Feb. 6, 2010 - She Willingly Works with Her Hands

I made a vow to myself to be better about taking pictures this year.  I have a tendency to get so wrapped up in what we're doing that the camera is forgotten.  It almost breaks my heart to think of all the special moments around here that are left unrecorded by the camera.  So I took the camera to my brother-in-law's birthday party and took a lot of pictures there.  Then true to form, I left the camera there.  ;-)  It's killing me - I need to get it back soon!  I'm itching to start using up all the Creative Memories supplies that have been sitting in the corner of the office for way too long. 

Is it a picture of Sophia, or her paci?

There is so much to do around here these days.  I usually make a list of things-to-accomplish, but the time that I used for that is now used for nursing Grace.  So I have what I like to call my "mental list of things-to-do."  I love that list.  I love doing every little thing on that list.  From ironing to making a lesson plan, to grocery shopping, to making some muffins ahead for breakfast during the week.  There are times when the list seems so daunting and I think I can't do it all.  Well, I can't, but I'll never get any of it done without taking it one item at a time.

What a funny smile - where are her top teeth?

It's hard to keep on.  Sometimes I just want to sit down and waste a little time, but then I think about how hard that makes it for myself and my family when I don't take care of what needs to get done and that helps me keep going.  Our family has adopted the verses from Proverbs 6: 6-11 that say,
"Go to the ant, you sluggard!
      Consider her ways and be wise, 
       Which, having no captain,
      Overseer or ruler, 
       Provides her supplies in the summer,
      And gathers her food in the harvest. 
       How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
      When will you rise from your sleep? 
       A little sleep, a little slumber,
      A little folding of the hands to sleep— 
       So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,
      And your need like an armed man."

A doughnut!!!!!!

There once was a time when I would clean a little bit, read a little bit.  Clean a little bit, watch a little t.v.  Clean a little bit, chat on the phone with a friend. Those days are far behind me now.  Nowadays I clean a little bit, correct Lydia's math.  Clean a little bit, nurse the baby.  Clean a little bit, make lunch for the kids and myself...I can't help but compare the two lists and think that my life has greatly improved. 

Ravioli mouth.

I have to remind myself of that a lot as I discipline myself to keep with the tasks and little ones at-hand.  Isn't that what it really boils down to?  Discipline?  I've had a lot of ladies tell me they could never homeschool, or have six kids because they think they're not "organized enough."  Pshaw.  I will forever believe and forever tell those ladies that organization is a good tool to have, but what about the discipline to be organized?  That's something we can teach ourselves.  Once we've made up our minds to discipline ourselves, the rest falls into place.

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Jan. 30, 2010 - Tumbling Tumbleweeds

This is a fun YouTube video that my kids enjoyed watching.

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Jan. 29, 2010 - The Simple Life

I predicted that Baby #6 was going to be my biggest challenge and I was right.  Not the baby herself, but having six kids.  There's a lot to do around here these days.  Grace is now six weeks and we love every  minute of her.  She is squooshy and cuddly and smells so sweet.  I love to kiss her fat little cheeks.  That was one of the things I daydreamed about there at the end of the pregnancy so getting to actually do it on a daily basis is literally a dream come true.  :-)

With so many kisses to give, I've been working on simplifying.  Here's what I've been doing so far:

1) This one is not so popular with the kids, but it has saved my bacon.  I have been using the same menu plan since Grace was born.  It's full of easy meals like tacos, chili, spaghetti, quiche and a frozen pizza here and there.  Grace usually nurses around 4:30 or 5 every afternoon - right when I should be making dinner, so a meal that I can put together in 30 minutes is my goal.  And using the same menu plan makes making my shopping list a short and sweet affair as well.

2) I remember back in the day when a friend and I would talk about how our kids would only have memories of our profiles because we spent so much time on the computer answering emails and surfing the web for homeschooling curriculum.  ;-)  Those days have been long past for me, but now I feel the need to cut back even more on computer time.  A five minute check in the mornings and evenings is my goal, so I've begun unsubscribing from email updates that I don't LOVE.  I never realized how many things I was getting from family organizations, homeschool curriculum vendors, news organizations.....I can survive without it!

3) During the pregnancy, I designated some shelves in our school room for toys that are in clear, plastic storage bins.  I am not allowing more toys in the house than can fit on those shelves.  So when we got new stuff for Christmas, the old stuff that was already conveniently stored in the bins went up to the attic and the new stuff was added.  Keeps clean-up time from being so stressful and....SIMPLE.  ;-)

4) There's a lot ot be said for The Basics.  I've slashed a lot of extra workbook-y type stuff from Lydia and Jack's schedules and have been concentrating on Math, Writing skills and reading good literature.  We've been able to fit in everything amid the feedings and Henry and Sophia's needs which makes us all happy.

If anyone has any other suggestions for the simple life, please let me know!  I'm all ears.  :-)

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Jan. 6, 2010 - My Birth Story

I've been working on this post since 12/27!  :-)  If you're interested, here's my birth story....

I had a midwife appointment on the 9th of December.  That was the day before my due date. At the end of that appointment I made another appointment for the next week, but we all laughed about it because we just knew for sure that I would have the baby before then.  haha heehee.  ;-)  I needed that appointment! 

I was starting to feel like stinky fish.  Everywhere I went everyone would say stuff like, "When are you going to have that baby/"  or "Are you STILL here?"  Darin and the kids kept asking, "How do you feeeeeeel?"  Wondering if I was having contractions or not.  But nothing was really happening and I almost resigned myself to being pregnant for the rest of my life.  Oh my.  Can you imagine????  ;-)

So I went in for the appointment on the 17th.  Early that morning I had this weird "internal contraction-like" thing.  It felt like a contraction inside, and it felt as if Grace moved down.  I had never felt anything like that before!  So when I got to the midwife's, I told her what had happened and she decided to check me to see if I was dilated.  I was at a 5 and fully effaced.  That seemed to freak her out a little.  We are 30 minutes from the birthing center, and I am Group B Strep positive.  I needed to get two doses of antibiotics in before Grace came through the birth canal, so she told me in very strong language that if it were her, she would stay to be induced.  Well.  Absolutely.  My biggest fear during the pregnancy was that I would not be able to get the antibiotics needed before Grace was born.  I had a niece die from exposure to Group B when she was born so I definitely want to be overly cautious in this area.  It was a hard blow for our family when that happened!  That sweet niece would have been my parent's first grandchild.

Darin and I had taken Henry, Sophia and Lydia with us to this appointment, so we took them home, called our friend (more about her in another post!) who had volunteered to help out with the kids during the delivery, went through the drive-thru of Chick-Fil-A for some lunch, filled up the car with gas, then headed back to the midwife.  :-)

When Darin and I got there, Lynne, the assistant, told me to use my breast pump for 30 minutes to see if we could get labor started that way.  I am an all-or-nothing gal, so I hooked-up both sides and cranked the pump to "Max."  Darin looked at his watch when I started.  It was 12:12 p.m.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It worked!  10 minutes later I asked Darin to go ask if I could stop!  The contractions came on so fast and hard.  Lynne said I could stop, but that I needed to go take a brisk walk.  Oooookaaaay.  :-/  I tried to be a good girl and go for a walk, but I knew there was no need.  I laid down on the bed and sweated through some contractions before deciding to get up and change into the clothes I was going to wear for the birth. 

While I was up, I noticed the contractions were a lot more manageable while standing.  So I paced around the room, working through the contractions.  Our midwife came in for something....not sure what she was doing.  I think she was filling out paperwork or something.  She asked Darin how far apart my contractions were.  He said.  "Oh, about 10 minutes or so."  WHAT?  ;-)  It was obvious he wasn't the one FEELING the pain, so I set him straight on their frequency.  The midwife, Jean, said she also noticed they were lasting a good long time, so she decided to check me.  I was dilated to an 8.  This was only after about an hour.  It was just a little past 1 by this time.  Jean decided that if she broke my water, the baby would come right down and right out. 

It sort of worked like that.....the baby did come right down, but the right out thing was a little more tricky.  While I was pushing, my contractions slowed way down.  And can I say, WOW.  I could have lived with the contractions ALL DAY as long as I didn't have to push.  Having never given birth without drugs before did not prepare me for the pain of pushing.  Really, the thing that bothered me the most was feeling claustrophobic.  There were one person holding each of my legs, Jean, the midwife standing at the ready to catch the baby, and another person standing behind her telling me to PUSH!!!!!!  I felt as if everyone were on top of me and I just wanted them to back off.  And with everyone screaming at me (it seemed as if they were!) to push, I felt like a pushing failure.  I ended up pushing so hard that I had broken little blood vessels on my face - it looked as if I had a rash.  And I'm a screamer!  LoL  I kept saying, "Take the baby out!  Take her out!"  And then they would say, "You have to PUSH!!!!!"  I hope that if we go through this again that my reactions will be a little more subdued.  I think I was caught off guard with the intensity of the pushing.  There is nothing I could have read that could have prepared me for that.

So...my contractions finally caught back up to where they needed to be and I had two or three good pushes in a row and Grace Anne was finally born at 1:44 p.m.  9 lbs. 1 oz.  She was/IS beautiful.  :-)  I was so thankful it was over, but then it wasn't really over for me yet.  :-/  I was bleeding very heavily.  I ended up losing twice as much blood as I should have.  Jean said it was probably because my contractions slowed down during the pushing.  That left me weak and so tired and I'm still trying to work through that now.  I am always anemic (except during pregnancy) so I'm sure the blood loss didn't help that.  But I have to say that if God blesses us with another little one, I will definitely use the midwife again.  Besides the low energy I have from the blood loss, the healing really has been much faster than with all our other babies.  And no episiotomy for the first time!  That's probably the biggest blessing ever.  My old OB always gave episiotomies as a matter of course.  It was part of her procedure.

The best part was that Darin was able to take off the entire rest of the month.  He and the kids spoiled me.  I took naps, fed the baby, watched HGTV, ate the good food they brought me.  It was so nice to be at home immediately after the birth rather than separated from everyone at the hospital.  Another positive about giving birth at the birthing center.  During the last days of the pregnancy I thought that if there were a next time, I might try giving birth at home, but I can't imagine putting my kids through my freaking out during the pushing, so the birthing center it is!  ;-)

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Dec. 18, 2009 - She's Here and The Count Up

Grace is here!!!  You can't imagine how blessed we feel to have her here with us.  I can't bring myself to stop kissing her little warm cheeks!  I have to say that I feel a little older and wiser after my first all natural childbirth.  Whew!  ;-)  More details about all that fun later. 

Grace's stats:
12/17
1:44 p.m.
9 lbs. 1 oz.
21 inches long

The rest of this entry is one I wrote two days before she was born, but never got a chance to post because I was moving too slowly to add the pictures of Sophia's birthday which was on the 7th.  I'll add them later, as well as a picture of our new blessing soon!
_________________________________________________________________________________

My 'Blog Baby' there on the sidebar is counting up now.  My due date of December 10th has come and gone and we're all just sitting around and waiting. 

I have always been aware that one of my biggest weaknesses is being able to function outside the structure I create.  I usually have an idea of how I want the day to go and if there is anything that throws off my mental image of what should be, I struggle with staying on track.  There have been times when I let the unexpected interuption totally shut down my day as I give up and do nothing instead.  How High Maintenance can a person get?  ;-)  I've gotten better at overcoming this tendency over the years, but it's a huge exercise in self-control to pick-up where we left off before the unexpected reared its ugly head.

Last week when my due date arrived and left without a baby, I shut down.  I quit doing school with the kids and other miscellaneous stuff that took any extra effort on my part.  :-/  It took Thursday through Sunday of this wasteful inactivity to finally draw me out of the funk and realize that I still have to function like a real person.  This week has been so much better and I feel better because I've been productive - not a vegetable on the couch.  ;-)  A friend pointed out that the waiting is the perfect opportunity for learning.  Yup.  Having kids is the biggest character stretcher EVER.

We did have a birthday last week.  Monday was Sophia's 2nd birthday.  SWEET thing!  ;-)

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Dec. 6, 2009 - Still Waiting

Still waiting for Grace to make her way into the world.  I keep thinking that she's just waiting for me to be able to finish paying the bills, or to get my grocery shopping and laundry done, but nope!  Apparently she has her own to-do list to take care of and it has nothing to do with mine.  :-)  So we wait.  In my control-freak-kinda-way, it wears on me because I hate surprises.  I want to know exactly when she's coming, so the waiting is killing me!  But God is good all the time.  He knows what's best for Grace and me.  But the next person who tells me that I look like I'm about to pop..........  ;-)

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Nov. 24, 2009 - Blog Breaks

A lot of my favorite bloggers seem to be taking blog breaks.  I hate it, because after all, they are my favorite bloggers.  I love reading what they have to say.  I realize that I love their blogs because they are the type of women who place their home and families first, so them taking blogging breaks to focus on the most important things is encouraging to me because I want to keep my family my first focus as well. 

During the last month and a half or so, I've been working on keeping my head above water around here as I've gotten slower and more tired.  As usual, my brain has been going faster than my body.  I've started off many days with big plans for a deep cleaning of some room, only to find myself satisfied with a general cleaning-up. No one would know what a neat freak I am if they walked in our house today.  And I'm okay with that.  One of these days I'll get to clean to my heart's content while wondering what all my kids and grandkids are up to that day.  Maybe I'll forego the cleaning and just go find out.  ;-)

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Nov. 2, 2009 - Baby Grace

Jack, our 9 year old, has taken to fake burping.  His favorite thing is the burp INSIDE something so that the sound will be amplified.  He's becoming a real pro, and I really don' t know whether to laugh with him or scold him for being so ungentlemanly.  Henry, our 3 year old, is his other half.  He is also becoming very adept at the classic fake burp.  These two boys share a room which is next to mine and Darin's room.  You can imagine the fun that drifts over into our room in the mornings. 

They do have their differences.  It takes Jack a little longer to let go of a grievance than it does Henry, which is interesting when they've got each other worked up.  Jack will sit with his arms crossed, not daring to look at anyone around him.  And there will be Henry, who has already recovered from the incident, hovering over Jack, saying, "It's okay, buddy.  It's okay."  Then he'll start patting Jack on the head and before we know it, Jack starts laughing uncontrollably and all is well again.  It's fun to watch them together.  Their latest favorite thing is to play "tackle football" in the living room.  Jack is just the right amount of rough with his 3 year old bro.  Every now and then Henry will say, "Jack, let's go kick and punch!" 

Then there's Ben.  14 years old.  This year was the first time he did not want to participate in handing out candy and tracts to trick or treaters.  He hung out with Darin and me in the living room.  We call him "the old man."  He's always cold and can sound like a grouchy old man every now and then.  Tonight, Lydia was talking about Christmas lights when Ben, in his best deadpan, said, "Do we have to do Christmas lights this year?"  (LOL!  I'm just chalking that one up to his being tired from getting up for his 6:30 a.m. football practice.)  He's so sweet with Henry and Sophia, enjoys reading through different books with Lydia, and this fall, has been teaching Jack how to play football.  He's a good big brother.

Lydia - our sweet girl.  If all our daughters could have the same sweet spirit she does, we would be set for life. I call her my "little mama" because she is a natural with our littles.  She could play endlessly with them - to the point where I sometimes have to remind her that she has other work to do!  ;-)  She loves playing the piano.  She reminds me of my sister.  My sister is a great pianist.  Every time she got the chance throughout the day, she would sit down and go through a few songs.  Lydia does the same thing.  Like a true 11 year old, she NEVER runs out of things to talk about.  I love that because I never have to guess what she's thinking about.

Sophia - I remember wondering on this very blog just WHO this little girl would be.  Well.  At 22 months, she seems to have been born with a writing utensil in her hand.  She will spend over half her day filling up spiral notebooks with her scribbling.  She's also partial to the coloring sheets I print out for her with babies on them.  She's always very passionate about what she wants and amazes me with how she can do a belly flop on the floor when she's unhappy about something - must be her small stature that allows her to get away with that.  At almost two years, she is just now growing out of her 12 month pants.  She's gorgeous with her white blonde hair and bright blue eyes.  We all dote on her and it's a really good thing she's not going to be the baby of the family!  ;-)

And so here I am, again, wondering who our new baby will be.  I am so anxious to meet her, I can barely stand it.  Someone that I ran into at the chiropractic office told me that she will be like a twin to Sophia.  Well, that would be okay, but how does he know?  ;-)  I mean, it's always possible, but I can't imagine it.  They are all so unique.  Such gifts from God, our Creator.  I take comfort that He already knows her, and that He knew who she was at the beginning of time, and knew she would be mine and Darin's daughter.  I remember back in high school, chatting with my pals about who we would marry, how many kids we would have, what their names would be, where we would live...MAN.  A verse comes to mind at this point.

1 Corinthians 2:9: But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

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Oct. 19, 2009 - Nesting

Usually when I start nesting during pregnancy, I start gathering in things like toilet paper.  Oh my.  With the first three, that was my obsession.  I had every bathroom cabinet packed tight with TP.  With the fourth, I decided that I was being ridiculous over toilet paper, so switched to dryer sheets.  I didn't have to buy dryer sheets for the first year of Henry's life.  With Sophia, I got a clue and collected cleaning products.  You would think, with all my household product collecting with the first five children, that no one was going to be allowed to leave the house to go to the store - EVER.  But really, who can argue with the logic - we never had to worry about TP, dryer sheets or cleaning products, and that's one less thing to stress over,  ya?  I just know that my special stashes saved me...maybe that'll be one of the questions I ask God when I get to Heaven.  "Tell me!  What sort of trouble did I save myself with all the dryer sheets I had on-hand during the first year of Henry's life?"  Can't wait!

With this current pregnancy, I feel I've finally hit my stride.  I am making tons of food for the freezer.  Usually my Mom is here performing her Tennessee Woman Cooking Magic.  Since she won't be this time around :-/ I'm trying to pick up her slack.  What amazes me is my militant attitude about it.  I mean, I mean business.  Any kid tries to snag a banana pancake that I've set aside for the freezer and I'm on top of them in about two seconds.  No one takes away my freezer food, man.

This past week was my first week preparing food for the freezer.  Here's what I have so far:
Breakfast:
Banana Pancakes
Crustless Quiche

Breads:
Whole Wheat Bread
Spice Bread w/ a side of Maple Butter

Main Meals:
Ravioli Casserole
Farmhouse Chicken

The really great thing about this freezer food is that I only prepared half of what is on the list.  Darin and I have gotten super-duper serious about having the older three be able to run the kitchen.  Again, my Mom won't be here to keep life humming for us, so SOMEONE'S gotta do it!  The only ones we could think of were Ben, Lydia and Jack.  They are 14, 11, and 9, and I tell you, they are really catching on.  It has taken awhile, and they still have moments when they refuse to work together while insisting on deep lines in the sand concerning where their own contributions end and begin, but little by little, they are learning to work together and get things done.  I leave the kitchen after every meal, stay within earshot, and let them have at it.  Just in the past two or three weeks, I've given Ben and Lydia entire meals to cook, and they've done so well.  I can't wait to see them in action after the baby is born.  What a blessing they will be to Darin, me, and really, to the whole family.

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Oct. 17, 2009 - High School Life

I have so little time to blog these days, but things keep piling up on my "mental list of things to blog about" that I almost feel short circuited.  I don't know if I can actually get out a coherent blog entry because of the overflow of thoughts.  We'll see...

As I thought, the football-thing has been a challenge for Ben.  Darin and I wondered how he would take the added stress of the football schedule along with his other responsibilities.  We're grading him on a curve on this one since this is a new situation for him.  He's used to having plenty of time for school and chores, but now we are three weeks away from the end of the season and he seems to still have a ways to go in figuring out how to balance everything.  He keeps thinking he should have the same amount of free time he always had.  Funny.  I find myself still thinking that way sometimes.  It's just one of those lifelong struggles, isn't it?

We began World Views of the Western World I with Ben this fall.  Where we live, most sign their kids up for an outside class for this curriculum.  The author, David Quine, says that when he wrote it, he had in mind the parents and student going through it together and having conversations about it.  So Darin and I decided to go for it and we're really glad we are going through it with Ben.  Not only are we learning things we never even had inklings about, but there have been a few conversations with Ben that have really been enjoyable.  It is such a privilege to homeschool our high school boy.  I can't imagine missing all the fascinating conversations we're going to have with him over the next four years.  And those ah-ha moments don't stop after elementary school.  They're continuing, and it's so fun to see connections being made in his mind - growing up, young adult connections, that will lead to more mature thoughts and beliefs.  I am just in awe of this homeschooling thing.  I wish we were doing it perfectly, but I'm praying that God is taking care of the graded curve on this one for us.  ;-)

I have farmed out one aspect of Ben's schooling.  Writing.  I was an English major in college and got pretty good grades, but I am no writing teacher.  A friend of mine told me about Patrick Henry's Writing Mentors for High School Students.  I thought about it for a bit, then remembered that MY SISTER is a High School English teacher.  Big "duh" moment for me.  ;-)  She has always been very supportive of our homeschooling, so it was a no-brainer to ask for her help.  And so she is working with Ben and helping him to fine tune his writing skills in a way that I would have really struggled to do.  It's worked out so well that she has begun to also work with Lydia, our comma queen. 

It's a great blessing - next time our kids complain to us about their brothers and sisters, we need to remind them that they have the family they have for a reason!  Of course I know that I don't have my sister only to teach my kids writing, but I know it's part of the reason.  God knew I would need my big sis in this way one day.  :-)

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