Slower Days

I haven't posted in forever.  Well, I tried to on Wednesday or Thursday of this past week.  Man, it was a really good post, too, about the ERA and what I found in my Bible.  But when I was nearly done writing, I had a brain freeze and lost it.  Doh!  Maybe one of these days I will feel like trying it again.  :-)

Part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is because my husband has been sloooooooowwwwwly recovering from the pneumonia he had at the end of May/beginning of June.  When he went to the doctor after a week of non-stop headaches, sleep and coughing, we were not expecting the doctor to tell him he had pneumonia!  A really bad strep infection, maybe.  But pneumonia????  Isn't that what really old or really young people get in the hospital?  LoL  We just weren't expecting that diagnosis.  So it's been a slow summer for us.  We have no garden planted, a tree on the side of the house needs trimming before it breaks through our bathroom window, and the pile that I started of stuff that NEEDS to go up in the attic (for my own anti-clutterer's deep needs) keeps getting bigger.  The guy is just TIRED, and I don't blame him.  The timing hasn't been the best with me being such a sleepy pregnant gal right now.  We both feel as if we're short a shovel or two of fuel.  Our kids have given us those "Who ARE you?" looks since we are not our usual slave-driving selves.  Little do they realize this will all pass.  Bwaaaaaaah-ha-haaaaaaaaaaaa!  I keep telling them not to get too comfy with all the slack around here, but I don't think they believe me.  ;-)

Pregnancy Update

I had my second OB appointment last Friday.  My daughter went with me because she wanted to hear the heartbeat.  God bless her.  I love to hear it, too.  :-)

According to my monthly schedule, my due date is December 9th.  But when I had a sonogram done, the way the baby was measuring, my doctor changed the due date to the 14th.  When I came in for this second appointment, the nurse said, "So did we decide that your due date is the 9th, or 15th?"  HA!  Where did the 15th come in????  I'm sticking with the 14th!  I never have the baby on the due date anyway.

I just knew that my OB was going to tell me that we would do a sonogram at the next visit, but when I asked her, she said she wanted to wait until the next visit.  Waaaah.  ;-)  I am dying to know if this baby is a boy or girl.  With my last pregnancy everyone around me was convinced we would have a girl since we already had two boys and my daughter "needed a sister."  But I knew that the baby was a boy.  Mother's intuition, or something like that.  And we did have our third boy!  Well, this time I am a bit on edge, and my Mother's intuition on the sex of the baby is being clouded out by emotion.  My daughter is SO SWEET.  She would LOVE to have a sister.  She is a GOOD big sister and it would be so cool to see her get her heart's desire in this.  At the same time, we're in a groove with boys and it wouldn't bother me a bit if the baby is a boy.  So I'm dying to find out.  I just have to know TODAY.  ;-)

While my OB was listening to the baby's heart rate, she happened to say, "About a hundred and fifty beats per minute."  I didn't think much about that until I got home and was wallowing in my disappointment at not getting a sonogram next month.  I started wondering if I could find any info on the web about the heart rate equaling the sex of the baby.  I had heard something about it before.  So I did a search and found out that the faster heart rate means a girl!  Woohoo!  But as I was reading on, I found more info.

You will have a boy if:
baby’s heart rate is under 140 beats per minute. - sounds as if we're having a girl!
you are carrying low and in front - too early to call, but I usually carry something like "as big as Jabba the Hut."
your urine is bright yellow - I refuse to investigate this
your right breast is bigger than your left - this is getting ridiculous
you don’t experience any morning sickness in the first trimester - didn't experience any sickness with my daughter, so this ol' wives tale is officially null and void

You will have a girl if:
baby’s heart rate is faster than 140 beats per minute - there's that whole "we are having a girl-thing"
you are carrying high and all over - see the above
your urine is clear - ahem
your left breast is bigger than your right - SIGH
you sleep on your right side - I DO!  I love to sleep on my right side!  But I did with one of the boys, too.  Dang!  I just can't win with these wives tales.

Here's a winner:
String and Ring Test:
This "test" can also predict whether you will have a boy or a girl. Tie your wedding band or other ring on to a piece of string. Hold this string so that the ring hangs down in front of your belly. Gently swing the string: if the ring moves in a circular pattern, you are having a boy; if it moves in a straight line, you are having a girl.
Yeesh!  Why don't I just lay down inside a pentagram while I'm having this done!  That "test" just creeps me out.

Another:
Do you have acne? Some believe that getting acne during your pregnancy indicates you're carrying a girl. Maybe the acne is caused by twice the amount of female hormones?
Now this one brings up bitter feelings.  Weren't we all told that when we became adults we would no longer have zits???  I'm pretty sure some adult told me that.  Man!

Another: (last one, I promise)
Many people believe that your cravings are caused by the sex of your baby. So, if you can't get enough chocolate, you could be having a girl. Does the idea of drinking straight lemon juice sound delicious to you? Then those sour cravings are a result of the little boy inside of you. However, if you go by the scientists, then some of them will claim that you're not even having cravings because cravings just don't exist.
1) Craved chocolate with my last baby, a boy.
2) Drinking straight lemon juice has NEVER sounded good to me
3)The scientists MUST be men.  Come on, I've been craving POTATO SALAD, of all things.  Wouldn't my subconscience pick something better than that if it were all in my head?

So I'm going out on a limb here.  I'm going to throw my guess out there.  My odds are pretty good, right?  About 50/50?  I think it will be a boy.  We'll see in August! 

So Long, Ol' Friend

Yes, we're saying goodbye to the old Huggies wipes box that has been duct taped to our door for almost a year.  You're not the first to wonder at our reasoning at having a box like this taped over our entryway door.  Just about everyone who visits, just HAS to ask, and by the time they leave our house, they have ALL become true-blue believers in the Huggies box over the door because they all get to try it out.  ;-)  We use the Huggies wipes box as a basketball goal.

One evening, on a rare date night, my husband and I were cruising around Target (I know, we are SO romantic) when we came across the old Nerf hoop.  We both had one as kids, it was super cheap (I think it was about 3 bucks), so we bought one for our kids.  FUN! 

It lasted about a week.  It was so cheaply made, it didn't stand a chance with our rowdy kids.  But we gave it another chance.  We bought another one and it died just as quickly.  By this time First Son had come to love having something hanging over the door to throw a ball through, but my husband and I refused to put down another 3 bucks towards the Nerf hoop.  So one afternoon, in a lull in all the excitement that goes on around here, First Son tried to hang the Huggies box over the doorway,  I helped tuck in the flaps and recommended the duct tape, and he took it from there.  It has been a permanent fixture ever since.  Much beloved.  Much used.  We all love the Huggies box, man. 

But it's dead.  Too many slam dunks have worn it out, so when I go shopping this weekend, I will buy some new wipes in a BRAND SPANKING NEW Huggies box and we will get a new basketball goal.  We're all giddy with excitement.  If you only knew!

A Nation Abandoned by God

That's the title of a sermon delivered by John MacArthur.  James Dobson featured this sermon on his show last week.  My husband and I just got the chance to sit down and listen to it tonight, and man, it's a heavy talk, and had us both speechless.  Here is the blurb about it:

The Bible records that, "because the Israelites forsook God and no longer served Him, He became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Amorites, who that year shattered and crushed them." Is modern-day America, which has forsaken godly principles in favor of rampant immorality, in danger of similar judgement? Will God abandon our nation as He did with Israel? He already has, says the Rev. John MacArthur. Well-known pastor and theologian makes a strong biblical case for his dramatic assertion. This thought-provoking message should move believers to pray for revival in our nation as never before.
"One of the most tragic scenes in the Bible ... is the scene of the strongest man who ever lived, a man by the name of Samson, finding out he had no strength ... He said, 'I will go out as at other times and shake myself free [of the Philistines].' ... But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. So the Philistines seized him." -- Rev. John MacArthur

Definitely take the time to listen if you can.  Go HERE for Part 1, and HERE for Part 2.  If for some reason you can't listen, you can find a transcript of the message HERE.

Wait Not

This is a poem included in the book Home-Making by J.R. Miller.

"Wait not till the little hands are at rest
Ere you fill them full of flowers;
Wait not for the crowning tuberose
To make sweet life's last sad hours
But while, in life busy household band,
Your darlings still need your guiding hand,
Oh fill their lives with sweetness.

Remember the homes whence the light has fled,
Where the rose has faded away;
And the love that glows in youthful hearts,
Oh, cherish it while you may,
And make your home a garden of flowers,
Where joy shall bloom through childhood's hours,
And fill young lives with sweetness."

You Be Chillin'!

I was making an evening run to Target last night to re-stock our fruit and bread supply.  On the way there, I was able to hear the first five-ish minutes of Focus on the Family.  I guess that's all God needed for me to hear because today I have been working on something new.  At the beginning of his message, Dr. Dobson talked about how families are so busy and make excuses for not making time for family time.  He read a short essay written by a 9 year old girl.  She wrote about grandparents.  One of the things she wrote, that stuck out at me, was "they should never say to hurry."  Complete paraphrase, but that was the gist.  And while the 9 year old was talking about grandparents, where do you think she got the opinion that they should never tell her to hurry?  Her bizzee, bizzeee parents?????????  ;-)

We do make time for family time here in our family.  We don't sign the kids up for organized sports or other organizations simply because we don't want to be split-up and on-the-go all week.  But there's still a lot that goes on here at home, and I am one of those dad-blamed task-oriented people.  If there's something in front of me to be done, I WANT to do it.  I almost can't resist the draw of the chore. I've had to get over that, but still try to squeeze in as much as possible during the day as I can.  So much so, that on any given day, at various times, I can be found saying "Hurry!" to my kids.  To make this little personal revelation even more painful is the memory of my kid's impatience in certain situations and my response.  Thoughtful comments such as, "Hold your horses," "What, you got a hot date or something?" "What's your problem???" "Simmer down, now!" and my personal favorite, proving that I am indeed an Material 80's Girl, "Take a Chill Pill!"

So last night I decided to quit trying to hurry my kids along and to be a little more leisurely.  I'm sure my kids were too polite to say anything about my red face and the bulging veins in my neck today as I worked hard at holding myself back from saying that one, little, itty-bitty word.  God bless them.  But I'm not going to give up!  I'm going to get this under my belt - and quickly, too!

Baby Boy

Second Son ran into my bedroom this morning with the news that he had pulled his second loose tooth.  He was so excited.  My husband pulled his first tooth out, so it was a big deal to him to have pulled this one out on his own.  I was watching him while he was telling the story of how it all came about and he looked so big and seems to be growing up so much.  It just broke my heart.  :-)  For so long he was THE baby.  He was just about six when Third Son was born.  Habit is hard to break and I keep thinking of him as my baby, even though in December he will officially be the "middle child."  God bless him.  ;-) 

Anyway, in honor of my baby boy, I wanted to post this article that I wrote a few years ago for our homeschool support group's newsletter.  It's all about him.

Grace from God
October, 2003

For so long, I have focused on Ben and his schooling, he being our oldest.  And one of the mantras in the homeschooling community seems to be “teach to the oldest.”  I generally agree with that statement, but wonder if I was taking it a little too far as God was bringing my vision into focus on our youngest son, Jack.  Common knowledge states that the middle child is usually the most overlooked, but as I observe homeschooling families, it seems the youngest are left out the most, as we all work so hard to provide those perfect teachable moments for our school aged children.  I began to feel God pointing this problem out to me, in my own home, and I began asking Him which way He wanted me to go. 

And as I prayed, I felt God softening my heart towards this busy boy who is in to everything he can reach.  This is the three-year-old boy whose favorite way to speak is as a growling tiger, who loves to jump so much that we bought him a mini-trampoline, whose favorite question is “Can I touch it?”, and can run away faster than the blinking of an eye.  He offers this old mom a challenge on a daily basis!  And whereas before, I was losing my cool with him when I found him in one of those situations that would have driven me crazy, I found that with God’s grace, I’ve been able to go with the flow.

Perfect example.  Some friends were coming over for a visit.  As they pulled into the driveway, Jack ran into the bathroom to go potty, but rather than getting up on the toilet to do his business, I guess he thought it was more fun to watch it go all over the bathroom floor.  Very funny.  Not a biggie.  Clean it up, and move on with our visit.  But during our visit, Jack pushed a chair over to one of the cabinets that houses all our fun, artsy-craftsy stuff.  He climbed onto the counter, opened the door and found a brand new bottle of silver glitter!  He dumped the entire bottle all over the counter and kitchen floor.  Hey, we’ve got a Kirby…suck it up!  And to wrap everything up in a neat and tidy bow, as our friends left, Jack gave a replay of the bathroom incident. 

But God has been faithful to me!  As I cleaned up each of those messes, I found that I wasn’t wishing over and over for Jack to get older so he would stop doing stuff like that.  I found myself thinking about all the detail cleaning I was given the opportunity to do!  If Jack had not spilled the glitter all over the floor, it would have been a long time before I took time to use the vacuum hose to clean out the nooks and crannies in our kitchen.  And as I cleaned the bathroom floor, I found myself also reaching out for the baseboards and giving them a good scrub. 

I could give more examples of the great cleaning situations Jack has put me in just during the last two or three days!  Like today when he poured all of his bubble mixture into the bathroom sink and added water and had a grand time playing in the bubbles while splashing the water and soap all over the floor and himself.  Praise God!  Snap a picture, let him play and marvel at my blessing as I get to detail clean the floor yet again!

What a blessing God has provided me in Jack, and I can’t thank Him enough for trading out my old, sour attitude about the situations in which I find myself with him.  I wonder what sort of messages I was sending all of my children as I threw my little mini-fits about another mess to clean up.  As I prayed for direction from God concerning my family, I imagine Him sitting on His throne shaking His head and saying, “You bet!  Another day, another round of forgiveness and second chances!”  He’s so good!

Craving

I haven't had many cravings since finding out that I'm pregnant, and this first craving has taken me by surprise.  My Mom's potato salad.  I tried to fill the need with potato salad from the grocery store (yes, I am that lame), but it just didn't do the trick.  It didn't taste like Mom's!  So I called Mom and got her recipe.  It seems the "secret" indgredient in her potato salad was handed over to her by her sister-in-law, my Aunt Lonie.  Boiled eggs.  Uncle Alvah and Aunt Lonie were chicken farmers so they had plenty of eggs to spare.  My Mom said that Aunt Lonie put boiled eggs in a lot of recipes that one would not suspect simply because she had a surplus of eggs on her hands.

Here's the recipe that Mom gave me.  I come from a family of six kids, and even though we kids have not been living at home for years and years, Mom still cooks big, so I cut this recipe in half.

8 potatoes, cubed and boiled
12 boiled eggs
1 onion
1 c. mayo
mustard to taste
 1/2 to 1 c. dill relish

I am sitting here waiting for my husband to get home so we can plow into some roast and potato salad!!!!  Never thought I would be this excited over potato salad.  ;-)

Naptime

Becoming a mother of a large family is teaching me so many things that go way beyond Diapering 101.  So many people think that my husband and I have arrived when it comes to parenting just because we are having our fifth child.  NOT!  God is not through with us yet, and I feel like lately He has been doing a lot of pruning on my old self.  Who says that old dogs can't learn new tricks?  ;-)  This pregnancy has been so different from the others.  I am more tired and am struggling with food issues and I have the tendency to focus only on those issues, letting them cloud out the other "four issues" that I already have.  ;-)

The biggest lesson I am learning at this point is self-denial.  There is, without a doubt, a lot to do around here!  My inclination during those afternoons when my eyelids are drooping and I feel as if I'm going to pass out if Second Son doesn't hurry and finish reading his story to me, is to go take a nap!  Let the kids watch a movie while Third Son is napping, and I go nap as well.  So tempting!  But if I let myself get into that rut, the kids will never be content doing their work when they could be lazing around in front of the t.v., and they will also never finish their current school years.  I would be rested, but frazzled, because we would not be getting the schoolwork or chores done that we need to.  So I've had to buck-up and keep my nose to the grindstone even though every inch of me is crying out for some rest.

I also have to fight the urge to sit and stare after lunch and dinnertimes.  We usually have some downtime after lunch and we all usually go out to the front yard to play basketball, ride bikes, walk around the block.....I've been tempted, again, to turn on the t.v. and rest on the couch while the kids watch Andy Griffith.  I've had to make myself follow the routine and get ourselves out the door.

After dinner is when I usually try to keep up with laundry.  My husband is SO good!  He cleans the kitchen with the kids while I disappear upstairs to our bedroom for ironing and folding.  It's a blessing to have that time.  But since the pregnancy began, again, I am tempted to go lay on the couch and doze.  I am already always behind in laundry.  If I gave into this urge, I can't even imagine the chaos.  You know, there's nothing worse than when one's husband has to ask if he has any clean underwear somewhere in the house.  HA!

You know, as I have made myself do what I know I should for my family, I have truly found freedom.  No guilt over missed school lessons, dirty laundry, or fat kids!  And I am thankful for God encouraging me to walk the path that He has placed me on, rather than watching it pass me by from a reclining position on the couch.  ;-)