Cleaning, 25 weeks, reading fun, and tortillas

Me

       Spring cleaning is in full force for me. I am proud to say that our living room has never looked better. It's not done yet, but it won't be long. All I have left is the pile of stuff on, in, around, and under my desk. Woohoo!!! Clean all the things!!!

Baby Scott      

       25 weeks down! That's right. Our littlest Scott is 25 weeks along. I can't believe how close we are to meeting Baby Scott. If Baby was born now, there is a good chance she/he would live. However, Baby needs to stay put for another 15 weeks.
        I love this part of pregnancy. I'm no longer feeling sick and I'm feeling baby move regularly. I'm finally feel pregnant and I'm eating up this time in Baby's life.
        The only thing that would make this pregnancy better would be finding out if Baby is a boy or a girl. I was hoping to find out this week, but I wasn't able to get ahold of the ultrasound lady. Unfortunately, if I can't get ahold of her next week, it may not happen at all. That's ok, I guess. Baby will be a surprise. I just didn't want to get out all the baby clothes we have for both genders. I'm crossing my fingers that we can announce the baby's gender next week.

Brenda

        Brenda did awesome in school this week. The highlight for me was math. She is almost completely done with her kindergarten math book and will be moving on to the first grade book before summer at this pace. I was curious how much she is actually learning, so I decided to quiz her on addition problems for +0 and +1. I gave her a page with 20 problems on it and told her to do them as fast as she could. She finished the page in 2 minutes and 30 second without any mistakes. I was shocked. The best part was that she loved doing math this way. Next week, I'm going to do the same thing with +2 problems added in to see if I can stump her, because what I gave her this week was too easy. 

        Brenda's favorite part of this week was reading. We had a couple sensory activities that made practicing the letter sounds a lot of fun for her. She made play-doh letters and salt letters.

 

   

 Dominick likes playing in salt, too.

Dominick

       The highlight for Dominick was gymnastics. I cannot believe how well he is doing in class. He loves it! I see a gold medal in his future.

       His second favorite part was having a tortilla for snack today. We ran out of apples which are is favorite.

 

















Say Cheese!















My kids love each other so much.

School, Snow, and HF&M Disease

         The month of February has been super busy for our family. First, Dominick started Gymnastics this month. He loves it! It's a special time that is just me and him. He was so focused, he participated, and he followed what the other kids were doing. I'm so proud of him.

        Even though I love those special times and I look forward to them. I also look forward to the rare "me" moments. For the first time ever, I was able to get away for two weekends in a row without kids. I have to take advantage while I can since Dominick is finally ok with staying with Aaron and I know it will be another two years before I can get away again, because of baby Scott. Both were busy weekends, but well worth it mommy breaks. The highlight for me was meeting Ben Carson who I personally hope to see win the 2016 presidential election. If you don't know who he is, you should look him up. He's an amazing man.
         After my second weekend away, I came home to a sick baby. Poor Dominick got Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease which led to the quarantine of the kids and I for the last two weeks.

Poor Dominick with his spotted face. He's feeling much better, but is still pretty spotty.

        The first weekend I was away, I bought Brenda a new reading curriculum. This is number four that I've tried with her and so far she LOVES it. I'm so happy. I hope my smart girl will be a reader soon.

Coloring by sight words for Valentine's Day (not part of the new curriculum, but still fun)

Brenda and the letter D. 

       The highlight this past month for Brenda was the recent snow. She was so sad that Christmas came and went without any snow. She was equally excited last Friday when she woke up to snow on the ground even if it was just a dusting. 

All bundled up to play in the snow.

Kitty Aaryn liked the snow, too.

Counting my blessings

         January was a really depressing month. I'm not going to sugar coat it.  We spent most of the month sick with colds and an eye infection. Our plumbing backed up and we know that as soon as we have the money, we have to get our outside pipes repaired because they have roots growing in them. Our foundation has grown such large cracks in the floor that we found an ant hill in Brenda's closet (they came up through the carpet). Since then, we have found ants in our hallway, bathroom and kitchen. Our back door won't completely shut. Neither will our laundry room door that also came off the hinge. We were able to fix that. Our master bedroom toilet is coming off the ground. Our main toilet doesn't want to hold water to flush. A piece to my desk broke. Brenda has 8 cavities. We found out that Aaron won't be here for the baby's birth and first four months. We have more than $2000 of unexpected bills not including what it's going to cost us in household repairs, an exterminator, and getting Brenda's teeth fixed. Money wise, the total damage for January is going to be close to $5000. Yes, all this happened in one month and I know that I am forgetting something.
          Now, I'm sure you're wondering about the title of this post. Despite our series of unfortunate events, I have four people that make me smile every day and yesterday, my littlest reminded me of just how blessed I am. I haven't felt him/her as much as my other two, so Baby has me worried a lot. Last night, I felt the baby ever so slightly in areas that I haven't felt him/her before. I stayed perfectly still and waited to feel the baby again. She/he didn't disappoint. I not only felt Baby, but I saw my belly move for the first time as my littlest one did a little dance for me!
       My kids and my husband are why the other stuff matters to me. I want them to be healthy. I want them to live in a nice, functioning, pest free home. I want them to have the best when it comes to everything. It breaks my heart when the things I can't control crash down on us. I'm the Mommy. I want to be able to make everything better. I can't control the things that happened last month, but I can control me. My goal for February is to continue to fix the things that are broken including myself. I let everything get to me last month and I wasn't the best mother and wife I could be. I'm going to let the rest go. Yes, I'm going to figure out a way to pay bills, I'm going to continue to kill ants, and I'm going to repair what I can of our house, but I'm not going to let that get me down. I'm also going to make sure I laugh and play with my kids every day, because they don't know what's going on. They don't care about ants or pipes or money. They do care that I haven't been as there for them as much as I usually am. This is not going to be the case for February. I am truly blessed and I'll make sure to show all of them that that is how I really feel.
     

This week at the Scott's

  Me

     We've been working on getting healthy again this week. Ok, I've been working on getting healthy again this week. Everyone else is better, but for whatever reason, I can't seem to shake this cough and sore throat. I think it's a pregnancy thing for me, because I remember being sick like this with Dominick and I felt like I had a cold forever.

Baby

     I'm 20 weeks pregnant today!!!! I haven't felt the baby a lot yet, but I have felt it more than last week and Aaron got to feel baby kick! I'm going to schedule my ultrasound hopefully two weeks from now, so we will know soon if baby is Lorelai or Marshall (names subject to change.) I'm so excited!

Dominick

     
         Dominick had a speech appointment this week and he wowed her with his two word phases. This last week, he said, "I'm hungry," "I'm silly," "I'm playing", and "the battery's dead" (referring to the I-Pad). Our next goals are to get him speaking clearly enough that people who don't see him all the time can understand him and to continue to increase his vocabulary. He's doing so good.

Brenda

      For those who don't know, Brenda is in a homeschool program called Classical Conversations. She meets with other kids once a week for three hours and works on memorizing a tremendous amount of information. They also do art and a science experiment every week. Those students who can memorize EVERYTHING by the end of the year without mistake will be called memory masters. This is a lot of information, but I think Brenda can do it or at least come close. Since she is only 4 and actually was born two days after the cutoff date, I'm betting she is one of the youngest CC kids if not the youngest in the country. She has an amazing memory and it would be awesome if she became the youngest memory master. The only thing that would be holding her back is me, because of how sick I've been since November.

       I'm not pregnancy sick anymore and I'm ready to help her achieve this goal. In the fall, we were going week by week and she was remembering everything. We even ended up a week ahead at one point, then I started feeling yucky. We are now several weeks behind. I found a videos online of another 4 year old who achieved memory master last year and they tackled it one subject at a time. I decided to start doing this with Brenda this week. All week, we have been working on Latin. Latin is Brenda's favorite and she picked Latin this week. She has to know 37 vocabulary words English to Latin and Latin to English, 3 grammar rules, and she has to say John 1:1-7 in English and in Latin. We still have 2 more days of Latin before we switch to another subject and I have to say that she is doing amazing. I'm planning on taping her saying the memory verse in Latin and in English hopefully Monday, because she is that awesome. 

Family Fun

Brenda was playing with the camera after Dominick went to bed and Aaron and I decided to have a little fun with pictures, too.  

Our newest member of the family, Kitty Brenda.

Weighing the positives with the negative

I really thought that nothing bad was going to happen this week after I wrote my tithe check and nothing big did.... until today. First, I want to start with the positives from this week.

1. Baby is 19 weeks today! I was concerned that I hadn't felt the baby in a couple weeks, so I went to my midwife to check up on the baby. Baby is good, growing well, and has a heart beat of 155! We think Baby just moved to a spot where I can't feel it a lot right now. I did feel baby once tonight, so yay!

2. Dominick said his first sentence on the 21st. He says "eat" when he's hungry, so he came up to me and said, "eat! eat!". I said, "Are you hungry?" He replied by, "Yeah, I..I...I'm hungry." For an 18 month old little boy who said nothing just three months ago, this is huge! I'm so proud of my little man.

3. We are all finally getting over this horrible sickness. We're not completely better, but I'll take a lingering cough over how we've been feeling any day.

4. My college accepted my appeal and even though I had to take a mini break this semester, I should be able to start classes again under my new major in a month. I'm excited for the new start!

Now for the bad news.

Aaron is getting deployed in May. He won't be here when I give birth to our littlest baby. My heart aches because of this. I know after I get over the magnitude of this news, then everything will be fine and I'll make a plan on how I'm going to take care of a new born and our two small children without my husband. It just may take a couple of days and lots of tears to get to that point. I know deploying is part of his job. The timing is just really bad. I would feel much better about it if he was leaving in July or August, but it is what it is.

Stepping Out in Faith

     Last year was the first year we were really part of a church as a family and I made it my mission to tithe properly to this church. A curious thing happened. Every time we tithed a full 10%, we were attacked. Those were the times where our water went out, our toilets overflowed, our pets died, our electric bill came back as $400, our stove busted, and our oven caught on fire. Like clockwork, I would write a check and the next week disaster would strike. Our oven going out was it for me. I didn't feel like we could afford to tithe with so much extra expenses plaguing our family. The issues stopped.
      I recently received our tax information from the church showing how much we tithed last year. It was more than we ever have before, but it still wasn't the 10% God requires.
      This year, I promised myself to step out in faith and write that check first. I wrote our first check on the first. The day after that, stuff started happening. In the last two weeks $3500 to $4000 worth of disasters have plagued us in five separate events not to mention a week and a half now of us being sick.  We just got paid again and I can't help but to be hesitant on writing my tithe check.
      I heard a man speak last week and something he said on this subject stayed with me. He said, "I hear people say that they can't afford to tithe and I tell them, 'you can't afford not to.'" If those people are anything like my family, I understand. It's not about the 10% for us. When we tithe, Satan attacks. However, I also understand the importance of tithing, so even though I am hesitant, I am stepping out in faith that God will provide and will be putting our check in the offering on Sunday.
    My sweet Brenda said to me the other night, "One day, God will make us all better." She was speaking in regards to us being sick, but this rings truth in every situation in our lives. One day, God will make it all better WITH us properly tithing.

First week of school for 2015 and sickness

*Brenda*

      Homeschooling started in our house again on Monday. Monday and Tuesday was really great. Brenda finished her first kindergarten math book, we worked on reading, and memory work. She likes Dominick's school much more than her own. Of course she does! It's super easy for her and a lot more hands on. 

      Brenda has been sick the rest of the week. I thought she was over it this morning, but her fever came back around lunch time. 

     

*Dominick*

     I started a new curriculum with Dominick. This week we learned that the Bible is God's treasure. The kids went on a treasure hunt to find a treasure box with an Adventure Bible in it.

X marks the spot

We then decorated the treasure box and are storing our supplies for Dominick's school in it.

We also made a treasure map, made binoculars, studied the letter X and learned the song "The B-I-B-L-E".

Since we only did half a week of the lesson, we will be continuing the letter X next week. I'm hoping Brenda's all better soon, and the weather warms up, because I was looking forward to our field trip. We are going on an exploration in the back yard with magnifying glasses.

*My Second June Bug*

     I'm 17 weeks today! I bought Baby it's first new outfit this week and blanket. I couldn't resist. It's a girl outfit, because I think we're having a girl. I figured it was safe to buy since I have a few friends who are also pregnant and they are all having girls, so if Baby is a boy then I have presents for my friends. 

     I felt the baby a lot on Monday. It was awesome. That has to be the coolest feeling in the world! Unfortunately, I haven't felt her/him much since. Once to be exact. I know it's still early (I didn't feel Brenda until 20 weeks), but I wish baby would kick me just once today, so that I know everything is alright. If nausea is any predictor, than she/he is fine. I seem to be ok in the morning, but afternoon kills me. This baby is official my second june bug. I pray next week will be better heath wise for us.

*My Husband*

     One of my new year's resolutions is to get closer to my husband. We have been doing a challenge/activity together every day off a relationship calendar I found online and so far we both love it. I can't wait for our date tonight. We are going to take a quiz together. Ok, I know that sounds lame, but I love quizzes and Aaron is humoring me, because there are other days that have things he is more interested in for us to do like flirt with each other. How do you even do that?! I don't think I've ever flirted in my life, but I will humor him and I'm sure he will find my attempt more humorous than anything. 

     I'm also very proud of him. He won an award at work yesterday! Volunteer of the year! He has spent many weekends away this year training for the ministry he has at our church and working with the boys. It is a much deserved award for his commitment.