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!
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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!  ;-)

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.  ;-)

• Bible ~ All 3 are doing Kay Arthur's How to Study the Bible ~ for kids to begin with. 
• Math ~ Math-u-See's Geometry for Bri, Pre-Alg for Sis and Zeta for Con
  
• Science ~ Apologia's General Science for Sis, Biology for Bri and Creation Science Botany for Con
• Grammar ~ Our Mother's Tongue
• Writing ~ IEW American History Vol. 1
• History ~ Beautiful Feet Early American and World History (literature-based) and American Heritage Series DVD's
• Basic Maps and Geography ~
• Literature ~ a broad look and discussion of different types of literature (Shakespeare, short plays, songs, classics, etc.)
  
• Art and Music Appreciation ~ I have designed a schedule using the Usborne Book of Art  the Usborne Book of Art Skills and the Usborne Introduction to Music. One 2-hour class each week.
  
• Keyboarding ~ Mavis Beacon CD-Rom
• Guitar Lessons

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.”

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.

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.  :-)