update

Sorry, still working on photos.  Hopefully soon.  This week I've been focusing on packing, and by that I mean spending a small amount of time packing during S' nap when I'm motivated enough. But Jomo has done some work too and we've gotten the school room basically done.  Now we have another bedroom completely filled with bins of stuff and piles of yard sale items.  So our tiny house just got smaller.  But it feels good to have an early start on packing.  Jomo reminded me about one of our moves (pre-children) in which we worked completely through the night, basically throwing stuff in boxes, bags or just loose in the truck, vacuuming at 6:00 am (sorry downstairs neighbors) to get out by our 8:00 am deadline.  Those were the days.  

The kids this week have decided that they want to save up some money for particular toys that they're pining away for.  This works out ok for me since I could use some extra help, but it's got me thinking a lot about chores and allowances and how we want to deal with those things as a family.  We've tried some different things in the past, and I think I have some new ideas about how to do it in the future, but right now it doesn't make sense to completely start something new.  But I hope that L especially will stick with it and see the fruits of his labor.

Another thing that's really sinking in is that toddlers are hard!  No wonder I despaired when L was that age.  I think I have (a little) more perspective this time around, and I'm trying to give myself a break when I'm out of energy at 4 in the afternoon and the house is a mess and dinner isn't made and everyone's getting hungry and crabby. I'm actually simultaneously really enjoying S and all the wonderful new things she does.  She gives Jomo and me kisses and hugs. She says "bye-bye" and "dada" with such exuberance.  She does some of Z's dances, sometimes quite well.  She tries to do everything the older kids do.  She's just adorable.  But boy, can she make a mess!  

I guess that's the update.  Oh, I also found these two great resources at the library that I'm really excited about.  One of them is an out-of-print book (at least I think so since I can only find it used upwards of $100 online!  for an essentially $10 book) that is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.  So that's neat.  Ok, that's really it now!