OK Shelli...

Because you begged, I leave you with pictures of the kids. See you in 40 days!

40 Day Fast

Well, this will be my last post for oh, about 40 days. I have decided to fast from the internet for that time. I've been contemplating a fast for awhile now, something to refocus me on Christ. I can't fast from food for any length of time, being a nursing mom and all, so I had to think of something else. The biggest time waster in my life is this marvel of modern technology. I spend hours on the internet every day. It's clear to me that this is an addiction, and I need to give it up and get addicted to God & His Word. I don't want my Christianity to be empty words and fruitless works. I want to live in true fellowship with my Savior. I can't do that here in cyberspace.

So, until sometime in April, I am off line. Pray for me during this time, that I will truly seek Him!!

A Lucky Update

Just wanted to update on Hosanna's skin tag. In the week between dr. appointments, the infection cut off circulation to the thing and it died and fell off. At her appointment on Monday, the doc said it was a granuloma now (whatever that is) and that the remaining lump was still infected. He told us to stay on the antibiotics until it wasn't red anymore. We decided to use Melaleuca oil on it instead. It was a healthy pink within 3 days. Hooray for Melaleuca oil!!! She still has a hard lump, but it is much less noticeable than before. :-)

Lucky?

Well, Hosanna had her very first dr. appointment today. She was born with a skin tag on her pinky finger. No biggie. Well, it started to look a little different, and today it was bright red & swollen. Not good. So, we took her to the dr.

The regular doc was full, so we saw someone new. The new doc was very nice. She said that skin tags are lucky. Lucky?? Sh also said it would be easily removed, but not now. It's infected and it has to be healthy for removal. So, poor Hosanna got her first antibiotic. Bummer! Ruby's made it 2.5 years with no antibiotics and here Hosanna has to get one at 2 months because of an infected skin tag. Lucky indeed.

A week from today the lucky tag is getting removed. Poor baby.

In other news, I feel a bit lucky. Miss Jade told me about her day at school!!! She told me she saw Mrs. Oleson, had snack, had lunch, went to art, saw Mrs. Kulich for gym, went to Mrs. Gutke's room to watch a movie, and went outside for recess! Pretty good for a kid who wouldn't talk to me a week ago.

Happiness is...

A smiley baby!

Two steps forward, Two steps back

Sigh.

Jade's going back to school tomorrow. It just wasn't working here at home. Her routine got all thrown off with the changes of the last few months and we can't get her back on track. She's losing the momentum of progress and we can't accept that. So back she goes. We hope that it won't be forever, but it will have to be for awhile.

I must say that I'm ready for it. It's been hairy around here of late. She has not been pleasant to live with. I know there will still be some transitioning and that could be rough, but I'm looking forward to a few semi-quiet hours every day. I'm trying not to feel like a horrible mother. I'm supposed to be basking in the joy of my blessings, but it's hard when the blessings are screaming in your face.

My mission is now trying to get back some semblance of peace & order in my home. It's been missing for too long.

My Girl

Just wanted to share a picture of my little cutie. She is getting so big already! She looks a lot like her brother. And, she's started smiling now! Not for the camera, of course, but smiling just the same. :-)

Blessed

Our pastor has had very profound messages on blessing the past 2 Sundays. You can listen to them here.

The point was this - If you are a Christian, you are blessed by God no matter what your circumstances may look like. To put it another way, the sun still shines even when you can't see it. And blessing doesn't just mean everything will go your way. It means God hand is upon you at all times.

It's been a message I really needed. Check it out if you get a chance.

Catching Up

No, we did not disappear off the planet. Life with a new baby just takes a lot out of a person.

I've not properly introduced our new addition. Here is our new little angel... She is, of course, wearing knits that I made for her. Had I known she was a she, I would have knit something a bit more PINK. Never fear, I have pink things in the works. She really is a good baby. We got off to a rough start with some feeding issues, but she is doing very well now. Almost a month old, and she is already changing! How is it that babies grow so fast?

In other news... Christmas & New Years were very enjoyable. We got to see all the family and the kids had a great time. We were blessed many times over by the generousity of others in our family & community. God was very good to us, providing much more than we expected to have for Christmas.

We did have a little trouble. Our breaker box started shooting out sparks on Dec. 23 and needed patching on the 29th so our house wouldn't burn down while we were up north. We need to replace the whole box. That will happen soon. We also had our truck break down twice - on the 23rd and the 29th. It was quite a week, let me tell you! The truck was in the shop twice and is finally fixed, 8 spark plugs, 2 coils, and $650 later. But, I say again, God is good. All the money was provided for the truck repairs, and we had a friend lend us a vehicle when we needed it. We know that He will provide what we need for the breaker box as well.

Other than that, life is slowly getting back to something resembling normal. We hope to start school again next week. We've taken the last two months off, so I'm not putting my hopes too high for a smooth restart. We will see.

It's a girl!

Announcing the arrival of Hosanna Marie!

December 10, 1:42 am
8 lbs. 12 oz.
19 1/2 inches long

Pics to come, I promise. :-)

The Good Intentions Post

Well, I've been meaning to blog. I just haven't. The baby is not here and I haven't felt like doing anything. I meant to post pictures of all the snow - we got over 8 inches last weekend and more last night. I meant to post about my lovely birthday, complete with pictures. I meant to post a cute picture of Ruby wearing Kordell's snowpants and looking very much like an oompa-loompa.

I just haven't yet.

So, excuse the very pregnant woman and her good intentions. I will give you something to look at one of these days. Hopefully it will be a baby. I am due tomorrow.

Incoming!

Well, now would be just the time for the baby to come. There's a huge snowstorm blowing in and the weather outside is certainly frightful!! Nothing is happening with the baby just yet, but babies have a tendency to have terrible timing, so maybe... For now, we will hunker down inside and wait.

And while you wait for news from us, here is a picture to enjoy. Taken yesterday, 39 weeks 1 day. The baby spent all day yesterday trying to push its butt out my bellybutton and wedging its feet in my ribcage for leverage. Very comfortable... uh huh.... any day now baby!!!!

Another False Alarm

Well, I thought for sure last night was THE night. I started having contractions 10 minutes apart, over a minute long. They persisted no matter what I did. I even called my midwife to say this might be it. She said if I couldn't sleep to call back. Well, I finally fell asleep at midnight and when I got up at 1:30 they were gone.

WAH! I just wanna be done with all this! I want to have this baby, like NOW.

Nothing to Report

I know, I know... I should be updating more often this close to the end. But nothing is happening. I've had random contractions, but nothing organized at all. As of last Tuesday at the MW, I was 2 cm & 50% effaced. It's just a matter of time, she says.

So we wait. And while we wait, a new picture from last week. Taken on Thanksgiving, 38 weeks exactly.

And here are my cute kids with Grandma Jacquie, also on Thanksgiving. It's been such a help having Grandma here the last few weeks!

Whole Lotta Nuthin'

So, Thursday evening I started having a few contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart, but I didn't think much of it. I figured they would go away when I went to bed.

But they didn't.

All night long they came, 10 -12 minutes apart. Friday they continued, got a little stronger, a little longer. I spent the day resting, wondering if this was the beginning of labor. I even took a bath and they didn't go away. (Baths are supposed to make them go away if it's false labor) By evening we were down to 6-7 minutes apart. Teagan & I had planned to go out on a date and decided to go anyway since the contractions still weren't that bad. I figured walking around Walmart getting our groceries would speed them up if this was it.

Well, wouldn't you know it, they stopped altogether while I waddled around Wally-world. What is up with that!? So, no baby yet. And no more contractions for the time being either. Which is okay because it's the opening day of the gun deer season and Teagan is in da woods.

In the Clear

I am 37 weeks today. We are officially clear for homebirth. All that worry about not making it, and here we are. And nothing is happening.

I'm not suprised.

I'm still hoping for an early baby, but not holding my breath. I heard a quote last night that sums up my feelings well. "Fortune is apt to act freakishly at all times." Not that I believe in fortune, but it just said to me, yup - life is full of great ironies. And one of those may be a late baby again... despite pre-term labor.

Under the Weather

We seem to have a bit of a virus running amuck around here. I was sick last night. I had a bad tummy ache and it was causing contractions. So I called my midwife. We are SO close to being okay for the homebirth, but not quite there, so she said to take some blackhaw to calm things down. But that's probably the last time I will take it. Today & tomorrow are "on the fence" days, but we are clear to go as of Wednesday. :-D

Anyway, Jade is sick this morning with the same thing - no contractions for her though. LOL I know she doesn't feel good when she spends the day laying on the couch. On the other hand, it has been nice and quiet here today. We are praying that no one else gets sick. We need this bug cleared out before the baby comes.

And, just because I'm feeling generous, I'm throwing in a picture from last week. Taken at 36 weeks exactly. And a super cute picture of Ruby giving the baby some love...

Dodged a Bullet!

My midwife, Jane, came out for our 36 week homevisit this morning. It went well. She said my birth kit looked good & well organized. Imagine, me being organized! LOL Everything looks great with the baby. Good strong heartbeat, and I measured at 38 cm, so just a little bigger than "normal". We discussed where the birth would be, and decided that the living room was just fine. She offered the Group B Strep test and I said okay, and that's when the trouble started. Well, not trouble so much as my pregnant brain not understanding. As it turns out, because the hospital where my medical back-up works is pressuring every positive GBS to get IV antibiotics, that rule would apply to me also. Even though I was only seen once, and even though they are only emergency backup, if that test came back positive I would HAVE TO deliver at the hospital even if I had NO risk factors. A positive = hospital birth. Once it was explained to me again, the little test tube magically disappeared. I am not going to voluntarily check myself in for any reason except emergency. So, we dodged a bullet today. Big Time.

Minus

What do you do with a child who absolutely refuses to learn something new? I've dealt with the child who just doesn't want to work, but the child who won't even learn? And is doing it on purpose? What do you do with that?

That, my friends, was the question before me this morning. Jade's math book came to learning subtraction today and she would not have anything to do with it. She insisted upon adding. Would not even attempt to minus. Screamed at the top of her lungs, "NO MINUS! ADD!" She was adding to beat the band, throwing out equations so she couldn't hear me. All the way up to 57+57=114. I think she wanted me to be so impressed with the adding that I'd forget about the subtracting. I was at my wit's end, trying to figure out how to get through to her on this.

Finally it occurred to me. She learned to add by memorizing the equations. So I wrote out every single combination from 1-0=1 to 10-10=0 on paper and made her drill them. She was more than happy to sit and read math equations. So, we shall drill. And drill and drill and drill if that's what it takes.

Nesting Begins...

Okay, now I'm really getting close. This morning I woke up determined to rearrange the living room. I was looking at the pictures from Ruby's birth last night, thinking WOW there was so much space in there back then. If only I could find a little more floor space...

So, Teagan & I (mostly him) spent the afternoon reorganizing the closet and rearranging the living room. We moved the couch twice (maybe 3 times?) and all the chairs all over the place and it still feels awkward. It's just an awkward room. I like to imagine all of my chairs & couch full of people... would they be able to talk to each other comfortably? It's better now than a few of the combinations we tried, but it still is just not right. There's really no solution though. It's just a very awkward room.