Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

Today I did many things.  

I drank a cup of coffee with my husband before he had to go to work and politely listened to the latest rock band he discovered. I started the first of several loads of laundry for the day and made what I hope was a well-balanced breakfast. I woke Ian up when it became apparent that he was planning on sleeping all day.  I reminded everyone how lucky they were to homeschool because if they were going to public school, they would have been up, dressed, and out the door before any of them had actually opened their eyes that day.  Except Daniel.  He is usually up before me.

I changed a diaper.

I reminded Daniel that he could not play on the Leapster or the computer until he finished his school work.  Then we did his school work, which was letter writing, listening and following directions, making a pictograph, and reading short words.  I got Shane started on his math and smiled to myself because Ian was in the shower. Again. He just took one yesterday.  I asked Fiona why she wasn't dressed yet and got her started on school work.  While she sang and did subtraction, I reminded her brothers they don't actually own the air waves and if Fiona wants to sing while she worked, they can just plug in the headphones on the computer or work in a different room.

Yup, he's starting to read.

I made another cup of coffee and checked the laundry and changed a diaper and wiped a bottom.  I wondered why everyone needed to eat again.  Didn't they just have breakfast?

Dueling Pancake Griddles: The only way to feed seven kids

I listened to Fiona read out loud, reminded everyone to stay on task because when they fool around and take extra time on the computer, they are preventing others from getting their work done.  I let Evie go outside and read in the cherry tree because that is what homeschooling is all about.  I'm sure she'll pick up spelling one of these days.  

There are two books in that tree: The Cabin Faced West and The Winter at Valley Forge

I got sucked into facebook when I meant to just find out what a spelling workbook cost and then changed another diaper.

Will Fiona get there in time?

At this point in my day, details got fuzzy.  If it was Monday or Wednesday, we packed into the van and went to the YMCA after everyone ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  If it was Tuesday or Thursday, various kids ran in and out of the house, getting sand all over my floor.  Heidi likes to play in the sandbox and eat sand.  It drives me crazy! If it was Friday, everyone miraculously had their chores and school work done by lunch time and were ready to start playing video games.  I might have mopped up some blood, ran into town for stitches, or decided that stitches weren't necessary as long as I had a good bandage.  I may have even removed Shane's scalp stitches with the wire cutters Mark used to fix the dryer.  And speaking of dryers, it was time to check the current load and try to get some folding done.

The hole that gave Shane 3 stitches

More diapers were changed and I thought of all the cloth diapers I want to get finished before my belly grows too big for me to sit comfortably at the sewing machine.  I thought about what subjects and curriculum I want to use next September when I'm homeschooling kids in 8th, 7/6th, 4th, 2nd, Kindergarten plus three babies.  After that, I really needed a nap, so I put Frozen on for Lula and conked out with Heidi on my lap.  When I woke up, I realized I forgot about dinner (again) and Mark walked in the door five minutes later.
 

Fiona tries, and fails, to ride a two wheeler

We threw something together, ate, and managed chaos until it was time to get the dish crew started on their chores and then bedtime was here! Hooray!  Last night Heidi kicked me all night long and woke me up like twenty times.  She is teething, one tooth after another, and only likes cold milk in a bottle for relief.  She drank three 9 ounce bottles last night and needed her diaper changed by 3:00 AM.  So much for "overnight" diapers.  I wonder if tonight will be more of the same?

See you tomorrow,
Anna

And that is basically what the Downens have been up to for the last three weeks!

It's a Boy!

We've known for four days now that Baby 2015 is a boy!  Everyone really wanted a boy, just to bring balance to the gender count.  When the ultrasonographer saw Baby's gender, she said, "Well, it looks like the teams are starting to even up."  I said, "WHAT?" and she said, "It's a boy!"  I didn't quite believe her, so she showed me again.  She also said she would be very surprised if she made a mistake.

I knew Mark would be ecstatic, so I had to come up with a good way to surprise him.  He had been expecting another girl and the odds really were in a girl's favor.   I stopped at Target to buy some little blue onesies to put in a gift bag with the pictures.  When we found out Daniel was a boy, I put the pictures in a "Congratulations on your Baby Boy" card which I put inside a pink envelope.  Mark at first thought we were having a girl, but was super surprised to find the boy pictures inside.  I was hoping to do something similar this time too!

Mark had to work all day Wednesday, so I had to call my mom at the last minute to watch the rest of the kids.  But when Mark got to the meeting spot, he noticed there were no other district biologists in the meeting.  When they asked what he was doing there, he realized that he didn't actually have to be at this meeting.  Trying to make a bad situation good, he tried to access the network with his computer so he could get some work done.  When he couldn't do that, he decided that he would try one more time to salvage his work day: he called a coworker to do a survey, but found out the survey had been completed the day before! So there he was with no work to do and close enough to where I was getting the ultrasound that we could meet for coffee.

When I pulled into the parking lot and saw that I was going to get a spot right next to Mark, I started grinning.  I couldn't help it; he was going to be so surprised! But when he looked at me, I had to quickly rearrange my face into what I thought was a sympathetic look.  Mark quickly walked around to my side of the car and hugged me and said, "It's okay, I'm here to support you."  He totally fell for my "sad" face and thought it was a girl (and just for the record, I would have been very happy with a girl-it was everyone else that wanted a boy).  When he opened the gift bag and saw the blue onesies, you better believe we jumped and hugged and cried for joy, right there in the middle of the parking lot!

This little guy is already so incredibly active.  These four youngest are certainly going to give me a run for my money!