Well, I have let time get away from me and not posted in a great while.  Who knew having a baby could be this time consuming? 

Update on Annaliese:  She was one month old last week.  We celebrated by packing her in the car with her sisters and heading to MD for my brother's wedding!  Me and the two older girls were all in the wedding.  She did as well as can be expected... the trip was hard on her to be out of her environment and surrounded by new faces all the time.  Of course, all the relatives loved seeing her so that was nice timing.  She had her one month old appt today and she has gained 2 pounds!  She is now 10 pounds 5 ounces.  She is also smiling now-- the doctor verified that it is early, but it is a real smile.  So that is so sweet-- her whole face lights up.  She is still sleeping pretty well at night and that is a blessing, as I can function pretty well during the day.  With Brad not taking good naps anymore, me taking a nap is rare these days.  We are all enjoying her and the kids are still quite smitten with her-- begging to hold her, getting in her face all the time, etc.  I had thought that would die down as the new wore off but no such luck!

School is going well.  I have struggled lately with wishing they were in school so that I could spend more time on writing.  That is the honest truth.  I enjoy writing so much that I sometimes wish they were all gone and I could have a quiet house to write in.  I know these thoughts are not the right ones to have-- and that it would not be nearly as blissful as my mind makes it sound when I fantasize about it.  However, it is where I am struggling these days.  I think some of it is a result of having the baby.  I know that in reality it is really her schedule and needs that keeps me from writing as much as I want, and she would be with me no matter if they were all in school. 

I have managed to write an article for TOS as well as an article for TEACH magazine and The Greenhouse Report since she has been born.  So that is more than I expected to accomplish in her first month of life.  The nice thing about writing is that a large part of the process for me is organizing my thoughts-- figuring out which direction I want to take the article, how to start the piece, etc.  I can think about those elements while nursing in the middle of the night, riding in the car, etc.  I also get hit with ideas while cooking, cleaning, reading aloud to my kids etc.  The trick for me is to get the ideas down somewhere before they fly back out of my head!  I usually just jot them down in my "things to do" notebook and write them down with my other writing stuff as time allows.  So far, this has worked. 

Right now I am working on an article for Money Matters newsletter on involving kids with helping with disaster relief.  A large part of this article will be research on good ideas-- so if anyone has some, send them my way!  I also just heard back from TOS on a query I sent in to write a unit study for the spring issue. That is not due until Jan though, so I have time.  I am speaking on writing in November, so I have to get cracking on organizing that talk.  I also owe several chapters that are as yet unwritten to a publisher who is considering a book proposal of mine.  These are the writing projects that I will focus on for now, and will be pleasantly surprised by the ones that sneak up on me in the meantime.

Well, the baby seems to have decided not to take a nap so I must go and fetch her from her bed.  She is hit or miss about naps these days.  The other two are up in their rooms having "quiet time" which is more like "ask mom when we can get up" time at our house!  They are begging me to make them peanut butter crackers since they did not eat their lunches and are starving.  The older two are working on math assignments that daddy gave them.  He assigned alot, if you ask me!  He can sometimes be a bit unrealistic, but I keep my mouth shut as I am just glad he has taken over with math for them.  We have already done our read aloud time and their other assignments.  The boys have a play performance of Oliver tonight and the girls have Praise Dance, so it is a busy night at our house!  I am hoping daddy will take Brad to the grocery since we are badly in need of groceries.  He was supposed to make a run last night, but some friends of ours came over to measure our countertops, as they are going to help us install new ones.  They are good friends and quite handy!  I am thinking we will order pizza for dinner tonight since there is no food in the house... Domino's has buy one get one free on Tuesdays, so we usually order pizza on Tuesdays. 

Well, at least I have finally written an entry... hopefully as the baby grows older, I will do a better job with keeping up with my blog!