Where HAVE I been?!

Well I'll tell you . . .
I've been up late nights with the most adorably squishy little baby in the world

Who despite his adorable seven months is still not so much sleeping at night. Not really at all!

I've been learning to balance solid foods with a baby who is still totally in love with breast feeding. The Princess was a bit like this but the Squish takes it to a new level, for me anyway. But despite his love of milk we have found some foods that he likes
I try hard to keep Daddy from giving him too many sweets!
I don't succeed much
Not against forces like these!

I have also taken on a new interesting challenge. After some very disheartening experiences with the local school districts, and finding the local private schools almost as equally lacking I decided to finally take the plunge that has been nagging at the back of my brain for years. The kids and I are homeschooling.

We love it! I couldn't be more pleased. The theme of this year for our family has been wonderful challenges and wonderful blessings in strength, gratitude, and patience. As we tackled this issue with school and considered all our options I was lead again and again to home school. Once I finally gave in I was blessed with comfort, ingenuity, and a truck load of patience that I never could have managed on my own.

It has been amazing. The kids are loving it. I'm loving it. The boys are blossoming. And I've met some amazing people.

We've also been busy with soccer, every Saturday for the last couple of months. Will coached, WG, Taz, and Princess all played, Squish and I watched and cheered. Well Squish slept mostly - which was awesome!
WG has kept up with his violin. Taz has started piano. The Princess is itching to start as well.

The kids made sure that despite all the excitement of home school and everything else I did not forget Halloween.

WG, Taz, and Princess went as the Harry Potter trio, Will and I went as Tonks and Lupin - the most likely chaperons to the mischievous three some, and the squish was a delightful prop, although not capable of actual flight, he made a pretty cute snitch.
The kids have been dressing up regularly for over a month now, here is just a sample (they made sure to include the squish in the fun)


They even found time to throw their own Halloween party, complete with spook alley thanks to Taz :)

So that is where I've been. Focusing on kids, their activites, our family, running, not sleeping with a baby, and even squeezing in a girls and a date night here and there. With all this going on I need a little me time once in a while ;)

So here I am catching up on life just in time for the holidays. I guess the up side to that is that I will be less buried come January than I would otherwise have been :).

Oh Yeah, I also went to a totally awesome concert staring my favorite new Singer Mindy Gledhill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!