Right on time! (sort of)

So in case you're not friends with me on Facebook I thought I'd make a baby announcement here...
We had a baby!!! :)
And even though it was 5 WEEKS EARLY, we really should have been expecting our baby to come because for some reason I can't keep them in any longer than that.  And even though it was 5 WEEKS EARLY our little baby (BOY!!) basically came right on time.  And he was a quick one, too.  Not to be outdone by his brothers or his sister, he came faster than any of them!  I started contractions about 9:30pm, headed to the hospital with contractions 10 min. apart about 11pm, got to the hospital about 11:45pm with contractions 3 minutes apart...he was born 20 minutes later just after midnight!  There was a MAJOR snowstorm that night that really slowed us down...he was darn near born in the car!!  Phew, that was close!

You can see the little oxygen tube they sent us home from the hospital with.  Not fun.  So glad it was only in for a day or so. 

This kid is SO loved, he hardly ever gets put down because someone always wants to hold him! 

Happy momma & poppa.  (Even though it's only half my face, you can tell I'm happy.) 

Silly brothers!  I can already sense it, these 3 are going to be a handful! 

Well, hello there, pretty eyes! 

Welcome to the world James A. Weist!!!  We sure love you.

We have a winner

The other morning Michael & I were playing "I bet my dream was weirder than yours" as he got ready for work.  He dreamed some sort of military tactical warfare where he was chopping off heads.  Yawn.

My dream took place on the historical island of Pompeii (back when it was a thriving metropolis) and was about some conspiracy theory that a man purposely caused the fateful volcano with a planned train crash.  And while people were fleeing the ash & destruction onto cruise ships there was a zombie outbreak and no one knew if their neighbor was a zombie until it was too late.  I won the game because Michael said he'd totally pay to see that movie.

Oh, and Michael Jackson also featured as a zombie in my dream.  Double win.

Sleep deprivation from nursing: causing awesome dreams for the win!

It's about that time...

I'm sure it's only obvious to myself that I AM GOING TO HAVE A BABY ANY TIME IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS and I'm going slightly berserk, as will happen at the end of my pregnancies.  Usually I fill my end-time with craft projects and since we just had Christmas this was a perfect way to vent my impatience.  I found an awesome DIY project whilst browsing Pinterest one day and gave this as a family gift on Christmas.  (By the way, has anyone tried doing mostly "family" gifts at Christmas?  Everyone seems to want to use each other's toys/stuff anyway so we might as well make them family presents, right?  And all our kids' birthdays come within a few weeks after Christmas so we can get them individual gifts then.  Right?  Right???)  Anyway, I digress... here is my lovely Pinterest find (don't mind my phenomenal photography skills.  Or my immaculate fridge).

(Tutorial that I used to make ruler HERE)

I know, I'm proud of me, too.  It's a giant ruler to measure our kids' growth instead of using the door jamb (which is currently where all the measurements are, directly behind where this ruler is now).  And we can take it with us if we ever move!  It was ridiculously easy to make and I didn't even bother using vinyl like some of the websites I saw, it's all by hand.  Anything to make my life easier.  I think I have another board in the garage I could probably make another one for a gift sometime.

So craft project #2 was even easier and took even less time...as in, I made it right before dinner because all I had to do was cut and stitch.

The blue hat on the left I already had in a baby boy box somewhere and both my boys have worn it, but since Miss Em was born in Malaysia she never needed a hat and thus we had no girl hat ready.  Since we don't know the gender I stitched up the girl hat quickly so we'd have one of each.  It wasn't even supposed to be ruffled like that at the fold but it is incredibly stretchy knit so I accidentally pulled the dickens out of it while sewing.  I was all worried that I'd destroyed it but then I folded it up and it looks like a cute little flower.  Serendipity.

So now we are (sort of) ready (mostly) for baby, because, you know, I couldn't give birth if I didn't have a hat ready.  But at least the hats are both waiting patiently (unlike mom) in the bassinet at the foot of our bed.

Now I'm off to find another craft project.  I've become obsessed with the mess that is my bathroom lately and I'm looking forward to (probably not until this summer) painting walls and vanity, putting up shelves, framing my mirror, getting a new light fixture and new curtain rod...but for now just the planning will help take my mind off the fact that I have only a few weeks left.  If anyone needs help with their own projects I have energy for two!  If only I didn't still have a zillion things to do.

November School Days

School is still going strong (admittedly sometimes stronger than others, but still strong, nonetheless) and we are enjoying our fall-leading-to-winter here in the Weist home.  Our most exciting and challenging class by far has been the engineering class that is offered through our school co-operative, My Tech High.  They sent us the kit filled with all of the blocks and links and wheels and parts to create various simple machines.  The picture below is one of the machines we built-- a scale.  It looks a lot simpler than it is and it usually takes the 2 of us working together at least 2 hours to finish one of these.  It's actually great bonding time with my son and I love every minute of it.  He thinks it's pretty awesome once he's finished them, too.

My princess below is less embroiled in class work because she is only 4 and technically preschool age, but I have a few Kindergarten books that she has started and recently she has showed an interest in learning how to read (yay!) so we spend a lot of time each week going over letters and sounds and working through very simple words.  With most of "school" activities I like to be very involved but so far a more hands-off approach has worked for me with teaching reading.  I provide ample reading time, both separate and together, I involve them in games that use simple reading words (I made a set of small cards with words of 2, 3, or 4 letters that we use for matching and other fun games) and I give them challenges to read things to me when we are out shopping or running errands.  I know there are probably millions of dollars spent by parents across the country using phonics programs and reading curriculum, and I don't discount those by any means. But thus far I have found this simpler (and far less expensive) approach to work just as well.  Kids seem to naturally want to progress so if you give them opportunities to do so they'll grab it with both hands and take off.
Of course, this princess is still in the VERY early stages of showing interest and learning how to put sounds together.  Her older brother showed greater inclination and ability from an earlier age and is now reading several grade levels above his age-- I don't necessarily think Miss Em will exhibit that same ability, but it's still exciting watching the progress and it's one of the reasons I became interested in homeschooling in the first place.

This sweet little goober is so good to mostly play while the rest of us do school and he is thrilled to just sit at the table with his brother and sister and be given something to keep him occupied so that it seems like he's at school, too.  He likes "doing letters" (what we call Starfall) but is nowhere near recognizing them like his older brother was at this age.  But I'm not too worried.  I don't want him to grow up too fast.  Can you blame me?

What month is it again?

Phew!  Time is flying!  Can someone please explain to me how it got to be October already?  I swear it was just July, like yesterday.  Well we have a month of homeschool under our belt and I've got to say things are going well and I am pretty happy with our situation right now.  There are still plenty of set-backs (such as when one of my children, who shall remain nameless, decides to throw an absolute fit about having to do handwriting practice and throws us off schedule for a half hour while they pout and kick things in their room...fun!) but we also have the freedom to go to the zoo occasionally or have a playdate because we've accomplished all of our goals for the week.  This school year is going to fly by!

On another note, did I mention that I sang with the symphony???  Last month was one of the most stressful times for me (and I got the nasty canker sore to prove it) and those nightly rehearsals at the end were not helping, but IT WAS SO WORTH IT!  I couldn't believe I was up there singing in Abravanel Hall with the ACTUAL Utah Symphony.  Dream. Come. True.  And even when I go to our weekly rehearsals I will look around and listen and start grinning like an idiot because I can't believe I'm there.  We have started practicing for the Annual Messiah Sing-Along that happens after Thanksgiving and I tell you what it already got me in the mood for Christmas.  It is going to be FAB-U-LOUS, so I highly recommend you get tickets and get in on the action.  Although they won't be on sale for like another month.

Speaking of months I am halfway through my 5th month and getting ready to start month 6 of my pregnancy!  Things are going great as far as we can tell and aside from usual tiredness and occasional crazy hormones (sorry, family!) I am a happy camper.  I get a little stressed when I think about homeschooling and new baby and choir and dinners and laundry and general housekeeping...but then my sweet husband wraps his arms around me and lets me cry and tells me he's here and will help and that everything will be great.  I need that.  Thanks sweetheart.

And speaking of needing things I always need the jolt that accompanies General Conference weekend and this last week was no different.  I cried more than usual (is it just me or were there a lot of stories of suffering/dying children?) and I'm sure my hormones were no help, but it was still reassuring and uplifting and strengthening and all those things I need to sometimes just get through the week.  And it was all true, so that helps too.

And finally, in case you didn't know it, one of the sweetest things on earth is the face of a child who has just woken up from a nap and still has sleep in their eyes.  And I have one of those cuddled in my arms right now.  All is right with the world.

Homeschool

For those of you who don't know I have been homeschooling my kids for the last year.  However, since my oldest was only in Kindergarten it hasn't been much of a big deal.  Our school was entirely informal and loosely scheduled.  We practiced reading, did handwriting drills, played math games and sometimes included the younger kids so things were always LOUD and wild and wonderful.
But this year is different!  We have a schedule!  We have various curriculum!  We have classes with subjects and textbooks!  We have a lot of exclamation points!!  I can't help it, I got so excited last night, our first night before school, that I couldn't sleep.

I was worried.

I was worried about it failing big-time.  I was worried about it being crazy.  I was worried about my kids not listening and absolutely hating it.  I was worried about being organized enough to make it happen.

I spent a while on my knees last night.
I think I'll be doing that every night for the whole school year.

But you know what?  It definitely helped me.  Things went more smoothly today than any other school day we've ever had.  Ever.  There were still a couple of hiccups, a couple of whining moments and "I'm not going to do that!" protests but they were short-lived and few in number.  In fact, our day started wonderfully with a fun music time where we listened to different genres of music and talked about their differences (including several dancing moments, of course) and I distinctly heard this surprising declaration: "I love school at our house!  It's so fun!!"

I died.

It may not always be perfect (or even work at all) but this was a wonderfully auspicious way to begin our school year.  I am hopeful.  I am tired.  I am thankful.  But most of all I love the decision I made to homeschool this year.  I still don't know how many years we'll try this but I am loving the journey while we're on it.

Look out for Miss Attitude on the right.  She didn't like that I told her to scoot in closer.

John, my big 1st grader!

A little less attitude.  She's technically in preschool but I'm starting her on John's old Kindergarten stuff.  We'll see how she does!

David is only 2 but loves joining in-- he's a great reminder for the other kids to behave because he copies EVERYTHING they do with this new "school" stuff.

Homeschooling, here we come!

Courage & darn-near disbelief

One of my friends posted a status on Facebook that quoted a line from the movie We Bought A Zoo..."All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, and I promise you something great will come of it."  I felt like a had a moment of insanity this past week which originally didn't feel like courage, just pure insanity.  However, something awesome came from it so whether it's insanity or courage, I'll take what I can get.


Last week I randomly discovered something called the Utah Symphony Chorus.  I never knew such a wonderful thing  even existed!  Apparently they sing a handful of times throughout the year with the Utah Symphony at...that's right, ABRAVANEL HALL!!!!!  Sorry, I had to shout that cause it's so exciting.  I thought it would be wonderfully fulfilling and exciting and pure awesome to be part of something like that and, as luck would have it, they were holding auditions this week.  So I signed up.  I told a few people I felt like Monica from 'Friends' when she had her identity stolen and ended up confronting her fears and taking a tap dance class when she had NO idea what she was doing...and as she waved her arms around erratically, being told she was "doing it wrong" she replied enthusiastically, "at least I'm doing it!!!"  I imagined myself a little like that.


So I got some tips from my awesome voice coach neighbor about auditioning and yesterday loaded the kids up in the car so I could drop them at Michael's work while I went to sing my heart out.  If I felt out of my league before it only increased a hundred-fold while I was waiting my turn and listened to other singers warming up.  These were majorly trained voices, people who could sing opera and sing it really well.  It made me feel about 12 years old.  But I decided to laugh it off and chalk it up to good experience and went in my audition with a big smile.  I told the auditioner that I felt out of my league but that I would LOVE to be in this chorus and what a wonderful opportunity it would be, then I did my thing and left feeling like I probably wouldn't make it because of the stiff competition but that I had done really well.  Yay for me.


You could have knocked me over with a feather when I got an email from them tonight saying "Congratulations, your audition was successful..." HUh?  Were you talking to me?  Seriously?!??  So apparently I get to sing with the Utah symphony.  In Abravanel Hall, a place I have revered since I was a very small person in awe of the gold and chandeliers and sounds of that amazing place.  And all because I had a few moments of courage.  What if I hadn't auditioned?  I never would have known.  Go seize the day!  I hope something great will come out of it for you.