September 1 will live in infamy. It was not just Norah's first day of second grade. It was also the day she realized American Girls were not just books, but also "dolls, clothes, furniture and other accessories." She read the ad to me herself, the ad that I forgot to tear out of the back of one of her new Julie books. Damn it.

Today was Norah's first day of 2nd grade.

My Resolutions for 2011.
Priorities have changed since I found out I am expecting a baby.

Run a 5k.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! The only exercising I am doing right now are my Kegels. I am just focusing on eating right and keeping that nutritious food on my stomach long enough to digest it. I am staying away from the junk that I used to feel justified eating while pregnant and only eating things of real nutritional value this pregnancy. Absolutely no fast foods. No fried foods. I've completely cut out soda and chocolate and candy, etc. I would like to keep my weight gain with this baby really, really low since I am already carrying extra weight.

Follow Fly Lady's Flight Plan every single day.
I had been feeling so bad, cleaning has been next to impossible. I would either gag from the smells and appearance of food particles left in the sink or manage to do dishes, but then break into cold sweats shaking all over from the exertion. But the last few days, I've been feeling more normal so I am trying to get back into the routine of doing Fly Lady's morning routine. It's taking all day to do that morning routine, but that's more than I was doing when I was feeling sick so I feel good about it.

Mend my quilts.
I am not feeling as motivated for extra projects like I was before the hormones kicked in. My energy is often sapped before I finish what is necessary from my day, let alone anything extra.

Let Norah play outside.
She hasn't been outside in a while. I have no desire to be outside. The breeze may blow me a smell that makes me gag. And I also feel more vulnerable than I usually do about letting her play in the yard without me there. Again with the hormones. Pregnancy really changes my perceptions.

Read through the entire Bible.
I'm still on track with this plan.

Pray.
This last week, I've had a lot of opportunity to pray for my friends as they share what's going on in their lives.

Read one book every month.
Every free minute I have had has gone to preparing for the next year of home school and unless reading Norah's spelling text or science text count or unless I can count the books I am reading out loud to Norah, I am way behind on reading one book each month.

Eat fruit and vegetables.
I'm doing well with this. Pregnancy helps. I was craving fresh pineapple and carrots today and I had a big bunch of green grapes after dinner.

No late night eating.
I'm doing well with this, too. Because my system has really slowed down, I try and eat a smaller dinner and finish eating and taking supplements at least three hours before I go to bed so all my food is pretty much digested before I lie down.

Be consistent in the garden.
The weeds are taking over out there. I can't even clean the bathtub without getting the shakes, so I don't see how I could work like I need to outside without getting in big trouble physically.

Stop talking in bed.
I'm doing alright with this. But I have required a lot more attention from Dwayne during the waking hours than I normally do. We've been through this twice before and Dwayne and I both know that his dismissing me because I'm hormonal would just make it harder for me to deal with the hormones. I am so thankful for how he "lives with me in an understanding way." Okay... here come the tears of gratitude... See! I'm hormonal!

Go to be early.
I'm getting plenty of rest these days. When I need a nap, I take one when Avril takes one in the afternoon. Even though I know it's part of the deal with this stage of life, I kind of hate needing naps. Naps make me feel unproductive and then I struggle with feeling inadequate. But, the good thing is I know from experience that this season is temporary and even though it might take about a year with a full pregnancy, a birth recovery and then nursing a baby through the night, I will, eventually, go back to not needing the extra sleep. That is... unless caring for three kids is much harder than I think it will be.

An old friend came to my mind in the middle of the night last night. I'm not particularly close to this guy. I never was really. But I'd say we were friends... once.

I just wanted to go back to sleep but I could not stop thinking about this guy and his family... I just lay there... thinking.

I just found out this morning via his Facebook status that he was at the hospital emergency room with his kid at the exact same time that he and his family were on my mind.

Right now, I am blown away by the power of the Holy Spirit. I think I go about my day (and night) underestimating the power of God, at least when it comes to His power at work in me personally.

I know what the Bible says about it. "...the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you."

That's a lot of power.

I need to live more aware to the realities that that simple (yet miraculous) fact brings to my simple (yet miraculous) life. And when people come to mind like that and I need to do a better job of recognizing the Holy Spirit's direction to pray from now on!

For Geography:

I knew we couldn't just read this First Atlas. Norah would never retain the content without something visual and interactive.

So, for Canada, I found the image of a maple leaf, a hockey player, a totem pole online. For the USA, I found the Hollywood sign, a wheat combine, the capital building, etc. I was going to make colored stickers of these images so we could cut them out and put them onto a world map as we read about the places where they are.

For a day or two, I spent all my free time downloading the images for North and South America alone. But as I was shopping for other books on Amazon, I came across this sticker atlas. It represents the exact concept of what I was trying to accomplish on my own.


So, using this book for stickers instead of making my own, we will read through our atlas like we planned, but find the stickers for that part of the world from this book. There aren't stickers for every image I would have chosen and some of the images on stickers aren't talked about in our atlas, but this book will provide plenty of colorful, ready-to-use stickers to correspond to what we will read from our First Atlas.

I am sorry I wasted the time I did preparing the images I did, but I am more than thankful for this resource because it means I won't have to do stickers for the entire world on my own!

It occurred to me that I should have some practical goals for Norah this year to go along with all the academic ones.

You know "life-skills" and all.

In the fuss of planning history and science and art I had kind of forgotten it was also my job to teach her this kind of stuff, too.

Arguably, this stuff is more important anyway.

If a straight A high school student can't wash their own laundry, how smart are they really?

So here's a list of stuff she is going to learn how to do this year:

Clean off the stainless steel trash can.
Note: I hate this job and it's a good sized job for Norah to inherit. It will allow her practice and eventually perfect the all-important skill of using Windex without leaving streaks.

Empty and reline waste baskets.

Empty and reset the diaper champ.

Make her and Avril's breakfast.
She needs to learn to pour the cereal and milk into the bowls, microwave the oatmeal safely, etc. else she and Avril may not eat breakfast till noon once I am nursing an infant.

Make (and put away the ingredients of) her and Avril's sandwiches for lunch.

Vacuum the stairs with a hand held vac.

Sweep and quick mop the kitchen and bathroom floors.

Wash and dry a simple load of laundry.

Wipe off the bathroom counter/sink/mirror, etc.

Clean out the toilet with a toilet brush.


Looking at these goals like I am looking at our goals for school this year, it becomes clear that I am going to need to break all these tasks down into detailed parts and really be there with her, showing her and telling her how to do these things correctly and safely.

I also realize I need to buy her some tools so she can do these tasks herself... like a nice pair of petite, vinyl gloves, an apron and a few step stools positioned around the house, etc.

I think Norah is going to be thrilled with the power to do more for herself. She's always begging to help. So, I am actually looking forward to this part of our school year. I guess we should call it "home ec."