fantastic first day

Yesterday was the official start to our curriculum work for the fall semester, and above is our traditional "first day of school" photo. Logging has begun on a piece of property adjoining our (some of our property will be logged too), and we're excited to follow the cut areas through the stages of forest succession in the coming years. The dog is Mae, our youngest canine kid, a nearly year-old Border Collie.

This second photo is the boys playing with Jewel Weed seed pods (they explode when you touch them) on our morning walk.

Our "school work" for this week includes creating a series of paintings revolving around the Torah Creation Story. I recited the first verse of the story in Hebrew, and then in English, while leading the kids in our painting. This is my finished painting, the boys' are below.

J's painting. While I was reciting the verse in English, he said "I wonder who Yahweh is?" and followed up his own thought with "I'll bet he's some kind of god."

Zoo Boy's painting.

Zoo Boy has been quite taken with the Jewish music, especially the traditional songs which we are singing in Hebrew. (J likes them a lot too, it's just that this sort of fascination is new for Zoo Boy.)

Both boys are excited to get to the actual story reading and work next week. But we're off to a good start!

To keep the masses happy (for some reason everyone wants pregnancy update info!), here is my ultrasound picture from Monday. For those of you who haven't already heard the news, this little Bumpkin is a girl! We're all thrilled. Her name has already been chosen, but you'll need to email me privately to get it from me. I'll come up with a blog-appropriate pseudonym for her once she's born.

I'm 23 weeks along today, she's measuring 9 days early. I'm still puking daily, but most days I feel pretty OK most of the day. (Not yesterday, but oh well, so goes life!) Heartburn is just doing me in energy wise and my stomach just plain hurts all the time. Also can't really hike anymore, my walking is more like a stroll these days. But I'm muddling along! Got to play with a couple of friends' 1 month old babies at the park the other day, and I can't believe I'm going to HAVE one of those things in just a few more months. It's kind of surreal.

The big news in regards to the pregnancy is that the ginormous fibroid which forced me into c-sections (ultimately) for the boys is missing in action. Which means that I'm cleared to attempt a VBAC. Which I think I'm excited about....tho I might just be insane.... Like everything else, I'll worry about it when I get there -- first I'll need to actually go into labor, which never happened with Zoo Boy, and my OB has already said she won't let me go past my 41st week. So I'm not counting my VBACs until they hatch....