Adjusting to life back home

We've been home for three weeks. We had less than a week of downtime before the kids started school. Eric and I began teaching today.

The family renting our house took great care of it, but the record rainfall this summer meant we came back to a jungle. When we left for France a year ago, I had weeded and mulched every square inch of garden. Not a weed in sight. Now...well...I've been hauling weeds away by the truckload. I am determined to tame my yard back into shape!

I'm working on a grant proposal to design a vaginal breech training course. I've been writing in my head, but haven't got much down on paper yet. That's typical of how I work with four little children underfoot.

I was going to write a celebratory post about Ivy sleeping through the night...She's been doing it for almost a month now. Of course last night she had to break her pattern and wake up twice to nurse! She's crying again right now (10 pm), and I feel grumpy and don't want to nurse her.

Here's a peek into how our kids amuse themselves. They might dress up (Ivy and Inga), or take off most of their clothes (Dio). They dance to classical music. They jump off the edge of the couch and do somersaults. They laugh hysterically.



Also I got my first smartphone. I wanted an emergency cell phone and priced out all the options. FreedomPop was the winner, beating out the cheapest prepaid options. I got one of their hidden deals: a refurbished Kyocera Hydro Icon for $39, plus the free basic monthly plan of 200 minutes, 500 texts, and 500 MB of data. I opted out of all upgrades, special offers, free trials, and premium services and disabled automatic topups.