Another update....

I don't get to blog much anymore. I am not sure why, I should. I always feel better after blogging. Anyway, this blog post has a purpose. It's yet another one of those life changing updates where I passively aggressively tell friends and family about major life events. It's just easier this way.

If you talk to me often, you already know this. If you don't, well SHAME ON YOU! Kidding. Anyway, I am pregnant. Yes, again. Some of you may be surprised by this considering that Pat and I separated a few years ago, but well... guess what, folks? You do not need to be married to get pregnant. Big surprise, I know, but it is true. I swear.  

My awesome, amazing wonderful boyfriend and I are expecting our first child together. He has three crazy wonderful kids, and I have three crazy wonderful kids, now we shall have a crazy, wonderful kid together. It's gonna be like the freaking Brady Bunch up in here!

So comedy aside, (yes, that was my poor attempt at comedy) this was not a planned pregnancy. In fact, when I found out, I cried and then vomited. And then cried a little more. A pregnancy was the very last thing I needed in my life. I was going through a divorce, trying to build a new relationship and cautiously doing it so that my children were not effected negatively.

Warning: Here are some real, raw, unedited emotions for you.

My first thoughts were to have an abortion. I am very much pro-choice and I very much did not think my life could handle yet another stressor. I went as far as calling the local Planned Parenthood to get an appointment. I spoke with a very kind lady, and just broke down in tears. I couldn't do it. My thoughts were jumbled and confused, but I knew in my heart that I could not go through with an abortion. I kept thinking how my job as a mother is to protect my children, and an abortion was as far from protection of THIS child as possible. This is not a judgement of other women who make a different decision than I. I understand. Trust me, I do. But, for me, an abortion just wasn't the right choice. This baby, after all, was conceived in a whirlwind of love, lust and laughter and though was not planned is now very much wanted.

So please, friends, family, loved ones, judgmental assholes-- keep your negative comments to yourself. Every single snide remark you have, I have probably already thought to myself. Yes, I will have my hands full. Yes, I am totally stressed the hell out. Yes, it is too soon for my boyfriend and I to have a baby together. Yes, it is too soon after my divorce to be getting pregnant. Yes, I should have used a more effective form of birth control. Yes, I will be having two different "baby daddy".

Yes, I get it. This situation isn't ideal. But, you know what?

I am going to be having a baby!!!! And that, my friends, is a thing of beauty!! :)

Trying our hand at lap booking!

This is actually an older post that I never published. We did this book in the summer, and I completely forgot that I began a blog post about it. It's incomplete, but complete enough. Here ya go:

Deciding what Jesse Bear ate for lunch

Making a bear puppet out of a toilet paper roll



The finished project:

This is the front. As I said, it started out as a "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" themed lap book but ended up being more about bears and less about the book. But, whatev!

This is the inside. Lots and lots of fun learning activities.

This is the picture of the "Jesse Bear's Healthy Lunch" you saw her doing earlier in the post. After we discussed what Jesse Bear ate, we researched what REAL bears eat.

I printed out this template for a bear book from Homeschool Share, and cut it out. Lilah had to matched the picture of the food to the words and glue them into the book. This was meant to be used with the book "Big Hungry Bear and the Ripe Red Strawberry" which we did read during the course of the week.

This is the inside of the book.

We went on to discuss what Jesse Bear wore throughout the book. We talked about the weather, the seasons and how different areas of the country are warmer and colder than others. We figured out what was the appropriate thing to wear during a hot day, a cold day and when we go to bed. We used a template from Homeschool Share again to create a tri-fold book on the subject.

The book. I should have let Lilah colored it but didn't think about it until she had already glued it into the folder.

The inside

I wanted to implement some math into our learning, so I made these bear cards and laminated them. We then played lots of different math games with them. On the back are some pretty card stock and a number.

I would put all the numbers on the floor and shout out a number. Then it was a race to see who could find the number first. I also hid the cards and asked her to find me a specific number of cards.

The template for the pocket came from (again) Homeschool Share.

This is when Lilah's questions about bears seemed to get very specific and I decided to steer off the course and go with a lap book that was not based on the book "Jesse Bear What Will You Wear" but rather on bears in general.

So....

First we looked back at our book about what real bears ate. We discussed the fact that bears were omnivores and the difference between what an omnivore, carnivore and herbivore were. This may seem way over the head of a three year old but she was asking lots of question and I decided to run with it.

We played a game online where you had to select if an animal was an omnivore, carnivore, or herbivore. It can be found here. She loved it. We also looked through a Kroger circular and talked about all the foods that were in there. Would a carnivore eat this? Would an herbivore eat that?