Being Prepared

We weathered Hurricane Sandy just fine!  It was windy and rainy, but the only neighborhood casualty I could see on my walk yesterday was a street sign.  The boys were disappointed that our power never went out.  We were definitely prepared for an outage this time, after our big outage in June!  We had tons of flashlights at the ready, I did loads and loads of laundry, the dishwasher was run, as was the garbage disposal, I made muffins, we finished and printed out everything we needed for Rivendell . . . but the power stayed on.  Oh well!  We went ahead and slept down in the basement Monday night.  Our house is surrounded by big trees, and we didn't want to take any chances.  It was much more pleasant sleeping down there now than back in June--the temperature was pleasant, the air was circulating, and we could run our noisemakers, so everyone slept well!

We ended up moving Rivendell to today (Wednesday) instead of Tuesday anyway, which turned out to be a God-thing.  The McC's basement flooded again, which they discovered at 3:30 AM, so they spent the rest of the night bailing water and trying to clean up.  They could not have done a day at Rivendell--they were exhausted!

For us, it was really nice to have an unplanned day off.  We still did a short day of school for Caleb and Jonathan mainly, but then in the afternoon we were able to get all that laundry folded and put away, so I am feeling on top of laundry for the first time in, oh, I don't know, months probably. 

Also, we have had the bright idea to switch the girls room and Caleb and Jonathan's room around.  Caleb and Jonathan's room has a bunk bed with a double bed on bottom and a twin bed on top, while the girls have single bunk beds with a pull-out trundle underneath.  We had been thinking about where Micah could go, once the new baby (still nameless if you are wondering) needs the crib.  We have other cribs, but we are running out of room space to put a second crib!  So if Caleb and Jonathan move into the girls room, then Micah could sleep on the trundle bed.  I don't think he would do very well, sleeping with someone on a double bed!

But changing rooms involves a lot of logistics, and I simply haven't had time to even start.  Yesterday I was able to get a little bit more organized in both rooms, giving me hope that this move may actually get accomplished in the near future, as opposed to months away, LOL.  All 5 affected kids are very excited about the impending changes, and they don't understand why I haven't just dropped everything else to make it happen!

Speaking of being prepared, on Sunday Pastor Mike talked about how everyone was so concerned about buying batteries and being prepared for the coming storm, but we really need to be prepared for death and judgment, since that will happen for everyone.  That point was driven home late Sunday night.  I have followed the blog mommylife for several years now.  The author, Barbara Curtis, was a mother of 12, 4 of them with Down's syndrome (3 adopted).  She got political around election times, but she posted frequently and always had interesting perspectives in many different areas.  Well, Sunday night I got an email from my homeschool loop that said she had suffered a massive stroke and was not expected to regain consciousness.  Indeed, she died Tuesday.  What a complete shock!  However, she was prepared for this event--I know she placed her confidance in the blood of Christ to cover her sins, and I will see her in heaven.  I am so sad for her family right now, though, and I will really miss reading her posts. 

"This Day is Called . . ."

I'm sure you all know that today, Oct. 25, is the Feast of St. Crispin, and are all celebrating accordingly!  We memorized this speech last year in memory work, and it is such a rousing one!  We recited it today during our memory work review.  (The part we memorized starts at about 1:10 in the video.)  Here's what we memorized--watch Kenneth Branagh say it, and get your blood pumping!

This day is called the Feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall see this day and live t' old age
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours
And say, "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words —
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester —
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.

This story shall the good man teach his son,
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.

And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day.

Curly Girl Faith

"There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid."

 

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

 

 

Ultrasound!

I had another ultrasound this morning.  I'm a little over 34 weeks now, and my other ultrasound was wa back in June, when I was only 17 weeks along.  Then the tech said my placenta was low-lying, and I needed another ultrasound at 32 weeks to make sure it had moved.  But the doctor said I had to have this ultrasound in the radiology department, and this was the soonest appointment.

Bob was able to take off work today, so he went with me, making the drive and the appointment so much more fun!  And it's always nice to see the baby!  I had to lay down pretty flat, which was amazingly uncomfortable.  Toward the end, the tech was trying to estimate his weight, and she needed to measure his femur, but the baby was really moving around.   I was just praying he would settle down long enough for her to measure him so I could get up!  Finally she got what she was looking for, and I could sit up.  I had a major round ligament cramp though.  I think one reason the baby was so wiggly and active was because he didn't like me being on my back!

Everything looked just fine though.  The lady asked me when they told me my placenta was low, because it was certainly out of the way now!  I think my theory about having such an early ultrasound (I've not had one that early that wasn't purely a dating ultrasound) was correct.  Whatever the cause, I am just rejoicing that I don't have to plan for a c-section now!  Thank you, Lord!

For what it's worth, the baby is measuring right on.  The weight she came up with is 5 pounds, 4 ounces, which could be exactly right, but I really don't put much stock in weight estimations from ultrasounds.  They are wildly off way too many times!    In fact, I had an ultrasound with Anna 2 weeks before she was born because the (civilian) doctor was worried about her being too big.  That ultrasound was a big waste of time, as far as I was concerned!  She was too big to really see anything, and they estimated her size as 7 pounds, 10 ounces, give or take 18 ounces.  What a huge margin of error, making the results meaningless!  Anna was 8 pounds 11 ounces at birth, 2 weeks later.

After our romantic date in the low-lit ultrasound room, Bob and I continued the fun by driving straight over to the Ft. Myer commissary--you can't say Bob doesn't ever take me anywhere expensive on dates!  We managed to keep the cost under $900 (barely!), and now we are stocked up for a good while.  I will have to go back again in November to get a turkey.  I didn't want a huge bird taking up all my freezer space for a month!  It was fun to have Bob be my "helper" instead of one of the boys this time, LOL.  And I know all the boys were relieved that they were off the hook for going!

Now I'm exhausted, so after I work on some biology, it will be off to bed for me!  Nathan is taking the PSAT tomorrow, so I know he would appreciate any prayers!  I can't believe it's time to start all this pre-college stuff . . . The weird thing is starting all this pre-college stuff AND thinking about delivering another baby in just a few short weeks!

OB Appointment

Yesterday I had an OB appointment, the first one since I started checking my blood sugar numbers 3 weeks ago.  Things have been going fairly well, as far as the gestational diabetes goes.  I've settled into a routine.  It's definitely easier the second time around!  I always eat the same thing for breakfast (1/2 c. bran flakes, milk, and a hard-boiled egg), and I eat similar things each day for lunch (usually a turkey/cheese/spinach sandwich, or a spinach salad with chicken and walnuts, or occasionally chicken salad with spinach and a few crackers--I usually eat a piece of fruit too).  I don't have any problems with these meals.  Dinner is a little bit harder, just because there's more variety.  A lot of the quick meals I have are carb-heavy, and I have had a few high readings after dinner, but not too many.  They want me to keep my after-mealtime numbers under 120, and I've had a few over--my highest was 136 once. 

Surprisingly, the number I've been having the most trouble with has been my fasting number, which I take first thing in the morning, before I have eaten anything.  They want it to be under 95, and usually my number is between 95 and 99--so not terribly high, but still . . . I went back and checked my numbers from when I was pregnant with Faith (because I am just that anal, and amazingly I could still find where all that stuff was), and I never had any trouble with my fasting number, no matter what I ate at night for my snack before bed.  The numbers were always around 89.  I was pregnant with Faith 4 years ago, and I guess I am just that much more insulin-resistant now.  Anyhow, I have been experimenting with what snack gives me the best fasting numbers.  I know what doesn't work--any sort of cookie or anything, even if I have some protein with it!  I've tried a bunch of different things, but what seems to work best, interestingly enough, is a 1/2 cup of a good (high fat) chocolate ice cream, and then I also eat a slice of turkey for protein.  When I do that, my numbers are usually around 93--still higher than with Faith, but better than with any other "healthier" snack I have tried.  Hey--I'm just reporting on the results of the experiment here--but I'm willing to eat a little bit of ice cream each night if that is what I have to do!

But back to the appointment--I was wondering what the doctor would say about my higher fasting levels (since I didn't start trying the ice cream until a few nights ago--although that is what I usually had as my snack/reward for getting through the day when I was pregnant with Faith as well), but she wasn't concerned at all.  She said everything was going well, I'm measuring right on, and she was happy to hear about all my exercising (twice a day most days--over an hour a day!).  She said she hopes she doesn't have to put me on any sort of medicine, because that automatically puts me into a different category of GD mom--"category 2"--and that means they monitor more closely (non-stress tests and so on), and they induce a week early.  I'd be happy to go into labor a week early, but I'd rather not be induced that early, and I definitely don't want to have to make the drive to Bethesda any more often than I already have to, so I also hope I can control this GD again with just diet and exercise!

Next Friday is my follow-up ultrasound to see if my placenta has moved away from my cervix.  I have been praying it has!!  This ultrasound will be done in radiology, instead of in the prenatal assessment center.  Then I will have my next OB appointment the following Friday.  Fridays are a good day for me to make the trek, so I'm glad it's working out to have all these appointments on Fridays!

So everything is going well.  I am still really loving the maternity belt I bought from Amazon.  I don't think I could do all the walking and exercising I've been doing without it.  I have definitely had a lot less round ligament pain this time than I did with Micah.  Today I worked at a kids' consignment sale, and I was on my feet, running around for 3 1/2 hours.  I was so thankful for the extra support of the belt!  This baby is so active at night--I think it will be a challenge to get his days and nights straightened out once he is born!  But I'm so busy during the day.  It's not until I lay down to sleep at night that he starts really moving around in there!  We've made a little progress on possible names, but honestly, there hasn't been that much time to talk about it!  The kids have all voiced their opinions.  This is where I remind them that this is not a democracy, LOL. 

Just a little over 6 weeks to go!

18 Months!

Micah had his 18 month well-baby check-up on Wednesday, so he and I made the trek out to Bethesda.  He is indeed a well baby!  He is now 25 pounds, 7 ounces, which puts him at about the 50th percentile--a huge number for us!  But the real shocker was that his height was in the 86th percentile!  We have NEVER had anyone remotely on the "tall" side, but evidently Micah's size at birth wasn't just a fluke, and he actually does have some of the "big" genes from our families that just have hidden themselves for the other 7 kids! 

Micah is off the charts as far his fine and gross motor skills as well.  He runs, jumps, climbs (everything), uses a fork and spoon well, throws and kicks a ball, and pretty much does whatever he can to imitate any and all of his older siblings. 

Except in the area of talking.  He says about 8 words total (not even each day, LOL), and while he understands what we tell him, he doesn't seem to see any real need of using words to communicate back to us.  But none of my kids said much before the age of 2, so I'm not worried, and neither was the doctor.  Saying 8 words is within the realm of normal for 18 months!  (Here are some of his words:  Mama, Dada, ball (and here he will even differentiate--football, basketball--those are different), banana, blanket, diaper . . . hmm, there are 2 more, but I can't think of them right now . . . )  He does say a lot of sounds (like "woof") and things like "Peekaboo" and "Oops".  Still--not real verbal.  Definitely a man of action, LOL.

Micah's favorite place to be is outside with his brothers and sisters.  He gets his jacket and shoes when they start heading out in the afternoon.  He loves playing with any of the multitudinous balls in the garage.  Lately he's started putting on one of the girls' bicycle helmets (he's partial to a dark pink princess one, LOL) and trying to ride one of the scooters that has 3 wheels.  The girls are trying to teach him to pedal the tricycle, but he hasn't been real interested in that.

Inside, Micah loves playing with whatever Faith is playing with, LOL.  Already he knows how to push people's buttons!  He also likes to build Duplo towers, put things in the little wagon we have and drag that around the house, unloading random things in random places (like we need anymore help with that, LOL), and also hold a babydoll.  He's so cute with the doll, but he is absolutely uncooperative whenever I try to take a picture of him with one!  Still, hopefully he'll be a good big brother, since that day is drawing ever nearer!  He is not always that gentle, so I will really have to watch him!

That's a quick update on Micah!

Some Mild Monday Panicking

I woke up Monday morning feeling very stressed and overwhelmed as I thought about the upcoming week.  I had spent a lot of time Sunday night trying to work out how I was going to teach AP labs that we don't have the equipment for, and was just feeling very inadequate at dealing with the whole biology thing in general.  And when I go to bed thinking about something, then it's hard to turn my brain off, so all those worries roiled around in there the whole night, plus I added on to them my worries about planning this space field trip to the Udvar-Hazy Museum for our elementary co-op in March that for some reason I agreed to be in charge of, as well as minor things like Micah's left tennis shoe was missing, and I need to register the boys for basketball.  Whew!  Restless night of sleep, to say the least!

But God was good--I usually am reading through Ruth Myers' 31 Days of Praise in the morning, and on October 1st, it was really timely.  Here's a short excerpt--

My heart rejoices in You, Lord, for You are my strong shelter in times of trouble and danger and stress, my hiding place to whom I may continually resort . . . I praise you for Your love and Your wisdom . . . You act on my behalf, accomplishing what concerns me and fulfilling your purpose for me as I call on You . . .

It was all really encouraging to me.  For our character time in school, we've been reading Created For Work by Bob Shultz (HIGHLY recommend this and his other book, Boyhood and Beyond).  Well, the chapter we read on Monday dealt with "difficulty".  Here's the quote at the beginning:  "First a thing is impossible, then it's difficult, then it's done."  That is so true!  He talks about accepting the challenge of difficult jobs because those are the jobs that develop our muscles, minds, and spirits.  "Without a challenge, there is little or no growth."  Definitely timely for someone who is struggling with the seemingly impossible task of teaching AP biology, dredging up rusty knowledge from almost 20 years ago, all while expecting her 9th baby and dealing with gestational diabetes, plus continuing to homeschool everyone else!

And the Lord provided help in other areas this week as well.  I worked out a bit at least how lab this week was going to go--I spent the time teaching the boys how to do a chi-squared test for data, and then we did several example problems using experimental data.  This seems to be an important area of concentration, since a lot of the AP labs want this kind of data analysis done, so I think it was time well-spent.  I've spent time searching for online virtual labs for gel electrophoresis (using actual DNA--we'll do one just using dye on a homemade gel slab, but it won't be quite the same) and other lab techniques for the next 2 weeks, which will be helpful.  I still think the lab portion is our weakest link, due to lack of resources, but oh well.  Oh, and I found a tremendous AP biology resource online--Cheryl Massengale's Biology Junction.  If you scroll down the page a bit and click on the "AP Biology" link, then she has a wealth of helpful information and links!  That has already been very helpful, especially some of the past essay questions.  The boys will be doing a lot of those for practice when we take our long winter (baby!) break between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I was also able to get in contact with educational people at Udvar-Hazy to ask my questions.  One big problem is that for their learning labs, they don't have much at all for the 1st/2nd graders, and none of what they do have involves space.  But we'll be finishing up a 5 week unit on space with this field trip, so we definitely need a space-related learning experience for all the levels.  The teacher in charge over there emailed me back this morning to say they could bring back one of their old labs for the 1st/2nd graders about satellites, both natural and man-made.  Woo-hoo!  So I filled out the online form, and hopefully I'll hear back from someone in the next few days to work out the times.  We're not out of the woods yet, as far as planning, because with 3 groups of kids doing learning labs, we're going to have to take 2 hours--and what will the K kids and the second half of the older kids do for the second hour?  We'll see . . .  I really wish I hadn't taken this thing on, LOL.  I really don't need anything extra to worry about right now, much less working out a field trip for 100 kids!  Difficulties . . . challenges . .  they're good . . . that's what I keep telling myself, LOL.

So now we're practically at the end of the week, and I've almost gotten through it.  But there are still plenty of challenges in the weeks and months ahead! 

Diabetes "Class"

This morning I left home at 7:30 to get to Bethesda for my 9:00 gestational diabetes orientation class.  This time it was a little different than it was back when I was pregnant with Faith.  Then I went for an entire afternoon, and a whole class of us were talked to by a nurse first, who explained how the testing worked, and then by a nutritionist, who told us how to meal-plan, and what to eat when. 

This morning, there were only 2 of us, and the nurse led us off to a small conference room.  She passed out the folders of info, and then started talking about how we would need to make an appointment with the nutritionist as well, since she was just a nurse and couldn't really help us with meal-planning.  She gave us the phone number, which I dutifully wrote down, and then she got the bright idea that she could call even today and see if we could get in and talk to the lady.  So she asked which we would rather do--try for today, or call ourselves and make a different appointment.  The other lady was quiet, so I spoke up, "Umm, well, this is my 9th baby, and my 2nd with gestational diabetes, and I still have all my information from the last time the dietician talked with me.  I've already been testing my numbers for a week, and things are fine . . . so I really don't want to have to talk to the dietician at all . . ."

The nurse looked at me, shocked ("Your 9th baby?!"), and asked me a few more questions to make sure I actually had my monitor set up and was doing everything I should be doing.  Then she looked at me with a puzzled look and said, "Who on earth made you come here today?!  I'll just note that you were here, but you don't have to stay!"  Woo-hoo!!  That was what I was hoping for! 

I did have to go back down to the actual OB clinic.  I'm testing my blood sugar 4 times a day, but the nurse-practitioner who put in the prescription wrote it for only a jar of 50 test strips (with 3 refills).  You can't get refills until about 10 days before the end of the month, because the provider is supposed to be writing the prescription to last a month.  Soo, I'll wait while you all do the math . . . but 50 strips, testing 4 times a day, means that bottle will last me about 12 days since I started testing last Wednesday.  And the N-P also didn't give a prescription for a big box of lancets, but rather for a box containing 25 lancets plus an extra poker-thing that the lancets go in (you already get one of those, plus 12 lancets, with the actual meter);  So--35 lancets, 4 times a day--that's less than 9 days!  I've been reusing the lancets, which is a big no-no.

So I went down to talk to the lady at the desk to see if I could speak to the clinic attending doctor and get a new prescription.  She took my ID card and disappeared off in the back with it, eventually poking her head back around to ask if I just needed the strips and lancets, or if I also needed medicine.  I never actually talked to a doctor, but she came back and told me the presciption was entered in, and I could go to the pharmacy to pick it up.  Yay!

But when I picked up the prescription, I was dismayed to find that once again, I only got 1 box of 50 (but with 6 refills this time, LOL).  Can doctors not do simple math?!?  Well, that will get me to my next appointment, which is Oct. 12, and then I will have to speak very slowly and clearly and explain that if I am testing 4 times a day for 30 days, then I need 120 test strips at a time!  I did get a big box of 200 lancets, so I'm good to go there for awhile.

My numbers in general have been really great (they're supposed to be under 105 when I wake up, and under 120 two hours after a meal).  I've had pretty much no troubles keeping them low--until Monday and Tuesday.  I think it is the stress of co-op!  I did have one odd thing happen.  This morning, right after I talked to the OB front desk (which made me nervous), it was time to test, since it was 2 hours after my breakfast.  I had eaten my usual breakfast of 1/2 c. bran flakes, milk, and a hard-boiled egg.  This pretty much always gives me a blood sugar reading of around 97.  I NEVER have problems with breakfast!  So I test, and my number comes up as 138!!  I was flabber-gasted!  But I was still feeling flustered from trying to explain everything to the desk lady, so I decided to just sit for a minute and relax, and then test again.  So I sat, breathed deeply, looked around, relaxed--for about a minute.  I had tested originally at 9:25, and so at 9:27 I retested.  My number this time?  100.  What in the world?!  There's no way my levels are actually fluctuating 38 points in 2 minutes, but what could it be?  Who knows?!  It did make me wonder if the high number I got after lunch on Tuesday (right before life science, when I realized I had completely forgotten to email notes to Celia for class, which made me flustered) would have been different if I had relaxed for a minute before testing!   Weird.

I've ramped up my exercising again.  It's been hard to fit it in, but I've been exercising for about 40 minutes in the morning after breakfast, and Bob and I have been taking a 40 minute walk almost every night after dinner.  That maternity support belt I bought from Amazon a few weeks ago has been WONDERFUL.  It has made such a difference in how comfortable I am with all the walking!  We'll see how long I can keep all that exercise up, though.  It's very disruptive to the day, especially the morning time.  Anna and Grace are definitely not getting very much time spent on their schooling, although sometimes I do stuff with Anna in the evenings.  But I'm so tired by the time evening rolls around (no time for naps in the afternoon--must do more school or run errands/get people to appointments!), and that is also when I have to work on biology prep, which is taking a lot of brain power.  Oh well--less than 9 more weeks!  We're in single digits!

Cell Phone Saga Update

You may recall that back in the beginning of August, we went to a wedding in St. Louis, and Micah made a name for himself by microwaving our cell phones (nickname of his alter ego, courtesy of his Uncle Terry:  "Chef Micah-wave").  So since then Bob's been using the boys' phone, friends of ours gave us their old phone to replace the boys' phone (thanks again, Steve and Jenny!!), and I've kept using mine, which has limped along.  It definitely was no longer "smart" in the sense that pretty much all it could easily do was make and receive calls, and even then I never used my contact list, because it was impossible to back out of it.  So I kept it on "dialer" and only dialed numbers I knew, LOL.  And I never checked messages either!  But I could make calls, and the boys and Bob could call me (pretty much the only people who call me on my cell, LOL), so things were good.

The funny thing is that I really wasn't happy with the phone since we got it back in March (it was a Droid Bionic).  I had problems from the get-go when it wouldn't access the internet, even on the vaunted "4G network" of Verizon.  Also it would randomly turn itself onto airplane mode frequently, and I would have no idea, so I would miss calls because I wouldn't think to check that my phone was actually in the mood to receive calls.  Sometimes I would be unable to access my voicemail for weeks at a time.  And it would start taking longer and longer to answer.  Eventually the delay would be about 10 seconds, so people would hang up, while I was frantically saying, "Hello!  Hello . . .  hello? . . . HELLO!! . . . "  Soooo annoying.  I would take it in to Costco, and the nice guy in the cell phone booth would take out stuff and put stuff back in, reset everything to factory settings, etc., and things would be normal for a few days before it would gradually go back to its old tricks. I also dropped it out of the diaper bag while getting out of the big van back in May, and the top left corner of the screen was all cracked--again, the touchscreen kept working, but it certainly looked worse for wear after only a few months!

I have to say, microwaving cured all the technical problems!!  The phone never ONCE turned itself onto airplane mode during August and September!  I guess it considered itself warned, LOL.  I do have to add that while I don't really recommend microwaving as a fix for whatever ails your cell phone processor, Micah would be glad to volunteer to do the microwaving, should you choose that route.

Anyhow, the problem was that we still had to pay for a smartphone each month, even though we didn't actually have a "smart" phone.  The solution we came up with was to get a new phone and add an extra line.  We bought another cheap dump phone off Amazon to actually take the new number, and we decided to get . . . an iphone, since everyone we know with one really loves it. 

Bob went to the Verizon store at 6:00 on Friday (second person there--he could have slept even later, although people did start trickling into line after him, and by 8:00 there was a good-sized line).  So he walked out with an iphone 5 (Nathan:  "YOU got an IPHONE 5?!  We never get anything new!!").  The phone wasn't activated until yesterday, and then, in slightly ominous fashion, the activation didn't work right, so I couldn't call anyone or connect to the network . . .  We took it back to the Verizon store yesterday afternoon, and the nice lady there reset something and it started working.  I'm beginning to think the problem is me!!  Cell phones sense that I don't know what I'm doing, like a horse with a new rider, and proceed to cause mischief or something . . . 

So far, the phone seems nice.  I'm sure I am not the right person to fully appreciate all its so-called wonders, LOL.  It makes and receives calls (now, anyway), AND the "home" button works!!  So if anyone has any great suggestions for what this phone should be doing for me to make my life easier, please let me know!  I did enter a ton of things onto the calendar, so now hopefully I won't again make the mistake of scheduling an OB appointment for 1:00 at Bethesda on the same day where I had previously scheduled dentist appointments for 7 kids starting at 10:00, and an orthodontist appointment for Jonathan at 1:30.  Oops!  (OB appt. got moved, LOL.)

One thing we are hoping to use a lot is the camera.  Our camera broke at WSS, so we've been using our very old digital camera, the one we got before Anna was born.  It's kind of a pain to get the pictures off the camera onto the computer, though.  We're hoping that is easier with the pictures on the iphone.  It will be nice to not have to always remember to take a separate camera everywhere we want to take pictures, especially when the new baby comes (less than 10 weeks!!). 

So now we can really say we have joined the 21st century, I guess!

Pregnancy Update

Now I'm 29 weeks and a few days. This morning I took my 3-hour glucose test bright and early at Bethesda.  I left at 6:40 and was able to start the test at 7:45, so I made good time.  One thing that really frustrated me when I took the test with Faith was that I had to have my blood drawn first for a fasting number, then wait until those results got back, and THEN I could drink the nasty glucola stuff and start the test.  That took like an extra 40 minutes!  But this time they still drew for a fasting number, but I could drink the stuff right away, so that was much nicer.  I was back home around 11:40. At least I got some biology done!

They should call Monday, I expect.  I have an old glucose monitor, plus some old test strips, and I have been monitoring my levels occasionally after meals.  They have been either on the high side of normal (after breakfast and lunch), or just higher than they should be (dinner), even with exercising, so I am sure I have gestational diabetes again.  The only thing that could potentially be off is that the monitor/test strips are several years old, and I can't make sure the monitor is calibrated, because the testing solution was way old and gave wayyyyy wonky readings when I tried test strips with it.  But still, I'm expecting a call on Monday.  And I'm okay with it, I guess.  What I really don't want to do is sit through the 3 hour nutritional orientation thing again!!  Oh well.  I just hope those aren't offered only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons or something.

I also called and scheduled my follow-up ultrasound today.  It's going to be at 10:30 on Oct. 19.  I'll be over 34 weeks then, and the doctors wanted it to be around 32 weeks, but oh well.  They were actually the ones who messed things up!  You may not remember, but when I had my regular ultrasound (which was early--I was only 17 weeks), my placenta was over my cervix some, so the tech told me I need to have a follow-up ultrasound to see if it moved.  She told me to call at 26 weeks to schedule the ultrasound for 32 weeks.  So I called a few times.  They never answered, but the message said to leave your name, sponser's last 4, etc. and they would call right back.  But they never did.  So I went to my appointment on Monday, where the nurse practitioner I was seeing told me I needed to schedule this ultrasound!  I told her I'd been trying, but no one ever called me back. She said that was because there wasn't actually an order in the system.  Someone thought they would just do a quick ultrasound in the exam room, instead of an ultrasound over at prenatal assessment, but when they ran that by the head doc, he said, no, she needs to have a formal ultrasound done, down in the regular radiology department!  So the lady put in the order after my appointment, but it had to go through Tricare (?), and I couldn't call until now.  And Oct. 19 is the first available slot.  Originally I was really not terribly concerned--I assumed the placenta would move--but when the doctor said I needed a formal scan, I will admit to being a trifle more concerned now!  We'll see what happens, I guess.  No sense worrying about what you can't do anything about!

As far as physical symptoms go, I have already started having the pubic pain that is always so bad for me at the end of pregnancy.  I just carry so low, and my abdominal muscles are shot after all these pregnancies (and big babies, LOL)!  I found this maternity belt on Amazon.  It got good reviews and wasn't too expensive, so I ordered it, and it arrived Wednesday.  I love it!  It's not too big, so it's comfortable to wear.  I especially have been wearing it when I stand up a lot, and when I exercise, and it really has been helping suppport my poor low belly.  The pubic pain is much less, which gives me hope for the remaining 10 or 11 weeks! 

"Old" Mom

I was reading a thread on the Well Trained Mind forums a few days ago where someone was talking about how she felt like an "old mom".  She meant that since her oldest was in college and her youngest was 7, she couldn't relate to the moms with only young kids anymore, and she felt really old.  Well, I'm obviously not there right now--I can relate plenty well to new moms and moms with only young kids!  But I am still feeling a difference though.

I got an email Monday morning about something we were supposed to have for all our kids Tuesday monring for our elementary co-op.  I missed half the kick-off moms' meeting last Tuesday, since I had to run back here and teach biology, so obviously I missed that announcement.  We didn't have that supply (1/4 inch binders for all 4 elementary kids) just lying around, so you know what I did? Nothing.  Well, I found folders, but I definitely didn't run to a bunch of stores that may or may not have had school supplies left to see if I could track down small binders.  I can no longer organize my life around my elementary kids.  I used to, though!  TNT was the only thing we had going on some weeks, and I could totally plan my life around it!  Now it is pretty much one of the last things on my priority list, LOL.  I feel old and jaded. 

Another thing I've been thinking about is how I have a totally different frame of mind, as far as how I go about dealing with babies and their stuff, than someone who is just having a new baby.  I put my babies to sleep on their tummies if they're happier that way (so far all have been, LOL), I use crib bumpers, and you won't be able to pry my drop-side cribs (yes, cribS--we have 2 of them, plus actually a third, if we could just find the hardware!) out of my hands!  I don't rear-face until 2 or 12 or 22 or whatever the new recommendation-du-jour is (rear-facing carseats don't fit well in a big van, especially one where 10 or 11 of the seats are filled!), I don't cut up my baby's food into tiny pieces once they get a bunch of teeth (happens before a year for us, LOL), and I don't have a child-proofed house anymore.  I guess what you realize, as you go through wave upon wave of "danger! danger!" articles in magazines like "Parenting", is that life is dangerous.  And there is always some new recommendation to throw away/stop/burn/whatever something you've always thought of as just fine, or something that you think your child is well-capable of doing.  And you can either live in a constant state of fear, wondering if what you are doing is the next hugely avoidable danger, or you can just live your life, making the best decisions you can that take into account the entire family, realizing that you can never mitigate all possible danger and you will likely make yourself insane if you try to.  I'm not saying I'm not careful--I think I am.  But I don't obsess.  There's no time!  In fact, I don't even have time to read all those alarmist parenting magazines, so most of the time I'm out of the loop on what I'm supposed to be worried about in the first place!  But thinking about all that makes me feel like a fuddy-duddy.  Hardly anyone that grows up with Micah or this new baby will have used a crib bumper!  Weird!

One last thing I've been thinking about is playdates.  I used to live for these.  Adult conversation!  New playmates and toys for the kids!  Now I have to make a conscious effort to schedule a playdate, and to be honest, if it doesn't happen in the summer, it probably isn't going to happen.  I just don't have time most weeks to be able to just sit and chat, much as I would LOVE to.  (Big exception:  talking to first-time moms about labor/childbirth and the newborn stage.  I LOVE doing this, and I definitely make time for those conversations!!)  Now, I can babysit your kids, especially if they'll just play with my kids, so I can still get my own stuff done!  But I'm also not lacking for adult conversation anymore.  I have great chats with Nathan and Luke, and even Caleb and Jonathan!  I feel like I'm being stretched and challenged mentally with this AP biology.  It's just . . . different now, then when I only had littles.  Makes me feel old!

So it's definitely odd to be spanning 2 extremes--dealing with high school stuff (I need to register Nathan to take the PSAT in October, and to figure out driver's ed, since he can get his learner's permit after Christmas) and thinking about giving birth and nursing again, while keeping all my other plates spinning.  I'm not an old OR a young mom!  I'm just a busy mom, LOL.

Catching Up

I know, I know--it's been forever since I posted anything!  Several people have commented on it.  I truly have been very, very busy.  This biology thing is taking up tons of time for me to be prepared!  And if on some evening, I am not doing biology (a rarity, for sure), then I am just so tired that I don't feel like I can coherently compose my thoughts to post.

So, what have we been doing, besides biology.  Well, for one thing football is once again in full swing for Nathan and Luke.  For the month of August, that meant practices for both of them every weeknight from 6:00-8:00 in 2 different locations.  Now that school has started, they are down to 3 nights a week, but Tuesday and Wednesday they both have practice, so we have the same time traveling issue we had during August. 

Another thing we spent a good week on was attempting to prune back our ginormous willow oak tree in the front yard.  Branches were starting to touch our roof and were way overhanging the road, so Bob bought a new loper-thing that reached 16 ft., and we got to work.  For 3 consecutive trash days, we filled both big rolling trash containers, plus had a bunch of 4 ft. bundles.  The morning after our first big trimming attempt, Nathan and I were bundling branches, and our neighbor across the street came out.  He asked if we were cutting down a tree in our back yard, LOL.   We told him it was all from the tree in the front yard, and he just said, "Woah . . . that is a big tree . . . "  All our work and you couldn't even tell we'd done a thing!

Here are the size of our "bundles".  We must have had 20 bundles total.  We trimmed a ton of branches!  The trimming was kind of fun (and scary, steadying the ladder as Bob reached and reached . . .), but the picking up and bundling was horrible.  My poor aching back!!  And my legs and arms looked like I had been whipped for a serious offence, LOL.  I think we were all quite grateful to be done with that chore for awhile!

Now that is the last picture that will be posted on the blog for awhile, because we discovered this past weekend, while we were at a wonderful retreat at White Sulphur Springs, that our camera is broken!  Something is wrong with the lens, and it won't come out when we turn the camera on.  We had problems a few weeks ago getting it to go back in, but when it is stuck in, there is no way to pull it out.  Oh well.  So unfortunately no pictures of the weekend at WSS.  It was really, really fun, although again, during pretty much all the free time, I had my nose buried in the biology book.  The speaker spoke on reconciliation and peacemaking.  I am hopeful that what he shared will bear fruit for the boys and thier relationships, especially.   It was really good!  And it was so fun to see old friends from Wright-Pat, plus my parents.  I think this weekend had the best mix of families/kids.  There were a TON of kids of all ages, so all our kids were just running around, doing fun things with friends.  It was great!

And then on Tuesday, Rivendell started, so now we're up and going in full swing.  That means I am now teaching 3 classes, although life science and memory work don't take up even a fraction of the prep time that biology takes.  I think it is going to be a great year for the boys--now if we moms can just get through it too, LOL.  I told someone, "If I can just make it to the end of May . . ."  Of course, May is a long ways off . . . and I'll be nursing a new baby too by then . . . Yes, I think it's going to be a long year! 

Speaking of new babies, I failed my 28 week 1-hour glucose test, so I have to schedule the 3 hour one.  I'll probably do that the end of next week.  I am seriously panicking at the thought of keeping track of times to check my blood, portion sizes, balanced snacks, etc.  I definitely am feeling like I can't handle one more thing, but that is how I felt when I was pregnant with Faith as well, so I am sure I will in fact have gestational diabetes.  Somehow I'll deal with that too, but right now I am simply not seeing how I'll be able to control it with diet and exercise, like I did with Faith.  I do not have the extra time to exercise after pretty much every meal, like I did with her.  It's just not there.  It takes too much time to work with Caleb, Jonathan, Anna, and Grace, as well as do the biology.  So I am trying to prepare myself that I'll probably have to go on pills. 

So now you're all caught up with our busy-yet-not-exciting life!

Memory Work

Last night I finally finished up the memory work for this year for the elementary kids in Rivendell!  We're going to be focusing a lot on U.S. history.  Before the trip I finished everything but the mapwork, so I finally got the mapwork all divided up and typed up last night.  Since we're focusing on the U.S., a lot of the mapwork involves landforms and rivers of the U.S., as well as the states and capitals.  There's also some review of Europe, since we spent so much time on that last year, and some time for South America and Africa as well.

For the Bible part, we're memorizing Isaiah 53 first, and then Revelation 5.  I love how these 2 passages flow together--the suffering servant/lamb, and then you see the lamb glorified in Revelation!  I memorized Rev. 5 back in 4th grade, although in the KJV, which is so very poetic.  It will hard to get my brain to memorize it in NIV!

For the timeline part, we're once again reviewing the 32 point timeline with dates that we started with 2 years ago.  This time we're taking 4-6 points a week, since the kids do know it pretty well, especially the older ones.  It will be a good review.  Then we're reviewing the kings and queens of England by house, which we memorized last year.  I know those aren't cemented in yet!  And then we'll work on memorizing the presidents.  I memorized those also back in 4th grade by learning them in groups of 3, so that's how we'll do it here, except we'll do 6 a week.  I also have a story-like thing I made up for Classical Conversations to help the kids remember, so we'll use that too.

For science facts, we're back to life science ones.  I changed some of them from 2 years ago, and I think the ones I left are ones that it is important to cover again.

For the poems part, we're not doing so many actual poems this year, but rather some other selections dealing with U.S. history that are important to know.  We're starting off with the Preamble to the Constitution, then a few stanzas of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."  Then we'll learn 3 stanzas of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (#'s 1, 2, and 4--that qualifies as a poem, right?!).  After Christmas break we'll work on a simplified version of the Bill of Rights, and then "The Charge of the Light Brigade".  That one is not U.S. history, but we cover it in TOG, and it's such a fun poem, especially for boys!  Then we end with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

So that seems like a lot, but it is completely doable, especially since some of it is review from previous years.  For recitation last year I had to make copies of the poems from the first year because the kids often wanted to recite those instead of ones we were doing currently!  I love that these things are sticking in the their memories; hopefully filling their minds with good selections will bear good fruit later on, as well as helping them learn to memorize new things quickly and effectively, which is such an important skill for college and beyond!

Biology

Today we had our first biology class of the year.  It's for Rivendell, although we haven't actually started the other Rivendell classes yet.  I'm starting early so I can take the whole time between Thanksgiving and New Year off, since, you know, I am having another baby, LOL.  I'm getting bigger so I KNOW I'm having another baby, but sometimes it seems like pregnancy sort of gets lost in the madness and chaos of regular life around here!

So, about biology . . . I posted back on June 1 about my biology lab conundrum, and I briefly mentioned that we might prepare for the AP biology test.  After a lot of discussion, we decided to go for it, even though, as I said before, this year the test is being reworked.  That meant I spent a ton of time this summer on the College Board website, looking at the new requirements, looking at sample syllabi and class pacing guides, and generally familiarizing myself with everything.  We decided I would not try to get my syllabus approved by the College Board this year, since that looked like an incredibly laborious process (which was attested to by my friend Katrina, who persevered and did eventually get her syllabus approved!).  What that means is that we can't officially call this class "AP Biology" on the syllabus, but we will still take the AP exam in May.  It is given at local high school, so one thing I'll do this fall is call around and see which high schools are offering that test, and sign the boys up to take it there.  Then on their transcrips we'll call the class something like "Honors Biology with AP Test (Score:  whatever)".

We are mainly doing the class for Nathan for validation of Mommy grades, since if he does go to USAFA, he wouldn't be able to get credit for any classes already taken.  But it would enable him to have an easy time in biology, which is always a bonus at a stressful place like a service academy!

We're using a college biology text (called Biology--where do they come up with these crazy names?!) by Campbell and Reece, which is one of the ones recommended on the College Board website.  I also have purchased a study guide that goes along with it, which gives me extra questions for quizzes and discussion, and also a book of investigative cases also put out by the same company to go along with the book, which I will use for extra experience with analyzing experiments and thinking through real world situations.

One of the big changes in the new bio exam is that there is less of a focus on tons of minute facts and details, and more of a focus on connections and practical applications.  It remains to be seen if I can help the boys make all the connections they are supposed to make!  It's going to be a challenging year--I highly doubt many other teachers attempting the AP exam are expecting their 9th baby, LOL--but hopefully it will be rewarding.  At any rate, it will give the boys a lot of exposure to an evolutionary world view, so they can better understand exactly what they believe and discuss it intelligently.  That certainly will make the class worthwhile!

Home Again, Home Again . . .

Well, we are back home, and what a week it's been!  The kids and I left last Friday to drive to WSS to pick up Nathan, who had finished up his 2 weeks of support staff there (he had a blast).  After lunch at WSS, we drove on to my parents' house in Ohio, which was a trip that wouldn't end, due to nasty construction traffic in eastern Ohio.  We finally got to my parents' house at 10:15, having left our house at 9:30.  A long day of driving for sure.  I am looking forward to when Nathan can help me on these drives--just another year and a few months!

We stayed with my parents for a few days, which was very relaxing.  Then on Wednesday, Bob arrived in town, having driven with the L's who were continuing on their way to St. Louis for the wedding of their son Zachary.  We picked up Bob and then spent a few nights with my best friend Amy and her family.  I hardly got to see her when we were home over Christmas, so it was sooo nice to spend some time catching up with her!  And the boys were so thrilled to play with Zach and Jacob.  We tried something new and left the 3 girls over with my parents.  They had a fun time playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house with all their toys, and I enjoyed not having to worry about keeping them entertained, LOL. 

Friday morning we picked the girls up and then caravaned with my parents out to St. Louis so we could also go to Zachary and Karynn's wedding.  We stayed at a SpringHill Suites, along with a ton of other guests and family members of Ed and Elizabeth, so it was like a fun party!

We really enjoyed the pool at the hotel--it was so refreshing after all the heat, humidity, and driving.  Friday afternoon, after we arrived, we all went swimming, and then when we were back in the room getting ready to go to the rehearsal dinner, Micah microwaved our cell phones in the conveniently-located-right-at-his-eye-level hotel microwave.  That probably would have started a fire, except that Caleb happened to notice and mention, "Ummm . . . the stuff in the microwave is burning . . ."  What stuff?!?  Ohhhh . . . Bob's phone is totally and completely dead.  We thought mine was as well, but after recharging it, it will receive calls and the touchscreen does work.  The buttons at the bottom don't work, so once I select anything on the screen, I can't actually go back to anything else, so it is definitely not a long-term solution.  Don't leave me a message on there--I probably won't ever get it!  Tonight we went to Costco and transferred Bob's number to the "extra" third phone we have for the boys, but tomorrow we are planning to visit the Verizon store.  Micah--doing his best to star in unique stories that none of other children even thought of.  Sigh.

Anyhow, after all that Friday afternoon excitement, we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory for the rehearsal dinner, which was absolutely delicious.  It was nice because all the kids except Micah sat at one long table with Amanda and Jessica L, among others, but Bob, Micah, and I sat at a different long table, so we got to have nice conversations with other couples, including the bride's parents, who we had never met before.  And Amanda was a total life-saver, because she let us borrow her cell phone for the rest of the weekend, so at least we could coordinate stuff with my parents!  Thank you, Amanda!!

Saturday we ate a delicious breakfast, went swimming, and the headed downtown to the St. Louis Arch.  We toured the Museum of Westward Expansion and tried to not lose any kids in the crushing crowds.  Some people were disappointed that we could not go up to the top of the Arch, due to time constraints, so we started making plans to come back on Sunday.  We rushed back to the hotel, grabbing Taco Bell for lunch, changed into our wedding finery in record time, and headed over to the church, which was fortunately only a few minutes away, for the 2:00 wedding!  Whew!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful.  The dresses were lovely, the church was just the right size (and it was an actual church, with stained glass windows and everything!), and the decorations were lovely too.  The service was God-honoring, but not-too-long, which was a huge blessing because the wedding was right at naptime, and Micah hadn't really slept all that well the night before, LOL.  The reception was right downstairs, and Karynn's aunt did an amazing job with the favors and all the decorations.  I told everyone not to have such high expectations when any of our girls get married, LOL.  We had a lot of fun--I'll have to post pictures when I'm not so tired!

Sunday morning we had to get checked out, which is no easy feat with this big of a family!  But finally we got all loaded up and left around 9:30.  We drove back to the Arch, got in line, and bought tickets for Bob, Nathan, Luke, Jonathan, and Grace to go up to the top of the Arch, and for Caleb, Anna, Faith, and me to go to the documentary about the building of the Arch.  Bob and I went through St. Louis on our honeymoon 19 years ago, and I went up in the Arch then.  I am not a fan of heights or of small enclosed spaces, so I felt no need to repeat the experience, LOL.  The absolutely wonderful thing was that Micah could go up in the Arch for free and riding on Bob's lap (there are only 5 seats in the little cars).  He didn't sleep well either night in the hotel, and he was an absolute crab.  I was dreading trying to keep him occupied and quiet during a movie, which would have probably been an impossible feat.  So Bob took him, and he was entranced by the view, from all reports.  The only problem was that we couldn't get tickets until 11:55, and then it took them until 1:15 to go up, spend 10 minutes up there, and come back down again.  Our movie was only 30 minutes, so eventually I had to break down and buy a big bag of kettle corn to keep the natives from getting restless, LOL.  But we finally got back on the road, with a 6 hour drive ahead of us, and the loss of an hour due to changing time zones. 

Fortunately we were only driving back to Amy's, and we were all so very relieved to get back there.  But first we had to meet my parents at a gas station and hand off Anna and Grace to them.  They are going to stay for a week at "Grandma and Grandpa Camp", and my Aunt Claire is coming out too, as an honorary Grandma, and she is bringing their cousin Emily up from Texas.  I'm sure you can imagine how excited the girls have been about this upcoming week!!  Faith was quite upset that she is not old enough to go to "Grandma and Grandpa Camp", which was part of the reason we let her stay over at their house with Anna and Grace before we left for St. Louis--a mini-camp!  She's fine now, and is enjoying having all the toys to herself here at home, LOL.

This morning we got up and got packed up from Amy's house at 9:30.  We had to rush because Nathan and Luke had their first football practice of the season tonight at 6:00.  We pulled into our driveway at 5:35, the boys raced inside to grab cleats and water bottles, and then Bob turned around and dropped them off.  What a long day!  Nothing like running around in the heat after a long day of snacking in the car, LOL.   The rest of us headed over to Costco to deal with cell phones.

So it was a great trip--we wouldn't have missed the wedding for anything!--but I'm quite glad to be home now, with everyone sleeping in their own beds.  It was nice to only have to give baths to Faith and Micah and put them down!  This will be a quiet week without Anna and Grace!  Hopefully it will be a quiet week for Micah too, LOL.

Summer Memories

Another thing I've been doing these past few weeks has been scrapbooking (okay, mainly the week Luke and Caleb were gone).  I have an 8 1/2 x 11 scrapbook for each child (except Micah, LOL).  The first page is about their birth, the next 2 pages are pictures of their extended family/good friends who are like family, and then there are 2 pages for their first year and 2 pages for the year they are one.  After that, there are 4 pages for each year.  It used to be a great way to use up pictures from a roll of film that didn't get into the big family scrapbook, but of course now we don't have rolls of film!  This means that I have to actually go on snapfish and pick out pictures for each child and order them, and I'm just not always that good about doing that.  The last time I put any new pages in the boys' scrapbooks was *cough* 2008.  Yeah . . . a little behind, LOL.

I kept up a little better with the girls, but I was still behind.  Now I can say I am totally caught up on the girls' scrapbooks!!  (Waiting for a rousing round of applause . . .)  I also did 2 more years in Jonathan's book, so instead of being stuck back at age 4, he is all the way up to age 6!  I'm working on Caleb's, but I actually had to order some pictures for him, so I haven't finished another year for him--he still stuck at age 6.  It's been so fun for me to actually do something hobby-like again.  There is so much for me to do during the school year, and I always feel slightly guilty for doing something just for fun, because that means I am not doing something that really NEEDS to be done.  So I never take the time to get involved in something like scrapbooking.  I'm glad I took a break from school-related things for a few weeks so I could actually finish some pages!

Anyhow, as I was working on the girls' book, I was struck by how much traveling we used to do.  All the time!  Back to Ohio for sure, but a lot of other places as well.  In 2009 from June to September, we went to Busch Gardens with Ann and Wally, visited Philadelphia with my college friend Phil and Sandra, went to Ohio and saw my brother's family, who were visiting from TX, went to Bob's family reunion in PA, went back to Ohio since my aunt was visiting from Utah, went to White Sulphur Springs for a weekend retreat, spent the next weekend up at Camp Greentop in MD, and then visited Williamsburg with Ann and Wally.  Whoa!  Were we crazy?!  We only had one less child than we do now, but now that seems ridiculously impossible to even attempt so many trips!  I guess our days of wild galivanting about are over--for awhile anyway.  Bob and I were just talking a few days ago about how we'll have to travel all over the country to visit all our kids and their families!  Maybe we'll get an RV.  Driving the big van will be a small stepping stone of preparation, LOL.

But right now it seems that we are starting the phase of life where our kids do the traveling, and we ferry them, but then we come back home and hold down the fort while they are gone.  I love planning trips, but I am getting too old and tired to do the packing!   Also, even though we aren't tied to a traditional school schedule, homeschooling high school is definitely taking up so much more of my time, even during the summer.  I never could have imagined!  But I keep telling myself--eventually this will get easier, as I reteach the same classes, instead of having to always prep new classes.  Next year I will teach chemistry, and that might be my last new class, except for some possible electives (I'm definitely going to teach a one-semester astronomy class, and I may teach a year long anatomy and physiology class sometime).  By the time the girls are coming up on high school, I'll be an expert, Lord willing!  Maybe we'll be able to plan and take some actual vacations then, LOL.

More Art

I was going to post this picture while Jonathan was away at camp last week, but I didn't get a lot of blogging done then!  Caleb started taking the same art class as Jonathan back in June, and I finally got around to taking a picture of his first picture.  This is not a very good photograph, because the flash is too bright, but it's a copper tea kettle with some peaches.  It's really nice!  I think we're going to frame it and hang it in the kitchen along with Jonathan's pear picture. 

This actually might be Caleb's only picture, at least for a long while.  Their art teacher was pregnant and due in September, so we thought we would have art lessons until the end of August at least.  But unexpectedly, she developed preeclampsia last week, and the baby was born at 32 weeks on Wednesday.  We are praising the Lord that she seems to have recovered now, and hopefully the little baby boy will not have to spend too much time in the hospital either.  He was tiny--2 pounds, 1 ounce!

Different Pictures

Last week I resolved to not work on biology or memory work at all, and we also did no school whatsoever.  Instead, I worked on a few things of my own!  One thing I actually got accomplished was the Rivendell yearbook for this past year.  I had grand ideas of using Photoshop for a few pictures, and indeed I started playing around with it.  But then I realized that was actually stressing me out, since it was taking forever, and I wasn't quite getting the effect I was looking for.  And I definitely didn't have forever to finish this little project, so . . . I put all those creative thoughts out of my brain, and just tried to get it done.

Last year I used blurb.com, which I was happy with, once I got it all figured out.  The only downside is that when you are dealing with a lot of pictures, you can't do the book online.  You have to download their software and just work on one computer.  That is fine when it's just me, but the plan is that next year I pass this off to the boys, so they can put "yearbook staff" or whatever down for extracurricular activities!  So we need something where people can work from different computers.  That led me to Shutterfly.  It was . . . okay.  Blurb was a better fit for yearbooks, I think.  Or maybe I just didn't spend enough time on Shutterfly.  I finally was able to manipulate the sizes of pictures and text boxes, but it wasn't that easy or intuitive, and it was often not exactly what I wanted.  It was okay, though.  And some of the layouts looked fine there on the side, but when I picked them for my page, the layout would have weird elements show up, like a giant brown picture frame around one picture that totally distracted from everything else, or a piece of "scotch tape" at the top of pictures.  Weird!  There was no way I could figure out to get rid of the extra stuff, so I never picked those layouts, even though they were good ones.  My biggest issue with Shutterfly is that loading my book one time made my desk top freeze up, and after that, I could never load the crazy thing on there!  It was really inconvenient because that's where all my pictures are.  I had to put them all on a portable hard drive (yes, yes, something I would have done at some point anyway--I just didn't want to have to do it right then!) and use a laptop. 

But the book is done, thanks to some last-minute help with the verbiage from Isaac and Caleb McC.  I totally should have done thing back in June, when Nathan and Luke were around!  It's hard to write captions about events where you were not present, LOL.  But Isaac and Caleb came through, and now we're just waiting to see the final product.  I love having all the memories of the co-op year in a book!  It's so fun to look back through last year's book, and we didn't even really know we were going to do a yearbook, so there weren't as many pictures to choose from!

Pictures!

 We were really busy this past week.  We had a playdate on Monday, the girls had a birthday party on Tuesday, we got pictures taken on Wednesday, and Jonathan had his art class, and Thursday we had my friend Kimberly and her kids over so she and I could do our Hebrews Bible study, and Jonathan had an orthodontist appointment later on.  Friday we left at 8:00 to drive to WSS, and we didn't get home until after 5:30!  Whew--what a week!

I usually get (professional) pictures taken of my babies around their 1 year birthday.  Micah's birthday was back in April, so that obviously came and went, LOL.  I wanted to get the girls' pictures taken as well, and one thing that was really holding me back was that I could not figure out what to have them all wear that would be somewhat matching.  And I didn't want to go out and buy white shirts for everyone, for example.  But then I remembered that my friend Lynnea had pictures taken of her girls in all patriotic clothes (hers matched though, LOL), so I dug through their tubs and found these things.  Grace did not like her dress, but I told her she only had to wear it until after the pictures!

Although you can't tell here, none of the girls were particularly co-operative.  Anna has this weird tendancy to freeze and clench up when the camera is on her.  I almost didn't get an individual picture of her because all the shots have her with this weird one-shoulder-up-grimace-on-her-face pose.  Grace smiled in her individual shots, but not a real smile with her eyes, you know?  And Faith was just a bit grumpy (again, you can't tell here, but definitely in her individual shots), so her picture has her not really smiling, but not really frowning.  She had a good hair day though--she looks so much like Shirley Temple in her individual picture!

And Micah--Micah was not cooperative at all.  The lady started with him, and he would not crack a smile.  She was doing all these tricks with stuffed animals and whatnot, and he just sat there in a little rocking chair looking at her like, "You are so weird, lady."  Again, not frowning or crying--just no smile whatsoever.  Totally serious.  But then the lady hit upon the idea of bubbles.  He liked the bubbles!  So for the rest of the time, Jonathan was on bubble duty, blowing a steady stream of bubbles and catching some of them on the wand so Micah could pop them himself.  Then we got smiles like the one above!  Of course, when trying to get all 4 kids to smile with the bubbles, they were all invariably looking at different bubbles, totally distracted, so that was not as good, LOL.

Oh well, it's over.  Next summer I am planning on bringing in the new baby, plus everyone else for a group shot.  Yippee--can't wait.  Ha!

Back Up to 7!

We picked up Luke and Caleb from White Sulphur Springs yesterday!  They had a grand time at Camp Caleb.  The theme this year was "junkyard", with their key verse being II Cor. 5: 17 ("if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation . . .").  Caleb was full of tales about not one but 2 people who injured their ankles during the week (one sprained, one broken--yikes!), so I was glad he and Luke were both safe and sound!  They weer both glad to be home and sleeping in their own beds last night, and it was good to have them back.

We saw Nathan as well, since we stayed for lunch.  He is done with the outdoors camping week (AO), but now he is staying at WSS for 2 more weeks to work on boys' support staff.  I was worried about how and when he'd do his laundry, since all the stuff he wore for the week of AO is desperately in need of washing.  But then I decided he is 15 years old, and I'm sure he'll figure it out!  Nathan reported having a great time on AO, and the older guy (who worked on staff the years I did, although not on my particular staffs) said he was a great servant-leader and a lot of fun to have along.  There was some story that was evidently hilarious about Nathan, who got dehydrated on a hike and did or said something funny relating to a tent.  But alas, we don't yet have the full story on that, since Nathan ushered us quickly out onto the porch so we could take the above picture (funny--he wasn't so interested in the picture until Dale started telling the story . . .). 

I'm driving back up to WSS tomorrow to take Jonathan for his week of Camp Caleb, so hopefully I'll see Nathan again and get more of the story!  And that means we'll be back down to 6 kids here at home, although at least I won't have all 3 of my older boys gone!  Yeah--not making that scheduling mistake again, LOL.