Update

The last couple of weeks have been pretty out-of-sort here. The stomach flu hit a couple weeks ago, and for about a week, someone was always sick or wasn't sleeping at night. I had several nights of sleeping only a few hours at a time, or just putting one of the girls in the bed with me. Because I was running on fumes all day (then I got the flu), I didn't do any cardio but once or twice a week. My tiredness interfered a lot with my eating habits and drinking water, so I just felt really crummy for a good week and a half.

By the middle of last week, we all seemed to be recovered and sleep was restored. I was looking forward to getting back to exercising (which is done now much more because of how great I feel and not so much to lose weight) and, in general, just getting my life back. ;)

Now the weather is warming up, and yesterday, I combined my love of the outdoors with my love of yard work and raked our yard clear of sweet gum balls (seriously, those are the worst trees ever). It just feels so nice to be outside! I put our hammock up for a little bit and the girls had some swing time. I know our yard is not very pretty, but I worked again this afternoon, and raked all the leaves up.
But despite illness, we spent time with friends and family (and so apologize to all who also got sick thanks to us).
(I'm sure I've already said this, but if you've noticed that Lara wears this dress all the time, I swear she has other clothes. But everyday she asks if she can wear it, and picking out clothes is a not a battle I will fight with my children. It is her favorite dress that Aunt Molly bought for her. It is agreed that Aunt Molly is living vicariously through her nieces. :D)We are so lucky to get to spend time out in the country. Claire is definitely a country girl; she loves chasing the chickens and dogs at Nana's house.

I think I am going to start a unit on bees for the girls. I taught Lara a little bit about bees on our trip to Arthur yesterday.

Last week, the girls and I did some fun projects for St.Patrick's Day. It was difficult to really get into it and do much, what with being sick, but we managed a few things. You can see the pictures here. We also made shamrocks and rainbows and decorated the house. We had to tone it down after awhile though, because Lara was getting a little worried about the leprechauns coming into her house and making messes...despite however hard I tried to explain to her that they aren't real and it's all just a game we like to play on St.Patty's Day.

I'm off; I'm going to have a brainstorming session for the new family bee business!