Hmm, I've quite nearly forgotten about this blog thanks to Facebook taking over my online social life. Debating whether I should start it up again...

Happy spring! Oh, and brr! I'm hoping we make it above freezing today. At least we had two days this week where it definitely felt like spring. On Wednesday and Thursday, the kids ran around outside without jackets. In short sleeves. They were ecstatic.

Let's see what's happened since St. Paddy's Day.

On Thursday the kids and I went to the 4-H building to help sort the fruit fundraising orders and pick up our own box of apples, oranges and pears. It took about an hour, which went much faster than I had thought. There were young kids running around, so it wasn't out of place for Ella and Tylan to be there helping as well. Tylan didn't do much more than try to avoid getting run over by people carrying heavy boxes, but Ella wanted to help carry every box that I carried. After that, Cole had tumbling, and that took care of the rest of the afternoon.

The cold weather returned on Friday, so we spent yesterday hanging out inside. Tylan is very fascinated by baby dolls right now and always needs one in her arms. So we usually have half a dozen lying around the house for Tylan when she needs one to hold and has thrown her previous one somewhere on the floor.

Ella, meanwhile, can't get enough of new-to-her spring/summer clothes. I've been dragging totes up from the basement and going through Accalia's old clothes for Ella and Accalia's/Ella's old clothes for Tylan. I haven't even gotten to the bags of clothes handed down to us from my brother Jeremy. We're overflowing with girl clothes! Poor Cole - it's hard not getting hand me downs.

Looking forward to the weekend. Accalia dances with her ballet class at a nursing home this afternoon. Cory won't be able to come along since he'll be getting ready for work, so I'm hoping that Tylan won't be worn out and ready to nap. Of course, with the way she's been napping lately, that would be highly unusual. Tylan is either taking late naps (3 p.m. or later), or forgoing naps completely. Nineteen months seems a bit early to start giving up naps, but my kids seem to give up naps earlier and earlier with each one. It amazes me to hear parents talk about their 3-4-5 year olds still taking regular naps. I think three is as old as mine have gone with regular or semi-regular naps. How does that work? Is nap time required or do the kids just naturally go down for a rest? We've never required naps (hated that as a child), so maybe that's part of the reason they disappear relatively soon.

Looks like I'll have to stop for now. Ella is awake and requesting computer time. Have a good weekend everyone!

I'm loving all of the signs of spring, which is just a few days away! We're almost constantly hearing and seeing the geese overhead as they migrate back up north. Today the kids and I are going to drive out to the lake area to do a couple things, and we'll have to be sure to see if large flocks of ducks and geese are resting on any of the lakes as they make their journey.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm looking forward to having a Guinness tonight. That's about as much of a tradition as I have for this holiday. The kids love dressing up in green, and at least the girls like painting their nails green, too, but otherwise it's a pretty quiet time. I think everyone is more excited to put up some Easter decorations and plan ahead for that and for our lovely spring weather. Unfortunately, Friday and Saturday are supposed to be cooler and have some rain or snow. Hopefully we can make it through the next month without any major spring blizzards. That rarely happens, but I can always dream.

Today Accalia will finish up her standardized testing, which is one of the few requirements South Dakota has for homeschooling. Basically there are the standardized tests (CAT tests) in the same grades that the public schools require and the yearly exemption form sent in to the school board. I can definitely handle that as what is necessary to keep the public school system from trying to regulate our lives.

There isn't a whole lot new and exciting happening so far this week. Tomorrow Accalia is going to help sort fruit for the 4-H fundraiser, and Cole has decided he'll go along to help. Parents are asked to help, too, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to since it's going on before Cory's home from work, and it'll be right at the time that Tylan usually needs a nap. We'll play it by ear, though.

On Saturday, Accalia and her ballet class will be performing their recital routine, "Nature's Grace", at a local nursing home. I'm excited to see it since I haven't had a chance to do that yet. There are 15 girls in Accalia's class, so it's a bigger routine and involves more complicated techniques. I caught the very end of ballet class yesterday and just loved watching Accalia as she followed the teacher's commands in French. I'm sure that's partly because I always wanted to take ballet but never did except for one free sample class.

I'm not getting nearly as much done as I hoped to this morning. Tylan has been having a very difficult time doing much in the way of napping and long stretches of sleep, so that's wreaked a bit of havoc on life around here. I'm going off of less than three hours of sleep today, too, so we'll see how the day goes.

You know, sleep really isn't overrated. At all. It's really too bad that I don't get more of it. With the paper route, I'm up at 3:15 a.m. (3:45 a.m. on Saturdays) and usually back home in less than two hours. That means I can crawl back in bed for two or three hours since Tylan will *usually* fall back to sleep and the other kids don't wake up until 8:30 or 9 or later. That definitely helps. But there are days where I don't go back to sleep and I really feel it by the end of the day since I don't function the best on four hours or less of sleep. I stay up, though, because otherwise I won't have any time to myself, time that I usually spend catching up on email. Any time in this house where it's completely quiet is so rare, too, and I need to have that every once in a while.

I think we'll all be glad for this week to end. It's been a rough one in a lot of ways. Cole and Accalia finished swimming lessons on Thursday, and both will stay at the same level. Cole was extremely upset about that, but he's come to terms with it now. By the time swimming lessons are offered again in the summer, I think both will have lots more time to be in the pool or lake.

I really need to update with pictures. I've neglected that for way too long. The kids will grow up thinking they stopped being photographed after Tylan hit the one year mark! Poor Tylan - my dirty little secret with her is that I have yet to do her baby book. I have a box with a bunch of things to add to it, but it just sits underneath a pile of too small clothes that needs to be stored away.

Now I think I'll brew some coffee and get back to playing catch up.

Thought I'd be gone again so quickly, eh? Not quite. It's actually the stomach flu that took out all six of us for a few days. It started Thursday evening with Ella, and by Saturday the rest of us were completely miserable. By Sunday, we were over the worst of it, although Cole and Cory (last to get it) slept most of the day. We're still experiencing a few residual effects (such as Tylan's nasty diapers), but for the most part we're ready, once again, to catch up with life and move along.

So there really hasn't been much of anything going on that doesn't involve illness. Well, I guess one thing related to illness - that would be my short-lived career as an Apple chat professional. The Statement of Work (SOW) I signed was for 20 hours per week (5 of those on the weekend), and due to the flu, I missed out on my first three days of work. Unfortunately, they don't give exceptions for missing work, and in order to meet my hours I would have to work nearly 20 hours on Thursday and Friday. I could probably have managed to do that if I had no children at home to care for, but that wouldn't have been realistic with my life. So there it is. Pretty disappointing, I know, so I'm once again searching for something to help bring in a few dollars.

Yesterday Cole, Tylan and I brought supper to our neighbor Ruby, who lost her husband a week ago. We stayed a bit to visit, and I was just amazed by how calm and collected she was. She was baking banana bread (gave us a loaf to take home), working on thank you notes and insurance business, and so on. I'm sure it's quite different to lose your husband at nearly 90 years of ago than, say, if your husband isn't yet 40, but I just don't know how I could carry on, let along have a conversation without dissolving into tears constantly. I definitely hope never to find out!

There's not a whole lot on the agenda for today. Lots to catch up on around the house. Accalia has ballet tonight, and she and Cole are both in their final week of swimming lessons. That, and hoping to not become completely confused watching Lost tonight should suffice.

Wow, I didn't know if my blog would actually still be here! LOL! Can't believe it's been about 3 1/2 months since I last posted. It seems that I ended with a post about my grandpa's funeral, and now I'm starting out with a post that includes another funeral. Our 87-year-old neighbor, Julius, passed away the day after Valentine's Day. He had been going downhill for quite some time and didn't really have the strength to walk far or do much of anything. It's nice to think he won't be suffering anymore and also a little sad to know he's not sitting in front of his window staring across the street to make sure he doesn't miss anything. We've known him and his wife since we moved to this house in 1998, so he also has been a part of our kids' lives for as long as they can remember. We're going to the visitation tonight and the funeral tomorrow.

Life continues to be busy and stressful and including too little sleep! I'm still doing the paper route each morning (except Sunday), and it's been a horrible winter for having to get outside and spend a couple hours walking around. It's either snow or ice or wind or bitter cold temperatures - or a combination. I told Cory this morning that February is starting to feel really, really long. I know the kids are very ready for spring to arrive. Me too!

This Saturday I will start working from home as a live chat professional on the Apple website. So, if you happen to click on the "live chat" button, you could very well start chatting with me (Amy N). We'll see how that goes. I spent all of January and much of February so far doing certification training, which amounted to a 3-hour class five nights a week and additional hours of homework. I'm not feeling overly confident in my abilities, but I think just getting in there and doing it will help. I'm hoping the hours will be enough and I'll be able to keep this job so that I can quit the paper route - just as the nice weather is approaching again, I know!

Cory is still working hard with the prison, pizza delivery and private counseling. I've been able to act as the receptionist/secretary for the private counseling, but that hasn't been time intensive in the least. With my certification training, Cory also had more to do in the way of shuttling the kids to various activities and more solo childcare.

Accalia has discovered Farmville and is loving the games. So now I'm playing a couple of the games with her, and that can really drain your time! The spring dance recital is less than three months away already, and Accalia is busy learning her entire routine. She and Cole are also in the midst of taking swimming lessons. They usually just do that in the summer (they always want to take lessons - I remember hating it), but they asked if they could do it in the winter, too. Go figure! It's also fundraising time for 4H, and we've really done no fundraising. Does anyone want to buy mixed fruit boxes? LOL! Accalia's looking ahead now to different things she can do with 4H for competitions/demonstrations and so on.

Cole is going strong with tumbling and swimming, too. One of the worst parts of having the certification training is that I missed out on going to visiting days for their classes at the dance studio. I haven't seen their routines or what their recital costumes will look like, so I'm very eager for that! Legos continue to be one of his biggest interests, and now Cole has added some Ben 10 legos to his collection.

Ella, my little spitfire, is slowly becoming a little more patient and understanding and willing to cooperate. It's slow going, though, and I know will improve as she continues to mature. She has had a big leap with her verbal skills recently and has finally made progress with the toilet. Hurray! She's got the whole peeing in the toilet thing down but is refusing to poop in the toilet. One thing at a time, I guess.

Tylan is making so many moves for increased independence. At nearly 18 months, she now insists on walking everywhere by herself, which makes it an even longer process to go to the store. It's also a little tricky to walk outside with snow and ice covered sidewalks. She is so much fun to be around, though, and fits right in with her brother and sisters. She and Ella are also becoming more buddy-buddy, and Ella will often try to include her in play.

Well, that's a good start for getting back to blogging. Hoping to keep up with it now...

We're back from our quick trip to Mankato for Grandpa's funeral. It would be so nice to spend a couple days there - at least - but right now it's just not possible between me having a paper route and Cory working weekends. As it was, the sub I had lined up for the route cancelled the night before we left. I feel awful about leaving my boss hanging like that, although I did let him know as soon as I could and had told him about a week prior to that about needing a sub. I still have a job, though, so it must have worked out okay.

We left Thursday morning, which also happened to be Ella's fourth birthday! Before we left, Ella opened her gifts. She is a huge Dora the Explorer fan and received a Dora doll as well as Dora's twin brother and sister dolls. How convenient that Cory and I had found those on clearance at Kmart not long ago. We also gave her a new bike helmet and shoulder & knee pads, which she tried out right away despite the cold, rainy weather. Last, but not least, we added to Ella's beloved Pookie book collection with the latest.

On our way out of town, we stopped for a free breakfast at HyVee. For the past several years, our local HyVee has had an annual Harvest Breakfast that is free to the public. You receive a heaping plate of scrambled eggs, sausages, a cinnamon roll, and oj or coffee. It always draws a huge crowd and was very yummy.

Ella's wish for her birthday had been to go to Chuck E Cheese, so we stopped at the one in Sioux Falls on our way to Mankato. That's also where we lunched. We ended up spending about two hours there, and all four of the kids had a blast. We hadn't been to a Chuck E Cheese for more than a year, too, so that probably added to the thrill.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we headed straight for the funeral home in New Ulm to attend the visitation. The visitation lasted about three hours, and we spent the time visiting with many friends and relatives. It was really nice seeing so many people come to pay their respects to Grandpa. After the visitation, the majority of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren headed to my grandparent's place so everyone could have a chance to look through all of the things that had been left out and pick out things they wanted. It's really an odd feeling to go through belongings like that, but it's also necessary since everything will have to find a home eventually. There were a few things I wanted for sentimental value, including one of Grandpa's bibles. I picked one out that he received in 1969, and when I was looking through it after returning home, I found some handwritten notes, including one where he listed passages he had questions about and had even written some things in Greek. I also returned home with my grandma's sewing machine and all of her sewing supplies. I've never sewed, so this will be interesting. Accalia is very excited. I think I caved in to the peer pressure of my cousin Rachel and sisters-in-law Jessica and Kathy - all sewing machine owners - staring me down and challenging me to take it. Thanks guys!

The funeral itself was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if it was the finality of both grandparents being gone, but it hit me harder than it seemed to with Grandma. I also had a hard time joining in singing the hymns. I would choke up every time one would start because I would immediately hear my grandpa's distinctive voice singing it instead.

We had to leave right after the service at the cemetery and made it home without incident. Cory worked last night, so that's why we were rushing once again.

Now we're preparing for the Halloween festivities! Cory is going to take the older three trick or treating this afternoon to the downtown area. The businesses always hand out candy for a couple hours, and I'm going to take that time to set up a little Halloween party I planned for the kids. Then we'll go trick or treating again in the evening. We're just going to go on our immediate block, and then Cory wanted to drive to a few different neighborhoods in town where the kids could actually walk door to door rather than trudging along looking for lit houses. Unfortunately we live in an area that is kind of hit or miss for trick or treating. I'm not sure if I'll go with them or stay home with Tylan and hand out candy. It depends on the weather and on Tylan's mood.

Now I have some party preparations to take care of while everyone is still sleeping.

Wow, I've gone more than a month now without updating! No really, I'm not trying to set any records. If you're truly craving somewhat regular updates from me, Facebook is probably your best bet at this point.

My grandfather passed away last Saturday, less than two months after my grandmother passed away. Of course we'll miss him greatly, but at the same time we're so relieved that he's no longer in pain or having difficulty breathing and that he doesn't have to be without his wife of 62 years anymore. I'm sad thinking that I have no more living grandparents - neither does Cory - and that I'm no longer someone's grandchild.

I wish I could say that all is happy and joyful on the home front, but that's far from the truth. I'm feeling so incapable as a parent right now. It seems that all four children are going through huge transitions, and I can't do anything to make things okay. Accalia's really having a difficult time with losing her close friends a couple months back. It's finally hit her that her BFF isn't next door and isn't coming over to visit like she thought would happen. She's lonely and wants her friends, and I wish I could make friends instantly appear. I talk with her about how all transitions are hard and that if she can make it through this, it will be so much better on the other side. She's joined 4-H and will have her first meeting next month, and I said that's the perfect place for her to make new friends. Keeping my fingers crossed... The good news is that she absolutely loves her ballet class and is extremely excited about the recital piece she's started to learn.

Cole is also having a hard time, and I think it's partly due to friends moving away, too. He's also been so intensely involved with legos and Indiana Jones and is now starting to lose interest and ideas for these things. That's been hard on him as he seems to be at a loss of what to do - of a new, intense interest to grab him.

Ella continues to challenge me daily as a parent. She's developed this screech when she's upset, and lately she seems upset a lot. She likes to use it in stores, too, when she wants something and doesn't have it and immediately goes into the screech mode that causes everyone around to stop and stare. Yes, you're welcome other parents. I'm the parent you're all relieved not to be at that moment. Someone has to take the job, right? At the same time, I can see little ways that she's learning more patience and more understanding. It's just taking a while. She turns four tomorrow, so maybe that will be a magical turning point!

Tylan is practically running everywhere now. Leaps and bounds with everything. Teeth are coming in. Hair is growing. Height is increasing. Verbal and physical skills improve every day. That means there's a lot of restlessness at night and a lot of frustration during the day when things don't go as planned.

And yes, I know that when the parents are stressed, that leaks to the children and can cause less than desirable behavior. I'm trying to work on that. Just feeling stressed and incapable and ick. Wishing I had a more positive blog update since I do that so rarely lately.

I've started posts in the recent past but have always been interrupted by waking children or children who want my help, etc., so I'm just deleting everything and starting over. I remember those days when I would blog nearly every day, and now it's been nearly one month. Yikes!

Since late August, Cole has had his seventh birthday, which was celebrated mainly with a very rainy camp out that featured a surprise appearance by Grandpa Greve. It was so great driving to our site and seeing my dad sitting there by the campfire. Cole was like a puppy, his entire body shaking with excitement.

Now my birthday will be coming this Tuesday, and I'll be welcoming the big 3-3. I think Cory may try to take that day off from work, but I don't think we have anything else really planned. Originally, Cory was going to be gone nearly this entire week for training in Chamberlain, but that training will now be in November.

The kids are doing great, and so far we've all been healthy for quite a stretch. The only medical issue for the kids has been Accalia's ankle. Last Monday at soccer practice, a teammate accidentally kicked Accalia in the ankle, and I ended up taking her to the doctor the next day because she was barely able to walk on it and it was so swollen. The next day the bruises showed up. No breaks or sprains, but she really got quite the bruise. She's pretty much walking without a limp now, and I think she'll probably go to practice tomorrow. She missed out on a game yesterday, so we just had Cole's game in the morning. Go Panthers!

Tylan, now 13 months, has started taking more and more steps in just the past day or two and is making it 5 or 6 in a row. I'm kind of dreading the improvement in physically abilities since I know how much more work comes for the parent when there's walking and climbing involved, but it's still so much fun to see those leaps and bounds in development. More and more words are trying to be spoken, too. It's always neat to hear what your baby's voice sounds like after waiting so many months.

Still no toilet use from Ella, but her cognitive abilities are going full steam ahead. So, maybe she's just focusing on that development right now and will get to the physical stuff soon after. Let's hope! While both Accalia and Cole tend to go along with groups of kids more than being the instigator, Ella seems to be a natural at taking the lead. At soccer games, for instance, we'll suddenly find Ella with a band of kids, leading them around in play.

Cole's world lately has consisted of legos and Indiana Jones. He also likes staying up a bit later than the rest of us so he can build with legos in peace. He'll also sit at the computer and watch YouTube videos involving legos and Indiana Jones.

Accalia seems to have a million different things she divides up her time with and lately has spent a lot of time with her magazines and puzzle books. The two of us are very excited that the new season of Bones has started again. We had a lot of fun watching Seasons 1-3 over the summer so she could see everything from the beginning.

Once Tylan wakes up from her nap, the kids and I are heading to the library. They want books similar to "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat."

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!