Drive to PA

( . . . cue ominous music . . .)

I mentioned we had a wonderful time up in PA this weekend, and we did. We also had about the worst drive ever to get up there! But let me back up even further, to last Thursday. We had lots of errands to run, including the Christian bookstore, Walmart, Target, and the library. The ONLY thing we had to get at Target was a pair of blue dress pants for Nathan, who had outgrown his last pair. At the checkout, the cashier was talking about the kids. I can't emphasize enough how often this happens, but somehow I was distracted over it. Maybe because she was trying to figure out the girl/boy breakdown, and she only mentioned 3 boys. I told her 4 boys, but as I was looking around, I only saw 3 . . . oh yes, Nathan was getting a drink, which led to everyone wanting water. When we finally made it out to the van, I realized that no one had the bag containing the one thing we bought--Nathan's pants. So I ran back in, the cashier looked at me like she had never seen me before--and the pants weren't there. I guess the man behind me picked up that bag too. Sigh. We went off to the library, with me feeling totally frustrated with myself for not noticing. On our way back from the library, I called Target to see if anyone had, by some miracle, turned the pants back in. The lady said no, but then she told me that if I brought in my receipt, I could get the money refunded or get another pair of pants! What?! I couldn't believe that, since Target has such an unforgiving return policy! And maybe she's wrong, but we high-tailed it right back there. I wasn't going to let that get away! So all's well that end's well--we got the last pair of blue size 12 pants. But it was certainly an omen indicative of how the next day was going to go!

Thursday evening at 11:00 I was finishing getting a little bit of school work out before filling snack bags for the trip Friday, when I became aware of a noise from the kitchen. "Hmmmm," I thought, "I didn't start the dishwasher, and I'm not running a load of laundry . . ." I went over to investigate, and when I opened the door of the cabinet under the sink, water sprayed out everywhere. Ack! We have a separate faucet for filtered water, and the thing that attaches it to the cold water line just . . . unattached somehow. What a huge mess! I was sooooo incredibly thankful that this did not happen Friday night, however. I can not even imagine the flood in the kitchen and basement that would have resulted from that! So we got the water stopped, but it was a huge clean up. Finally we went to bed around 1:00 . . . but as I went into our room, another door opened, and Jonathan stumbled out crying. Yes! He had an accident! So we had to get new sheets, start laundry, move Caleb to the top bunk, etc. It was a late night.

We got off Friday afternoon at 2:00 to drive to the Poconos in NE Pennsylvania. We have made this drive before, although the last time was almost 3 years ago. It usually takes us about 4 1/2 hours to get there, so we estimated we'd get there by 7:30, with nursing stops. We started out in a lot of traffic as we left town because of construction, but we were able to go around that, so everything was great. I entered in Rose's address on our GPS, and we set off. It took up over to I-81, which is quite a bit farther west of where we live, but we didn't really think about that. It was until we'd been driving awhile that I happened to look at a map and realized that we really added on quite a bit of mileage. How did that happen? I honestly don't know. We stopped aroun 4:15 because Faith needed to eat. That was poor coordination on my part--we should have been able to drive more than 2 hours before she needed to eat, and I knew we would have to stop a second time. We picked an exit with a Wendy's, Subway, and McDonalds, so we could eat an early dinner, but we never saw the Wendy's or Subway. We just kept driving--over 5 minutes off the road (we were actually in the town of Shippensburg, Carri!). Finally we found the McDonalds, but we could not figure out where the other restaurants had been. As we drove back, we saw a big shopping center that was TOTALLY hidden by trees if you were coming from the freeway, and that's where the other restaurants were--less than 1/2 mile away from the freeway exit! Oh well.

We got back on the freeway, and promptly came to a complete stop. No one moved for a long time. Of course, we were 10 miles away from the closest exit, and there was a big gully in the median, so we couldn't turn around. Occasionally we would move up a few car lengths, then everything would stop again. We were expecting a major car accident or construction or something, but eventually things started moving, and we could never see any problem at all! Totally weird, and a huge time sink.

We made good time the rest of the way, and we thought things were looking up. At least we'd get there before dark. We got off the highway onto a smaller PA road. The road that runs through Rose's town was off this main road, so we were expecting a bigger intersection. I even thought I might recognize it. We drove for a long time, blindly obeying our GPS thing. We were a little suspicious because it told us we were to turn onto "Unnamed Road". As I said, it was the main road through Rose's town, so I was pretty darn sure it had a name. But maybe this was a shortcut? When we got to the Unnamed Road, it was little more than a paved cowpath. I told Bob there was NO WAY we were turning on that, so we kept going. The GPS recalculated, and told us to turn on another road. At least that one had a name, but it still did not look at all familiar. But we turned, and we turned again, and we wound around and around on small, dark PA back country roads, with me getting more and more alarmed becuase nothing looked right, and I knew the lake wasn't that far away from the main road. Finally we reached the lake . . . and IT WAS THE WRONG LAKE!! I about had a heart attack. It was getting dark, and it seriously looked like the kind of place where the axe murderer would step out of the woods in front of us (of course, we were in the big van, so we could have mowed him down . . . but what if we ran out of gas?!) . . . Bob was in favor of driving a little farther, but I told him we had to turn around NOW so we could at least make it back to the main road before darkness completely fell, and we missed one of the crazy turns! I looked at the atlas and found the lake we were at, which was a good 10 miles away from Rose's lake. We made it back to the main road, praise the Lord, and then it was easy to get to Rose's by looking at the actual atlas, which apparently has her lake down at the right place, unlike our GPS system! We rolled in around 9:00, over 7 hours after we left! VERY stressful drive. VERY crabby Claire, who could not believe that she had trusted a mechanical device 2 times instead of her trusty atlas. Never again!

So you can see what a surprise it was to actually have a very enjoyable weekend with Bob's family! I was expecting some kind of major fireworks! I'll post more about being there later. I've got to get kids down, since we're in the middle of standardized testing!

Happy Mother's Day!

I have a lot to blog about, as we had a wonderful time up in PA with Bob's family. But first, I am enjoying a lovely Mother's Day with Bob and all my beautiful children! Since I really, really don't like going out to eat on Mother's Day, and I like cooking myself even less, Bob usually grills out. Today he grilled some filet mignons for us all. The commissary at Ft. Belvior sells beef tenderloin, and he got it sliced up into steaks. DELICIOUS!! Much better than at a restaurant! Now I'm just relaxing, and I'm hoping later on tonight to be able to visit Elizabeth and Ed and meet their new little baby Theodore, who was born Thursday night!

Faith celebrated Mother's Day in her own special way. As I nursed her during church, she blew her diaper out the top, covering her dress, diaper cover, the blanket, burpcloth, and my dress. Poop was literally dripping off of her, and I was so thankful there was another mom back in the nursing area with me to help! She ran and got some bags for the diaper and wipes, as well as for all the poopy clothes! I finally got everything fairly cleaned up, and I was so thankful that I had a spare outfit for her in the diaper bag! That's the good thing about having just been traveling, LOL. She had obviously been saving up for this special mother/daughter bonding moment.

School versus Life

Last night I remarked to Bob how well things were going! Faith is sleeping really well, I'm feeling so much more rested and energetic, I'm getting everything done for school that I want to get done each day, and even the house is staying cleaner! So I was all prepared to post today about what we're doing school-wise, but of course, as soon as you breathe the words "everything's going well", you know what happens! Something to derail the whole thing! Last night that something was Nathan. He stumbled out of his room at 1:00 AM and promptly threw up his entire dinner into a trash can. (Yay for him making it! He hasn't always been so quick on the uptake, LOL.) Then he proceeded to throw up about every half hour at first, then it slowed to every hour or 2, for the rest of the night. Poor Luke came and got me each time while Nathan suffered not very stoicly, poor guy. I think it was a total of 8 times, mainly dry heaves. He threw up the last time at 7:30 this morning, and since then he has been better, even eating a piece of toast and some applesauce, but still . . . not much school was done today because we are all so tired.

I do think there has been some little virus going around. One night last week (Thursday maybe?) Jonathan announced he wasn't feeling so well. A little while later, he went over to the kitchen trash can and lost his dinner, and that was that. Then Sunday morning Luke woke up not feeling well. He stayed home from church with Bob and threw up twice (VERY unusual for him--he never throws up), and then he felt fine by the afternoon. No one ran a fever or had any other symptoms of anything at all, so I just vaguely put it down to something not agreeing with them or whatever. But now that I think back, that is an unusually high occurance of vomiting for our household, so I think it's a bug! And now Nathan, "The Boy with the Pillow-Soft Stomach" has it, and his poor tummy can't get over it. Actually, as I type this, he is back in the bathroom, moaning and groaning, so I guess he is not all better. Poor boy.

I am praying that Caleb especially doesn't get this because we test next week, and I want everyone to be healthy! And we certainly don't need Grace to have another spell of no eating, where she drops back below 20 pounds. And Faith is so little . . . Hopefully this bug will just leave our house without bothering anyone else!

Birthday Weekend

Well, the birthday weekend is over. We celebrated Grace's birthday Friday night, but Bob's birthday was the next day, Saturday (it's on your calendar, Aunt Claire!). He celebrated by getting up early to go to men's group at church, then coming home and making the kids lunch while I went to a baby shower for Elizabeth, and then taking all the kids but Faith swimming! It was so nice of him to stay with the kids while I went to the shower, because I had such a lovely time there, even though it wasn't very "celebratory" for him!

People on Facebook were asking what his cake was. I particularly liked Amy's suggestion of a 12-passenger van cake, LOL. Very appropriate, since that was definitely the big "gift" for this year! But the truth is, Bob didn't get his own cake, I am sad to say. One cake is about all I can handle for a weekend. We had our church small group meet here tonight, so I made one of Bob's favorite desserts for that--chocolate-filled oatmeal walnut bars. MUCH, much better than cake.

Right before small group started, we finally got around to opening Grace's presents. Friday night Bible study was at our house, and we were rushing around trying to get dinner cleaned up when people started arriving, so there was no time. Then there really wasn't a good opportunity yesterday either. Fortunately, at 2 she has no concept of what should happen for a birthday, so she didn't know what she was missing, LOL. She was happy to open them this afternoon, and she got some fun things, like a little princess puzzle, a talking "piggy bank" with big plastic coins, and a set of fake food that you "cut" apart with the wooden knife. All the kids at small group enjoyed her new presents too!

Now we have one more month until the next birthday, which is Jonathan's, on June 2. He has ben counting down the days since March! Nathan and I are trying to talk him into a "joint cake", like they had last year. Nathan is pushing for an aircraft carrier, but Jonathan is not sure. I think he is just being difficult, since he knows Nathan wants it, LOL.

Happy Birthday, Grace!!

Grace is 2 today! I can't believe it was 2 years ago today that I was induced with her. Her labor and delivery were definitely not my favorite, but I learned a lot of lessons there!

Grace is such a fun little girl! She is not as girly as Anna--definitely not as into pink and shoes as her sister--but she loves her big sister and all her big brothers. Luke is her favorite though, I must say. I think that she will have more of Luke's personality as well. She loves to look at books, especially this Little People farm book that Bob's brother and sister-in-law got for Anna a few years ago. It has foam animal figures that fit into the pages, like a little puzzle, and she will sit for a very long time, taking them out and putting them back in. She is starting to like dolls more, carrying one around the house a lot. And of course she loves little Faith. As it turns out, "Faith" is an easy name for little kids to say. I guess "f" is an easy sound! Anyhow, you can tell that is what she is saying very clearly!

For her cake, I made a pink and white doggie, like the beanie baby one that she sleeps with. She was quite happy with it, and it turned out pretty cute! Here are some better pictures, including one with her actual doggie. I wanted the pink to be lighter, but I added too much color paste. I didn't expect it to darken up so quickly! I used a big pyrex bowl for the head, and a small one for the snout (that was all one cake mix). Then with the second cake mix, I used a pyrex casserole dish for the body, and a really small bowl for the 4 paws. I really needed a little more cake, because the paws were tricky, but it was fine in the end.

The New Van

Here he is! Our new family member! We're trying to come up with a good name for him. He was last owned by Enterprise, and he is as big as a spaceship, so "USS Enterprise" has been discussed. Of course, that's not very catchy. I think of him as "Maximus", which seems like an appropriate Latin name for us. We'll have to see what other suggestions come out as we get used to him.

We drove back to the dealership this morning to pick up Bob's minivan, which was sitting there waiting for us. Then I drove the big guy back home with all the kids, and Bob went on to work. It's not hard at all to drive on the freeway, LOL. We stopped by the party store to pick up some pick plates for Grace's birthday tomorrow, and I about hyperventilated at the thought of parking. I told the kids we were going to park a mile away, but luckily we could pull through into a space much less than a mile away. Whew! The kids loved having more room, and being up higher than all the other vehicles, which now look like little bugs.

To revisit the issue of why we picked the 12 passenger van over the 15 passenger, we figured we would mainly be using it for long trips, as I am not planning on driving it regularly around town. The parking lots are just too small and cramped, and the kids and I all fit in the Sienna, which gets tons better gas milage. So for long trips, we will have several suitcases and pack-n-plays, and there is no room at all behind the last seat of the 15 passenger van. We would always have to have that last seat out, which means we would be storing it, and then we would only have 11 seats. We can fit suitcases in the back of the 12 passenger one, and we'll have 3 extra seats. I tell you what was frustrating is to realize that there have been NO improvements in big van technology over the past 10 years or so. A 1999 van looks the same inside as our 2008, except it might have a cassette player instead of a CD player. The seats don't fold over, and there is no split seat technology, which would be wonderfully useful when dealing with these enormous seats. They are definitely not wasting any money on this market! It is hard to go from our super-nice Sienna to this bare-bones van. But we all fit, and there is certainly something to be said for that!

Van News

We have been looking more seriously into buying a big passenger van. Originally we had thought we would wait until maybe Fall to buy one, but it has increasingly become more and more of a hassle to have to take 2 vehicles anytime we all want to go anywhere. So Bob has been spending a lot of time on the computer, trying to find one for us. He found some he liked Monday, and they were several thousand dollars cheaper than similar vans elsewhere. The catch was that these vans were near Lancaster, PA. He later found out the price differential was due to hail damage. That in and of itself didn't bother us--any van we buy will never see the inside of a garage here in D.C. (don't get me started on the tiny garages here in the land of huge houses), so it very well could suffer hail damage from us. But that's definitely the kind of thing you want to see before buying, so we decided we would make a quick trip up there Tuesday afternoon.

As it turned out, nothing about the trip was quick, LOL. Since we couldn't all fit in our van to drive up there, we left the boys with the McCs, and the girls (Anna and Grace only) with a family from church. This family actually lives quite a bit further in than we do, and there was utility work on the main road between us, so it took a lot longer to get the girls dropped off, which meant we left our house a lot later than I had wanted. The whole drive up there took longer than we had expected, and we programmed the wrong street name into our GPS. Well, it was the right street name, but the wrong small town, so we ended up in a subdivision, not a car dealership. Whoops!

It was still a lovely drive. Too bad PA homeschooling rules are so draconian--the area around York and Lancaster is so beautiful. We saw several Amish buggies, and Amish farmers working their farms with horse-drawn teams. Bob and I had a great time just being by ourselves (well, okay, Faith was there too, but that's almost like being by ourselves--she slept most of the ride!). A cheap date!

When we got to the dealership, at long last, we discovered that the van Bob had been talking to the guy about, even as late as yesterday morning, had, in fact, sold a few days ago. Hmmm. That didn't start things off too well. The hail damage wasn't too bad, and we definitely decided we wanted a 12 passenger van instead of a 15 passenger one, which Bob had been leaning toward, but we weren't going to do business with someone who lied to us! So we drove back, picking up our kids very late (9:30-9:45ish). We have such wonderful friends.

Once we got home, Bob hopped back on the computer and found some 12 passenger vans much closer, in Annapolis. A bonus--they were silver, not white, which Bob didn't really want. He went over there after work today and came back home with one! So now we are the proud owners of a silver 2008 Ford 350 van. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow. It certainly looks imposing out there, but my friends tell me I'll get used to driving it quickly. Right, Marie and Tonya?! I'm hoping that's true! I guess I will take my maiden voyage in it tomorrow. We are all driving back to Annapolis in it to pick up Bob's Odyssey, which he just left parked at the dealership. He'll take that off to work, and I'll drive the big behemoth home. Yeee-haw! and now we are free to go places as a family . . . all in one vehicle!

More Than One Reason . . .

This morning the boys were rough-housing with Grace, tossing her onto the couch. She was squealing and laughing with glee. Call me Nostradamus, but I could foresee problems, so I told them to stop.

Caleb: "But she loves it, Mom!"

Me: "Well, she'll love it until she gets hurt. Then she'll be crying, and we'll be off to the hospital."

Anna: "Are you having another baby, Mom?"

Me: "What? No."

Anna persists: "Then who is having a baby, Mom?"

Me: "No one . . . Oh, you go to the hospital for other reasons than just having a baby. Like if you get hurt."

Anna: "Oh."

I love how they connect dots and seeing what their little brains come up with!

The Weekend is Over!

And I for one am glad. Now maybe I can get some rest! Actually, all of last week was really busy too. Tuesday was the last day of our homeschool co-op. The kids have been working hard on a musical for this last unit. They started working on it (casting parts, etc.) back in December, when they had a fine arts unit before Christmas. Then they picked up with everything the end of March, and last week they had practice Wednesday and Thursday afternoons as well. Friday was the big perfermance, and they did great! The musical was called "Promise U", and the idea was that a big group of college students were studying for a test they had to pass about God's promises to famous followers over the past 2000 years. The DJ was new to the school and didn't know about these people, who were Paul, Martin Luther, Pocohantas, the Wesley brothers, Harriet Tubman, Gladys Aylward, and Billy Graham. There were little vignettes about each famous follower, plus songs, a stomp team demo, and various other special and creative things. It was so fun to watch! The kids did a great job, especially for not really having practiced all that much. Actually, the ladies who directed it really did a great job, being able to pull together such an amazing performance with so little time, and so many wiggly kids! Luke, who was really not into the whole thing at all was so funny on the way home Friday night: "You know, it really felt good to stand up there and have all those people clap for me!" Ah, self-discovery, and the joys of going out of your comfort zone, LOL.

Saturday afternoon I went to a wedding shower for a girl at church, and then I rushed home to start cleaning and making food because I hosted a baby shower for 5 women from church this afternoon over here. I stayed up WAYYYY to late Saturday night, in part because one of the honored women called Saturday night to ask if her husband and kids could just be in our basement during the shower because they live 40 minutes away. Of course I said sure, but that meant I had to rush downstairs and clean up, which meant throwing everything on the floor in a kitchen trash bag, LOL. The funny thing is that so far the boys haven't even noticed that all that stuff (mainly legos) has just disappeared. The not-so-funny thing is that when the lady came, I asked her where her family was, and she told me that another family at church had asked them to come over to their house, which is what they did. Oh well, at least the basement is really clean. And less cluttered.

I wasn't sure how many people we would have, but I figured it would be a good amount, since the shower was happening right after church. We ended up having over 20 women, plus a few daughters. Good thing we had lots of food! I made these make-ahead sandwiches out of 3 loaves of Italian bread, as well as a bean salad, and a broccoli salad. We also had fruit, and the lady who hosted the wedding shower brought her leftover food as well, which was several dips and spreads for crackers. Karen, our pastor's wife, made a beautiful cake. We hardly had anything left over! I guess the women were hungry after church! I had stayed up late last night also trying to figure out games. Normally I come up with some creative ones, but I was just so tired, plus we were out of computer paper, I discovered. Anyway, there were so many people that it would have been hard to play games, plus everyone was having a grand time just talking, so we ended up not playing anything. Another thing I could have not done last night! We did go around and ask each of the 5 women about what we could specifically pray for them, and then we had a time of prayer. It was really a nice time.

Bob took all the kids but Faith out to eat at Ci-Ci's Pizza, and then swimming at the rec center. They had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to have the kids out of the way for the whole afternoon! I'm sure Bob was also happy to not be there, listening to all the talk of childbirth and nursing, LOL.

After everyone left and Bob and the kids came home, I crashed for a 2 1/2 hour nap. I was so tired! I only woke up because I had to nurse. Hopefully this next week won't be quite so busy!

7th Grade Plans

Nathan is graduating from our co-op tonight, and we've been thinking about what is going to happen next year. For language arts, we are doing a small co-op with Christine, her oldest, and 2 other boys. They are going to focus on writing, a weakness of ours, and also literary analysis. I'm really excited about this co-op. I think it will really be exactly what Nathan needs.

I had always planned that Nathan would go on to the jr. high/high school co-op that is associated with our elementary co-op. In fact, Bob and I went to the meeting for that group last Tuesday, and we weren't considering anything else. This co-op has 4 classes that 7th graders could take--prealgebra, general science, composition I, and geography. Nathan would only have taken geography and science, since we're doing something else for English, and he is already doing prealgebra. The catch is that I have to do something in this co-op--teach a class or lab, be there the whole day for 6 sessions to monitor a study hall, or something like that. Now the only problem with that is what to do with the other 6 while I am there, especially the 3 little girls. I was really not sure about it at all. I was considering doing the biology lab, since that would be right up my alley, and because it would be a shorter period than all day, but I still would have to find someone to watch everyone.

Then Christine called Wednesday night. She had gone to an open house for Classical Conversations that is starting up really close to us. I knew about it, but I hadn't even considered it because I knew it was expensive. Well, Christine made me really interested. The K-6 program focuses on memory work and projects in math, grammar, Latin, history, science, art, and music. We have not done much with music or art, and the experiments and projects they do for science would be good as well. But here's the big thing--all the kids can go, and they have a nursery. It is expensive, but if I were to be a teacher, then that would pay for 2-3 of the kids to go, depending on how many kids were in my class. They provide what you need to cover each week, so that would be less prep work than running a lab, where I would be coming up with what I wanted to cover and do. Even though Nathan is not technically a 6th grader, it really wouldn't matter--he would still be doing new stuff, and we would still be doing the language co-op, and our regular math program at home (at CC, they just really focus on solidifying math facts, formulas, etc., not actual teaching of math). Then next year, Christine and I would focus on starting the jr. high program of CC, which has a lot of writing, and also the science that Nathan would need. The only drawback I can see is that Nathan would be a year behind on science going into high school, but possibly he could take one class (physics or something) at the community college later on to catch up. So right now, this is what I am thinking we will do. It's a big change of plans, and not anything I was even remotely considering before Wednesday. I'm praying that if this is the right path for us, then I will have a real peace about it, and the Lord will show us clearly.

Beautiful Quilt!

I am very fortunate to be related to someone who is an excellent quilter! My Aunt Rocky (my dad's sister) is a genius at quilting, and in fact all matters of sewing. She has made a beautiful quilt for EACH ONE of my children, which is no small feat! I am always so excited to see what intricate designs she will do, and what beautiful material she will pick. They are all works of art, which is why we do things like hang them on the bedroom walls for decorations, as opposed to leaving them lying around to get dirty! This is definitely an area in which I am not gifted, so I am so thankful for the time she spends making these keepsakes for my kids.

And you can see how Faith likes hers! Just look at that smile!

Twelve Searching Questions

Our pastor had this printed in our bulletin yesterday. These questions were very convicting, and I have found myself thinking about them throughout the day today, especially #10!

Twelve Searching Questions

1. Did I awake spiritual, and was I watchful in keeping my mind from wandering this morning when I was rising?

2. Have I this day gotten nearer to God in times of prayer, or have I given way to a lazy, idle spirit?

3. Has my faith been weakened by unwatchfulness, or quickened by diligence this day?

4. Have I this day walked by faith and eyed God in all things?

5. Have I denied myself in all unkind words and thoughts; have I delighted in seeing others preferred before me?

6. Have I made the most of my precious time, as far as I had light, strength, and opportunity?

7. Have I kept the issues of my heart in the means of grace, so as to profit by them?

8. What have I done this day for the souls and bodies of God's dear saints?

9. Have I laid out anything to please myself when I might have saved the money for the cause of God?

10. Have I governed well my tongue this day, remembering that in a multitude of words there wanteth not sin?

11. In how many instances have I denied myself this day?

12. Do my life and conversation adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ?

--by Richard Alderson

The Good Thing About Having a Big Family . . .

. . . you can have a great game of baseball with 2 neighbor boys.


The even better thing about having a big family . . .


. . . you can have a great game of street hockey even when the neighbors have to go home!

We had a day of beautiful weather, and Bob and the boys were outside almost the whole day. They planted some stuff in our garden (although we aren't expecting much, since we all have very black thumbs, LOL), and Bob cut down some ugly shrubs on the side of the house and painted our mailbox post. The boys played baseball, hockey, and everyone including Anna and Grace ran through the sprinklers. Anna has been DYING to do that for forever. She loves putting on her swimsuit. Even Faith spent some time outside in her bouncy seat. It was so wonderful to have nice weather!

It's a Small World After All . . .

I have really been enjoying Facebook. It's been so fun to reconnect with old friends and see what people are up to at a glance. I have a few different groups of friends--high school/college friends, White Sulphur Springs friends from back when I was on staff, people we've been assigned with other places, and people from around here that are in our church or homeschool group.

One group I have especially enjoyed being back in contact with is people from White Sulphur Springs. I used to work there on the support staff in the summers during high school, and those were some of the funnest times of my life! I also felt like I really grew spiritually those summers, and that was in part due to the great people who surrounded me. I can not wait for my kids to be able to be on staff there!

All that is an introduction, however. I became FB friends with Anne, who was on staff with me there. In fact, she was my girl's staff supervisor one year, and she was tons of fun, with such a gentle spirit. Well, it turns out that she is married to someone from Dayton Christian, who graduated a year ahead of me, and who in fact I had some science classes with!! Isn't that absolutely amazing?! So I knew both Anne and David during high school, years before they met in D.C. and married! I'm still shaking my head over it!

Faith is 2 Months!

Today we had Faith's 2-month well-baby appointment. She is 11 pounds, 4 ounces, and 23 inches long, which puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for length! Gasp! The doctor said her genes would kick in soon enough though, and I know she is right. No child of ours is going to end up in the 90th percentile for height, LOL. Faith also got her first shots. She cried loudly in outrage, and Anna was so upset for her! Her little face was all crumpled up and concerned until I got Faith settled down.

I have said before that I thought Faith was going to follow the "odd-numbered baby" mold, and it looks like she is indeed. Here are some pictures for you to compare and contrast: Which picture is who?

So the top picture is Faith, the next picture is Anna, and the bottom picture is Grace. Anna and Faith really look a lot alike, which I have been noticing more and more. It's hard to capture in a picture the same exact look, but it's definitely there! She has the rounder face, smaller eyes look of Anna, Caleb, and Nathan.

Here is one last picture of Faith. She's been smiling so much, but it's hard to capture that on camera as well! So here is a little smile, the best I could do!

Things Designed to Annoy . . .

First of all, when we arrived back home from Ohio, Bob told us that our trash can was missing from the curb when he got home. (Fridays and Tuesdays are our trash pick-up days.) He had called as soon as he got home, but they were already closed. You can bet we both called on monday morning, as a trash can is something we definitely need around here! I don't like to boast, but we happen to produce some large quantities of very stinky garbage, LOL. Well, no one knew anything. They were checking with the driver to see what had happened, and they would call us when they found out.

We never got a call, so I called again this afternoon after we got home from co-op. We had just set a bunch of bags out on the curb this morning, and they were taken, but no new trash can was left in their place. The lady at American (our trash service) said that the driver said he hadn't taken it, so it must have been stolen, and they aren't responsible for lost or stolen containers. We can buy a dumpster from them for $75 though. How convenient. And how silly. I mean really--who drives down a cul-de-sac, spots a huge trash dumpster (one of many lining the streets of the neighborhood, actually), and decides to steal it?! The lady said it's a "common problem, unfortunately". Hmmmm. So now we have to go to Home Depot to buy our own dumpster. You better believe we are spraying our address on that thing, and it better not show up anywhere else, or I will really be ticked! Who knew our stinky trash can, the one with a broken lid, was so desirable?

The second thing is that Grace lost her pacifier Saturday night. She was getting ready for bed, and she brought it downstairs with her doggie. I can verify that. Not too long after that, it was actually time for her to go down, but the pacifier was nowhere to be found. We all spent quite a bit of time searching, even though I was trying to make a ton of stuff for our Easter dinner the next day. Finally we gave us and just put her down. She eventually went off to sleep, although not without a fight, LOL, and Bob and I decided that maybe we'd just go with it, even though we usually wait until around 3 to get rid of the pacifier. But that meant that we couldn't move Grace into Anna's room like I had planned to, because Grace was fussing around so much and so long to go to sleep. We gave it a few nights, but it hasn't gotten any better, and she hasn't napped without it, which is also wearing thin. She also is waking up very early and fussing around then too for an hour or so, until I finally get her up around 7:00, when the boys are up and can help her get breakfast. Plus, I am really ready to have Faith out of our closet and into her own room. The treadmill is in our room, and I can't exercise on it when Faith is in our closet in the mornings!

So early this morning I gave up and gave her this old ratty binky I found in a basket on my dresser. I believe it used to be Jonathan's way back in the day. She took it then, although when I gave it to her for naptime, she really examined it! She really only needs it to get off to sleep and when she wakes up early in the morning. She was going through the rest of the night just fine. If I wasn't already so tired from everything else, and if I wasn't so anxious to get her moved into Anna's room, we might have gone longer without it. But as it is, I think this is one of those areas like potty-training was for us: I could try potty-training (this is for the boys, primarily) early and clean up a lot of accidents and be really frustrated, or I could wait until they were close to 3, when they caught on much quicker and with much less attendant frustration on my part. I think Grace will be much more ready to part with the binky at 3 than now. Everyone else has had no problems at that age. And in the meantime, I get more rest.

I guess we won't have that problem with Faith. She has never been that thrilled with a binky. She will suck on it if you sit there and hold it in her mouth, but she definitely doesn't search it out! Sometimes it seems like she is looking for her thumb, but if I try to guide it into her mouth, well, she's not that into it either. Nathan was a thumb-sucker, and everyone else took pacifiers--I've never had a baby who didn't take anything! Fortunately she's a pretty happy baby, so she hasn't had a big need for something to help her settle down and soothe herself.

*Update* Okay, the whole trashcan thing has now gotten plain weird. Bob did call, and after talking to a bunch of people, finally got a superviser to agree to replace the can, since it had a broken lid. He wasn't sure that was going to happen though, because this lady started off, "Well, 'replace' implies you have something TO replace" LOL. Yay! So he called me about 4:30 to tell me this. I was upstairs getting the girls up from their naps. Not too long before that, I was outside moving bikes inside from in front of our house because Anna and Jonathan forgot to bring theirs in, and Anna was napping, and Jonathan was with the rest of the boys playing in our neighbor's house. When I came downstairs with the girls, I happened to look out our open front door, and there was our trashcan, sitting right in front of our house on the street, right where the bikes had been not an hour previously! It was our same can, with the broken lid and a big paint splotch on it! What in the world?! Obviously someone took it, but how could that be an accident? "Whoops, I accidentally brought 2 trashcans in, after I got mixed up as to which house is mine!" So now we are really confused. I guess we're still going to get it replaced, but now we will have to call the company back and tell them we DO have something to replace! Totally weird.

River Cruise

Here is the boat we were on, the Spirit of Washington. It was big and new, compared to boats from some of the other companies that do river cruises. Of course, we didn't really have a choice, since we went with a group from the base, but I think they picked a nice one!

Here we are at our table, squeezed in with 8 close strangers, LOL. The tables were all full, and the tables were also pretty packed in there, so it was hard to get in and out. That was why we decided to stay outside once we got ourselves out there! I should have taken a picture of the whole dining room, but I forgot. There were also 2 other levels of dining rooms above us.

Standing on the deck at the back of the boat, the wind wasn't quite so vicious. We saw several little sailboats out. Brrr. I could not imagine being out there, bobbing around on a tiny boat in that weather. Why?! Obviously the sea is not in my blood, LOL.

Unrelatedly, I look like a giant Easter egg in my bright purple coat, don't I? Before you get on the boat, photographers take your picture, which they try to sell to you for $20 when you get off. (I don't think so!) It was easy to pick our picture out of the crowd--look for the purple blob! I was glad to have my coat though. Some ladies were frigid as they scuttled around the bloat, trying to look enthusiastic at the view with their dates, LOL.

You can barely see the Washington Monument in the background here. This would have been really pretty if all the cherry blossoms hadn't fallen off because of the rain and wind the night before!

Happy Resurrection Day!

This is a quick post to let you know that we did indeed make it home safely on Friday! There was even hardly any rain at all, praise the Lord, so the drive went really well. We listened to Rascal by Sterling North on CD, and it was excellent. He has such a great way with words. The time flew by listening to that book! We arrived home at 6:30, ate a quick meal of cereal while I nursed, and then we headed over to Bible study. It was great to see these friends again!

The rain that the Lord held off Friday came in full force Friday night and Saturday. Bob had bought tickets through work for a lunch Potomac River cruise, so we dropped the kids off at the L's house at 10:00 and headed downtown to the dock. The cruise was really nice! We were crammed together at long tables for 10, but it was fun, and the food was really good. Bob and I both had salmon that we liked, as well as a lot of other stuff on a buffet. After we ate, there was a DJ playing music and entertaining the crowd, so Bob and I took the opportunity to walk around outside. It was freezing and windy, but we both had our heavy winter coats, so it wasn't unbearable. Even with the clouds and gloom, it was still pretty, and we really enjoyed it! I need to upload pictures so I can post some. We finally arrived back at the L's house after 3:00. We are so thankful for good friends to watch our kids like that!

We went back home where I started making food in preparation for our Easter dinner, which was a potluck back over at the L's house. Nathan made ginger snaps, I made salad dressing and cut up strawberries for a spinach salad, and I made a 7-layer bar dessert as well. I was so tired when I went to bed! I think all this activity, combined with the long drive, really caught up with me!

Today we had a wonderful service at church. It was the first time for me to be in the service since we moved to the middle school, and it really wasn't bad at all! It helps that it is in an auditorium, not in a gym or something. I think it reminded me of chapel at Dayton Christian or something, which is not a bad thing.

Then we headed over to the L's house at 1:45. We ate tons of good food and talked for a long time! We didn't leave until after 6:00! I meant to take pictures, but I forgot to actually get the camera out of the diaper bag. Oh well!

You may have noticed that nowhere in this list of weekend activities was there anything about unpacking, getting settled back in, etc. That's because that has never actually happened. So the house still looks like a hurricane came through it, strewing suitcases and dirty clothes. I told the boys we would only do a few things for school, and then they can help me attempt to get organized. Maybe I'll actually start them on their test review books for their standardized testing, which is coming up in a month.

Packing Up

We've had a great visit, but our time is just about up. Tomorrow we head back, and it looks like it is going to be a rainy drive the whole way, so I would appreciate your prayers for safety!

Today, however, is a beautiful day! We were supposed to go visit a friend of mine from way back in college, Marie, who also has 7 kids, but alas, some of hers were vomiting last night. We didn't want to have a vomit-filled ride home or Easter, so we said we'd have to get together the next time we're out here, probably in late June. The kids were all disappointed (me too!), but we made the best of it by heading to the park instead. I put Faith in the front pack, and we even swung on the swings together! Nathan did take a picture of us, but to be honest, it looked like I was still pregnant, not wearing a front pack, so I don't think you'll be seeing that picture, LOL.

Yesterday afternoon, the boys, Anna, and I went to the Air Force Museum. We only went through the WWII hanger, since we got there about 3:30, and it closes at 5:00. That was a good amount of time, especially for Anna, and not too much walking for her. We studied WWII this year in history, so I figured it would be a good time to focus on those particular airplanes. They even had a small display on cryptography, with an Enigma machine on loan from the National Crytologic Museum that we went to back in October!

We watched some interesting videos as well, including one which had Jimmy Doolittle talking about his raid on Tokyo. So fascinating to hear and see him talk about it in person, so to speak. The boys were really impressed by the actual camera footage from a fighter squadron in Germany. Harrowing! We also watched a video on kamikaze planes, and the big finale was the video on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The plane that dropped the "Fat Boy" bomb on Nagasaki, Bockscar, is actually on display there at the museum, and remembering that it was there was what made me want to take the boys there to the museum this time. I figured it would really cement in their minds what they heard on the Story of the World CDs about the end of WWII.

Now I'm busy packing and getting organized. I also need to run to Walmart to resupply the snack bags for the kids (okay, for me too, LOL). In fact, I should probably do that now, while Faith is sleeping . . .

Sleep Problems

Last night, I had a great night sleep! This is a big deal, since I haven't been having too many of them since we got to Ohio!

It started Thursday night, and it only involves the girls. The boys have been sleeping great! Grace had a bad dream once and then was cold another time, Anna fell out of bed once and needed to pee later, Faith decided she needed to increase my milk supply by nursing every 2 hours--it was a long night.

Friday we wore the kids out at Amy's so even the girls slept pretty well, although Anna keeps needing to go potty at about 2:00 AM, and then Faith has been waking up around 4:00, which is earlier than she was waking at home. Still a choppy night.

Saturday we went to Youngs in the late afternoon. Grace gobbled down a hot dog and a scoop of cow patty ice cream, which is a rich chocolate ice cream. Then we came back here and watched basketball and ate popcorn. At 1:00, Grace woke up crying, and as soon as I walked in the room , I could tell she had thrown up. It was all over her and the pack-n-play. Evidently nothing had digested, because there were chunks of hot dog and pieces of popcorn in a lovely dark brown liquid. Blech. I had to stop and think for a minute how I was going to extract Grace from the situation without increasing the mess! I got her into the bathtub, all the while thinking about how I was going to have to go back into the room and deal with the mess in the pack-n-play! Fortuitously, when my parents had this house built, they made all the doorways really wide, so it would be handicap-accessible, so I was able to just pull the entire pack-n-play out into the hallway without further disturbing Anna. It ended up taking me an hour to get both Grace and the pack-n-play cleaned up, and then Grace had to sleep in my bed with me. For the next 2 hours, I slept pretty fitfully, because every time Grace moved around, coughed, whatever, I was instantly alert, ready to grab a trash can if needed! She was fine though, as least until 4:00, when she fell out of bed. Oops! Her tummy was fine, at least. Then Faith got up a little later, then Anna had to pee . . . I was so tired all day Sunday.

Sunday we went over to Amy and Jason's house in the afternoon for an open house celebrating Jason graduating with his MBA. They had rented a bouncy castle thing, which the kids loved, and the boys all played lots of football as well. Everyone was completely exhausted, and no one over-ate, so FINALLY I had an uninterrupted night of sleep. I fed Faith at 10:15 and was asleep by 10:45. She didn't wake up again until 5:30, and NEITHER DID ANYONE ELSE! I'm hoping for another such night tonight, but we'll see. Two in a row might be pushing my luck out here! Good thing I'm on vacation . . . I have a feeling I'm not going to feel too rested when I get back home, LOL.

A New Strategy

I've discovered a new strategy for the post-partum pooch, which seems to take longer and longer to shrink down the more kids I have. The strategy is . . . maternity clothes! Not the big ones I wear when I am actually pregnant, but rather the skinny kind designed for first-time moms with cute little tummies. I always get so frustrated the first several weeks (months?) after delivering, when nothing fits. I buy bigger pants to fit my pooch, but that means that everything else is bigger too, so the pants slide down and are super baggy in the hips. Drives. me. crazy. And when I looked for some new shirts to wear, I found that all the non-maternity ones are really clingy, and they show off every unflattering bulge on me.

A few weeks ago there was one of our big consignment sales back in D.C., and I bought several maternity tops. They are pretty skinny (I can't imagine wearing them when I am actually pregnant!), but they are loose enough that I can lift them up to nurse in them, and they don't cling to my every curve.

Today I went shopping at Once Upon A Child, a consignment store here in Ohio. I found the most comfortable pair of maternity jeans, with just the tiniest bit of elastic under the belly--perfect for post-partum wear! And a pair of khaki pants with just a few panels of elastic in the waistband--you can't even tell they are maternity pants by looking at them! I'm so happy!

This buys me a little more time as I work to get this pooch to shrink. Unfortunately, I just don't see instant results from the pilates I've been doing, sigh. But now I'm comfortable, and my pants aren't falling off. That is a good thing!

We're here!

We had a safe trip to Ohio, praise the Lord. We were able to leave by 9:30, which is not bad for us, LOL, and we made it here by 6:45. I nursed at 9:00, and then we stopped at 12:00 for me to nurse again and for lunch. That stop took a lot longer than our normal lunch stops, but it was fine. I put Faith in the frontpack while I ordered and everyone ate. We got a ton of attention. There must have been 6 or 8 people that made a point of stopping by our tables (we were at McDonalds) to comment on the family, and a lot of other people just pointed and whispered, LOL. This was in western Maryland, close to the WV border. You'd have thought they had never seen a large family of fairly well-behaved children! Three people asked me if they were homeschooled, and when I said yes, nodded and said they could tell. Well, I have certainly seen some very poorly behaved homeschoolers (we have 2 in our co-op!), so that is not a given!

We stopped one more time, at 3:30, to nurse. We just stopped at a rest stop, since the weather was bright and sunny in Ohio, unlike the drizzly rain we left in VA, MD, and WV. I parked by a large hill, and the kids ran up and down this big hill a bunch of times. Good to get the wiggles out!

We listened to The Great Brain on CD, which made the day fly by. Faith fussed around a little, but overall, she was an excellent traveler. Grace did well too, but usually by close to 2, the kids are used to long car trips and can amuse themselves. Of course, she also had all that practice on our 4000 mile jaunt out to Utah last summer! She still fussed around some, but most of the time, she played with her magnadoodle, looked at books, and ate her snacks when allowed. It's so nice when they realize no amount of fussing is going to change the fact that we are in the car, and we aren't stopping for them! Makes for a much quieter and more enjoyable ride!

This afternoon we are heading over to Amy's house to play. She is busy getting ready for an open house this weekend. On Saturday, her husband Jason is graduating with his MBA, and on Sunday, they are hosting an open house to celebrate! Yay, Jason!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna turned 3 today! It's hard to believe that 3 years ago, I went in for my appointment on my due date, they found out I was already 5 cm dilated but not having contractions, so the doctor admitted me, started pitocin, broke my water, and Anna arrived a few short hours later! And with her arrival, the color pink appeared in our house. Now pink is almost taking over!

Anna asked for a "pink bunny cake". I'm not sure exactly sure what the muse was for that particular choice, but hey, it was easy, and it did not involved Bionicles, so I was good with it. I would like everyone to know that I made the eyes just black, but other parties, who shall remain nameless, felt that the bunny needed pink irises, like real bunnies. So that is why this bunny looks a bit possessed.

Anna got lots of great presents, such as some Colorforms, a pink bike helmet, a princess beach towel, a shiny silver purse with lots of fun stuff inside, and a lollipop. A few days ago, she and Grace also scored a bunch of nice clothes passed down from the L's girls. They have been cleaning out their basement storage room, and we were the beneficiaries from that! The L's passed on these cute USAFA cheerleading outfits, which bring back such fun memories of going to the football games with them when we were both stationed in Colo. Springs, and Jessica and Amanda wearing these outfits! Anna and Grace were wearing them in honor of USAFA hockey, which has had a great season this year and is playing tonight in the NCAA tournament (double overtime right now!). I think for the football season, Faith will have to be the one wearing the small outfit, though. It's only a 12 month one, and I think it will be a shirt on Grace by then!

And here is a picture of Faith, just to keep everyone happy. She's cooing and smiling up a storm!

The Girls

My mom was requesting more pictures of Faith, and I realized I haven't taken any lately! Poor 7th child . . . I think she is going to follow true to trend and be an "odd number baby", which means being a little chunkier (i.e., not in the 5th percentile, LOL), and looking more like Anna with a rounder face. But I could be wrong. Grace and Anna still looked very similar as babies at the 2 month stage. Faith is definitely plumping up. She's a little over 10 pounds now. Last night she went from 10:45 until 6:30, which was wonderful for me, except for the engorgement, LOL.

Here is a bonus picture of Grace and Anna, plus Anna's favorite "pink babydoll". Someone in our neighborhood was throwing out these little chairs back in January, so Bob brought them home. Anna and Grace love to set them up next to each other and sit in them, eating or reading books together. They're too cute! I love seeing them become best buddies.

Changes

This is our church. I love it! It actually looks like a church, LOL, and it is surrounded by a huge grassy area for the kids to play on after service. It was built back in the 1850s. Eventually the church sort of died a slow death, and a few years ago, it only had a few aging members, and no permanent pastor. A church from downtown D.C. was looking to plant a church in our county, and they found this church. About 3 1/2 years ago, they offered to send a pastor and a team of members from the downtown church to run children's ministry, etc. This was agreed to, and the church has grown ever since.

At first, the entrance was through the bell tower, and we sat facing the back of the church. There was only seating for about 90, and even when we started going there, back in November 2006, it was getting really full. In the summer of 2007, we gutted the inside and turned everything around. Now we sit facing the bell tower, and that added maybe 50 or 60 more seats. But we quickly outgrew that too.

Here you can see the addition that was put on, probably in the 1970s or so. It has a big fellowship room upstairs, plus some offices, and a few classrooms, the nursery, a kitchen, and another big room downstairs. For the past year, ushers have put seats in the big room upstairs for overflow seating, and there is a closed circuit TV so you can see the service from in there. That room is getting full too.

This was our last Sunday to have our main worship service here. Starting next week, we will be meeting in the middle school down the road from here. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, we totally need the space. It's so crowded and hot in the old building. And I certainly don't want to be the person who says, "Now I'm here, so no more new people!" We have wonderful people in our church, and our pastor is so good, so I want as many people as possible to hear him! But still--a middle school. Bleh. I will miss all the light streaming in the windows, and the beautiful view of trees. Also, the singing sounds so great in a small building! I'm not sure how the sound will be in an auditorium, but I imagine it won't be quite the same effect. Plus, there will just be a lot of set-up hassles. Mainly, I just don't like change, LOL.

We will still meet at this building for our Sunday evening service, so it's not like we're saying goodbye to it forever. But still--I'll miss the morning service being here!

End of the Week Wrap-Up

Whew, the week is over! Here is how things shook out:

1. Anna broke out in hives Wednesday night, but because I am now up on current dosing amounts for children's Zyrtec, she got the right dosage from the start. The hives never got huge, and they were pretty much gone yesterday. She also found her binky Thursday (it was hiding under the trestle of our big table). I let her watch a video with it, and then I conspired to make it disappear again. Now she says, "My binky is lost AGAIN" in an exasperated voice, but so far, she hasn't needed it for nighttime. Now for the one in the car . . . I think that one will also go to the big binky place in the sky, but not until after we get back from our trip to Ohio. I'm not crazy!

2. Bob got rear-ended on his way home from work Wednesday night. He had called just a few minutes before to tell me that he was about 5 minutes from home, so I should go ahead and leave for my chiropractic appointment so I wouldn't be late. I merrily drove off, and while Bob was sitting htere in traffic, the guy behind him failed to stop. Fortunately, there wasn't really any damage, either to the car or to Bob. And fortunately, Bob had the presence of mind to call Ed, who came over to ride herd on everyone, since Bob obviously wasn't going to get home in less than 5 minutes! Thanks, Ed!

3. I had a great post-partum appointment Thursday afternoon! My blood glucose numbers were great, so the diabetes is gone! I was so relieved to hear that! I also got a tetanus shot while I was there. As far as I can tell, I haven't had any shots since I went off to college, in the summer of 1991, so I figured it was time, LOL. It's so much easier to keep up with stuff for the kids than for me. Now my arm is sore though. I was a bit sad the little kids weren't there to see Mommy be brave and not cry--Anna needs the good example, LOL.

4. Luke is now the proud possessor of an ID card as well. It took he and Bob several attempts, however. They tried back when Bob was on his paternity leave, but the computer was down, so that was a wasted trip to Bethesda. They did get the number for the CAC office, so they called the next day--that was an "appointment only" day, so it was a good thing they didn't drive all the way back for nothing! Another day they called, but the wait was 3 hours . . . they decided not to go. Finally they went back early Thursday morning. But there were still a lot of people in front of them, and the line wasn't moving fast. They bailed and decided to try the office down at Ft. Belvoir. It turned out there was no waiting there! Live and learn. So now I proudly carry 3 ID cards in my wallet! All my babies are growing up . . . I guess that's why we keep having them, LOL.

5. This is "Tax Weekend" here at our house. We are striving to finish our taxes before Bob starts the acquisition class on Tuesday, and I leave next Wednesday. Obviously we're not working on them right now, however. Feel free to keep asking us about our progress. We need the accountability, LOL.

So far this week . . .

It's been a busy week, and it's only Wednesday! Here's what we've been up to :

1. Anna gave up her pacifier at night! This was not by choice or in my perfect timing, since she was sick, but hey, whatever works. She brought her binky downstairs with her after her nap on Monday. She is only allowed to have it in her bed, or in the car, so I told her to go put it back up on her bed. She disappeared with it, but when bedtime rolled around, it was nowhere to be found. Luke and I both searched for it, but we couldn't find it. Anna says "It's hiding." I guess so! She woke up once asking for it (and running a fever) Monday night, but last night she slept through without waking. Woohoo! I had wanted to accomplish this before Grace moves in to share a room with her. I am planning on that move after our spring break trip to Ohio the first week in April, so this came at just the right time, sickness or not!

2. Bob passed his physical fitness test at work. This is always a good thing, especially seeing as how Bob has been distracted by little things such as having his 7th child the past few months and not working out all the time!

3. We got new cell phones yesterday. We got our old phones back in May 05--before I even got pregnant with Anna, if that gives you an idea of how long ago that was! Those were our first phones, and frankly I could have kept them forever, except that they were starting to not hold their charges very long. We had talked about getting new ones for awhile, but the big impetus yesterday is that we lost one of the chargers, so we only had one charger left. I am planning to go to Ohio with the kids for 10 days, taking my cell phone, while Bob will be here, taking an acquisition class, with his cell phone. Since they both need to be charged almost every night . . . well, that wasn't going to work! We bit the bullet yesterday, and now I am trying to figure out the ins and outs of a new phone. I don't have time for this! I did manage to figure out how to program the speed dial numbers and record my voice mail message, so I'm good. I am not even going to worry about the camera capacity.

4. Faith was 5 weeks old on Sunday, and yesterday evening, she smiled and cooed at me for the first time! I know Grandma was hoping she would wait until we get there, but I guess now Faith can get some good practice for her smiling, so she'll be a pro by the time we arrive at Grandma's house! Those first smiles are just so sweet, and they really do go a long way to making all those middle of the night feedings worth it!

5. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day yesterday, I made a corned beef brisket and vegetables inteh crockpot, along with soda bread. I also had cabbage, but I figured there was no way that I could prepare cooked cabbage that would make me want to eat (or smell) it, so I just chopped it up and served it with an oil/vinegar dressing, like I always do. Might as well serve it the way I like it! The corned beef and vegetables turned out quite well, and we didn't have any leftover meat! I cooked it in apple juice, a tip I got off the internet. The soda bread was good too. I actually made 2 loaves. For the first loaf, I jus tused plain soy milk in place of the buttermilk, like I usually do (even in recipes like banana bread. I never sour soy milk.). But then it dawned on me that since there were no eggs, I really was counting on the vinegar and baking soda to react, making gas, to leaven the bread. I was afraid that loaf would be hard as a rock, so I quickly whipped up another loaf, this time souring the soy milk with vinegar. Yuck. But it did the trick! That loaf was definitely lighter, although the other loaf was perfectly edible. I told everyone it was a taste test.

6. This morning I drove through rush hour on an empty stomach to take my 2 hour glucose tolerance test. I'll find out the results tomorrow at my 6 week post-partum appointment. Hopefully that will be my last glucose test out there. They take your blood first, to get your fasting number, but they make you wait to start drinking the glucola until those results are back! I had my blood taken at 8:15 (it took awhile to find a good vein), but I couldn't start drinking the stuff, and starting my 2 hour clock, until 8:50! Nothing like waiting on an empty stomach, and knowing it's not even counting!!

Now I think I will lay down for a little bit. I'm out of sorts because of my early morning and all the sugar water. Tonight I have a chiropractic appointment to look forward to, however!

Raspberry Leaf in Pregnancy

My friend Beverly is getting ready to have her 5th baby. She's been having lots of contractions, but not a lot of progress, which is incredibly frustrating. I've been eagerly following along, because it's always really interesting and fascinating when it's not your own impending birth, LOL. One thing I recommended to her last night was drinking several cups of really strong raspberry leaf tea, because that is supposed to tone your uterus and help it dilate efficiently.

All this talk of dilating and tea reminded me that I had wanted to post something about what I did differently this pregnancy, in case I forgot sometime. I usually start drinking a cup of raspberry leaf a day in the third trimester, and by the time I'm close to delivery I try to drink 2 cups a day. When I was pregnant with Nathan, I read an article in a natural health book that recommended raspberry leaf tea. It gave a long anecdotal story about a lady who drank the tea during her first pregnancy and had a fairly normal delivery, but not pain-free by any means. Then she read an old book that talked about what the midwife would have actually recommended, which was to drink a really strong cup of the tea ( 1 pint of water and 1 ounce of tea, steeped for 30 minutes) when you are in labor. This was supposed to really make labor pretty painless, and the lady telling the story had apparently had a really easy delivery. I never really made the tea that strong until we moved here, but I really can't complain about my labors (although I wouldn't have labeled them "painless", LOL), and I never needed any pain medicine. I did make it really strong like that once we moved here, but then I was basically induced 2 times, so I drank it before going in and starting the whole process, but I didn't know if that was the same. Anyhow, I was convinced enough of a good effect, even if it was just psychosomatic, to keep drinking the stuff fairly faithfully throughout the third trimester of all my pregnancies.

With the last 2 pregnancies, I've also added a cup of alfalfa tea daily, since that is supposed to prevent post-partum hemorrhage. You may recall that is what my doctor with Grace was totally paranoid about, so that's when I started drinking it. (Nathan wants me to point out that alfalfa tea tastes and smells like you are drinking grass water.) For someone like me, who really doesn't like hot beverages at all, drinking 2-3 cups of tea a day was quite torturous. Almost as bad as the gestational dibetes diet. Well, maybe not, but pretty close . . . Add in to that the tiny bladder capacity of an almost full-term lady, and I was pretty miserable as I floated through the day.

Well, after we got back from Ohio in January, I went to the health food store to buy some more raspberry leaf and alfalfa teas, since I was pretty much out. I was determined to drink all the tea, even though I wasn't sure when I would do that to make it fit into my complicated gestational diabetes eating regimen. The health food store was out, but they assured me they would be getting more in soon. So we all trooped back in a week later only to find out the tea was still out. I was getting frustrated with all this delay. I was already 35 weeks along, and I was ready to start drinking this stuff and making sure my uterus was nice and toned! Then I remembered that I had an internet connection . . . I went home and found a lovely herb web site where, lo and behold, you can actually buy raspberry leaf capsules for cheaper than the tea! How wonderful! All the great effects, with none of the bladder-sloshing! So I bought a bottle of pills, plus a box of the tea, because I was still thinking I would make the really strong pint to drink when I went into labor.

It was so easy to take the pills instead of drink the tea! I found alfalfa capsules at Walmart, so I started taking those as well. What a dream! I definitely took way more raspberry leaf extract this pregnancy than ever before. I started out by taking 2 pills a day, but by the last 2 weeks, I was taking 4 raspberry pills a day, plus 2 alfalfa ones.

So how did it work out for me? Well, I didn't think I was even in labor because the contractions weren't that long or that strong. Even once I realized I was in transition and we were on the way to the hospital, I still wasn't breathing through contractions. I did make my tea, but that was when I realized that I was probably not going to last until it had steeped the full 30 minutes. After about 20 minutes of steeping, right before we got in the van, I drank a few sips of it, felt like I was going to throw up if I drank another sip, and threw the rest down the drain. I was uncomfortable, but the contractions just didn't hurt that badly, even those last few ones right before pushing (as I was walking from the parking garage, through the pedestrian walkway, over to the elevator, and up to the 5th floor, LOL). So my conclusion, which is arguably the result of a very small sample size, LOL, is that taking a lot more of the raspberry leaf extract is definitely a good thing as far as relatively painfree labors go. I will be taking the pills again, should I have another baby.

And I hardly had any post-partum bleeding either. My uterus clamped down right away, and I stopped bleeding fairly quickly in the weeks to follow (except when I over-did it!). Of course, that was helped by a quick labor instead of many hours of steadily-increasing pitocin, like I had with Grace, so I can't say confidently that the alfalfa had that much to do with it! But I was very pleased with the result of my herb pills, and I would definitely recommend them to others who are in thier third trimesters.

A New Week

Well, here we are, at the start of a new week. Anna is running a fever, Grace is still spotted, and Jonathan is still hacking away. I have a cold, I guess. I thought it was allergies, but now I'm thinking more of a cold. My motivation to be organized and on top of things is at a low, LOL, which is why we didn't finish school until after 4:00. Maybe when my head clears up . . .

To be honest, I'm having a hard time getting into a good routine. Working around nursing has been harder, and I think it's because especially Jonathan is taking a lot more of my schooling time. I have been the least consistent with him this past year, and now I'm the most frustrated with him, although it really isn't his fault that he hasn't magically osmosed the knowledge I would like him to have! Also, Faith has needed more attention to make sure she really latches on than some of the other babies, so I haven't been able to multitask while nursing as much, which always frustrates me too.

I've been trying to exercise as well for a couple of reasons. One is that I really do feel good after exercising, and I think it helps keep me mentally balanced. Another is that I am ready for some of my clothes to fit. I hate the post-partum period, where your tummy is still poochy, and you still look pregnant! The most important reason is that I go Wednesday morning for my follow-up 2 hour glucose tolerance test, and then I will have my 6 week post-partum appointment on Thursday afternoon (yes, it's a little early, but that's what worked out, schedule-wise). Unfortunately, I am having a hard time fitting in exercise as well, if you can imagine. I really don't want to have problems on this glucose test, and I am trying not to worry.

Sigh. I keep reminding myself that this phase will pass quickly, Faith will be sleeping through the night soon, the virus will move on to some other unfortunate family, Jonathan will remember how to count by 2's starting with an even number OR an odd number, and eventually I will feel more like my normal self. But I am ready for that day to be here NOW!

On thing that has been a tremendous blessing is that our church has started giving us 2 meals a week once my parents left. (They were providing one meal a week after the baby came, while my parents were here.) I was loathe to have any more meals, figuring that I would be over a month post-partum byt the time my parents left, so I would definitely be on my feet. Who knew we'd all be sick, and that the meals would be at the perfect time? Obviously God knew, LOL.

Another Update

I'm sure you are all holding your breath to see how Grace is doing today, LOL. Well, the good news is that she is much better, hive-wise. They are smaller and not as red. Her hands aren't as swollen either. She is still really congested, although the vaporizer helped her sleep just fine last night. She is still running a fever, but I can keep it down with Motrin. Mainly she is just exceptionally snotty. At least it's draining, right?

My friend Lisa wrote on my Facebook page that she had pretty much the exact same thing last week, the fever, hives, and congestion, and it was just a virus. I was relieved to hear that! She said it took 5-6 days for the hives to go away. It's good to know that, and now I don't have to schedule in another big chunk of time next week for a trip to Bethesda! Another friend of mine, Christina, said one of her sons has gotten hives like these before with viruses also. Boy, you'd think with 7 kids, I'd have experienced this before! Learn something new every day!

Update on Grace

For those who are curious, Grace is still very "hivey" today. The ones on her face are maybe not quite so red as yesterday, but the hives are still over a lot of her body. And the weird thing is where they seem to have gotten smaller, it looks like her skin is almost bruised where the hives used to be. The skin seems darker. I've never seen anything like it before. Also, her hands and fingers are still pretty swollen. Not her wrists, though. It's just really weird to see her with these big man hands, because normally she has really small, delicate ones.

Also, she has continued to run a fever of a little over 100 today, and she is pretty congested. She's not wheezy though, so that's a good thing. I put the vaporizer in her room tonight. Maybe that will help. She's really not too uncomfortable, though, just a bit snotty. As long as the fever is down, she's pretty happy and content, and she continues to not be bothered at all by the hives.

I guess we're just playing it by ear at this point. I don't think we're planning on doing anything this weekend unless something gets really bad, but if things aren't better by Monday, I'll call and take her in again. I'm praying she's a lot better when she wakes up tomorrow though!

Grace's Hives

When Grace got up this morning, it was obvious that the Benedryl and Zyrtec I had given her yesterday had not made a difference whatsoever. Her hives were much bigger, and there were a lot more of them, so I called and made an appointment for this morning at 11:00. The doctor said they were definitely hives, and we would probably not ever know what had caused them. She felt that Grace had probably had a virus a few days ago, because often hives like this come after a virus. She said they can come and go for up to 3 months! I hope that won't happen. To be honest, these hives remind me of Nathan's weird rash a few Christmases ago, for which we never could pinpoint a cause either. Maybe he'd had a virus before then. I don't really remember!

I actually pooh-poohed the idea of a virus to the doctor, but after we got home (at 1:45, having waited an hour at the pharmacy for more Zyrtec), Jonathan was EXTREMELY whiney. He about fell apart because he couldn't cut his sandwich in half. I was nursing, of course, but after I was done I felt him, and he seemed hot. It turns out his temperature was 102. So maybe there is a virus going around! It's always hard to tell by feeling if Grace has a fever--she just runs "hot", with her supermetabolism, so she always feels pretty warm. She certainly wasn't acting like she had a fever the past few days though!

Anyhow, it turns out that I wasn't giving her anough Benedryl or Zyrtec, so that's probably why it didn't seem to help. I'm supposed to give 1/2 tsp., so we gave that once we got home, and we'll see if these crazy things go away. At least they aren't bothering her.

Here is a picture of her once we got home. You can see how the hives have gotten bigger and bigger, although the picture really doesn't do them justice on her trunk! The hives are pretty much all over her body, even down to her fingers, which she can't really bend. Her face is a bit alarming to look at as well! She definitely looks like she has some dreaded, highly contagious skin disease!

So now she, Anna, Jonathan, and Faith are all down for naps. I think that's where I am headed. I was going to do a few other things with the boys this afternoon, but after a 3 1/2 hour jaunt to the doctor, I am tired. So much for that normal routine, huh?! No wonder I can never really get anything accomplished around here!

Back to Routine

Today was Bob's last day of paternity leave. It's been nice having him here at home--one more week of being able to run errands by myself in the afternoon! He's going out with a bang though. This morning I woke up with that scratchy feeling in the back of my throat that either means a cold or allergies. When I changed Grace's diaper mid-morning, I discovered that she has broken out in some kind of blotchy hives, mainly on her trunk and legs. I have no idea what she could have reacted to, but as the day wore on, the hives got bigger. I did give her some liquid Benedryl, but it hasn't made much of a difference so far. Anna was crabby this morning, so I told her to go up to her room (the only place she is allowed to have her pacifier nowdays). After not seeing her for awhile, I went up to check on her, and discovered her fast asleep in bed! She has been complaining that her tummy hurts, and she's had a bit of diarrhea, so I guess she has some kind of bug too. Good grief!

We had been getting back into a good school routine, but this morning, after the boys did their independent work and I did a few things with Caleb and Jonathan, Bob took them all swimming. The girls and I hung out here. I had the best of intentions of finishing up stuff like spelling this afternoon, but after lunch, I took a nap for several hours. Nothing more of academic value happened, LOL.

Bob also picked up some seeds on the way back from swimming. Even though we rarely have gardening success, we are once again going to try it. I keep telling myself we are just practicing for whenever we have our forever home, the one with the huge yard and plenty of room for a nice sunny garden! We have a seed starting kit with a bunch of little peat moss pots, so Nathan figured out how many of each thing we should plant. The planting is going to take place tonight. I'll keep you updated on our gardening progress . . .

So tomorrow Bob is back off to work, and hopefully we girls will be feeling better. At least I haven't had mastitis yet. I'm hoping these naps will ward that off.

A Real Prince

We had a fun day today. Some friends of ours, Tim and Michele and their 3 kids, came up to visit. We have known them for many years, even before they were married! Tim was a batchelor back at Wright-Patterson, and he was a saber-bearer in our wedding. They live south of the city, and traffic is such a hassle around here that we rarely see them, so this was a real treat! They came to drop off several boxes of clothes that their daughter had outgrown. They also brought a box of pink princess Mega Bloks, which I am sure you can imagine delighted Anna! There is a castle, as well as a carriage, 2 Cinderellas, and a prince.

Anna and Jonathan were playing with the blocks after dinner, and Anna put the prince in the carriage.

Jonathan: "Where is the prince going, Anna?"

Anna: "To Home Depot!"

LOL! The image of the prince installing his own hardwood floor or changing the flapper valve on the castle toilet struck me as funny, not to mention him pulling up to Home Depot in his pink pumpkin coach! But Anna knows the right kind of man to look for--a prince who does his own home improvement projects, although maybe minus the pink pumpkin coach.

Another picture . . .

. . . by special request of Aunt Claire. Sorry it's a bit blurry--our camera battery was just about dead. I charged the battery, so I'll have to try again tomorrow. Faith is 3 weeks old now, and she is staying awake longer, to the great delight of her siblings. She is still a very happy girl, who rarely fusses, even when being passed around to various sets of arms. We got the crib gym thing out of the basement for her to lie under, and she's been enjoying looking up at the dangly things. She's been sleeping really well at night--I've been feeding her around 10:00, and she'll go until around 4:00, and then until after 8:00. Now I just need to go to sleep as soon as I put her down at 11:00. Unfortunately, I'm always trying to do just one more thing, so it's later, and I'm always tired the next day.

Tomorrow Mom and Dad are driving back to Ohio. We will be very sad to see them go! It's sooooo nice to have the extra help, as well as the extra company throughout the day. The nice thing about this time, though, is that Bob gets paternity leave! Sometime in the last 18 months, the Air Force has instituted a new paternity leave policy, which says that the dad can take 10 consecutive days of free paternity leave anytime during the first 60 days of the baby's life. Bob started his 10 days Monday, so I won't be the lone adult when Mom and Dad drive off! That will give us another week to get back into a good routine before he starts back to work.