pool instead of grumpily watching from the sidelines. The girls and I all agreed that the swim instructor was much, much better than the teachers at the private swim club in our neighborhood, where we'd done lessons the last couple years.

At the very beginning of the summer, I devised a plan for spending a little learning/spiritual growth time with my big girls during Betsy's afternoon nap. I drew up this schedule for myself:

Monday: Bible journals + books on CD
Tuesday:  Saint story + wipe clean workbooks
Wednesday: Bible journals + audio book with quiet activity
Thursday: Catholic treasure box story + board game
Friday: Rosary + sensory activity

For quiet activities, I mean puzzles, pattern blocks, and perler "biggie" beads. Just something to keep their hands busy while they listened to Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy. For sensory activities, I mean play dough, kinetic sand, or these water beads. We prayed the rosary by listening to these CDs from Holy Heroes and coloring in the accompanying coloring books. The Catholic Treasure Box books are from the 1950s, but were also purchased from Holy Heroes. We can't recommend them enough - our girls love the stories and we've learned a lot from them as adults.

We didn't stick to this schedule exactly the whole summer. Sometimes I knew they were just too tired from spending all morning playing at the park or the beach. Sometimes they were deep into an pretend world that I wasn't about to interfere with - both because I think imaginative games with your siblings are the very best education of all in early childhood and because it meant I could sneak off to finish chores or read a book on my own!

We were most dedicated to our bible journal project. We used Maite Roche's Bible for Little Ones because the stories are very simple and her illustrations are gorgeous. I found some blank storybooks at the Target Dollar Spot. Basically, I'd read the story to the girls, they would draw a picture in their bible journal, and then I'd write their narrated versions of the story.

Here's a page from Maggie's journal:

She said, "The big guy, Goliath's, shield gets stuck in a tree. Then he can't attack. The little guy, David, throws a rock at him. One of the trees falls over. Goliath is killed. David wins the war and a rainbow comes out!"

This is the page she was looking at in the children's bible: 

Here's a page from Claire's journal: 

She said, "Isaiah is telling everyone that God is real. A dove flaps onto his shoulder. The big star in the sky is trying to show that God is real too. Jesus is going to come tomorrow!"

This is the page she was looking at in the children's bible:

We made it through the twelve stories in the Old Testament. Next summer, I'd love to have them work on the New Testament in a new journal - it would be really fun to see how their artistic style has changed. They were both very proud of the finished product. Claire even brought hers in for her first show-and-tell in kindergarten. 

My other summer goal was to have them greatly improve in their ability to clean up the toys at the end of the day. I paid them a quarter for a job well done and periodically took them to spend their money on new books at the thrift store or new puzzles and coloring books at the dollar store. We're very much still a work in progress (especially when it comes to completing this task without whining, tantrums, and a million reminders to focus) but there's been definite improvement.



On the weekend, our town's summer fair and farmer's market are always highlights of the summer. We also made it to the beach as a family twice, where Adam demonstrated that he is most definitely the fun parent.







For us, summer means lots of berry picking. We kicked it off with strawberries on a particularly warm Saturday morning in June. Claire and Maggie are true Seattle children and were not enthused by the unusually hot temperatures.









 



In July, we picked raspberries and blueberries. In August, we picked blackberries - wild blackberries grow everywhere in Seattle, so there are no u-pick farms. We found an abundance at our local playground. We also harvested the apples from our backyard tree in August and turned them into applesauce. We use the strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries in homemade ice cream, as well as enjoying lots fresh with whipped cream and angel food cake (made with all the egg whites leftover from ice cream). We just freeze the blueberries to use in muffins and pancakes throughout the year.





















We spent a very fun Saturday morning at Remlinger Farms, an amusement park for little kids. This was the last year Claire could go on all the rides (before she's too tall) and it made us realize that our family outings will have to change when we don't have only small children anymore. I imagine we'll have to split up sometimes, but hopefully we'll mostly stick to things everyone enjoys.











We spent another enjoyable Saturday morning at the zoo, although since it was another unusually warm day, most of the animals were hiding in the shade. I think the zoo is really a better spring or fall activity - as long as it's not pouring down rain, it's a pretty good time. We were surprised to see the hippo out of his pond, since it seems like we never get a good glimpse of him. Along with the rest of the zoo patrons, we were most excited to see the baby giraffe born earlier in the summer.

Summer is such an odd time of year here in Seattle. We want to squeeze in as much fun as possible while the sun is shining, but we also have more chores to keep up with, since there's always yard work to be done. This year, we also wanted to get a few house projects finished before our new baby arrives in November and knew we would have much less time once school started. I actually felt quite relieved when the rain, cloudy skies, and cooler temperatures returned this week!

Lent & Easter

Let's back it up all the way to Fat Tuesday, when I made crawfish etouffee and king cake. 

And then Ash Wednesday, when I made lentil soup and soft pretzels. 

We also celebrated the Annunciation with waffles for dinner. (I added more whipped cream after taking this picture, ha!)

The first half of March was dominated by Claire's birthday and the second half of March was taken over by a peg doll painting project. A group of friends from church got together to make a last supper scene, along with the three Marys who found Jesus' empty tomb. 

I was assigned St. Andrew and St. Mary Magdalene. I got an HBO subscription to watch Big Little Lies and The Young Pope while I spent many evening hours painting these guys.

 

The finished product! When we got together on Palm Sunday afternoon for the exchange party, I told Adam I would be back in like two hours, around 3:00 pm....and I actually got home at 6:15. He knows by now to add a couple hours to whatever time I give him when I'm going out with friends!

The first week of April, Claire was off from preschool and catechesis on spring break. The highlight of the week was going to see the famed cherry trees at the University of Washington. We went on a whim on a rare sunny afternoon and I am still so surprised that the whole outing went so well. Visitor parking was very far away from the quad, I didn't bring the double stroller, and I didn't know exactly how to get to the quad. The quad was much more crowded that I was expecting, so it was challenging to keep an eye on all three girls running around while pushing an empty stroller and trying to snap pictures. I kept thinking that at some point things were going to go south (would I remember where we parked? would Claire be able to walk up the big hill to the parking lot?) but strangely they never did. It was a great afternoon, except for the nagging worry that things were going to go terribly wrong at any minute...



On Holy Thursday, Claire and Maggie had their last little dance and gymnastics class of the year. They just did the two middle sessions, from mid-November to mid-April. I know they will miss going, but I will not miss having a late afternoon activity that requires me to have dinner ready to go beforehand. Parents watched the gymnastics portion from a second story viewing area above the gym - Betsy wanted to climb down the stairs so very, very much and it was quite challenging to prevent her from doing so. Claire liked the gymnastics portion better, while Maggie preferred dance. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in the future! Next school year, I'm hoping to put them in more formal swimming lessons - they enjoy the summer lessons at the local pool, but I think they'll need something more structured to really be able to swim independently anytime soon.

I made hot cross buns for breakfast on Good Friday. We dyed eggs when my parents arrived that afternoon. We had movie night that evening, enjoying pizza and The Miracle Maker.





We finished our traditional confetti eggs on Saturday morning, except we fill them with Fruity Pebbles instead.



And then we spent a sunny afternoon at the zoo, along with the rest of Seattle.







Easter baskets all set up! The girls each got an Easter book, a stuffed animal, and something from the Janod (a French toy company) sale on Amazon - pull along ducks for Betsy and circus and farm story boxes for Claire and Maggie.



We were thrilled to have made it through Easter Sunday Mass in one piece, with a very active 14-month-old and Adam helping out the children's choir.



The girls' dresses are from Janie & Jack and mine is from Kohl's. I can't believe we actually got a family picture with everyone looking at the camera!







 

Hunting for eggs back home, getting all the grown-ups with confetti, and enjoying lots of candy.

 



For Easter lunch, I pretty much copied the menu at Mel's Kitchen Cafe - sweet baked ham, cheesy potatoes, roasted asparagus, honey lime fruit salad, and carrot cake. We are still enjoying the leftovers, which is awesome, because after dinner tonight I am going to pick up my sister from the airport!