so many plans

we've been in our house for almost three months now. after having to hire out some serious mold removal and reconstruction of the house, we are finally beginning to settle in.

funny how settling in is so much like upheaval right now!

i started re-organizing the kitchen today. what i had initially set up has just not been working too smoothly. the dish cupboard has arrived to an arrangement i think i'll keep. and i'm giving an old idea another shot (it's failed miserably twice before): each member of my family will have one set of dishes and responsibility for them. in other words, we won't dirty all the dishes in the house every two days. but instead will dirty and wash the same few dishes over and over again. and HOPEFULLY this will cut down on mess and work in the kitchen. my work anyway. i guess it will increase everyone else's work, as i am currently washing all of the dishes myself. but many hands make light work, right? and i really want my kids (and husband) to learn responsibility for cleaning up after themselves. my best friend is doing this and it works for her small family so far, so here goes!

on top of everything i want chickens! i have a design and i just need to buck up and go out to salvage material to build a coop and run! i imagined taking my time with this until my awesome friend (who has chickens and a beehive and sews and totally inspires me) told me she has four recently acquired hens that will become chicken soup if she doesn't find a home for them. apparently she has taken in lots of unwanted chickens from others and just has too many now. these four have been kept in a free range yard with just a coop, no run, and have interacted a lot with people. two black and two white, super friendly laying hens sound soooooooo good! and they need a home! i hope! i hope!

some favorite new websites before i collapse into bed:

backyardchickens.com
farmama.typepad.com
lisarayner.com

new house sleeplessness

for three nights in a row now i have not slept as i should. i struggle to fall asleep with my brain busy with house plans (we began to move in on saturday), and when i am wakened by one of my children (which is every night during this unsettled time) i can't get back to sleep once they are settled for the same reason.

this morning rebekah came into the already crowded bed at about 4:15am, whispering about how dark and scary it was in the living room on her inflatable mattress. i carried her back out, intending to go back to sleep lying next to her. she snuggled her back up close to me (it was still dark and scary i guess) and fell asleep while i lay there thinking and thinking.

finally i pulled out my phone (i have a touch phone with internet access so i frequently spend time in the middle of the night keeping up on the news, email, the weather, and facebook). after an hour of that i decided it was close enough to civilized morning to just get up and get on the computer instead!

so here i am.

but instead of productively typing out all my plans, i'm messing around reading stuff, and now writing. but that's okay. when else will i do this sort of thing?

happily yours truly,

aimee

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

a list:

i worked over the summer.

the kids and i went on little nature walks and used our little red wagon to go to the library and park.

i visited goodwill and yard sales weekly. thrifting became officially a hobby of mine.

we planted flowers that were quickly overgrown by weeds when we were in utah in may.

in october james was called to interview for a portuguese position at byu.

in november i visited my parents during my mom's back surgery.

while there we got the news that james had gotten the job at byu.

i flew home on thanksgiving and we started making plans to move.

after two days we heard that my mom had a heart attack and our plan time frame hit hyper speed.

within 3 1/2 weeks we had mostly packed, my sister jl came out and drove with the kids and me to utah. james followed just before christmas.

i still miss our nashville life and friends.

we have been living with my parents since then.

i found out i was pregnant shortly after christmas: a very welcome pregnancy.

i tried home schooling daniel, but was very tired and unorganized.

i miscarried in february.

we enrolled daniel in school at the beginning of march.

we are now buying a house and are soooo excited to not be all sleeping in the same room come next week!

daniel will do first grade (again) at another school in a spanish dual-immersion program, so i went ahead and pulled him back out of school. :)

we visit tux shops for fun.

rebekah speaks made-up spanish when we talk about our future as a bilingual family. she imitates the sound really well. so funny!

i'm now participating in the EAGeR study. it's about the effects of low-dose aspirin on fertility and gestation. in other words, can it help you get pregnant and stay pregnant? that is the question. i'm a fan of science.

and i want just one more baby. :)