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Look at all I did yesterday:
baked one batch of banana nut muffins
baked on batch of blueberry muffins
cleaned all of the kids’ rooms
vacuumed
did two loads of laundry
put away 1/2 of one load (I hate this task!)
baked two loaves of bread
make two chocolate cakes
prepared one pasta salad
made a big batch of chili
cleaned the kithcen
cleaned up the guest room
made up guest bed
gathered clothes for the next batch of laundy
made dinner for the kiddos
straightened up the house
gave my children a bath
And the best parts:
read books to Spunky
bragged about my cute kids to my sister
spoke to my mom on the phone
taught Punky how to write his numbers
cuddled with Bunky before his afternoon nap
chatted with my hubby mid-day
showed Punky how to play a new computer game
snuggled with Spunky before her nap
called Trish and made plans for my trip to see her
saw the delight in Punky’s face when I put a cherry in his juice
enjoyed listening to the children dance together
witnessed Spunky mothering Bunky
tucked my sweet babies into bed
nursed and rocked Bunky to sleep
and I get to do this all over again…
well, not today, but another day in the near future.
Today, Bunky and I are off to see Trish!
It was only 24 degrees when we bundled up this morning
to take a nice, long walk.
This is the second walk we have taken this week,
and I hope to take more in the future… even tomorrow!
All this walking is going to help my progress with weight loss. Bunky is now six months old and I only have about two pounds left to lose of all the wonderful weight I gained during my pregnancy with him. However, as great as that may sound, you must take into consideration that I still have about 40 pounds left to lose from my other two pregnancies. Yikes! 
With Punky, I gained a whopping SIXTY pounds. Of that, I lost a little bit less than 40. I got pregnant with Spunky almost ON Punky’s first birthday, so I wasn’t able to lose any more than that. I was incredibly sick at the beginning (first 20 weeks) of my pregnancy with Spunky, and I still managed to gain about fifty pounds– 90% of which was gained in the second half of the pregnancy. Then with Bunky, I was determined not to gain as much. And I didn’t. But I did gain about forty pounds (still not in a healthy weight gain range- although, I tried to eat healthier in this pregnancy and still managed to gain a lot of weight).
So all that to say: I am almost at my pre-pregnancy weight before Bunky, but I have a long way to go before I can get back to my pre-pregnancy weight with Punky.
I love walking, and now that we live in a neighborhood conducive to walking, I think I will be walking a lot more than I did when we lived in the country. The hardest part is getting out the door. With three kids four and under, it takes at least 10 minutes to get everyone in coats, hats, and gloves, and then I have to get them into the stroller and Bunky into my Mei Tai (if you follow that link, you can see how you can even design your own baby carrier). I am looking forward to spring and summer when it will not be so much work to go for a walk.
Now the other part of the issue to eating. I love to eat. Fortunately, I do love healthy food, but I have a serious problem with portion control. I was hoping Lent would get me back on track, but I need to put in a little bit more effort. My biggest flaw is laziness when it comes to preparing food for myself, specifically breakfast and lunch.
And the whole idea that nursing will make you lose weight does NOT apply to me. I have nursed all of my babies for a year (or more) and still did not lose all the weight. And have you seen Bunky?! He’s a super-fattie 
He nurses constantly and is exclusively breastfed. I guess that my body just likes to do its own thing… Oh, and I drink water like a maniac, too.
We would love to have more children, but I would like to lose some more weight before that happens. However, we haven’t “planned” any of our children, so who know what God has in store for us. I’m excited to see… but I hope I’ll weigh a little bit less when that happens.
I have never wanted to homeschool my children. I can remember a time when my husband thought it might be a good idea (he was homeschooled until he was about 10), but when we encountered some of the social concerns we have for Punky, we decided it would be best to place him in school, where he can have time to interact with children his own age. On top of that, I tend to be the type of person who would obsess about lesson planning. I used to be an English teacher, and my favorite part of the job was lesson planning (and I liked grading, too. I know…Weird, right?). But I am certain that I would spend hour upon hour planning lessons for the children, even with all the wonderful curricula that is available. It is not something that I think I could handle.
But . . .
My husband and I were talking one afternoon about how we would like our children to learn Latin (and Greek), so I googled “Latin lessons” and discovered a local Latin School based off of the prestigious Highlands Latin School, which has a 99th percentile rating for their K-8 students and a top 5% of the country for their SAT scores.
The local Latin School is a cottage school for homeschoolers, where children will be taught two full days per week at the school and then parents will homeschool the other three days. All curriculum is provided by the Latin School. Parents guide their children through the curriculum as it is being taught in the classroom. T
he children will begin to learn Latin in second grade. “Learning Latin forms the mind to think logically, memorize, and pay careful attention to detail. Latin is considered by classicists to be the foundation of all learning and a good way to learn English.“ The “school creates an environment conducive to academic excellence and the formation of Christian character. [They] believe wisdom and virtue must walk hand in hand.”
We had to opportunity to attend an Open House a few weeks ago, and we very pleased with what we saw there.
I sent in Punky’s application and now we are just waiting to hear back if the Headmaster would like to interview him for the school. We are praying that he will get into the school because we do not want to homeschool him without the Latin School.
Please say a prayer that we will be called and our boy will receive an interview.
