My maternal grandmother passed away early this morning at her home with all of her children and my grandmother with her. She was 83 years old and lost her final battle with cancer. She was very prepared to die, though, and was looking forward to leaving this world and seeing what Heaven has in store for her.

So, even though she lived a long, full life and was ready to die, it doesn't make a difference in how much you miss that person. I discovered that with Mary. I think one of the biggest blessings of being able to prepare for a death like my grandma and her loved ones did is that you have this opportunity to just be together, laughing, crying, talking, sharing memories. You can say things that you may not have thought to say when a death is more sudden. That doesn't mean there aren't things you'll forget to say or do, but it definitely lessens the chance of regrets in that way. Just yesterday I was thinking about how nice it would be if Grandma were still alive to see the new pictures of Tylan and Cole that will probably be ready tomorrow. In one picture, Tylan is holding a flower and has a slightly devious smile on her face. I can just picture Grandma exclaiming, "Oh!" and telling me how pretty the picture is and how sweet Tylan looks holding that flower.

Grandma was one of the sweetest, calmest people I've ever known. I'm not sure if I ever heard her raise her voice. My mom takes after her so much in personality. Grandma always had something nice to say about you and was always so interested (or at least acted interested!) in what was going on with you. She always seemed to have a little treat for you, too. On our last trip to Mankato - at the beginning of the month - she had a bag of cheese doodles for the kids to take home. One of my favorite things she gave me when I was little was a little tin box with a handle. It had a strawberry design, and I think note paper was inside of it at one point. I may even still have that somewhere in the house. I know I kept it for many, many years.

Going to Grandma and Grandpa's house when they lived at the parsonage in Sanborn has so many happy memories associated with it. I loved that house. I imagine if I walked through it today it may not seem so large and magical, but as a child it was my dream house. I loved the sliding pocket doors that separated Grandpa's study from the living room. I thought it was so neat that their main floor bathroom had two (two!) doors - one opening to the study and one to the kitchen. I remember sitting at the long dining room table and coloring from a book or on paper from a drawer that always was full of something fun to do. Upstairs there was a playroom that opened up from their bedroom. The toys included dolls, games and other odds and ends that my mom and her siblings played with as children. Even the basement was exciting because we were able to go down to the refrigerator there and pick out a pop. I think I usually chose grape.

Even though it's been more than a dozen years since I lived near my grandparents, I will dearly miss her presence in my life both far and near. I can't tell you how happy I am that she was able to be close to so many family members during the latter part of her life, too.

Wow, one month since I last updated! I don't think I've ever done this poor of a job staying up to date. Life is just busy, busy, busy. Tylan, now one year old (!), is also at an age where the ability of Mommy to sit down and focus on something like the computer happens rather infrequently, especially with just one computer in a house where five people like to use it. Oh well. Just a stage of life...

So, let's see what's been happening.

I've had a paper route for about a month now and it doesn't completely suck. I get up at 3:15 a.m. Monday through Saturday to do the route, and I'm back home in two hours or less. If all works out, I can go back to bed for a couple hours before kids start waking up, which really helps. If I don't get to go back to bed, I average about four hours of sleep for the night, which isn't enough for me. The biggest drawback, other than the early mornings, is having to be here six out of seven days of the week. That means that overnight trips aren't happening unless I can locate a sub. I'm getting ready to pursue a work at home position that would be about 20 hours per week and would certainly pay more than the paper route. I hope it will be something that works out, especially since we need to update some computer software in order to move forward.

I'm also about a month into writing for examiner.com as the Sioux Falls Breastfeeding Examiner. I need to start working on another article for that right now. It's definitely not high paying since I get basically a penny for each page view, but I can see how that may add up to a little something as I build my archives and my articles show up in searches.

My LLL work has been getting rather neglected lately, and that has to change. I have to actually get on a bit more of a schedule. That is going to be very tough for me since I happily threw out schedules a decade ago when I became a full time mother, but I will need to figure something out for myself, especially if I start part time work from home.

There have been big changes in our extended family. Cory's dad remarried August 1, and he now lives in Okabena, MN, with his wife, Joan. Myron was just here on Saturday for part of the day to enjoy the Riverboat Days festivities (in particular a turkey leg) and to watch Accalia and Cole's dance performances.

On a somber note, my Grandma Eibs is nearing the end. She was sent home from the hospital last week after being admitted for a bowel obstruction, and is now under hospice care. My mom doesn't think it will be more than a week or so at this point, but you never know how things will turn out. We thought the same with Cory's mom, and she hung on for a month or so even though she desperately wanted to go.

Accalia and Cole have had a summer of big changes, too. Unfortunately, part of that is losing their four closest friends due to moves. The next door neighbors moved across town because the mom and her boyfriend moved in together. I think Accalia is keeping in touch a bit through email. The hope had been that they'd be able to get together to play every once in a while, but I have a sinking feeling that their mom isn't going to help out with that at all. Their other friends are moving back to Louisiana and may actually be on their way or will be this week. The kids are handling this fairly well actually, but now we're on the search for regular playmates once again. They're hoping that whoever moves in next door will have kids around their ages.

Ella continues to be my most challenging, and I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way. I've just never dealt with some of the things that she's bringing to the table, and I need to continue to see this as a way to expand my parenting rather than just as a source of frustration. The biggest thing right now is that she refuses to use the toilet. She'll be four at the end of October and absolutely refuses to use the toilet. She'll willingly go to sit on the toilet and go through all of the motions of wiping, flushing, washing, etc. but won't actually pee or poop. I know in the back of my mind that she'll be out of diapers before I know it, but it's really frustrating to me because I just can't figure out what's going on. Both Accalia and Cole were past three when they were out of diapers for good, but it was never like this. Any gentle, respectful tips for handing this would be welcome!

Tylan is on the verge of full on toddlerhood. She's walking around furniture or wherever she can hang on and will stand on her own, but she hasn't taken her first step yet. I think she'll probably do this in the next week or two. She also hasn't had any teeth pop through yet, but I see them just below the surface on the bottom, and her top gums are so swollen. She'll have a mouth full of teeth in an instant, and I know I'll miss this year plus of gummy grins. She's such a ham, too. She loves nothing more than to do things to make her siblings laugh and to have them make her laugh.

We're cooling off in the air conditioning today since it's around 90 and humid. We took a walk earlier and hung out by the creek that runs through our part of town. We saw a bunch of tiny fish - minnows, mosquitofish, who knows? - a dead crayfish, and a furry little animal that darted in and out of a tunnel so quickly that we didn't get to see whether it was a muskrat or a beaver. We also got to check out some elderberry and wild grape vines.

The van is at the auto body shop for a day or two in order to repair the damage from the car accident I had a few weeks ago. An elderly man driving a minivan went through an intersection as I was going through, and that means a new hood for the van. Thankfully for us he was completely at fault, so his insurance is handling everything.

Okay, that's about it for now. I need to get to a few things, but Tylan is nursing and napping right now, so my abilities are a little limited.

Tylan is apparently helping me prepare for my new early morning gig. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to have a paper route. Yep, that'll take me back to my tween years. It's not a huge amount of money, obviously, but will help us out financially. I've been searching for work I could do at home or without having to leave the kids with a babysitter, and that's been pretty unsuccessful so far. My plan - as often as the weather cooperates - is to just put Tylan in the sling and let her snooze while I do the route. I won't be able to do that tomorrow, though, because I'll be riding along in the paper's van to be trained in by the manager. I'm rather nervous that Tylan won't stay asleep and will be inconsolable during this early morning time, but hopefully it won't take longer than an hour or so.

Yesterday Cory's dad drove down here to drop off some furniture that he doesn't need/want as he prepares to leave the house in Lake Wilson and move in with his soon-to-be wife. He brought us three dressers, one full size bed, one roll away bed, a couple small side tables, and a few misc. things. Now the challenge will be finding a place for everything! Cory is replacing his dresser with one that was actually his mom's, and Cole is also replacing his dresser. We'll now have enough dressers for each member of the family, but we'll have to store the extras away for now.

After lunch I'm taking Accalia and Cole to the library so they can take part in a lego building contest. Their plan as of last night was to construct a park scene. I think I'll probably take Ella and Tylan somewhere else. Going to the library with Ella can be very challenging at times depending on her mood and whether other young children are present. Sometimes we can go and Ella will quietly do the puzzles or play with the puppet theater and look at books. Other times, though, she'll see a new playmate and want to play more loudly and actively than is appropriate for a library. What drives me crazy about many of these times is that the parents of the other kids just sit there (or aren't even in the same area of the library) and watch their kids getting louder and more wild as I try to remove Ella from the situation. Ah, how I long for those days when she was much lighter and distraction worked well. Now Ella will look at me and say, "Go look at books, Mommy!" and point to the other side of the library.

Next weekend will be a busy and interesting time. Myron is getting married next Saturday, August 1, and we'll be driving to Minnesota that morning for the wedding. Afterwards, we'll keep going for a quick trip to Mankato since we haven't been there for a while.

I can't believe how quickly time has been passing lately. We're already entering mid July! Tylan is a little over a month away from her first birthday, and in just a few weeks Cory's dad will be getting married. We're having another summer of just sticking around Yankton, and we aren't even getting trips to Mankato in like we usually do. We did go up to Mitchell to the drive in to see Up last Tuesday, and that was pretty fun except for the hail storm!

There's usually something going on every day. Monday's are ballet, Tuesdays are gymnastics and tumbling. Tuesdays and Thursdays are swimming lessons. Wednesdays and Fridays are library programs. The kids are really enjoying everything, and since it's only an hour or so at a time for each thing, no one is feeling burnt out or wanting more down time. Accalia and Cole would probably like more time with the neighbors, but it's been hit or miss over the past couple weeks. When their mom isn't working, they're spending more time hanging out with their mom's boyfriend. Accalia and Cole were pretty upset a month or so ago when the neighbors told them they were probably going to move to the boyfriend's house at the end of summer, but I don't know if that will actually happen. Their mom seems to have a new boyfriend each summer, so I'm not going to hold my breath that she'll disrupt their lives that much for a man.

While usually I just wish time would slow down so that I can actually accomplish something, sometimes it just hits me how much the kids are growing and changing.

Accalia, at 10, is at an in between stage where she still gets excited about Spongebob and Tinkerbell, but is also just as happy about emailing a friend or trying out new hair accessories. She's such a sweet, sweet girl. She's a thinker, too, and rarely lets me know what she's thinking or doing until she suddenly demonstrates it. She showed me her choreographed dance routine to the song Kryptonite the other day, and it was easily something I see the senior girls do for their individual routine at the dance recital. Her latest interest has been with math - multiplication in particular. I don't even remember what spurred that, but she spent part of her allowance the other week on flash cards of all things.

Cole, creeping up on 7, seems to be going through quite the emotional time. He easily cries at night as he gets more tired and finds so many things to be upset about at the end of the day as he's lying in bed. He's quite the thinker, too, but unlike Accalia he likes to talk everything out. I remember 7 being a hard age for me with Accalia because she seemed so distant and inaccessible as she went through these changes. Now with Cole, he's verbalizing a lot of the process that he's going through.

Ella, 3, has had quite the leap in her verbal skills over the past couple months. Unfortunately, she's had no leap in her toileting abilities. I know it's going to happen and probably soon, but there's always that point where you wonder if you're child will be in diapers forever. Ella's doing a lot of imaginative play, which is becoming more and more elaborate.

Tylan, 10 months, is becoming quite the force to be reckoned with at this point. She's only still if she's fast asleep. If she's awake, she's crawling, climbing, standing, etc. The fun thing for the older kids this week has been watching Tylan stand on her own for three seconds at a time. Tylan continues to try out all sorts of sounds, too, but isn't really saying much in the way of recognizable words. She's said mama before, and she'll often say something that either sounds like Ella or wawa.

I have a lot I'm trying to do but am not sure that I'm actually making progress. I should be focusing more on LLL work, but my computer time has been so limited lately. I've been looking into possibilities for work to do at home or at least with the kids being able to be around because we're desperately in need of additional income. I'm not sure how quickly I'll succeed in that, but I'm open to suggestions!

More sleep would be a good thing, too. This past week has been marked by too little sleep on my end. Here's hoping we can start out the week on a much more well rested note!

This poor, poor blog has really been neglected lately. It's just something about the month of June. I've fallen behind on everything I've wanted/needed to do. So, since my last blog post:

- Accalia has turned 10. I now have a child in the double digits!!!
- We had a fun family camp out, and it didn't rain the entire time.
- Our garden, despite desperately needing to be weeded, is growing radishes, carrots, broccoli, watermelon, pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers. The rabbits aren't nearly as bad as they have been in past years.
- There's been plenty of water play in the backyard but not nearly enough trips to the beach or pool. I think Ella tries to alleviate my guilt by referring to the pool in the backyard as "the beach."
- The kids are having fun with their dance studio and library classes. After the 4th of July, swimming lessons start up for Accalia and Cole.
- Tylan has climbed a flight of stairs. Her goal in life is now to try to pull herself up and stand by whatever she's able to reach.
- Our 16-year-old niece and 13-year-old nephew stayed with us for a few days while they attended a sports camp in Yankton.

There's probably more to report, but I hear Ella waking up and need to go!

So, this afternoon Accalia and Cole decided to set up a little booth in the front yard trying to get people to sign up for a new club they created today - a club to try to figure out what happened to Amelia Earhart. They do love a good mystery! Unfortunately, no one other than immediate family members signed up. I told my mom that those two are most definitely their grandfather's grandchildren.

This morning Accalia, Cole and Ella had dentist appointments. All had good reports. This was Ella's first time, and I figured she might allow them to look in her mouth and count her teeth. She ended up letting them do everything they'd normally do during a checkup, including xrays. My little girl who never sits still was completely cooperative, much more than either of the other two were at their first appointments. Go figure.

Of course, things couldn't continue to go smoothly. We went out to the van, intending to grab lunch on the way home and put Tylan down for a nap, and the van wouldn't start. Completely dead. Thankfully there was an auto place basically across the street, and I went over to ask if I could get a jump. They sent someone over right away and he brought the van over so they could look at it. After 1 1/2 hours, they figured it was probably a loose battery cable. They didn't have the correct part in, though, so I'll probably be taking that back to have it replaced. Considering the kids didn't get lunch until nearly 1:30 and Tylan never did get a morning nap, they were amazing.

It's been a busy week - something going on every day - and this is probably one of the quieter times of our summer. The story of my life continues with me being constantly behind and having a million things to do, and now I have to get ready for Accalia's birthday and our campout next weekend. Those will be fun things to plan, though!

Hope it was a fun Memorial Day weekend for all of you! We went to Lake Wilson on Sunday and came back yesterday. We have a bit of a tradition of going there on Memorial Day weekend so the kids can fish with Grandpa. They caught a few fish this year but not as many as in previous years. It was really neat to see the half dozen pelicans on the lake. I don't think I've ever seen pelicans in person before. The kids loved watched them land on the water.

It was a hard weekend in some ways - especially for Cory - since this is probably the last time we'll spend the weekend in Lake Wilson at his childhood home. Myron is getting married August 1 and is moving to his future wife's home about an hour from Lake Wilson in Okabena. He's not going to sell his house but talked about renting it out. At the same time, he's planning to use his garage for storage and is still going to plant a garden and tend it after he's moved, so I have no idea what's actually going to happen. There are a lot of changes that will be happening over the summer, and I just hope it all goes smoothly.

Schools are out for the summer here in Yankton. Last Friday was the last day. I was preparing myself for the doorbell to start ringing at 9 a.m., but the neighbor girls are not around right now. So far our day hasn't been too exciting. We bought some groceries this morning, and now everyone's doing their own thing. My "thing" should include laundry, but I'm being lazy about that right now.

I should stop being lazy about that now and actually do a few things. Off to be domestic!

Around 20 minutes ago, I was sitting at the computer when I heard this incredibly loud roar/rumbling that was almost shaking our house and surprisingly didn't wake up Ella. So I ran outside with Tylan in my arms to see what was going on (yes, of course I run toward potential disaster with my youngest along side), and I could see the lights of a jet a few miles to the northeast. That's very strange because Yankton doesn't have an airport large enough to handle huge jets, so we certainly shouldn't have one flying low enough to buzz us like that. I'm so curious to know what's going on...

Cole had his final soccer game of the spring tonight. It was incredibly hot - 90s - and windy, so it wasn't an especially pleasant day to sit outside. I suppose it was better than being incredibly cold and windy like it was for his soccer game last Saturday. Cole had a lot of fun with his first year of soccer and shed a few tears tonight because he already misses it. I'm sure he'll want to sign up again in the fall.

Turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year. Spent much of the day inside, except for the time spent having the oil changed and having the tires rotated so our van will be ready for our short visit to Lake Wilson Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow I hope we won't go anywhere at all. That would be nice. Perhaps I'm just getting annoyed by being out in public and having so many people make the same comment to me when I have all four kids along: "Got your hands full, don't ya?" My children could be standing perfectly still and be absolutely quiet, and someone would still say this to me. It drives me nuts! My usual reply is a big smile and a positive "Yes, I certainly do!" so they don't get the impression that I want to moan and groan about having four children. I suppose four children is considered a large family by many people, but I don't always think of us that way. Maybe if we had gone into the five or more children range.

Tylan's almost back to sleep, so I'm going to relax a little before bed and read. Replying to email can wait until tomorrow.

Hope all you mothers out there had a great Mother's Day! We had a really nice day but didn't do anything extraordinary. Cory went out to get me breakfast and a coffee. The kids gave me a gift card to Starbucks (notice the coffee theme?) and the latest Indigo Girls cd. Yay! I had wanted to do something that I knew the kids would enjoy, so after lunch we drove over to the library in Vermillion to check out the traveling interactive math related exhibit in the children's area. The kids had fun with that, and we spent a little more time in town before heading back home. If it had been a warmer day, I think we would have gone to a park, too.

Soon Cory and I will watch Rescue Me, but for now he's playing a Lego Star Wars Wii game while Accalia and Cole cheer him on. Tylan's snoozing in the sling, and Ella's been asleep since around 7:30. Tomorrow is Cole's final soccer practice. He has a game on Saturday and a game next Tuesday, and that's it.

I need to spend some time organizing this desk so I can make room for the materials I'll be using now that I'm starting my work as the Area Coordinator of Leaders (ACL) for La Leche League of MN/DAs (Minnesota, North and South Dakota). I'll be going through some orientation soon, which is good since I've never worked in the Leader Department before. I'm still continuing my work as the Coordinator of Leader Accreditation (CLA) for Iowa, but that shouldn't be a problem since it's not very time intensive. That reminds me that I need to finish up a report...

It is quite windy and cool outside. It's rained on and off throughout the day, so we haven't been hanging around outside. No neighbor girls or boys around today. I don't mind, but I know Accalia and Cole were hoping to play with them after school. Cory's working, and I'm feeling rather aimless. I want to be inspired and motivated but have just found myself sitting around online while the three older kids watch a cartoon they had missed out on last weekend. Tylan is sleeping in my arms.

This weekend will hopefully be nice. Cole has a soccer game tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that but wondering if I should feel out of place because I don't own a cute little track suit like the ones most moms seem to favor around here. Yikes! Please don't run out and buy me one so I can fit in. Mother's Day will probably bring some attention my way. I told Cory I wanted to go over to a public library about 30 minutes away to check out an interactive exhibit in the kids' section. The kids and I could do that any day, but it would be nice to hang out with Cory, and frankly, I want to go when my kids most likely won't be the only kids around and their normal kid noises won't seem to be amplified by 100 and people won't stare and wonder why they aren't in school. I think I've been feeling on display a little too much lately.

Once again, we procrastinate with planting the garden. Our tiller is broken, so that delays things a bit. I've done little parts by hand, but there's only so long that Tylan wants to be on the ground or in a sibling's arms, and it's a little too hard to till with an 8-month-old in arms to make much progress. Most days I wonder how productive I might actually be when I no longer have a baby to hold. Don't want to disappoint myself, though, with how little I'll probably actually do! We have managed to plant sunflowers and morning glories and swiss chard, and we now just have to get to the big garden.

Here is what the kids are up to:

Accalia is buy on the computer or choreographing dances or planning what she and her bff T. will do later in the day. She's hanging out with Cole and holding Tylan and being a little mother to Ella. She's also watching Bones with me and requested that we start watching from Season 1.

Cole just needs some sort of malleable material - clay, playdough, sand, dirt - and figures of some kind. Indoors or outdoors, it doesn't matter. It's even better with a friend to accompany him on his adventures. He's asking Ella if she'll play with him outside, and he's holding Tylan "like a big tuna." He stands and talks to me with his hands in his pockets, and he looks so much older and gives me glimpses of what he may look like some day. He's also so emotional, especially at the end of the day, crying in bed because he's sad if a friend lost a toy.

Ella loves swinging and being alone out in the yard and coloring and playing with Tylan. She is almost always talking, and her vocabulary has increased so much over the past month. She still refuses to use the toilet, though. Wonder why she's resisting that, especially with two older siblings as examples.

Tylan is scooting all over the place, and I can just see it in her eyes that she will soon discover stairs and try to maneuver up those. Even though she's having a blast on the ground, she also needs to be in my arms more urgently than before. She's amazingly quick with her hands and grabs at everything. She's also showing more of an interest in solids but has yet to pop through any teeth to actually chew things.

I just took on a major new responsibility in my life but will probably wait to say more until an official announcement has been made. I think I'm a little nuts for doing it, but I have my reasons.

I'm here for another blog post, so obviously I survived last week! It was odd getting up today and not having any dance rehearsals on the calendar, and once again I'm washing dance clothes and putting everything up for the next month until the summer session starts. Both Accalia and Cole want to continue with classes during the summer.

Both recitals went so well. Accalia looked like she was having so much fun with her gymnastics routine (done to Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid) in the first recital, and she looked so serious and proper with her ballet routine in the second recital. Cole had a blast with his tumbling routine (done to Old Time Rock and Roll) in the second recital and didn't seem phased at all by being on stage for the first time. Cory helped with Cole's group, so maybe that helped put him at ease, too. Ella and Tylan did amazing considering there were four hours of recital to sit through. Ella spent most of the time sitting in my mom's lap, falling asleep for a short time during the second recital. I had to leave the auditorium a few times with Tylan when she got restless or fussy, and she fell asleep toward the end of the first recital and slept until nearly the start of the second. I was so proud of myself for being able to do up Accalia's hair in the bun for the second recital while Tylan slept in my arms (in the sling).

Cory's 37th birthday was also Sunday, so we tried to celebrate as much as possible on a day filled with the recitals. I think we succeeded fairly well! Cory took today off since he didn't need to take off his actual birthday, and that was nice having him at home and being able to do some things around the house and take care of some errands.

Now that the recital is finished, we're looking ahead to Accalia's 10th birthday next month and our annual camp out. Hooray! Once June hits, all of the summer activities will start, too, so I think we'll enjoy the quiet of May until then. We'll probably head out of town to visit Myron for part of Memorial Day weekend, but that will probably be it.

Speaking of Myron, he proposed to his girlfriend Joan a couple weeks ago and she accepted. No date has been set, but it will probably be later in the summer. He's planning to rent his house in Lake Wilson and move to Joan's house about an hour away.

I've been trying to catch up on LLL work throughout the day and did accomplish a few things. There's always more to do, though. Better get to it!

This week is going to be insane. I always feel like this as the week of the dance recital starts, but we always manage to survive. The first of the three dress rehearsals (one for gymnastics, one for ballet, one for tumbling) was tonight, and it went well for Accalia. Unfortunately for me, the group before Accalia had to go through their routine three times, and now I have the Coldplay song they danced to stuck in my head. Urg. Tomorrow night is Accalia's ballet rehearsal, Friday is Cole's tumbling, Saturday is a two hour run through for each of the recitals (a 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. show), and Sunday is the big day.

In addition to dance, Cole had a make up soccer game tonight, will miss out on his soccer game on Saturday because of dance, but will be able to be there for his team picture that morning. I think Friday morning at the art studio is the only other activity they have this week.

The house is a complete disaster, and I'm stressing out a bit because I need to do major cleaning for the weekend and my parents visiting. Of course, I'm sure my parents could care less about the state of my house, but it needs to get down. I've been delayed a bit with this mission because Ella got sick yesterday. After supper, she was in the living room and I was in the kitchen, and I look over to see two large areas of vomit on the living room rug. Ella threw up four more times after that, finally falling asleep vomit free at 4:30 a.m. I only had about 2-3 hours of sleep last night and am conscious right now mainly due to large quantities of caffeinated coffee drinks.

The other think happening this weekend - Sunday to be exact - is Cory's 37th birthday. Hooray! Unfortunately, we won't be able to spend a lot of the day focusing solely on his because of the recital, but he is taking the next day off, so that will be nice.

Accalia just got her first email address today. Not sure why we never did this before, but I guess she just never expressed an interest. She's having a lot of fun sending emails.

Okay, time to move a sleeping Ella from the couch to the bed and hope Tylan stays asleep while I put her down to do that.

Yesterday was a really good day, and I'm hoping that today will follow suit. It was a perfect spring day - upper 60s, sunny, slight breeze - and we spent much of the day outside in the yard. Tylan loved it. I cleaned out our back porch area (I never know what to call it because it's not really a porch or a deck), we filled the sandbox with sand, I gave wagon rides, we picked up fallen willow branches, etc.

We never did see the neighbor girls, but Cole's new friend from the neighborhood, Ian, found his way over. The two have a shared love of Ben 10, and much of their play revolves around that. I can't help but see how it is when Cole and Ian play together compared with when the neighbor girls are over, and it's so much more peaceful and void of drama. Maybe it's because there's just one of Ian and none of the rivalry and fighting that seems to come with the two sisters. I don't know. Sometimes I think I'd do much better as a mother to all boys, but that's not really a helpful thought when three of your four children are girls.

Today Cole has tumbling and then soccer practice (first of the season). I'd continue blogging about our Easter weekend in Mankato, but Ella has climbed up behind me in order to use the computer and it's rather hard to concentrate when she's pulling apart my ponytail. So, I'll take my coffee and take care of some other things.

Caring for sick children is so much easier when you're healthy. I'm not. I was miserable yesterday and am feeling slightly better today, but not well enough to have much patience of any sort. Is it too much to ask that after we get past this cold that we can go more than two weeks between illnesses? There are so many things I need to get done right now, and I'm trying to make up my mind about going ahead with something that would be very time consuming, and all I feel like doing is curling up and shutting out the world.

So as not to paint everything too bleak, the good news is that I'll probably wake up tomorrow feeling almost completely back to normal, and Accalia and Cole probably will, too. They're both still low on energy and haven't been doing a lot. Ella's a little better today but continues to be one incredibly cranky patient. Tylan's still low on energy, too, and is sleeping more, but she's ready to cheer on the Cubs in her pink Cubs track suit given to her by Auntie Jess and Uncle Jer.

We'll be heading to Mankato on Friday for Easter weekend and even going to church twice - Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I'm trying to decide whether to just have the kids wear the same clothes for both church services so we don't have to pack as much. I think it will be a pretty laid back weekend, and hopefully we'll all be 100% to enjoy it all. We were last in Mankato over Christmas. I also have to remember to pack the Easter baskets. And I have to remember to boil eggs in the next day or two so the kids can dye them before we leave. Ah, the joys of not celebrating holidays at home...

Better check on supper. You know those frozen pizzas don't cook themselves!

It's another beautiful spring day with temps in the low 50s, sunny blue skies with a few fluffy clouds, and a light breeze. It's a perfect day to be outside enjoying the new sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Unfortunately, half of the family is too sick to do much of anything other than sleep and lie on the couch.

We made it through almost the entire winter without any illnesses - not even colds - and then March hit and along with it came the flu and nasty colds. That lasted about two weeks, and suddenly Cory gets sick. For the past couple days, Cory has been under the weather, but he was feeling better this morning. Cole and Accalia seem to have caught whatever he has, though, and are really suffering today. Accalia and Cole both went upstairs around 11:30 a.m. for a nap, and Accalia came down after an hour. Two hours later Cole is still up there sound asleep. I really, really hope that this stays clear of Ella, Tylan and myself.

Yesterday, before the kids were feeling really bad, they were outside playing with the neighbor girls. Cole lost energy, though, and Accalia started to feel dizzy and almost black out, so they both came inside. The younger girl (age 6) then sat outside on her sidewalk and pouted about the whole thing. I completely understand her disappointment in losing her playmates early on a lovely day, but this seems to be the response whenever Accalia or Cole stop playing before the girls have to go inside. This happened all last summer, too, and it drove me nuts. Longtime readers probably remember a few rants of mine, fueled on by pregnancy hormones. I just can't help but feel trapped at our home when the neighbor girls are at home, too, and seem to want nothing to do with their own house. The instant they can they come over and stay as long as they can. I guess I should feel pleased that they have such a good time at our house, and it makes me feel sad that they apparently dislike their own house (I suspect mom more than anything) so much that they don't want to spend any extra time there than necessary. I just need to find a balance when school lets out because Accalia and Cole also lose interest in playing after a while and just want to be inside and relax without additional playmates. We'll figure it out. I guess now I have the excuse of a baby needing to nap in order to keep things quiet.

Okay, since I have been so remiss in regularly posting pictures, I'm going to share some below. Yay!

Here is Cory and his dad at the 65th birthday celebration we had for Myron at Outback Steakhouse in Sioux Falls.


Here is Tylan chewing on a wooden book. At seven months old, she still has no teeth and is not yet crawling. She loves to turn around in a 360, though, and seems to pull herself short distances.


Cole loves nothing more than to pose for pictures with Tylan. He loves that Tylan resembles him more than either of his other sisters. I think he takes solace in that since he didn't get a brother this last time around.


And here are my three girls. Tylan loves Accalia so much. She gets so excited every time she sees her biggest sister and nearly jumps out of my arms to get to her. Ella's relationship with Tylan is slowly evolving with Ella trying to play with Tylan more and more, taking her cues from Accalia.

Wow, it's 50 degrees today and one of the warmer days of our spring so far. We made it through our non-blizzard on Tuesday and might have another storm over the weekend. I really want to put away the boots and hats and mittens and snow pants, but if I do that I'm basically guaranteeing we're going to have a big storm.

Cory's been sick a couple days this week - hopefully just a cold - and it seems that Cole has the same thing. Hopefully we won't have another family wide illness keeping us down for a couple weeks, not with Easter right around the corner.

It feels as if lots has been happening, but apparently I can't think of any of it to blog about right now. Cory will be home soon, supper's in the crockpot, and we're going to watch the final (sniff, sniff) ER tonight.

I need to get myself to bed. I woke up this morning with a bit of a headache and seem to be getting another one now. It was a fairly uneventful weekend, and I didn't really get much accomplished. I guess I sorted through Tylan and Ella's winter clothes, putting away the outgrown items and finding spring/summer clothes to add to the drawers.

Yesterday Accalia's ballet class performed at a local nursing home. Cory had to go to work, so the kids and I went without him. There were 3 or 4 other classes that also performed, and it was a nice little performance. Thankfully Cole and Ella were fairly content throughout, and Tylan started to get a little screechy only toward the end when she was getting tired and hungry.

So this weekend there was lots of Wii playing, some papier mache, some play with the neighbors, and an assortment of other things that aren't coming to mind right now.

Off to bed!

Happy Spring!!! It doesn't feel like spring at all here in Yankton since it's cool and cloudy and windy. Well, actually that probably is what spring is often like around here, so I take that back. It's supposed to be nice here this weekend, but I've heard rumors of snow or at least rain next week.

We don't have a lot going on this weekend. For the past couple months, Cory has basically had the same schedule delivering pizzas, so our weekends aren't very flexible for open for going out of town. Tomorrow afternoon Accalia's ballet class is performing their recital routine at one of the nursing home/assisted living places in town, so that's what we'll be doing for an hour or so. Beyond that, I think Cory and I are going to try to watch a movie tomorrow night after he's home from work.

This is so frustrating. Accalia and I were in the midst of reading the second book in the The 39 Clues series - One False Note - and now we can't find it anywhere. We've always just kept it in the living room near the couch, but it's no where to be found. Our library doesn't have it either, but I'll ask about getting it through interlibrary loan next time we stop in. I tried to do that online, but I kept getting error messages. Grr...

Right now Accalia and Cole are watching Fly Me To The Moon complete with 3D glasses. Picked that up at the library last night. We're also supposed to be getting Madagascar 2 from Netflix today (Accalia and Cole already saw this in the theater, though), so they're looking forward to a day of movies. Accalia and I also have our weekly Bones watching date since I taped the new episode last night.

On top of that, we have a free month trial of Gamefly, so we've been trying out a few different Wii games. Having a subscription to Gamefly would be wonderful, but right now it's not financially feasible. Accalia and Cory have been playing a lot of Super Mario Tennis, though, and Accalia just started the Carnival Mini Golf game last night. Before we even had the Wii, Cory picked up a bunch of games on clearance, including Gamecube games since we have the controllers to play through the Wii. She's started in on a Legend of Zelda game, and I've been reading to her from a walkthrough of the game I found online so she has an idea of what to do.

Meanwhile, Ella has decided it's so much fun to empty the contents of three kitchen drawers and play with all of those things on the kitchen floor. I really should use this as an opportunity to get rid of anything not being used because it's a bit of a pain to pick everything up.

We're seeing the neighbor girls (and a neighbor boy) more often now, too, which doesn't thrill me completely - at least with regard to the girls. I really do just feel bad for them that their lives are such that they often are so unhappy and not so nice to each other and sometimes Cole. I really want to have more patience when it comes to them because I know that coming over to our house is probably a highlight at times, but there are days when I feel as if I barely have enough to give to the four children that are my own. I think this summer will be better, though, because I will not be hugely pregnant and will be able to get around so much easier. I see many more park visits in our future.

Tylan, my sweet little baby, is now seven months old. There's no crawling or sitting up on her own for more than 2 seconds, but I'm quite content to wait. She's discovered joints - wrists, elbows, knees, knuckles, etc. - and is utterly fascinated by them. She'll grab on to her own wrist and just hold it and stare at it. I'd love to know what she's thinking. Tylan is also discovering how to play more and more games. I'll lift her up into the air and bring her back down, and if she wants to go up again she'll plop down quickly on my lap rather than standing up and bouncing. She also loves to watch me play peek-a-boo with certain lift the flap books we have and gets a huge smile on her face. She's also figuring out that she and I aren't one being, and if she's playing on the living room floor and I walk out of site, she often gets upset.

Ella is wedged in between me and the back of the chair I'm sitting on, so I think that means she wants to use the computer. Signing off for now...

This past week is one I hope to not repeat ever again. A combination of sick kids and crappy financial stuff does not a happy Amy make. I guess the good news is that all of the kids are in the end stages of their various illnesses, although that means they're also in that runny nose/coughing phase where they're starting to get energy back but are also cranky as all get out. Today I felt the past week of little/interrupted sleep and illness hit me. I'm getting through a cold of my own right now, but I am glad that I didn't get it until the kids were over the worst of their stuff. At least then I had more energy and patience to care for the sick ones.

Tomorrow's agenda includes paying bills, baking banana muffins, and going to the meeting for Accalia's ballet recital piece. Cory's going to make sure he's home for that so Cole and Ella can stay with him, and I won't have to try to pay attention at the meeting while keeping them quiet and content.

Just waiting for Tylan to fall back to sleep and then I'm going to bed...

Hello neglected blog! Sorry about the two week absence of posts for those of you still around.

I guess I should wrap up my whole injured foot story. Just a couple days after I went to the doctor, Tylan dropped a hard toy of hers right on my foot. Yeouch! I was limping around even more and ended up going to convenient care that Sunday afternoon. I had xrays there, and it turns out nothing is broken. Good news, I guess. And actually, my foot has been feeling much better lately, so I guess it's just been a long, slow mend.

My parents came for a night last weekend. Unfortunately it was cold and snowy, so it wasn't great weather for outdoor stuff. We still drove around the lake area to search for eagles and look at the large flocks of geese and ducks congregating on the open water. Then we went to the Dakota Territorial Museum. I remember going there years ago with possibly just Accalia around, and I wasn't sure that the kids would enjoy it. They did, though, and Accalia proclaimed that it felt like we had gone into the past.

The night before my parents came, Cole started to get sick. Now, about five days later, he's starting to get better. We thought it was just a cold before, but now we think he might have had a bit of the flu. There can't just be one sick child either, so now there are three more. Accalia seems to have more of a cold with a bad stuffy nose. Ella is down for the count with a bit of a fever. I'm really hoping it's not the flu for her. Tylan definitely isn't feeling good and has spent all day curled up in the sling nursing.

Last night I was really looking forward to sleeping since I've had too many days in a row of too little sleep. Of course it ended up being a short, disruptive night with three of the kids waking up crying because of an ache or pain or just having weird, scary fever dreams. I'm hoping tonight will be better, but I'm not going to press my luck.

My cousin Chris stayed with us Monday night. That was really nice since we hadn't seen each other for more than three years. It's too bad the kids weren't feeling better. I warned Chris off because of illness, but he said he's pretty resilient.

So that's a quick update while the kids are mostly calm and content.