Inspired by my friend's own blog update, and the calmer-than-usual pace of this particular Monday, I thought I'd actually take a moment to Blog!
It'll be a bit random, and without pictures (the cord is in my bedroom, and I have absolutely no intention of waking the little boy sleeping in there!), but it'll have to do.
It's been a while since I popped in here. As usual. I suppose that's a good thing though, since *hopefully* it means we're being productive and experiencing "real life" rather than more screen time.
So, let's see... what's been happening so far this year-
*Our sweet dog, Koa, passed away. We think she had cancer of some sort, and we couldn't bear to watch her lose her vitality (anyone who knew her would have said she was definitely energetic and fun loving!), so we chose to have her put to sleep once she was unable to run anymore. She *Loved* to run, and though she didn't seem to be in too much pain yet, the vet very kindly told us that there was really nothing else, barring very expensive surgery (itself with unsure results) that we would be able to do for her. So, we spoiled her and played with her as much as possible until it was finally time. It hurt both Pete and I greatly to not only watch her decline, but to make the decision to have her put to sleep. She was a loving and loyal puppy, and had been with us through everything we've been through in the last 7 years- and much of those years were spent in the painful grasp of infertility. She was there, by our sides, through all of the miscarriages, pain, tears, frustration, and, eventually, the joy (and some fears) of a successful pregnancy. She was a sweet friend to our baby girl, and was gentle and willing to "play" dress up with Regan until the end. Regan still asks about her from time to time- it's hard describing death to a 2 1/2 year old in a way that they can comprehend and that won't scare them. We talk about her when she asks and try to remember the good. Pete buried her in one of our flower beds, and today I planted some Bleeding Hearts over the spot. It will be a sweet reminder when they bloom of our sweet girl.
*Due to the grief we experienced in letting Koa go, we adopted a puppy named Bay. While the decision to bring her into our family was admittedly one that we rushed headlong into, she is a sweet dog and has helped us all cope with Koa's loss. She's now 4 months old and is finally making some real progress in being house trained! (I have discovered that I am not a big fan of puppy-hood. Puppies are adorable, but potty training one is *not* my cup of tea.) She's a sweet heart, but (like Koa) seems to have some issues with being a bit overly submissive, so we're working on building her confidence (we will be singing from the roof tops the day she finally stops peeing every time anyone looks at or talks to her!). I'll have to post pictures soon of her- she's pretty cute!
*Regan is now 2 1/2. She's such a "big girl" now, that I can definitely feel those growing pains in my mama-heart again. She recently moved into her very own bedroom (she had been co-sleeping- in one form or another- with us in our room since the day she was born). It was so much fun to put her room together (again, I'll post pictures as soon as I can!), but a little hard to say "goodbye" to that part of her baby/toddler-hood. She was ready for her own space though, and I was very ready for her to have a place of her very own, *and* a place for most of her toys to live. I'm no where near done pretty-ing up her new space, so I'll be posting pics of that process from time to time as well.
*I began "homeschooling" Regan (and our little daycare friend) for "preschool" this year! I'm not one who really believes in an academic preschool program, but it's been very fun to have one or two little playing-to-learn activities to do each week. And I've learned that one thing I love already about homeschooling is how flexible it is- I became very overwhelmed with our house and just life in general about a month or so in, and we took a nice long break from it so I could focus on a few organizing and simplifying projects around the house. We're finally ready to get back into the swing of things again, so I'll have to share more on it all soon. For now, I'll just say that we're planning our week's around quality children's story books. It's a "curriculum" based on the Before Five In A Row concept, and I really love it. I'm fairly certain we'll continue, to some extent, with Five In A Row for her schooling as she grows. As I've been putting together little activity plans for our book units, I've come across quite a bit of Montessori resources (and here), and so I'm becoming more and more inspired to continue our homeschool journey by combining both of these methods.
*I'm continuing my personal "quest" to simplify. I've continued to "pare down" and "weed out" our bleongings- the Goodwills in our area have received quite a few very large and very full "contractor's trash bags" of misc. clothes and "stuff". Every bag that leaves this house makes my shoulders feel like a weight (that I hadn't even noticed was there in the first place) has been lifted. And, having less stuff is making it, slowly, easier and easier to keep the house kept up- which in turn is helping me to stay calmer throughout the days. I'm learning that my mood and attitude is very dependent on my environment. The less stuff I have to contend with, the better I'm feeling. It's also giving me much more space (an entire room in fact!) to set up as a sewing room for my business! This is a very good thing, because our financial situation has become slightly more dependent on any extra income I can manage to bring in. So, I'm working on getting that room all "organized" and ready to go so that I can be more easily productive with the small windows of time I have to work on my sewing. I'm hoping to find a way to "stock" my Etsy shop regularly (whether that be every week or two weeks is yet to be determined) this year.
Anyway, that's about it as far as 2012 has been going so far. We've had a couple bouts of sickness- Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease most recently for miss Regan (and a lesser case for poor Pete too), and before that a Nasty, nasty virus that had us all getting repeatedly sick to our stomachs (not even going to bother going into details there!), and resulted in us needing to take Reg into the ER to get the vomitting to stop. But, we're all doing better these days, and I'm still working on our diets, so hopefully we won't be seeing much more sickness this year. For myself, I'm continuing to eat mostly Vegetarian/Vegan, with a little bit of seafood (and once in a while even bacon!) or eggs here and there, and I'm doing my best to keep Pete and Regan eating a Clean Diet as well. I hope to keep popping in here fairly regularly to update you all (and to have a place to store our memories for myself too) as the year progresses.
Lots of Love,
Jenni
*Our sweet dog, Koa, passed away. We think she had cancer of some sort, and we couldn't bear to watch her lose her vitality (anyone who knew her would have said she was definitely energetic and fun loving!), so we chose to have her put to sleep once she was unable to run anymore. She *Loved* to run, and though she didn't seem to be in too much pain yet, the vet very kindly told us that there was really nothing else, barring very expensive surgery (itself with unsure results) that we would be able to do for her. So, we spoiled her and played with her as much as possible until it was finally time. It hurt both Pete and I greatly to not only watch her decline, but to make the decision to have her put to sleep. She was a loving and loyal puppy, and had been with us through everything we've been through in the last 7 years- and much of those years were spent in the painful grasp of infertility. She was there, by our sides, through all of the miscarriages, pain, tears, frustration, and, eventually, the joy (and some fears) of a successful pregnancy. She was a sweet friend to our baby girl, and was gentle and willing to "play" dress up with Regan until the end. Regan still asks about her from time to time- it's hard describing death to a 2 1/2 year old in a way that they can comprehend and that won't scare them. We talk about her when she asks and try to remember the good. Pete buried her in one of our flower beds, and today I planted some Bleeding Hearts over the spot. It will be a sweet reminder when they bloom of our sweet girl.
*Due to the grief we experienced in letting Koa go, we adopted a puppy named Bay. While the decision to bring her into our family was admittedly one that we rushed headlong into, she is a sweet dog and has helped us all cope with Koa's loss. She's now 4 months old and is finally making some real progress in being house trained! (I have discovered that I am not a big fan of puppy-hood. Puppies are adorable, but potty training one is *not* my cup of tea.) She's a sweet heart, but (like Koa) seems to have some issues with being a bit overly submissive, so we're working on building her confidence (we will be singing from the roof tops the day she finally stops peeing every time anyone looks at or talks to her!). I'll have to post pictures soon of her- she's pretty cute!
*Regan is now 2 1/2. She's such a "big girl" now, that I can definitely feel those growing pains in my mama-heart again. She recently moved into her very own bedroom (she had been co-sleeping- in one form or another- with us in our room since the day she was born). It was so much fun to put her room together (again, I'll post pictures as soon as I can!), but a little hard to say "goodbye" to that part of her baby/toddler-hood. She was ready for her own space though, and I was very ready for her to have a place of her very own, *and* a place for most of her toys to live. I'm no where near done pretty-ing up her new space, so I'll be posting pics of that process from time to time as well.
*I began "homeschooling" Regan (and our little daycare friend) for "preschool" this year! I'm not one who really believes in an academic preschool program, but it's been very fun to have one or two little playing-to-learn activities to do each week. And I've learned that one thing I love already about homeschooling is how flexible it is- I became very overwhelmed with our house and just life in general about a month or so in, and we took a nice long break from it so I could focus on a few organizing and simplifying projects around the house. We're finally ready to get back into the swing of things again, so I'll have to share more on it all soon. For now, I'll just say that we're planning our week's around quality children's story books. It's a "curriculum" based on the Before Five In A Row concept, and I really love it. I'm fairly certain we'll continue, to some extent, with Five In A Row for her schooling as she grows. As I've been putting together little activity plans for our book units, I've come across quite a bit of Montessori resources (and here), and so I'm becoming more and more inspired to continue our homeschool journey by combining both of these methods.
*I'm continuing my personal "quest" to simplify. I've continued to "pare down" and "weed out" our bleongings- the Goodwills in our area have received quite a few very large and very full "contractor's trash bags" of misc. clothes and "stuff". Every bag that leaves this house makes my shoulders feel like a weight (that I hadn't even noticed was there in the first place) has been lifted. And, having less stuff is making it, slowly, easier and easier to keep the house kept up- which in turn is helping me to stay calmer throughout the days. I'm learning that my mood and attitude is very dependent on my environment. The less stuff I have to contend with, the better I'm feeling. It's also giving me much more space (an entire room in fact!) to set up as a sewing room for my business! This is a very good thing, because our financial situation has become slightly more dependent on any extra income I can manage to bring in. So, I'm working on getting that room all "organized" and ready to go so that I can be more easily productive with the small windows of time I have to work on my sewing. I'm hoping to find a way to "stock" my Etsy shop regularly (whether that be every week or two weeks is yet to be determined) this year.
Anyway, that's about it as far as 2012 has been going so far. We've had a couple bouts of sickness- Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease most recently for miss Regan (and a lesser case for poor Pete too), and before that a Nasty, nasty virus that had us all getting repeatedly sick to our stomachs (not even going to bother going into details there!), and resulted in us needing to take Reg into the ER to get the vomitting to stop. But, we're all doing better these days, and I'm still working on our diets, so hopefully we won't be seeing much more sickness this year. For myself, I'm continuing to eat mostly Vegetarian/Vegan, with a little bit of seafood (and once in a while even bacon!) or eggs here and there, and I'm doing my best to keep Pete and Regan eating a Clean Diet as well. I hope to keep popping in here fairly regularly to update you all (and to have a place to store our memories for myself too) as the year progresses.
Lots of Love,
Jenni
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