Reinforcements have arrived!

Reinforcements have arrived!! I am infinitely more relaxed. There is SOMEONE ELSE to entertain the munchkins. There is SOMEONE ELSE to do the dishes. There is SOMEONE ELSE to say "No, don't do that" or "Here, let me help." There is SOMEONE ELSE to watch the kids while I go to the doctor or on errands. There is SOMEONE ELSE. *phew!*

So, here I am, blogging my morning away while my blueberry-cherry muffins finish baking. *sigh* Bliss. Actually, this is why my MIL keeps delaying her arrival with each child because she sees how productive I become once she arrives and then doesn't think that I need her. I should just get in the habit of sending her video of how pathetic I am before she arrives, lol. Actually, this time we failed miserably at getting the house cleaned up before she got here. I got the bathroom clean and the kitchen tolerable, but the rest of the house was still trashed. Oh well, she didn't run away and she's actually been helping to keep all the crap off the floor which is where my complete and utter failure has shown itself. You know, it's hard to pick up when you can't bend over. ;)

Anyway, um, homeschool... yeah, that's what we're blogging about, right? I last left you last Wednesday after a super productive couple of days. Thursday was the polar opposite of that, lol. We did do schoolwork on Thursday and Cameron read the first chapter of Frog and Toad Are Friends (he does love that book, BTW) and we did math and a few pages of science. Then we went to ballet and Greyson screamed pretty much the entire time. And then we went to Our Neighborhood Park Day which just restarted for the "fall" at a new time/day. This park day used to be on Wednesday which is generally our "do nothing" day so we rarely went. I love having at least one day a week where we just don't leave the house. Anyway, now that it overlaps with ballet class, I think we might stop by on our way home occasionally. But it was about 105˚ last Thursday and there is NO shade at this particular park. It was so bad that even the kids started asking to leave after an hour. The rest of the day was, understandably, shot.

Friday was Favorite Park Day and there are lots of big shady oak trees and a nice breeze there. It was hot, but it was bearable. So the adults hunkered down in the shade next to the snack table and the kids hunkered down in the shade in the sand box and we happily enjoyed the official restarting of Favorite Park Day with a snack and craft project potluck. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but several reusable canvas bags full of toys and baby clothes and baby blankets and aromatherapy sprays and bath salts and handmade chocolates and dairy-free snacks for Greyson and crayons and coloring books... and love. Yes, my Favorite Friends at Favorite Park Day conspired with our 4-H friends to throw me a surprise baby shower. :) And not just baby stuff, but stuff to keep the other kids occupied to give me and the new little one a bit of peace once he arrives. It was so wonderful and so touching. *sniff sniff* It definitely goes up there with one of the best days of my life. I've never had such a circle of friends. I am honored and blessed to be a part of such an amazing community.

The weekend was spent with DH finishing up Cassia's room. It's beautiful. I should go take a picture (while it's still clean, lol) but that would require getting up. ;) One wall is covered in bookshelves and looks SOoooooo much better than all the random cheapy Home Depot bookcases that used to hold our school books. Her little white desk has become Cameron's favorite place to do math. Her bed has become our favorite place to read. It's a haven for us all.

I spent the weekend finishing up the family rosters for our homeschool group. Wow, that was a project. Thankfully, DH took pity on me and stayed up late one night stuffing them all with their ridiculous number of fliers, folding, and sealing them. All 160 of them.

Monday, MIL finally arrived. We spent the morning attempting to clean up and she arrived just in time to head out for gymnastics. I left her there with the kiddos and went to the post office to mail out the rosters. Yikes, I had to put stamps on those puppies by hand! Why did I think they would have an automated thing to do it for me?? At least I didn't have to lick the stamps. (OK, please tell me everyone remembers having to lick stamps, right? I'm not that old, am I?) After the gym, we headed right out to soccer. DH met us there and stayed with C&C while Grandma and Greyson went home for a nap and I headed to the grocery store. You seriously need one parent for each child, I think. Oh how I resent our nuclear family society at times!! MIL can't move near us though because all of her DH's family lives near them (including his 90-something year old mother!) and won't let them leave. Oh well. Hopefully we will be able to be there for our children... and hopefully they will want us to be.

Tuesday the kids spent most of the morning just enjoying having Grandma C around. Cameron and Cassia and I left about noon for the first 4-H meeting of the year. It felt strange being there and not having to chase Grey around, lol. Cameron and Cassia both got to be Sergeants at Arms and help carry in the flags and lead the Pledge of Allegiance. They were pretty proud. It was a good meeting and the kids signed up for cooking, historical crafts, origami, geocaching, and puppetry. Well, I don't know if they would have voluntarily signed up for puppetry or not, but since I'm leading it, they're taking it. ;) There were lots of new families this year and several of them were pretty big families too! I think there were two or three new families with three or four kids around the same age as mine. It should be a fun year.

When we got home, Cameron read Grandma C a chapter of Frog and Toad for school. She was suitably impressed with his reading and he and Cassia were just rolling laughing over the story. Next was Cassia's turn to impress and she read Grandma C "her" Ant book. Grandma was actually really surprised and impressed with her ability and I was glowing with pride. I especially had to throw in the fact that Cassia's schooling is totally optional and I've never forced her to do anything she doesn't want to. (Their cousin H, who is also 5, just started Kindergarten this year and hates it already.) While Cassia read, Cameron went into her room and did his math. He's still working on matching up fractional pictures with the fraction numbers. He loves fractions and thinks they're super easy. Gotta love that. I hope that attitude sticks around. The "boring" 4-H meeting (which actually wasn't too boring at all this time!) counted as the other subject today. I suppose if I had to name it I'd call it Social Studies. It really is a study of government and speech and leadership and citizenship as well as all the cool things that you learn during the projects. Have I mentioned that I love 4-H? ;)

Today, now that we've all gorged ourselves on freshly baked muffins, we're going to head out to the Jelly Belly Factory for a tour today. We didn't have anything on the schedule today and MIL had never been there... so why not? Sorry for the crazy-long post again. I'll try to blog again before another week passes me by.

Love to all. :)