Books, Books, Books

At Martha's request, I thought I would share some of the books I have read this year.

Orthodox Books:

1. Diamonds on the Bosphorus
2. The Illustrated Life of the Theotokos for Children
3. A Trace in the Sand
4. Bright Faith: Father Artemy Vladidimorv Talks with Western Orthodox
5. Letters to Saint Lydia
6. Christ is in Our Midst: Letters from a Russian Monk 
7. Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witness

I enjoyed reading all of these books. More than likely I will reread these again in the future. The Fr. Arseny book I had already read and is one of my favorites. If I had to narrow this list down I would definitely read books 1, 3, 4, and 7 again in the near future.

Fiction Books:

1. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 
2. Tears of the Giraffe 
3. The Hunger Games Trilogy
4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
5. Smoking Seventeen (Stephanie Plum Series) 
6. Explosive Eighteen (Stephanie Plum Series)
7. The Help

The most recent books I have read are the the first two books in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these books (as suggested by Martha)  and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I also enjoyed reading The Help. As far as the others go they are really based of personal preference. I was pleasantly surprised with the Hunger Games Trilogy they were a quick read and compared to some of the other popular fiction they are mild in regards to various undertones you can find in other books. The Stephanie Plum series books I began reading with my mom when I was expecting Pic Pic. There is not much substance to the books and are rather quick reads. I continue to read them as a bonding experience with my mom. We also read James Patterson books together as well. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a difficult read. Although I enjoyed the suspense factor it was rather risque at parts and I found myself having to skim over some chapters.

Non - Fiction
Getting Started in Homeschooling
One Thousand Gifts

Both were books I have read previously, good little reminders of things we may forget when we get caught up with our day to day tasks.

Currently I am reading Raising Them Right an expert from a Path to Salvation. Some of the Orthodox books l would like to read in the future are Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, Everyday Saints, Path to Salvation, The Other Side of the Bonfire, and the Scent of Holiness. As far as fiction is concerned I want to continue reading the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Tudor Court Series by Philippa Gregory, classics. I am not much of a history person and thought that reading a historical series might peak my interest. I also have not ready many classics and thought that it might be good to read them. Does anyone have any  recommendations on which classic would be best to start with? I don't read much non fiction books but ones that I would like to read are centered around a Charlotte Mason education.

October Goals

I finished a number of my goals for this month already. The remain goals are to:

1. Create Month Budget Notebook and complete September Budget
2. Organize Jacob's Clothes 
3. Transition kids summer clothes with fall clothes
4. Update all cell phone photos to snap fish
5. Read three books (so far I have finished two).

Goals and Lists

My mind has been all over the place lately, or more so than normal. I am not sure if it's pregnancy related or just plain old busyness due to having young children. I often find myself making extensive lists of things to do but often find that half or not more of what is on that list is not that important. I sat down recently to review what it is that I would like to accomplish throughout the rest of the year.

1. Continue Working on MFW 1st grade and add additional preschool activities. 
2. Start Potty Training Ice Man
3. Jacob's Birth
4. Finish goal of reading 24 books this year. 
5. Establish home management system
6. Continue with my higher education courses
7. Clothing Organization
8. Room Organization
9. Utilize Blog
10. Photo Organization
11. Maintain and Update Budget regularly

Some of these goals are rather large and will carry over next year. With this list, I will be able to have a more focused sense of direction on what areas I want to concentrate on.  Additionally to creating this overall list, I have started making monthly lists of what needs to be done in regards to this overall list. By making this monthly list I am also able to decide whether or not a task is really of any value. It may be something that would be ideal but not worth focusing on now. After a monthly list I have broken things down further in a weekly to do list. This list usually has items referring to the monthly list as well as any items that need to be done throughout the week. I have been using just a regular notebook for this.

Long Over Due Update!

Where to begin? Its been a busy year for us this year. To start, I will share a pregnancy update. Currently I am 37 1/2 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. So now our family will be even, two and two. After, the rough first trimester, things have gone fairly smoothly. The baby is currently not head down so a c-section has been scheduled. I will be honest, I was rather disappointed initially about the possibility of a c-section, especially since I haven't had one previously. I am no longer disappointed but am slightly nervous as it is a whole new experience for me. As far as having things prepared for this baby, I have been procrastinating more than I ever have. I have a rather lengthily check list to work on before his arrival in a week and a half. Fortunately, my mom is flying in tomorrow to help out. Besides the pregnancy, I have returned to school and have started work on a master's program. I have completed the first three classes and will be taking a break for the birth and recovery of the baby. Now on to the rest of the family.

Hubby began his second year at seminary at the beginning of September. It has gone by rather quickly so far. The big news for hubby is that he was recently sworn into the Air Force as a Chaplin Candidate as a 2nd Lt. His plans are to join the reserves after graduation. He will be gone for most of the summer as he will be training. He has also been busy with basketball practice.

The girls have had a busy start to the "school year" as well. They both are attending karate class at the YMCA as well as religious education class at the local parish we attend. I thought life was busy with three young ones but now with various activities it has gotten much more busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Pic Pic and I started school in mid August this year as to give us a head start before the baby's arrival. This year we went with My Father's World curriculum. So far, we have both have enjoyed it. We have taken a break since coming into to my last month of pregnancy and with that break we have noticed how much more she is working on reading. She tries to read everything she sees. It is such a wonderful thing to witness. Dan Dan is finally completely potty trained. It was such a different experience with her than with Pic Pic. Dan Dan defiantly had to make the decision on her own that she was ready regardless of any encouragement from Mommy and Daddy. One day she pretty much decided that she was done wearing pull ups and that she was going to go potty on the toilet. It is such a relief that we are done with her potty training. She is also doing some "school work". When she joins us with school she works on hand writing and letter recognition as well as gross motor skills (mainly lacing and cutting activities). Right now she uses some of Pic Pic's old preschool workbooks that have uncompleted sheets. I plan on purchasing Christian Liberty Press Preschool Workbook for her. We used it for Pic Pic and she enjoyed it.

Ice Man is defiantly in the two year old little boy stage where he is all over the place. He is still on the small side but has grown tremendously. His vocabulary is expanding, with everyone of the kids it is such an amazing experience to see them state new words or expressions. He has transitioned to a big boy bed and is out of the crib. We initially thought that we would wait until after the baby was born to work on transitioning him as the baby will be in our room for sometime. However, once he saw a big boy bed in his room he was ready for the change. Although, most nights he sneaks into our bed. We have begun potty training him. Our potty training techniques have been to sit them on the potty first thing in the morning and then before bath time to get them use to the potty. Then when we notice that they are "taking care of business" we place them on the potty. This worked with Pic Pic and by the time she was two and a couple of months she was going number two on the potty. However with Dan Dan, this did not work. She had to do it on her own terms. Ice Man, however is doing well with this method. He doesn't tell us when he is going but we keep an eye out for it and he goes willingly when we notice it. Yesterday we purchased his first set of pull ups.

So that sums up our life in a nutshell. My hope is to blog more to have a family record or journal of sorts to document our life. I also want to utilize the blog to help with motivation to work on various tasks pertaining to family and home life.

An Update!

On Forgiveness Sunday, we confirmed that we are expecting our fourth child. Although I thought that I may be expecting, it was quite a surprise and not how I intended to be entering Great Lent. Hubby and I were open to having more children, but we were very content with our family. God had different plans for us.

This pregnancy has started out on the rough side in more ways than one. Its been my hardest first trimester yet. I have been pretty nauseous and fatigued. It was also discovered that I have a clot (I  cant seem to remember the medical term) from the implantation. It's been an emotional roller coaster.

A couple of weeks ago we made the trip to New Jersey to venerate the Kursk Root Icon. It was such a healing experience for me in more ways than one. It helped me to be grateful for this pregnancy. The morning sickness stared to become manageable and the fatigue seem to be only towards the end of the day instead of all day. I also had an ultrasound a few days after venerating the icon and it revealed that the clot had decreased by half. Glory To God! I will be 10 weeks on Thursday.

The kids are all doing well.  They are very excited about the new baby especially the girls.

Ice Man turned two this weekend. It seems like just yesterday he was born. I can't help just wanting to cuddle him up and enjoy his time as being the baby. He still loves to to be cuddled by Mommy. He is also entering the terrible two tantrums. He has for the most part, always been well behaved in church until recently. He does a fake whine, the only thing that gets him to stop is if I take him outside. As soon as we step in the church he starts again. Although it can get frustrating at times, I can't help but laugh inside when I see his face during his fake whine.

Dan Dan is the one who tries my patience. She can be so adorable at times but then her temper hits and its a whole different story. Once the temper hits there is no pulling her out of the fit she is in. We have tried numerous things to cope with it and the best thing we have found is if we put her in time out until she can stop her fit. It seems to be helping but it is defiantly a lot of work. We are still working on potty training. Some days she does really well and other days she could care less. She is enjoying doing "school work". I set up a binder based of this one for her to use. She really enjoys working in it.

Pic Pic she can be such a big help at times. We hadn't been doing much school since I was pretty sick with morning sickness. She was so thought full and would bring me water and snacks to help with it. She is the most excited about the baby. The last couple of weeks we have been gradually easing back in to school. Right now our main focus is on reading. We are going over the Bob books again as a refresher. Our plan next year was to use K12 but with the baby being due in the fall we have decided that it won't be best for us. I have been contemplating on what to use. I am leaning towards a "boxed" curriculum as it might make everything a bit easier while we are adjusting to the new baby. Although I really enjoy Sonlight, I am thinking we will be using My Fathers World. They are both similar and I have heard good things about both. My main deciding factor is price. Sonlight is on the pricier side of things.

After this week Hubby will have a couple weeks of from class during Holy Week and Bright Week. We are looking forward to spending this time together. And a few more weeks after that he will be done with his first year of seminary. It still has quite a bit of work to do and will be working on it during his break but it will be nice to still have him home. It has gone by pretty quickly, at least for me. :)

Update & Commitment to Loveliness Week 1

February has been flying by. We have been pretty busy but I am finding that is the norm for us during this season of life. Just when I think I am adjusting we are thrown for a loop. First Hubby came down with a cold that hit him pretty hard. This week Ice Man came down with RSV. Both girls have varying degrees of colds. Glory to God they are all on the mends.

I thought I would join in with Mat. Emily in posting 5 goals. I could defianetly use this to get back on track.

1. Laundry. I need to work on getting laundry caught up.

2. Call a friend from back home in AZ.
3. Clean house. With all the sickness going on a good "spring cleaning" needs to be done.

4. Plan activities for the kids to do during lent. Last year we did a my journey to Pascha.

5.  Patch hubby's cassock.

January Update

We celebrated our first Nativity in Pa this month. We were blessed to have such a special Feast Day. We had a wonderful time carolling despite the cold.

Hubby and the girls attend a Yolka and their picture even made it into the paper. Ice Man was ill so we stayed home. I ended up having a nice time at home. He slept most of the time so I was able to have a quiet afternoon at home.

Hubby went back to school and will be having a busy semester.

I celebrated my Names Day.

We celebrated Theophany. We had our home blessed for the first time since becoming Orthodox.

We attended a marriage retreat and learned some valuable information. I hope to be able to retain it and put it to use.

I also began attending a choir class. Having no musical background, I am looking forward to grasping anything I can.

February will be a busy month for us as well. Hubby and I were looking over the calendar and realized how quickly Great Lent is approaching. We are looking forward to it. The last couple days I can't help but sing the hymns associated with Lent and Pascha.

Goals!

Lately I have been all over the place with my thoughts and intentions. Let's just say that I have been multitasking but not checking anything of my to do list. I have started things but not finished them.

After reading numerous blog posts and thinking about how I can follow through with my to do list, there are some simple ideas I am going to try and use.

1. Establish weekly goals. To try and help with having some focus I am going to list weekly goals of some bigger projects. Right now in this category are read more, listen to more podcasts, craft more and declutter.

2. Three daily tasks. These tasks will be anything on my to do list that it is not  performed on a regular basis.

I have been utilizing a small dry erase board to list out my to dos for the day. It has been nice using it since hubby is able to add things to it.