So much to do, so little time!

In just two weeks my baby will be six years old. I'm hoping and hoping nobody is sick on her birthday. Unfortunately, both my girls have birthdays at a time when everybody is getting sick. This is our first year not having a party, and to be honest I'm just going to keep it that way. Ashlyn is thrilled about her birthday. She gets to pick any restaurant, and so far she's chosen the new pizza place in town which is supposed to be pretty good. Yay for Ashlyn...we have coupons for that place! As always I'm excited, but this time of year always goes by too fast and this year it's going to go by even faster. Halloween, thanksgiving, Ashlyn's birthday two days after thanksgiving, Christmas, new years, and Avery's due date is January 27th. Am I done? No! Right around the corner in March is Andi's birthday.

This year I am super excited about thanksgiving. I'm tired of thanksgiving being all about turkey. I've accepted it (and still enjoyed thanksgiving) every year because hubby lives for meat, and he's great when it comes to supporting my views, so I can bend for him as well. This year we decided this would be my year to have a vegan thanksgiving. We're on a tight budget though, and it's just the four of us so I'm not making anything complicated or expensive. I decided our thanksgiving dinner will be vegan shephards pie, corn on the cob, brown rice, vegan biscuits and broccoli (or trees as Andi calls them.) And of course salad. Then, thanksgiving night when the trees all put up I'm making vegan hot cocoa. The best part? All of the things I need to make hot cocoa I always have in the house! I have corn on the cob (lots in the freezer), lots of broccoli in the freezer, lots of brown rice in the cabinet, and lots of potatoes for shephards pie. I just need to get a couple of things to put in the shephards pie and things to make a veggie platter. That sure beats spending a ton of money on turkey. Hubby isn't upset either because this year he doesn't have to cook anything. :) Also, this fits perfectly with the new diet change.

I've recently decided to finally take the step to cut out (to the best of my ability) harmful preservatives and additives. I'm not going to say we're preservative free, but I think we're doing well. I have a few preservatives that due to risk of cancer and/or behavior problems I'm putting most of my focus on. I'm not saying we'll never cheat, but I think we'll be able to remind eachother this is for our health and it'll just become our norm. =)

One day at a time

We have been making a lot of changes, and for once I can say I am okay with that! The original plan was to start Ashlyn with first grade this year in August, but instead we put it off and started her in Kindergarten September 8th. The school work she is doing is first grade level, but she gets to do all of the fun things a kindergartener should get to do! This gives us a fresh start and has allowed me to start homeschool the way I had always intended it to be, before I got caught up in what the public school kids are doing. We still do school WORK, but don't make that the largest percent of our school day. In the mornings she does her spelling, math, writing or grammer, and in the early after noon she reads. Some days we just skip the morning work and play make believe. The rest of our day is filled with books books and more books, games, songs, playing outside, art, dancing and more! During breakfast and lunch we talk about a specific subject whether it be religion, someone in history, "the birds and the bees" or naming our favorite mammal! They've been talking a lot about religion lately, and Ashlyn has decided she is a buddist. Andi is I'm pretty sure creating her own religion (no surprise). None of them appealed to her. She says when she dies she is going to come back in another life as baby Andi. Andi is not requesting a book about Darwin. She has been obsessed with George Washington for months, and now Darwin. It honestly surprises me how much she has gotten into learning about significant figures in history.

Ashlyn is reading much faster now, is a pro on riding her bike without training wheels, has nearly mastered telling time, and is now tying her own shoes as of three days ago. She has lost two teeth and has another loose one, which I wasn't prepared for this early! She already has one permanant tooth, and two others coming in.

The pregnancy is going well. I am due in 12 weeks. Can't believe how time flies. We are having a baby boy. A couple of weeks before entering my 3rd trimester I cut out eggs and dairy from my diet and am now officially back on a vegan diet. It's a little stressful at times trying to make sure we're not only GETTING enough iron, but obsorbing enough, as well as obsorbing enough calcium. The calcium is no different on a vegan diet than a 'normal" diet, however your body doesn't obsorb as much iron from veggies as it does from meat. On the flip side, our vegan diet is filled with vitamin C which helps iron obsorbtion. The hardest thing is simply not knowing. I read that non-pregnant vegans should consume 14 mg of iron a day to be safe. However, a pregnant woman on a normal diet should consume 18 mg a day, so I guess a pregnant vegan should consume 22 mg or iron a day. The important thing is the girls are healthy and the baby is healthy. The baby is kicking non-stop. The girls kiss my belly all the time and talk to their baby brother. It's so sweet! Right now my focus is just spending as much quality time with just them as possible before the baby comes, and looking forward to more great years with them and their baby brother once he too becomes a wonderful addition to our family.