Daley Ponderings

On Saturday, March 26th, Jonathan, Faith, Joy and I participated in our first karate tournament. The whole family rose bright and early so we could drive the two hours and 15 minutes to Standish, Maine.  This tournament is relatively small, with only about five dojos participating.... (More)

Got a bunch of spam comments and then when I was looking at posts, the boys pointed out that my last post was a month ago and I said "trip to DC goes in a separate post"...  So here we go. When we went into downtown to see the sights, we split up into smaller groups.  Jonathan,... (More)

Heather and I had the opportunity to attend a marriage retreat with 10 or so couples from our church this weekend, up at Rangeley Lake in Maine (thanks Scott, for the house!) We were the youngest couple (by far, the average marriage length represented there was 31 years), and we haven't... (More)

Having a dad in the fire department is educational in more than just fire safety: 5/17 - Jon is called to an accident "involving motor vehicle vs. moose" 5/18 - Jonathan reads about moose and siberian tigers on wikipedia ~5 - Joy says "owee here" = outta here 5/20 - jpd 17 lb on our... (More)

So last week I was worn out with the extra work that unexpected messes bring.  Today I'm tired but happy about it. Yesterday, Jon left very early to go on the church men's retreat.  Our morning at home started out pretty badly (bickering/fighting) and the boys had to go run around... (More)

My due date was February 21. Jonathan, Noah, and Faith had all been exactly five days late. Joy was early, but we weren't sure of her date and the more we thought about it the more we figured she probably had been late as well. So we had Linda and Porter schedule their flight to arrive... (More)

The first blog post in a long time, I realize.  And I won't make any promises about more frequent updates, etc. I have found that I am writing on facebook more often, and reviewing products online (got a Kindle for Christmas, and so have been reading and reviewing on Amazon) and... (More)

We are still working on renovating our new house, and thus we are still living with Jon's generous parents.  And since we are living here, we are schooling here.  But a comment from his mom gave me some insight into some non-homeschoolers' comments about homeschooling. We usually... (More)

9/19 - Joy  has been telling me when she needs a new diaper (patting her bottom) but this day, she got out the changing pad and wipes, set up the pad on the bathroom floor, put a new diaper on top of the wipes box, lay down on the pad, and called for me. 9/20 - Noah is definitely our... (More)

Last catchup ended on the weekend of the fire company banquet.  That weekend was also the beginning of the new adventure.  Two different people called up to ask about looking to buy our house.  No, not the one we're fixing up to sell.  The one we're living in.  Well, ok,... (More)

Well, in the three weeks since I last posted, Joy has made major progress in mobility and the rest of the household is still working to adjust! 9/11 - Joy started crawling longer distances with a cross-pattern belly crawl. 9/13 - Every time we go into PIttsburgh, we cross the Allegheny... (More)

8/21 - I can't remember when babies are "supposed" to get object permanence, but Joy definitely has it.  She was playing on her tummy on the kitchen floor with two toys.  When she lost them under herself, she looked all around trying to find them again. 8/24 - Jonathan called the... (More)

6/14 - On our camping trip, Faith liked to play Ice Cream Shop.  Her flavors are unique: pineapple hot sauce, strawberry beet, water, to name a few.  After those, I requested just plain ice creams, though she really wanted to put hot sauce on most of them.  We finally settled on a... (More)

5/23 - Joy is chomping and chewing.  I suspect she is an early teether like Noah and Faith. 5/30 - Joy rolled front to back. 6/2 - Joy crawled in bed 18", with diaper Joy is grabbing and exploring what she finds.  Likes fabric especially. Worked really hard on a board book.... (More)

Jon was with a bunch of people we don't see often last night, and one of the men mentioned that his wife was discouraged by all these homeschooling mother-of-many type blogs where everyone has all their lives together and nothing goes wrong.  So I thought I'd post how my life is not... (More)