Lately 8/18/17

+ E and I started pulling out a morning basket during breakfast each day. I have a plan written out, and each week we read books and do a few activities covering stories, saints, math, the alphabet, and religion. We also work on memorizing a prayer and sometimes do motor skills practice. It sounds a lot more involved than it really is, I promise--almost all of it is stuff we'd do organically throughout the day anyway. Having it all in the morning basket keeps me organized, though, and helps me make sure I don't forget to read that book we got at the library or forget to ever play with patterns with her or something like that. I've been reading a lot about Charlotte Mason--in fact, I just started digging into her first volume, Home Education--and plan to keep things very simple until E is six years old or so. For now, we're just doing our morning basket. It doesn't take much time at all and mostly involves me reading aloud to her (which we'd be doing anyway). She loves it and asks for me to read "her stories" every morning.

+ I have become a spider-killing machine. Our house is next door to a large empty lot (several lots, actually) and so we attract quite a few little creatures. Lately, it's been mostly spiders, and I've become pretty skilled at squishing and/or vacuuming them up. I can even get it done now without shrieking first. (Ha.) Unfortunately, it took a while to get to that point, and I think I accidentally gave E a healthy fear of bugs by letting her see me jump and yell whenever I was surprised by a new little somebody. She runs from anything more menacing than a pill bug (and those she delights in stepping on somewhat maliciously whenever we go outside). Oops.

+ I've been trying to keep multiple books going at one time, which is unusual for me. I normally focus on one at a time, but that means I'm often rushing through something so I can get to the next book on my list. Reading two or three at once, I feel like I'm getting more done while also allowing myself to go slowly and savor the meatier books.

+ I've been reading 100 Favorite Bible Verses every once in a while first thing in the morning. When I first looked at the book online I thought it was going to be 100 verses with some commentary on each, but it's really just your typical devotional (albeit with pretty illustrations of the opening verse). That was a little disappointing for me, because I think the content would be a lot more interesting if it had met my initial expectations. Instead, it's a book with one-page, quick-read devotionals designed to... well, in my estimation, designed to make you feel like you can check the spirituality box off your daily to-do list in under five minutes and be done with it. Womp, womp, wooooomp. It's light and fluffy and incredibly shallow. Yes, the book is pretty, but I'm not sure I'd even give it as a gift because the content is so thoroughly disappointing. (P.S. I received a copy of this book free for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

+ My Christmas shopping is about halfway done. Yup, in AUGUST. I always start somewhat early, but this year I ramped it up because I don't anticipate having a lot of time or energy to shop in November/December, what with there being a toddler and a newborn in the house. I have four of the more difficult people on my list completed. It would be more, but I'm a little stuck on ideas for others. Good thing I started early. ;)

+ I feel like I've officially passed the "cute pregnant" stage and entered the "just plain large" stage. I keep telling myself that this is good because it means we're that much closer to meeting baby, but it's still not all that fun or comfortable. Plus, that leads to the "we're going to have two kids" line of thinking, which it's best not to dwell on for too long. It *is* genuinely good, though, because we've been keeping an eye on a low-lying placenta. If it doesn't move far enough away from my cervix, it means automatic C-section. So a stretching uterus is a positive. Other than all that, pregnant life is pretty uneventful--which is a good thing.