Nesting

Usually when I start nesting during pregnancy, I start gathering in things like toilet paper.  Oh my.  With the first three, that was my obsession.  I had every bathroom cabinet packed tight with TP.  With the fourth, I decided that I was being ridiculous over toilet paper, so switched to dryer sheets.  I didn't have to buy dryer sheets for the first year of Henry's life.  With Sophia, I got a clue and collected cleaning products.  You would think, with all my household product collecting with the first five children, that no one was going to be allowed to leave the house to go to the store - EVER.  But really, who can argue with the logic - we never had to worry about TP, dryer sheets or cleaning products, and that's one less thing to stress over,  ya?  I just know that my special stashes saved me...maybe that'll be one of the questions I ask God when I get to Heaven.  "Tell me!  What sort of trouble did I save myself with all the dryer sheets I had on-hand during the first year of Henry's life?"  Can't wait!

With this current pregnancy, I feel I've finally hit my stride.  I am making tons of food for the freezer.  Usually my Mom is here performing her Tennessee Woman Cooking Magic.  Since she won't be this time around :-/ I'm trying to pick up her slack.  What amazes me is my militant attitude about it.  I mean, I mean business.  Any kid tries to snag a banana pancake that I've set aside for the freezer and I'm on top of them in about two seconds.  No one takes away my freezer food, man.

This past week was my first week preparing food for the freezer.  Here's what I have so far:
Breakfast:
Banana Pancakes
Crustless Quiche

Breads:
Whole Wheat Bread
Spice Bread w/ a side of Maple Butter

Main Meals:
Ravioli Casserole
Farmhouse Chicken

The really great thing about this freezer food is that I only prepared half of what is on the list.  Darin and I have gotten super-duper serious about having the older three be able to run the kitchen.  Again, my Mom won't be here to keep life humming for us, so SOMEONE'S gotta do it!  The only ones we could think of were Ben, Lydia and Jack.  They are 14, 11, and 9, and I tell you, they are really catching on.  It has taken awhile, and they still have moments when they refuse to work together while insisting on deep lines in the sand concerning where their own contributions end and begin, but little by little, they are learning to work together and get things done.  I leave the kitchen after every meal, stay within earshot, and let them have at it.  Just in the past two or three weeks, I've given Ben and Lydia entire meals to cook, and they've done so well.  I can't wait to see them in action after the baby is born.  What a blessing they will be to Darin, me, and really, to the whole family.

High School Life

I have so little time to blog these days, but things keep piling up on my "mental list of things to blog about" that I almost feel short circuited.  I don't know if I can actually get out a coherent blog entry because of the overflow of thoughts.  We'll see...

As I thought, the football-thing has been a challenge for Ben.  Darin and I wondered how he would take the added stress of the football schedule along with his other responsibilities.  We're grading him on a curve on this one since this is a new situation for him.  He's used to having plenty of time for school and chores, but now we are three weeks away from the end of the season and he seems to still have a ways to go in figuring out how to balance everything.  He keeps thinking he should have the same amount of free time he always had.  Funny.  I find myself still thinking that way sometimes.  It's just one of those lifelong struggles, isn't it?

We began World Views of the Western World I with Ben this fall.  Where we live, most sign their kids up for an outside class for this curriculum.  The author, David Quine, says that when he wrote it, he had in mind the parents and student going through it together and having conversations about it.  So Darin and I decided to go for it and we're really glad we are going through it with Ben.  Not only are we learning things we never even had inklings about, but there have been a few conversations with Ben that have really been enjoyable.  It is such a privilege to homeschool our high school boy.  I can't imagine missing all the fascinating conversations we're going to have with him over the next four years.  And those ah-ha moments don't stop after elementary school.  They're continuing, and it's so fun to see connections being made in his mind - growing up, young adult connections, that will lead to more mature thoughts and beliefs.  I am just in awe of this homeschooling thing.  I wish we were doing it perfectly, but I'm praying that God is taking care of the graded curve on this one for us.  ;-)

I have farmed out one aspect of Ben's schooling.  Writing.  I was an English major in college and got pretty good grades, but I am no writing teacher.  A friend of mine told me about Patrick Henry's Writing Mentors for High School Students.  I thought about it for a bit, then remembered that MY SISTER is a High School English teacher.  Big "duh" moment for me.  ;-)  She has always been very supportive of our homeschooling, so it was a no-brainer to ask for her help.  And so she is working with Ben and helping him to fine tune his writing skills in a way that I would have really struggled to do.  It's worked out so well that she has begun to also work with Lydia, our comma queen. 

It's a great blessing - next time our kids complain to us about their brothers and sisters, we need to remind them that they have the family they have for a reason!  Of course I know that I don't have my sister only to teach my kids writing, but I know it's part of the reason.  God knew I would need my big sis in this way one day.  :-)

And Our Jaws Dropped

Part 2 and 3 of our insurance drama...

PART 2
A wonderful friend of mine read my last blog entry and recommended CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) for me, since I'm pregnant, and for the kids.  We checked it out and were excited about it, but we do not qualify for the program.  Darin's income is $500 more than the minimum requirement.  But after the baby is born, we will qualify for it since there will be one more member of the household to include in the final count.  So we're getting our paper work ready for December and will get that going as soon as the baby is born.  Darin and I plan to still check out Samaritin Ministries for ourselves.

PART 3
So Darin was working away in his office and two of his bosses entered.  They were wondering why we chose to opt-out of the insurance plan for the year.  Darin explained that we couldn't afford a potential $15,000 in insurance payouts, so we decided to wing it for a few months before looking into the Samaritin Ministries deal.  You know, all I wrote about in the last post. 

But Darin's "boss" boss was not happy with that.  He was concerned that between now and the Samaritin Ministries/CHIP thing that something major would happen and we would be $100,000 in the hole, rather than $15,000 in the hole.  Well, that was our concern as well, but we felt as though we just needed to trust God for our safety.  His boss said, "I'm not a big fan of insurance.  I think it's a scam, and I've gone without it before, but not when I had as many kids as you or was as old as you."  LoL!  i.e. When he was a young man in his 20's.  ;-) 

So he and the other boss stepped out of Darin's office to confer for a minute.  When they came back in, they offered to pay our premiums from now till December, when we can get the kids on CHIP.  Then in January, Darin and I can either stay with the plan or sign-up for Samaritin Ministries.  AND they are giving Darin a $1000 bonus on his next check to help pay for our Midwife! 

It's a done deal and we are blown away.  This was totally unexpected.  We know that God is good, but we just did not expect anything like this.  The kids and I had prayed the day before for God's protection and so after I got off the phone with Darin and told the kids the latest update, we prayed again and thanked Him for that protection.  Sometimes we don't always see God's Hand at work in our lives so obviously and it's moments like this, when we can see Him moving, that just takes our breath away.