Saturday, March 1, 2014

What’s New

It was a busy week for us, Eads! And a nice, busy Saturday to end it too! We arrived back home in Nashville from our trip to Florida last Saturday evening. Exhausted and, I have to admit, a little grumpy. Funny how too many hours in a sedan crammed full with people and their things can do that to you. We had a crazy drive through a bad snow and ice storm to get there, and once we were there it was non-stop busy – but tons of fun and wonderful times visiting with family and friends. Josh began having some heart issues half-way through, so I took him to our doctor in Fort Myers – the one who helped me when I was so sick during my pregnancy for Lydia. They fixed him up and he’s feeling much better! Then off to Atlanta to get some more use out of our season passes to Stone Mountain Park…had an amazing dinner at a little Cuban place called Mojitos in downtown-wherever-we-were outside of Atlanta, and finally back home.

Monday was unpack, unwind, and get back into the swing of things day. Tuesday night we had some new friends over for dinner. I am still amazed at how we fit 4 adults around a wobbly card table and 5 children (6 years old and under) in our kitchen to eat a meal, but we did it. And it was a great time! Wednesday we dropped Josh off at work so I could make it to a prenatal appointment and run some errands. Thursday the kids all had check-ups with their new pediatrician. They did awesome!! Josh and I laughed because they are all very tall for their ages, and very lean! I guess the tall comes from my side, and the lean from his? Last night we spent the time we had together after the kids went to bed trolling Craigslist for minivans and violin lessons…keep reading!

Now that James is 6, he is old enough (in our opinion) to begin music lessons. We had previously decided that the children would begin with piano, and then we would allow them to take lessons on another instrument if they wanted. We decided that since we do not have room for a piano in our apartment, nor do we want to have to MOVE a piano when we buy a house, James could begin with a more portable instrument. Violin, it is!

We began our morning by perusing the shelves at our new favorite place…McKay’s Used Books and Music. Sadly, the bacon truck was nowhere to be found today. We picked up some good books though, were disappointed at not finding a few we were really hoping to get our hands on, and then visited the free bins outside the front doors. We were so excited at a few of the things we found there. Book hunting is so exhilarating!

After McKay’s we went to Nashville Violins. I brought with us my great-grandfather’s violin. It was in pretty bad shape, and they have some luthiers that are skilled in repairing them. We figured we would give it a try. Also, we wanted to ask about violin lessons for James AND Josh. Josh really wants to learn how to play Adagio for Strings before he dies. (I personally think 29 is too early for a bucket list.) It will be encouraging for James to be able to practice with his Daddy, and it will give them so alone time together on Thursday nights. We found out that it would be $150 to fix the violin and $100 for the bow. It is NOT a Stradivarius. Oh well. But it is somewhere around 100 years old, they think. The inscriptions on the inside are not legible, so we can’t know for sure. Nashville Violins had some of the best rates for violin lessons, they offer a family discount, as well as repair, sell and rent instruments. They were great and the boys are really excited about their first lesson this Thursday.

Next we visited one of the car dealerships we found through Craigslist to look at a few of their minivans. Everything was in pretty bad shape, and the prices weren’t very good either. We left and headed towards another dealer. Josh liked a minivan there so much that he took it for a test drive. Unfortunately, it seemed like it needed some work and we went home for dinner. The dealer told Josh that they are expecting a few more vans in early this week and to check back then. He was really very nice and seemed to be honest.

James will officially begin his 1st Grade workbook on Monday and he is very excited. Both James and JoyAnna are doing really well in school. I’ve been so amazed at the things they have been learning. I began teaching them about graphing this week. When Josh came home from work and they told him what they had done in school he looked at me and asked, “Isn’t that a little advanced?” I told him that they understood it right away and really enjoyed it and I planned to give them more graphing lessons.

Lydia is talking. all. the. time. She repeats everything she hears. And she does it with the most hysterical inflections in her voice. The weather here has been warming up. It was in the low 50’s today and the birds were so happy they were singing the most beautiful songs. Yesterday we stood in the window and watched a robin hunting worms in the grass between our apartment and the parking lot. He got quite a few. I used it as an opportunity to teach the kids a little bit about robins. Here in Tennessee, they never left for the winter. Growing up in New Jersey, we were always excited to try to spot the first robin in the Spring. It wasn’t officially Spring until there were robins around. And we always tried to be the first one to see one. Can’t do that here. Kinda weird. At McKay’s, I found a nice book about robins this morning, so I picked it up. Good find!

My challenge for this week is to go through James’ closet and pull out all of the baby clothes for this boy. I need to wash and sort and repackage in nice plastic bins. Right now they are in disintegrating diaper boxes. No, baby still does not have a name. We are still considering Gideon and Job, but now we’ve also added Titus, Malachi and Simeon to the mix. I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions. I’ve never experienced those before. I am not a fan.

Well, since we’re all done with dinner and it’s only 6:15pm Daddy has declared that we will now play a board game. JoyAnna was chosen to pick the game. The Chronicles of Narnia was chosen. Definitely my LEAST favorite board game. I always lose. Badly. But we all have a good laugh at my expense. It is very comical, I suppose. Smile

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