a good day

today was a good day... i mean i lost it a few times with the kids, had to apologize and make peace. but for the most part it was a productive day. we are still in limbo with our housing and homeschooling. we have been in the navy lodge almost 2 weeks now and will be finally moving in to our new digs on tuesday (that is NEXT week!) i am so eager to get us moved in and SETTLED. i am in the process of ordering our sonlight homeschooling curriculum. i realized that i needed a clear program, that was easy to follow and directive. being new at all of this, i am seeing that having this aid will greatly ease the stress. i am just so excited to implement a literature based curriculum into our daily lives. the kids love love love to read and are like sponges. its so much fun. our most prized possessions our the books we have accumulated, so i think this will naturally fit our family's personality and focus.

in the meantime, we are using every day events and curiosities to learn and educate the kids. we made beds today and folded clothes. we went to a wonderful breakfast joint (i love breakfast joints!) called The Old Monterey Cafe on alvarado st. and we had some lessons in manners at the table and proper behavior. we walked down the main street to the monterey state park (a beautiful square that flows in to fishermen's wharf. (*i want to take the kids to the museums in the square but maybe not with the boys!) kyrie really enjoyed the painted tile pictures that illustrated the wild flowers, sea shells, animals, historic events and indians :: all part of historic and present day monterey. the kids climbed in a ship that is for kids to play in. it was a warm, sunny morning and we had a blast!

we came home and put blaise down for a nap and i got to catch up with my good friend jill, back in newport, while the kids played in the playset near our hotel rooms. after the baby woke up, i threw the kids in the van and headed back to old town to go to trader joe's (my absolute favorite market!) we stocked up for lunch, breakfast, snacks and dinner items. i am deteremined to get us all on a good schedule and part of that is to have healthy dinners prepared when daddy gets home from work. we took a lovely walk after some quiet time and met some new friends at the playset. then it was back to the hotel rooms to make supper. i got to go to my yoga class at the community center and got a nice challenging workout - its a vinyasa class, rather advanced. yep that is me in there, the only one falling over and unable to do the crazy poses. its a good time. then after i got back i took a nice hot bath. i really treated myself. right now all the littles are asleep and graham is studying.

i hope i can keep up with my blogging from now on. its so good for me to write my feelings. i know that my posts will get better and better as i flex my writer's muscles. i am learning more about the capabilities of this computer, so maybe you'll get some more pictures of our road trip across the country and some daily pics of our adventures as we make our transition to the west coast, laid back lifestyle.

aloha for tonight.

the trivium

note to self: i just found a great resource for our homeschooling fact-finding: from preschoolers and peace, an article on ten things to do before you child turns ten.

http://triviumpursuit.com/articles/ten_to_do_before_ten.php

this might be my overall guide to this year at horseshoe homeschool (kyrie's name for our home school!)

america, america day #2

so far we are still in ohio. we said goodbye to the beautiful tatko family. then for lunch we met up with brooke and doug waller (old friends from USNA '02 days). the kids played at the chic-fil-a playset & we adults got to catch up and visit. doug and brooke were in navigators with us at the academy and have been special friends ever since. i am going to put her blog up on my blog roll.

i am determined to have this travel thing with kids down to a science by the end of our journey. i will be making suggestions for smooth sailing, when we get to california. i am learning how to be a better mama every mile we drive. the lord is teaching me so much. i am asking for him to create in me a clean heart every morning. slow to anger, tender, warm & kind. patient, compassionate, firm, faithful.

more to come after we get to st. louis.

america, america! day #1

we are on the road across the country, to our next tour destination -- monterey, california! we moved out of our home in newport, rhode island (saying goodbye to our wonderful friends from church and salve) last week and drove down to maryland for my sister-in-law's wedding. we have the kids and all of our stuff (for the road trip) packed up in our green van! each kid has a dvd player. we have a splitter so that the three oldest kids can listen to their music and we can have some peace. i have collected all sorts of diversions for the kids (colorforms, crayons, stickers, books, cds, dvds, trinkets, jump ropes, surprise dolls, unopened birthday presents for ransom etc.) so far the kids have been amazing. we started at 7am from annapolis (on wed) and made it all the way to columbus, ohio (with stops & traffic about 11 hours). last night we stayed in the home of friends, dave & amanda. dave grew up with graham and tammy his mother was there as well (with gift bags for our kids). she has remained a very close friend of my mother-in-law's from their days in akron. our kids had a blast. it was a lovely evening - wine, yummy food, children, babies (their kids are darling!), & fellowship. their property is nestled in beautiful farm fields. graham and i enjoyed watching the sunrise over the fields and hearing the rooster crow his early wake-up! fall in ohio is gorgeous and like coming home.

some highlights of day #1:

- traveled through maryland, pennsylvania, west virginia and ohio.
- crossed the appalachian trail
- counted barns + ransom noticed all the water towers
- drove thru the alleghany mountain tunnel

aquidneck island grower's market

yesterday was a fabulous day in newport! we went to the beach (the kids had more fun climbing up a "tall" sand dune), made cards for kyrie (who is staying at marmie's and pop's house this week down in maryland), walked to the farmer's market, got aweful-awefuls at newport creamery, went to the park and played, and generally spent as much time outdoors as possible!! for mama it was glorious. i also got a killer, bomb haircut (plug for bethany craft at ki-ra salon!)

we walked to the market and bought: fresh arugula (it is so nutty, or is it a peppery flavor? - phenomenol! - this is the way lettuce is supposed to taste!), romaine, basil (yes amazing!!), fresh hamburger buns, whole wheat sandwich loaf, and this amazing chocolate cupcake for the boys to snack on (all baked goods from olga's cup + saucer!) i also bought a iced cold-pressed coffee from custom house coffee roasters (which was again, awesome!) the weather was in the high seventies and lovely. a hint of humidity. gorgeous. we then walked to the creamery and rhys, anna and rachel all got ice cream or aweful-awefuls. this is a newport tradition. i refrained - having had my fill of cookies the night before, following a visit with friends to one of our fav eateries: pronto, on thames. we took the kids to aquidneck park by the newport library and played for a bit. then we went back home via bellevue ave.

at the park we had a potty accident - the #2 we had been waiting for since monday finally arrived. let's just say he is VERY strong-willed. but i will tell you - i am tired of cleaning up those and the time is NOW. carpe diam.

* at the farmer's market i picked up a copy of edibleRhody. (in lynchburg i had also gotten a copy of edibleBlueridge). its a great publication for those who want to know about the local, sustainable, organic food scene. i am excited about these new finds:

http://www.nefarmways.org/ - just found out about the free concerts at sweet berry farms + the washington county fair (maybe a good birthday idea for blaise's first birthday!)
http://www.kidoinfo.com/
http://www.getfreshbuylocal.org/
http://www.farmfreshri.org/

blaise updates

crawling (army crawl): june 12
regular crawling: this week
pulling up to standing at crib railing: last night
playing games with mama: last night (while he is in the crib i throw his soft green star and he fetches it for me and slides it through his crib while cracking himself up and squealing with delight - its hysterical!!)
teething - yep the last few days have been rough
weaning to a cup - now just nursing before bedtimes and in the morning, hates the bottle, likes vanilla soy milk and whole milk, likes the cup better!