(And All My) Work Be Praise

I lost a baby this week. I've said it so many times now, as I've called and e-mailed and sent texts to various friends and family, and it still seems surreal. And it's not exactly true, even: technically, I lost the baby four weeks ago, mere days after I found out that I was carrying our sixth child. It just took three and a half weeks for my body to figure it out and respond. We had just told the kids on Sunday. It might have been a bit premature, but I've never struggled to carry a baby before. Levi requested to do another Thanksgiving alphabet  this year. It was so fun to write BABY in the B section and watch their confused little faces: "but we already have Calvin on the list!" Levi was the first to comprehend, of course, and his skeptical, "wait a minute; are you getting pregnant again?" ushered in a cacophony of "are we getting a new car?" and "where will he sleep?" and "is it a boy or a girl baby?" and...

This sat in my drafts folder for six months. I never finished it, but I'm going to post it anyway for my own future self to read at some later date. :) I realized I haven't posted a blog in over four months, and truthfully, I don't foresee having time to do it again any time soon. But I couldn't let a birthday go by without taking a few minutes to record a bit about my middle son! Silas has been reading proficiently for over a year, though I haven't taken the time to determine his actual reading level. He most often has a Magic School Bus book in his hands. He's been carrying around some chapter books and staring intently at the pages, but I honestly have no idea how much he comprehends. (I really ought to figure that out at some point.) This spring, Silas asked to do math "like Levi and Owen," so I pulled out Saxon. We're not super consistent -- maybe two or three days a week -- but he enjoys it. Right now we're working on doubles f...

I am in the beginning stages of creatinv systems to help my kids be more independently responsible. With so many little people underfoot, I'm finding it very difficult to check up on kids in a timely fashion to make sure they've completed assigned jobs. I don't have an answer for that yet (except, perhaps, just give everyone another year to get older before I stress out over it), but I do have one  system in place for Levi that seems to be working. Several years ago, I followed a blog called Life as Mom . (I don't regularly read blogs anymore, except for this one .) I vaguely remembered her posting about their " morning high five " -- five chores to be completed before their homeschooling day began.Without even referring to the original blog to see what hers contained, I made Levi his own "morning high five" chart with the five responsibilities he needs to take care of before coming downstairs in the morning. Nothing fancy: just the two minute...

Do you all make baking powder biscuits? They were a staple in my house growing up, and I love them. They're SO easy, and this is the recipe I turn to any time I'm making a pot of soup or something that needs a little bread on the side: Sift together: 2 cups flour (I use freshly ground white whole wheat) 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Cut in  1/3 cup butter. ( Actually, I don't "cut in" butter anymore. I pulse the dry ingredients in my food processor, then pulse in chunks of butter until pebbly.  Transfer to bowl, if you used the food processor. )  Add 3/4 cup milk and stir to moisten. Roll out dough on floured surface, knead 2-3 times, and use juice glass or biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Or, plop it all on a baking sheet, pat into a rectangle, and use a flat spatula to cut into squares/rectangles/triangles/whatever shape you end up with. (Because really, who cares about having round biscuits?) Bake  for 12 minutes at 450 degrees. ...

Okay, this is going to be more of a monthly recap than weekly, because I haven't done one for a while. So don't think I did nothing but cook and read this week. ;) What I'm Cooking Oven "fried" pork chops . Isaac doesn't love pork, so I don't make it often, but periodically I get tired of chicken and beef and want something different. I actually ended up making this three times this month, because once I've bought a family pack of pork chops and a box of cornflakes, I might as well use them up! Skillet lasagna . I make a few changes to this, to keep it simple with pantry items I usually have. I use ground beef seasoned with sausage seasoning , skip the fresh parsely altogether, swap cottage cheese in for the ricotta (it's cheaper, and my kids will eat the leftovers), and stir the cottage cheese right into the skillet instead of dolloping on top. This is one of Owen's favorite meals. Creamy green chili beef . I make this any time I have l...

See past years here: 2015 , 2013 , 2012 I can't even begin to describe the ripple of excitement that went through me when I got the text message from my college BFF Jenny saying that they might be willing to make the trip up here to do our mostly-annual New Year's Eve celebration. She has a carseat-hating two-year-old, so I really thought it was out of the question, and we were in no position to travel there with a three-month-old. But when you've been best friends for almost half your lives (we'll hit that milestone in 2019), what's a few hours of screaming toddler?! This year boasted eight kids under eight years old: two sevens, one six, two fours, two twos (though Toby was just days away from his third birthday), and baby Calvin. We let Caleb (their seven-year-old) have Toby's bed so that he and Levi could share a room, and that alone was worth the trip. It was a "first sleepover" for both of them, and we couldn't hardly stand hearing th...