Congratulations! You're pregnant! You've just started to notice that little bump appearing in your midsection and suddenly... nothing fits anymore! You're searching for maternity clothes everywhere you go, but you just don't know the best places to find what you need.

Here I come to help you!

37/52: Last Day at the Beach

Okay, so these were technically taken the same week as the last post... But we have so many beach pictures I couldn't limit them to one post!

My Sunday Best, Vol. 22

First of all, thank you for all of your prayers regarding this post - it's one of those things where I feel like I should be praying without ceasing, but I just can't because... I still need to function in everyday life, and serious prayer just turns me into a sobbing mess. Ugh. I hate crying so much, y'all. And I've never been a cry-er, but this pregnancy has turned me into a hyper-sensitive mess, and adding all this mess on top of the regular hormonal oversensitivity is not a good combo!

36/52: Let's Go Fly A Kite!

Maybe a Miracle?

We had our first ultrasound this pregnancy about a month ago. We brought the two older kids, because they got to come with us to see Peter's ultrasound and thought it was really cool. And we've never had any health issues with any of our babies, so I guess we just assumed we were invincible?

Apparently not.

Verdict: really stinkin' cute 💗💗💗

A photo posted by Rosie Hill (@rosiehill425) on Sep 7, 2016 at 9:18am PDT

Vacation Recap! Stop 1: Roanoke Island Festival Park

I can't even explain just how necessary this vacation was for us! We haven't taken a vacation that was anything beyond visiting family/traveling for weddings since John Paul was a baby... So just picking a spot (the Outer Banks, in our case) where we didn't have to focus our efforts around other people was really nice!

And when I found out that we'd be staying pretty near Roanoke Island (where the first English child was born in the British Colonies), I knew the kids would be pretty excited to check out the Roanoke Island Festival Park! I contacted them to see if they'd be up for a collaboration, and Tanya sweetly offered us tickets. So we packed up and drove about an hour from where we were staying (the Outer Banks are LONG and the speed limits are low so everything took longer than I expected!) to check out the park.

Let's Play the {Baby} Name Game!

"But wait!" You say, as I crowdsource for baby name possibilities, "There's a blog for that!"

Yes, yes there is. And I kept thinking, "I should email Kate and see if she has any ideas, because we're at a total standstill in the baby naming process right now."

And THEN she goes and has a real life and has to close consultations just when I need her the most!!! This is what I get for procrastinating, because I knew I was going to have a write a really long, ridiculously specific email and... I didn't want to.

So instead, you get a really long, ridiculously specific blog post and YOU get to help us come up with baby name possibilities for Andrew to shoot down!

Aren't you excited???

My Sunday Best, Vol. 21: Colonial-Style?

Okay no, this isn't what the twins wore to Mass this week... But I'm sorting through vacation pictures and this one was too cute and appropriate not to share!

My Sunday Best, Vol. 20: Vacation Edition

We're on vacation! Which means that after many many hours in the car yesterday, ANY good behavior from the younger 3 was totally used up by this morning. Thankfully a giant new van means the biggest offender has been moved all the way to the back of the car by herself. And let's hope that her Mass behavior today is NEVER repeated. Oy.

Homeschool Wins, Vacation Crowdsourcing, Road Trip Favorites, and All Saints' Day {7QT}

Ahhhh, after spending most of my free time these past few weeks planning a blogging conference (which Rita and Ginny and Amanda have written about already! Winners!), I can finally sit down and write real blog posts again! Maybe... Depends on the whole "pregnant fatigue and pregnant brain" thing. But why not treat you to a total brain dump and call it Quick Takes? Of course!

Affiliate links included below:

--1--

We've been reading about American History in This Country of Ours - it's the recommended text from Mater Amabilis for John Paul's level, and I continue to be shocked by how much the kids adore it, especially when I keep hearing about how other kids hate it! In all fairness, the beginning is tough. I think there's a reason that early history curricula basically go from Columbus to Jamestown, skipping all the in-between attempts at colonization, because those stories basically all go like this:

Then [insert country]'s colonists landed at [insert place] and tried to start a colony. But they ran out of food/made the Native Americans mad/got sick of each other and starved/were killed/sailed away, never to return.

But now that we finally hit Jamestown and John Smith and Pocahontas, there's a LOT MORE out there when it comes to outside resources, and they're ecstatic to be able to go to the library and check out books for free reading. They know a ton about Pocahontas and the Powhatan tribe and all of the surrounding history, and are basically totally owning me when it comes to legitimate knowledge about early American history.

35/52: Summer's End

The days have gotten noticeably shorter, much to the chagrin of the big kids, who treasure their special post-bedtime reading by what little light crept in through the blinds & blackout curtains. The garden is winding down and drying up (no more cucumbers! Unless the ones I planted at the beginning of August actually end up producing...) and school has not only started here, but we're in the full swing of things! Let me tell you, the second year of homeschooling? ONE THOUSAND MILLION TIMES EASIER than the first year. At least for us.

After way too many days straight of million-degree heat, it's finally cooled down enough for us to want to be outdoors again, particularly after dinner. Much of the garden has been overtaken by weeds, and the girls are always thrilled to find these super-long "Magic Dusters" to play with. I'm not entirely sure how one plays with them, aside from carrying one around and bopping someone with it occasionally, though...

34/52: Butterfly Release

So... I'm a really good mom. 

LAST YEAR I got a butterfly habitat, intending to let the kids do a little "science" study and then a butterfly release.

Well. We moved. Things were nuts. I never actually ordered the caterpillars.

But this year I finally did! (Affiliate note: we used this kit, which is fabulous and I love all their products)

Side note: I feel like the alternate title to this post should be "My Kids Have Dirty Faces" or something like that... 

They all crowded around the torn-up habitat, hoping that a butterfly might land on one of them on its way out of the netting.

My Sunday Best, Volume 19: Post-Blogging Conference

Whew! We hosted 30 ladies here yesterday (and... 7 babies? 8 babies?) for the Catholic Women Blogging Network Mid-Atlantic Conference (that's a mouthful, eh?) and while my body isn't as exhausted as I feel like it *should* be, my mind is moving a mile a minute!

It's just plain good to be among so many people with such good hearts. If it were up to me, we would all sit around for an entire week just talking and being that place of "you too? ME TOO!" understanding that sets in when suddenly you realize that you're surrounded by kindred spirits. But we all have family and lives to attend to, and so for now we can all just daydream about that sort of magical event ;)

Anyway, I will try to manage some sort of conference recap post - we're in vacation planning mode right now, which might eat up any of my free time, but I promise either I'll get a post together or I'll point you to some other thoughtful posts that some OTHER bloggers write that will make you feel like you were there!