Its funny, I hate third trimester in case you've not figured this out yet. But right now I'm sitting here thinking that I'd rather have my old third trimester complaints back after what this past week has given us.
About 10 days ago I commented to my husband that I needed to go to the eye doctor as soon as Isaiah is born because my vision in my right eye was blurring up on and off all day and that eye would twitch too. I also started to have an increase in frequency and length of dizzy spells, and an on and off headache. Now, if you know me then you know I am prone to migraines, which are coupled with a visual effect where one eye droops in the socket and twitches, and I run with low blood pressure, low sugar, and am mildly anemic so I also have dizzy spells for a few seconds when I get up or move too quickly. So I don't typically notice stuff like this unless it is a big change from my normal pattern, and I never think to mention it to medical staff outside of initial medical history because it really ISN'T a symptom for me 99% of the time.
Well, Sunday was that 1% that my normal became my symptom.
I woke up feeling kind of off on Saturday, so I chose to rest and lay around the weekend as much as possible (including during a visit to take the kids to visit Scott's mom Saturday afternoon for a few hours, we were going to go to church afterward but opted not to as I wasn't feeling good). Sunday brought a headache that would NOT go away without Tylenol (took the edge off it) and I fell asleep for a good 4 hours or so and my family had trouble waking me up. I took a bath that evening, as I was feeling dizzy to the point that I worried I may fall in a shower, and ended up vomiting in the tub just as I was finishing up my bath because of the dizziness, light reflecting off the water, and the water made the dizziness visually harder to process. So I did what any responsible pregnant woman would do. I made a call to the after hours line to talk to the on-call OB in my midwife's practice. He was a wonderful man by the way, and listened carefully to my description of symptoms and normal and my concerns. He pretty much agreed that I needed to go up to the hospital to get checked out, which I was getting dressed and planning to go in even without his order. I didn't feel right, something was wrong.
My blood pressure was high, and labs showed low potassium and a few other things that aren't too great. However, urine test showed no protein, and my blood pressure wasn't *too* far above the normal range so they let me go home with a couple prescriptions for my reflux (to try and control it better because I'm still throwing up pretty much nonstop) and a potassium supplement.
Fast forward to this morning at 9am when I saw the midwife. I peed in a cup and while washing my hands got hit with another dizzy spell. Get back to the exam room and the nurse said I looked paler than when I went in, so she rechecked my blood pressure. Sure enough, it was 149/91 which isn't *too* terribly high but still high enough for concern in third trimester. Erica, my midwife, looked over my labs from the hospital and the urine test they did in office, and came in not looking happy at ALL. I had to do a third blood pressure check, which came in at 125/79, and was told lay down, rest, do as little as possible, take my medication that I was given at the hospital, and if I'm not feeling any better in 2-3 days I am to call her and then go in to labor and delivery for more testing. *sigh* And yes, my office pee test showed that I am indeed spilling protein into my urine, which is a BAD sign.
She's trying to AVOID diagnosing me with high blood pressure at this point, in case you can't tell. And as for me, well I'm just trying to keep my blood pressure down in the normal range for most people (we won't aim for MY normal, my normal is in the 90/60 range). I know all the risks and what we're looking at here as possible problems, and am doing everything I can to avoid that now.
I've already decided that if I end up in the hospital with this pregnancy for blood pressure issues, we're getting my tubes tied. I'm NOT doing this again, I have now 5 beautiful children to think of first and to have a complicated pregnancy with a 6th child is not something that I feel is worth the risks to my family. We may have some difficult decisions to make this next few days and weeks, depending on my blood pressure, and I do have to put my children first here. I would love more children, but honestly if we have to stop then that is fine because if we are meant to have more God will either resolve these issues I'm having now or He will provide us with the means to adopt later.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
random musing
I thought I was expecting a male human baby....... Instead it feels like I have either an alien or an octopus growing in there. Or, maybe an octopus and an alien mated and then the resulting offspring was implanted in me. I have a power kicker, he LOVES to move around and make my entire belly shake. Sometimes it is adorable and fun to watch and feel, but after a bit it starts to become painful for me with every movement. Ahhh but it is only another 12 weeks or so that I have to deal with this discomfort, and it is a sign that he's got a good strong body. Yes, that's it. I need to see the blessing of a healthy baby instead of focusing on the fact that it can be physically painful when he moves around.
and we have a crib!
Yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine. She had offered her daughter's crib to us several months ago, once she got her little girl into a regular bed. Well, she was taking apart the crib and had it ready for us to pick up, and a few other things we were welcome to if we wanted them. So I arranged for us to go over last night, meeting Scott at her apartment, so we could pick the stuff up. I now have a crib and mattress for Isaiah, and today the girls and I will start getting things ready in my bedroom for Scott to move furniture around to make room for the crib and baby stuff. Once we get all that done, Isaiah will have a place to sleep at least. We just need more clothes and some diapers now, and we'll have all the basics we need for a newborn. Just a small step, but it is a forward one at least.
Monday, December 12, 2011
dressing a bunch of kids for less
I thought I'd share a few thoughts on this topic. I know it is one that gets a lot of people scratching their heads, especially if you are looking at a family with several children of one gender. Clothes aren't cheap, especially if you want good quality. And when you have four daughters with very different tastes in colors, styles, and even different body shapes, you can quickly go broke trying to work with it all.
If you have ventured into the girls' clothing department, you will see a variety of styles and looks. Skinny jeans, boot-cut pants, and many others. Low rise, ultra low rise, classic high rise. Stretchy and relaxed fits. And let's not get into sizing. Along with numbered sizing in the girls' deparment, you have slim, regular, and plus size, with or without adjustable waistbands to make them skinnier if needed and/or desired. There are so many options it can confuse anyone who doesn't have some idea of what they are doing before they go to the store. Shirts, skirts, and dresses have the same issue. Asymmetrical cuts, peasant style tops, spaghetti straps, one shoulder or two, empire waists, baydoll cuts. Embellishments, silk-screen prints, embroidery. One can QUICKLY lose themselves in a sea of fashion just walking into the girls' department at any department store. I should know, I've even become overwhelmed.
Often, fashions in department stores don't even fit our rules for modesty and appropriate attire for the ages of our daughters. I'm not a fan of skinny jeans and jeggings, especially with the way the local teen girls pour themselves into these pants. We have a rule that shirts must cover stomachs when both arms are lifted above the girl's head, so that eliminates a good number of styles that are meant to skim the waistband of their jeans. I also am not a fan of clingier clothing, especially as Missa has started developing a figure at the young age of 8 1/2. These guidelines are fairly conservative in general, but also liberal at the same time. I know families who take this further by not allowing tops with lace, designs, or certain necklines (we have rules on the neckline as well, but the girls also know how to layer a camisole under low-cut tops). We also aren't too big on 2 piece swim suits, but have come to accept that this just isn't possible so we try to stick to tank-style swimwear with the swim skirt bottoms to increase coverage a bit. Even I wear a tankini with skirt bottom, but I think I have fat thighs and that makes me feel better about how I look in a bikini.
So, how does one find conservative attire for young ladies? Well, many of the more upscale stores in Columbus have appropriate clothing, or we can purchase some things online. I have trouble sometimes with finding acceptable stuff in local department stores. But going to the upscale stores can break our budget with four girls to clothe, even with the increase in quality that usually makes these items more durable and more likely to hold up to the rough and tumble of the girls so that they actually can pass clothes down to younger sisters. So, our options are limited a bit. I can either compromise on my general guidelines for how they dress and allow them trashier clothing, or I can shop secondhand at thrift stores. I choose to go with thrift stores.
My husband works near a VERY large Salvation Army thrift store, and once in a while will go there to get the girls jumpers, dresses, and pants. Tonight was one of those shopping nights. He got 5 pairs of jeans, 2 jumpers, a doll, and a lunch bag with thermos (for his lunches) for $26 there tonight. Our goal was pants for the oldest 2 girls, as Missa has recently had a bit of a figure development spurt and outgrew most of her slim fit jeans in the waist (and torn out her gym pants in a couple of inappropriate places). Three of those jeans are just for her, and the other two are for Liddy. One jumper for each of the two, and they now have a bare bones starting wardrobe for winter that I can add to a little at a time. Liddy has inhereted some jeans that Missa no longer can fit into, so she's pretty much taken care of, but Missa can wear these few items while I pick up a pair of quality jeans every paycheck until we get her enough to really work well. Granted, the thrift store jeans won't likely last more than a few months before she tears them out in a couple specific spots, but I should be able to replace them in that time with some jeans from Old Navy or Gap easily enough. And I have enough left over from Scott's shopping trip tonight that I can go to the thrift stores here locally over the weekend to find some shirts for her, and possibly pick up a couple new undergarments that she now needs.
I plan to do the same thing with Isaiah's wardrobe. I have a few new things, but the bulk of his infant clothing will likely come from thrift stores and other similar sources. Although, I did manage to get an adorable little 0-3 month size camo zip-up hooded sweatshirt for under $4 brand new. I am excited about that purchase, and look forward to getting to the thrift store for the rest of his clothes that he'll need.
If you have ventured into the girls' clothing department, you will see a variety of styles and looks. Skinny jeans, boot-cut pants, and many others. Low rise, ultra low rise, classic high rise. Stretchy and relaxed fits. And let's not get into sizing. Along with numbered sizing in the girls' deparment, you have slim, regular, and plus size, with or without adjustable waistbands to make them skinnier if needed and/or desired. There are so many options it can confuse anyone who doesn't have some idea of what they are doing before they go to the store. Shirts, skirts, and dresses have the same issue. Asymmetrical cuts, peasant style tops, spaghetti straps, one shoulder or two, empire waists, baydoll cuts. Embellishments, silk-screen prints, embroidery. One can QUICKLY lose themselves in a sea of fashion just walking into the girls' department at any department store. I should know, I've even become overwhelmed.
Often, fashions in department stores don't even fit our rules for modesty and appropriate attire for the ages of our daughters. I'm not a fan of skinny jeans and jeggings, especially with the way the local teen girls pour themselves into these pants. We have a rule that shirts must cover stomachs when both arms are lifted above the girl's head, so that eliminates a good number of styles that are meant to skim the waistband of their jeans. I also am not a fan of clingier clothing, especially as Missa has started developing a figure at the young age of 8 1/2. These guidelines are fairly conservative in general, but also liberal at the same time. I know families who take this further by not allowing tops with lace, designs, or certain necklines (we have rules on the neckline as well, but the girls also know how to layer a camisole under low-cut tops). We also aren't too big on 2 piece swim suits, but have come to accept that this just isn't possible so we try to stick to tank-style swimwear with the swim skirt bottoms to increase coverage a bit. Even I wear a tankini with skirt bottom, but I think I have fat thighs and that makes me feel better about how I look in a bikini.
So, how does one find conservative attire for young ladies? Well, many of the more upscale stores in Columbus have appropriate clothing, or we can purchase some things online. I have trouble sometimes with finding acceptable stuff in local department stores. But going to the upscale stores can break our budget with four girls to clothe, even with the increase in quality that usually makes these items more durable and more likely to hold up to the rough and tumble of the girls so that they actually can pass clothes down to younger sisters. So, our options are limited a bit. I can either compromise on my general guidelines for how they dress and allow them trashier clothing, or I can shop secondhand at thrift stores. I choose to go with thrift stores.
My husband works near a VERY large Salvation Army thrift store, and once in a while will go there to get the girls jumpers, dresses, and pants. Tonight was one of those shopping nights. He got 5 pairs of jeans, 2 jumpers, a doll, and a lunch bag with thermos (for his lunches) for $26 there tonight. Our goal was pants for the oldest 2 girls, as Missa has recently had a bit of a figure development spurt and outgrew most of her slim fit jeans in the waist (and torn out her gym pants in a couple of inappropriate places). Three of those jeans are just for her, and the other two are for Liddy. One jumper for each of the two, and they now have a bare bones starting wardrobe for winter that I can add to a little at a time. Liddy has inhereted some jeans that Missa no longer can fit into, so she's pretty much taken care of, but Missa can wear these few items while I pick up a pair of quality jeans every paycheck until we get her enough to really work well. Granted, the thrift store jeans won't likely last more than a few months before she tears them out in a couple specific spots, but I should be able to replace them in that time with some jeans from Old Navy or Gap easily enough. And I have enough left over from Scott's shopping trip tonight that I can go to the thrift stores here locally over the weekend to find some shirts for her, and possibly pick up a couple new undergarments that she now needs.
I plan to do the same thing with Isaiah's wardrobe. I have a few new things, but the bulk of his infant clothing will likely come from thrift stores and other similar sources. Although, I did manage to get an adorable little 0-3 month size camo zip-up hooded sweatshirt for under $4 brand new. I am excited about that purchase, and look forward to getting to the thrift store for the rest of his clothes that he'll need.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
dishonesty and natural consequences
Lately, dishonesty has been a big issue here in my home. We've had kids sneaking around, getting into craft supplies and food items and using/eating them up without telling us. Now, I don't restrict these items too much, but I do require that they ask beforehand so that I can at least keep tabs on what we've got available. Its a practical thing here, we are on a budget and I carefully plan meals and activities for the family. If something is eaten and I'm not told, then I cannot adapt my menu accordingly. Same with a craft or activity, if someone takes off with the glitter glue and uses it up without telling me they are using it then I may plan a craft using it and then not have something for them to do during that craft time because I'm missing supplies. This is just basic common sense I think, yet the girls are having difficulty with remembering this one rule that we have.
It is very rare that I will say no to something, and that is usually because what they want is either out of our normal budget (requiring us to save up for it or specially budget for just enough with no extra, like certain fresh fruits that may be out of season) or it is not an item they need to eat (seriously, who sits and eats a stick of butter or a package of cream cheese or a boxed cake mix? yuck!). I don't think I'm being unrealistic here, just ask so that I know what you are taking and I can see what's left when you are done. I do 95% of my discipline for breaking this one rule, and usually in conjunction with lying about it afterward. The other 5% of discipline is for unkind words and actions, so obviously I'm doing something right if I'm not frequently breaking up fist fights or correcting unkind words.
So back to the taking things without asking first and dishonesty afterward issue. I am trying to come up with a series of good natural consequences for not asking before they help themselves, and for a series of consequences for when they try to cover it up with lying. The current offense involves Liddy and a craft kit that I had purchased. It is just a simple sun catcher painting kit, it has 12 sun catchers that the girls paint and then they can hang up. I bought this a long time ago and hid it on a shelf, then promptly forgot about it until Scott found it on Sunday while he cleaned up those shelves. I've had it at least a year and a half I think. Anyway, I had this great idea for it. Since we don't have any ornaments for the tree (every year we buy the shatterproof bulbs, and every year the kids manage to break every single one) this year we are doing homemade ornaments. I thought, in a moment of brilliance, that maybe the girls would like to spend a Saturday with daddy in the kitchen with its wood laminate floor (read: EASY TO CLEAN UP MESSES) painting sun catchers while I am out grocery shopping and running errands this upcoming weekend. He agreed that it sounded like something he could manage on his own, and that it would be a great way to distract the girls while I leave to go shopping (there's always a fit from at least one kid because she thinks she must go EVERYWHERE with me and she never lets me out of her sight, we are working on this and she's starting to get better about it though). Well, apparently Liddy decided that she didn't have to wait, so yesterday she snuck into our room, got it out, and started painting one of the sun catchers. She spilled all the purple paint on her pants and managed to get the teddy bear one she was working on half finished before she heard us and hustled to put the stuff back in the box, not in the spot Scott put it, and ran to hide the sun catcher under her bed. I discovered the damaged kit this morning when I went to get the box of Christmas cards out to mail off another one to a person who had sent us one. She first lied about it, and then when I threatened to put the tree up and no Christmas at all she came clean and then went to get the one she had painted and the pants she had spilled paint on to give to me.
Natural consequence for her actions? Well, since the timing coincides with payday weekend, I can go purchase some paint to replace what she spilled (which I need to buy all colors anyway as those kits don't come with enough paint, nor enough brushes for more than one kid). So her sisters still get to do the craft without much issue. However, I'm debating if she should be allowed to participate in the activity with her sisters because she decided that she did not need to wait and went sneaking off to do it herself. I am giving her an opportunity to show us that she has some self control to earn the ability to do the activity this weekend. So far, she's not very receptive to this, as it requires her to actually DO her chores instead of whining until one of her sisters does them for her to shut her up. She is actually quite intelligent and a good planner when it comes to getting out of doing her chores, I'm rather impressed by it at times (but mostly I'm annoyed and she ends up in trouble for it, giving me most of the 5% of discipline that isn't for not asking before they take stuff and lying about it). We have solved many of our past discipline issues through similar natural consequences methods, including the girls' regularly having a chronic case of disrespect and the gimme's whenever I took them shopping (that stopped after I picked up the little two and my purse and walked straight out of the store with the oldest 2 hanging off me and all 4 screaming bloody murder because I left without buying the treat they were going to get that trip, then followed it up with a few months of not taking them out at all except to doctor appointments and other REQUIRED things with no field trips or shopping trips at all), so I would like to implement a natural consequence method for this case. I had a child recently eat half a stick of butter (go ahead and gag, I can wait) and as a result, I ran out of butter and had to make their macaroni and cheese without it one day. The only thing that makes cheapo store-brand generic mac and cheese taste tolerable is the butter in it, so their lunch that day was NOT something they enjoyed and they ate just enough to not starve until dinner that night. We are slowly making progress on the food-eating aspect of this, but still have a long way to go.
It is very rare that I will say no to something, and that is usually because what they want is either out of our normal budget (requiring us to save up for it or specially budget for just enough with no extra, like certain fresh fruits that may be out of season) or it is not an item they need to eat (seriously, who sits and eats a stick of butter or a package of cream cheese or a boxed cake mix? yuck!). I don't think I'm being unrealistic here, just ask so that I know what you are taking and I can see what's left when you are done. I do 95% of my discipline for breaking this one rule, and usually in conjunction with lying about it afterward. The other 5% of discipline is for unkind words and actions, so obviously I'm doing something right if I'm not frequently breaking up fist fights or correcting unkind words.
So back to the taking things without asking first and dishonesty afterward issue. I am trying to come up with a series of good natural consequences for not asking before they help themselves, and for a series of consequences for when they try to cover it up with lying. The current offense involves Liddy and a craft kit that I had purchased. It is just a simple sun catcher painting kit, it has 12 sun catchers that the girls paint and then they can hang up. I bought this a long time ago and hid it on a shelf, then promptly forgot about it until Scott found it on Sunday while he cleaned up those shelves. I've had it at least a year and a half I think. Anyway, I had this great idea for it. Since we don't have any ornaments for the tree (every year we buy the shatterproof bulbs, and every year the kids manage to break every single one) this year we are doing homemade ornaments. I thought, in a moment of brilliance, that maybe the girls would like to spend a Saturday with daddy in the kitchen with its wood laminate floor (read: EASY TO CLEAN UP MESSES) painting sun catchers while I am out grocery shopping and running errands this upcoming weekend. He agreed that it sounded like something he could manage on his own, and that it would be a great way to distract the girls while I leave to go shopping (there's always a fit from at least one kid because she thinks she must go EVERYWHERE with me and she never lets me out of her sight, we are working on this and she's starting to get better about it though). Well, apparently Liddy decided that she didn't have to wait, so yesterday she snuck into our room, got it out, and started painting one of the sun catchers. She spilled all the purple paint on her pants and managed to get the teddy bear one she was working on half finished before she heard us and hustled to put the stuff back in the box, not in the spot Scott put it, and ran to hide the sun catcher under her bed. I discovered the damaged kit this morning when I went to get the box of Christmas cards out to mail off another one to a person who had sent us one. She first lied about it, and then when I threatened to put the tree up and no Christmas at all she came clean and then went to get the one she had painted and the pants she had spilled paint on to give to me.
Natural consequence for her actions? Well, since the timing coincides with payday weekend, I can go purchase some paint to replace what she spilled (which I need to buy all colors anyway as those kits don't come with enough paint, nor enough brushes for more than one kid). So her sisters still get to do the craft without much issue. However, I'm debating if she should be allowed to participate in the activity with her sisters because she decided that she did not need to wait and went sneaking off to do it herself. I am giving her an opportunity to show us that she has some self control to earn the ability to do the activity this weekend. So far, she's not very receptive to this, as it requires her to actually DO her chores instead of whining until one of her sisters does them for her to shut her up. She is actually quite intelligent and a good planner when it comes to getting out of doing her chores, I'm rather impressed by it at times (but mostly I'm annoyed and she ends up in trouble for it, giving me most of the 5% of discipline that isn't for not asking before they take stuff and lying about it). We have solved many of our past discipline issues through similar natural consequences methods, including the girls' regularly having a chronic case of disrespect and the gimme's whenever I took them shopping (that stopped after I picked up the little two and my purse and walked straight out of the store with the oldest 2 hanging off me and all 4 screaming bloody murder because I left without buying the treat they were going to get that trip, then followed it up with a few months of not taking them out at all except to doctor appointments and other REQUIRED things with no field trips or shopping trips at all), so I would like to implement a natural consequence method for this case. I had a child recently eat half a stick of butter (go ahead and gag, I can wait) and as a result, I ran out of butter and had to make their macaroni and cheese without it one day. The only thing that makes cheapo store-brand generic mac and cheese taste tolerable is the butter in it, so their lunch that day was NOT something they enjoyed and they ate just enough to not starve until dinner that night. We are slowly making progress on the food-eating aspect of this, but still have a long way to go.
Saturday, December 03, 2011
pregnancy- coming up on 3rd trimester
So, on Monday I will be 27 weeks pregnant. Technically, this is that border between 2nd and 3rd trimester. However, the discomforts are starting now. I am NEVER a happy pregnant woman, and my favorite part of pregnancy quite honestly has always been when I go into labor. I have an irritable uterus, so I start dilating early and have contractions. My babies like to sit in a bad position and cause me all kinds of fun pains shooting down my legs and through my hip and backside. I feel like I'm sitting on a bowling ball pretty much all the time, and it feels like my stomach is going to tear open at any moment. Yes, I do *not* take kindly to third trimester at all. I know that there are those who see this time as a blessing, but honestly I see it as something to tolerate until I can have my sweet baby in my arms finally. Yes, pregnancy is a miracle, I do see that, and it is a special gift, however its not one I particularly enjoy most of the time.
So, if I'm not very good at updating my blog for the next few months, know that it is purely because I'm grumpy and starting to get fed up with the discomforts I get to enjoy for the next 13 weeks or so until I deliver. I'll try to post about what the kids and I are doing with lessons, and be positive about the pregnancy right now, but really I am not posting much for a while. After all, if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Am I right?
So, here's a happy little blip for the pregnancy. We have officially purchased baby Isaiah's outfit that he will wear home. I even have a picture to share.
I still need to add socks and a hat to it, but it is adorable, don't you think? We are anticipating that he will be around 8 1/2 to 9lbs at birth, so we are completely skipping all newborn sized clothing. This one we went straight into Carter's size 3 month clothing, I got the outfit on sale for $12 and the little soft crib shoes for $4. My mom says that she got some socks and newborn mittens that match it, and will send those up with the Christmas gifts this year, so I just need a hat and blanket really to complete the outfit. I sure hope that ultrasound was right since we now have the official homecoming outfit. Next I plan to install the car seat this weekend, before I get too big an uncomfortable to do it easily AND before the winter weather starts so that I know we are covered at least (if we don't buy an infant seat between now and birth, that is! Then we'll get the van into the garage and Scott will install it instead for me) and we have some cleaning and rearranging to do in our bedroom to make room for the little guy.
So, if I'm not very good at updating my blog for the next few months, know that it is purely because I'm grumpy and starting to get fed up with the discomforts I get to enjoy for the next 13 weeks or so until I deliver. I'll try to post about what the kids and I are doing with lessons, and be positive about the pregnancy right now, but really I am not posting much for a while. After all, if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Am I right?
So, here's a happy little blip for the pregnancy. We have officially purchased baby Isaiah's outfit that he will wear home. I even have a picture to share.
I still need to add socks and a hat to it, but it is adorable, don't you think? We are anticipating that he will be around 8 1/2 to 9lbs at birth, so we are completely skipping all newborn sized clothing. This one we went straight into Carter's size 3 month clothing, I got the outfit on sale for $12 and the little soft crib shoes for $4. My mom says that she got some socks and newborn mittens that match it, and will send those up with the Christmas gifts this year, so I just need a hat and blanket really to complete the outfit. I sure hope that ultrasound was right since we now have the official homecoming outfit. Next I plan to install the car seat this weekend, before I get too big an uncomfortable to do it easily AND before the winter weather starts so that I know we are covered at least (if we don't buy an infant seat between now and birth, that is! Then we'll get the van into the garage and Scott will install it instead for me) and we have some cleaning and rearranging to do in our bedroom to make room for the little guy.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Prayer request for a friend
I don't do this kind of post here, but I'm going to today. I'm a little behind in reading the blogs I follow, and I feel bad for not keeping up better with some. Especially the one that I'm about to link with here. I know I don't have much of a following for this blog, but I fully believe in ripples spreading and hope that this happens a bit here.
A dear fellow homeschooling mom of 6 is expecting baby #7, a little boy. She's had complications because her sweet boy has Spina Bifida, and as a way of processing she has started a blog to write about her journey through this. Please keep her family in your prayers, especially for comfort and peace through the times they are facing in the very near future. Here is a link to her latest post on the blog she's started just for this baby boy and their journey.
http://masonsbjournal.blogspot.com/2011/11/dumb-ob-and-dreaded-hydrocephalus.html
Also, if you can keep my friend Shauna and her little girl, Charlie, in your prayers as they walk through some decisions regarding decisions she has to make about her little girl's care. I can't imagine how difficult this decision must be for her, and I pray that she can find calm and peace through her own decision-making process as well.
Both of these women inspire me, and I look to them regularly for inspiration when my own struggles start getting me down. They are incredible women, with a great deal of strength to walk through their lives and the struggles they both face. I pray for them both daily, and now they need more prayer from others. Please, take a moment to lift both these lovely ladies up to our Lord for strength, knowledge, healing, comfort, and support in their times of need.
A dear fellow homeschooling mom of 6 is expecting baby #7, a little boy. She's had complications because her sweet boy has Spina Bifida, and as a way of processing she has started a blog to write about her journey through this. Please keep her family in your prayers, especially for comfort and peace through the times they are facing in the very near future. Here is a link to her latest post on the blog she's started just for this baby boy and their journey.
http://masonsbjournal.blogspot.com/2011/11/dumb-ob-and-dreaded-hydrocephalus.html
Also, if you can keep my friend Shauna and her little girl, Charlie, in your prayers as they walk through some decisions regarding decisions she has to make about her little girl's care. I can't imagine how difficult this decision must be for her, and I pray that she can find calm and peace through her own decision-making process as well.
Both of these women inspire me, and I look to them regularly for inspiration when my own struggles start getting me down. They are incredible women, with a great deal of strength to walk through their lives and the struggles they both face. I pray for them both daily, and now they need more prayer from others. Please, take a moment to lift both these lovely ladies up to our Lord for strength, knowledge, healing, comfort, and support in their times of need.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Thanksgiving here
We had our dinner yesterday, as did many families across the country. I personally love to cook, so I make holiday meals a rather large affair. I tend to cook in large quantities normally, as I'm feeding a family of soon to be 7 and we all have big appetites and high metabolisms, so I have some pretty big pans hanging around for mealtimes.
This year, we had invited a few friends and relatives over to join us, but as usual nobody wanted to be bothered to celebrate with us so we had our meal just the 6 of us. I still cooked for 30 diners, however, to make sure I had some leftovers for simpler suppers this week. I had both a turkey AND a ham, 2 different types of stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, about 60 dinner rolls, candied sweet potatoes, candied carrots, my stand mixer bowl FILLED with mashed potatoes, and 2 pies with whipped cream. I'm sure I missed a few things that were on our menu, I cooked a LOT of food. I have left a bit of potatoes, some cranberry sauce, about half the meat, and a pie. Oh, and some of the rolls of course, although they may be almost gone now with the kids snacking on them all day (I made 3 loaves of bread dough into rolls, filled my steam table pan).
Overall, it was a nice quiet day and I enjoyed cooking. I started at 9am by making the pies, and just kept up a nice leisurely pace with it and we ate at about 5pm. I didn't run around crazy with cooking, the kids helped with different parts of the meal, and we had a lot of fun together as a family. The kids made hand turkeys (that's a simple activity, they trace the outline of an open hand on paper and then decorate it with the thumb as the turkey's head, fingers as his tail feathers, add legs and wings, then decorate a background) and we watched the Macy's parade on tv and other Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed shows and movies. Scott took Jojo to the store while I was baking the pies to pick up the ham that he insisted on, which I thought was funny that he wanted one that badly on top of the other food I made. It was a nice day, and a wonderful opportunity for us to be together as a family. I treasure every opportunity to go nuts in the kitchen to make an amazing meal for my family, and spend the day just quietly enjoying our day and vegging out like we did yesterday. Normally my family is so busy with doctor appointments, Scott working, homeschool lessons, shopping trips, errands, housework, and all that other stuff that we don't really take much time to spend together like that. I do believe its time for us to make it more of a priority to spend time quietly enjoying ourselves as a family, not rushing around and doing everything that needs done with this life in the fast lane.
This year, we had invited a few friends and relatives over to join us, but as usual nobody wanted to be bothered to celebrate with us so we had our meal just the 6 of us. I still cooked for 30 diners, however, to make sure I had some leftovers for simpler suppers this week. I had both a turkey AND a ham, 2 different types of stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, about 60 dinner rolls, candied sweet potatoes, candied carrots, my stand mixer bowl FILLED with mashed potatoes, and 2 pies with whipped cream. I'm sure I missed a few things that were on our menu, I cooked a LOT of food. I have left a bit of potatoes, some cranberry sauce, about half the meat, and a pie. Oh, and some of the rolls of course, although they may be almost gone now with the kids snacking on them all day (I made 3 loaves of bread dough into rolls, filled my steam table pan).
Overall, it was a nice quiet day and I enjoyed cooking. I started at 9am by making the pies, and just kept up a nice leisurely pace with it and we ate at about 5pm. I didn't run around crazy with cooking, the kids helped with different parts of the meal, and we had a lot of fun together as a family. The kids made hand turkeys (that's a simple activity, they trace the outline of an open hand on paper and then decorate it with the thumb as the turkey's head, fingers as his tail feathers, add legs and wings, then decorate a background) and we watched the Macy's parade on tv and other Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed shows and movies. Scott took Jojo to the store while I was baking the pies to pick up the ham that he insisted on, which I thought was funny that he wanted one that badly on top of the other food I made. It was a nice day, and a wonderful opportunity for us to be together as a family. I treasure every opportunity to go nuts in the kitchen to make an amazing meal for my family, and spend the day just quietly enjoying our day and vegging out like we did yesterday. Normally my family is so busy with doctor appointments, Scott working, homeschool lessons, shopping trips, errands, housework, and all that other stuff that we don't really take much time to spend together like that. I do believe its time for us to make it more of a priority to spend time quietly enjoying ourselves as a family, not rushing around and doing everything that needs done with this life in the fast lane.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
defeating the mom guilt
I'm sure that anyone who has a child who has differences struggles with this from time to time. Right now, I am struggling with it. I have a child with *mild* health problems, and another with learning challenges. It has been an interesting month for me here so far, with Missa trying to get out of doing her math and reading because it is difficult with her dyslexia, and then last week Kimi's breathing started acting up on us.
With Missa and her differences, we've understandably had to figure out EVERYTHING for schooling so that she could learn effectively without having too many issues with retaining the material. Traditional curricula doesn't always work with her, and I've had to search for just the right fit in each subject or come up with something on my own that will work with her. Thankfully, her sisters are all more typical learners, and the materials that work for Missa work beautifully with her sisters as well because they embrace multiple learning styles at once (we like multi-sensory approaches that use auditory and visual methods along with manipulatives and hands-on activities). But I still feel guilty sometimes over her difference in learning. My mother doesn't help any with this guilt, she told me once that dyslexia and other learning disabilities are either lazy parenting/teaching/learning or caused by not picking one program and sticking to it 100% (changing styles because one approach doesn't work, which is something a LOT of homeschoolers do). She knows that I went through several programs in each subject before finding something that would work well with Missa, and knew it even back when she said that to me. My mother-in-law also doesn't help much either, although her latest comment could be taken as a compliment I think. She's trying to convince Missa currently that she doesn't have dyslexia because "you read just fine honey." The last time the girls were over with her, she watched them for a few hours so Scott and I could go to lunch and Babies R Us without having to deal with all the hassle of keeping 4 kids occupied and happy (meaning I got a meal I LOVED and don't get often at our favorite restaurant, and I got to casually browse all the different areas and get ideas for our nursery and baby boy at the store without being rushed). She doesn't approve of homeschooling, so she quizzes the kids every chance she gets. She tested their reading that day, and decided that they are all doing really well despite not going to a real school and having mommy insisting on playing schoolteacher instead of growing up and coming to her senses about it (yeah we've gone around about this in the past, I'm no longer allowed to discuss it with her per Scott's instruction). Now, last school year I had mono for 6 months, and the ONLY thing I did with her and her sisters was reading. I read to them, they read to me, we listened to audio books, we watched movies and tv shows with the closed-captioning on. Missa jumped during that time from a late K level in reading to now being able to read at a mid to late 4th grade level. She's in 3rd grade. That's something to be proud of, and you KNOW I'm proud of her for working so hard. She's reading the books from our history core (well some of the easier ones, currently she's slowly working through the Usborne Greek Myths book) and she's enjoying reading for fun AND for learning. That was my goal for last school year and this year, now I need to set a new goal for her learning lol
Then there's Kimi's breathing. She has asthma, and was diagnosed a couple years ago. Again, my mom said that I caused it by giving her an inhaler under doctor orders when she had yet another case of bronchitis. For over 2 years I've struggled with this one before I finally decided that my mother has no clue what the hell she's talking about and I've stopped listening to 99% of what she thinks about stuff (she also told me this week that at 24 weeks pregnant, I've gained too much weight and that I'm fat, I gained 12lbs and am thrilled with it, I think she's spent too long on her diet and has lost touch with reality). Anyway, this past week Kimi has had a major flare-up with her asthma and I've had a hard time getting it back under control again. I had her at the pediatrician's office during their walk-in clinic hours on Saturday (Scott had been taking the van to work after blowing out a tire in his car, we had to wait for payday to replace it, so I had no way to get them to the doctor until then) and her asthma didn't disappoint us. She had an attack in the waiting room, and it sent the nurse AND the doctor both running to stabilize her again. We left with a nebulizer and a bunch of medications to get her back in check again. This morning she finished her round of Prednisone, so now she's down to just her 2 daily meds (one pill and one breathing treatment) and her albuterol breathing treatments as needed. Yesterday she didn't need any albuterol at all, which was a first in the last week and a half. I think we are starting to get a handle on it again.
But fighting mom guilt is hard. I feel guilt daily when Missa struggles with her schoolwork, wondering if my mom may be right and I did cause her learning differences by switching around programs so much before we settled last school year on the materials that we are using now. I struggle now especially with the what-ifs and wonder if my pushing for a low-intervention birth with Kimi could have caused all her breathing problems. She was diagnosed with severe meconium aspiration syndrome at birth and needed deep suctioning to get all the meconium from her airways, and has been rattly and suffered with breathing problems from the start. I catch myself several times daily thinking that if only I had agreed to Pitocin in my IV and allowed them to break my water before we did, maybe we could have prevented it from happening.
Yup, the mommy guilt monster stinks. I know none of these challenges are my fault, but still I blame myself because I'm mom. The last thing that any parent wants is to have a child with any special needs, and when it does happen we struggle with blaming ourselves over things that are out of our control. I see my girls, all of them, as unique special blessings from God, and would never trade any of them for another child, nor would I ever wish that any of them were different than they are now. Yet, I still struggle with the nagging guilt that plagues moms everywhere over everything. I may not have a child who is non-mobile with a feeding tube or one with a severe birth defect, but I still fight with the guilt every day. I look at my friends who have children with more needs than my girls have, and know how blessed I am. I also see them as a source of inspiration. I look up to those moms, knowing that their burden is so much bigger while they go through life with grace and strength that I have not yet found. I see what I need to find in them, and pray that I can find it soon. Especially now that I've entered a stage where I'm too paranoid to leave the nebulizer at home even just to take my kids to Pizza Hut for their monthly Book-It coupon pizzas (and I plan to tote it with us here shortly for a trip to the grocery store, hey its raining right now and a chill could trigger an attack, but not going isn't an option as I'm out of a few things that we need for supper tonight).
With Missa and her differences, we've understandably had to figure out EVERYTHING for schooling so that she could learn effectively without having too many issues with retaining the material. Traditional curricula doesn't always work with her, and I've had to search for just the right fit in each subject or come up with something on my own that will work with her. Thankfully, her sisters are all more typical learners, and the materials that work for Missa work beautifully with her sisters as well because they embrace multiple learning styles at once (we like multi-sensory approaches that use auditory and visual methods along with manipulatives and hands-on activities). But I still feel guilty sometimes over her difference in learning. My mother doesn't help any with this guilt, she told me once that dyslexia and other learning disabilities are either lazy parenting/teaching/learning or caused by not picking one program and sticking to it 100% (changing styles because one approach doesn't work, which is something a LOT of homeschoolers do). She knows that I went through several programs in each subject before finding something that would work well with Missa, and knew it even back when she said that to me. My mother-in-law also doesn't help much either, although her latest comment could be taken as a compliment I think. She's trying to convince Missa currently that she doesn't have dyslexia because "you read just fine honey." The last time the girls were over with her, she watched them for a few hours so Scott and I could go to lunch and Babies R Us without having to deal with all the hassle of keeping 4 kids occupied and happy (meaning I got a meal I LOVED and don't get often at our favorite restaurant, and I got to casually browse all the different areas and get ideas for our nursery and baby boy at the store without being rushed). She doesn't approve of homeschooling, so she quizzes the kids every chance she gets. She tested their reading that day, and decided that they are all doing really well despite not going to a real school and having mommy insisting on playing schoolteacher instead of growing up and coming to her senses about it (yeah we've gone around about this in the past, I'm no longer allowed to discuss it with her per Scott's instruction). Now, last school year I had mono for 6 months, and the ONLY thing I did with her and her sisters was reading. I read to them, they read to me, we listened to audio books, we watched movies and tv shows with the closed-captioning on. Missa jumped during that time from a late K level in reading to now being able to read at a mid to late 4th grade level. She's in 3rd grade. That's something to be proud of, and you KNOW I'm proud of her for working so hard. She's reading the books from our history core (well some of the easier ones, currently she's slowly working through the Usborne Greek Myths book) and she's enjoying reading for fun AND for learning. That was my goal for last school year and this year, now I need to set a new goal for her learning lol
Then there's Kimi's breathing. She has asthma, and was diagnosed a couple years ago. Again, my mom said that I caused it by giving her an inhaler under doctor orders when she had yet another case of bronchitis. For over 2 years I've struggled with this one before I finally decided that my mother has no clue what the hell she's talking about and I've stopped listening to 99% of what she thinks about stuff (she also told me this week that at 24 weeks pregnant, I've gained too much weight and that I'm fat, I gained 12lbs and am thrilled with it, I think she's spent too long on her diet and has lost touch with reality). Anyway, this past week Kimi has had a major flare-up with her asthma and I've had a hard time getting it back under control again. I had her at the pediatrician's office during their walk-in clinic hours on Saturday (Scott had been taking the van to work after blowing out a tire in his car, we had to wait for payday to replace it, so I had no way to get them to the doctor until then) and her asthma didn't disappoint us. She had an attack in the waiting room, and it sent the nurse AND the doctor both running to stabilize her again. We left with a nebulizer and a bunch of medications to get her back in check again. This morning she finished her round of Prednisone, so now she's down to just her 2 daily meds (one pill and one breathing treatment) and her albuterol breathing treatments as needed. Yesterday she didn't need any albuterol at all, which was a first in the last week and a half. I think we are starting to get a handle on it again.
But fighting mom guilt is hard. I feel guilt daily when Missa struggles with her schoolwork, wondering if my mom may be right and I did cause her learning differences by switching around programs so much before we settled last school year on the materials that we are using now. I struggle now especially with the what-ifs and wonder if my pushing for a low-intervention birth with Kimi could have caused all her breathing problems. She was diagnosed with severe meconium aspiration syndrome at birth and needed deep suctioning to get all the meconium from her airways, and has been rattly and suffered with breathing problems from the start. I catch myself several times daily thinking that if only I had agreed to Pitocin in my IV and allowed them to break my water before we did, maybe we could have prevented it from happening.
Yup, the mommy guilt monster stinks. I know none of these challenges are my fault, but still I blame myself because I'm mom. The last thing that any parent wants is to have a child with any special needs, and when it does happen we struggle with blaming ourselves over things that are out of our control. I see my girls, all of them, as unique special blessings from God, and would never trade any of them for another child, nor would I ever wish that any of them were different than they are now. Yet, I still struggle with the nagging guilt that plagues moms everywhere over everything. I may not have a child who is non-mobile with a feeding tube or one with a severe birth defect, but I still fight with the guilt every day. I look at my friends who have children with more needs than my girls have, and know how blessed I am. I also see them as a source of inspiration. I look up to those moms, knowing that their burden is so much bigger while they go through life with grace and strength that I have not yet found. I see what I need to find in them, and pray that I can find it soon. Especially now that I've entered a stage where I'm too paranoid to leave the nebulizer at home even just to take my kids to Pizza Hut for their monthly Book-It coupon pizzas (and I plan to tote it with us here shortly for a trip to the grocery store, hey its raining right now and a chill could trigger an attack, but not going isn't an option as I'm out of a few things that we need for supper tonight).
Friday, November 11, 2011
Nice try kids......
Nothing bugs me more than the kids wasting my time. They just wasted an hour of my time, by hiding needed supplies for math when I was resting on the sofa (I fell asleep). They spent an hour pretending to search for the hidden supplies, then another 20 minutes insisting that the pencil sharpener isn't in the cabinet, before I finally got fed up and went straight to their hiding spots and extracted the hidden supplies and spent 20 seconds looking at the cabinet to locate the pencil sharpener.
I think this calls for a few extra pages of math, and some extra chores. They waste 1:20 of my life, I will take away free time to make up for it. I'm thinking they can lose 2 minutes for every 1 minute of mine they wasted at a minimum, but we'll see what it turns out to be when I'm done with this one.
And all because Missa decided to try and pull the "but this math is too HARD mom!" card because she didn't want to put forth a little effort in her work today. I think the girl shall be working on math this weekend to make up for taking time from me and making my blood pressure rise (yes it did, I'm high risk for blood pressure issues and am well aware of the signs, I was having physical symptoms of it going up)
I think this calls for a few extra pages of math, and some extra chores. They waste 1:20 of my life, I will take away free time to make up for it. I'm thinking they can lose 2 minutes for every 1 minute of mine they wasted at a minimum, but we'll see what it turns out to be when I'm done with this one.
And all because Missa decided to try and pull the "but this math is too HARD mom!" card because she didn't want to put forth a little effort in her work today. I think the girl shall be working on math this weekend to make up for taking time from me and making my blood pressure rise (yes it did, I'm high risk for blood pressure issues and am well aware of the signs, I was having physical symptoms of it going up)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
math upgrade time
Missa is giving me difficulties lately. She is using her own personal learning challenges as an excuse to not do ANYTHING. Chores, schoolwork, being nice to her sisters, all of it she is incapable of doing because she has dyslexia. I remember my father going through the same struggles with me growing up when I was older than she is (in case you don't already know, I also am dyslexic). I now understand his frustration and anger toward me whenever I would shut down and refuse to do anything or even try. So, we are proving a point to her now.
Scott gave her a GEM of insight that is just beyond brilliant. He is as tired of her excuses as I am, and dislikes her insistence that she's stupid as much as I do. So, in the middle of her normal whining and complaining that dyslexia makes her stupid he says.....
"Kid, dyslexia doesn't make you stupid; giving up makes you stupid."
Stopped her cold in her tracks. She had no clue how to respond to that one, and just sat there staring at him. I then took that silence as an opportunity to point out how much smarter she is than I was at her age, and how she lets things stop her because she doesn't TRY. I then decided to prove a point to her.
I got out the next level math book I've had waiting for her since the Cincinatti homeschool convention back in tthe Spring and handed it to her. Now, I know she can do the work if she stops and just TRIES, but we bumped her down a level to make sure she had a solid foundation first. She looked at the first lesson pages, and got excited because she knows how to do the work. I then showed her the final test in her test book for this level, and she got nervous and said that she can't do that work. Well guess what kid, by the time you get to that test you will be able to do the work.
She starts Math-U-See Beta tomorrow, just to prove my point. She also has attempted to give up on her chapter book halfway through chapter 3, but I am refusing to let her stop. I told her I don't care if it takes her a year to read it, she WILL finish that book because I know she can do it. I am all about making a point here with her, and right now she needs me to push her like she's never been pushed before. I know it sounds mean to push a child with learning disabilities to do harder work like I am and to be so heartless about it, but I know she's capable. Its all a confidence issue with her.
Scott gave her a GEM of insight that is just beyond brilliant. He is as tired of her excuses as I am, and dislikes her insistence that she's stupid as much as I do. So, in the middle of her normal whining and complaining that dyslexia makes her stupid he says.....
"Kid, dyslexia doesn't make you stupid; giving up makes you stupid."
Stopped her cold in her tracks. She had no clue how to respond to that one, and just sat there staring at him. I then took that silence as an opportunity to point out how much smarter she is than I was at her age, and how she lets things stop her because she doesn't TRY. I then decided to prove a point to her.
I got out the next level math book I've had waiting for her since the Cincinatti homeschool convention back in tthe Spring and handed it to her. Now, I know she can do the work if she stops and just TRIES, but we bumped her down a level to make sure she had a solid foundation first. She looked at the first lesson pages, and got excited because she knows how to do the work. I then showed her the final test in her test book for this level, and she got nervous and said that she can't do that work. Well guess what kid, by the time you get to that test you will be able to do the work.
She starts Math-U-See Beta tomorrow, just to prove my point. She also has attempted to give up on her chapter book halfway through chapter 3, but I am refusing to let her stop. I told her I don't care if it takes her a year to read it, she WILL finish that book because I know she can do it. I am all about making a point here with her, and right now she needs me to push her like she's never been pushed before. I know it sounds mean to push a child with learning disabilities to do harder work like I am and to be so heartless about it, but I know she's capable. Its all a confidence issue with her.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
oh baby!
Not quite sure what to call this one, but its all about the pregnancy.
We had a few rough days early this week. I have a 4 year old with a cold, and my mother-in-law refused to watch any of the kids at all for us so that Scott and I could go to my anatomy scan appointment without the kids. So I spent several hours frantically calling everyone that I thought I'd have a small shot at getting to watch 3 healthy older kids while we took the sick one with us to the appointment. With 14 hours before the appointment, my aunt and cousin (who live a half hour away) came to the rescue and said we could bring the girls over to hang out while we went to my appointment. Disaster #1 averted.
So, forward to scan. Now, I have 2 friends with special needs children, one who is still waiting for her little man to come, so I was just a little anxious at this scan. If you scan through my list of blogs, you will see Miss Charlie's blog and the Our Busy Homeschool blog. These are the two I am referring to. Both families are incredible and inspirational to me, showing me the amazing love that comes with having a special child or having a large family expecting a special child. So, at the scan I was anxious and wanted to see everything. I asked that we look extra closely at the spine, placenta, cord, and a couple extra areas that I know are common for defects. Everything is 100% healthy and normal. So now we know that its a healthy baby, and I have some amazing pictures from it too.
But that isn't the only thing that we found out. We have a healthy baby, but also we learned that our sweet healthy baby is a boy. Yes, that is right, after having four daughters and figuring we'd never have a son, God blessed us with one. All the girls have wanted a little brother, and now they will have one. I still have no clue what I'm going to do with a boy after so long with just girls, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I was looking forward to early March already because I couldn't wait to meet our newest family member, but now ALL of us are beyond excited about meeting the new little boy joining our family!!!! (I'll not share the money shot to prove its a boy, I have 5 different angles of it because we couldn't believe it).
And to add to our great day, just as I pulled into my aunt's driveway to pick up the girls I got a call saying that my excusal from jury duty was approved, so I didn't have to spend today sitting in a courtroom. I'll have to go in later, but hopefully I'll have healthy kids so I can do it. I don't mind jury duty at all, but I do have issues sometimes with getting a sitter when I have anyone with any kind of runny nose or cough. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby comes so that I'm not forced to ask for an excusal due to having a breastfed infant.
We had a few rough days early this week. I have a 4 year old with a cold, and my mother-in-law refused to watch any of the kids at all for us so that Scott and I could go to my anatomy scan appointment without the kids. So I spent several hours frantically calling everyone that I thought I'd have a small shot at getting to watch 3 healthy older kids while we took the sick one with us to the appointment. With 14 hours before the appointment, my aunt and cousin (who live a half hour away) came to the rescue and said we could bring the girls over to hang out while we went to my appointment. Disaster #1 averted.
So, forward to scan. Now, I have 2 friends with special needs children, one who is still waiting for her little man to come, so I was just a little anxious at this scan. If you scan through my list of blogs, you will see Miss Charlie's blog and the Our Busy Homeschool blog. These are the two I am referring to. Both families are incredible and inspirational to me, showing me the amazing love that comes with having a special child or having a large family expecting a special child. So, at the scan I was anxious and wanted to see everything. I asked that we look extra closely at the spine, placenta, cord, and a couple extra areas that I know are common for defects. Everything is 100% healthy and normal. So now we know that its a healthy baby, and I have some amazing pictures from it too.
But that isn't the only thing that we found out. We have a healthy baby, but also we learned that our sweet healthy baby is a boy. Yes, that is right, after having four daughters and figuring we'd never have a son, God blessed us with one. All the girls have wanted a little brother, and now they will have one. I still have no clue what I'm going to do with a boy after so long with just girls, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I was looking forward to early March already because I couldn't wait to meet our newest family member, but now ALL of us are beyond excited about meeting the new little boy joining our family!!!! (I'll not share the money shot to prove its a boy, I have 5 different angles of it because we couldn't believe it).
And to add to our great day, just as I pulled into my aunt's driveway to pick up the girls I got a call saying that my excusal from jury duty was approved, so I didn't have to spend today sitting in a courtroom. I'll have to go in later, but hopefully I'll have healthy kids so I can do it. I don't mind jury duty at all, but I do have issues sometimes with getting a sitter when I have anyone with any kind of runny nose or cough. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby comes so that I'm not forced to ask for an excusal due to having a breastfed infant.
Monday, October 17, 2011
halfway there! and this week's plans
OK double purpose for this post. So stay with me please lol This could get scattered.
On the pregnancy, today is the OFFICIAL halfway point for us. I am 20 weeks today!!!! My ultrasound is Wednesday, and Scott got time off work to be able to come. Now if only I didn't have sick kids, I don't know if his mom will watch them for us now. Its just a cold, but she's paranoid about any kind of illness and refuses to watch them even if we have allergies acting up out of fear that she may get sick. Soooooo it looks like he may be stuck staying home with the kids while I go alone to my ultrasound and appointment unless I can get them up early enough to load up on Dimetapp so it kicks in before we get them to his mom's so she doesn't know they are sick. Yes, I know its sneaky, but I do NOT want to miss having him there for my scan and I have a suspicion they wouldn't allow the kids in too if we have a full round of runny noses and coughing. It also messes me up for jury duty on Thursday, if she won't watch them Wednesday she will refuse Thursday as well just to be safe (even if they are ok by then). *sigh* Yup, this week is going to be interesting for me.
On the homeschool front, we're just plugging away with stuff. I got the big 2 doing math right now, and Jojo is complaining and whining about some electronic toy she wants us to buy while also cuddling up to me. Kimi, she's somewhere around here, most likely playing or making a mess. Since we have sick kids right now, we're just going to do a bit of math and such as they are interested to keep their brains working a little bit. The sickest one of the bunch is Jojo, she's all stuffed up and yucky sounding. Poor kid sounds like Kimi because of how stuffy she is.
In reading, Missa is still plugging away at her chapter book. I do believe she is close to halfway done with it. She's discovered that being sick means that she's stuck laying down resting a lot more, and reading a book helps to pass the time. Yeah, she's going to finish her book I think. I need to make out a request list at the library soon so I can pick up a few more books for her, anyone got suggestions for some good books for her to try out next? We're quite liberal in what we allow them to read, and yesterday they watched part 1 of the last Harry Potter on tv with Scott (told ya we're liberal!). She's not *too* girly typically, and I know she'd really like to read the Harry Potter books but she's just not quite there yet in her ability. Oh, and she hates Magic Treehouse, we've already tried that one (maybe it overwhelmed her at the times we've tried it, but we own a few books in that series and she's never even liked them when I read them out loud to the kids)
Hopefully we can get through this week without too much, I really don't like having sick kids and now I think I'm coming down with it too. Yuck!
On the pregnancy, today is the OFFICIAL halfway point for us. I am 20 weeks today!!!! My ultrasound is Wednesday, and Scott got time off work to be able to come. Now if only I didn't have sick kids, I don't know if his mom will watch them for us now. Its just a cold, but she's paranoid about any kind of illness and refuses to watch them even if we have allergies acting up out of fear that she may get sick. Soooooo it looks like he may be stuck staying home with the kids while I go alone to my ultrasound and appointment unless I can get them up early enough to load up on Dimetapp so it kicks in before we get them to his mom's so she doesn't know they are sick. Yes, I know its sneaky, but I do NOT want to miss having him there for my scan and I have a suspicion they wouldn't allow the kids in too if we have a full round of runny noses and coughing. It also messes me up for jury duty on Thursday, if she won't watch them Wednesday she will refuse Thursday as well just to be safe (even if they are ok by then). *sigh* Yup, this week is going to be interesting for me.
On the homeschool front, we're just plugging away with stuff. I got the big 2 doing math right now, and Jojo is complaining and whining about some electronic toy she wants us to buy while also cuddling up to me. Kimi, she's somewhere around here, most likely playing or making a mess. Since we have sick kids right now, we're just going to do a bit of math and such as they are interested to keep their brains working a little bit. The sickest one of the bunch is Jojo, she's all stuffed up and yucky sounding. Poor kid sounds like Kimi because of how stuffy she is.
In reading, Missa is still plugging away at her chapter book. I do believe she is close to halfway done with it. She's discovered that being sick means that she's stuck laying down resting a lot more, and reading a book helps to pass the time. Yeah, she's going to finish her book I think. I need to make out a request list at the library soon so I can pick up a few more books for her, anyone got suggestions for some good books for her to try out next? We're quite liberal in what we allow them to read, and yesterday they watched part 1 of the last Harry Potter on tv with Scott (told ya we're liberal!). She's not *too* girly typically, and I know she'd really like to read the Harry Potter books but she's just not quite there yet in her ability. Oh, and she hates Magic Treehouse, we've already tried that one (maybe it overwhelmed her at the times we've tried it, but we own a few books in that series and she's never even liked them when I read them out loud to the kids)
Hopefully we can get through this week without too much, I really don't like having sick kids and now I think I'm coming down with it too. Yuck!
Friday, October 14, 2011
reading with Missa
I am dedicating this entire post to my oldest today. She hasn't had an easy time with lessons, and I wanted to just note here how she's progressed over the past few years with her reading.
She started off in K not even knowing her letters by sight, let alone the sounds they make. We got her to at least know the sounds halfway through the year, but it took a half year of public school to get her started trying to read. Their method of doing sight words WORKED with her somehow and she started.
1st grade, she was backed up in phonics with the k12 school into K level because of gaps she had in her reading. She finished K phonics in 1st grade, and moved to phonics 1 for 2nd grade before we withdrew from the virtual academy. It was a smart move for us, and we spent 2nd grade just reading and enjoying books.
Now here we are in 3rd grade. A few weeks ago she decided she is GOING to read the NIV bible she has, and she's slowly and painfully working through it. Then this morning, she was checking out the books on our shelf (I told the oldest 2 girls to get a book each and spend some time reading) and she brought me a CHAPTER BOOK and asked me if she could read it. So, she's sitting in a chair now, slowly reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle out loud quietly so she can hear it and see it at the same time. She definitely has moved up in her reading ability I think if she's taking on books like that during her free "ok go read for a bit" time during school. I am now thinking up a reward to give her when she finishes that book, so she has an incentive to actually follow through and finish instead of just giving up. Its her first attempt at reading an entire chapter book, and I don't care how long it takes her but I want her to have something GREAT as a reward. I was thinking maybe going to a movie with me and Scott? I do have free passes to the movie theater at Easton mall, and I'm sure that Scott would be more than willing to get a sitter for the other three so we can take Missa to a movie. Or maybe a special toy? I know she's been wanting a real American Girl doll.
She started off in K not even knowing her letters by sight, let alone the sounds they make. We got her to at least know the sounds halfway through the year, but it took a half year of public school to get her started trying to read. Their method of doing sight words WORKED with her somehow and she started.
1st grade, she was backed up in phonics with the k12 school into K level because of gaps she had in her reading. She finished K phonics in 1st grade, and moved to phonics 1 for 2nd grade before we withdrew from the virtual academy. It was a smart move for us, and we spent 2nd grade just reading and enjoying books.
Now here we are in 3rd grade. A few weeks ago she decided she is GOING to read the NIV bible she has, and she's slowly and painfully working through it. Then this morning, she was checking out the books on our shelf (I told the oldest 2 girls to get a book each and spend some time reading) and she brought me a CHAPTER BOOK and asked me if she could read it. So, she's sitting in a chair now, slowly reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle out loud quietly so she can hear it and see it at the same time. She definitely has moved up in her reading ability I think if she's taking on books like that during her free "ok go read for a bit" time during school. I am now thinking up a reward to give her when she finishes that book, so she has an incentive to actually follow through and finish instead of just giving up. Its her first attempt at reading an entire chapter book, and I don't care how long it takes her but I want her to have something GREAT as a reward. I was thinking maybe going to a movie with me and Scott? I do have free passes to the movie theater at Easton mall, and I'm sure that Scott would be more than willing to get a sitter for the other three so we can take Missa to a movie. Or maybe a special toy? I know she's been wanting a real American Girl doll.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
19 weeks and disappointment
I'm 19 weeks, we have 8 days until that big anatomy scan when they can tell us what this baby will be. Yet, for some reason I am really not looking forward to it. I feel just empty over all this right now. Yes it is our fifth baby, but is it really too much to ask that people try to at least FAKE happiness and excitement for us? I'm so tired of being pushed off like its no big deal, its just another baby in my home. Yes I understand that its important and special that the 14 year old granddaughter of Scott's cousin just had her first baby, and I'm happy for her that she has a supportive family who is there to help and that her baby boy will be fine, but when is it MY turn for a little notice? I act like I don't care that people aren't even acknowledging for the fifth time that we're having another blessed addition to our family, but in reality I am devastated by this. Why can't people at least fake it for me?
I'm not asking for the baby shower I never got or the fawning and "worship me NOW" that most pregnant women get that I never really had. I'm just asking that family at least act like they are happy for us. I'm not asking you to buy all the things we gave away as our youngest no longer needed them, or to go buy anything off my baby registry (which I set up as nothing more than a checklist of what we need to buy still). I'm asking that you smile and say congratulations instead of asking me what birth control we're going to use after this one. I'm asking that you not make "no more babies!" comments before we even announced our pregnancy that we had just found out about. I don't want you to buy us a new minivan or a house, or pay our bills for us. I want acceptance, support, and at least fake smiles and excitement.
Is that really too much to ask for? I don't even WANT to go to my ultrasound next week at this point. I feel like Scott and I are totally alone in our happiness for this baby. I know that I've always been alone doing things and I've never had much support in the past, but that doesn't mean that we should be forced to do it alone all the time. We don't ask for help usually, but we have our moments where we NEED it and we almost never turn down an offer for help. Well, now I need support and encouragement from family, and I'm not getting it at all. Thanks, that shows me how you really see my family.
I'm not asking for the baby shower I never got or the fawning and "worship me NOW" that most pregnant women get that I never really had. I'm just asking that family at least act like they are happy for us. I'm not asking you to buy all the things we gave away as our youngest no longer needed them, or to go buy anything off my baby registry (which I set up as nothing more than a checklist of what we need to buy still). I'm asking that you smile and say congratulations instead of asking me what birth control we're going to use after this one. I'm asking that you not make "no more babies!" comments before we even announced our pregnancy that we had just found out about. I don't want you to buy us a new minivan or a house, or pay our bills for us. I want acceptance, support, and at least fake smiles and excitement.
Is that really too much to ask for? I don't even WANT to go to my ultrasound next week at this point. I feel like Scott and I are totally alone in our happiness for this baby. I know that I've always been alone doing things and I've never had much support in the past, but that doesn't mean that we should be forced to do it alone all the time. We don't ask for help usually, but we have our moments where we NEED it and we almost never turn down an offer for help. Well, now I need support and encouragement from family, and I'm not getting it at all. Thanks, that shows me how you really see my family.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
how I get happy attitudes around here
If you have more than one child, you know that sometimes it can be difficult to get your kids to get along and be good helpers and all that. My family is no exception. On a regular basis I am breaking up fights and disciplining children for unkind words, and oh the messes they can make and then refuse to clean up.
So what's a pregnant and exhausted momma to do in such a situation? I pulled a trick out of the book of tricks that my local public school must have read. I first bought a HUGE bag of Tootsie Rolls for rewards, then I set up a reward system for different tasks and behaviors. And this weekend, I'm going to the dollar store to get a crate, some little trinkets, and some poster board so that I can make a treasure chest and chart to earn a dive in the chest.
Now, it sounds like I just stooped to bribing my kids with candy, and that's pretty accurate. BUT, so far today I have a clean kids' bedroom, 4 kids dressed, their breakfast dishes in the sink, the little 2 did their Awana verse practice, and now they are cleaning up the mess they made in the bathroom (including cleaning the toothpaste off the wall that SOMEONE smeared all over it, an entire big tube GONE in one shot). All for the total of 4 tootsie rolls each, and the bathroom (being an extra chore considering what all needs done in there) will earn them each another 4 tootsie rolls. My plan is to take advantage of the Halloween candy that's being sold right now to add some variety to my instant rewards, and upgrade it to a bucket (with a lock on it of course, I'm not stupid).
So how do I handle misbehavior with such a system in place? Well, that's easy. Right now Liddy has decided that she does not want to help with cleaning up the bathroom mess, so when its done she won't get any tootsie rolls. Or, in the case of fighting, the two sisters have to work together on a task (usually something disgusting like cleaning the hamster cage or washing out the insides of trash cans). They also can lose the ability to go to Awana, or to participate in our weekly girls' night (pizzas and a movie, Scott is banished to the bedroom while we take over the living room for this). Last week they all four lost the ability to go to Awana by misbehaving in the grocery store (I had to break up an actual fist fight, that almost NEVER happens here, plus they were all disrespectful to me, one another, and the other customers and ignored my reminders of proper behavior and back-talked me constantly).
And I do everything possible to remain consistent with my ways of doing things. Consistency is more important than anything, if I reward and discourage behaviors the same across the board then they learn what the right actions and attitudes are to have. I'm still working on how to incorporate our reward system into our schooling, which is where the treasure chest comes in. That one will have a daily small reward from the bucket, and a weekly reward from the chest. Hopefully it works well and doesn't backfire on me.
So what's a pregnant and exhausted momma to do in such a situation? I pulled a trick out of the book of tricks that my local public school must have read. I first bought a HUGE bag of Tootsie Rolls for rewards, then I set up a reward system for different tasks and behaviors. And this weekend, I'm going to the dollar store to get a crate, some little trinkets, and some poster board so that I can make a treasure chest and chart to earn a dive in the chest.
Now, it sounds like I just stooped to bribing my kids with candy, and that's pretty accurate. BUT, so far today I have a clean kids' bedroom, 4 kids dressed, their breakfast dishes in the sink, the little 2 did their Awana verse practice, and now they are cleaning up the mess they made in the bathroom (including cleaning the toothpaste off the wall that SOMEONE smeared all over it, an entire big tube GONE in one shot). All for the total of 4 tootsie rolls each, and the bathroom (being an extra chore considering what all needs done in there) will earn them each another 4 tootsie rolls. My plan is to take advantage of the Halloween candy that's being sold right now to add some variety to my instant rewards, and upgrade it to a bucket (with a lock on it of course, I'm not stupid).
So how do I handle misbehavior with such a system in place? Well, that's easy. Right now Liddy has decided that she does not want to help with cleaning up the bathroom mess, so when its done she won't get any tootsie rolls. Or, in the case of fighting, the two sisters have to work together on a task (usually something disgusting like cleaning the hamster cage or washing out the insides of trash cans). They also can lose the ability to go to Awana, or to participate in our weekly girls' night (pizzas and a movie, Scott is banished to the bedroom while we take over the living room for this). Last week they all four lost the ability to go to Awana by misbehaving in the grocery store (I had to break up an actual fist fight, that almost NEVER happens here, plus they were all disrespectful to me, one another, and the other customers and ignored my reminders of proper behavior and back-talked me constantly).
And I do everything possible to remain consistent with my ways of doing things. Consistency is more important than anything, if I reward and discourage behaviors the same across the board then they learn what the right actions and attitudes are to have. I'm still working on how to incorporate our reward system into our schooling, which is where the treasure chest comes in. That one will have a daily small reward from the bucket, and a weekly reward from the chest. Hopefully it works well and doesn't backfire on me.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
car seat is ready
Yes, I said I got the car seat ready for this baby. LOL As of yesterday, I am 17 weeks pregnant. I'm currently assessing the things we have and are getting these things out and ready so that we can start on the real fun: buying everything ELSE we need. Since we gave the crib and all our baby clothes to a friend's sister, we have literally nothing for basics. I'm hoping I can find the pack n' play for us to use until the tax refund comes and I can buy a crib. Hmmm I think we may *not* have fully thought this through before we decided to have baby #5, it may have been better to wait a few extra months so that I had the tax refund to shop. Eh, we'll figure it out.
So, the first thing we got ready is the most important item of all. We can NOT bring the baby home without a proper car seat. Now, if you know me, you know I'm a safety junkie. I keep up with all the latest safety in regards to car safety and my children. We rear-face until they hit the limits of a seat, then we forward face with a harness until they show the maturity required to sit properly in a booster full time (as long as they meet the legal requirements for a booster as well). Currently, I have 3 in boosters and one in belt only (she passes the 5 step test where she sits, no worries!).
So I decided to get out the convertible seat and get it ready today. Cover: cleaned up. Harness: dropped to bottom slots. Infant insert: found, cleaned up, and put on. Rear facing boot: hunted down, wiped down, attached. Now I just need Scott to put the middle seat for our middle row back in the van so I have a place to install the seat. This baby will be riding in the luxury of a Sunshine Kids Radian80 car seat, which rear faces from 5-33lbs and forward faces from 20-80lbs (yes it IS a harness that goes that high, it does NOT do the booster thing at all!!!!) It has a steel frame inside that plastic shell, and is very plush. It was donated to us when Jojo was a baby by the Kyle David Miller Foundation, and it has 4 years left of the 8 year life span (I had to double check the life span, most seats expire 6 years from date of manufacture but some do go to 8 years). This seat should work just fine and dandy for the baby from birth with the infant insert, if my girls' sizes are any indication of the size this baby will be. I can't wait to get this seat back in use regularly.
And for those whose heads are spinning at my using a convertible instead of an infant seat....... if the baby does NOT fit properly in this seat then I shall wait at the hospital with baby while Scott runs to the store to buy an infant seat to use instead. I have one already picked out, and the local WalMart carries it. But we will not be buying it unless the baby NEEDS a smaller seat, or someone decides to look up my WalMart baby registry and buy some of the stuff for us (I'm using it as a checklist for what we still need to buy for the baby, all our needs plus the goodies we want if we have enough money/time).
So, the first thing we got ready is the most important item of all. We can NOT bring the baby home without a proper car seat. Now, if you know me, you know I'm a safety junkie. I keep up with all the latest safety in regards to car safety and my children. We rear-face until they hit the limits of a seat, then we forward face with a harness until they show the maturity required to sit properly in a booster full time (as long as they meet the legal requirements for a booster as well). Currently, I have 3 in boosters and one in belt only (she passes the 5 step test where she sits, no worries!).
So I decided to get out the convertible seat and get it ready today. Cover: cleaned up. Harness: dropped to bottom slots. Infant insert: found, cleaned up, and put on. Rear facing boot: hunted down, wiped down, attached. Now I just need Scott to put the middle seat for our middle row back in the van so I have a place to install the seat. This baby will be riding in the luxury of a Sunshine Kids Radian80 car seat, which rear faces from 5-33lbs and forward faces from 20-80lbs (yes it IS a harness that goes that high, it does NOT do the booster thing at all!!!!) It has a steel frame inside that plastic shell, and is very plush. It was donated to us when Jojo was a baby by the Kyle David Miller Foundation, and it has 4 years left of the 8 year life span (I had to double check the life span, most seats expire 6 years from date of manufacture but some do go to 8 years). This seat should work just fine and dandy for the baby from birth with the infant insert, if my girls' sizes are any indication of the size this baby will be. I can't wait to get this seat back in use regularly.
And for those whose heads are spinning at my using a convertible instead of an infant seat....... if the baby does NOT fit properly in this seat then I shall wait at the hospital with baby while Scott runs to the store to buy an infant seat to use instead. I have one already picked out, and the local WalMart carries it. But we will not be buying it unless the baby NEEDS a smaller seat, or someone decides to look up my WalMart baby registry and buy some of the stuff for us (I'm using it as a checklist for what we still need to buy for the baby, all our needs plus the goodies we want if we have enough money/time).
God bless the person who discovered peanut butter
I do NOT like peanut butter. I think it has a nasty texture and it tastes bad. So, why am I blessing the person who discovered it? Well, I am sitting here eating it by the spoonful from a jar now, and its one of the few things that is consistently staying down. I hate it but I cannot stop eating it.
I hope this one passes soon, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up this peanut butter thing......
I hope this one passes soon, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up this peanut butter thing......
Sunday, September 25, 2011
holy COW that's cooking!
I made a late supper tonight for the kids, and just realized exactly how much food I cooked. It was spaghetti night since I had some hamburger in the fridge that I needed to use up, so Scott got water on for me to boil up a 3lb box of spaghetti and I got out the big skillet and the hamburger.
Now, if you've not figured out by now, I like to cook. I cook in mass quantities sometimes so that I can have a meal for the freezer, or a leftovers lunch the next day. This meal is one of those leftovers lunch meals. I doubled everything so that Scott has lunch tomorrow at work, and so that I can assemble a spaghetti bake and put in the fridge to just toss in the oven tomorrow for lunch. (I learned during my pregnancy with my oldest that cooking any time other than supper makes me throw up, so I like to cook at night and have crazy leftovers for at least one more meal)
Now, the essential kitchen equipment for a bigger family is slightly larger than a typical family's stuff. Most people find a 10" skillet to be perfectly adequate, while I tend to reach first for my 14" chicken fryer (its one of those ones with 2 handles) when I cook. A stock pot for me is larger than many would consider adequate for cooking. When I cook, recipes that serve 4-6 automatically get doubled or even tripled so that I have enough food. "Family size" packaging at stores makes me laugh because I know it takes at least 2 or 3 packages to feed my family. In the freezer section are frozen macaroni and cheese and lasagna entrees that are marked as "party size" and THAT is the right size to feed us all. So, as you can probably guess, I tend to fall back regularly on my experience cooking in a restaurant kitchen, making large quantities of things at once to serve the dinner rush. I don't do small amounts of food normally.
So tonight's supper consisted of the BIG box of spaghetti noodles (3lb size box), 3 jars of sauce, 3lbs hamburger, and handfuls of various seasonings and dried onion. I need to go out there and assemble Scott's lunch for tomorrow and the spaghetti pan for tomorrow's baked lunch. There may even be enough left to make extra lunches for me to toss in the freezer for Scott to grab and take to work when we don't have leftovers.
Next bulk meal I'm hoping for will be a lasagna. That one will be made in 3 pans, so I have 2 for the freezer on top of the one that I'm going to serve that night for supper.
Now, if you've not figured out by now, I like to cook. I cook in mass quantities sometimes so that I can have a meal for the freezer, or a leftovers lunch the next day. This meal is one of those leftovers lunch meals. I doubled everything so that Scott has lunch tomorrow at work, and so that I can assemble a spaghetti bake and put in the fridge to just toss in the oven tomorrow for lunch. (I learned during my pregnancy with my oldest that cooking any time other than supper makes me throw up, so I like to cook at night and have crazy leftovers for at least one more meal)
Now, the essential kitchen equipment for a bigger family is slightly larger than a typical family's stuff. Most people find a 10" skillet to be perfectly adequate, while I tend to reach first for my 14" chicken fryer (its one of those ones with 2 handles) when I cook. A stock pot for me is larger than many would consider adequate for cooking. When I cook, recipes that serve 4-6 automatically get doubled or even tripled so that I have enough food. "Family size" packaging at stores makes me laugh because I know it takes at least 2 or 3 packages to feed my family. In the freezer section are frozen macaroni and cheese and lasagna entrees that are marked as "party size" and THAT is the right size to feed us all. So, as you can probably guess, I tend to fall back regularly on my experience cooking in a restaurant kitchen, making large quantities of things at once to serve the dinner rush. I don't do small amounts of food normally.
So tonight's supper consisted of the BIG box of spaghetti noodles (3lb size box), 3 jars of sauce, 3lbs hamburger, and handfuls of various seasonings and dried onion. I need to go out there and assemble Scott's lunch for tomorrow and the spaghetti pan for tomorrow's baked lunch. There may even be enough left to make extra lunches for me to toss in the freezer for Scott to grab and take to work when we don't have leftovers.
Next bulk meal I'm hoping for will be a lasagna. That one will be made in 3 pans, so I have 2 for the freezer on top of the one that I'm going to serve that night for supper.
Monday, September 19, 2011
movement *yay*
Yup, we officially have movement here with parasite. I'm 16 weeks today, and I've not called any of it officially feeling the little booger move simply because it wasn't that strong yet. Well, I can no longer deny it, today it made a few very good attempts at kicking my laptop off my stomach. And a couple nights ago, Scott felt a VERY faint movement himself with his hand firmly on my gut at just the right moment before we went to sleep. Its cute now, but in a few weeks it will get annoying. I already know how I'll react to it, and I can't wait for it to be consistently strong enough kicking and moving for the girls to feel themselves as well.
It makes the next 4 weeks and 2 days until my ultrasound feel like an eternity. I can no longer deny it, there really is another one coming. I can feel movement.
Now if only I could stop throwing up...... but on the up side, I'm losing some of the 12lbs I gained in my first trimester, and I *can* zip my regular jeans up again fairly comfortably. Seems that I may be going the wrong way with that one, I'm supposed to be getting bigger (not smaller). Oh well, I'll pop back out soon enough.
I'll have an update this week hopefully on how the girls' lessons are going, we took some time off with the second trimester pregnancy sickness that has occurred (I had almost none during first trimester).
It makes the next 4 weeks and 2 days until my ultrasound feel like an eternity. I can no longer deny it, there really is another one coming. I can feel movement.
Now if only I could stop throwing up...... but on the up side, I'm losing some of the 12lbs I gained in my first trimester, and I *can* zip my regular jeans up again fairly comfortably. Seems that I may be going the wrong way with that one, I'm supposed to be getting bigger (not smaller). Oh well, I'll pop back out soon enough.
I'll have an update this week hopefully on how the girls' lessons are going, we took some time off with the second trimester pregnancy sickness that has occurred (I had almost none during first trimester).
Thursday, September 08, 2011
first baby appointment done finally
I finally got to have my first prenatal appointment yesterday. I'm sure you may remember, I was seeing an OB about 45min away before. Well, before we moved here it wasn't too bad, I had to drive a half hour to get to ANY doctor for my prenatal care. Well, then we moved here and I kept my amazing doctor because it was just the yearly exam right? No biggie. Add a pregnancy and it becomes a big deal, monthly appointments that go to every 2 weeks and then every week makes for a lot of time loading kids, driving, unloading kids, and all that just to see the doctor for 10min or so. So, I got a midwife locally instead, and yesterday was my first appointment with her.
I had to take all 4 girls with me. That's the downside to the local midwife, when I was making that drive out to the OB I wasn't too far from Scott's mom so she'd take the girls while I was at my appointments. Now, I'm not going to drive a half hour to take them to her, then back home to the practice 5min from my house and then go back to get them afterward. That's more gas than staying with the other practice would have used. It makes more sense for me to just pack them along with me, and arrange for her to take them overnight once in a while for certain appointments (like my next one, which I'm getting to).
So, they drew blood (Liddy had to sit on my lap so that I had a cuddle object while the vampire sucked 6 tubes from me) and they weighed me (their scale LIES!!!!!!) and then they asked me for a full history and all sorts of odd questions (ummm yes my husband IS supportive of this baby, he just has to work which is why he wasn't there or watching our kids, bills don't pay themselves you know). The kids watched Signing Time on my laptop while I got all this done..
Enter midwife, and I get to hear a heartbeat. 158 beats a minute, fast little bugger. It ain't looking good for Scott and his hopes that this time he gets a son..... lol I really like her a lot, she's not the one that a few people I know see but I'm very comfortable with her.
My next appointment is October 19th, I'll be about 19 1/2 weeks along and we'll have the anatomy scan and hopefully determine gender at that time too. I sure hope this next 5 weeks passes quickly, I'm really looking forward to this appointment.
I had to take all 4 girls with me. That's the downside to the local midwife, when I was making that drive out to the OB I wasn't too far from Scott's mom so she'd take the girls while I was at my appointments. Now, I'm not going to drive a half hour to take them to her, then back home to the practice 5min from my house and then go back to get them afterward. That's more gas than staying with the other practice would have used. It makes more sense for me to just pack them along with me, and arrange for her to take them overnight once in a while for certain appointments (like my next one, which I'm getting to).
So, they drew blood (Liddy had to sit on my lap so that I had a cuddle object while the vampire sucked 6 tubes from me) and they weighed me (their scale LIES!!!!!!) and then they asked me for a full history and all sorts of odd questions (ummm yes my husband IS supportive of this baby, he just has to work which is why he wasn't there or watching our kids, bills don't pay themselves you know). The kids watched Signing Time on my laptop while I got all this done..
Enter midwife, and I get to hear a heartbeat. 158 beats a minute, fast little bugger. It ain't looking good for Scott and his hopes that this time he gets a son..... lol I really like her a lot, she's not the one that a few people I know see but I'm very comfortable with her.
My next appointment is October 19th, I'll be about 19 1/2 weeks along and we'll have the anatomy scan and hopefully determine gender at that time too. I sure hope this next 5 weeks passes quickly, I'm really looking forward to this appointment.
Sunday, September 04, 2011
God always provides to His faithful ones
So, I'm sure you have figured out by now that my family isn't exactly wealthy. In fact, we are probably the opposite of how I was brought up in this area. When we have extra money, we must spend it wisely and usually do so by stocking up on things that we need like extra food and household supplies (toilet paper, dish and laundry soap, shower soaps, stuff like that). We make it work somehow.
So, I did some calculations not too long ago based on the homeschool materials I have here currently, and realized that I may be lucky to make it to our tax refund with the stuff we have currently. I have curriculum I love, but in some subjects it is too expensive to buy whenever we need it. Those subjects I purchase with the tax refund, attempting to estimate how many levels we'll need in math (for example!) or if our history and science will be enough for a year and what supplemental materials to buy.
Well, I can tell you that I likely miscalculated math. Liddy is close to moving up a level in math to Beta, as are Missa and Kimi (they will likely by Christmas). Which that's no big deal, I have the next level already purchased for all 3 children. However, the rate Liddy goes in math I'll need the level AFTER what I've purchased by my birthday in February most likely. That is where the issue lies. Same in history, we're at a good groove in our program and supplements but I can see us finishing by my birthday, putting me in a position where I'll need to purchase the next core level. So what is a girl to do in a situation like this?
Well first, I take it to prayer. I don't do ANYTHING major without praying first until I know what to do. I still didn't know what to do really, but hey it'll work out. That's about all I knew.
Now enter Scott's old babysitter. She would watch him when he was younger than our children, and she homeschooled her 3 kids. The youngest just recently graduated from homeschool in fact, and she decided to clean off the homeschool shelves. She decided to offer to us first, and said that anything we can't use to pass to someone else who can. I got 6 levels of Math-U-See, starting with the very next level in line from where my current collection leaves off, and a lot of books for history, science, grammar, and other subjects. So now, I have solved the issue of what to do, as I have several years' worth of resources and materials that I can just grab and use, supplementing with the library as needed once I get the 2 teacher sets for the math that aren't here.
I think I need to send Scott over to Home Depot for another shelf and brackets for the shelves in our bedroom where I store all the homeschooling books that aren't currently in use...... almost all of this stuff is totally usable to us, with the exception of a couple items that I know right now we won't be using (like Apologia science). I can't wait until later tonight when I can really get deep into this box and log each book into my library spreadsheet and organize and start skimming books to see what will work when and how to best utilize materials.
Just another example of God providing for us when we come to Him in need. He has many times provided things as we needed for our family, by providing extra overtime for my husband at work or leading others to bless us with things that we may need (as in this case, a bunch of homeschool books) or by simply putting us in the right place at the right moment to find something we need (like a much-needed book at a thrift store, or a $1 clearance rack at Target or WalMart for clothing for one of the kids). And sometimes, God smacks us back to reality by reminding us that we do not need what we think we do, that what we have will work for us well enough.
~Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.~ Psalm 128:1-2 (NIV)
~Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.~ Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
God will always provide what we need when we truly need it, and sometimes before we need it. But we have to have the confidence and knowledge to approach Him with our needs, otherwise He cannot provide if we do not ask.
When is the last time you approached the throne in prayer and asked Him to bless you with the things you need? No matter how small that need may be (perhaps gas to get to the store or a box of pasta for supper that night), when did you ask Him to provide for you in your time of need? When you truly need something, God will NEVER look the other way. He loves us, and wants us to come to Him with our wants and needs just as we as parents want our children to do with us. Give God the chance, and He will bless you beyond anything you could have ever imagined.
So, I did some calculations not too long ago based on the homeschool materials I have here currently, and realized that I may be lucky to make it to our tax refund with the stuff we have currently. I have curriculum I love, but in some subjects it is too expensive to buy whenever we need it. Those subjects I purchase with the tax refund, attempting to estimate how many levels we'll need in math (for example!) or if our history and science will be enough for a year and what supplemental materials to buy.
Well, I can tell you that I likely miscalculated math. Liddy is close to moving up a level in math to Beta, as are Missa and Kimi (they will likely by Christmas). Which that's no big deal, I have the next level already purchased for all 3 children. However, the rate Liddy goes in math I'll need the level AFTER what I've purchased by my birthday in February most likely. That is where the issue lies. Same in history, we're at a good groove in our program and supplements but I can see us finishing by my birthday, putting me in a position where I'll need to purchase the next core level. So what is a girl to do in a situation like this?
Well first, I take it to prayer. I don't do ANYTHING major without praying first until I know what to do. I still didn't know what to do really, but hey it'll work out. That's about all I knew.
Now enter Scott's old babysitter. She would watch him when he was younger than our children, and she homeschooled her 3 kids. The youngest just recently graduated from homeschool in fact, and she decided to clean off the homeschool shelves. She decided to offer to us first, and said that anything we can't use to pass to someone else who can. I got 6 levels of Math-U-See, starting with the very next level in line from where my current collection leaves off, and a lot of books for history, science, grammar, and other subjects. So now, I have solved the issue of what to do, as I have several years' worth of resources and materials that I can just grab and use, supplementing with the library as needed once I get the 2 teacher sets for the math that aren't here.
I think I need to send Scott over to Home Depot for another shelf and brackets for the shelves in our bedroom where I store all the homeschooling books that aren't currently in use...... almost all of this stuff is totally usable to us, with the exception of a couple items that I know right now we won't be using (like Apologia science). I can't wait until later tonight when I can really get deep into this box and log each book into my library spreadsheet and organize and start skimming books to see what will work when and how to best utilize materials.
Just another example of God providing for us when we come to Him in need. He has many times provided things as we needed for our family, by providing extra overtime for my husband at work or leading others to bless us with things that we may need (as in this case, a bunch of homeschool books) or by simply putting us in the right place at the right moment to find something we need (like a much-needed book at a thrift store, or a $1 clearance rack at Target or WalMart for clothing for one of the kids). And sometimes, God smacks us back to reality by reminding us that we do not need what we think we do, that what we have will work for us well enough.
~Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.~ Psalm 128:1-2 (NIV)
~Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.~ Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
God will always provide what we need when we truly need it, and sometimes before we need it. But we have to have the confidence and knowledge to approach Him with our needs, otherwise He cannot provide if we do not ask.
When is the last time you approached the throne in prayer and asked Him to bless you with the things you need? No matter how small that need may be (perhaps gas to get to the store or a box of pasta for supper that night), when did you ask Him to provide for you in your time of need? When you truly need something, God will NEVER look the other way. He loves us, and wants us to come to Him with our wants and needs just as we as parents want our children to do with us. Give God the chance, and He will bless you beyond anything you could have ever imagined.
4 years ago yesterday.....
Four years ago yesterday was a holiday. It was Labor Day. It was also 3 days past my due date with my fourth child, and I woke up at about 6am in early labor. She was the only of mine to make it to her due date before being born. She was an unexpected blessing, and it had taken me the first 6 months of my pregnancy to stop being angry at Scott for tossing the condom aside that day. (how's that for TMI mom?) Well, 4 years ago yesterday I fell in love all over again, and we had to FIGHT to time with our baby girl.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
seriously? PINK?????
Scott is getting even with me I think. The last two nights, I've refused to take the pain so I stole his pillows and used to prop my back and stomach in bed while I sleep. I don't have any pain when I wake up, but apparently his neck hurts from no pillows.
So he bought me a body pillow today.
He bought a PINK eff'ing body pillow. Like, I've had a lovely $60 pregnancy support pillow picked out at Amazon (with free shipping too!) for a few weeks now that he said I could get. Well, its payday, and I was looking forward to ordering that support pillow this weekend. Instead, he went to WalMart and got me a $10 cheapo body pillow and he had to choose the pink one.
I hate pink. I may be a female, but pink is NOT a color that I feel looks good on anything but bubblegum and flowers. And he got me a PINK pillow.......
I will find the humor in it later, but now I have to get back to Jordan's 4th birthday. But before I go, here's a picture for you to see what I'm looking like at 13 1/2 weeks pregnant.
Yup, I'm going to be HUGE again this time. And no it isn't quadruplets. Yes, we're sure.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
need some guidance here for a health/science study
So I had a moment this morning. I was just getting out of the shower, I barely had the towel in my hands even, when Kimi and Liddy came into the bathroom. (sometimes I really do NOT like having only one bathroom, this was one of those moments at first) Now, these two kids are my inquisitive ones who make complex connections quickly on a regular basis. I'm regularly surprised by the things they say, think, figure out, and do.
Their question when they came into the bathroom was one that I was NOT prepared for, however. "Mom, we want to know how the baby is going to come out of your tummy." Oh my....... I'm dripping and trying to cover the important parts with a too-small towel thanks to my stomach growing (I show early and then gain a lot during pregnancy, I'm hoping to stick under 50lbs this time) and now I get to figure out how to answer THAT to a 5yr old and 7yr old. I told them I needed a bit to think about how to answer that because it is a little complicated, and they skipped off to let me think.
An hour later now, I still have NO IDEA how to answer that and they've asked me about it already a couple more times. Anyone got suggestions for me on how to explain that to them (we've not had the talk yet about how the baby actually got there, they are starting with the end and working backwards for information) without scarring them for life? We've already talked about the things a newborn needs and what they can and can't do, looked at pictures of them as newborns, and stuff like that. So, now we're talking about the baby growing in there and then coming out. Suggestions?
Their question when they came into the bathroom was one that I was NOT prepared for, however. "Mom, we want to know how the baby is going to come out of your tummy." Oh my....... I'm dripping and trying to cover the important parts with a too-small towel thanks to my stomach growing (I show early and then gain a lot during pregnancy, I'm hoping to stick under 50lbs this time) and now I get to figure out how to answer THAT to a 5yr old and 7yr old. I told them I needed a bit to think about how to answer that because it is a little complicated, and they skipped off to let me think.
An hour later now, I still have NO IDEA how to answer that and they've asked me about it already a couple more times. Anyone got suggestions for me on how to explain that to them (we've not had the talk yet about how the baby actually got there, they are starting with the end and working backwards for information) without scarring them for life? We've already talked about the things a newborn needs and what they can and can't do, looked at pictures of them as newborns, and stuff like that. So, now we're talking about the baby growing in there and then coming out. Suggestions?
Friday, August 26, 2011
they never cease to amaze me
My sweet little Kimi and I have been working on writing her numbers for math mostly, and counting to 20. Well, it looks like now I need to teach the kid to skip count by 10's and then 5's because she can count to 109 with help at each ten's change. CRUD! I'm not ready for her to be moving this fast...... and I'm thinking that Primer may now officially be beneath her level, she's also memorizing some of her facts just from playing with the math blocks with her sisters (they are all playing with them lately to help them memorize which color is what number).
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
pregnancy- week 12
I have officially hit the 12 week point, as of yesterday, in my pregnancy. I can now start to relax a bit about it. However, by now I've usually had one or two appointments with my OB/GYN. I've still not had my first appointment due to money issues, but we're getting that fixed now.
I woke up this morning to the sound of my two sweet oldest girls fighting quite loudly. Yesterday I caught them playing in my front yard without even mentioning that they were going outside at all, which doesn't EVER fly with me. As a result, they got the lovely task of "go clean that black hole you call your bedroom and don't come out until it is finished!" for this disobedience. They are more than welcome to play outdoors, but they must ask first and are required to stay out back unless they ask special permission (which is only granted if an adult is able and willing to sit out front since we live on a busy main road). Its the same rule we've had since my oldest was old enough to go down a slide on her own, and it hasn't changed even with moving to a new city and house three years ago. Rules are rules, and I will punish those who break them.
So yes, they got to clean their room, and they took all day until Scott got home and still didn't finish it. So he fed them and sent them to bed after getting on them about it himself, and I gave them hugs and then told them that if their room wasn't finished the next morning before I woke up they would have warmed butts. (I did mention that i have NO patience when I'm pregnant right?) Yeah, they decided to get into a screaming match at 6:30am and it woke me up.
I tried to lay in bed and ignore it, until I heard one spout off, "oh don't worry about cleaning our room. Mom won't do anything, and she's probably already forgotten about it by now." That got me up and I warmed butts for not doing their task I assigned yesterday. 4 hours later, they finally decided to do it and had it finished for me to OK Missa running the sweeper in there. I got my point across....... now let's hope this time it sticks.
But when i had to get up this morning so early from the fighting, I stood up and had this horrible sharp pain in my lower stomach. It felt like i pulled a muscle, so I scrunched right up immediately and stayed for a minute before slowly straightening myself up again and rubbing my stomach to loosen it up. Ahhhh the aches have begun.
I also canceled my appointment with my OB/GYN for next week, and requested the release form to transfer records to another practice. See, I live about 5 minutes from an acceptable hospital, but my practice delivers at an amazing hospital in Westerville (northern Columbus if you aren't familiar with this area). With my being due March 5th, as soon as I found out my due date I started feeling uneasy about the distance to my doctor's practice and to the delivering hospital. I have had to reschedule my first appointment as well, due to financial reasons. So, I spent a lot of time praying about this and trying to figure out why I felt uneasy, and then decided to transfer to a practice with a midwife that delivers locally. Well, when I looked up the number this afternoon at the hospital's web site, I discovered that this practice has three CNM's instead of just the one I knew about. I got the call made, appointment is scheduled with the midwife, and I just need to get my proof of pregnancy mailed in for my insurance coverage and then the form for records transfer to the new practice. Amazingly, despite not particularly caring for the local hospital, I feel completely at peace with the decision. It isn't St. Ann's Hospital, but I'm sure that they can take care of everything just fine with my delivery. Now I just need to find a sitter for the girls for my 2pm appointment the 7th, I really don't want to take them when I'm going to my first appointment at a new practice and not knowing what exactly to expect. Eh, I'm sure I'll find someone.....
I woke up this morning to the sound of my two sweet oldest girls fighting quite loudly. Yesterday I caught them playing in my front yard without even mentioning that they were going outside at all, which doesn't EVER fly with me. As a result, they got the lovely task of "go clean that black hole you call your bedroom and don't come out until it is finished!" for this disobedience. They are more than welcome to play outdoors, but they must ask first and are required to stay out back unless they ask special permission (which is only granted if an adult is able and willing to sit out front since we live on a busy main road). Its the same rule we've had since my oldest was old enough to go down a slide on her own, and it hasn't changed even with moving to a new city and house three years ago. Rules are rules, and I will punish those who break them.
So yes, they got to clean their room, and they took all day until Scott got home and still didn't finish it. So he fed them and sent them to bed after getting on them about it himself, and I gave them hugs and then told them that if their room wasn't finished the next morning before I woke up they would have warmed butts. (I did mention that i have NO patience when I'm pregnant right?) Yeah, they decided to get into a screaming match at 6:30am and it woke me up.
I tried to lay in bed and ignore it, until I heard one spout off, "oh don't worry about cleaning our room. Mom won't do anything, and she's probably already forgotten about it by now." That got me up and I warmed butts for not doing their task I assigned yesterday. 4 hours later, they finally decided to do it and had it finished for me to OK Missa running the sweeper in there. I got my point across....... now let's hope this time it sticks.
But when i had to get up this morning so early from the fighting, I stood up and had this horrible sharp pain in my lower stomach. It felt like i pulled a muscle, so I scrunched right up immediately and stayed for a minute before slowly straightening myself up again and rubbing my stomach to loosen it up. Ahhhh the aches have begun.
I also canceled my appointment with my OB/GYN for next week, and requested the release form to transfer records to another practice. See, I live about 5 minutes from an acceptable hospital, but my practice delivers at an amazing hospital in Westerville (northern Columbus if you aren't familiar with this area). With my being due March 5th, as soon as I found out my due date I started feeling uneasy about the distance to my doctor's practice and to the delivering hospital. I have had to reschedule my first appointment as well, due to financial reasons. So, I spent a lot of time praying about this and trying to figure out why I felt uneasy, and then decided to transfer to a practice with a midwife that delivers locally. Well, when I looked up the number this afternoon at the hospital's web site, I discovered that this practice has three CNM's instead of just the one I knew about. I got the call made, appointment is scheduled with the midwife, and I just need to get my proof of pregnancy mailed in for my insurance coverage and then the form for records transfer to the new practice. Amazingly, despite not particularly caring for the local hospital, I feel completely at peace with the decision. It isn't St. Ann's Hospital, but I'm sure that they can take care of everything just fine with my delivery. Now I just need to find a sitter for the girls for my 2pm appointment the 7th, I really don't want to take them when I'm going to my first appointment at a new practice and not knowing what exactly to expect. Eh, I'm sure I'll find someone.....
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
I love Math-U-See
So I posted over the weekend how I'm starting to feel better and was starting officially this week. I really need to learn to not say that kind of stuff, because I now feel like crud again. I'm so tired that I can barely stay awake, pregnancy sickness is starting to make an appearance again, and I'm sore everywhere. Its just that awkward stage for me now. Poor Scott ended up sleeping on the sofa last night because I went to bed before the kids did and I locked the bedroom door, when he was ready for bed he couldn't get me to wake up to unlock the door for him.
But anyway, my love for Math-U-See........ As you may know, we switched in the middle of last school year for the kids. Well, this week with me feeling so tired and unable to do much of anything has pretty much meant that we're just doing basics. For us, basics means they read to me and write stuff as they want to. At least, that's what it meant to me in the past. Now, they can do their math fairly independently as well when I'm not able to spend the time teaching them. Math-U-See has a dvd instruction video for each level that teaches the lessons, and the worksheets ALWAYS follow the same format for practicing the material so there is no guessing. This week, Missa has done an entire lesson on her own pretty much, and will do the test tomorrow or Friday. Liddy is halfway through a lesson herself, and tomorrow Kimi and I will be watching the DVD lesson she's on together (I love my laptop).
Because of our choice in curriculum for math, even days that I'm not really able to be much use beyond the most basic of tasks aren't a total wash academically. If I'm not up to actually teaching, I still have that fallback of them reading to me and being able to do their math fairly independently. I know this isn't exactly how the program was intended to be used with lower elementary students, but it is working beautifully for our family right now when life is upside down because mom and dad got this crazy idea to have another child.
But anyway, my love for Math-U-See........ As you may know, we switched in the middle of last school year for the kids. Well, this week with me feeling so tired and unable to do much of anything has pretty much meant that we're just doing basics. For us, basics means they read to me and write stuff as they want to. At least, that's what it meant to me in the past. Now, they can do their math fairly independently as well when I'm not able to spend the time teaching them. Math-U-See has a dvd instruction video for each level that teaches the lessons, and the worksheets ALWAYS follow the same format for practicing the material so there is no guessing. This week, Missa has done an entire lesson on her own pretty much, and will do the test tomorrow or Friday. Liddy is halfway through a lesson herself, and tomorrow Kimi and I will be watching the DVD lesson she's on together (I love my laptop).
Because of our choice in curriculum for math, even days that I'm not really able to be much use beyond the most basic of tasks aren't a total wash academically. If I'm not up to actually teaching, I still have that fallback of them reading to me and being able to do their math fairly independently. I know this isn't exactly how the program was intended to be used with lower elementary students, but it is working beautifully for our family right now when life is upside down because mom and dad got this crazy idea to have another child.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
energy bursts, new homeschool year, and stuff like that
Well, I've hit that point where I am starting to feel less tired. If you read my last post, I'm having some trouble with this pregnancy feeling real to me. I've not had much in the way of symptoms really this time around, and almost NO sickness. The main clues I have, besides my beautiful ultrasound, are tiredness and crampy/achy feelings in my stomach and abdomen as things start stretching and moving around to make room for the baby. OK, I've been hormonal and moody lately too, picking fights with Scott and being harder than usual on the kids. I've said things to the family that I wouldn't normally, and I'm using obscene language more around the kids than what I'd ever do typically. I am having issues with a short temper lately, and saying a lot of unkind things.
So anyway, this week I've noticed an increase in my energy level. It started with a few minutes of playing with the kids instead of just laying around supervising them (I get REAL tired at the start of a pregnancy apparently) and has moved up to where I was able to take a child with me out on a 2 hour grocery shopping trip this morning. So obviously, I'm not needing as much rest as I was even a week ago. It is now that I'm realizing exactly how many symptoms I was having earlier even though I wasn't too terribly sick.
So, now this is starting to feel real to me since I've figured out my major symptom. I now am starting to feel the anticipation. And, I'm beginning to take advantage of the energy that I'm starting to get back. We've put off starting the new homeschool year because of my lack of energy, and now I'm thinking I can do this on Monday. I don't have *all* my supplies really for this, but I've got enough to last for now. I have most of our books, and although I cannot make the switch in history that I wanted to originally (since we did so little history last year I wanted to pick up a couple books and switch from the 2 year program to the 1 year program for world history) I feel like we can totally pull off this whole thing.
I have a few weeks of basic consumable supplies for projects at least, but Scott has worked a lot of extra overtime this last 2 weeks so I will have the money hopefully to go out next weekend and finish off my supply shopping on top of a good restocking of groceries. This paycheck was a bit tight thanks to renewing tags and a driver's license, the mortgage payment, and having to get the drain guys out here to run the auger through our sewage line for the year. That took every bit we had, to where we had to ask Scott's mom for a small loan to get us through this second week of the pay period. I just needed a few more basic groceries, and Scott needed gas for the week so he can make the commute to work. We're good now though, thanks to her. Good supportive family is so important when it comes to the success of our family, and knowing that I can call her when it gets tight or I need a sitter in a pinch has been vital for the success of our family. She watches the kids for my prenatal appointments, watched them for several days/nights when Scott had his surgery, and even took them overnight a few months ago when Scott took me to the homeschool convention in Cincinnati. She will also keep the girls when we have the baby, hopefully we can convince her to come stay here in our house during that time instead of taking the kids all to her tiny 1 bedroom apartment for that 2-4 days. It may just save her sanity to have the extra space (the girls' bedroom is bigger than her apartment, plus the actual yard and toys that we've got to keep them occupied).
I'm really hoping that the fact that I'm starting to feel more energy and less cranky means that my house will start getting cleaned up and that I'll be more able to get things going again around here. Last homeschool year was so filled with interruptions that we have a LOT of math catch-up to do this year. I can't afford to be too far behind at all this year, Missa and Liddy both need to finish Alpha and Beta this school year in math and Kimi needs to finish Primer and start Alpha. Yes, that is more than a year and a half of math in one school year. All 3 girls are about 1/4 to 1/3 through the current levels in math. Last year we made huge strides in reading, so this year the plan is to go heavy on math and get that caught up to a degree. I hope I can pull off my plan for this subject.
Also, next weekend I hope to have pictures to post of the indoor garden that we are starting. I plan to send Scott out to purchase the materials needed to build the platform, and then hopefully we can get hold of one of those hard plastic wading pools still to use for our garden plot. If not, the plan is for him to build a box from wood and line it in pool plastic before filling it with soil. Then we wait for the seedlings we've started to get big enough to transplant successfully. The tallest one is an adorable little 3" tall cucumber plant. I am really looking forward to being able to post an update and pictures of our big science project that I'm doing this year with the girls.
So anyway, this week I've noticed an increase in my energy level. It started with a few minutes of playing with the kids instead of just laying around supervising them (I get REAL tired at the start of a pregnancy apparently) and has moved up to where I was able to take a child with me out on a 2 hour grocery shopping trip this morning. So obviously, I'm not needing as much rest as I was even a week ago. It is now that I'm realizing exactly how many symptoms I was having earlier even though I wasn't too terribly sick.
So, now this is starting to feel real to me since I've figured out my major symptom. I now am starting to feel the anticipation. And, I'm beginning to take advantage of the energy that I'm starting to get back. We've put off starting the new homeschool year because of my lack of energy, and now I'm thinking I can do this on Monday. I don't have *all* my supplies really for this, but I've got enough to last for now. I have most of our books, and although I cannot make the switch in history that I wanted to originally (since we did so little history last year I wanted to pick up a couple books and switch from the 2 year program to the 1 year program for world history) I feel like we can totally pull off this whole thing.
I have a few weeks of basic consumable supplies for projects at least, but Scott has worked a lot of extra overtime this last 2 weeks so I will have the money hopefully to go out next weekend and finish off my supply shopping on top of a good restocking of groceries. This paycheck was a bit tight thanks to renewing tags and a driver's license, the mortgage payment, and having to get the drain guys out here to run the auger through our sewage line for the year. That took every bit we had, to where we had to ask Scott's mom for a small loan to get us through this second week of the pay period. I just needed a few more basic groceries, and Scott needed gas for the week so he can make the commute to work. We're good now though, thanks to her. Good supportive family is so important when it comes to the success of our family, and knowing that I can call her when it gets tight or I need a sitter in a pinch has been vital for the success of our family. She watches the kids for my prenatal appointments, watched them for several days/nights when Scott had his surgery, and even took them overnight a few months ago when Scott took me to the homeschool convention in Cincinnati. She will also keep the girls when we have the baby, hopefully we can convince her to come stay here in our house during that time instead of taking the kids all to her tiny 1 bedroom apartment for that 2-4 days. It may just save her sanity to have the extra space (the girls' bedroom is bigger than her apartment, plus the actual yard and toys that we've got to keep them occupied).
I'm really hoping that the fact that I'm starting to feel more energy and less cranky means that my house will start getting cleaned up and that I'll be more able to get things going again around here. Last homeschool year was so filled with interruptions that we have a LOT of math catch-up to do this year. I can't afford to be too far behind at all this year, Missa and Liddy both need to finish Alpha and Beta this school year in math and Kimi needs to finish Primer and start Alpha. Yes, that is more than a year and a half of math in one school year. All 3 girls are about 1/4 to 1/3 through the current levels in math. Last year we made huge strides in reading, so this year the plan is to go heavy on math and get that caught up to a degree. I hope I can pull off my plan for this subject.
Also, next weekend I hope to have pictures to post of the indoor garden that we are starting. I plan to send Scott out to purchase the materials needed to build the platform, and then hopefully we can get hold of one of those hard plastic wading pools still to use for our garden plot. If not, the plan is for him to build a box from wood and line it in pool plastic before filling it with soil. Then we wait for the seedlings we've started to get big enough to transplant successfully. The tallest one is an adorable little 3" tall cucumber plant. I am really looking forward to being able to post an update and pictures of our big science project that I'm doing this year with the girls.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
is it real?
I still am having trouble here with believing that we're expecting baby #5. I've had almost NO pregnancy sickness except for a week or two where I just felt horrible, and really there hasn't been anything to indicate that I'm pregnant happen. Yes, I am tired and I have some round ligament pains, but other than that I'm having no issues really. Scratch that, I've turned mean according to Scott and the kids. I've been picking fights with Scott lately, but he is such a good man he just forgets about it once I get done with my fighting and doesn't say a word.
So I decided that since I hit 10 weeks yesterday, putting me at 25% done with this pregnancy (give or take, as I'll likely deliver sometime the week before my due date), it was time to dig stuff out that I've been storing. The first thing I dug out was my boxes of cloth diapers.
Yes, I use those old-fashioned things. For over a year I used them on 3 kids at once while Missa was being too stubborn and not developmentally ready to learn to use the toilet instead of her pants. And, there are a LOT of options available for diapers now. Some are just as easy as changing a disposable, but you wash them instead of throwing them away. I have some of those; however, I prefer the good old fashioned pinned prefold with a cover over it. And yes, even the prefolds and flatfold diapers (those big squares of cloth you do origami to so they fit the baby) are better quality than they used to be back when we were children. In fact, here's my sweet Kimi modeling one of my diapers at 1 1/2 years old.
That is just a simple bleached infant prefold pinned, she was (and still is!) very small for her age so she never made it into premiums or toddlers before we quit using cloth at the end of my pregnancy with Jojo. I love them, and am planning to use them again this time.
So, I dug out boxes. Now I know I'm missing at least 1 or 2 boxes here of diapers, because I'm not seeing some that I clearly remember that are NOT cheap diapers. I had some very desirable fitteds and pockets with the girls that I was VERY proud of having, and they aren't in the boxes I got out today. However, with what I did find today I discovered that minus pins and a few covers, I don't need to buy ANYTHING to start from birth once the Pampers St. Ann's Hospital gives us runs out. Not too bad huh.........
But even with digging out the diapers, noting where my baby swing is at, and finding the pack n' play, this still doesn't feel real to me yet. I've had an ultrasound already, and I heard the sweet little heartbeat, but still it just isn't quite real to me. I sure hope that changes soon, because it feels odd to know that another baby is coming but its not sinking in really.
So I decided that since I hit 10 weeks yesterday, putting me at 25% done with this pregnancy (give or take, as I'll likely deliver sometime the week before my due date), it was time to dig stuff out that I've been storing. The first thing I dug out was my boxes of cloth diapers.
Yes, I use those old-fashioned things. For over a year I used them on 3 kids at once while Missa was being too stubborn and not developmentally ready to learn to use the toilet instead of her pants. And, there are a LOT of options available for diapers now. Some are just as easy as changing a disposable, but you wash them instead of throwing them away. I have some of those; however, I prefer the good old fashioned pinned prefold with a cover over it. And yes, even the prefolds and flatfold diapers (those big squares of cloth you do origami to so they fit the baby) are better quality than they used to be back when we were children. In fact, here's my sweet Kimi modeling one of my diapers at 1 1/2 years old.
That is just a simple bleached infant prefold pinned, she was (and still is!) very small for her age so she never made it into premiums or toddlers before we quit using cloth at the end of my pregnancy with Jojo. I love them, and am planning to use them again this time.
So, I dug out boxes. Now I know I'm missing at least 1 or 2 boxes here of diapers, because I'm not seeing some that I clearly remember that are NOT cheap diapers. I had some very desirable fitteds and pockets with the girls that I was VERY proud of having, and they aren't in the boxes I got out today. However, with what I did find today I discovered that minus pins and a few covers, I don't need to buy ANYTHING to start from birth once the Pampers St. Ann's Hospital gives us runs out. Not too bad huh.........
But even with digging out the diapers, noting where my baby swing is at, and finding the pack n' play, this still doesn't feel real to me yet. I've had an ultrasound already, and I heard the sweet little heartbeat, but still it just isn't quite real to me. I sure hope that changes soon, because it feels odd to know that another baby is coming but its not sinking in really.
Monday, August 01, 2011
the start of a new school year
Well, it is now August so I decided to go ahead and start our new school year today. I didn't do too much really, but it is more about getting into the habit right now than anything.
We started off this year's big science project. The kids are totally obsessed with how things grow, so I decided a while back to pick up a Miracle-Gro greenhouse kit for kids. It is a cute little thing, essentially a plastic base with clear plastic sides and lids and then there are 4 cups that you put the gro-mix into and then plant 4 different kinds of seeds that it came with into the cups. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, a hybrid of eggplant, and orange bell peppers planted in my living room now. Each girl got to plant one cup, and then Scott is going to build me something to transplant these little plants into hopefully in the next few weeks (or whenever they are getting too big for their containers). It was pretty easy and the kids got a kick out of it, and I have a feeling they will really enjoy watching the plants grow. Tomorrow I'm going to take some dried beans and wet paper towels to put in a clean empty pickle jar so they can SEE the process that their seeds are going through with growing in the "dirt" mix.
Then tomorrow will be a light day as well because we have a 9:30am appointment that will likely take us all morning, and hopefully that will be followed by a small food shopping trip. At least, this is what I'm hoping happens, I've heard rumors that WIC is changing from paper coupons to a debit card style like food stamps are done now so I may not be able to get milk and cereal tomorrow like I NEED to do. If we get to math and reading tomorrow, I'll be happy.
We started off this year's big science project. The kids are totally obsessed with how things grow, so I decided a while back to pick up a Miracle-Gro greenhouse kit for kids. It is a cute little thing, essentially a plastic base with clear plastic sides and lids and then there are 4 cups that you put the gro-mix into and then plant 4 different kinds of seeds that it came with into the cups. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, a hybrid of eggplant, and orange bell peppers planted in my living room now. Each girl got to plant one cup, and then Scott is going to build me something to transplant these little plants into hopefully in the next few weeks (or whenever they are getting too big for their containers). It was pretty easy and the kids got a kick out of it, and I have a feeling they will really enjoy watching the plants grow. Tomorrow I'm going to take some dried beans and wet paper towels to put in a clean empty pickle jar so they can SEE the process that their seeds are going through with growing in the "dirt" mix.
Then tomorrow will be a light day as well because we have a 9:30am appointment that will likely take us all morning, and hopefully that will be followed by a small food shopping trip. At least, this is what I'm hoping happens, I've heard rumors that WIC is changing from paper coupons to a debit card style like food stamps are done now so I may not be able to get milk and cereal tomorrow like I NEED to do. If we get to math and reading tomorrow, I'll be happy.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
hmmm what do I still need to buy?
It is school supply shopping time! Yes, that time when the kids all groan and the parents cheer because their kids are going back to public or private school. For homeschoolers, this means cheap supplies for our schooling. I like to take advantage of these sales.
While we may not buy things like lunch boxes and backpacks, there are many things we do get. For example, each of my girls is given a milk crate to keep her workbooks and supplies in. Missa and Liddy are on their third year with their crates, and this year we bought crates to add to the set for Kimi and Jojo. I color code their materials as much as possible also
With the addition of 2 more kids getting crates, this means I need to purchase some additional items. So, I'm trying to remember what all I need so that we can pull off this year beautifully. I'm going to post a list here, and then edit it as I remember more that we need and cross out items we've gotten as they are purchased. Pardon my running tally on this.
100+ boxes of 24ct Crayola crayons
12+ packs Crayola colored pencils
10+ packs mechanical pens
5+ packs ball-point pens
50+ glue sticks
2 pencil/crayon boxes, colors red and green (or clear and some spray paint)
40+ notebooks
1 3-ring binder, 1 1/2" size
ponytail elastics
barrettes
poster boards
paints and brushes
single hole punch
new 3-hole punch (unless I can find my good one in the garage boxes)
8+ pairs school scissors
OK I know I'm missing stuff. I'll edit it later lol
While we may not buy things like lunch boxes and backpacks, there are many things we do get. For example, each of my girls is given a milk crate to keep her workbooks and supplies in. Missa and Liddy are on their third year with their crates, and this year we bought crates to add to the set for Kimi and Jojo. I color code their materials as much as possible also
With the addition of 2 more kids getting crates, this means I need to purchase some additional items. So, I'm trying to remember what all I need so that we can pull off this year beautifully. I'm going to post a list here, and then edit it as I remember more that we need and cross out items we've gotten as they are purchased. Pardon my running tally on this.
100+ boxes of 24ct Crayola crayons
12+ packs Crayola colored pencils
10+ packs mechanical pens
5+ packs ball-point pens
50+ glue sticks
2 pencil/crayon boxes, colors red and green (or clear and some spray paint)
40+ notebooks
1 3-ring binder, 1 1/2" size
ponytail elastics
barrettes
poster boards
paints and brushes
single hole punch
new 3-hole punch (unless I can find my good one in the garage boxes)
8+ pairs school scissors
OK I know I'm missing stuff. I'll edit it later lol
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
a due date, water play, and disappointment
Yup, we have a due date. I personally think the ultrasound tech has no clue what she's doing because she didn't take many measurements of the baby and kinda said "uhhhhh I think...." when we asked how far along I am and when I'm due, so yeah. But for now, we are calling a due date of March 5, 2012. And with my pattern for delivery, there IS a chance that I could go into labor on February 29th (leap day baby!!!!) OR on our anniversary March 6th. That puts me right now at 8 weeks pregnant. I'll be asking Dr. Parker about this when I go see him on August 9th and get his opinion.
In terms of water play, the kids have been doing a LOT of that lately. We had to get a new hose over the weekend for their sprinkler, and the increased water pressure as a result has them giddy. I have a feeling our water bill will be over $100 when it comes next month with how much they've been playing in the water out back.
I'm also disappointed. We had to cancel the order from Amazon for my Kindle. Plumbing issues need fixed before we can play. Oh well, just as well I think, Scott's overtime is coming back in a big way now and we're going to have some great paychecks. I'll just take a little from each of them until I have the money for my Kindle again. I'm not going to worry over it, especially since I have the Kindle app on my laptop and can read anything I want at any time.
In terms of water play, the kids have been doing a LOT of that lately. We had to get a new hose over the weekend for their sprinkler, and the increased water pressure as a result has them giddy. I have a feeling our water bill will be over $100 when it comes next month with how much they've been playing in the water out back.
I'm also disappointed. We had to cancel the order from Amazon for my Kindle. Plumbing issues need fixed before we can play. Oh well, just as well I think, Scott's overtime is coming back in a big way now and we're going to have some great paychecks. I'll just take a little from each of them until I have the money for my Kindle again. I'm not going to worry over it, especially since I have the Kindle app on my laptop and can read anything I want at any time.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
What I'm reading this week
I have trouble with books. One, I'm dyslexic and have ADHD (hmmmm sounds like Missa, doesn't it?). I have trouble focusing on pages in a book and getting started reading because of the ADHD, and then the simple act of reading is very tiring for me once I do get going. If you are dyslexic or have a dyslexic child, you know what I am talking about on this one.
And before I go ANY further, I'd like to point out something. Dyslexic people may not be behind in reading. In fact, I was a very early reader and can read anything I want to fluently. However, my dyslexia affects my comprehension of written material. Often, THIS is what happens with dyslexia. Missa is a "classic" dyslexic child, where her reading level AND her comprehension are both affected. Dyslexia looks different in each person, and many would never guess that I am one of these people. I'll spare you the list of famous dyslexic people (ok maybe just a few..... Patrick Dempsey, ya know, Dr. Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, he's dyslexic, as well as Picasso, Beethoven, Darwin- ok bad example there LOL- and even the son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ozzy Osborne's oldest daughter, they are all dyslexic) but trust me when I say that dyslexia is much different from what people would normally expect.
So, now you know I'm dyslexic, and I can already hear you screaming at the computer. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE A LITERATURE-BASED CURRICULUM FOR HOMESCHOOL??????? Easy, I can read out loud just fine and dandy. I even have excellent comprehension when I hear myself read out loud. I just flat out love books, and I want my kids to have that excitement too. OK, I got that one covered, I have to go into their bedroom tomorrow and round up all the library books to take back because I have a feeling half of them found their way off the shelf and under their beds, in the closets, and in other odd places. They read constantly, and they enjoy it. Yes, even my dyslexic Missa enjoys reading.
But, outside reading to the kids for lessons, I do very little reading myself outside my college books and what I find on the computer screen. So, I am fixing that now. I have the Kindle software on my laptop, and my lovely husband decided to surprise me by ordering a Kindle for me from Amazon. Yes, I too am joining the crowd of Kindle owners. I am especially excited about this "experimental" feature of the Kindle that reads books to you. If this works well enough, I can immerse myself in books as much as I want to without tiring from the struggle to read. But anyway, my plan is that tomorrow I am going to start with a book on my laptop with the Kindle app, and then I am going to read it. I should finish the book right around the time my Kindle is delivered. So what am I reading this week?
Now this book appeals to me on many levels. One, I'm a slob. There, I said it. I hate housework, and will do anything I can in an attempt to get out of doing it. I don't see any point to cleaning all the time only to have my kids undo the cleaning as fast as I clean it up. I've heard that this book is full of Christian content, and I hope that it can speak to my heart about this little issue I have with cleaning. I've tried so many other things in the past for housework, and nothing really has worked because in my HEART I've always resented chores and don't see a point to doing this stuff most of the time. And if you don't get the title, it is referring to Luke 10:30-42 when Mary sat at Jesus' feet listening while Martha was running about cooking and cleaning. I am very much a Mary, and very little Martha in this case. Hopefully this book will give me some inspiration to embrace the Martha side of my life a little more instead of pushing it away all the time.
And before I go ANY further, I'd like to point out something. Dyslexic people may not be behind in reading. In fact, I was a very early reader and can read anything I want to fluently. However, my dyslexia affects my comprehension of written material. Often, THIS is what happens with dyslexia. Missa is a "classic" dyslexic child, where her reading level AND her comprehension are both affected. Dyslexia looks different in each person, and many would never guess that I am one of these people. I'll spare you the list of famous dyslexic people (ok maybe just a few..... Patrick Dempsey, ya know, Dr. Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, he's dyslexic, as well as Picasso, Beethoven, Darwin- ok bad example there LOL- and even the son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ozzy Osborne's oldest daughter, they are all dyslexic) but trust me when I say that dyslexia is much different from what people would normally expect.
So, now you know I'm dyslexic, and I can already hear you screaming at the computer. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE A LITERATURE-BASED CURRICULUM FOR HOMESCHOOL??????? Easy, I can read out loud just fine and dandy. I even have excellent comprehension when I hear myself read out loud. I just flat out love books, and I want my kids to have that excitement too. OK, I got that one covered, I have to go into their bedroom tomorrow and round up all the library books to take back because I have a feeling half of them found their way off the shelf and under their beds, in the closets, and in other odd places. They read constantly, and they enjoy it. Yes, even my dyslexic Missa enjoys reading.
But, outside reading to the kids for lessons, I do very little reading myself outside my college books and what I find on the computer screen. So, I am fixing that now. I have the Kindle software on my laptop, and my lovely husband decided to surprise me by ordering a Kindle for me from Amazon. Yes, I too am joining the crowd of Kindle owners. I am especially excited about this "experimental" feature of the Kindle that reads books to you. If this works well enough, I can immerse myself in books as much as I want to without tiring from the struggle to read. But anyway, my plan is that tomorrow I am going to start with a book on my laptop with the Kindle app, and then I am going to read it. I should finish the book right around the time my Kindle is delivered. So what am I reading this week?
Now this book appeals to me on many levels. One, I'm a slob. There, I said it. I hate housework, and will do anything I can in an attempt to get out of doing it. I don't see any point to cleaning all the time only to have my kids undo the cleaning as fast as I clean it up. I've heard that this book is full of Christian content, and I hope that it can speak to my heart about this little issue I have with cleaning. I've tried so many other things in the past for housework, and nothing really has worked because in my HEART I've always resented chores and don't see a point to doing this stuff most of the time. And if you don't get the title, it is referring to Luke 10:30-42 when Mary sat at Jesus' feet listening while Martha was running about cooking and cleaning. I am very much a Mary, and very little Martha in this case. Hopefully this book will give me some inspiration to embrace the Martha side of my life a little more instead of pushing it away all the time.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Scott's surgery- update 3
Well, we are now at the 1 week point after his surgery. OK almost, that comes tomorrow. His incisions are healing nicely,and he's not taken any of his pain medication for a couple days now. He even made a short trip to the local WalMart (with 2 kids no less, Jojo ALWAYS goes with whoever is running an errand and then he took Missa to be a useful help to him). He is healing nicely, and much quicker than I expected given his post-op issues. He goes in on the 20th to see the surgeon and get a work release, and to get that pesky 10lb lift restriction lifted as well.
This morning he looked at me and said, "honey I really hope he releases me for work next week when I go in. I love you guys but DANG woman this house is insane during the day!" He misses the peace of his job apparently. At work he is on his feet for 10-14 hours a day with loud machines running nonstop, but at home he's had the joy of a little person poking him every 30 seconds and chanting, "daddy daddy DADDY" from the time they wake up until they go to bed. And that's not including the typical sibling rivalry and fighting, arguing, screeching, complaining, and whining and crying. He's ready to go back, we've driven him to the point where he's ready to shoot himself if he is told he has to stay home longer.
This morning he looked at me and said, "honey I really hope he releases me for work next week when I go in. I love you guys but DANG woman this house is insane during the day!" He misses the peace of his job apparently. At work he is on his feet for 10-14 hours a day with loud machines running nonstop, but at home he's had the joy of a little person poking him every 30 seconds and chanting, "daddy daddy DADDY" from the time they wake up until they go to bed. And that's not including the typical sibling rivalry and fighting, arguing, screeching, complaining, and whining and crying. He's ready to go back, we've driven him to the point where he's ready to shoot himself if he is told he has to stay home longer.
Friday, July 08, 2011
a glimpse of God's awesomeness
~Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3~
Yes, the day after I worried that I was going to lose my husband from an anesthesia issue from his surgery, we learned that we are going to be welcoming a fifth child into our family. Because I haven't had a cycle since we had my IUD removed in May, I will be going in a week and a half to my obstetrician to have an ultrasound to date my pregnancy and calculate a due date. I am anywhere from 4-10 weeks pregnant. So far, I have been blessed to not have any pregnancy sickness at all. This is a major blessing as the girls all made me so miserable sick that I ended up on medication after a 20lb weight loss each time. It is such a blessing and joy to know that our family is being blessed with another member joining us in 2012.
And now we all know why I was so upset and crying when I got to go up and see Scott at first after his surgery. I overreacted big time because of the hormonal changes I'm going through right now.
Scott's surgery- update 2
Yesterday was just a bit trying for me. I should have done this last night, but ended up collapsing with exhaustion at 7pm and just now woke up at 6am. So yeah, I'm sure I get a little grace for not updating right away. So anyway.....
Around 3pm yesterday, Scott stabilized and woke up alert. We got him eating ice chips, and when that stayed down he got a small can of diet cola and some saltine crackers. He was given a pain pill and they made him walk a bit in the hall and then make an attempt in the bathroom (anesthesia can affect a person's bladder usage so we needed to make sure that he IS capable of emptying it, he hated that but got over it and tinkled for us a little). At 5pm, we got him dressed and I had the van at the door to pick him up. Since I do not have air conditioning in my van, the nurse made sure that he had a 32oz. mug freshly filled with water and a LOT of ice for the hour ride home.
I dropped off the prescription for him at CVS on our way home, and then I got him inside and he decided that he had to use the bathroom again. That time it was painful because he had to push a bit, but it is a good thing he did go because his bladder was apparently urgently filled. Then I got him into bed, skipped over to the neighbor and asked her to keep an eye on him since he did have surgery that morning, and I went to get his prescription and some Sprite.
Right now, CVS here has a deal for 2 liter bottles of Coke products for 69 cents with their card. I got him a Sprite and me a Coke, and I had to get a new CVS card because I lost ours and they couldn't find it in their system with any of the 5 phone numbers I gave them. Go figure. His prescription thankfully was only $7 so it didn't hurt us too much financially. No, the problem with his prescription is a little different.
The surgeon prescribed him Vicodin for his pain. He is allergic to Percocet (and I have a feeling I completely butchered spelling that one) so that one wasn't an option. So why is Vicodin an issue? I am highly allergic to Vicodin. Last time I took it myself, I broke out into serious hives, itched like crazy all over, and had trouble breathing. Once I recovered from that reaction, I took my bottle and tossed the remaining pills in the toilet, but just coming in contact with them caused me to break out in hives again. So, I cannot even TOUCH his pain pills, or the bottle itself. He had the bottle on his nightstand overnight, and I woke up this morning itchy and a little wheezy. I'll be living on Benadryl for a few days until the Vicodin is gone, in an attempt to reduce my allergic reaction to his medication. I'm not going to ask the surgeon to give him a different medication just because its causing me some issues, it works for him and the other popular one he can't take. I just have to make sure I know where that bottle is at all times until it hits my outside trash, and keep my time around it to a minimum.
So, he is doing MUCH better now than he was at my initial post on him post-op. He says his pain isn't too bad at this point, but he's in bed asleep right now. We'll see how he does in a few hours when I make him get up to use the bathroom.......
Around 3pm yesterday, Scott stabilized and woke up alert. We got him eating ice chips, and when that stayed down he got a small can of diet cola and some saltine crackers. He was given a pain pill and they made him walk a bit in the hall and then make an attempt in the bathroom (anesthesia can affect a person's bladder usage so we needed to make sure that he IS capable of emptying it, he hated that but got over it and tinkled for us a little). At 5pm, we got him dressed and I had the van at the door to pick him up. Since I do not have air conditioning in my van, the nurse made sure that he had a 32oz. mug freshly filled with water and a LOT of ice for the hour ride home.
I dropped off the prescription for him at CVS on our way home, and then I got him inside and he decided that he had to use the bathroom again. That time it was painful because he had to push a bit, but it is a good thing he did go because his bladder was apparently urgently filled. Then I got him into bed, skipped over to the neighbor and asked her to keep an eye on him since he did have surgery that morning, and I went to get his prescription and some Sprite.
Right now, CVS here has a deal for 2 liter bottles of Coke products for 69 cents with their card. I got him a Sprite and me a Coke, and I had to get a new CVS card because I lost ours and they couldn't find it in their system with any of the 5 phone numbers I gave them. Go figure. His prescription thankfully was only $7 so it didn't hurt us too much financially. No, the problem with his prescription is a little different.
The surgeon prescribed him Vicodin for his pain. He is allergic to Percocet (and I have a feeling I completely butchered spelling that one) so that one wasn't an option. So why is Vicodin an issue? I am highly allergic to Vicodin. Last time I took it myself, I broke out into serious hives, itched like crazy all over, and had trouble breathing. Once I recovered from that reaction, I took my bottle and tossed the remaining pills in the toilet, but just coming in contact with them caused me to break out in hives again. So, I cannot even TOUCH his pain pills, or the bottle itself. He had the bottle on his nightstand overnight, and I woke up this morning itchy and a little wheezy. I'll be living on Benadryl for a few days until the Vicodin is gone, in an attempt to reduce my allergic reaction to his medication. I'm not going to ask the surgeon to give him a different medication just because its causing me some issues, it works for him and the other popular one he can't take. I just have to make sure I know where that bottle is at all times until it hits my outside trash, and keep my time around it to a minimum.
So, he is doing MUCH better now than he was at my initial post on him post-op. He says his pain isn't too bad at this point, but he's in bed asleep right now. We'll see how he does in a few hours when I make him get up to use the bathroom.......
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