Book Meme

Look, look! Audrey tagged me for a book meme! I have never been tagged with a meme before, and I'm very excited.

Book Meme Rules:
Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
Open the book to page 123
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people.

My nearest book is Midnight Folk by John Masefield.

'Piney,' he said, 'my liver's like a shifting backstay. It takes me across the brisket instead of supporting my vital organs.'

"He was a broken man on his return, my Pa. ..."

Now I'm off to find 5 lucky people who haven't been tagged with this meme yet. Heh heh heh.

Grammar Police

I have a confession to make.

I am a card-carrying member of the Grammar and Spelling Police.

It drives me bonkers to read a blog (or anything else) with spelling mistakes and poor grammar. It takes all my self-control not to post corrections. I can't stand it. I even sit in church (shhhh!) and wish that the pastor would have had me do some editing before he got up to speak in church, most Sundays. (I know this means I have some serious attitude adjustment to do. God and I are working on this, I promise.)

Phew! I feel better, having that off my chest. I was just reading a blog in which the author used "except" instead of "accept" several times and couldn't take it anymore. I had to fess up.

I think I need to read Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation again. It will do my spirit good.

Look At These Babies!

When my parents were here for Christmas, my dad picked up a picture of Abbie (dressed in pink and flowers), and said, "Wow, Isaac really looks like Todd!" I said, "Yes, he does, Dad, but that is a picture of Abbie." He said, "Wow, Isaac really looks like Abbie!"

That conversation inspired me to get out my baby books of the girlies and see who I thought he looked most like. Truly, their hospital pictures are hard to tell apart. If I look at them now, I can see them each in there, but eit was hard to tell who was who, except for the backgrounds in the photos, particularly right after we had Abbie.

I thought, just for fun, I'd post pics of all three of my angel babies so you can judge for yourself. Please indulge my little stroll down memory lane. Something about Schmooey has made me quite nostalgic.

Here is a picture of Emma at around 3 months:



Here is a picture of Abbie around that age:



And here is Zacky-doodle, as he is fondly known, at close to the same age too:



I think he looks like a nearly perfect blend of the two girls, but when I look at lots of baby Emma pictures, I think he looks more like her now. Who knows what I will think in a few more months? They were all so cute, I can hardly stand it. And, no, I am NOT biased; my babies were the cutest ever. So there.

And here, because I am determinedly taking you with me on this little journey, is a gratuitous picture of Emma reading a book with her daddy.




Doesn't that just melt your heart?

Adventures with Chocolate

This is chocolate.




This is your bed and clothing after you've fallen asleep with chocolate in your back pocket.



Chocolate which you weren't supposed to have anyway, and which caused your mother a great deal of work to get it all out.

Sigh. Let's at least hope the child is thankful not to have big brown stains on her "princess quilt."

Look at Schmooey Go!

Schmooey went to the doctor last week for his 4-month checkup, and he is doing very well. He was 27 inches long (from 25" at 2 months), 18 lbs 9 oz (from 14 lbs something), and his head is 45 cm around (up from 42 cm). He's in 9 month clothes now, and looks huge to me. I thought, since he is most likely my last baby, that God would allow him to grow up a little more slowly. Not so, as it turns out.

Last week, in addition to going to the doctor, he found his toes, and showed us that in spite of doing very little "tummy time," he can flip over just fine from his stomach to his back, thankyouverymuch. When Grandma and Grandpa were here for Christmas, they got to see him roll from his back to his tummy, but he has not done it again - he really doesn't care for being on his stomach at all. He will go approximately 2/3 the way over, then stick his leg out to stop himself. He wants to see what's going on, but not from his tummy.

Mom put me on my tummy, and I am NOT pleased.



Why must she do this? Can she not see that I am tired and naked, for goodness' sake?



Little does she know that I've figured this whole thing out. She is no longer able to torture me this way.



Oh, look! Toes!



(I do have better pictures of him grabbing his toes, but they were a little more... revealing, shall we say. :-)

This would go perfectly in my kitchen.....

And since my mixer has stopped working, it would be poetic justice if I won, don't you think?

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

The Prize:

Hamilton Beach 4.5-qt. Eclectrics Stand Mixer, Pineapple Yellow

The winner will receive a brand new
Hamilton Beach 4.5-qt. Eclectrics Stand Mixer, Pineapple Yellow!!

About the mixer:

From Hamilton Beach’s “Eclectrics” line, this all-metal stand mixer comes with a host of accessories - a Flat Beater for cakes and cookies, a Dough Hook for bread and a Wire Whisk for whipped cream or pudding. The 4.5-qt. stainless steel bowl comes with a Pouring Shield that helps prevent splattering while in operation. The pouring shield has a built-in chute for adding ingredients. Powered by 400 watts, the stand mixer has a two-way mixing action to ensure all ingredients are incorporated into the mix. The quick-release, tilt-up head assists when removing the bowl. 9 x 14 x 14-in. When you’re ready for a kitchen re-do, don’t call in the carpenters! Instead, “counterscape” your kitchen with Hamilton Beach’s retro-designed, affordably priced electrics in happy, sun-saturated colors. Their “Eclectrics” line includes updates to those classic appliances from the 1950s. All of their “Eclectrics” are available in six colors: Apple Green, Moroccan Red, Pineapple Yellow, Intrigue Blue, Sugar White and Licorice Black.

Weekly Report

This week was our first week back at school since before Christmas. We were not terribly consistent before then, so now that the baby is a little older, I'm hoping to get back into a more regular routine.

This week, we started our My Father's World 1st grade curriculum. This involves phonics for Abbie, along with Bible, science and art. Up to now, we've been reading a chapter from Genesis and Proverbs each day, which we will continue - the Bible in MFW is history, and projects.

We also started using Professor B math this week. I purchased it last year when I was struggling to teach Emma with MFW 1 math, and then completely forgot about it. I pulled it out and set the girls to work on the computer CD. We're starting from the very beginning so that we understand the methodology, but I expect to push through the first parts rather quickly. We're also going to add in Singapore Math 1B, but I have to order that still. We were using Rod & Staff 1st grade math, but the girls really didn't care for it. I've been meaning to make the switch for a while. The new year seemed as good a time as any.

We did our second week of WriteShop Primary, as we are a test family and we've only completed 1 week to date. This week, the topic was "I Am Special." We made sentences talking about things we like to do, wear, and eat using our pocket chart, and discussed how the sentences formed complete thoughts (as well as how they didn't, before we added the object nouns). We also read Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie for our non-fiction book about a famous person. (Okay, perhaps not the world's most famous person, but it's what I had in the house. I was not up for a trip to the library with all 3 children this week.)

We completed four lessons in First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind this week, and learned about proper names for aunts, uncles and cousins. That was fun as the girls enjoy talking about family. We used our relatives' names for our copywork.

We've also been reading Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's the third in the Little House series, and the girlies are enjoying the books tremendously. Emma got the The Little House Cookbook for Christmas, and has asked to make exciting things like fresh tomatoes with sugar and cream. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

We were supposed to start Drawing with Children, but I must confess that I have been unable to locate the book. I will execute a search this weekend and start it on Monday. I purchased some sketch books on sale at A.C. Moore this week to use in our nature walks, which we will begin now that we're officially starting science with MFW. I'm hoping the girls will enjoy seeing their art skills improve and be able to utilize them in their sketch books.

For his part, Isaac showed us he can turn over from his tummy to his back, and discovered his toes. He also seems to be rebelling against sleeping, which is a bummer for Mommy. He had his 4 month checkup this week, and weighed in at 18 lbs 9 oz., measured 27 inches long and has a head circumference of 45 cm - 95th percentile all the way! We don't make them small around here, that's for sure.

That's about all the excitement for this week. I'm going to try to add some pictures in later.

Random Things

Yesterday, my friend Tonna and the girls gave Zacky his very first bottle! He took it like a champ. The only issue was that I'd only pumped 2 oz, because I wasn't sure he'd take it, and he would have liked more. What a good boy! Abbie would never take a bottle, so I just haven't been pumping for Isaac - I must have had to pitch 2 gallons of milk when Abbie was a baby. I'm excited by this because it means my mom and I can go shopping without the baby when she's here next week.

Here is Abbie giving Isaac part of the bottle:



And here he is with Emma:



They do love to take care of their baby brother. It's very sweet - except when they fight over him. Then it's just annoying.

Today, I found a picture of Abbie as a baby that looks exactly like Isaac. I had Abbie come over to look at it, and when I asked her who it was, she told me it was Zacky! LOL! Emma brought Zacky over so she could see, too, and Zacky was smiling and laughing at that cute baby on my computer screen.

We raked a big pile of leaves for jumping this morning - away from the part of the yard that the dog visits. Heh. Check out the fun we had!

The first big leap:



Whee!



Let's make the baby play in the leaves too (and, of course, NOT post the very next picture in which he rebelled and cried a lot):



I found some great cross-stitch sites this morning. I learned of a new designer (also a homeschooler!), My Mark Designs, when reading my new issue of Just Cross Stitch. When I looked at her blog, I found links to lots of stitching blogs! I am so excited! I don't get to stitch much right now, but I have lots of projects that I should be working on, and am looking forward to getting back to it someday soon. I would like to participate in the Fair and Square project. I shall have to ponder whether I can really make this happen.

Mammalian Marauders at the Bird Feeders

I love to feed the birds. When we lived in Michigan, we lived near some state land that was home to all kinds of beautiful birds, who would grace my bird feeders, bringing with them much joy for me and entertainment for my cats. Since moving to North Carolina, I've had to accept that my visiting bird population is different; we live in a wooded area here, as opposed to fields. That means we have a lot of insect-eating birds who don't visit the feeders as much. However, I have managed to attract a pretty fair variety and every now and then get some pretty cool birds.

As any home bird watcher knows, once you put out bird feeders, you get some other visitors that you may not have counted on. We have several squirrels who visit daily. I don't mind them so much; the cats love watching them and they're not so bad. We also have the occasional opossum. The critters I do mind, however, are the raccoons.

I have seen raccoons in the past, but was lulled into thinking they'd gone elsewhere for their nighttime snacking since I hadn't seen any in a while. However, I have recently discovered at least one fairly large one making nightly visits to my feeders. The dog won't even go out if there is a raccoon on the deck (he is quite lily-livered, since he weighs 70 lbs and the raccoons, while fat, don't come close).

The main problem is that my feeders are on my deck. Our back yard is quite a bit below our kitchen window, where we like to sit and watch birds. If the feeders were in the yard, we wouldn't be able to see them. We have the shepherd's crook poles installed and the feeders hang there. The thing is, the deck railing makes a great place for squirrels and raccoons to kick back and have a snack. I have the squirrels partially foiled with a Yankee Flipper feeder - I have seen squirrels get flipped off this thing and it's hysterically funny. There is no really good way to set things up with baffles or any other preventatives, though, because the raccoons just grab the feeder, swing the pole around and dig in.

I went searching on the internet a bit to see if there is anything to be done, and found some information on Dealing With Raccoons at the Bird Watcher's Digest site. While fun to read, it made me realize that I'm going to have to break down and bring my feeders in at night if I want to keep the coons away. Oh, well. It will be worth it if the dog will agree to go outside before bed.

Good Parent Today!

I feel like I've accomplished something today as a mom. For a few months now, Emma has been writing on a wall in our living room. I don't know why. When I asked her, she looked at me and said, "Well, we used to do it when we were little."

What?!?!? Not with impunity, they didn't!

So, today, after a few weeks of telling her she would be cleaning up her mess, I got out the Magic Erasers and set her to work.

She didn't like it at all. She whined. She said it was too hard. She complained that it was such hard work.

I suggested that perhaps she think twice next time she thinks it would be fun to write on the walls. BWA HA HAHAHAHA!! (evil mom laughter)(

In baby news, Isaac, aka Snort, aka Schmooey, voted not to nap today much. Finally I put him in his crib and after about a 30 to 45 minutes of complaining that really, naps are not at all necessary, he fell asleep. This is a good thing. I am quite wimpy about doing what I know needs to be done with this sweet boy to get him on a schedule, and I need to get a grip. Step one accomplished. :-)

Bicycle Fun For Two

It's finally happened - the day Emma said would never come! She has learned to ride a bike without training wheels! Abbie has too, of course, but in Abbie's mind, it was just a matter of time. Emma vowed that she would never, never ride a bike without training wheels. Thanks to our new friend Tonna, though, she looks like she's been riding on her own all her life.

I took them to the park on Thursday and Friday, and they had a ball. I cracked up when I heard Abbie say, "Look, Emma, I can turn left!" Apparently turning left had caused a few accidents on previous bike-riding expeditions.

Emma looks so comfortable on her bike, you'd never know she was afraid to take off the training wheels. Abbie, my little daredevil, careens around and runs into things pretty often. It's common to hear a crash, see a tangle of arms, legs, and bike, and find her little face peeking out saying "I'm okay!" when you're sure there should be something broken. In fact, I called Todd while he was up there with them yesterday, and heard her crash and say "I'm okay!" But when Todd asked her if she was sure, she said, "I think so," and started to cry. Poor sweetie. Her knees have taken quite a beating, and apparently she did a face plant yesterday too because her poor wee nose is scraped.

Todd took pictures of them yesterday with his fancy-dancy new camera lens. Enjoy!

Abbie, gleeful as always:


The near miss:


Look! Synchronized biking!


I love this picture of Emma, riding Abbie's bike with her tongue sticking out:

What's A Mom To Do?

I took Schmooey to his 2 month well visit last week, and it went very well. He weighs an ounce shy of 14 pounds, and is 25 inches long. He's grown a bit since he was born, I'd say. He has outgrown his 3-6 month clothing and looks quite handsome in his 6-9 month stuff.

The nurse asked me if he's turning over tummy-to-front yet. At two months? Would that not require me to put him on the floor? Why would I do that? I mean, he eats a lot, and would be quite happy to nurse all the time if I'd let him. Once he's done eating, his sisters argue about who gets to hold him, and after they're done, he's tired and it's time for a nap. Who has time for something as frivolous as tummy time? There is baby-head kissing to be done!

And then, when I told the pediatrician that I'm having a hard time getting him to bed before 11 pm or so, she asked me what he does during that time. Well, he nurses mostly, and snoozes occasionally. She mentioned that it might be a good idea to put him down and let him get used to being somewhat self-soothing. I was nonplussed. He has this great awake time around 10 pm when he's happy and cooing and laughing. He gets to spend time with his daddy then, and otherwise that's a pretty rare occurrence. Plus, I get extra time to stare at his beautifulness and wonder why God chose us to be so blessed with this child.

Really, he's not my first baby. I worked hard at sleep training them - they were both self-soothing pretty early on. Well, Emma was - Abbie refused to participate in the schedule concept for several months, and I confess freely that I nursed her to sleep most of the time until she quit nursing. Frankly, I was too tired to fight with her about it. But, by 6 months I did have even that stubborn baby on a schedule and she did have to cry occasionally.

This time, though... he's not my first, but he's probably my last. I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy either of my girls. I was pregnant with Abbie about 3 months after Emma was born, and quickly progressed into being really tired, counting the minutes between naps. I remember very little about Abbie as a baby since I was chasing after Emma while caring for my newborn girlie. I love(d) them both dearly and we had some great times, but my frazzled brain didn't retain very much of those first couple of years. Whenever someone wanted to hold a baby, I was only too willing to pass them off. It was a crazy, crazy time.

Enter Schmooey - the most kissable boy this mama has ever met! I can't seem to stay away from him. I have to force myself to let other people hold him, and to stay away so he will be happy for them and not want his Mama.

It's fun. I love being so in love with my baby. And, I promise, I'm working on giving him some time to himself, too. :-)

Thank Goodness for Big Sisters

Today, during Zacky's kick-and-play time, Abbie started teaching him directions. "Zacky, am I looking up, or down? Up! That's right! Thank you, Zacky!"



I believe Sir Isaac will be the best-educated two-week-old baby boy ever.

What A Wonderful World

Check out this movie - I thought it was so cool!

Grateful in spite of me....

Now, this is unrelated to the baby, but still very cool. My grandmother sent some necklaces to the girlies, and they asked my mom to help them write thank-you notes. Isn't that sweet? I'm terrible about writing thank-yous so I was so impressed that they asked to write them. My mom wrote out what Emma wanted to say, and then Abbie had a hard time copying so my mom told her which letters to write. Look how they turned out! (Of course, it was also an excuse for them to use their stamp set, which had been put away after they stamped on our new carpet a few months back, bur Grandma didn't know that, and it was time for a second chance, anyway.)

Here is Emma's:



And here is Abbie's:


I thought it was really cool that Abbie wanted her great-grandma to come for Christmas. She's been asking about that for a while, and was disappointed that she couldn't make it down when the baby was born. She and Great-Grandma haven't always seen eye to eye, so I was touched that Abbie would ask for her to come.

Want to see some new Zacky pictures? Of course you do! And I aim to please. :-)

Isn't this the cutest picture?


Here he is sleeping in his bouncy seat. When I went to get the camera, he had his fingers aside his face in a very thoughtful-looking pose - but he was still too cute to resist.


You know, I did try to rotate that picture, but it keeps coming up like that. I don't know how to fix it. I had another one do that too so I didn't post it. Hmmm....

Here we have a picture of Abbie teaching Isaac his alphabet. "Is this a rainbow, or a whale, or an x-ray? You're right, Zacky, it's a rainbow! Thank you!"


My boy is doing really well so far. He's sleeping perfectly in his crib, in spite of my desire to hold him all the time. He goes 3 hours most times between feedings, which is wonderful. Last night we had a rough night - apparently white chili does not agree with the poor baby's tummy so he and I were up all night. Lesson learned for Mommy, that's for sure! (Shhh - don't tell - but it was nice to have a reason to hold him while he slept.)

Baby Schmooey Is Here!

We came to the hospital yesterday morning to see if my transverse baby had perchance gone head-down, but he was breech, so I ended up with a c-section. This is not an experience I would care to repeat, but I have an amazingly beautiful son out of the deal. Isaac Todd Merle Hollmann was born on August 31, 2007 at 10:11 am. He weighed 9 pounds and was 20.5 inches long. And he has red hair, so we're three for three. :-)

Here is his very first picture after being born:


Here he is showing off his red hair:


Here he is with proud big sister Emma:


And with just as proud big sister Abbie:


Watching "The Sound of Music" with Daddy:


Last but not least, I just couldn't resist this picture of him with Abbie and Grandma. The look on Abbie's face is just priceless:


I am going to try to get a picture of the "Klingon ridge" I see on his head. My mom says it looks like he has a peace symbol up there. Apparently it's the where the seams of the bones of his head come together, and the pediatrician had an actual name for it, but I prefer to think we might have some Klingon ancestry. Ha.

This week in the hottest August on record in North Carolina....

We had a pretty good week. Monday and Tuesday, there was a lot of art being created at our house. The girls do love it when we get out the paint!

Also, on Wednesday we went up to the Homeschool Gathering Place, to see if they might have a used copy of a reading program I'd like to use for the Bean. They didn't have it, and for the FIRST TIME EVER I didn't buy anything while I was there! Woo Hoo!

Then, I took the girls over to the nearby mall - not high on my list of fun places, usually, but we had some clothes to return for Schmooey that I'd bought, and Kanki is there - my very favorite Japanese steak house. The girlies were sure that Subway was the better choice, but I was able to convince them to try Kanki with me, and they had a great time. It's one of those places where they come out and grill the food right in front of you plus do nifty things with their knives and such. The girls were fascinated! Emma told me she was so interested in watching our chef that she actually forgot about horseback lessons for a few minutes. That in itself was quite a miracle. Abbie decided to try shrimp, and she really liked it! She even ate all her leftovers. It seems that my choice of restaurants was a hit!

After Kanki, we wandered over to the Disney store and found Schmooey's coming home outfit! I was so excited.

Saturday was my birthday, and the girls painted picture frames for me. They did such a nice job! Abbie had decided at least a week before that she wanted to make a picture frame for me. We nearly had a crisis when Emma said something about Abbie wanting a picture for me while we were at Target. We were able to avoid catastrophe when I told Abbie that we would pretend Emma didn't say anything, and that I wouldn't remember it. Abbie was much relieved and said, "That's right, you don't remember things very well, do you, Mom?" Heh. Sad, but true.

Todd gave me new Birkenstocks for my birthday - woo hoo! They are the same style as my old ones, but you certainly wouldn't know it by comparing the old pair to the new pair. The old ones have paint, spit-up, and various other substances of unknown origin staining them. The new ones are still suede-looking and clean. They are a new canvas awaiting their stains from the walk of life. Ha.

That Silly Baby!

I went to the OB this morning for my first of two appointments this week - since I'm taking insulin for gestational diabetes, they do a non-stress test and check my amniotic fluid level twice weekly. Fun, eh?

This morning the baby was, of course, fine - squirming all over the place, not letting us find his heartbeat for more than a few seconds at a time, but they finally had enough of accelerations in his heartbeat to be done with the test. When we went for the ultrasound, we discovered that he is breech AGAIN. The little stinker. He couldn't make this easy and be cooperative and stay head down, oh no. Those brief days of him being in the right position were just a ploy to lull me into a false sense of security.

Unknowingly, a Field Trip!

Yesterday, I took the girls to Duke Gardens in Durham, NC to have their pictures taken. A friend of mine had made an arrangement with a local photographer, which allowed several families to have "abbreviated" sittings (no outfit changes, about 20 minutes each) for no sitting fee, and then we can decide to purchase pictures, or not. I hope we get some good ones - Emma was feeling weepy over her pony from horse camp who she has not seen in a few weeks and is next on the list to retire - in a couple of years. We won't go into how I felt about that.

We have lived in North Carolina for 9 years, and never been to Duke Gardens. It is one of "THE things" to see and do here, but you know, it meant driving to Durham and probably getting lost on Duke's campus and..... I am not a touristy kinda gal, really, so we never went.

Anyhoo, we were over by the goldfish pond for pictures, and when we were done, the girls were naturally drawn to the water. Do you know we saw at least 4 or 5 kinds of tadpoles in there? We saw some huge ones that had to be bullfrogs, and several different smaller kinds. Of course I did not have a camera (it was a million degrees and humid and I did not want to be there any longer than I had to be), but I wish I'd thought to at least take a small net and a jar... oh, wait. I bet the Duke Gardens people would have frowned heavily upon my snagging tadpoles for brief observation from among all those incredible water lilies.

In the short walk we had to and from the photo-taking area, we saw lots of beautiful flowers. We will definitely be going back when it's cooler to poke around a bit more.

Naturally, on the way home we found ourselves to be what you might term "slightly misdirected." I came in on Anderson Street and went out on Anderson Street, but apparently it's a kind of magic road that changes its position in the universe from time to time because where I came out and where I came in were not the same and the way out didn't take me back to the highway. Thanks to my very wonderful husband and the new AAA maps he just put in my car last week, I was able to figure it out and take a different way home. If you know how directionally challenged I am, this was no small feat. We ended up going by the mall with Pottery Barn Kids store, so we stopped in there and got a wonderful, soft blanket for Schmooey. It was tax-free weekend here in NC, and it was not my first choice of days to go to the mall, but it means I don't have to go back, so it was worth the effort.

In other breaking news, on the way home from the pool last night, the girls were "flying" with their towels as wings, running down the sidewalk. Abbie fell and scraped her poor little nose and forehead on the sidewalk. Thankfully, this time it was AFTER pictures. Extra specially thankfully, she did not give herself a concussion, black eyes, or break her nose.