Sorry I have not been posting much but I am in the midst of the morning sickies and I get 'em  bad.  Will update soon!

Today I took Christian to the Dr again, he is still having issues with vomiting most of his food.   Well while we were there he was throwing up and continued to throw up the rest of the day. Everything came back except for breastmilk.  He was diagnosed today with GERD , Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disorder (I think I spelled that right?)  Now we have yet another prescription, Prevacid. We start it tomorrow, hope it helps.  If it doesn't I asked the doctor whatwould be next to help with the vomiting and he quietly mentioned the possiblity for surgery. I pray it does not come to that!  My little guy has been through so much in his short 17 months of life!

     I think I might actually stay up too, all to often I find myslef crawling back to bed in an effort to catch just a little more sleep.  It is never enough so today I will just stay up, it makes no difference!

     Last night James wanted to do nothing (there is a ton of unpacking to do), he said he could not find the box that had all the motivation and inspiration in  it.    Of course I know where it is, it's  buried in the back of the garage under all the other boxes! Now if we could only get to it .

     We will be starting school after Labor Day, I have to get a little more organized first after this move.  We will be finishing up My Father's WOrld Curriculum and then moving on to some independant unit studies.  Sierra will be hitting the math books hard this year, she is  a bit behind in that area. Jt will learning to read more with his math right behind that.  Cailin who is just 4 has shown a lot of interest in learning to read, I am holding on that for just awhile, so not to discourage big brother.   He is almost 3 years older and I would not want his feeling hurt.    There will be some training issue I am SURE  when is comes to Ethan and Cailin, probably even Christian too.   They will need to be occupied with something other than videos. ANy ideas???

I found this image on google, I love it and everything it conveys.  For most of you moms out there you can almost feel and remember doing the same thing with your precious little one(s).   Makes me want more!   

Okay, this weekend we made what we thought was going to be the last trip to the old house to gather the rest of our JUNK.  Well little did we know that all the rain and storms in the past week would leave us a nice little surprise in the basement...I am sure you can guess the suprise. Water.  Can't stand it, can't live without it!  Thankfully most of the basement was empty, it just really stinks and our wood floor is completely destroyed.  I think back to how hard my husband labored on putting that floor down, it made me weep. 

It must have just been a day for weeping, because it finally sunk in for both of us that we had just walked away from a house for the second time.   All the hopes and dreams gone.  Where did we go wrong?  Did we just buy a house that needed to much work? Did we even belong there to begin with? Did we spend too much money? So many questions that just don't matter anymore.   We are out and hopefully can sell to avoid the looming foreclosure.   What a long 8 months down there away from family, friends and the most needed church fellowship.   Thanks be to God that he puts us where he wants us,  sets our crooked path straight.  

Right now I am thankful for:

1. Jesus
2. My husband that loves when I really don't deserve it.
3. My beautiful children that don't know how much I love them.
4. Family both near and far! (I love you Dad!)
5. A home to rent that is only 3 years old!
6. Sovereignty of God.
7. Knowledge of TRUTH

I know there is much more than that, but that is all for now.

Wow that had to be the worst move ever! Both weekends was hot and humid and in the 90's! And we still aren't done. Next weekend we will make a final trip with a trailer. We are getting settled slowly.  At least everyone has stayed somewhat healthy through all of this.

I am glad to be back in the care of our old "family practice" doctor, and we will be paying him a visit tomorrow.  A while back Christian was evaluated with a "speech and swallow" therapist, now that we know what he is allergic to we have to go back as he still throwing up most of his food.  I pray that it is not too serious but this little guy needs to grow!  He is almost 17 months and has only gained little over a pound in a year!!! He was 22 pounds at 7 months and is now 23 and 9 ounces.  He has grown in length though.

 I should be able to update more often now, thanks for all of your prayer!

Wow is it really almost August already!? It has been way too long since I have posted anything. It has been really hectic lately. Due to unseen circumstances we are unable to keep our home. Christian has been in the hospital so many times that even with insurance it is causing some financial distress. So if anyone wants to buy our house ???   We are moving this weekend to a rental home and we are OK with it, it is a little sad to not own our home. Praise the Lord that we are recieving  His clear direction on this.  So here I am packing to move again...hopefully for the last time for many years! It may be a few weeks before I post again...having to move in and set up may take awhile.  Here is a recent photo of everyone! Hope everyone is having a great summer.

That was the end of my last post, that I would write more.  Well I have a good excuse! We were in the hospital AGAIN.  This time with a urinary tract infection/kidney infection. Four days at U of C Children's Hospital. We are slowly getting caught up with schoolwork, I am ashamed to admit that I have had this curriculum for a year and we are just now on week 12!!! We have done some other things and I always stay on top of the reading and math. It is still hard to admit that though. We will keep pushing thru and finish up probably mid-summer.  So many things going on all the time....I have been a little down lately.  I need to stop reading the news...very depressing. Thank you all for your prayers.

Isn't he growing big? Christian's first Christmas! Mmmmm, this finger tastes so good. Just kidding, he got 2 teeth that week! Christian was in the hospital again in December, very scary this time.  He was rushed by ambulance to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago where he spent 5 days. 3 of those days were in the PICU. We are still reeling from that. There we were for breathing issues (asthma), he was even on a ventilator, and they noted his high blood pressure.  This spurred and large amount of tests and lab work and ultrasounds.  Turns out that our young little one has ARPKD or Polycystic Kidney Disease.  SHOCK!

I spent the next 2 days there crying all the time...lack of sleep did not help I am sure. I felt God comforting me...ohhh I prayed so much. There is a great website I found to educate myself www.arpkd.org . I will be posting more often now. God Bless!

My youngest daughter celebrated her 4th birthday on New Year's Eve!  Wow did that go fast.  Here she is playing "dress up" a few months ago. She is so quiet and timid....when she wants to be.

Last week was again almost unbearable!  Everything was fine, then Wednesday Christian was wheezing pretty bad. Throughout the day I gave breathing treatments coupled with steroids (prednisolone) to no avail he got much worse. When evening came around he could hardly breath and was just crying. So off to the ER, where the Dr. tried really hard to keep him out of the hospital but at 6am his oxygen levels would not stay above 90%. At that point I had already been up 24 hours.

They had to transfer him to the other hospital campus (this particular one has no pediatrics). I arrived at the other hospital to find him screaming, which he did for the next hour and a half. While he is screaming I am being asked all the questions, the Dr. is about to walk out the door and he asks "Are you up to date on your vaccinations?". To which I reply ..proudly "I don't vaccinate". Every head in the room turns towards me. Now they want him in isolation because it might be pertussis.  This is fine with me...now we get our own room! He does not have pertussis....which I knew already.  With a huge improvement overnight the Dr. says we can go home. Diagnosis is Reactive Airway Disease, he has a common cold that just sets off his lungs. We follow up soon with a pediatric pulmonologist (lung doctor) where he said they will want to test for cystic fybrosis and take a scope to look at his lungs.

To reflect a bit....Why can't people just respect the decisions that you think are best for your children? This just really hits a sore spot with me I guess. "Experts" have all the answers....FOOEEE! (Like I know how to spell that one!)  My new Dr. gave me a line that I just love "When the government make the rules....everyday is April Fools!"  I stand by my decision.

Here is my loveable chunk, weighing in at 20+ lbs. at only 7 months old! Not a bad photo for a camera phone.  When I only had one child I doubted that I could love another nearly as much. Not only do I love him as much but I have 5 to love and the grows daily.  How much more does God love each and every one of His children. What a comforting thought, His infinite love vs our finite capabilities of anything.  I am so thankful for everything. Praise God!

Wow, I didn't mean to take that long of a break!  We have had a whirlwind of activity here. We decided to buy a house! So of course we started looking, but at the time my hubby was working 6 days a week and we were looking at houses 80 miles away. After many weekends of driving to and fro we made an offer on a house that we liked. YEA!!

So we moved in on October 5th and I still don't have my computer, this is my husbands so I will write more on the whole ordeal later. I am alive and doing great, PRAISE GOD!

There is no other way to decribe the weather here in northern Illinois. I had promised my daughter earlier in the week that we would go to the park on Friday, I didn't know that it would be the hottest day of the week! So we left early before the heat set in at 8:30am, not early enough. We stayed about 30 minutes and we all were dripping with sweat by the time we left.   I am usually pretty tolerant of heat, but I HATE when you take a shower but your sweating before you even get dressed, just doesn't feel right .   If anyone happens to read this, say a prayer for my sister in-law, she was in a head on collision last night. She is home and healing from major bruising from the seat belt and on her leg.  Praise God she is alright, the car is totaled.  We are still trying to catch up on some school, but I lack motivation.  I am not getting done everything that needs to be done everyday BUT I am doing something everyday....that counts for something doesn't it?  Enough rambling here, baby is crying and I need some ICED TEA!!!! Stay cool.

This morning I decided to sit at the piano and play...this does not happen very often and my fingers are not what they used to be nor are my music reading skills.  Just trying to bang out something recognizable was a chore. My eldest daughter cam to sit with me and began making requests! First was "What a Friend we have in Jesus", this was great...I know how to play this one. We sat and I played and she sang...it was glorius. She then requested a few more that I have never played before "Blessed Assurance" she claims as her favorite! Followed with "Abide With Me". I am so thankful that she appreciates these at such a young age (just turned 8). Guess I should sit down and practice more often so she can sing some more! Just need more time.

I don't recommend purchasing these if you have to have clean floors all the time. My mother bought these for my daughter who loves to write little notes all the time.Drives me crazy sometimes having little pieces of paper all over the place. I gave up and let my 2 year old son Ethan have at em'. It was fun and he loved it! Sometimes you just have to go with the flow....who cares about the floor.

Here is a photo of my youngest just two weeks ago.  We stayed at the hospital for 5 days. I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it was to do that.  He  had RSV, we could not leave until he had 24 hours without oxygen.  I did so much refelcting on my life while there. Not much else to do but think and watch TV (which I hate doing). It was so hard to see him there. Thank God he is all better now. I pray to never have to go thru that again!

Here we go, my first blog entry! My dear husband said I could do it. Not too long ago he said "You should write more". I tried to explain that I have nothing to write about. He must have prayed for me, because now I keep coming up with thoughts to write about. 

A brief intro...I am a home educating mother to currently 5 lovely children that God has blessed me with. Sierra is 8 as of June 7th, JT (James Tyler) will be 6 on July 16th, Cailin turned 3 this past New Year's Eve, Ethan just turned 2 on June 27th and Christian will be 4 months in two days. I am also greatly blessed to be a wife and helpmeet to my wonderful dear husband James for the past 9 years! I have great conviction to raise Godly children to send out into this world.  I suppose here is where I will share my daily adventures in this calling of mine.