Returning to Blogging: Baby #3 Update, Homeschooling Adventures, and Mom Reflections

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Northbird is back!

Baby #3 arrived healthy and sweet earlier this year (which is why Northbird has been rather quiet lately), and now that the summer holiday craziness is over, my fingers have been itching to get back to blogging and share what has developed over the last few months. Here’s a bit of an update on where we are at, and how life is generally going:

The baby:

Baby M is now 4 months old (that went by REALLY FAST), and sort of getting into a routine. She is absolutely the easiest and most chill baby we’ve had so far! She began smiling a lot sooner than the other two did, and has developed the cutest little dimples in her cheeks! Even on some of my hard days when I feel like I can’t manage all the parenting/homeschooling/cooking/cleaning/etc…the best therapy seems to be putting some calming music on and having some tickle-giggly time with little baby M. Her smiles and laughter make it worth it all.

The older kids:

I have heard from other parents and resources that after the 3rd baby arrives, things/life apparently gets simpler and its easier to adjust during the newborn stage. I personally think this is bologna! I think the general idea is that the older kids will entertain themselves somewhat by playing together. Our older girls SOMETIMES do, but most often parental intervention is required because one of them is inserting her “oldest child dominance” over the middle child (in other words being bossy), and the middle child is currently age 2, and incredibly strong-willed and does not want to be bossed around! (I’m sure most parents don’t need me to explain also that this age is a challenge all of it’s own).

They do however adore their little sister, and every day love to have cuddles and gentle play time with baby M.

Homeschooling:

The majority of my time these days is spent homeschooling my six-year-old, who is partway through grade 1. She is doing wonderful with the homeschool curriculum that we are using for core subjects (The Good and the Beautiful), and although there are days that involve grumpiness, foot stomping and frustration, she always amazes me with her energy and excitement to learn new things.

Every year I have tried to do more research and find new resources for getting better organized with homeschooling, and finding ways to make it more fun with hands-on activities. I have come to the conclusion that sometimes “less is more”, meaning that sometimes keeping school goals as simple and realistic as possible is better for helping my oldest to actually learn and absorb more. (Also immensely better for my mental health too!)

For example, having a general outline of the goals for the week is much easier than having specific goals for every day. One day we might blaze through her core subjects before 10am, leaving the majority of the day to go for a walk, explore nature, play with friends, or do extra school if we are behind. Other days it seems to take the ENTIRE day for schoolwork to be completed. (I’m sure many homeschooling parents can relate to this!)

A great homeschooling website that I found recently is My Joy-Filled Life. Sarah is a seasoned homeschooling mom with loads of advice on homeschooling as well as several printable resources for getting organized. If you are new to homeschooling, I highly recommend you check her website out.

I am so thankful that our 2 year-old is not yet ready for school, and she happily plays with toys or helps me in the kitchen in the mornings. We are gently introducing a few concepts like counting to 3, colours, singing the ABCs, reading lots of picture books, and generally helping her with communication and speaking more clearly. She is immensely stubborn and wants to be able to do everything that her big sister can do! So for subjects like science that usually involve hands-on activities, she is always included too (which means that the activity is just going to get a little more messy!)

One of our favourite outings from summer holiday this year was going to Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto. The girls had been studying Ocean life in science time this past year, so it was SO FUN to see them thoroughly enjoy the experience and see many creatures that they had been learning about.

L was particularly fascinated with seeing a real “Green Moray Eel”, and was educating her dad and Auntie J all about it. F on the other hand, was very busy running around on her toddler legs (which are surprisingly fast!) and pressing up against all the glass tanks to talk to the fishies and creatures. Her favourite moment was finding “Dory” and “Nemo” and telling us and everyone else within earshot who they were and where they were going in the giant tanks.

I’ve been having rather a lot of fun this past year with creating craft ideas and printables for my kids to use in science studies, which I will be slowly posting about on here over the next few months.

Creative Kitchen & The Dear Husband:

I have been working on some new yummy recipes and am really looking forward to sharing them on Northbird!

On a personal note: our menu was dramatically altered for some of the spring and summer, as my dear husband wanted to go strictly keto in his diet. Since he was on paternity leave for some of this time, I was more than willing to give it a try (on the assumption that he was around to help as needed with the kids while I took the extra time preparing meals and researching what “keto” meant).

This was honestly not what I had anticipated after having a fresh new baby, and as such, had the freezer stocked full of prepared meals, (and of course none of them were keto!) But, I was excited to learn something new, as well as support him achieve his carb limit goals. We ended up making keto meals that we all ate, adding in carbs for the girls and I as needed. But one thing I didn’t count on was that I would actually GAIN weight. Keto is generally a high protein/high fat/low carb diet, but when one adds in more carbs, and a not-as-physically-active lifestyle during vacation, led to some weight gain (not the greatest feeling after just having a baby and already feeling like an elephant for several months!)

So after a few months of this I ended up making separate meals, which in turn led to exhaustion because my husband had returned to work and homeschooling had started again. So in order to keep life a little simpler, we decided it was time to resume our normal diet again. I had totally missed making sourdough, and hubby had really missed eating it!

He has had some fun adventures lately, going on fishing trips with his buddies and working on projects around the house during his paternity leave. I am particularly thankful for the fence now surrounding the back yard (no more wandering off for the toddler!), and some beautiful garden boxes, made entirely out of pallets!

We didn’t have much to show for our first garden season in this new house (everything got a little scorched while we were away), but we have hope that next summer will be much more productive.

Northbird Mama:

And how am I doing? Some days are easier than others, and I am realizing that routine is now my best friend. Regular naps & bedtimes for the kids + eating healthy food + fresh air = happy kids (which also means happy mama!)

Have you ever heard the saying: “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy!” ? There have definitely been days in the past few months where that saying has certainly rung true.

To be honest, I have had some struggles these past months with what I think is postpartum depression, and now that I am able to reflect a bit, I can see some triggers in my life that have contributed to this struggle:

Lack of sleep
Screen time in evenings
Lack of personal care time
Not socializing as much with friends
Overwhelm and getting stressed with not accomplishing unrealistic goals that I set for myself
Not having consistent quiet time in the Bible and prioritizing time with the Lord
Not exercising enough
Lack of playing music and having personal creative time

Some of these are inevitable to happen with a newborn, other small kids needing attention, travel and vacation time. But a lot of it could have also been avoided with better communication to my spouse and asking for help from friends and family.

Along that note, I don’t think I’m the only mama that has had moments where I knew exactly when the kids last had a bath, but no idea when I last had a shower?! I think sometimes as mamas we prioritize and focus on our kids so much that we look after ourselves less in the process. That shouldn’t be the case, and at least for me, it boils down to communicating better with my spouse or friends to ask for help watching the kids so I can have a few minutes of personal care time. Because one ALWAYS feels better after getting clean and refreshed!

Here are some goals that I have set for myself as we enter a new school season:

Consistent quiet time reading scripture and being still before God
Setting aside personal creative time (songwriting, painting, sewing, blogging, etc)
Working on communicating better with spouse (eg “honey, can you look after baby for a bit while I hop in the shower?”
Try to fill my thoughts with more positive things
Reach out to family and friends nearby or over the phone to check in
Put less pressure on myself to accomplish things around the home (keep routines easy and uncomplicated!)
Consistent exercise (simply taking the dog for a good walk every day)
Sharing these goals with my spouse or a friend to help me stay accountable

Hopefully reading these thoughts and rambles may be helpful to someone reading this!

I know I’m not the only one that has struggled with depression of some sort. I’m simply being real on where I’m at and hoping that these goals will help my mental health to stay –well healthy. Both for my sake and also for my family’s sake.

Looking Forward:

I have some great blog posts on the creative table at the moment and for the time being I will be posting them every Friday morning. When I have more time I hope to expand that to twice a week. Even though I have more than enough ideas, recipes and crafts all ready to write up, it takes loads of time and mental energy to input them all into a blog posting. So for now I will keep a simple goal for myself of one posting per week!

Blog posts coming up (not in this order):

Sourdough Discard Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Simple Cheesy Biscuits
Green Split Pea & Bacon Soup
Sourdough English Muffins
Sprouted Nutrition
Baby resource posts
Several freezer meal recipes (I was very busy getting ready for baby!)
Instant Oatmeal recipes
Crockpot tomato sauce
Loads of Ocean-inspired Homeschooling crafts and free printables

Thanks for all the encouragement to family and friends who have been asking about Northbird and supporting me through this new creative adventure! It certainly has its challenges to learn all the tech side of things (definitely not one of my strengths!) but it has also been really rewarding to connect with people from all over the world in the past year and share our thoughts and ideas in the online creative community!

Cheers,

Jessie