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.

2009-2010

After five months of trying to concieve I got a positive pregnancy test on May 28th. I've been spending the last couple of weeks trying to prepare for when the baby comes and so far I feel I'm really making progress. The baby is due Feb. 1st and once we get the crib and changing table the baby's room will be ready.
In addition to baby preparation we've also started Ashlyn's school year. She's taking reading, spelling, english, math, social studies, science, PE, and alternates between spanish, art, music and safety. She does exceptionally well with spelling and English and appears very interested in historical figures. Friday we're taking a trip to the Minnesota Zoo, which will be the first field trip of the year, as well as the biggest. I am still in the process of planning the rest of our field trips for the year. I'm hoping for a factory tour, and firehouse tour, but not sure if we'll be allowed to do either of those.
As for this week, we'll be making molasses cookies tomorrow, studying up on birds, amphibians, and reptiles and some random animals we'll be seeing at the zoo, as well as studying asian culture. Now I just have to get next week planned, and the rest of our field trips for the year!

Beating the heat

Last fall we sold our air conditioner because we thought we would be moving in the spring and wouldn't need it. However, due to many state budgets cuts Andy was not accepted in any of the graduate programs he applied to so we will be here a little over a year. Yesterday the temperature reached high 80's, but thankfully it was a very windy day.
We went outside after breakfast at 8 am. The girls rode their scooters that Grandma Becky and Erie got them for christmas, and honestly I was amazed at how much they've improved. Andi rode her bike for a while and is getting a bit better; she still has to have me help her steer, and forgets to look up instead of at her feet, but she's gotten brave enough to ride without me holding on to the bike. After an hour or so Andy went outside with us and we played ladderball before I had to head to the laundry mat.
Ashlyn and I went to the laundry mat together, and while we waited for the clothes to wash we went to target and festival to get a couple of things for lunch, and even though I'm trying to stop using "replacement foods" I found vegan parmasian cheese for pasta and had to get it for Andi, my vegan child who eats hamburger, and myself. Andi was pretty excited.
When we got home I hung a basket of clothes with Ashlyn's help and sorted out some clothes that would dry quickly inside then made lunch. I made veggie subs:

Loaf of "Everything French Bread" with cut up cucumbers, lettuce, and broccoli and carros slices from a mixture that's in with the bagged lettuce. I topped it with a sweet vidalia onion dressing. I was going to put green peppers in it too, but frankly, I was too lazy to cut anything else. With the sandwich we had red potatoes cooked in olive oil and seasoned. yummy yummy lunch. Surprisingly, Andy gobbled up his sandwich and asked for another. This surprised me since it was just veggies on bread! Anyway, after lunch I hung more clothes, took a cold cold shower, then went downstairs with the girls and took a nap. After nap time it was already time to make supper. After cooking a bunch of food and washing dishes in hot water we walked to the gas station and got the girls push up popcycles. Ashlyn took her scooter which was a major wake up call for me as to how big she is getting! I can't believe it sometimes. We got home, cleaned the girls up and went downstairs to watch american idol. The girls slept on the floor in our room since it was cooler and I wanted to leave all the windows and the backdoor open upstairs, which I can't do when they're upstairs alone. It was like a fun little slumber party since Andy stayed upstairs for a while leaving us girls to hang out alone. :)
The best part is this:
Today the high is only 66, and it is cloudy and rainy. No major heat to beat today! :) Maybe we'll have an air conditioner before we have another really hot day.

I've come to realize...

I've come to realize:

...Life runs much more smoothly when I am home
...I am open minded, but also set in my ways
...Even though my husband doesn' share my views on animal rights, he is amazingly supportive
...I did everything I could to nurse our hamters back to health and need to stop living in guilt
...There is no perfect way to parent a child as long as all your actions are guided by love
...When saving a plant, animal, river etc. become a widespread goal it is typically only because peoples lives are somehow affected by it
...I will never understand the point of making it a priority to protect an endangered species, only to hunt it again once it's no longer endangered
...I need to let go of the past and live for now
...I can never successfully stop being vegan...it's no my diet, it's who I am and will always be. Trying to stop means pretending to be someone I'm not
...It doesn't matter what other people think about me, and caring so much about it will only cause me to continue makin poor discisions
...Today is all that matters

Orchards

We took the girls to the orchards today to pick apples. It was a little more expensive than I felt it would be worth, other than the fact that you can't put a price on happy memories.

Minneapolis

We went to Minneapolis yesterday and spent the day at valley fair. The girls were just perfect.

They stayed with us the entire time, they didn't fight at all, and they didn't throw fits at all other than when we had to leave. There were several rides that we all could ride on together which I loved. When we went to the mall of america the last two years, I would have to stay with Andi while he went with Ashlyn on any rides other than the kiddie rides. We rode the scrambler, the octopus, a hot air balloon ride that you sit in a basket and it takes you up in the air and around and around, some ride that just went around in circles really fast,


and of course the Tilter. Then there was the rollercoaster for kids that they went on, the kiddie free fall ride called the frog hopper, and then your other basic kiddie rides.






We took them to an Imax show there as well on the Wild Ocean in africa. Andi fell asleep right away, and I'll have to admit, I slept for the firstt 15 minutes of it as well. Not because it was boring, I was just that tired! When it was time for lunch we thought we'd go to a little diner they had, rather than get food at the stands. What a mistake. I kept laying out napkins so the girls wouldn't touch the table! The food comes, and the cheese on the girls' cheeseburgers were plastic. It was melted, and still, all I had do was lift the corner and pull the entire thing off. When I did that, there was a hair underneath the cheese on Ashlyn's. Andy took it back, and they gave him another. Normally, the girls know if they don't eat what was given to them, they're not going to eat any sort of snack, however, when I saw the girls were nto wanting to eat them, I was glad. I told them they don't have to eat, we will get them a snack and explained that this was an exception to our normal rule because the place was disgusting!

While we were there, we also saw a child who apparently belonged to the most irresponsible parents to ever exist. While we were in line to get on the balloon ride, this little girl who was probably 5, maybe even 4 yet, tried getting on the ride. The man asked her where her parents were, she pointed to one of the rollercoasters in the distance and said "um..they're on a ride." My heart jumped. He told her she couldn't ride without her parents, and we got on the ride and he started it. I waited for him to go talk to her, and call security. He told her to stand on the other side of the gate. When she did, she wandered off to a stand where a girl was in charge of some game. I was about in tears. I couldn't believe this guy let that little girl take off again. I guess it just takes a woman to deal with these sorts of things because the woman was smart enough to know to keep her there by her until she could get security over there. When security took the girl I took that as the perfect chance to show the girls that that is a safe person to let them take their hands and guide them somewhere if they ever get lost at a place like that. I told them that instead of walking around looking for someone, to go to the nearest stand and tell a worker they are lost. Ashlyn was upset all night asking me if the girl found her mommy. I told her yes, and she got mad and said "You don't know that because you didn't see!"
After we had all the fun we could take at valleyfair, Andy picked up some fresh mini donuts at the bakery shop they had there and shared them with the girls, then we went to the gift shop and got the girls each something on our way out. After valley fair, we were all hungry so we went to a restaurant called Champs. Andi was given a balloon flower, and Ashlyn was given a horse. They had a great time! After that we went to target to get my film developed and picked up some things for the girls' school, and a gymnastics outfit for Ashlyn. We signed Ashlyn up for the ymca's gynastics program yesterday. She starts this wednesday at 6:15. She looks adorable in her outfit! :)

It's been a wonderful weekend, and today we are taking the girls to the orchards (for real this time!)

end of week one

We finished our first week of school, and the girls are making amazing progress. Ashlyn is understanding opposites which was something she had been having a hard time grasping until this week. Andi is starting to recognize letters, and LOVES it. Until this week she wanted nothing to do with learning! Now, several times a day, even when we're not doing school work anymore, she says "mommy, do my flash cards!" For fun, I gave her a work sheet that had four pictures of a girl that needed to be colored, and above them there was a pink shirt, a yellow shirt, blue pants, and purple pants. The directions said to color the pictures in all possible ways she could wear her outfit bsed on her options. Andi was done in no time. Was I surprised? Absolutely not. And yes, if you were wondering, her very first option was pink shirt and purple pants, even though those were the farthest away from eachother. Also, there was a picture that the girl had a purple purse and that is the one Andi put the purple pants and pink shirt on because she said they matched with her purse.

Tomorrow we are taking the girls to a theme park to enjoy our first weekend from school. We can all use it! :)