Pictures!

For some reason I can no longer put captions under each picture. My Blogger adviser isn't due for a visit until mid-summer so I'll comment on all the pictures down here.

First is our Little Flowers/Blue Knights Clubs end of year BBQ. Can you find the 5 Tippett kids in the picture?

From there we usually go to Costco. It's an hour from home so we do big shopping and Trader Joes shopping and the Catholic store shopping, etc. All things we don't have at home. Here we are shopping with only 5 kids. Yes they look lively but they were very good shoppers that day. They are getting better all the time!

Next is a top secret card-making session headed by Anna Mae for Gianna's First Holy Communion tomorrow. God willing I'll have some lovely photos of that to share soon.

And I just had to share the picture of my favorite book-end given to me by my mother-in-law. It is symbolic of my recent decluttering efforts since I usually have been unable to use book ends because the book shelves are usually too stuffed. Ahhh how refreshing is open space - on the bookshelf and everywhere!!

36 weeks

I had grand plans to document this pregnancy here with weekly photos. Now here I am with less than 4 weeks until my due date. I hope you can see what I've been doing with my free time instead of blogging. Here I stand with my largest load yet ready to be donated to St. Vincent de Paul on our trip out of town to our Little Flowers/Blue Knights clubs. I just love the recreational decluttering that comes with the last 5 or 6 months of pregnancy. I was hoping that adoption would trigger the same thing in me but it didn't. So with our current baby already 3 1/2 and with 7 children ages 13 and under in the house - well this intense nesting was LONG over due.

I've been wanting to read It's All Too Much but I've been too busy aggressively purging to read a book about it. And though I love systems and plans I've found that other peoples systems and plans only "work" for while and are harder to follow through with. I better save that book for the next clutter slump and make the most of this passionate nesting while I can.

Proud Parents

August ran his first 10K race today. We we are so proud of him and he had quite the cheering squad at the finish line with all our little kids there. Maybe I'm especially proud since I'm completely non-athletic and marvel at athletic talent. It's also neat to watch the talent skip a generation as my parents were runners. (My mom marveled at sewing skipping a generation from her mother to me.)

Grand-daddy, my dad, is sponsoring August in all the local runs this year. Today he came in second for his age group of 12 and 13 year olds. It's exciting to watch him make strategies for improving his time with hopes for a marathon down the road when he is fully grown.

Passing the true test?

Gosh I wonder if I would ever pass the true test of homeschooling. I mean I thought it was challenging to face a week of snow/rain in the California mountains with a low of 35 degrees and "only" 4 boys in the family...........

Jet-Mom

We've had some hilarious language mix-ups as Leon and Aliou switch gears from Liberian English to American English. I wish I had been recording more of them along the way. Some have already gone down in family history. Here is today's funniest:

Leon and Aliou and Athan were playing with their friend. Aliou reported that his friend said his mom was his "jet-mom." It took me a minute but (cracking up inside) I said "Do you mean step-mom?" "No JET-mom!" This was enough for a good laugh but it was complicated by the fact that the mom had been making paper airplanes for the boys so OF COURSE she was a "jet-mom"! Who could argue.

Belly update

At 18 weeks I'm almost to this point. Once I look a little more pregnant than fat I'll start posting belly shots.

Trying For a Redhead

Yes it's true we are expecting a new baby! Now I can use my handy reply I formulated a few babies back- "We're trying for a redhead." I'm over 16 weeks along which is a little longer than we usually wait to tell the happy news. We needed to wait and see how things went with Natalie first. We told the children today as we were all gathered around opening our Epiphany gifts. They are pretty excited and of course they are busy deciding the names and gender. Leon and Aliou had no questions. They new just what we were talking about and they were beaming.

Mary Autumn was born when I was 34. I'll be 38 when this baby comes. I'm waking up to find myself in the new category of "older pregnant mom." I'm gray at the temples. I'll also need to find new care since both our homebirth midwife and our family doctor have retired since our last birth. Our first was a regular home birth, then we had 3 home waterbirths, then a hospital transfer which ended well. We are hoping for another home waterbirth this time.

And with this birth I receive a promotion! I can then be called a "grand multipara." Multipara means "to bring forth much." And I like the "grand" part too. I'm happy to share the news of our promotion with you. We'll be a family of 10. What an honor to be blessed again.