Back to the Grind

We started school a couple of weeks ago, so the lazy days of summer are over. We have a great schedule that I'm really excited about and has been working well so far. Due to planning all summer, I am more organized this year, which is wonderful! We seem to be fitting it all in: math, spelling, reading, history, science, writing, music, art, French, PE, and handwriting. In addition to our home music class, this year Kylie and Spencer are taking violin lessons and Madalyn is taking flute. They're super excited about it as they've waited a long time through medical school and residency for enough money in the budget to cover music lessons.
Here are a few pictures of our past few weeks in no particular order.

Nathan studying for ABIM board exam

Field trip to a state park. We're probably the only school who is taking field trips already. (Except other homeschoolers.)

Hearing about the composer we're learning about this week.

Playing a song the composer wrote on the chimes my father-in-law made for us.

Weights and stretching.

We do PE first thing after breakfast.

Nathan studying again. He took the board last Wednesday and felt great about it. Soon he'll be Internal Medicine board certified! His last hurdle to becoming a full-fledged doctor.

I constantly have to call Spencer away from the piano to come finish his school. It is his first love and he spends much of his free time at the piano.

Bad picture, but the kids were playing train. It seems like the kids were bored all summer, but now that we're back in school they are more creative and enjoy playing with each other. After school and all day Saturdays are spent playing doctor, train trips, house, etc.

Nathan's first day seeing patients as an attending physician.

After 7 weeks of getting his license, DEA license, credentialing, studying for boards, and going through new faculty orientation, he finally started his new job! He now works at a group practice doctor's office owned by the university. In addition he takes a two week shift every so often treating patients in the hospital. He also spends a lot of time teaching residents and overseeing their work. Lastly, he's working on research whenever he's not scheduled at the clinic or hospital. I still can't believe we're at this point. I think because we didn't move, it doesn't seem real. Our life pretty much seems the same as residency except he's home a lot more. Oh, and Nathan is a lot happier. He loves his new job so far. Less hours and stress.

Kaitlyn doing a cute yawn.

Play-doh after school.

The boys conked out after a hard day of work and play. Sleeping on the floor is a cool thing. Maybe because at 6 1/2 Spencer is too big for his toddler bed that is literally falling apart.

Thomas' Point of View

The other day I uploaded our pictures from our camera to the computer and I counted over half of them were taken by Thomas. Evidently he has been snagging the camera when it is left at a reachable level and snapping some photos. He says things like, "I'm taking pictures of my cars." Or "I want to take a picture of Kaitlyn's toys." There were a whole bunch of the doors, walls, floor, etc. And lots of his cars--I think over 20 pictures. This is probably the most boring post ever, but I feel compelled to post these pictures so that when I make my blog into a scrapbook I'll look back and remember how cute Thomas was when he had a camera fettish.

He even snatched the camera at the park.

I didn't realize he was so short. :)

This is a map I drew of our town and all of our favorite places we go on it. I had one when I grew up (well, it was my brother's) and the boys love it.

The bucket he keeps his cars in.

There are several pictures like this where his feet are in the picture, so it's a dead giveaway. :)

Apparently he wanted a picture of the kids doing chimes in our music class.

And pictures of the kids goofing off.

This one I took. We went swimming at a friend's house and he fell asleep at 5:00 on the way home. I put him on the couch during dinner and he was so out that I put him in his pajamas and put him to bed and he slept through the night until 7:00 the next morning! If only we'd gone swimming more this summer!

This is when he turned three a couple of weeks ago. He wanted Reese Pieces on his cake and a picture of a tractor, so that's what he got, even if it did turn out a little ugly. It was still tasty and he had a great time opening his presents and eating the cake and ice cream. He's our joy boy.

Shopping With Six

Yesterday I took the kids to do errands and had my camera, so I thought I'd snap a few pictures of how we go grocery shopping with six kids. It's actually been awhile since I've taken them all because Nathan's been off work since July 1. And the two weeks before that the kids were in Florida and at the pageant. Nathan's still home getting things ready for his new job and could have watched them, but we were going to the library and getting school supplies too, so everyone wanted to come.
We love shopping at Kroger. It's clean; not very crowded; has great manager's specials on bread, dairy, and meat; and most importantly, I love the people who work there. They know my kids by name and ask where they are when I don't bring them (or whoever is missing.) I really enjoy shopping there and so do the kids. Especially when I let them make a scene by pushing around these little carts:

They didn't really do it this time, but usually they all pick a category to put in their cart. They'll say, "I'm getting the cold food," (meaning milk, cheese, eggs) or "I'm getting cereal," or "My cart is frozen foods," or "I get produce" and the last category is "snacks" which is everything from chips to baking supplies. They're great shoppers and I actually do love bringing them along (most of the time.:))

I push Kaitlyn in the stroller.

Checking out.

I let all the kids go through first, putting their items on the belt and any coupons they may have.

Spencer loves to help bag the groceries, so he has to go first. The bagger gets a kick out of watching Spencer help. He's so enthusiastic and fast. I'm in the rear to pay for it all.

Out to the car we go!

Spencer is also the cart boy and is so good to push the mini carts back.