What I’ve been dying to tell everyone about how this pregnancy is different

Today was probably the most real remembrance of how uncomfortable this is all going to get with the thoughts of, “Oh man, I’m REALLY doing this again.” It IS amazing how quickly I forget how awful pregnancy is for me. I have had severe depression, I’ve convinced myself my marriage was over (even though it […]

I Told my Kids about Santa and our Other Traditions

This is the first year I feel like I’m “In the Spirit.” Previous years everything just felt hard and like lots of work. My attitude was that of trying to keep up with what was “expected” for the Christmas season. People would give us plates of treats so I would have to make sure we […]

For all those older, wiser folk who stop me in the store

There are a few categories of comments to people with young kids get at the store. The first and most frequent comment is… wait for it… everyone together now: 1. “Wow, you’ve got your hands full!” Frequency: Daily Number of kids required for comment: 1 + Tone in which people say it: ranges from friendly to utter […]

A Book Everyone Considering Homeschool Needs to Read

The Book A Thomas Jefferson Education is a must read if you are concerned with the educational system in the US right now. When I was researching different forms of homeschooling, I Googled “Thomas Jefferson Education” (TJEd), and a few bad reviews came up so I ruled it out. Then I heard a webinar from […]

A Choice to Kick out an old “Frienemy”

When I decided to homeschool, I knew there would be a lot of stress. Trying to find the right curriculum for your family is pressure, getting your schedule together can be really hard, trying to figure out chores and how your going to make everything work with all your little kids around all the time is […]

Why I’m Homeschooling

I had decided NOT to homeschool. Over the years before Ahnna started school and during her kindergarten year there were things that I learned about public school that bothered me. However, not enough to do something crazy like take their education into my own hands. I had decided even though there were lots of things I […]

Ahnna’s Earring

So we had an interesting thing happen this morning. While Wendy was getting Ahnna’s hair ready for school she noticed that her earring was in tight. She began to pull it out and noticed that it was stuck and causing Ahnna some serious pain. She continued to fiddle with it until she realized that it […]

Structure for the Spinelli’s

Last week we came up with some new ways to be the worst parents ever. First, there has been big problems with picky eaters or eating too many snacks or just really not enough structure with our eating habits. So now the rules go like this. You must eat your vegetables before you get your […]

Christmas 2013

The anticipation of baby Aelynn overshadowed any documentation of Christmas but hey, it is better late than never. We had Nathan’s parents and my sister Tiffany and her family here for the holiday this year. It was brave of anyone to come actually because the flu was going through the house that week. Summer had […]

Aelynn’s story

Warning: If you are a Hypnobirth person looking for a positive birth story, this is not it. I got to the hospital a little before 2 and I got my first dose of Cytotec at about 3. It made things progress pretty well and when I got my second dose of it at 7 my […]