Anna's New Obsession . . .

. . . Pigtails!! You might be thinking that it must be hard to get such fine, short hair to even stay in any sort of holder. Well, you'd be exactly right. But Anna is determined.

These particular pigtails were put in by her patient and ever-loving biggest brother Nathan. He is going to be an excellent daddy, I'm telling you!

Ultrasound Results . . .

. . . It's a GIRL! It looked fairly clear, and we've never had a wrong ultrasound before, so I think we can be pretty confidant! Also, everything else looked healthy, so that's a big praise.

I could tell we were back at a military hospital again, unlike the ultrasounds I had with Anna and Grace. The policy at Bethesda is, they do the scan and take all their pictures, and no one can be with you during that time. Then they call back your (1) support person, and they will go through the ultrasound with you again quickly. The lady was nice and friendly, but the whole first part of the ultrasound (almost an hour because the baby was very active, and the girl had a hard time getting all the required shots) was done in almost complete silence. I dozed off a couple of times! Finally Bob could come back, and she talked through all the parts, starting with the gender.

So now we just need to come up with a name. You may remember our parameters: Bible name for the first name, and we don't repeat initials, so names starting with A, C, G, J, L, and N are out. We're obviously open to "virtue" names, LOL. I already know that I want the middle name to be "Amy", which is tricky for a middle name, but that's okay--this might be our last girl, and I want her to have the name of my best friend, who's been like a sister to me for many, many years!

Catching Up

1. Bob took the boys on a "father/son" campout at a local park Friday night. It was organized by a man in our local homeschool support group, and this was the fifth annual campout, although the first we've participated in. It was very drizzly and yucky Friday, so we weren't sure how things were going to go, but we gamely got everything packed up and loaded. It was just misty during the evening, and the boys all assured me they weren't even cold and didn't even need to change into jeans or put sweatshirts on. Anna, Grace, and I were glad to be warm and dry, however, LOL. Nathan summed up the experience as "eating, sleeping, and throwing stuff into the fire". Sounds like a good time for boys! They roasted hot dogs and made smores. Bob thought to bring our shade pavilion thing, so he set that up and the kids played in there, staying dry, while the parents sat around the fire.

After a dampish night of sleep and a breakfast of pancakes, the boys put their soccer things on and went straight to their games. Anna, Grace, and I met them there. The weather was no longer rainy, but instead was very hot and humid. They all played really well--you would have never known they were tired! That showed up later on though, so they all had an early night on Saturday, LOL. Meanwhile, I had the momentous task of washing all the things they took on the trip, since everything was very damp and had been crumpled up in Bob's van for a hot morning. Yuck! I did 5 loads, including pillows and some sleeping bags. It was a success though. All the boys had a wonderful time and could not have cared less that it rained (well, I think Bob cared, LOL).

2. Anna is still doing really well at pottying. She went through a little phase, after we bought some pink pull-ups at the commissary (only for nighttimes), where pull-ups were all she wanted to wear during the day as well. Well, I definitely am not planning on stopping paying for diapers, jsut to start paying for pull-ups, so I told her if she chose to wear a pull-up during the day, then she had to wear a diaper that night. After one night back in diapers, she decided underwear really were pretty good for the day, and we haven't had any more problems, LOL. She's even started going most of the time on the big potty. Yay!

3. We are the proud owners of a Little Tykes kitchen! Our good friends, Tim and Amy P, who we have been stationed with before and who are in our Bible study now, asked us last week if we were interested in their old one, since their girls have outgrown it. I knew Anna and Grace would LOVE a kitchen, so I immediately said yes! We got it Friday night after Bible study, and Anna and Grace have indeed been having such a wonderful time with it. It's just sort of sitting in the middle of the family room right now, but my plan is to clear out the playroom and put it in there. I really want to go through the toys in there and put a lot into the basement or into boxes (or into the trash/Goodwill pile--shhh!), but I just haven't had the energy or time.

4. Our "new" air conditioner--the one on the main floor--is not working! We had a cooler week last week, so we turned it off, and even had the heat on once or twice in the morning, and now that it is hot again, the AC is not working! Fortunately it hasn't been blistering, but it has been humid, so the house has been uncomfortable. Bob is calling the guys who installed it, so hopefully they'll be able to come out and put it to rights . . . but it doesn't inspire long-term confidence, that's for sure.

5. This is a big week for us--the ultrasound is Wednesday afternoon at 3:00! Everyone has been asking me if we know what this baby is for many weeks now, so hopefully I'll have a clear answer to give them after Wednesday! Stay tuned!

Field Trip!

Today Bob took leave, and we headed up to Ft. Meade, MD to visit the National Cryptologic Museum . This is a place we've been meaning to visit for a few years now, but it took our friends Krista and Matt being assigned up there temporarily to make us actually get up there! We drove up this morning and ate lunch with Krista and little Henry at Wendy's before we all headed over to the museum.

The museum is free, which is one thing that had originally caught our eye, LOL. When we walked in, the man at the front desk gave the boys a scavenger hunt to do through the museum. Nathan did his all by himself, while the one for Luke turned into more of a joint effort with everyone else, even Jonathan, helping to write on it.

The museum was very interesting. I've always thought cryptology was fascinating, and I would have liked to spend time there with no little kids, so that I could actually read all the descriptions!

The museum had things like signal flags and cipher disks from the Civil War, and they even had a French Cipher that may have been used by Thomas Jefferson! I thought the World War II section was the most interesting. I've always thought the story of the Navejo code-talkers was amazing, and I also have enjoyed reading about the German Enigma machine, along with the machine that broke that code, which was invented by a man at NCR in Dayton.

This museum actually has several of the German Enigma machines, plus the American Bombe machine invented to figure out what the rotor settings were on the Enigma for the coded messages the Nazis were sending. That is a big, complicated machine! Each Bombe could go through all the rotor combinations of one wheel (the Enigma could have as many as 4 wheels) in 20 minutes (something like over 456,000 possible combinations), and there would be as many as 121 I think running at one time, so that all intercepted messages could basically be deciphered in real time. I'm going to get some books out of the library on the subject of the Enigma and the Bombe because I just think that is such a neat story, and I'd like to understand better how it all worked, and how the man invented the Bombe. (That was one of the description plates I could only skim over, LOL.)

So all in all, a very educational day, and the added bonus was spending time with Krista and Henry. Henry, Anna, and Grace maybe did not retain as much of the actual information, LOL, but they did enjoy playing around with each other and making each other laugh!

One Less Thing to Worry About . . .

On our way back home from the commissary this afternoon, we were listening to the Focus on the Family Minute, or something like that. The man was talking about rebellious teens, and he said that teens who really rebel usually have parents that don't set clear boundaries, don't follow through on consequences, and generally let the kids run the house like little tyrants. Luke says, "Well, that's not you, Mom, so you don't have to worry about that!" Whew!

It was a long afternoon at the commissary. I remember this from the past few pregnancies, but the more pregnant I get, the longer it takes. We left at 1:00 and didn't get back home until 4:15. At least we don't have to go for another 6 weeks or so.

When I'm checking out, I really don't pay any attention to the bagger, so I was quite surprised when, after paying, I looked up and noticed a sea of white plastic bags in 3 bagger carts plus one regular shopping cart. "Ack, I asked for paper bags!" I said. The girl didn't seem really bright, and she said the cashier had told her plastic, but I think she just didn't hear right. I really couldn't figure out how we were going to fit $650 worth of groceries in saggy plastic bags into our van. Let me tell you, it was a tight fit. Maybe the next time the girl sees someone with as much stuff as we had, and she thinks they want plastic, hopefully she'll ask just to make sure. Or not. Like I said, she didn't seem all that with it. Anyhow, all the groceries are put away, and our garage has enough plastic bags to clog a landfill for several years, LOL. I have no idea what to do with them all.

Potty-Training Reward

How do you motivate a little girl to potty-train? By telling her that when she wears big-girl underwear, just like Mommy, then she can have painted toenails, just like Mommy!

We painted Anna's toenails Saturday night, so they would look pretty for church. She was so very, very excited. "PINK!" she kept exclaiming. She talks quite a bit about her pretty pink toes. She is very thrilled that they match Mommy's. Twins! LOL!
Here is a picture of the big potty-trained girl herself. Yay, Anna!

Grace in Her High Chair

Grace joined the "Cheese Club For Bald Babies" one night at dinner. This is one way to get some bangs!
Here she is just hanging out in her high chair. Lunch is a casual event for her, LOL.

For those who notice these things, yes, we do have the high chair back. The people who moved away and gave us their high chair, but then temporarily moved back and told us they needed it again, are once again preparing to move back to their new home. So we again have the high chair. Grace was fine just in a booster chair, but the new baby will need a high chair. I'm thrilled that we won't have to buy one (barring the family coming back yet again, LOL).

Luke's Braces

I'm going to try to post a bunch a pictures this afternoon. First, let's talk about Luke's braces. This first picture is from right after he got the braces put on his front teeth. You can see how the front teeth have deparated, due to the expander, and the tooth to the right has dropped down almost in line. The tooth on the left is a lot lower than it was.

Now here is a picture of Luke from today. It's not a mouth close-up, although it is pretty close to his face, so he looks a bit like he's in a fishbowl, LOL. Hopefully you can still tell that the front teeth have moved closer together, giving the left tooth even more room to move down. It's such a difference. I am absolutely amazed whenever I see him smile.

A Successful Day of Pottying

I've been trying the whole potty-training thing with Anna again, although pretty casually. YOu may remember that I had tried it in early August, but it was a total no-go. She had very little interest in sitting on the potty, and she never produced anything. She was having other disobedience issues, so I figured why fight a potty-training battle in addition to everything else? I'm not crazy, LOL.

I must say I am glad we waited. Last week she was all of a sudden pretty dry after naps and upon waking in the morning, so I started putting her on the potty then. She would go, everyone would be so happy, M&Ms were passed all around--good times for us all. But I didn't really push the whole thing during the day.

Today she went in the morning and I put her in underwear. She only had one time where she started to go, felt it on her leg, and told Luke, who helped her get to the potty. I was the most thrilled when she came to me this afternoon and told me she had to poo-poo, then proceded to go on the potty. Yay!

Tonight was soccer practice, which lasts from 5:30 -7:30 for us. She peed right before we left, and she was not keen on the idea of going back to a diaper, so I left her in underwear, but packed a change of clothes. She had never been on a regular big potty, so I wasn't sure that she would go in one there. About halfway through the time, she came back from the playground to tell me she needed to go, so we headed off to the bathroom. She sat on the potty and went after just a few minutes, which made me very happy!

So if this indeed "takes", and we don't have some unforeseen problem in the next few days, I will have to say that I am a believer that girls are easier to potty-train than boys. For one thing, my boys have never been ready before right around their third birthday (and I have tried earlier, believe me, but I just ended up cleaning up a TON of accidents). For another thing, it seems that my boys anyways just can't keep track of their body signals when they are doing something (anything!) else. So they would NEVER have been able to stop peeing, tell a sibling, and get to a potty. By the time they realized they needed to pee, it was COMING! In a flood! No more time! Too late! Anna obviously realized things were happening before it was too late, which is a very positive sign, I think!

Since I pass out M&Ms (Skittles for Caleb) around to everyone when Anna successfully potties, she has a dedicated cadre of cheerleaders. Even Grace gets so excited and starts babbling away when she sees Anna sitting on the potty! As Anna gets more used to going, I've been phasing out the M&Ms. I'm not giving them when she wakes up or before bed anymore, mainly just during the parts of the day when she comes and tells me she needs to go. Still, we've eaten a lot of M&Ms in this house, lately. Good thing I had bought a giant bag of them from Sams last time we were there!

Farmer's Market

This morning we visited a local farmer's market. I've wanted to visit one before, but I thought the only one close to us was one that was only open on Sundays from 9:00-1:00, which obviously doesn't work for us. My friend Christine told us about this one, which is on Wednesday mornings. We bought some pears, apples, and peaches, as well as a few zucchini because Nathan has had a hankering for zucchini bread. Then we walked around the farm where the market is held. It's a restored farm that does programs for kids and whatnot. Anna and Grace really enjoyed seeing the cows, horses, goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, and turkeys.

The main reason I've been interested in visiting a farmer's market lately is the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barabra Kingsolver. I started reading it while we were at White Sulphur Springs, and I finally got aorund to finishing it a few days ago. It was fascinating! I know Barbara and I would not have much to agree on politically and religiously, and I have read The Poisonwood Bible, which I thought was well-written, but I disliked. But I learned a lot from this book, and it has made me think a lot about food, particularly where it comes from.

Kingsolver's family moves from Arizona to a small farm they own in southwestern Virginia at the beginning of the book. Their goal is to be able to for a year only buy and eat foods that they can obtain locally, with just a few exceptions, such as organic wheat for them to make bread (they couldn't find a local source), and coffee (they only bought fair trade coffee, of course). She begins telling their year's experiences in late March, as asparagus is coming up.

Kingsolver describes a osrt of all-purpose plant to give people a feel for what should be in season during a year. First, the shoots come up in spring, with small leaves, then bigger leaves (spinach, lettuce, etc.). Then lower buds come, and after that small green fruit (cabbage, romaine, broccoli). The fruits grow larger and riper as the days get hotter in midsummer (baby squash, cucumbers, green beans, green peppers, tomatoes, which lead to more mature fruits like beefsteak tomatoes, eggplants, red peppers). These matur into hard-shelled fruit with a lot of seeds inside (cantaloupes, honeydews, watermelons, pumpkins, winter squash). As the days grow cool again, the plant hoards sugars the leaves have made into some sort of storage unit (carrots, onions, etc.). She says that people used to know what things would be in season at any given time, but now people are so used to seeing everything in a store at any given time that no one knows what things are naturally growing around them at any one time.

To get foods here so out of season takes an immense amount of fuel and refrigeration, and in the process many nutrients are lost. In fact, she talks about how everyone wants so desperately to like vegetables and eat more of them, but they're all being bred to be hardy and stand up to long waiting times before being cooked and eaten, so most flavor is being bred right out of them! Also, by only buying things from big farming conglommerates, we have lost a ton of species of all these fruits and vegetables. I was struck by her description of the many varieties of potatoes (what a boring vegetable) they grew themselves, including a "Peruvian Blue" potato variety that actually has blue insides, having the same antioxident that blueberries have! I certainly have never even heard of that before! In fact, I learned alot about how all manner of fruits and vegetables grow, and it was very eye-opening to read about genetically-modified vegetables, which don't have genetic variety. We could be heading towards an "Irish potato famine" of our own, since we rely so much on basically a few strains of soybean and corn. Interesting.

It all made me want to go buy a few acres somewhere and start a huge garden (where the boys could earn their keep, LOL) and raise chickens. Oh wait--I can't stand birds. I do like the idea of fresh eggs though. Kingsolver's younger daughter did raise chickens and had a booming egg business. Thye also raised turkeys, although not the dumb ones with huge white breasts, like we eat for Thanksgiving. The funniest chapter in the book is the one where she tries to get her turkeys to mate because good mating and mothering behavior has basically been bred out of turkeys nowdays. Everything is artificially done.

I did have some bones to pick with her. First of all, she assumes that anyone who does not believe in macroevolution (evolution across species--ape to humans, for example), must not believe in easily demonstrated microevolution (evolution within a speices--natural selection). She makes several snide comments about this through out the book, which was irritating because it is so not true.

Also, she believes that the reason most people don't buy healthier organic and especially locally grown food is because it's more expensive, but these same people are wasting money all over the place on frivolous things like bottled water and name brand clothing. Well, that is not us. We buy cheap food AND use tap water, shop at second-hand stores, listen to the radio (instead of iPods), take vacations to visit family, borrow books from the library, etc., etc., etc. Of course, she only has 2 daughters to raise (and the older one goes off to college during the time of the book), and both she and her husband work (he is a professor at a college). Different family priorities.

In fact, a lot of what they eat during this year just wouldn't work, or would be a lot harder to deal with, if they had even one boy, much less a family of lots of kids. At the end of some chapters, the older daughter , Camille, writes a bit about something, and she also shares a week of typical dinners for that particular season. Many of these ideas really wouldn't cut it for a bunch of boys. Here is an example from May:

grilled chicken, bread, salad
asparagus and moral bread pudding
Asian summer rolls and rice
vegetarian tacos with refried beans
cheese ravioli tossed with stir-fried vegetables
chicken pizza
vegetable and cheese frittata, salad, strawberry-rhubard crisp

See, there's just not that much there for each meal, and you'd have to really have a ton of say, asparagus, to make a pudding that would feed a family of 10 (well, maybe not MY family, which I think would go hungry before touching asparagus and morel bread pudding, LOL). But I'm just saying . . . She's definitely writing to the small family, especially one with all girls.

But overall, I really enjoyed the book, and when I saw asparagus being advertised in our local grocery circular today, I wondered where that would have been flown in from, since it only comes up in spring around here. Hmmm. Kingslover had a funny section where she talked about her dislike for the local food writer in her paper. He would talk about pumpkins, but all his recipes would call for cans of pumpkin, and he would talk about things like making fresh pesto in the middle of winter, when the basil certainly wasn't fresh and ready to be crushed into pesto! Poor guy--he didn't realize he was writing to such an expert!

There are a lot of things I can't change--we live in an expensive area, with hardly any yard, and we have a big family. I'll keep buying most stuff from the commissary, and that's just the way it is. But I do feel more aware of what things we should be eating when, and I am planning on visiting the farmer's market regularly to support these (somewhat, LOL) local farmers. We can at least branch out in our vegetable choices and eat more really fresh ones, even if we can't grow much more than tomatoes ourselves.

En Garde!

Today was the first homeschool fencing class at our local rec center. Nathan and Luke were signed up, along with Isaac, Caleb, and Daniel McC. When we got there, we recognized another boy, Johnny, from our homeschool co-op who is in Isaac's class (5th grade, between Nathan and Luke), so they were excited about that. There was also a boy, Liam, in (my) Caleb's class (first grade) of co-op, and I wasn't sure how he would do, plus one other boy who looked about that same 6 year old age who we didn't know. I had thought about signing my Caleb up too, but aside form not having another $100 to put into this, I just wasn't sure he would be ready for it. This was indeed the case with Liam! He is the kind of boy who, frankly, gives homeschoolers a bad name, LOL. He talked all the time to the teacher, but paid no real attention. He goofed off with the foil and generally made a nuisance of himself, while the other boys tried to ignore him or keep him on track. I am sure Caleb would not have been that bad, but the influence would not have been good! Anyhow, by the end of the class, he had been reprimanded a bunch of times, and finally, when told he couldn't just whale away with the foil, he collapsed in a heap behind my chair and cried that he wanted to go home. His mom obliged, and I think they will just do the class for younger kids, where they use a foam sword-thing and it's more of just a fun thing. The other little boy was distracted by Liam, but I think he'll be fine without Liam there. He seemed to have a lot more of an attention span.

So after they got suited up and learned the right way to hold the foil, they worked on basic forward and backward footwork. They learned how to lunge and parry. They got to practice a little one-on-one with each other, and the 6 older boys paired off so well with each other. It really is going to work out well. The little boys worked with each other until Liam's melt-down, when the other boy got to fence with the instructor. I would say that Daniel would probably be his partner next time, and Isaac would work more with the instructor, or all the older boys would take turns with him or something.

The boys had a good time, and it was good exercise, especially for their arms! Caleb, Jonathan, and Joel McC played around with the foam swords from the earlier class while trying out the moves the older boys were learning. The instructor was really nice, and he encouraged even us parents to take a stab at it, LOL. I think I'll save that for a non-pregnant day, although I would love to gracefully dance back and forth like those Olympic fencers we watched!

New Recipe

I tried a new recipe last night. It was really good, so I thought I'd share it with you. It was from the Sept/Oct 08 issue of Simple & Delicious.

Burgundy Beef

4 pounds beef sirloin tips, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 large onions, sliced
1 cup water
1 cup burgundy wine or beef broth
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
4 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground mustard
2 ablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cold water
Hot, cooked noodles

In a 5-qt. slow cooker, combine the first 12 ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until meat is tender. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into pan juices. Cover and cook on high for 15 more minutes or until the gravy is thickened. Serve over noodles.

So that's it! The commissary didn't have "beef sirloin tips", so I just bought some big chunk o' beef (bottom round or something--whatever was cheap, but not chuck), and it turned out fine. When I got home from the commissary, I cut the beef into chunks and then threw them into a gallon ziploc bag to freeze. That way when I was ready to make it, the beef was all ready, so I just had to throw everything in the crockpot. I used the beef broth instead of the wine, and I just realized when I was typing it out that I totally skipped the paprika, but it was really good, and everyone liked it. Definitely a keeper for us!

Week of Appointments

We've had either a doctor or a dental appointment every day this week except today. And tonight we had Bible study over here at our house, so it was a day of cleaning!

Two of those appointments were for Luke, at the orthodontist's. Monday we went and they tied off his expander. He has to keep it in for a few more months, but we are done turning the screw and opening it more. It's been amazing to watch the transformation in his mouth. You can really see a difference! He had 2 teeth that had come in so high--way up in his gum--so high you couldn't even see them unless he pulled his lip way up. Well, with the new room from the expander, one tooth has dropped down almost to where it needs to be, and the other tooth has also lowered significantly.

On Thursday we went back for the orthodontist to put braces on these front top teeth--6 brackets in all. This will move the front 2 teeth back together (they have separated as a result of the expander), which will give the one tooth even more room to drop down to where it needs to be. I'm not sure how long he'll need the braces. We go back in a month, and I guess they'll tell us how well it's going at that point.

He really didn't complain at all about the expander, except that it really bugged him to get food stuck up there. He's developed this vacuum sucking noise that he does all the time to try to clear stuff out of it. I won't be sorry to see that thing go, LOL. He has been complaining about his teeth/mouth hurting since he got the braces put on, however. I've been giving him motrin, but I'm glad he doesn't have a whole mouth-full of braces! That must be excruciating!

Crazy Appointment

This morning I had a routine OB appointment. I'm about 18 weeks along, so I knew it would be just in and out, hear the heartbeat and go, so I didn't bother getting anyone to watch the kids. The appointment was at 10:30, so we left at 9:20. Traffic was heavy, so we got there a little after 10:00, but then our problems started. Bethesda is building a new parking garage, so they had to close a lot of the auxillary lots that people used to park in. Usually this means it takes awhile in the one parking garage they do have, and we have to go all the way up to the top level, which can take as long as 20 minutes. But for some reason, traffic was just stopped on the street in front of the garage entrance. We couldn't even get into the garage! Unfortunately I was at a place where I couldn't even turn around, so we just inched along. Finally we were where we could turn into the entrance, but it was already 10:25, and I could see that the line was just crawling along inside the garage. Obviously we weren't going to be able to park there and get to the OB clinic anywhere near 10:30. So we blew past the garage to try to find a space in some lot somewhere else on base.

We hurridly drove around through various parking lots, but there was absolutely nowhere to park. Finally we pulled into a lot near the childcare center, and we parked behind another lady in what was obviously not a legal spot. The lady, who had also just parked, told me that we were going to get ticketed. You could see the tickets on the windshields of the other cars near us. But what could I do? It was already 10:31, and we still had almost a mile to hoof it to get back to the hospital.

We raced out of there. Nathan and Luke took turns carrying Anna while we all ran. I huffed along pushing Grace in the stroller. We were quite a caravan! Amazingly, we ran the .7 miles in less than 10 minutes--pretty good for especially Jonathan's short legs! Good thing the boys are training for the Presidential Physical Fitness test in a few weeks, LOL. Otherwise we never would have made it. So we were only 10 minutes late.

I checked in, panting and red-faced. Unfortunately, at Bethesda as soon as you check in, you go back and get your weight and blood pressure checked. I told the lady it was going to be high (as I sat there fanning myself, feeling my blood racing), and it was--138/77. It's never ever been anywhere near that high! I thought it was bad the last time, when it was something like 126/70, which was also because I was stressed out trying to find parking, although this time I was in the garage and didn't have to run nearly a mile!

Then we waited in the waiting room, while we all drank water, read books, and settled down. Finally we got called back, where the midwife breezed in and out. Hey, everything looks good (no mention of the high blood pressure), heartbeat is in the 150s, and the referral for the ultrasound is in. Great! All that stress for 5 minutes! LOL! Actually, we were all still stressed because we thought we were going to get a ticket. The boys were very concerned about that, in particular how much it would cost. I've never gotten a parking ticket anywhere, much less on a base, so I had no idea how that all would even work, so I wasn't much reassurance.

Next we rambled around in the basement bowels of Bethesda to find the radiation department to schedule the ultrasound. Of course, when we finally got there, it was closed for lunch. "Come back in an hour!" Ack! We took a card and called when we got home. My ultrasound is scheduled for 3:00 on Oct. 1. I'll be 21 weeks along then.

We had a more leisurely but still fairly quick-paced walk back to the car. The boys ran ahead and were delighted to report that we did NOT have a ticket on our windshield! Whew! We were thanking God for his mercy, since we knew we were not parking in a good spot! We finally got back home at 12:30--over 3 hours for a 5 minute appointment. At least we got our exercise!

Change of Plans

I know you all are dying to hear how our granola turned out. Well, I regret to say that no granola was made, and no clothes were tagged. Instead, we ventured out into the wind and rain and bought a new (to us) crib! On Friday, Bob noticed a crib on the "for sale" board at his work, and we had been playing phone tag with the guy since then. We were finally able to make connections this afternoon, so we went to his house, liked the crib, and brought it home. It's a lighter brown sleigh crib. I'll have to post a picture when we get it set up (which is not an urgent priority because we do have 2 cribs, LOL).

So why were we even interested in a third crib? Well, to make a long story short, for Grace, we borrowed a crib from some friends in the homeschool co-op, but it is absolutely the cheapest Jenny Lind crib made. Shortly after Grace was born, the latch for the sliding side broke, so since then we have never been able to raise or lower the side. It just always remains up, which makes changing the sheets a royal hassle, especially when pregnant. It's also harder for the boys to get Grace up, since they have to lift her up and over the whole side.

We have had sort of mixed luck with cribs, and I can say "cribs" because we have had several of them! The first crib we bought, the one for Nathan, I bought used from an Army family at Ft. Carson. I was by myself when I went to look at it, and that's never a good situation because I always feel terrible about rejecting something in someone's own house, and I don't know how to make a graceful exit. So even though I could see that it was . . . rickety . . . for lack of a better word, that's what I bought and Nathan was in until he moved into a big bed.

When Luke came along, we bought another used crib, this one from a family up at the Air Force Academy. This crib, a Bassett, has been an absolute workhorse for us. We still have it, and it's the crib Anna is in. The family we bought it from had maybe 3 kids, and we've had 3 kids in it as well, since it was also Caleb's crib. It has also survived 3 of our moves with no problems! I thought it was really ugly when we first bought it, but it has grown on me, especially since it has been so reliable!

When we moved from USAFA, we left Nathan's old crib out for the trash men to pick up, so we just had Luke's crib. Caleb used that, so when we had Jonathan, we needed another one. Some friends of my parents had given them their old crib, so we used that one for Jonathan. We left that with my parents when we moved, and they have that set up for one of the girls to use when we visit.

Since we left that one behind, that explains why we needed yet another "second" crib when we were expecting Grace! I'm hoping that the crib we bought today will be another good, faithful sort of crib, so that we don't have to buy any more cribs. And as soon as we get this one up and running, Grace's old crib will be returned to our friends!

It's Raining, It's Pouring . . .

We are suffering from the effects of Tropical Storm Hanna's last gasp. It has been pouring steadily since last night, and our back yard is a huge lake. That's going to take awhile to dry out! I was worried about a lot of wind and potential power outages, but that doesn't seem to have materialized. It's been a bit gusty, but nothing very serious.

We are watching the McC's dog Stormy (isn't that an appropriate name, LOL) for them this weekend. We all went over last night to walk her, and we made it back to the van as it started to sprinkle. Now we need to go back over there to let her out again, but no one is leaping at the chance to get out in this deluge of Biblical proportions. Poor Stormy, actually having to do her business in all the rain! This is a day when I for one am very thankful for indoor plumbing as opposed to outhouses!

Soccer was obviously cancelled for this morning, so we slept in and are having a very relaxing day. The boys are watching football, and I am going to tag some clothing items I'm trying to sell at a consignment sale next Saturday. Then I think we're going to try our hand at making our own granola. I'll let you know how that turns out. A lot of recipes call for powdered milk, which we obviously can't use, so we'll see how it tastes.

Back to School

You can tell we've been back to a more regular school routine by the fact that there has been little blogging this week. Nathan and Luke started back with math, grammar, memory work, and Latin last week, but this week we also added Caleb back in. Next week it will be Jonathan's turn to start up (see how I'm easing back into this? LOL), and we'll also go back to our regular full complement of subjects, including spelling, history, writing, and science. Wow, is that really all the subjects we do? I guess so. It just SEEMS like more.

I am planning on starting Greek this year. My plan is that we'll just focus on the alphabet until I have the baby (and get around to ordering Elementary Greek), and then we'll go deeper. We're also still doing the recorder, although Nathan is the one who is the most motivated. He's really coming along!

For memory work, we are in the middle of Isaiah 53, which we'll finish, and then I think we'll work on Phil. 2:1-18. We're also memorizing Gen. 1:1-5 in Latin, and after we're done with that, we'll move on to the Apostles' Creed both in English and in Latin. Of course in English we have Rich Mullin's great song to help us along, so that should be a piece of cake. I haven't seen a version in Latin, unfortunately, LOL. Since I don't have any history thing to work on, I'll probably pick a poem from The Harp and Laurel Wreath to start.

In everything else, we're just plugging away. Nathan's almost done with Saxon 7/6, and when he's done with that, he'll start Saxon Algebra 1/2. Sigh . . . one of my babies is starting algebra! I'm so happy. I always loved algebra, so hopefully he'll feel the same way. Luke is still in Saxon 6/5, Caleb in Saxon 2, and Jonathan is in Saxon 1.

We're still going to use Rod and Staff for grammar again this year. I was pleased with it last year (well, technically Nathan and Luke both still have about 20 lessons to go in last year's book, which they are finishing because I am just that anal). I love the emphasis on diagramming. I am a diagramming kind of girl. I always liked those complex sentences our high school English teacher, Mr. Sundberg, used to give us. We're also doing Writing Strands this year. Writing is still a weakness for the boys, and it was never my favorite thing either.

We're still in the 4th Story of the World book, the one covering modern times. We moved slowly on that last year, I'm not sure why. Not for lack of interest and outside reading, that's for sure! I guess we just ended up on a 6 year history plan. It will work out well though. Next year, when we start Ancients again, Caleb and Jonathan will be ready to really participate.

Because we had another friend and her 1 year old daughter over all day Wednesday, I moved some of the Little People out into the family room from the playroom. This has turned out to be a brilliant move, as Anna has been very happy playing with them while we do school. For some reason she never wanted to be in the playroom unless one of the boys was in there with her. Grace has even showed more interest than ever. Nice! We'll see how long that lasts, of course, LOL.

So we're getting back into the school routine. If only I had a housekeeper to take care of all the pesky cleaning--then I'd be set to go!

Okay, just a few more pictures . . .

Caleb and Jonathan did get to ride around the corral after everyone got back from the trail ride.
This is the view we had of Grace all weekend--she was striding off to keep up with her brothers!
Anna and Grace had tons of fun on the wagon in front of the hotel. Amazingly, in this picture, they are both looking at the camera and smiling. I literally think this is the first time ever that particular miracle has occurred.

A Few Pictures

Caleb, Jonathan, and Anna are watching Nathan and Luke get ready to ride off. Anna was quite fascinated by the horses.
Nathan and Luke all set to go.
The boys did some canoing as well. Luke is in the "funyak" in this picture, but Caleb and Nathan also got their turn in it.
Caleb found a new lovely lady to have a crush on. He is such a ladies' man! This is Michele, who helped watch him and Jonathan during the sessions, obviously winning Caleb's heart. We had a picnic up by the pond Saturday for dinner, and he chose to sit at a totally different picnic table than the rest of us so he could sit with her!
It was really humid on Saturday, and Anna's hair actually had quite a bit of curl to it!

White Sulphur Springs Retreat

We went up to White Sulphur Springs for the Wright-Patterson OCF retreat. We went up Friday, getting stuck in all the "get out of D.C. for the long weekend" traffic, including one terrific construction-induced traffic jam on I-70. We made it to Bedford for dinner, where we met people at Hoss's Steakhouse. My parents were there, bringing back Caleb and Jonathan. It was so great to see them after 10 days apart! They could hardly stop talking about the fun things they did. (Jonathan's first comment: "Luke, I know you'll be jealous, but Grandpa let us have a WHOLE candy bar at a gas station" LOL!!!)

There were a lot fewer people at the retreat than have been previous years, but it was nice to have the small group I thought. Since chapel funding was iffy, they couldn't ask a speaker, so instead we watched some of the Ray Van Der Laan videos, "In the Dust of the Rabbi", which focused on discipleship. In Jesus' day, if you wanted to be a disciple of a master, you were passionately committed to being with your rabbi as much as you could be so that you could be just like your rabbi. It made me think about my level of commitment to that goal, but another point was that Jesus chooses his own disciples, instead of having men come and ask him if they could be his disciples. So he obviously saw in them the potential and knew they could be that passionate about him, and he knows that about us as well, whom he has also called to be disciples. After we watched the videos, we broke up into small groups for discussion.

And of course there was plenty of free time as well. We had a bonfire Friday night, horse-back riding Saturday afternoon, a square dance Saturday night, and rock-wall climbing Sunday afternoon. It's nice that the boys are big enough now to do a lot of things by themselves (well, as a unit, LOL), so we could just send them off to things while we relaxed on the porch and the girls napped. I started a fascinating book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I'll have to do a separate post on my thoughts on that book. I mainly participated in the "White Sulphur Springs Triathlon": eating, sleeping, and rocking on the porch. It's good to be an athlete.

But now, real life calls. Our co-op has it's kick-off tomorrow, so I have to get up and fix lunch for everyone. I'm so glad I don't have to do that every day of the school year!!

In Celebration of Labor Day . . .

We are back from the retreat at White Sulphur Springs. I need to download pictures off my camera before I post about it though, so I'm doing a Labor Day meme I found at In a Shoe to pass the time.

How long were your labors?
1. Nathan--started having contractions Sunday, walked around all day Monday, ate nothing Monday night, FINALLY went to the hospital Tuesday morning, and was 6 cm dilated. But he wasn't actually born until 5:24 P.M., so he wasn't all that eager to come out. Fortunately, the contrations weren't that hard Sunday and Monday.

2. Luke--9 hours? But I went to the hospital at 11:30, and had him at 3:27 A.M.

3. Caleb-- 7 hours--went in at about 9:45 P.M. and had him at 1:10 A.M.

4. Jonathan--2 weeks overdue and had to be induced--started pitocin at 8:00 and he was born at 2:40 P.M., so almost 7 hours.

5. Anna--4 hours--started pitocin at 11:00 (but was already 5 cm), and had her at 3:09 P.M.

6. Grace--9 hours--started pitocin at 8:00, didn't have her until 5:04. Grrrrrrrrr

How did you know you were in labor?

1. Regular contractions, although they weren't that strong. Even when I went in to the hospital, the nurse thought they would send me home because I was obviously not in pain and could easily talk through the contractions.

2. Regular contractions. We went ahead and went out to eat at Macaroni Grill with the L's. I jsut had a salad and some bread because I knew I would have the baby that night.

3. Regular contractions, which started as I was making dinner. It was fish (orange roughy), and I had a hard time making that recipe again for awhile because it just wasn't a good taste/smell for me after laboring through it.

4. That was the problem--I never went into labor!

5. Never really went into labor here either, although I had enough irregular contractions to dilate to 5 cm. Or maybe that was the castor oil that didn't really work for me? LOL

6. Never went into labor here, but the paranoid doctor wouldn't let me, so she induced me almost a week early, a compromise from the 2 weeks early she wanted to induce me. She would probably have a heart attack if she knew I was having another one (she was young and was terrified that I was going to rupture my uterus, since I had had SOO many babies).

Where did you deliver?

1. US Air Force Academy Hospital

2. The Springs Center for Women (but by AF doctors--USAFA closed their inpatient OB ward)

3. Wright-Patterson Medical Center

4. Wright-Patterson Medical Center

5. Reston Hospital, VA

6. Loudoun Hospital, VA

Drugs?

Well, except for the pitocin, no. I'm scared of needles and epidural headaches.

C-Section?

No, although the older and more experienced I am, the more thankful I am that I didn't end up with one with Nathan. I stopped dilating around 9 cm, and hung out there for awhile. They started pitocin, which made the contractions a lot harder, but I still never dilated to 10. (This is why the labor was so long.) Finally, the AF midwife, told me she would hold the cervical lip out of the way with her finger, and I just pushed past it. I never had any urge to push, though, and it was very hard. I am so glad she let me do that though. Having a c-section for #1 would certainly have changed how our family looks!

Who delivered?

1. An AF midwife named Suzanne, who was some sort of student. I really liked her.

2. A different AF midwife, but I can't remember her name. I never actually had any appointments with her.

3. Someone I had never seen before. In fact, I can't even remember if the doctor was a man or a woman. I have absolutely no recollection.

4. A nice Wright-State resident. I do remember some details about her--she was an African-American female. No name though.

5. Dr. Barrett, my first civilian doctor. I liked her.

6. Dr. Sidhu. My second civilian doctor. I didn't like her as much because of how she handled my having a lot of kids.

So there you have it--my labors, in honor of Labor Day. I think that deserves a holiday, LOL.

Bye-Bye Olympics

The Olympics are over, and we're all sad here. We had to have ice cream after dinner last night because we couldn't think of anything else to do. Well, that's not totally accurate--we actually did take a walk and THEN have ice cream, but everyone went to bed at a reasonable hour. What's up with that?!

I love watching the Olympics. We didn't have a TV at all while I was growing up, but we would rent one during special times, like when the Olympics were on. And then my brother Dan and I would glue ourselves to the TV and watch all the obscure sports you never see any other time with total and complete absorption. I am proud to say that I am passing down that tradition to Nathan and Luke, who are following the path I forged in Olympics watching. Nathan's favorite sport was basketball, while Luke's was swimming. Both of them liked beach volleyball second, although Luke did specify men's. Whew! But they watched pretty much all day, so they also become experts on sports like rowing, team handball, water polo, and synchronized diving. They also are much more familiar with the flags of the world, which all started with the flag game at our Olympic party. Anna's quite up on the American flag at least, so she's got a good start, LOL.

Nathan was pretty faithful at daily filling in the medal bar graph I had made to hand out at the party as well. It was interesting to track which countries were in the top 5 at different parts of the competion. I had picked the U.S., China, Russia, U.K., and Germany to track, but at the end of the first week, the U.K. and Germany were not in the top 5 at all, and everyone was wondering why I hadn't included Australia, South Korea, and France. I probably should have put Australia instead of Germany (who did indeed finish in 6th place), but we have that German family on our cul-de-sac, so I definitely wanted to include them no matter what. What I should have done differently was make the graph go up past 50! I never dreamed China would get over 50 gold medals, so I only had the parameter be 40 for each kind of medal! Even though I don't think they deserved some of their gymnastics golds, the ones for their prepubescent "women", it still is an amazing accomplishment.

I definitely enjoyed the swimming the most. All those exciting races! Track just isn't as exciting to watch. I will say that the new suits pretty much make men look like women, and vice versa. I'm not a fan of them, although I don't really want them to bring back the tiny Speedos either, LOL. Seeing them in diving was more than enough, thank you very much.

I think female swimmers must have a lot of self-confidence in their looks. I mean, to get in front of a big audience, including TV watchers around the world, with your hair smooshed into a lumpy plastic cap, goggles, raccoon marks above your eyes where you had your goggles before the race, and an androgynous suit that emphazies your muscular neck--they all look like frog creatures from another planet. Then I would see them on the medal stand and think, "Hey, she's actually pretty attractive! I never would have guessed!" I just don't have that self-confidence, and that is clearly the only reason why I never became an Olympic caliber swimmer. That, and I'm not really a water person. I'm more of a water-WATCHING person. It's just a small difference.

So now the Olympics are over, and we are getting back to our regular routines. This means me actually exercising, as opposed to just watching other superbly conditioned athletes do their thing, while envisioning myself in that kind of shape (but realizing that none of them have had 6 babies, so of course I'll never look like them. And that's the only reason why.) Actually, when I was doing my workout this morning, Nathan helpfully pointed out that even if I wasn't pregnant, I would always have a bunch of extra skin on my tummy, so it would never REALLY be flat. Hey, thanks! I was wondering about that! I'm going to start putting all my spare change in the "tummy tuck bucket", I guess. LOL!

Facebook Etiquette

So I went ahead and joined Facebook. There are plenty more cheerleading pictures where that one came from, LOL. Fun memories.

Now I'm looking at people to be "friends" with, such as old classmates, and that raises all sorts of questions. Like, it just seems sort of rude and presumptive to ask to be friends with someone I haven't really even thought about, much less kept in contact with, for say 17 years. Do most people say yes if they just remember you? (And again, it seems a little presumptive to assume people will remember me after 17 years, but we did have a small class, LOL.) Is the goal to have as many friends as possible, even if the connections are tenuous? How about if really you are just nosy and want to see what people are up to? Also, when asking someone to confirm you as a friend, should you always put a personal note in there? So far I always have, but I'm running out of things to say. But maybe people don't respond if there's not anything personal? I just don't know. If you have any Facebook insights, feel free to share them! In the meantime, if you're on there, look me up--I'll be your friend! LOL--sounds so junior-high-ish.

Cheerleading Past

My brother found this photo on facebook. It shows my varsity cheerleading squad from my sophmore year. Note that we all had the classic and perky "side ponytail" hairstyle. This was actually a big deal for me, as before that year, I did not have enough hair to actually have any sort of a ponytail, side or otherwise. From the picture, it appears I barely had enough hair that year, but I was determined. I was maimed from a disasterous too-short haircut my 7th grade year, and I spent my entire high school career trying to grow it out. My hair is not what you might call fast-growing, and obviously Anna suffers from this gene as well, LOL. She is dying to have enough hair for a ponytail, but I am vowing to never let her cut her hair into many short layers, thereby making it impossible for her to have a ponytail for many years.

I guess I should mention, for the benefit of those who did not know me in high school, that I am the one in the back row on the far right. But you could guess that from the hair, right?! A blast from my past--I guess I'll be thinking about old cheers all day long now, LOL.

Back Down to 4

My parents left Wednesday morning, taking with them Caleb and Jonathan. We will meet up again next Friday, spending Labor Day all together at White Sulphur Springs for the Wright-Pat OCF retreat. To say Caleb and Jonathan were excited about going would be an understatement! They had been looking forward to this for a very long time! They were especially excited about riding in Grandma and Grandpa's car--you know, one of them where everyone has their own door and window! The ride was made even better when Grandpa bought them both a candy bar (well, a roll of Starburst for Caleb) at a gas station. How thrilling! That had never happened before! Now they have a busy schedule of fun in Ohio for the next week.

When they drove off, we launched into "dairy week" here at our house. There are several recipes I used to make but can't anymore because they can't be modified for Caleb's allergies. We are enjoying them all now! We eat healthier when Caleb is around though, LOL.

Nathan and Luke are managing without their younger brothers. I have not noticed any dramtic decline in bickering; however, that is a direct result of them staying up too late to watch the Olympics. I foresee smoother sailing next week when the Olympics are over. They went to a neighbor's birthday party all afternoon Wednesday, and they spent yesterday at a little waterpark not too far from here. Our homeschool support group was going, and so was the high school part of our homeschool co-op, so I knew there would be people they knew. The McCs were so very kind and picked them up and dropped them off, which was wonderful for me. They got there at 11:00 and got back here a little before 6:00. They were so tired! I was glad they had the chance to do this, especially after all Luke's mouth traumas lately. I thought he needed something special! Once again, it was really quiet with only the 2 girls and me, and I napped the whole afternoon along with them.

Last night I went to a crop at the house of a local Creative Memories consultant. I finally decided I really needed one again, and I especially needed to dedicate some time to scrapbooking, since I wasn't doing it consistently at home. I really liked her, I had a great time, and I finished 6 pages. I finally am past Anna's birth! Now if I can just discipline myself to work on my albums regularly . . .

I think that's all that's happening around here. Looking back, I should have had plenty of time for blogging, LOL. I guess I've just been goofing around, watching the Olympics. Next week--back to the routine!

Toothy Update

We've been in a "gain some, lose some" tooth mode lately. Here's what's happening.

Luke: He is down 2 as of today. He got his lower 2 incisors pulled to help make some room in his bottom jaw. The lady asked me if I wanted the laughing gas for him when she called him back, but I said no. I knew it was extra ($50), and I had already told him to expect to be numbed in the mouth. Plus, I had a zillion baby teeth pulled as a kid, with no laughing gas in sight, and I did fine (plus I walked home 8 miles in the snow uphill . . .). He was a little nervous, but he did just fine. Whew! Now he is dealing with the 2 big holes in his mouth. In a related note, he has adjusted to his expander just fine, although it is a constant battle to get the food out of the top of it. The feeling of having food stuck up there drives him crazy.

Grace: She is up an amazing 5! When we were in Ohio, she was drooling like a faucet, her nose was runny, and she was pooping all the time and had a terrible diaper rash. This is how my kids teeth, so I was expecting a tooth. Specifically, I was expecting the fourth bottom tooth in the front, since she had all 4 up top, and a lop-sided 3 on the bottom. But it never came in and never even looked like it was going to come in. Eventually she stopped being drooly, snotty, and poopy, her rash went away, and I stopped looking for that tooth. Two Fridays ago I was playing around with her on her back. I stuck my finger in her mouth and ran my fingers all around her gums. To my surprise, I found 2 top molars fully in! Obviously this was what she was working so hard on in Ohio! Her bottom molars were about to come through, and have since done so, and today I noticed that--hey!--that one bottom front tooth is through too. So Grace has been a busy girl lately. No wonder she had gone back to taking both a morning and an afternoon nap!

No one else has had any tooth issues, although Anna did have some mysterious virus Sunday. She woke up at 3:00 A.M. running a fever. I gave her some motrin, and she went back to sleep, but when she woke up at 8:30, she was just as hot as ever. I gave her some more motrin, and Bob stayed home from church with her. She was still running a little fever when we got home from church at 1:00, so I gave her some tylenol, and then some more motrin at 3:00. This seemed to do the trick, finally getting the fever down. She took a good afternoon nap and perked up in the evening. She slept fine last night, and she seems fine today, so it was just a 24 hour thing I guess. Hopefully no one else will get it. My parents are here to take Caleb and Jonathan back to Ohio for 10 days on Wednesday, and we don't want any of them to be sick for that!

Fencing

Saturday afternoon we managed to rouse ourselves off our Olympic viewing couch in the basement. We headed over to our local rec center, which was having an open house. What we wanted to see was a fencing demonstration. The rec center is starting some fencing classes this fall, including a homeschooling one, and we had already decided to sign Nathan and Luke up for them (the ages were 7-12). I've always thought fencing was a neat sport, and Anthony is fencing for the Academy. Plus, we watched the women's team sabre bronze medal match on TV, and it was so interesting! We all wished we knew more about how points were scored, so we were hoping to have some of our questions answered.

The McC boys showed up with their dad for the same demo--they also are planning to take the homeschool class. There was only one man there, who kept saying he was waiting for more people, but no one else ever showed up to help him. That didn't really matter. He was a big talker, so he explained all about the 3 different blades and let everyone touch them. He showed all the padding and mask you wear, and he talked about the differences in rules for foil, epee, and sabre. Very interesting. Really I need to go back and watch the team final with him right there to explain the action though, LOL. It all moves so fast.

Then he got all 8 of our boys dressed up, and he gave them each a foil. He explained some basic moves and practiced with them for quite a while. The boys were so excited! It would have been great to see people demonstrate fencing, but actually doing it was even better, especially when they never dreamed they would be able to! At the end he even hooked up Isaac, Caleb, and Daniel McC in the electronic vests and stuff that they wear for an actual match and showed how to get points in each event. (My boys are very slow volunteers, espeically when they are not sure what they are volunteering for, so they did not raise their hands, unlike the McC boys, who shot their hands up as soon as he asked for volunteers!) We were there about 2 hours. We were the only people there for a while, so our boys were the only ones dressed up. More people did trickle in, but they just had to watch! The man did say that when he was done, he would give everyone else a chance to suit up and try on the equipment, but it was nice because we got so much individual attention.

So now I need to remember to sign up online on Aug. 21 for the class. I think it will be a lot of fun for the boys!

A Timely Devotional

This is from my daily Elizabeth Elliot devotional email:

Wastelands

There are dry, fruitless, lonely places in each of our lives, where we seem to travel alone, sometimes feeling as though we must surely have lost the way. What am I doing here? How did this happen? Lord, get me out of this!

He does not get us out. Not when we ask for it, at any rate, because it was He all along who brought us to this place. He has been here before--it is no wilderness to Him, and He walks with us. There are things to be seen and learned in these apparent wastelands which cannot be seen and learned in the "city"--in places of comfort, convenience, and company.

God does not intend to make it no wasteland. He intends rather to keep us--to hold us with his strength, to sustain us with his sure words--in a place where there is nothing else we can count on.

"God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest...God made them go round by way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea" (Ex 13:17,18 NEB).

Imagine what Israel and all of us who worship Israel's God would have missed if they had gone by the short route--the thrilling story of the deliverance from Egypt's chariots when the sea was rolled back. Let's not ask for shortcuts. Let's keep alert for the wonders our Guide will show us in the wilderness.

Luke's new torture device

Here it is: "the expander". Luke got it installed this morning, and I practiced turning it 2 times. I have to put this metal "key", which is on a long stick, into this little hole in the middle of the device. Then I turn it all the way to the back. That's least favorite part, and I can see why, as the stick goes way back in his mouth. SO we get to do that once a day for 25-30 days or so. Then we can stop with the turning, but the device stays on for several more months, until his top jaw has separated enough.

Luke had a hard time eating lunch today. He had chicken noodle soup (they recommended soft foods for the first day), but it really bugged him that food kept getting stuck up there. We have all sorts of little brushes and tools to help keep it clean, but I guess it was just an annoying feeling, so he hardly ate anything at all. Of course, he is one of my skinniest kids, so this is not a good thing! Maybe I need one of those things after the baby comes, LOL.

Poor Luke will also have a rough time next Monday. He is scheduled to have 2 of his bottom baby teeth pulled. That, combined with the expander, should really make his mouth feel pleasant. Lots of ice cream next Monday night! Good thing the Olympics are on to distract him.

Speaking of the Olympics, we've really been enjoying watching them. Of course, the boys miss watching the marquee events in the evening, but frankly, when you're an 11 year old or younger boy, a swimming pre-lim or semi-final is just as exciting as the final! Plus, some of the fun, different sports are shown in the morning, like rowing and water polo. They really got into U.S.'s water polo win this morning! School was done in record time. I'm foreseeing a lot of that these next 2 weeks, LOL. And of course I found a video of the mens 4x100 relay from last night for them to watch. That was just TOO exciting to miss! Go U.S.A.!!

And then there were 2

Today is the company picnic for Bob's dad's company (well, the one he used to work for, LOL) at the local amusement park. It's a big family tradition that everyone goes to this, but I was fortunate enough to be pregnant again so that I didn't have to go with the girls. Whew! Heat and crowds . . . sooooo not my thing. Add in the swimming, and it's pretty much my least favorite thing.

Caleb and Jonathan were excited; Luke and Nathan were not at all thrilled about going. They both just wanted to stay home. (Awwwww) Nevertheless, Bob left with all 4 boys about 8:30 this morning to drive to PA. They did take a suitcase, and they do have hotel reservations, so they could potentially stay the night, but Nathan and Luke were adamently opposed to that. I have the feeling they'll be back here, although it will be late. Both boys just want to sleep in their own beds!

So it's just me and the girls today. Actually, going down to 2, and having those 2 be the youngest 2, means a lot MORE work for me, LOL. No one to help entertain or fetch things or check on little people who might be just a tad TOOO quiet!

We went on a walk this morning and ended up at the neighborhood playground for a little while. Now it's after lunch, and I'm in the thick of doing laundry. Dirty, dampish boy laundry that has been moldering in duffel bags for a week. I'll leave the smell to your imagination, but let's just call it "skanky". Next, I'm hoping to take a nap when the girls do. Yep, it's a pretty exciting girls' day here!

Camp Caleb De-Brief . . . Fairly Brief

Nathan and Luke made it home yesterday afternoon about 4:30. They were dirty and smelly, but we were all so happy to see them! They both agreed Camp Caleb was "really awesome". So there you have it; hopefully you weren't expecting many more details. Just kidding (a little bit)! I found that when Nathan went up there all alone, we got an exhaustive, setailed description of all that went on. With both of them up there, we got snippets and fragments, all of which were filled with inside jokes and bits and pieces of songs. So I still don't have a very clear idea of exactly what they did, but they both had a really great time.

A few things I know:

--Luke was the hero of the "Cature the Flag" game, where he led a daring raid to free everyone in jail. Apparently, "no one believed he could run that fast and get everyone out."

--Luke's favorite thing was the pudding fight they had after "no hands dinner", which was basically, sloppy joes and pudding, and you couldn't use your hands to eat anything. (But evidently you could use them to throw pudding?) Nathan's group also had a pudding fight.

--Luke's group only had 3 boys (including him), and 13 girls. I personally think this helped him feel confident, as he wasn't going head-to-head with too many boys. He did say the other 2 boys were really into movies, which of course he is not, but it sounded like they all got along just fine.

--Nathan knew 3 people from last year, and another one from the year before. He had a wild camper in his little group of boys who "swung naked from the rafters" in their cabin. This made a big (negative) impression on Nathan.

--Both Nathan and Luke did really well at archery, and had tons of fun shooting the gun. Nathan showed me his target from that, and he didn't do too badly! I think that's his favorite.

--On the last night, Nathan's age group hiked somewhere and had an overnight campout. As they prayed before dinner, they prayed that it would not rain. And then it started hailing. They thought that was funny and hunkered down under their tarps to wait it out. It did eventually.

So that's about all I know, folks. I'll have to get more details later.

The Perfect Summertime Snack

The perfect summertime snack is . . . frozen blueberries. Ed's parents came to our Olympic party, and his mom Lucille brought us 2 big gallon ziploc bags full of frozen blueberries. Elizabeth mentioned that they had jsut been snacking on theirs, right out of the bag, and I thought to myself, "Well, I won't like that!" because I'm not a big fan of frozen grapes. But on Monday, Grace was fussy at the end of lunchtime, and I grabbed some frozen blueberries to toss on her tray while I finished up eating. Of course, everyone else immediately wanted some to, and I tried one myself. YUM!! They are the perfect size to be frozen! I loved them, and we've been snacking on them quite a bit lately! I am making a blueberry snack cake to take to Bible study tonight with some of htem, but we've mainly been snacking on them, frozen. Who knew?! So I just thought I'd share that tidbit, in case someone else had contemplated trying them but was afraid they would taste like frozen grapes, LOL.

Speaking of Elizabeth, she got up early to drive to White Sulphur Springs to pick up Luke, Nathan, and Zachary, even though Zachary was done at the gentlemanly hour of 1:00ish, while Luke was finished at the ungodly early hour of 10:15. So she could have left several hours later, but I am so thankful she was willing to do this for me! Caleb had an accident last night (after many nights without, grrrr), and of course, he and Jonathan were both sleeping on the double bed which is their bottom bunk. So I had to move them into Nathan and Luke's room, but I had washed their sheets yesterday and hadn't yet put them on . . . so needless to say, it was a disturbing night, LOL, and Jonathan ended up sleeping until 9:30 this morning. And I was glad I could just wait until this morning to wash Caleb and Jonathan's sheets instead of worrying about it in the middle of the night before leaving early in the morning to drive. We are all so eager to see Nathan and Luke again and hear all their stories! I'll let you know what they said!

A Quiet House

As opposed to the rush and activity of last week, this week has been very quiet. We've gotten a (very) few errands run, and I've checked off a (very) few things from my mental to-do list, but mainly I can say that I've been exercising in the mornings and napping in the afternoons. I'd been thinking that it was easier to keep the house clean with just 4 kids, but then I realized that actually it's just easier because we're not doing school. Hmmm. Oh well, I guess I'm jsut not cut out to be some kind of unschooler, just to keep the house cleaner!

The kid dynamics have been different with having Nathan and Luke gone. There's hardly been any bickering whatsoever between Caleb and Jonathan, and Caleb has loved being the biggest boy. He really wants to be thought of as a "big" boy, right there with Nathan and Luke, so over the past few months, he's been doing things to try to get them to notice him. And, I'll admit, he can be annoying. He has a louder personality. Luke, in particular, has resented all this, and in his particular critical way, has gone out of his way to make sure Caleb does NOT feel like a big boy. It's been a big source of tension, and one which I've discussed many times with Luke, because it's really not a good, honoring attitude at all.

I think the break from each other will be good for everyone. The first few days, Caleb and Jonathan didn't even seem to miss the older boys, but yesterday and today, they've said how they wish they could do _____ with them. They'll all have a week back together again, and then my parents are coming out and picking up Caleb and Jonathan to take back to Ohio with them for "Grandma and Grandpa Camp", for those too young for Camp Caleb, LOL. Caleb and Jonathan are very, very excited about this, and they have been ready to pack their clothes for it since the day we got back here from Ohio. They'll be out there about 10 days, and then we will meet up at White Sulphur Springs for the Wright-Patterson OCF retreat there Labor Day weekend. So I guess we'll test the old adage of "absence makes the heart grow fonder". If not, more character development is in order for September. But it's been nice to have a quiet house for a week!

Cake Wrecks

Here's a fun link for you all today: cakewrecks.blogspot.com . If you've ever made a cake, or even of you haven't, you'll find some pretty vivid examples here of "cakes gone bad". The first page of cakes actually isn't the funniest, but if you keep clicking "older posts" at the bottom of the page, you'll go back to earlier cakes, and some of them are so hilarious. The mis-spellings especially. And some of the baby shower cakes! Oh my goodness! Definitely something to check out when you are bored and want a laugh.

And remind me to never accept pay for any of my cakes, in the event that I really screw up and someone would forward a picture on to this lady!

They're off!

We dropped Nathan and Luke off to Camp Caleb in PA yesterday. It was touch and go, timing-wise, as it always is with us. There is a half-an-hour drop-off window, between 3:30 and 4:00, so I knew we needed to leave about 1:00. No problem!

Well, we had the absolute longest church service ever. It was communion, Mike had a really long sermon, and the guy leading the singing felt the need to introduce every song with some long intro. Ack. To really set me off, Bob had been pressed into service at the last minute (8:30 in the morning) to do children's church, so even if we had wanted to slip out before communion or something, we couldn't. Church usually gets out about 12:15, and yesterday it went until 12:45. We didn't even get home until 1:00!!

The boys changed, loaded their stuff in the van, and we all inhaled sandwiches. I think we left about 2o after, which is an absolutely amazing turn-around for us. But . . . there was construction on I-70, and so we were still cutting it verrrrrry close. We made it there at 3:55. Whew!

Luke was concerned about our potential lateness, but he was still very excited about going. I had wondered if he would get more and more nervous as the time approached, but he didn't. He and Nathan were so cute, packing their bags Saturday morning (yet another stressor for me before the party, as I tried to get socks folded, and so on for them, LOL). He was nervous when we actually dropped him off, and the counselor came to the car to help him carry stuff though. I am really praying that he felt comfortable right away. I was never nervous for Nathan--he's such a happy, go-lucky guy! Nothing really fazes him, not even being laughed at or anything. Luke is not like that, LOL. I just want him to have a really good time. I know this will be a stretching time for him. He and Nathan are in different age groups, so he won't really see Nathan at all. He is very used to having Nathan around, and making friends with Nathan there too. This will be different, as it will just be him. I'm praying he finds a "kindred spirit". We'll see how it goes. We won't know until Friday, when he comes home! Either the other kids and I will go up, or maybe Elizabeth. Zachary is done with support staff at WSS that same day, so whoever goes will also pick him up too. I'm sure the van will be chattery on the way home that day!

A few more pictures . . .

At the teacher supply store in Dayton I found some great Olympic-themed stuff for bulletin boards. The pictographs were a nice touch, as well as the flag border. Caleb is holding the torch I made.
I spent a good deal of time coloring these rings Thursday night with Sharpies. I thought I was going to expire from the fumes. Caleb told me I was such an artist, LOL. He was very impressed by my careful coloring. Yes, I always did get good marks in school for coloring. It's a gift.

We had the table out at its full 10 feet length. It's so nice to have such a huge table. And it's even nicer without the half wall behind it--you can actually move around it so easily!
So here is finally a picture of the "new kitchen", with the hardwood floors and with no little wall. Isn't it nice?!
Of course, this is what the family room looked like while the men were working. They finally finished the trim on the wall this morning around 11:30, and so this afternoon we had to put all the books back in the bookshelf. It looked like a library exploded in the family room. I was about to cry at 2:30, when I was frantically trying to get all the books back in ("How did I have this so they all fit?!"), and I still hadn't taken my shower or finished cutting up veggies, washing fruit, etc. Just a little panic attack, LOL. But everything did get done, and I did get out of the shower before anyone came.

"Let the Games Begin!"

We had our grand yearly party this afternoon, and it was great! This year's theme was the Olympics, which was a timely one. We wanted to kick off and get everyone ready to watch the Olympics when they start next Friday, on 8/8/08, at 8:00 PM local, as we learned in our Olympic trivia part, LOL.

When people arrived, we gave them nametages and a flag, which we put around their neck backwards, so they couldn't see it. Then they had to ask other people "yes or no" questions to try to identify their country, like, "Is it from a country in Asia?" or "Does it have red in it?". The kids did really well at that, and after everyone had figured out their flag, we formed up on the side of the house. Sarah B., as the oldest "competitor", had the honor of carrying the tissue paper torch that I made. They marched around to the front of the house to the "Olympic Fanfare by John Williams, which played from a CD of Olympic music I bought. As they came in front of the adults, they said the country name for the flag they were wearing. Then we began the games.
First we had a "land swimming relay". I divided everyone up into teams of 4, which was a challenge, and the kids picked which stroke they wanted to run across the yard doing. Here you see Caleb McC doing the backstroke.
Next we had a "relay pentathalon", consisting of a running part, then walking on the balance beam curb, then long-jumping across our driveway, throwing a frisbee in a kids' swimming pool ("discus"), and finishing up with shooting a basketball into our little hoop.

Originally, I had thought we would also have a plain running relay, but it was just. too. hot. So we commenced our medal ceremony.

We handed out gold medals to everyone (I had a challenging time finding these, but I finally was successful at Target in Ohio, in their party section. Yay!!). Then I played the national anthem, and everyone sang along with the words, which I had written on the back of the poster of Olympic rings, that you can see David holding up there in the picture. Bob waved the flag around behind David, so it was really nice! I love hearing people sing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Then we rushed inside to cool off in the air conditioning with lemonade and gatorade, while we got the final food touches ready. We had an Olympic-themed meal--pizza bagel bites, spiral deli roll slices, carrots, celery, and red pepper strips with ranch dip, pineapple rings, grapes and blueberries, chips and pretzel rods, and for dessert, 3 kids of cookies, all of which Nathan made, and some cute little cupcakes with sprinkles that our neighbor Theresa brought and were a huge hit with the kids. So did you catch the themes? Circles (bagel bites, tortilla slices, pineapple rings, and cookies), "batons" (all the vegetable sticks and the pretzel rods), and balls (blueberries and grapes. Well anyways, I thought about it, LOL. I had thought maybe no one would be too hungry because of the heat, but the food was wolfed down, and we basically had no left-overs. We ate 180 bagel bites! There were 41 people here! Of that, 26 were kids. Whew! While everyone was eating, I asked them a bunch of Olympic-related trivia questions I had dug up. I learned a lot from that!

We sent everyone home with a photo-copies schedule of events and when medals would be awarded each event, as well as with a "medal bar graph", where they can fill in how many gold, islver, and bronze the U.S gets, and compare that with 4 other countries--China, Russia, Germany, and U.K. So my hope is that everyone went home excited to watch the Olympics, and knowing a little bit more about them.

So that was our day. It was tons of fun, but now I am so tired. At least I am done for the year with big parties!! I am going to post some more pictures of our decorations, but after that, it's bedtime! Tomorrow is another big day, as we leave to take Nathan and Luke up to Camp Caleb right after church.