Friday, August 29, 2014

Girls' Bedroom

My mom asked for some pictures of the girls' newly "furnitured" bedroom.

My mom and stepdad gave us a gift when Lucy was born to get some furniture for her. Because she will eventually be sharing a room with her sisters that meant that basically all the girls got some new furniture.

We really like how it turned out...and yes there will be room for one more bed when Lucy is ready to move in if we move the long dresser down and Lucy will go in the corner. We measured and we are sure. I still need to do something about the curtains and still have some stuff to hang on the walls.


From the doorway

from the corner closet..if you look close you see Buggy in bed.  She was just waking from her nap.

from the end of the bunkbeds

waking with a smile

Buggy was made for loving....love that face.

From on top of the bunk!!

Anna's in bed bookcase

Bug's in bed bookcase

from the desk

Buggy with her best lovey.  Puppy had been missing for months and Anna just found it tucked into her sleeping bag.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Lucy is 6 Months.....Or Almost 7 Months!!












Ohhh poor 4th baby!  Hardly a post dedicated to her here on the blog.  Well, she turned 6M on 7/25....so she will be 7M in a few days.

She is a darling and much loved little baby.  But she is my differentest baby!!  She only lags behind Anna a little for crankiest baby.  She wants your attention...and she wants it NOW! LOL...But the biggest difference is the SLEEEEPPP!!  Oh my goodness, this baby has not gotten the memo on how Salvucci babies SLEEP.  They just do!  She is regularly still up at 10pm and then up at night or in the wee hours to be fed.  None of the conking out by 7-8 and sleeping until the next morning for this one....no ma'am.  Cruel joke.

Also, compared to my other girls she is enormous.  Larger by pounds and longer. I will have to look back to compare her to Ben, but she may be bigger than he was too.  I think she was 14lbs2ozz at her last well check (I already forgot....see another thing with baby #4...the stats).  She is at the 90th I think for length and 25th for weight.  The other two girls were never even in double digits for weight...and barely for height.

She is at the slower end with motor skills.  I don't count Anna in that because she was clinically delayed and not even rolling over by 6M.  But she is now getting up on hands and knees and sort of throwing herself forward, loves to roll under the couches, not quite sitting up but does the mostly upright lounging position.  She can sit in the high chair just fine or in the wagon where she has some support...and she can sit up if you sit her up.  She loves to be fed baby oatmeal and purreed stuff.  She looks like a Ben clone and is a sweet and smiley little love girl.

Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson

 Anna has completed her first poem for Kindergarten!!


 I know the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum and many other classical curricula consider memorizing poetry to be very important for the younger grades. More important than things like science and history even...considering that Anna is studying and memorizing poetry every day, but will not even start thinking about history or science until 2nd grade. And even then it is very lightly touched upon. So, even knowing this, my inclination is often to just skip it and get done with school..get the reading and the math done and move on. Then I listened to this talk (scroll down a bit to get to the talk by Dr. James Taylor).  In fact I listened to it twice...in a row...and saved it to listen to again.  I am preparing her to read Shakespeare and Aristotle later.  We must learn the "good" books so we can learn the "great" books.

And of course Buggy couldn't have it that the camera was out and no video was taken of her...so here is Buggy's version.  (and you can see her eye looks much better, but look at that new crop of mosquito bites over her face.)


Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Poor Buggy!

 


Oh, my poor baby.  She is always plagued with weird and random things.  She woke up Monday morning looking like this.  She was not stung by any bee, no mosquito bites....Her pediatrician looked at her and is sure it is an infection, but we have no idea from what.  Whatever the cause she is on an antibiotic now and today is already looking a little better.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

How Does Your Garden Grow

favorite preparation for zucchini is bread/muffins or fried up with some marinara to dip.

That's it folks the entire potato crop












our homemade pear/apple picker

one of our finest crops



running to catch falling pears

my country girl.  She is the greatest lover of nature of the kids





Overall we are really happy with our garden this year.  We had a lot of failures, but many more successes than last year.  Mainly we moved the garden to a much sunnier spot and that made ALL the difference.  Also this year I started everything from seed.  Due to various circumstances that meant we lost all our tomato, broccoli, and peppers.  And that stinks.  I was really counting on the tomatoes especially to can and last all winter.  Next year I think I will skip the tomatoes from seed and just buy those plants.  I will try the broccoli and peppers again though.

What we do have growing (or grown and already finished) is three types of lettuce, carrots, corn, peas, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, a lame crop of potatoes, and a few grape tomatos, and one lone Roma tomato.  We also had some berries and pears and apples.  The pears we just pulled and the apples we will pull in another week or so.

What I have learned for next year....1. plant twice as many peas and beans so we have to eat and save  2.  squash, pumpkins etc take over the entire garden  3.  there is no such thing as too much watering  4.  recommended spacing for most (squashes aside) is way too far apart....pack them in!

Monday, August 11, 2014

Anna Turns 5












Annabella turned 5 on July 28th.  She is becoming such a big girl.  We have been very proud of her lately.  Showing lots of growth.  She is a blessing every day.

For breakfast she requested brownies.  And she got goggles and a hummingbird feeder.  Later in the day Grandma and Papa came over and we went to dinner at Friendly's.  Yum!!!