Pregnancy Update

I had a sonogram yesterday.  This is what we in our family impatiently wait for from the beginning of the pregnancy.  Especially this time.  With three boys and only one girl, man, the pressure was on!  And yes, I told the kids that it is Daddy's contribution that determines the s-x of the baby.  There.  Less pressure on ME!  LoL

We make the sonogram a family affair, so all of us piled into my doctor's office yesterday, along with my niece.  We created quite a stir and had just about everyone in the waiting room asking, "Are they all yours?"  After we would claim our niece as our niece, they would look at the remaining kids, count, and then say, "So this is your FIFTH?"  If they only knew that we would take more if God decides to bless us this way!!!!!

First Son, a.k.a. Mr. Manager, kept track of the time with his watch.  We arrived five minutes early for the appointment, and as each of those five minutes ticked away, he let us know how much time we had before we were called.  When we were on the last minute before the appointment time, we got the update every 15 seconds.  Imagine all the kids expecting for the door to be opened and my name called at exactly 10:15 and it not happening.  My Husband and I warned them, but did they listen????  Noooooo.  We had another 15 minute wait ahead of us and Mr. Manager kept us informed of how late the doctor was until we were finally called. 

We took a poll on the way to the doctor's office and there were four votes for a boy, and only two for a girl.  My daughter and I voted "boy" just because we felt the odds were stacked against a girl.  First and Second Sons voted "boy" because, well, they wanted a boy.  My niece voted "girl" because she wanted us to have a girl, and my Husband voted "girl" because he LOVES the name we had picked out for a girl.  I'm sure Third Son would have voted "boy" if he could - he is ALL boy, and I'm sure would have loved to wrestle around with a younger bro.

I have to say, our sonogram tech is the same woman who did First Son's sonogram over 12 years ago.  The experience shows because during the sonogram, she would say, "There's the two kidneys."  or "Look here at the bladder."  We would all squint and lean in to try to get a better view, but it sure looked like blobby static  to us!  But the shot of the baby we were all looking for was perfectly, perfectly clear.  This baby is a girl!!!!  My daughter and niece were sharing a chair and were squeezing each other to death during the entire sonogram until that time.  Then they did what they had practiced in the car - they let out HUGE, silent screams.  We were all excited.  This baby is such a blessing to our family.  God is so good.

It's kinda interesting......I come from a family of six kids.  Only two girls.  My older sister is nine years older than me, just like my daughter is nine years older than her little sister.  And this new baby girl is the 5th, and I am the 5th!  Wonderful omen, in my opinion.  My sister was always so good to her little sister and I'm expecting that history will repeat itself with my two girls.

Uncool

A lot of people talk about how homeschooling is so kewl because they, the parent, are getting a second chance at an education they never had.  I second that wholeheartedly!  What was it about nouns and adverbs that couldn't be absorbed into my poor head back in......ummmmm........I barely even remember what grades I studied grammar, but you know what I mean.  ;-)

While we are learning academics along with our kids, my Husband and I are learning a few other things as well.  One of the least flattering would be our attitude towards certain kids.  And the amazing thing, is that this attitude is really only towards kids, not adults.  I'm embarrassed to admit it........

Okay.  My son has this friend.  Sweet, sweet, SWEET boy!  Really, there can never be any complaints about this boy's behavior at all.  He's just a good kid.  But you know, if we were in public school, this kid would be an outcast.  He's sweet, he's just not COOL.  My husband and I have discovered that we still have the leftovers of our Public School Personality Files in which we place the friends of our kids, or really, any kid that happens across our paths as we navigate through life.  Ugh.  We are thankful that it doesn't seem as if our kids have picked up on this nasty habit so far.....but then I think to myself, "Does that mean that MY son is uncool, and that's why he has this friend?????"  How pathetic and UNCOOL is that?  Lots to work on and pray through - it's LITERALLY not all about academics, eh?

Thank you!

Thank you all for your prayers and kind words for our family during the rough time we've been having with sickness around here.  What a year this has been for us!  Third Son's hives and fever are gone.  He has had the hives before but we thought they were bug bites!  Now we will begin watching for the next time the hives come back to see if we can find what triggers them.  At this point, my first guess is that he gets hives every time he gets sick.  Seems the last time he had them, he was sick.  That was about four or five months ago.....we'll see.  :-)

Sending Out an S.O.S.

Third Son has been sick with a fever since last Wednesday and no one knows what the trouble is.  He has no other symptoms but hives.  Yup, hives.  So we have no clue and have been praying for his recovery from this mystery illness. 

It's been a tough last week, and man, I am feeling ragged.  I didn't want to let the older three languish in front of the t.v. while I tried to keep Third Son happy, so I've been working at keeping them on our regular schedule as much as I can.  To top it all off, I have developed a head cold.  My husband was able to stay home today and lend a hand, God bless him.  Tomorrow he will not be able to - he has tons of deadlines and pressure at work right now.  So if you're reading this, and feel the urge, please pray for our little familia, and for me, that I will not totally collapse in a heap on the floor in the morning when my husband leaves for work.  ;-)

Where's Your Wealth?

Anti-Scheduler (a.k.a. Slacker Woman)

I have a basic schedule that we follow every day.  The kids know what to expect which is good.  They seem to have this huge need to know what comes next, and I'm glad to oblige.  Here is what our day usually looks like:

8:00 a.m. - Rise and Shine (get dressed, eat breakfast, read a chapter of Proverbs, work on chores)
10:00 a.m. - Bible Study (we sing hymns, read scripture and pray)
11:00 a.m. - History or Science
12:00 p.m. - Get ready for lunch, finish chores, eat, freetime
2:00 p.m. - Seatwork
5:00 p.m. - freetime, get ready for dinner
6:00 p.m. - evening pick-ups (each one has an assigned area of the house to make sure is cleaned up)
6:30 p.m. - Dad comes home and we eat dinner
After dinner - clean the kitchen, take baths and showers
After showers - we read a book together as a family, sing a song, and pray.
BED!

There are no other details to our schedule.  We keep it lose and go with life.  The only time during the day when things get hairy for me is in the afternoon during our Seatwork time.  I've got three that need to work with me, as well as a 15 month old running lose.  On those especially frantic days, I vow to make a more detailed schedule so things aren't so haphazard during this time.  And every now and then I actually follow through.  The only thing I don't follow through on is following the schedule.  I've just never been able to bring myself to do it.  I look at the schedule and cringe.

On my latest rampage, I bought Managers of Their Homes.  That was three or four months ago, and I haven't done anything with it.  I just have a mental block in this area!  In her latest Mom's Corner, Terri Maxwell wrote about we moms who resist detailed schedules and something she wrote really hit home for me:

I will also challenge the mom who wrote me about Spirit-led scheduling to evaluate why she would feel stifled by her schedule. Is it because her schedule is put together wrong? If so, then she wants to determine where the problem lies. Did she pray about her schedule as developed it? Did she discuss it with her husband? Is the difficulty with having wrong activities on the schedule? Perhaps she hasn't allowed enough time for those activities.

Good points!  Where is my focus?  On the correct things?  I have to honestly say that I have never prayed over any schedule that I've made, and only once did I discuss a schedule I was making with my husband, and then I just sort of ram-rodded what I thought was best into the schedule.  Basically, I made a schedule in the presence of my husband. 

So I can see that I need to go back and put more prayer and input from my husband into this whole schedule business and see what we can all come up with.  ;-)  Maybe then I can be at peace with more details in our Seatwork time.  Who knows, maybe we'll just throw seatwork out the window.  HA!  What would the kids think about THAT?

Are You Relevant? Part 2

I love reading Pulpit Magazine.  It's really a blog, rather than a magazine, but I guess they can call it whatever they want. ;-)  It actually used to be an online magazine before they changed it to the blog format.  Pulpit Magazine is edited by John MacArthur, one of my favorite pastors.  I have learned so much from listening to his daily radio podcasts.

Today's post on Pulpit Magazine kinda goes together with my post from yesterday about "culturally relevant" churches.  In his post, John MacArthur writes about keeping truth, TRUTH.  There is no need to change what is in the Bible to "fit" our culture today.  Here's an excerpt:

Certainly, an individual’s understanding of the truth can be refined and sharpened by study of the Scripture. But the truth itself does not need to be reinvented or retooled in order to make it suitable for the times in which we live. The same truth Abraham, Moses, David, and the apostles believed is still truth for us. Changing times do not change the truth. Scripture is as unchanging as God Himself: “But the word of the LORD endures forever” (1 Peter 1:25). In other words, we need to adapt our understanding to the truth of God’s Word, not try to manipulate Scripture in a vain effort to harmonize it with the changing opinions of this world.

Here is a link to the rest of the post.  Much shorter than the link to the article I posted yesterday.  ;-)  Go HERE.