--1--

It has been quite a week!  I think we're finally back into the swing of things after some seriously crazy days.  Just...  Potty training twins is not for the weak (or pregnant?).  And teething twins?  Also not for the weak.  And apparently John Paul turning 5 injected him with some extra disobedience for a few days, but I think he's mostly better now.  I was certainly not at my best, though.  So yeah, when I'm feeling cranky at the universe, blogging is not a good idea!

--2--

And with that, I present to you:

Kids shucking corn!

I hope we live somewhere with enough space to grow corn some day - not only is it tasty, but it takes them sooooo long to shuck it and they love doing it, and it gets them out of my hair when I'm trying to make dinner!

Also?  Peeling garlic.  And picking leaves off of herbs.  I was seriously kicking myself the other day when I cut a ton of basil for pesto and sent them all downstairs to watch TV without putting them to work taking all the leaves off for me!

Why did I have these kids, after all?

Rookie mistake.

In other news, lemon basil makes the most delicious pesto you will ever taste.  Plant some!  It grows SO fast and is super-easy and you will love it.

Love, me.

--3--

Elizabeth would spend the entirety of every day outside if I would let her.

Which I would be okay with, especially since the weather has been gorgeous lately.

Only problem?

ALL THE MOSQUITOS.  And she is an absolute magnet, and the bites make her miserable :(  I still need to remember to spray the bug spray *before* we go outside (we have this bug spray, which works well as long as I don't wait too long to use it...), because the poor thing is so bitten up and still too young to really obey the "don't scratch and they won't itch" command.

--4--

Mary Claire, on the other hand, seems to be entirely left alone by the bugs.  Lucky.  She makes up for it by STILL eating dirt when she's out there.  Seriously, 20 months old, still eats dirt.  Ridiculous.  We have this garden bed in the picture above that is the worst and we can't grow anything in it, so I just decided to let the kids go to down digging and "planting" and such.  I bought some fake dinosaur bones and they've been having a blast!  But yeah, it's kind of nasty and dirty because John Paul keeps spraying the dirt with the hose...  I think I might send Andrew for a couple bags of sand to keep the mud at bay!

--5--

I adore Cecilia's imagination.

She came out of her room after nap time the other day wearing this getup:

It's John Paul's purple chasuble, his purple stole around her head, and a stuffed dog and stuffed bear shoved down the front and covered with a wash cloth.

Me: Cecilia, what are you wearing?

Cecilia: Mom? Nuffin' excitin'.

Me: But why are those animals stuffed in your outfit?

Cecilia: I just needed to carry dem.

So there you have it.

She also spent a looooong time setting up a very elaborate birthday party for her pet, Lisa (all of her animals tend to be named Lisa or Rachel.  These are also her imaginary names when she's pretending to be somebody who isn't from a book.)  She lined up all the animals, made a cake, and invited John Paul (who had been digging in the mud all this time).  They were even happy to have their nap early because they were so excited to play birthday party during quiet time!

However, the addition of a boy to the situation means the game very quickly morphed into a new game called "Dinosar Explorers" which involved a looooot of stomping and yelling.

Gender stereotypes much?

--6--

Oh!  John Paul turned 5!

Most notable part of the day?  They were all going crazy and fighting over one of his presents, so I locked them all in one room and locked myself in another so that I wouldn't go totally crazy on them...  And when I came out, they had gotten out and John Paul had veeeery carefully skewered a bagel and hung it on a pretend clothesline in the playroom.

I just about lost it, it was so funny and weird.

--7--

Have you been closely following the maxi dress saga?  Okay, not really a saga...

The dress came!

It's perfect.  Well, it's too long.  I'm washing it and drying it to see if I can shrink it, but it shouldn't me too hard to hem if need be.

But it has TONS of room for my belly, and it's such a nice, airy material, and it can be dressed up and dressed down, and it's even prettier in person than on the internet!

The kimono?  Not so sure...  I'll take pictures soon and hopefully you can help me decide if I should send it back or not!

Check out more quick takes at Conversion Diary!

WIWS: Maternity Inspiration

I was looking through my albums from last summer's pants-free challenge and trying to get inspiration for outfits using what I already have - here's some of what I came up with this week:

Shirt: Forever 21 - an awesome staple that I wear all the time, although it just got retired for the remainder of this pregnancy! (similar, similar)

Skirt: Old Navy Maternity, from my last pregnancy (similar regular, similar maternity)

Same shirt last summer, not pregnant:

Contrasted with 22 weeks a year later:

And this outfit is almost exactly one I wore last year (minus the belt):

Shirt: Uniqlo (similar, not maternity)

Skirt: Gap (not maternity, on sale today!!!)

Same outfit last summer, not pregnant: 

Here's what I wore to Mass with the kids today:

Shirt: J.Crew Factory (not maternity) via ThredUp

Belt: Banana Republic via ThredUp (similar)

Dress: Motherhood Maternity (old - from my pregnancy with John Paul!) (similar non-maternity)

Similar outfit from last summer:

There's one thing I'm certain of, looking at all these pictures:

1.  Pregnancy makes me look shorter than I am.

2.  When I'm not pregnant, I look way skinnier than I feel...

I took John Paul and Cecilia to Mass and found out just how much John Paul actually listens to the homily...  Father was preaching against contraception, and he pipes up, "Mom, what's contraception???"

"I'll tell you after Mass."

"But what IS it???"

"It's when someone puts chemicals into their body to try not to get pregnant." (not exactly, but just trying to get him quiet)

"I would make that against the rules!"

And thankfully that was as much of the conversation as we had to have...  Not ready to go there with an almost-five-year-old!  Thankfully Cecilia just sat quietly and snuggled me for most of Mass.  She DID want to know why the babies weren't coming, so I promised her that next week we'd all go to Mass together.  I think we might finally be ready, since the babies are less crazy than they used to be and John Paul and Cecilia are (mostly) better-behaved.  Pray for us?

John Paul went up with me to receive communion and, as always, tried to receive, but didn't freak out when I pulled him away, and just loudly whispered, "I received Jesus in my heart!"

So there's that, too!

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple for What I Wore Sunday - go check out more Sunday style!

Why I Worked, Part 3: A Job, Finally!

Part 1 here, Part 2 here

When last we met (to talk about THIS at least), I was unexpectedly (although really, unsurprisingly...  NFP has rules, people!) pregnant, working 4 jobs, and had been applying for teaching jobs for nearly a year with no luck.  My most recent interviews were in school districts that were both about an hour away, and I never ended up hearing back from either of those schools.  And at this point in the year (November), either somebody was going to have to get sick or get pregnant for me to have a chance.

Well, as luck might have it, I got another call for a position open at a school only 5 minutes from our apartment!  And it was a middle school (my favorite)!  And it was actually full-time!  And the teacher was pregnant and didn't want to return after her maternity leave, so I would actually be under contract, not just substituting!

And I was convinced that I was out of luck again.  Because really, what had I learned from all these interviews?  That nobody wants to hire a wet-behind-the-ears new graduate with no experience outside of student teaching.

Morning sickness was bad.  I was puking more times than I could count every day.  I was starting to get things under control by the time my interview rolled around, only to wake up that morning feeling worse than ever before.  Apparently on top of the morning sickness, I had also caught a stomach bug!  Hooray!

But I had to go to this interview.

So I puked probably 10 times, squeezed myself into the new suit I had bought weeks before John Paul was conceived (I think I was about 10 or 11 weeks pregnant at this point?), and did my best on the interview.  Days later I actually got a call - the job was mine!

Luckily my due date wasn't until a few weeks after school was out for the summer.

What an exercise in trust, huh?  And I certainly needed it - I was so cocky about the fact that I was so qualified that I'd get an awesome teaching job right off the bat.  And we'd obviously postpone kids for a couple of years so Andrew could finish law school, and that would be no problem, right?

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

16 weeks pregnant

Things went a lot more smoothly at that point, although it wasn't exactly the cushiest teaching job...

See, I had inherited a choral program from a very nice lady who seemed to attract some of the less-than-savory characters in the school to her choirs.  For example, one of the groups I taught started out with two of the kids on long-term suspension, one of them (a girl) for smashing another girl's head into a locker and giving her a concussion.  The other one, a boy, had such anger issues that I had to send him out of my classroom one day for throwing a chair across the room.  The girl with anger issues also very frequently complained in class about how racist all white people were, and how slavery was all our fault and we should be apologizing to her for everything we made her ancestors GO through.

So that was fun.

Then there was the time some kids ratted on some other kids in the class for going to McDonald's after school before they had a rehearsal.  They thought I was the one who had snitched (like I really cared? Hardly.), and at the prospect of their punishment (not being able to go to the dance), one of the girls told another that she was going to punch me in the stomach and kill my baby.

So that was cool, too.

Honestly, it was a good place to be for a first teaching job.  My standards stayed low, I worked with some really tough kids and got good experience in those types of situations, and I learned how to work with choirs that had absolutely no training.

I took my 6th graders to Festival (or Assessment, or whatever they called it at that point), and they were pretty terrible but scored higher than any group at that school had for years.  That's how low expectations were.

The position was kind of a revolving door - two teachers before, a group had gone to Festival and performed an original song with a rap section that made fun of a rival school, including profanity.  They got a IV.

37 weeks and looking large

Meanwhile, here I was hugely pregnant with John Paul, and just holding on until the last day of school, at which point I would drive up to Northern Virginia to be with Andrew while he finished up an internship and we waited for John Paul to be born.  And everybody kept saying, "So you're not coming back next year, right?  You're going to stay home, right?"

Um.  Husband in law school.  Zero income.  I'm coming back to work.

And honestly?  I wanted to.  I mean, I wanted to stay home with my kids eventually but just one newborn and me?  I didn't think I could do it.  And when John Paul was born and I got a taste of life with a newborn?

"Newborns nurse every 2-3 hours"  HA!  Not him.  Every 30-45 minutes?

It sounds terrible, but I was really glad I had signed that teaching contract.

Andrew had a year left of law school, at which point we'd see where he found a job.  But for now, I was ready to return to the same job in a new year, with students who actually signed up for my class and not just an "easy A."

Coming up: my 2nd year teaching, moving for Andrew's job, not finding a job again, having Cecilia, finding a job, having the twins, getting pregnant with #5 and quitting teaching... (Read Part IV here)

Kimonos? Are those a thing?

So I was about to press the button and actually add the maxi dress I decided on to my cart a few days ago, when Andrew came along and made a disgusted face at the picture...

Because paisley, apparently.

But Facebook came to the rescue and you guys convinced me that even though he hates the pattern, I can still buy the dress.  So thanks for that!

But then comes the whole "Free shipping over $50" thing and, well, there's gotta be SOMETHING else I need, right?

I joked about a romper.  And then I checked out the romper section and remembered that I had seen a lady at Mass a few weeks ago who was SERIOUSLY rocking a jumpsuit a lot like this one  and, well, I may have been converted.

But alas, they don't make jumpsuits for pregnant ladies.  At least not at Forever 21.

And I don't think I could take myself seriously in a jumpsuit...

And then I remembered this kimono post that I read the other day, and realized that this is actually THE PERFECT article of clothing for a pregnant woman!

Shapeless!

No belly!

Perfect for post-partum, too!

Patterned and quick-drying to hide spit-up!

Plus the designs were reminiscent of  this shirt that's about to get retired due to my increasing girth, and that's a niche I'd like to keep filled because I loooove it...

I narrowed it down to three (which I can't seem to embed images of for some reason):

1. Paisley Kimono (which I would absolutely wear with that see-through lace top) (NOT)

2. Boho Kimono (don't you love that name?)

3. Patchwork Floral Kimono (CROP TOPS!  Perfect for every pregnant mama!)

And ultimately went with #2 in blue because:

1. Blue.  It's what I wear.

2.  Machine washable.

3.  Booty coverage!  I always end up with lines showing in my pencil skirts and prefer to have booty coverage when I wear them anyway, so I'm excited for the long length.

BUT DISASTER STRUCK!!!  It's sold out in every size.  I'm devastated, needless to say.

But I went back and decided on #3 because of all the reviews stating "bum coverage" as a positive.  And I doubt I'll need to wash it that frequently, so maybe I can handle the hand washing...  Or just machine wash anyway.

I added this belt to push it over the $50 edge (and shopped through ebates to get a whopping $1 back!) and in 4-9 business days you can bet I'll be blogging those new clothes!

Our New Normal.

A while back, Maia sent me this book.  And I started reading it and got discouraged and intimidated pretty quickly because life was lacking in order and peace in no small part due to factors beyond our control - I couldn't just up and quit my job (hi there teaching contract!), and the fact that so much of our daily schedule was driven by what time I needed to get to work on THAT particular day was too frustrating for me to even set any sort of routine.

Because how does one set a routine when THIS week, I'm going to work at 11:30 Monday and Friday, 9:30 Tuesday and Thursday, and 10:30 on Wednesday.  And NEXT week it's totally different.

Frustrating.  And one of many reasons why I'm glad that I'm fortunate enough to be staying home with the kids from now on.  So routine - it's going to happen!  But clearly not right away...

We're in our first full week of our new life, and I decided on a whim today to try to start incorporating some sort of purposeful routine.  Sarah's posts always remind me that it is possible to do this!  So I jumped right in.

Always a good idea to make that decision at 8 AM that morning, right?

Of course, Cecilia and John Paul slept until almost 9 (as opposed to their usualy 7/7:30 wake-up time).  Glorious, and they desperately need the sleep, but I had PLANS!

In an attempt to get them to finish breakfast with some semblance of speed, I said that we'd do CIRCLE TIME as soon as they were done eating!

So of course, Mary Claire was whining and chanting, "Circle time! Circle time!" for the next hour while I tried to cajole John Paul into actually eating some of the massive amounts of food he had served himself.  Cecilia decided early on that her tummy couldn't fit any more food, so the twins finished off her fruit.  I tried to clean up the playroom so that we could actually have room to sit in a circle, and gave up on trying to get anyone but the twins dressed.

Then Mary Claire insisted on using the potty (after pooping in her diaper, of course), and ran off to pee on the floor and on her romper once she was done.  All while shuffling through a series of alter egos (Huckle Cat!  Lowly Worm!  Grasshopper!  Nonny!  Sugarlump!) and insisting I address her as such.

Finally I gave up on John Paul's breakfast and we settled down for some prayer, stories, and songs.  Apparently the ONLY thing Mary Claire wanted was to sing the "Circle Time" song that I made up on the spot, because she started sobbing, "CIRCLE TIIIIIME!!!" as soon as it ended.  Meanwhile, John Paul only wants to sit on MY pillow, Elizabeth only wants to sit on CECILIA'S pillow, Mary Claire will only sit in my lap, and Cecilia doesn't want to give up her pillow because it's the only colorful flower pillow!

We finally got things sorted out (Cecilia got the pillow from her bed and let Elizabeth sit next to her, John Paul got my pillow when I stood up to help them, and Mary Claire stayed in my lap, sobbing).  The big kids were receptive for our beginning prayer, Elizabeth was quiet, and Mary Claire...  Well, she's teething and not taking it well, so she gets a pass.

John Paul kept lying down to read a book.  Cecilia just wanted to lie down and pretend to sleep.  Elizabeth wanted to do whatever Cecilia was doing, but Cecilia wanted more space.  And Mary Claire just kept sobbing about "Circle Time."

We finally finished with a prayer, and I asked John Paul and Cecilia if they wanted to do something in their workbooks while I made lunch.  ABSOLUTELY!

I got coloring books and crayons for the babies and got the big kids set with their work, only to realize I couldn't find Cecilia's workbook, and that John Paul was just going to zip through whatever pages he felt like doing at the moment (it's cool, he's waaaaaay above age-level for pretty much everything academic ever).  Cecilia made do with a tracing book but decided she was DONE once she couldn't get her square perfect, so she went off to do stickers with the babies while John Paul finished his breakfast and did every workbook page he could.

On the plus side, I made lunch for EVERYONE with relatively little drama and we all actually got to sit down and eat together!

On the minus side, while we were eating lunch I realized that the big kids and I were still in our pajamas...

First day trying to incorporate a stricter, more purposeful schedule around here... Three of us are still in pajamas, one baby has peed on the floor, one baby sobbed through circle time, and Mary Claire keeps talking about how everybody has a crotch while the other three sing MC Hammer. Nap time yet?

So.

We got through it.  And we'll do it again tomorrow.  And the next day.  And day after day after day, because they will do better, and I'll do better, with some semblance of routine, and some semblance of purpose, and a lot more prayer.  But it's not all happening in one day, that's for sure!