Early December

The story of Natasha losing her first tooth is that she was 4 1/2, and we had never had a reason to explain to her that baby teeth fall out. She FREAKED!! lol We hadn't even known she had a loose tooth!! She bit a toy (no clue--), and out the tooth came. >>Then:





Justus is 6 1/2, and has just now "finally" lost his first tooth. [I read that anywhere from age 5-7 is 'normal'.] This means we haven't had a 'lost the first tooth' moment in five years!! It was Jeremy who pulled Justus's first tooth. Jeremy said it's the first tooth he has ever pulled, besides his own! Wow!! Lots of firsts! >>Now:












The children and I have taken turns the last few weeks fighting a nasty bug. I got it first, with a cold, but then before I completely recovered from that, I came down with a 24-hour-flu. Woah, I was more sick than I've been in 20 years. One morning as I was d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g out of bed, I said to the children, "Oh, guys, I am ssssso sick." Natasha, preciously, consoled me: "Well, Justus and I can pretty much take care of ourselves." [All I could think was, "Yeah, but who's going to take care of me?"] Natasha caught the flu a week later, and then she and Justus have both fought colds, too. Uggh. It has taken a toll on our 'school days', so I'm thankful that we don't have to do a "Christmas Break", and we can blow through a bunch more days.

Natasha is getting a kick out of starting to learn multiplication. I basically stand back and shake my head in consternation. Jeremy and Justus have had a bunch of bonding time shoveling during the last couple weeks. Our sloped driveway is definitely a winter challenge, providing lots of opportunities for the children to practice removing snow. :)

I have started doing Pilates. Sometimes the children do it with me. [I laugh so hard because at one point the instructor talks about curving the body into a 'C'. I have decided what I curve my body into is a BAGEL.] Slow & steady wins the race. Well, I don't imagine I'll be *winning* anything any time soon, but for now it's nice to have at least SOME kind of exercise I can do when it's too icy/windy/snowy/rainy to walk; it's also nice to do something 'strengthening'. For so long I've just been shooting for something aerobic. We're supposed to be doing both, right? I'm watching Freecycle for someone wanting to give away some exercise equipment, especially a Gazelle. We have the space for it in the basement!!

Speaking of Freecycle, thanks to a young, fellow Des Moinesian, homeschool-graduate minister who is off-loading stuff he doesn't need before he moves to Phoenix, we were able to gift Natasha with a fairly nice desk that is 'just hers'. She is enjoying doing her school work (and other things) there when she wants some place quiet. I'm hoping it'll help her churn out her school work more efficiently so she can have more focused time for other things. ...? The young man also gave us a like-new office chair, a much-appreciated replacement for the office chair we had that broke a couple years ago. Freecycle is becoming my FRIEND!! Whoever thought of that deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, I believe.

Jeremy's lesson last Sunday included the story of how, in his Mustang 13 years ago, he was trying to get to MT the quickest way possible one night by driving in a zero-visibility snow storm holding the door open so he could stay on the road by keeping his eye on the yellow line. Needless to say, he ended up doing three full 360-spins, at 80 mph ... under an overpass into the median. To the audience on Sunday he said, "I could have died!" That's when Justus looked up at me, so concerned, saying in a slow, tiny voice, "Well at least he didn't!" And then a few seconds later, "I would be really sad," followed a few seconds later by, "He's a really nice dad!"

Today Jeremy was frustrated at me because I kept bumping his knee he keeps ... spraining? ... while trying to get into the Saturn on the ice. I was massaging some of that miraculous "Sore Muscle Massage" into it; it makes such a wonderful difference!!! But I kept forgetting it hurts for it to bend.... So Jeremy said to Justus, of me, "Should I keep her or get rid of her?!" Justus answered, "Keep her at least 'til 100."

We aren't like lots of families who immediately start decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving. We are set to deck our halls on, maybe, Friday. We've decided to reserve the dining room to splash in pink streamers and balloons this week for N's birthday #10.