Ok ... Maybe I Should Post a Bit Here, eh?

I won't make any excuses as to why I haven't been online much ... or posted on this blog much. I just haven't gotten online a whole lot the past few days. Quick check of email, maybe check my Twitter ... quickly check for messages at Gentle Christian Mothers board, that I recently joined. That's about it.

I've been organizing, garden planning, reading, and spending time with family.

We recently decided to put our dog outside for most of the day. Without letting me know he had to go out, he just peed all over the kitchen floor. I corrected him, then he went and peed on the couch not even 5 minutes later. I wasn't too upset about the floor ... that's easy to clean. But the couch? On a cushion that's not removable?! Yeah, I was livid.

Then the next day, he peed on the floor ... in a different spot ... right in front of my husband. Stupid dog.

No, it's not because we rarely took him out ... we took him for walks several times a day. And anytime he told us he needed to go out, we took him out. We have no clue why he did that.

THAT DAY, though, we rigged up a lead rope (a few sections of haybale twine, braided, and tied to the end of his leash as a temporary fix) and he went outside for most of the day. We kept checking on him and going out to love on him, but he's doing great. He LOVES it out there.

But because we don't have a dog house for him just yet, we do bring him in right around 5pm for a couple hours ... so he can warm up a bit (it's not horribly cold out there, but chilly enough) ... then put him back out at about 7pm until 9ish. Yesterday, he actually spent more time indoors than out because it was really windy and The Novelist noticed that the poor guy was shivering, so he brought him inside.

We're hoping to get him some sort of dog shelter ... and a better rope or chain (though he hasn't pulled or ANYTHING on what we rigged up. Like I said, he LOOOOVES it out there!!) soon.

The landlady gave us permission to dig up as much of the yard as we want to for a garden. It's not a big yard, but it's enough that I can plant some things, at least. I'm wanting to concentrate on things that I can process or store well, for now. Potatoes, beans, tomatoes, a couple variety of pepper ... I'll post a list when we have it finalized. I'm a little nervous about it all ... this'll be my first garden ever! I'm also a bit concerned about the amount of grasshoppers/crickets we get around here. I've never seen so many in one area before! HOPEFULLY, they don't wreck our garden.

Princess Piglet is doing well overall. Her last eye tooth broke gumline and she's been sleeping better at night. She still wakes me 2-3 times a night ... but it's much better than 5-6 times a night! She's actually down to 3-4 nursing sessions during the daytime right now. Though I'm glad I can get a bit more done between her requests to nurse, I'm still a little sad. I actually really like nursing her!!

I'm a routine girl. Always have been. No rigid schedules for us ... but routines are good. I haven't found my flow since Princess Piglet's been born, actually. And I'm quite ashamed to admit that. First it was learning to care for 2 children (which was a bit harder than I thought!) ... then it was a cross-country move ... then teething season kicked in ... and oh my word. Wow. I'm finding my footing now, though.

I think that's been a big help to Princess Piglet too. The girls and I get up around 8am ... we usually wait until The Novelist gets home to eat (unless the girls are complaining of hunger, then we'll eat early) ... Daddy spends time with his girls ... Princess Piglet's been going down for a nap right around 11:30 for an hour and a half -- that's "official" school time for Princess Bookworm (though learning around here is really NON STOP) ... lunch is anywhere between 12:30 and 1pm (Princess Bookworm usually munches while she does her tests, if she has a few more to work on at that time that is ... she's been averaging about 5 tests a day) ... the girls tuck Daddy in from 3:30-4 (they brush his hair, rub his back and feet with lotion, and tell stories to each other) ... I start dinner around 6 ... we eat, then Princess Bookworm gets jammies on, teeth brushed, hair brushed, and devotionals done ... then Princess Piglet and I tuck her in quietly (Family Bedroom, so we don't want to wake Daddy) ... then Princess Piglet gets her rear changed, jammies on, and we nurse. If she doesn't fall asleep nursing, then I rock her. She's usually asleep by 8:30 this way, which gives this Momma a bit of down time.

That's not how it always was (I won't admit how hectic bedtime was before! Put it this way ... sometimes Princess Bookworm wasn't in bed until 8:30 or 9 ... and Princess Piglet would often still be up when we woke Daddy up at 10:30 ... which made for a pretty frazzled Momma)... but it's been working out beautifully for us.

Princess Bookworm is such an awesome helper to me. Such a good big sister. She's quite bored with schoolwork lately ... mostly because we went over 1st grade material when she was only 4 1/2, so she hasn't learned a whole lot of new stuff from this Abeka curriculum. We'll be SO GLAD to be done with it.
We ended up making a deal with her. We dropped worksheets and are only giving her tests. If she does well on them, she doesn't have to do corresponding worksheets. Works well for her ... and just fine for me. We figure if she passes the tests, she knows the material. I look over the tests before she gets them and if I see something that she doesn't know, we go over it first (like how many ounces are in a pound, for instance). Doing it this way, she's completely done with her cursive writing. She got A's and B's on all those tests. She's doing really well on her math tests so far too. After she's got those done, we'll work on the phonics tests -- which I know she'll do just fine on.
And to keep her interest and keep her learning, we make sure to get several educational books from the library ... on whatever she'd like to learn about ... and read those together. The one we read on earthquakes 2wks ago, for instance, turned into an hour long discussion. It was awesome. It's really helping me to see that yes, eclectic/unschooling is DEFINITELY for us.

I've got next years stuff just about worked out ... once I do, I'll post it.

To those who sent me emails in the past week ... I'm not ignoring you, I'll answer you all. Probably tomorrow sometime.

I've got 2 messages on CD, sent by a dear reader, that I still haven't gotten to ... I've got 2 books that I need to have read by the 22nd so I can post those reviews ... 3 book reviews due the week after that ... plus another book review for Thomas Nelson that I need to get to whenever I can. I LOVE free books!! I should have paid a bit closer attention to when reviews for Waterbrook were due though LOL

Heads up, dear readers, I'll be holding a book giveaway the week of the 22nd! TWO books that go together, actually.

With that, I need to go. Time to get the children settled down for bed -- I actually let Princess Bookworm stay up for an extra half hour, so I could swing up a quick post ... ... which has turned into this rambling post lol.