Esme's Newborn Photos

Esme is almost FIVE MONTHS OLD. Where has the time gone?!

When Esme was only about a week old, my friend Ruth came over and photographed our family. I  love the way the pictures turned out...

Oh Esme. We love you so.

Our School Room

Today I thought it might be fun to show you around our "school" room. It is not very clean or organized, but it gets the job done. Our school room is actually a sun room / mud room right off our kitchen. There are plenty of windows, so it is a very bright, happy room.

We are currently renovating our house, so eventually this room will get a fresh coat of paint and new light fixtures. But for now, this is what it looks like. We have a huge table that we inherited from my brother and sister-in-law. If you look in the back of the room, you can see our IKEA chalkboard (where Lucy's sight words are written) and the bunny hutch (this has now been moved out to our screened porch). There is some twine and clothespins hanging across the windows, so that I can display Lucy and Alice's artwork. In this photo, we still have our Valentines and snowflakes up, but I just took those down to make room for our spring projects. And in the back corner is Alice's play kitchen, so that she can "cook" while Lucy has her lessons.

On the opposite wall, we have all of our storage! These wire drawers contain some of our school supplies...

... and this bookshelf contains everything else. In the bottom shelves, I keep toys for Alice to play with during "school". The top shelves are for Lucy's books and lessons. I use the wooden trays to set out her "lessons" each day. There is a tray for Reading and another for Numbers / Handwriting (we have each every other day). The trays allow her more ownership of her assignments; she can go to the shelf and get her work all by herself and then put it away when she is finished. 

And this is where we spend most of our days! We do so much more in this room than have "school". We play in here, eat lunch in here most days, do art projects, read... It's usually an epic mess, but I love it all the more for that.

Signs of Spring

The other day on our Nature Walk, we went looking for signs of spring. Spoiler alert: they were everywhere!

All of the Japanese Magnolia trees in our neighborhood are starting to bud and bloom. They are so beautiful!

The girls found a tiny violet down by the creek. Lucy was so proud of this discovery.

the "shy little violet"

The weather was so warm and sunny for awhile, but it's back to cold and rainy. Hopefully our flower friends will survive these last, cold days of winter!

Bunnies

We must be insane because we added some (more) new family members last weekend.

Their names are Oscar and Ernie, and they are the cutest! 

Life in a Day

I thought it might be fun to record what daily life looks like for us in this current season (with a 5-year-old, 3-year-old, and a tiny baby). There may not be anything exciting or noteworthy, but it is real life. Which is better than the glossy, pretty-but-staged content of blogland IMO. 


*I happened to choose a day that was unseasonably warm, so we spent more time outdoors than is typical this time of year. Also, it just so happened that I didn’t have any errands to run or appointments, or anything else that can disrupt our daily rhythm. But overall, I’d say this was a pretty typical Thursday.

7 a.m. Alarm goes off. Morgan usually gets up first to make coffee, while I nurse Esme. Morgan and I *usually* get some time together to drink our coffee in peace and quiet. But this morning, Alice came upstairs around 7:30 to “help” me get Esme changed. She is our morning person.

8 a.m. Lucy, who is not a morning person, got up. Because Alice woke up hungry for breakfast, I did not have time to sit with my coffee this morning. Morgan also had an early meeting that he had to rush out for. Normally, he helps me cook breakfast and leaves for work as we are starting “school”.

Today, the girls wanted granola, which I make from scratch every week. Sometimes, we have a hot breakfast, like eggs or oatmeal, but the girls were apparently starving this morning and couldn’t wait for something to cook.

Not a morning person.

Loves the morning!

After breakfast, Lucy and Alice are supposed to get dressed and make their beds. Morgan left for his meeting, and I put Esme down for her morning nap. Some mornings, while the older girls are getting ready, I have time to dress myself and make my own bed. This morning, everyone needed help with different things, so I barely had time to brush my hair and put on deodorant. My bed did not get made, either!

Lucy help Alice with her bed.

9 a.m. We try to start "school" around this time every morning. First, we read a story from The Jesus Storybook Bible and say a prayer for our day.

Then we do the Flag Salute (which even Alice has memorized). They take turns “leading” it. Today, it was Alice’s turn to lead.

*As a side note, Alice is not required to join us for “school”. She usually wants to participate, so we let her. But she is free to come and go as she pleases.

After Flag Salute, we do our Daily Calendar. We write down the day of the week, month, date, year and season. Lucy also looks out the window and observes the weather, and we record the temperature.

Next we read a nursery rhyme or sing a song. We have been going through a Mother Goose treasury.

Lucy then has her reading lesson. She has been reading through The Princess in the Forest by Sybille von Olfers. If she comes across a word she doesn't know, I write it down on her slate, and she takes a mental picture of the word. She then builds the word with her wooden letters from memory. Once she's done this, I have her copy the word in her own hand. Then we go back to the text, and I have her read the sentence (including the new word) again. As you can imagine, it is slow-going. In a 10-minute reading lesson, we might get through only one or two sentences. But slow and steady wins the race!

Next comes Geography, which Lucy will tell you is her favorite subject. We have a little map, and we color in all the countries that we "visit". Right now, we are learning about Russia, so we read a Russian folk tale. 

Esme usually wakes up from her morning nap sometime during “school”. I feed her while teaching, so we don’t have to stop and risk losing the student’s attention. ;) This morning, she woke up as we were finishing up with Geography.

We rotate Numbers and Handwriting. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we have math. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have Handwriting. We use Handwriting Without Tears, and Lucy usually does a page or two in her workbook. Alice sometimes works on her own "workbook" (with her dot paint markers), but this morning, she played with her toys instead.

Last of all is science. This month, we are learning about animals in winter, which is funny considering how warm it has been lately. We read Where Do Insects Go in Winter? by our favorite Nature Study author, Millicent Selsam. 

10:30 a.m. Morning lessons end, and the kids are dismissed to go play. The weather was so nice today, with highs in the 70's. I had dirty dishes in the sink and laundry to fold and put away, but I could not bear to be cooped up indoors on such a beautiful day. I strapped Esme into the Ergo carrier, and we went outside.

The girls rode their bikes and scooters and drew with sidewalk chalk.

11 a.m. Lunch time. Today, the girls wanted to eat outside. Morgan's lunch meeting got canceled, so he came home for lunch, which was a welcome surprise. After we finished eating, we decided to take the dogs for a walk. Esme napped in the Ergo.

Signs of spring were everywhere! We could hear frogs and songbirds singing. On our walk, we spied some robins and daffodil shoots.

When we got back from our walk, it was time for a little rest. The girls and I cuddled up on the couch with our current chapter book, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace. I nursed Esme while I read aloud. No one fell asleep, but it was nice to sit and rest for a little while.

3 p.m. Esme went down for her afternoon nap, and I had some time to get housework done. Alice helped me fold and put away laundry. Lucy was playing with her Legos. 

Esme woke up from her nap, and I fed her again. The girls headed back outside to play, while I got started on dinner. 

Since the girls have a swim lesson on Thursday evenings, I always try to make a quick, easy dinner. We eat relatively early (between 5 and 5:30), so that they can get out the door by 6. Tonight, we had leftover roast pork and vegetables. I made a fresh green salad and toasted some sourdough bread to go with it. 

As soon as dinner was over, Morgan took the girls to their swim lesson at the Y. I had a little time alone with sweet Esme. I got her ready for bed, fed her one more time, and we read some books. She is just starting to become interested in the pictures, which is really fun.

After I put Esme to bed, I washed the dinner dishes and cleaned the kitchen. By then, Morgan and the big girls got home from swim lessons. They changed into their PJs, brushed their teeth, and we read some bedtime stories.

8:30 p.m. Lights out for the older girls! After Lucy and Alice go to bed, I always tidy up the school room and prep the lessons for the following day. Then Morgan and I relax! Lately, we have been watching Downton Abbey. We try to get to bed by 11.

And that's our day!

It's not perfect, but I wouldn't trade these precious days for anything in the world.