SharonAndAdam.com

Family Updates

It’s been a while since I’ve written any thorough updates on anyone. Life has been saturated. Thanks be to God. As our family grows through different seasons, we also grow through our challenges and joys.

Next to kitchen duty, homeschooling takes up most of my day and mental capacity. Therese is almost done with 1st grade. We still have a little math to finish up or rather properly master before moving on. It’s been a busy whirlwind adventure. Therese has really started to settle into school. She is such a great writer. I especially love all the notes and letters she writes me. She recently had a pen pal request. This is so perfect for her. She is an avid reader. She wakes up and almost immediately finds a book to read. When life is not-so-crazy around here, we love to settle down, cuddle and read chapter books. She has also quite liked out history. This year we studied ancient history using the Story of the World. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much, and the last couple of months it was one of the first things she asked to do each day. Fulton has done a sprinkle of handwriting and phonics here and there. He’s doing quite well actually. I won’t push him to do any considerable amount of work until the fall probably. We started doing more Family Math games to reinforce some concepts and both Fulton and Therese can do many of the activities together which has been very nice. I spent most of the Easter season researching and ordering all our materials for Therese’s 2nd grade and Fulton’s kindergarten year. And just this past week, I received the last of our curriculum in the mail. Details to come on that in another post.

Muffin is still sweet as can be with a mix of a little sassy. Many times at the end of the day, I feel she’s fallen into the ‘middle child’ crack and I try to make a resolution to do more with her the next day. Potty training has been a roller coaster lately especially on days when we have too much going on. She is a superstar at puzzles and has claimed the right to be Cecilia’s best friend for life. (This was after one time I made a side comment like, “Muffin you are so blessed because one day you and Cecilia are going to be best friends.) She plays so well with both older siblings–dolls with Therese and Cars with Fulton!

Cecilia is 8 months now and the happiest child on the planet. She is truly a blessing to everyone who meets her. She greets everyone and anyone with the most loving smile. Her gift in life will be to bring people joy. This past month her sleeping has been less than optimal. Most of that is my fault with lack of consistent naps and such. So last week, I re-read for the third time, “The No Cry Sleep Solution.” The first day I implemented the techniques, she slept 9 hours! Of course she didn’t do that again, but she has been sleeping much better–which means that I’ve been sleeping much better. She’s been on solids for a couple of months. I’ve been making my own baby food. And she has a hollow leg! Those bottom teeth she cut a couple of weeks ago have helped.  Now that she’s eating real food, of course this adds another half an hour to our meal times. I’m still nursing her but her formula supplement has gone up a little as well. She’s growing and happy and that’s all that matters.

Our mornings in June are already booked with swim lessons and vacation bible school. Of course Gianna is too young for VBS; so if any of you have any suggestion of something special I can do with her to make up for that, let me know.

I’m still trying to figure out this whole gardening thing. We had a nice early spring garden…lots of lettuce and peas. The carrots are almost ready to be harvested. Although, they still look a little small to me. My greatest frustration is that we have the big bushy plants and no vegetables on them! Uggh! I probably need to add compost or fertilizer or something to the soil or maybe just repent of any ill I ever did to bees and hope they come back to my yard to pollinate all the blooms! I did harvest my first zucchini today. It was picture perfect.

I’ve also been working on getting my health back in order. At the beginning of Easter I was diagnosed with subclinical hyperthyroidism. For those of you who are versed in your thyroid lingo, that means that I don’t have any symptoms of hyperthyroidism, and my T3 and T4 are in normal ranged but my TSH is low. This was the same issue I had shortly after Cecilia was born. It’s no longer postpartum thyroiditis since Cecilia is already 8 months old. The doctor said there’s nothing we can do about it. I’ll have it checked every 6 months until my TSH is below certain cutoff that requires medical intervention. In the meantime, I also get to work on lowering my cholesterol and exercising a bit more.

I’m so thankful that Muffin has Fulton to play with when I’m engrossed in schooling Therese. Actually I’m thankful all the children have each other. Being wife, mother, teacher, housekeeper, cook, accountant, gardener, and volunteer is really a full time job six times over! We had some friends over for dinner last week and one asked, “So what did you guys learn today?” I honestly couldn’t remember! I fly from one thing to another that many times the only thing that exists in my mind is the present. It has made planning all that more necessary.  I can’t tell you how happy I am that many of our August-May commitments are done. One of my summer goals is to streamline our lives where we can and discern what needs to be cut out.

Mother’s Day Weekend

I had a blessed weekend reflecting on and basking in my vocation as mother. On Saturday our Covenant of Love group had a morning of reflection led by Sally Robb. Sally is just wonderful and filled with the Holy Spirit. During her talk, the husbands were busy in the kitchen cooking up a fabulous brunch for us to share. It was awesome. Next month the tables will be turned and the wives will prepare brunch while the men are affirming their vocations.

Yesterday the kids made me beautiful Mother’s Day cards. They gave me the best gift–they were all wonderful at Mass! After I took a 30 minute power nap, we all went the Zilker Botanical Gardens. The kids had a load of fun. We were about to leave and Fulton said he wanted to go back to the Oriental Gardens to see the fish. He mustered up the courage to walk on the stepping stones in the middle of the pond. Although Adam didn’t want him to because he just knew Fulton would fall in, I allowed it anyway and went with him. Unfortunately, Fulton got to too confident and about the 10th time making the rounds all I heard was SLASH! He fell. Adam told me so. But no matter. Fulton was brave and did something he did think he could. He made me brave and Therese brave too. And thanks be to God the pond was only knee deep.

Thanks to our dearest Lord and my dearest husband for making me a mother.

Above is the fateful pond that soaked my little guy. I thought it was hilarious. It certainly made for a Mother’s Day I won’t forget!