Changes!

First, a heads-up: I've noticed we have a new follower. Welcome, Follower! I don't know you, but I'm glad you stopped by.

In light of the not-knowing, however, I've been going back and changing how I use names in the blog. You know my kids or you've been reading the blog long enough, so you'll know to whom I'm referring. And there will be the occasional labeled picture. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but I'm lazy and slow. What can I say? I'm not done yet (because I've been keeping this blog for about five years. FIVE YEARS. That's a long time), but I hope to be soon.

And now on to other things, such as school! THE GIRLS HAVE STARTED SCHOOL. It's been a week now and I still haven't wrapped my head around it. OH WAIT. I know why. It's because I'm not done homeschooling. I sure thought I was, but with The Eldest's online school, I'm still the teacher. I just don't have to do any grading and I don't pick the curriculum. And it takes HOURS upon HOURS, and in the little bits of time I have to myself, I'm changing diapers or doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen or making lunch or putting children down for their naps. (Nap. Singular. I only have one child who naps any more, so I really ought to quit writing so wishfully.) I have not been so exhausted in a long, long time. But we're getting the hang of things and hopefully as the weeks wear on, The Eldest will get a little quicker at filling out all her worksheets and doing all that writing and arithmetic. The first day only took four hours and I was worried about fulfilling the 25-hours per week of school time. I AM WORRIED NO LONGER.

Thankfully, Miss Bubbly is in a carpool, so I don't have to stress about getting ALL of us out the door in the morning. She adores school, has made friends with another Type 1 in her grade who picks her up so they can go test their blood before lunch, and has envied another classmate's egg roll/broccoli lunch, which led to playing together at recess. My sociable girl is in heaven!

I would have pictures, but honestly, that's the last thing on my mind first thing in the morning. If you're lucky, I'll take one this week. Good at this history-keeping, family record thing I am not. (I'm also starting to feel a little bit like Yoda.)

The Baby also decided that she was done nursing last Sunday. It was a rather abrupt decision on her part, especially since we'd been nursing 3-4 times a day/night. Oh yikes. But ibuprofen saved the day and my body has accepted the change. It's strange to think that this little creature, who can walk and point and sign "please" and "want" and burbles constantly in a language of her own making, was a tiny baby a year ago. And now she's no longer dependent on my body's ability to feed her, which is freeing and a little sad all at the same time.

In another sense, however, this entire family is dependent on my ability to feed them! To that end, I'm going to try for a fall garden. My spring garden was almost an utter failure. I got about 12 strawberries, 7 beans, and 1 squash for my efforts, and 0 tomatoes. My rosemary is still alive, however! It's my one success and now lives happily in a pot in the much sunnier front yard. The fall garden preparations have been underway for weeks now, as I took the advice of a professional gardener in our ward (LDS church congregation) and started burying my compostables in a small pit in my future garden area. The pit is the size of a #10 can or thereabouts and once it's filled, I shovel the dirt back in and dig a new pit. I've done that about 10 times this summer, so hopefully the soil in my garden area is much more nutrient-rich than it used to be. I've also laid out paving stones so that I don't have to get my shoes muddy when I weed, and I've used a few stakes to lay out my soaker hose in a more orderly fashion. Tomorrow the seeds go in, and the labels. I'm just going to try for a blend of lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas--a simple green salad. If that's successful, then maybe, just maybe, I'll try for a bigger spring garden. It might be just green beans, since we love them and they freeze easily! I don't necessarily love gardening--there are definitely NO flowers in my yard unless they spring up on their own--but I like the experiment of making the land work for me. What can I say? I'm a control freak.