I promised a picture of the birthday cake, so here it is!

It was a Red Velvet Cocoa Cake and it tasted great!!

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Yes, my oldest ds is now 10! Where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday he was being born - without pain meds! He was born too fast for that! He hasn't slowed down since.

He has wanted to be an entomologist since he was 3. Imagine the look on the face of his doctor when, at 3, he said he wanted to be an entomologist. The doc asked if ds knew what that was and he stated yes, someone who studies bugs. That is still his goal 7 years later. This is the child who taught himself to read and wants to figure things out himself if at all possible. I have no doubt he will become an entomologis if that continues to be his goal.

I will post a picture of his cake later. He received a butterfly pavilion, ladybug land and an experiment kit for his birthday. He will be busy for a while!!

My ds is a wonderful blessing from God!!

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They really don't have anything to do with each other except that they were both in our backyard!

This cute little fella was in one of our trees. We figure the dog scared it, though I have a different theory. I figure the groundhog and our dog are working together on an escape route. Our dog loves to run around the neighborhood if given the chance (she escapes). I think she convinced the groundhog to dig a hole under the fence for her. The groundhog was in the process of doing so when my children headed out to the compost pile. The dog and groundhog thought they had been caught, so the groundhog headed up the tree to pretend the dog scared it. Once up there, it realized it had no clue how to get down! We put the dog inside (thinking she had scared the 'poor thing'). DH and ds (10) went to get the BB gun to help the poor thing decide to climb down. In the meantime, the groundhog decided it better hightail it out of there before we figured out the plot. No clue how it got down or how it got out of the yard (repeating to the dc that there are no flying groundhogs - they are much heavier than the flying squirrels - plus they are named GROUNDhogs for a reason), but we haven't seen it since.

I still think the groundhog would have fit nicely in my roasting pan!

The cucumbers (also found in my backyard, but not as devious) are our first ever. The larger is for eating as is, the smaller is a pickling cucumber. The bad part is that the pickling cucumbers are not all arriving at once. This makes the process of making pickles somewhat difficult since cucumbers do not last very long! The dill is all ready, too! Guess I should have checked my timing better - live and learn!

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So I was sitting outside the other day while the olders bounced on the trampoline and the littles played in the water (baby was on my lap) and I discovered why you see Southern ladies with fans. It has nothing to do with keeping cool - really doesn't help much to move the hot, humid air. The reason they have fans is to keep the gnats out of their faces!!! I don't own a fan, so I grabbed the nearest thing - a frisbee - to keep the pesky bugs away. If you have never experienced the fearless things, you cannot imagine how awful it is! They fly into your eyes, hair, ears, and every other part of your face! They swarm around your head - don't dare to look up! Now I know God created them for a purpose, but don't you think they should just stick to that purpose and leave us humans alone???

The other day (okay, it wasn't day - it was very early morning during a feeding) I was thinking about how dh and I want to lose weight. I started thinking about the reasons people should lose weight. We want to be healthier, more able to do things, look better, etc. While pondering this, I began to consider how our house is much the same. It needs to lose weight as well. Things have gotten very cluttered and we just have too much stuff. We spend all our time cleaning up and putting away. It is unhealthy because the dust settles on everything. We can't do the things we want because we are too busy keeping up. The house would look much better with less in it. God loves order, so our house should have order, too. We should not be slaves to our stuff. We can't hear God if there is chaos! Therefore, we are putting our house on a diet. This is a drastic, no mercy diet. I am getting rid of at least half of the stuff in our house. We will give some to the local thrift store and sell some. If we make some money off the stuff we will put it aside for our larger van. The children are going to help with this, too.

Today we started the diet by cleaning out all the clothing we had stockpiled. I had the children bring up all the stored clothing (picture to come soon). We went through it and got rid of lots. We saved things that tend to cost more to replace (remember, we can pass clothes down). These are items like dresses (hard to find the longer, modest ones), sweatshirts, long sleeve t's and pants for the boys. We separated the big pile into girl and boy clothes. Then we categorized by size. What a job! But it is great to have much less. Not sure what we will tackle tomorrow - maybe the playroom??? Stay tuned...

Oh, and as for dh and I losing weight? Eating healthier and exercising will take care of us (I don't do diets). Dh has been riding his bike to work - a little over 12 miles each way. The children and I will be going walking.

Does your house need to lose a little weight? Look around and see if there are some pudges that could use reducing!!

Have a blessed day!

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Here is a picture of the cake I made for dd (3). It turned out pretty good, considering it is the first doll cake I have ever made. It is all pink because dd loves pink - not because I can't use other colors .

I hope you are having a blessed day!

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This little girl still hasn't arrived? The doctor can't.

I had an ultrasound today to check on fluid levels - all was well. The non-stress test came out well, too. The doctor estimates her weight at 8 lbs 13 oz right now. She needs to be born soon. I have a c-section scheduled for Friday the 13th, but hopefully baby will arrive VBAC before that.

We had strong storms today and our driveway washed out a bit. The ditch became a small creek and we had a lot of water flowing all over our little plot of land. We have not had rain like this since we moved in, so it was quite interesting. I will try to put up some pictures in the next couple days - it really was amazing to see.

Tomorrow is our last day of school for the week (we are still a few weeks shy of finishing the year). It is a favorite day because everyone gets to do art!

Have a blessed evening and weekend.

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Yes, we are still waiting on this precious baby girl! She has decided she likes it where she is. I am doing as much walking as I can, etc., but I know it is not in my hands now. She will arrive at the moment the Lord wants her to. What a wonderful feeling of freedom! This is not to say that I am not frustrated and impatient now - I am. But, it is not about ME!

We have a neighbor who is moving and last night he came over and offered us their trampoline - complete with safety netting. The answer here? A resounding YES! So now we have a trampoline. The olders are thrilled. Hmmm...I wonder how funny a 40+ week pregnant Mom would look bouncing on a trampoline??

Have a blessed day!!

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We are still waiting for the arrival of this little bundle of joy. Things look to be progressing, though, and hopefully we will be holding her very soon. I am so glad the doctor is willing to try for the VBAC - it is a great relief to me.

Today is a school day, so we wll be busy with our normal subjects as well as art (a favorite around here). We have no special Memorial Day plans - we don't usually travel over the holiday weekend anyway.

I hope you have a very blessed day!

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Tomorrow is my 40th birthday! I know that many people have a problem with turning 40, but it doesn't bother me at all. I don't feel like I'm old - maybe because of the littles running around??

We don't have any special plans - I don't make a big deal about my birthdays. I may have dd12 make a cake - she enjoys doing that and it counts toward Home Ec. The day will go on as normal, though. Laundry does not wait for Mom's birthday!!!

I pray you have a blessed day today!

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Whew, it has been a while since I wrote anything! We have been very busy around here. We used last weekend to start putting in the garden. We are not even close to finished, but at least we have some things started.

I am 37 weeks along now and anxiously awaiting the arrival of this wonderful dd. I know that she will arrive just when God has it planned - this makes waiting so much easier!!

Since it is Mother's Day weekend, dh is delivering flowers for the flower shop. He works with the man who owns it with his wife (who runs it) and he delivers on Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. He enjoys the change in routine.

Did you hear??? The Duggar Family is expecting blessing #18!! Congratulations to this wonderful family. Read all about it at http://www.duggarfamily.com.

I hope you have a blessed weekend.

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Today is sunny and warm - perfect for some outside play. The children are out front with Daddy having a great time playing together. The littles are playing in mud puddles (what could be better) and the olders are searching for something (not sure what). It fills my heart with joy to hear them playing so happily!

I have the meatloaf (okay - 2) in the oven and I am just about to prepare the rest of dinner. The house smells wonderful! DD12 made jello for dessert - it will be very refreshing. Shortly the littles will come in and bathe all the mud away. My cd of instrumental hymns is playing in the background and there is such a feeling of peace at our house.

I pray you have a blessed evening.

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So, the official start of our week is tomorrow. My dear husband works Tuesday through Saturday, so our weekend consists of Sunday and Monday. Yes, we get strange looks when we tell people we have school on Saturday - but it works for us.

School will be the priority tomorrow. We will be starting to use Sequential Spelling. I have all 7 books, but hope to speed through the first ones with the older 2. We should also finish our Nutrition unit this week. We have all learned a lot from this - especially me.

I will be tackling laundry just about every day - at least 1-2 loads. I use my homemade soap in my front-loading machine. It works great and given that I am allergic to every brand of detergent I have tried, I will continue to use it. Here is the recipe I use:                                                                                                                 1 box washing soda, 1 box Borax, 1 grated bar Fels Naptha soap. Mix all together. Use 2 tbsp per load. This usually lasts me 4-6 months. I also add 1/4 c baking soda and 1/4 c white vinegar to every load. This acts as a softener (again, I am allergic to fabric softeners - plus the smell of them overwhelms me!)

I have started working on our meal plan for the next month. This one is a little tougher, because it needs to be very flexible. We have no idea when the baby will arrive, so some meals need to be set for preparing by dd12 (who is capable of just about any dish). Since shopping day isn't until the 9th, I have a little bit of time (barring the early birth of the baby).

I was so blessed today to watch dd12 making orange juice with dd2 and ds1 - it was so cute!! They had a wonderful time and I know the littles felt very special to be working with big sis!! Have a blessed evening.

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