Women Who Won't Have Babies & Update

Thankfully the contractions have stopped!  I had a "contraction hangover" all day today, but no more contractions.  We just worry what we would do if the baby came before my parents got here.  It would be a lot more stressful for my husband to try to juggle everything and keep things running on both ends.  So here's to hoping and praying that God answers our prayers and keeps this sweet baby in utero for a few more days.  We only need to get to next Wednesday afternoon!  ;-)

Thanks, Tori and Reb for your encouraging comments!  I do want to say that I appreciate anyone who leaves a comment, especially if you consistently read my blog.  It is so nice to hear from everyone.  Tori, I love your comments and reading your blog!  And Brenda......pointing out my "dangling issues" got a good, long laugh out of my husband and me!  Reb....what happened to your blog??????

Sorta, kinda on another note, a hat tip goes out to Crystal at Biblical Womanhood for pointing out an article that I found very interesting.  Here's an excerpt:
"Through my job I made many friends who, like me, were more interested in campaigning, trying to change society and save the planet rather than having families of our own.

"We used to say that if ever we did want children, we'd adopt, as there are so many children in need of a loving family.

"At least then, we'd be doing something positive for the world, rather than something negative."

Toni was happy, at last, with fellow environmentalists who shared her philosophy. But when she was 25, disaster struck.

"I discovered that despite taking the Pill, I'd accidentally fallen pregnant by my boyfriend.

"I was horrified. I knew straight away there was no option of having the baby.

"I went to my doctor about having a termination, and asked if I could be sterilised at the same time.

"This time it was a male doctor. I remember saying to him: 'I want to make sure this never happens again.'

"He said: 'You may not want a child, but one day you may meet a man who does'. He refused to consider it.

"I didn't like having a termination, but it would have been immoral to give birth to a child that I felt strongly would only be a burden to the world.

"I've never felt a twinge of guilt about what I did, and have honestly never wondered what might have been."

Waaaah.  It breaks my heart to hear anyone talk this way.  In another part of the article, she says that couples who have children are selfish.  WOW.  The last thing I feel at this point is selfish.  Yes, it's true that I ask God for children.  Even now, when I am so uncomfortable with Second Daughter, I still pray for more children, and at my age (39), I wonder how much longer I will even be able to have children.  But living life with our children has broken First and Only Husband and me of MANY of our most selfish attitudes and behaviors.  We have learned through day-to-day life with our kids that we have to give up things we want to do for them - for the good of our family.  And it never gets easier because we constantly are confronted with issues that reveal how self-centered we really are.  It's especially lovely when it's the same issue that we struggle with over and over.  ;-)

It's hard to believe how far Satan has gone to mislead so many in the world, and all because he wants no one to obey God.  "Be fruitful and multiply."  And of course whenever we obey, blessings come and so many miss the blessings and the calling that God has placed on their lives for a higher purpose than our own.

Go here to read the entire article:
Meet the Women Who Won't Have Babies - Because They're Not Eco-Friendly

Pregnancy Update

Well.  Last night I started having mild contractions.  It wasn't anything to keep me awake all night.  In fact, they became a dream.  Of course in the dream things went too fast, and I ended up having the baby at home.  In the dream my Husband kept saying, "I don't know what to do!"  HA!  Me neither!  You know, there's something comforting about showing up at the hospital and having everyone tell me what's next - as much as that can be done during the delivery of a baby.  ;-)

Anyway....I already had an OB appointment scheduled for this morning.  Last week I was ZERO cm dialated.  This week I am THREE cm dialated!  Wow.  I usually have to fight for every centimeter, but it seems my body is cutting me a break this time around. 

Of course we cannot have the baby now.  My parents are planning to travel from TN to be here for the birth so they can hang out with the kids.  They can't come until the 5th of December.  That's just next week, and I hope that I can hang on until then.

In the meantime, I'm a little stressed, but too worn out from the contractions to care.  I had them until mid-afternoon, and they are picking back up now.  Nothing regular, but they are a bit stronger than they were earlier.  I'm stressed because I went grocery shopping on Sunday, but First and Only Husband and First Son put away the groceries.  I had my shopping list/menu for the week in one of the bags of groceries, and someone threw it away.  So if I end up in the hospital tomorrow, whoever is around to fix dinner will have to come up with their own concoctions out of what we have.  I can barely remember what was on the menu or I would rewrite it!  ;-) 

The fun never ends.  :-)  This week during our Bible study, the kids and I have been reading in Lamentations, and I have taken 3:24-26 to heart for this season of my life so I don't totally wig out on everyone around me:
“ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, 
“ Therefore I hope in Him!” 
   The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, 
   To the soul who seeks Him. 
    It is good that one should hope and wait quietly 
    For the salvation of the LORD.  

I Wanna be Grandma Walton

It seems kind of crazy for me to be thinking about it now, with me about to give birth to Second Daughter within the next few weeks, but I can't wait until my kids are all grown up with families of their own so I can help them.  I imagine myself bringing meals, volunteering to clean a bathroom, teaching my grandkids a school subject.....really, whatever my daughters and daughters-in-law need me to do. 

My inspiration is Grandma Walton from The Waltons.  Did ya ever see Grandma resting on the porch when there was dinner to be made or mending to be done?  She was a working partner with Olivia.  In my imaginary world where the Walton's are real, I imagine Olivia thinking, "I could not do all that needs to be done without Grandma's help!" 

Amen, sistah. 

 

Misc.

Today the kids and I went to the mall.  First Son needed a new pair of sneakers and there is a store there that has great prices.  What a proud Mama Moment that was as my 12yo paid for his own sneakers out of his Living Expenses money that he had been saving all summer from his mowing jobs.  We use Doorposts' Stewardship Street to teach the kids money management.  It has been a great resource for our family.

I was also able to get some nursing bras while we were there.  What a monkey off my back that is!  LoL  I have been stressing a bit over a few dangling issues that still need to be taken care of before Second Daughter is born, and this was one of them.  Check!  All done.  :-)

The mall has a great indoor playground for kids.  First Daughter said, "We want to take "Third Son" onto the playground.  We're too big to play, but we'll just stay with him."  Yeah, right.  I saw right through that one, but they only had to be reminded once to focus on their real mission, which was to keep Third Son from being trampled by the 20,000 other kids who were also playing at the playground.

As I sat sprawled out on the cushioned bench in all my pregnant glory, I was taken back in time when it was just First Son and me.  There were tons of first-time moms there with their sweet ones.  They all were so careful and attentive, and followed their children around, ready to protect them from falls onto the 10-inch thick matting.  And if they happened to make eye contact with another mom, their conversation totally centered around their children and the things they said or did.  I remember all that!  Do you?  I used to climb up into the tunnels of McDonald's with First Son.  That stopped after we ended up sharing one part of the tunnel with a baby girl who had a stinky diaper.  Eeeeewwww!  There is NO ventilation in those tunnels, and that poor girl followed us everywhere we went. 

But I remember being a first-time mom.  What  a new world that was back then.  Everything that First Son did amazed me.  And while we are still mightily impressed with Third Son and his antics, we have seen and been through many of the same situations with the other kids that we now find ourselves in with Third Son.  That's not a totally bad thing.....First and Only Husband and I definitely have more of a handle on things than we did way back then.  But still, it's fun to think of the newness of life as a parent.  To wonder, and marvel at all we were learning, and have learned since then.  The really neat thing is that I doubt we are through learning.

On another note, a friend loaned me four of her brand new, unopened! Drive Thru History DVDs to use after Second Daughter is born.  I am not usually very quick in the recovery department, so I try to have some things on-hand to keep the kid's minds at least halfway working while I snooze on the couch.  After Third Son's birth, we went through all the Moody Science DVDs.  Man, those were worth every penny.  We'll probably go through those again, as well as the Drive Thru History DVDs and other things that we already have around.

But not only did my friend bring the DVDs for us to use, but also some Pumpkin Bread.  It was SO good, and saved me from having to make biscuits to go with our dinner tonight.  That was the biggest blessing of all, because standing in the kitchen making dinner wears me out these days.  So thank you, Friend!  Please send the recipe.  :-)

Baby Shower

On Saturday afternoon my sister-in-law hosted a Baby Shower for me.  It was so nice!  I honestly never expected to get a shower since this is our 5th baby, so it was a nice surprise when she asked if she could host one for me.  She has also been good enough to give me all her little-girl-baby-clothes (my niece was born in December of last year) and since Third Son is only 19 months old, we still have all our baby gear, so I kind of felt guilty having a shower and asking everyone to buy stuff we didn't need, so we decided to make it a Book Shower. 

I am a HUGE book fiend.  I love books, always have.  I can't stand to check something out from the library and give it back if it was a good one.  I want to have ALL the good books.  ;-)  We've certainly accumulated a great little library of our own in our years of homeschooling, but of course we don't have everything!  We asked everyone to bring their favorite children's book and these are the ones I received: 

Horton Hatches the Egg
The Poky Little Puppy
Guess How Much I Love You
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?
Goodnight Moon
My First Read and Learn Bible
Barnyard Dance
Gossie
Old MacDonald's Farm (can't find this one on Amazon.)

We also got some diapers!, precious, PRECIOUS outfits, and a handmade blanket from Nana.  I wish I could post pictures from the shower, but our digital camera is broken!  And I'm here thinking, "how can we give birth without a camera????????"  LoL

More than anything, it was so nice to get together with friends and family to celebrate the arrival of our new daughter.  We are so excited to have her on the way and it was fun to share that excitement with others.  God is good to bring her to us, and to give us loved ones with which to share the fun!  It's hard to believe that we are just a few weeks away from meeting her!

 

Full-Service Home

Something my Husband and I learned as adults is that the skills we have acquired over the years are not for our own benefit.  They are to be used to serve others.  It's been interesting as we try to instill this thought into our own kids.  God has been good to give us many good opportunities for this.  Especially here at home, since we've begun this "full quiver" journey.  I am a complete control freak, and would do all the cooking and cleaning if I could.  I enjoy it, and especially enjoy seeing it done "right."  ;-) 

But since we had Third Son, and after I got pregnant with Second Daughter, things have changed.  I can't keep up with things as I would like, so the First Three have had to step up and get busy.  All the years of teaching them to do chores and simple cooking are now having to be used for more than just a way to earn allowance for themselves.  They now have to go above and beyond their regular chores.  They are fully capable, if not always fully willing.  And so we have come to a new phase of the learning - using the skills they have to serve others with a cheerful heart.  It's been interesting to watch the kids as they go beyond their regular chores into actual service in the home and see how far they will go before they start complaining.  Our goal is to teach them to go all day, if necessary, with the same good attitude they started out with.

I can relate to that!  Yesterday was a busy, busy day for us and I am a little sore around the bottom part of my tummy from being on my feet so much and sitting in uncomfortable chairs.  On our way home from church today I thought, "I am going to do nothing but lay on the couch all afternoon!"  If I only could have shut my brain off after that thought, I would have been okay, but then I remembered that First Daughter has to make a dessert to her AWANA meeting at church tonight.  She can do it....she just needs a little supervision because she'll be making a new recipe.  I also remembered that I need to run to the store to get some canned goods for the AWANA food drive.  That will use up the afternoon because First and Only Husband and kids will leave for AWANA around 4:30, and then it will be Third-into-everything-Son and  me.     ;-)  My first thought was to groan, and I did.  Then I had to straighten up and decide to go about the day with a better attitude than that!  So here goes...... 

Food

I've been reading a lot lately about how it's better to avoid fruits and vegetables that are grown out of season.  They cost more out of season because of the extra effort it takes to grow them out of season, among other reasons that my feeble, pregnant brain cannot remember.  I grew up shopping in grocery stores and not really working a garden, so I had no clue about what was really in and out of season at any given time of year.  I was sure about most of the standards like watermelon, apples, oranges, strawberries among others, but wasn't sure about everything.  So I did a Google search and came up with this page that has pictures and everything!  LoL Good thing, since I have never heard of some of the things on their list.

Go here for a Produce Guide to Season Fruit and Vegetables.

Also, if you haven't had a chance to subcribe to the online mag, Seasonal Delights, you must check it out.  Our family has greatly enjoyed the new recipes and craft ideas that we have received.  The recipes.......YUM!

Our Ways and His Ways

I was recently listening to a radio program where a father was discussing the suicide of his son.  I can't imagine the pain that the death of this man's son brought.  I NEVER want to go through that.  What struck me as I was listening, was that everyone on the show kept repeating that the son had been such an intelligent boy.  He could have been anything.  Why did he kill himself?

I think it's a big mistake to 1) tell our kids they can be ANYTHING they want to be and 2) that they are so smart and can achieve or overcome anything in life because of that.

1) We all have limits to our capabilities.  We can certainly do all things through Christ, but Christ has specific plans for us.  How many times have we talked with someone and shared how God "closed the door" on this or that ambition because He had a different purpose for our lives?  "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9. 

2) We can credit all our success on our brain power all day if we want, but God sees it differently.  "Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though they join forces, none shall go unpunished." Proverbs 16:5

I think that we set our kids up for what they believe is a deep failure on their parts when we focus their attention on their abilities, their intelligence, their interests, rather than on what God's plan for their lives is.  Kids who are raised to rely on their own smarts in making their way through life will be self-centered.  They will most likely forget that God made them for a purpose in their grief over their failures - never understanding that God may have just closed the ol' proverbial door FOR them. 

I can't say for sure how this man raised his son to think about himself or God.  He may have done and said all the right things to his son, but maybe his son was tuned into the world's way of thinking more than his father's?  We'll never know.  But we do know how we are raising our own children.  It's difficult. Even as homeschooling parents, we can get caught up in the "they sent their homeschooled kids to Harvard" stories (these days, who WANTS their kids to go there anyway?) and focus on academic and social successes.  Psalm 127:1 can serve as a great reminder of what our priorities with our children should be:
"Unless the Lord builds the house (or kid;-), they labor in vain who build it..."

I'm Not Writing About a Pencil

A while ago, I think I was visiting the HSB Front Porch.  Someone wrote about what to do when we just can't think of anything to write about on our blogs.  One of the suggestions was to "write about a pencil."  I kind of chuckled at that.  I did not want to write a blog entry about a pencil.

But today we started back to school after a five day break.  We school for 6 weeks (or 30 days) and then take a five day break.  It was a nice break, but it felt good to be back on track until I was reminded of our biggest school stressor ever.  Pencils.  I cannot tell you how I have come to resent pencils.  And pencil sharpeners. 

It all started when our less-than-a-year-old electric pencil sharpener died.  I thought there might be something stuck in it, but First and Only Husband checked it out and it was just dead.  No way around it.  But that was okay.  We used the pencil sharpener on our paper shredder.  How nice of the paper shredder people to think of including a pencil sharpener on the shredder?????  I thought it was a weird place for a pencil sharpener, but was thankful anyway.  But it didn't sharpen pencils very well.  It was downright dull.  So I bought a plastic, handheld, purple pencil sharper.  The kids loved it.  They sharpened every pencil they could find.  We were lovin' every minute of it until it became dull and wouldn't sharpen anything.  So then I bought mechanical pencils.  No sharpener needed!  But I had gone the cheap route and one by one, the pencils broke.  So I bought more expensive mechanical pencils, and a new handheld pencil sharper for back-up.  Good thing, because my kids have lost the mechanical pencils, so we have fallen back on the stubby pencils we have left in our pencil box.  Not one of those pencils has an eraser on it.  Third Son (19 months old) has bitten every one of them off.  We do have those big pink erasers.  They look a little weary since Third Son has also taken a turn chewing/sucking on those. 

If all this pencil trauma isn't enough, my oldest three who are schooling, constantly lose the pencil they are writing with during school.  They put it down and forget where, only to look over and see their bro/sis with it in their hands.  Then we have to work through the stolen pencil business, encouraging someone to be the peacemaker in the dispute, which brings on such strong emotions in my children as there are no real decent pencils in the pencil box to choose from and when chosen, have been carefully selected.  Who wants to give up the best, stubbiest pencil in the box?

On, and on and on......God bless you if you have read this far.  I am really working and thinking hard about what can be done about our pencil situation.  I thought today that I would like for the kids to have some way to wear their pencils on a necklace chain around their necks, but I don't think such a solution exists?  Maybe we could super glue them to their hands?  Maybe I could just ask Third Son to quit chewing off the erasers and he would say, "Sure, Mom!"  LoL  Maybe one day during schooltime, I'll retreat to the bathroom with a box of Calgon and let it "take me away."  Do you think it would work?

Here's what I'll do.  I'll go jump on my jet, take a soothing bath and come back loving the skin I'm in.  ;-)

 

The Death of an Iraqi Church

So much goes on in the world that we never see or hear about.  As I watched the video below, I imagined things I might have been doing during the trouble that these Iraqi Christians went though, and are still going through.  As I think about those things, I feel thankful to God that we aren't facing hard times like these in our own country, ashamed that I don't pray for persecuted Christians around the world enough, and humbled.  Humbled because the small irritations that I deal with during a normal week around here are NOTHING compared to the struggle and humiliation that so many others go through.

 William J. Murray, Chairman of the Religious Freedom Coaltion made this video while in Iraq:
THE DEATH OF AN IRAQI CHURCH - During our fact finding mission to the Middle East , I interviewed Iraqi Christians at the Chaldean Catholic Church in Beirut, Lebanon. In the basement of the church a display had been placed on the walls of photos from the church in Iraq. The display started with average middle class family photos taken before Islamic oppression escalated with our invasion, and they show what the conditions are now.