2.5 minutes

Last week I got the ok from my physical therapist to slowly start adding in some running to my walking on the treadmill. When I say slowly, I mean I can run 30 seconds every 5 minutes. If I'm on the treadmill for 30 minutes, I run a grand total of  2.5 minutes. It's not much, but it's a good start.

Though it's actually quite difficult to only run 30 seconds at a time. Have you ever tried it?

I've found a 5k to do at the beginning of June. At this point, I don't know if I'll be able to run the whole distance, but just getting out and finishing a race will be very encouraging.

We mailed in our adoption paperwork today!

handing the envelope to the mail clerk

I spent a crazy morning tracking down the last-minute papers, determining what still needed to be signed (and notorized), which checks need to be written, calling the agency to make sure I'm not forgetting anything, and so on.

We got the forms notorized while Mr M was on his lunch break, then LMS and I took them to the post office.

I have one section left to fill in for the online information, then we'll be done with all the online questions as well.

Next up:

Home visits and adoption training.

We're finally making progress! Yay!

Homeschool schedules

Using rubberbands to make patterns on the RightStart Math geoboards.

Recently I've been thinking about when to end this school year.

Initially I wanted to be done with kindergarten by Memorial Day so we could have the whole summer off. But then I reconsidered what our school schedule should be.

A traditional 9 months on, 3 months off?
I like the idea of not doing schoolwork for 3 months, but didn't like the idea of wasting time doing review in the fall.

Year round?
That would mitigate the need for lots of review, and maybe be a bit more flexible. This post on The Pioneer Woman gave me lots to consider.

If we did year round, what kind of schedule would we use?
There are many variations  that people use, and after considering them, I looked at the calendar and some of the things we have planned for the next year or two and then tried out a couple options. This post was a good starting point, even though it doesn't quite work for our schedule.

In the end, this is what I came up with for the next school year:

  4 weeks vacation   (June 24 to July 21)

6 weeks school        (July 22 to September 1)

  2 weeks off            (September 2 to September 15)

6 weeks school        (September 16 to October 27)

  2 weeks off            (October 28  to November 10)

6 weeks school        (November 11 to December 22)

  4 weeks vacation   (December 23 to January 19)

6 weeks school        (January 20 to March 2)

  2 weeks off            (March 3 to March 16)

6 weeks school        (March 17 to April 27)

  2 weeks off            (April 28 to May 11)

6 weeks school        (May 12 to June 22)

  4 weeks vacation   (June 23 to July 20 )

We get 36 weeks of school, with frequent, shorter vacations. The vacation schedule is flexible, allowing for illness, adoption (hopefully!), and other happenings that we can't schedule. If we start to burn out (there will be a lot more schoolwork and structure in first grade than we did in kindergarten), we can even do 3 weeks on/1 week off/3 weeks on/1 week off.
Have you tried a year-round schedule? Did you like it? What worked? What didn't?

Pink twirly dress

The new twirly dress

The old twirly dress (pic taken a year ago)

LMS has LOVED this dress that she's had for at least two years. I bought it before we moved out here, so I know it's at least that old. It was a bit big for her then, but since she's grown so slowly the last couple years, she was able to keep wearing it. Unfortunately, it's gotten too tight and short, and she got paint on it somehow. On the other hand, it means she's finally overcoming the damage from the celiac disease and is getting the nutrients she needs so she can grow (yay!).

We both felt that she needed a new twirly dress, so we headed off to JoAnns to buy some fabric. I originally planned to use the old dress to make a new one since I like the style. While there, though, we saw a cute sample dress that looked fairly easy. We bought the pattern to make it and the fabric and went home and got started.

As the pattern says, it is easy to sew.  It only took a few hours to complete, and I think I spent more time pinning pieces together than sewing. Next time I go to JoAnn's I'm getting more fabric to make another dress for LMS- they're great for summer!

I used a stiff cotton that has a seersucker look to it, though I don't think it's real seersucker. I wasn't able to iron the seams and hems because of the seersucker texture, which made hemming the dress a little more tedious. I like the colors and patterns, but the fabric doesn't drape well because of the stiffness- the dress turned out poofier than I intended.

The only thing I did different from the pattern was to add some pink tulle to the bottom, just like her last twirly dress had.

LMS was posing herself for the photos- she had certain ideas about how she wanted to stand :)

LMS loves that she has a pink twirly dress (not purple like the last one- I keep trying to convince her it was a pinky-purple, but she's not going for it). I'm pleased with how it turned out and how quickly it came together.

Sunday Funny

LMS likes to be tickled. She'll actually ask to be tickled.

The other morning I was rubbing her back, and she asked me to tickle her. I kind of tickled her, but apparently it wasn't to her satisfaction, since she interrupted me and said, "No, like a spider on ice" and demonstrated with her fingers.

Picture Bambi sprawled on the ice and trying unsuccessfully to get up, and add a few more sets of legs.

image source

Really?

picture courtesy of LMS- her favorite subject- her lambie

Yesterday morning we went outside to get in the car to run some errands. The first thing I saw was the back door of the car, standing wide open.

Me: Did you leave the door open all night?

LMS: Oops, I forgot to close it. (she'd brought in her violin after we returned from violin lessons)

Thank goodness for modern cars that automatically turn off the lights after x number of minutes, otherwise the battery would have been dead for sure. On the other hand, how do you forget to close the door? I'm also thankful that it didn't rain that night....

What I've been working on this week

A sneak peak of my  current {time consuming} project.

Any guesses?

Easter pics

 Did you have a hard time finding cute Easter dresses this year? Sam's or Target usually come through for me with cute dresses, but not this year. I found this one at TJMaxx. I love the styling- slightly vintage, yet still up-to-date. It's got a crinoline ruffle under the skirt that gives it nice fullness :)

I took these photos before church. LMS insisted on accessorizing with her blue bead necklace.

 The front of the dress is flat, but it's got cute paperbag pleats at the waist in the back, which gives fullness for twirling, which is an essential activity for little girls :)

And look how long her hair is getting! We'll be cutting it soon for Locks of Love.

I took lots of pictures, and this one was my favorite. Too bad it's out of focus :(

We were busy doing yardwork Saturday, so we did our egg hunt Sunday after church. 

We planned on mowing the lawn Saturday, but ran out of time, which worked out well for hiding the eggs. Mr M and I had to help LMS find the last few eggs because they were hiding in the grass so well.

After I uploaded these pics, I realized we didn't do a family pic of the three of us. We'll have to do that soon.

Did you have a good Easter?

Sunday Funny

Ninja-wizard-fairy LMS, hunting down Voldemort (the purple thing is her wand)

LMS's word of the week: Apparently

after leaving a friend's house, where she was playing with their young sons:

Guess what, mommy! They had a Lightning McQueen car in their basement!

Apparently they like Lightning McQueen.

after finding a toy she'd left in the car:

Apparently I left Nanny's jacket in here.

Apparently we use that word a lot :)

I've since heard both of us using it, so it's no wonder she's picked it up.

You're never to old to play on a jungle gym

image source

Physical therapy kicked my bum today.

The clinic recently bought a Lifeline Jungle Gym XT, and they had me do some exercises with it.
Two exercises laying on my back with my feet in the cradles and my body in the bridge position, and one exercise with me resting on my elbows in plank position with my feet in the cradles.

All I can say is, WOW.

I used so many different muscles at the same time.

The great thing is that if I do the exercises properly, I will strengthen my core and hips, which will in turn help with the imbalances in my legs. And you can use it for so many different exercises- it's not just for strengthening the lower body.

Even though I'm taking longer than I wanted to get back to running, when I do start running again I should be much stronger physically and better able to avoid injury.

Mr M and I had seen an advertisement a couple years ago for the TRX suspension system, but couldn't quite get past the $200 price tag. The Jungle Gym costs half that, and seems to have a few less quirks (according to reviews I read on Amazon).  I think we'll soon be the proud owners of a Jungle Gym!

Have you used either product?