Friday, September 30, 2005
Today is my official due date. Of course, that doesn't mean anything considering all of my other babies have been 1-2 days overdue everytime. Yesterday was pretty miserable and I was feeling pretty mopey. Last week the doctor said they wouldn't induce me until I reached 42 weeks or until the baby was in distress. And I immediately lost hope in ever having this baby. All of my other doctors have scheduled my induction for just a few days after my due date and that seems to be all I need to send me into labor. But the thought of having to wait 2 more weeks to be induced was almost more than I could bear. So I was moping and feeling very sorry for myself. Lucky for me, Mom came over and bought me pizza and Mark listened while I cried like a baby and I had a nap on the couch and eventually felt much better and decided I could make it two more weeks if I absolutely had to.
Anyway, then I saw the doctor and it doesn't look like it will be anything near two more weeks. I'm dilated to a three, he stripped my membranes and scheduled to induce me on October 4th. So, merrily, there is an end in sight. Of course, as we waited for him to schedule my induction I started having some severe anxiety over going into labor and all the work that comes with having a new baby and was about ready to say, "Nevermind. . . I'll wait!" But I didn't and for now we're hoping we'll have a baby as soon as tomorrow, if everything goes as usual. So here's to an end in sight and a healthy baby and a painless labor. Well. . . at least a healthy baby and an end in sight. I'll deal with the labor part when it gets here.
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
When we adults think of children, there is a simple truth which we ignore; childhood is not preparation for life, childhood is life. A child isn't getting ready to live, a child is living. The child is constantly confronted with the nagging question, "What are you going to be?" Courageous would be the youngster who, looking the adult squarely in the face, would say, "I'm not going to be anything. I already am!" We adults would be shocked by such an insolent remark, for we have forgotten, if indeed we ever knew, that a child is an active participating, and contributing member of society from the time he is born. Childhood isn't a time when he is molded into a human who will then live life; he is a human who is living life. No child will miss the zest and joy of living unless these are denied him by adults who have convinced themselves that childhood is a period of preparation. How much heartache we would save ourselves if we would recognize the child as a partner with adults in the process of living, rather than always viewing him as an apprentice. How much we would teach each other. . . adults with the experience and children with the freshness. How full both our lives could be. A little child may not lead us, but at least we ought to discuss the trip with him; for after all, life is his and her journey too. (Professor T. Ripaldi)
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Saturday, September 24, 2005
Just a cute pic of Denver, watching TV. What you can't see is that the rest of him is hidden in a big box he and Noah had been playing in. Of course, when "Dora the Explorer" came on, he peeked his head out so he could watch.
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Friday, September 23, 2005
It must be in the air. My sister Chris won one on Wednesday and Mark came home with one today. Check out our new iPod and our happy winner!
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Came across this really easy, very delicious recipe for dinner. Especially great for upcoming Fall weather. And the kids liked it too. . . all of them! Hurray!
1 package cornbread/muffin mix
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1-1/2 c. fully cooked ham, cubed
Prepare cornbread according to package directions and bake. Meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour, mustard, and salt until smooth. Add milk. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in cheese until melted. Add ham and heat through. Cut corn bread into squares; top with creamed ham.
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Monday, September 19, 2005
Today I took the boys to run a few errands. I had to get some library books and some groceries for preschool. This week we're talking about the five senses. So, we stopped at the store for some cornstarch (for making "Goop") and some coffee beans, lemons and koolaid (for sniffing.) Anyway, while we were standing by the coffee and I was trying to find some plain old coffee beans (which is very difficult), Noah and Denver were chatting in the cart. And Noah said to Denver very matter of factly, "Denver, we don't drink coffee. . . . It smells really good, but we don't drink coffee." Noah must be like me--I love the smell, love the taste, love everything about coffee--it's so tempting. And yet, I don't drink it.
Then tonight for FHE we were playing a game in "The Friend" called Journey to the Temple. Anyway, Denver drew his number and had to answer a question about how he can choose good books and movies and television shows. His response: "Well. . .guess what. You get construction books and farm books." Afterall, what could be better to read than a book about construction trucks, right? Right. He got to move ahead his two spaces for that answer.
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Sunday, September 18, 2005
We were certain it was a boy. But now we know for sure. . . it's a girl! How do we know? Well. . .this morning after we took the boys up to the school for a little bike ride, I took Noah and Denver with me to check on Lucky. Denver ran ahead and returned in a panic because he couldn't find Lucky. We rushed over to the coop and Denver was right, she wasn't there. And she didn't hop out of her nesting box like she usually does. My immediate thought was, Oh no! She's dead. Then Noah said, "I think she's laying an egg." I opened her nesting box and we peered in together and sure enough--there was an egg! Noah ran like lightning to get Daddy and all I could do was stare at the perfect little egg sitting right there in our chicken coop. After watching Lucky for a few minutes I came to the conclusion that she must be in the process of laying another egg. She was staying very still and panting and seemed really uncomfortable. I could tell she was exhausted because she kept falling asleep, but she wouldn't rest her bottom and relax. I could have sat out there all day watching and waiting. But Stake Conference called and I had to hurry if I was going to get a shower. As soon as we got home Hunter and I ran over to her cage to see if we had two eggs and sure enough--we had two. We let Lucky out to play, which she finally seemed happy to do, and gathered up her eggs. Two perfect, little eggs. I just went out to tuck her in for the night and she had already returned herself to the coop. She was sitting on the roof, waiting to be let in. I held her for a minute and then locked her up. She immediately went into her nesting box,laid down and went to sleep.
Now up until today I would have told you that hatching and raising chickens was more trouble than I ever bargained for. First Hero--hatching paralyzed and dying. Then Jack-Jack--hurting his leg and dying, slowly. Wilbur--hatching her and washing her and coccidosis and the wild animal attack, was almost more than I could bear. And finally Lucky--cock-a-doodle-do-ing in our backyard at six in the morning, waking all the neighbors. I was so ready to give in and give up. But today--just those two little eggs has made it all worth it. That chicken loves me. She comes when I call her. She practically purrs when I hold her. She doesn't crow in the morning anymore. And she lays me little tiny eggs. Even tonight, as Denver counted her six piles of poop that she left on our back porch, I thought, "Man, I love this little chicken of mine, right down to her piles of poop." The cycle is complete--now I just have to figure out how to get her to hatch a few of her own chics minus the rooster. Any suggestions?
   
P.S. The two little eggs are Lucky's and the large egg is a store bought egg--just for comparison.
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Saturday, September 17, 2005
More work today. Only two weeks to go and we're trying like mad to get our big projects done before Junior takes priority. Uncle Cliff called last night and offered to help us with our projects, for which we are truly grateful. He and Mark pulled out all of our food storage buckets (which are many thanks to several families dumping their wheat and beans on us before leaving the state) and sprayed for bugs. The freezer fix-it man came and told us our compressor needs replaced. The good news is--it's under warranty and we won't have to pay a cent for the new one. The bad news is--it'll be another week before they get the part. So, we threw away a lot of ice cream and meat and saved as many of my casseroles and frozen meals as we could. If we're lucky, RCWilley will reimburse us for the lost food, since an extended warranty was purchased with the freezer. Mark worked hard on vacuuming out the basement and tidying things up down there. And I folded laundry and pulled out baby necessities (like a carseat) and cleaned bathrooms and the toy room. The boys played happily for the most part and helped out occassionally with chores, like looking for bugs and tossing toys in various buckets. Mark went to the Stake Priesthood meeting. Our neighborhood crossing guard's children stopped by to play Nintendo with Hunter and Noah. And our neighbor Elizabeth (who asked if she could invite herself to dinner a week ago) came over with some pizza to share and watched "Calendar Girls" with us. Another busy Saturday--hopefully only two more to go till this baby gets here.
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Friday, September 16, 2005
Last week we started preschool at home. We don't do it at any specific time of the day: sometimes it's first thing in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon. Sometimes we're dressed, sometimes we're in our pajamas. Sometimes we spend two hours on preschool, sometimes half an hour. But we do it almost every day and Noah is in heaven. I hope I can keep up with it, with the arrival of number four, but for now we've all been enjoying the time together. Anyway, last week we made a "Book About Me" and talked about ourselves and our family and all of our favorite things and worked on memorizing our phone number and address. The boys toted the books everywhere we went for a few days and loved showing them to anyone that would look. This week we talked about names and worked on spelling and writing our first and last names. We played "Name Bingo" and shaped our names with playdough and of course made the name boards I blogged earlier. I'm also working on getting Noah to recognize the alphabet in lowercase (and Denver, the letters in Uppercase) and so far it's going very well. This next week we're talking about the Five Senses and then we're talking about Feelings. I suppose this is a month all about ourselves. Then we'll move onto Autumn and Apples and of course, Halloween come the month of October. I still don't know how all you homeschoolers do it, especially with more than one child at different levels. So much work is required. But I suppose it all pays off--especially with Noah. He sure does love preschool time and it's nice to finally be doing something right by him.
 
Anyway, I found a couple of great books in the process of teaching preschool and thought I'd share a few. My favorite of the week (and one I'm adding to my wishlist) is I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun. He has also written I Love My Mommy, but I haven't read that one yet. If it's anything like the first, I'm sure it's great. Todd Parr writes a bunch of great books, but my favorite was It's Okay To Be Different, another one I want to add to my wishlist. And along the same theme is Whoever You Are by Mem Fox. Two great books about homes that the boys really liked are Whose House? by Barbara Seuling and Castles, Caves and Honeycombs by Linda Ashman. Happy reading! Happy teaching! Happy learning!
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It's funny the things you find when you're cleaning out the basement. Mark has stored several boxes of his belongings down there ever since we moved in. I suppose starting a new job and having a new baby and an extra needy wife makes it difficult to get to unpacking your own belongings. Anyway, Mark recently found a file folder full of his music and high school essays. Among them was this story. He asked me to read it and after I did I decided it deserved more attention than the dust it had been collecting in the basement. So, if you have a few minutes to spare, take a look and see what you think. Just one more talent to add to Mark's list of amazing talents and abilities. I still wonder how I ever got so lucky to be married to this man. I love you Mark.
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
Today I went grocery shopping with the two little boys. It was one of those stressful trips where I knew I only had a certain amount of money left in checking and that if I went over that amount, checks would start bouncing. It reminded me of a filmstrip we watched for FHE back when I was a little girl. It was about a family and they were all getting excited about going to an amusement park (or something like that.) Anyway, then the dad loses his job and he uses his last dollar to buy his wife a rose and gives her his last dime in the box with the rose. And it's so sad and pathetic cause you know the kids aren't going to get to go to the amusement park and everyone is so sad. I don't remember what lesson I was supposed to learn from that filmstrip but I do know how it feels to be that poor. Our freezer is on the fritz and all those casseroles I worked so hard to stock up on and all our meat and my ice cream cake from my baby shower are all turning to mush. And we have a new beetle pest in our basement that's freaking me out and the house needs painted and our cupboard still needs rehung and it seems like no matter how we try to budget, we're always short. But nevermind. . . . I stayed within my budgeted amount and our gas tank is full and we have the necessities and life is good.
When we got home I ran to have a shower before Chris and Ben arrived. They brought lunch and a movie and even though we didn't get around to the movie, the three boys had lots of fun together. Then, I did preschool with the boys, which Noah absolutely loves and begs for everyday. Today we made name plaques with nails and painted them. Noah learned how to spell and write his last name and Denver ran off to do something else when I tried to get him to practice writing his name. He's still young, no big deal.
Then we went to get Hunter who was glad to be back at school and seemed happy about the day. When I asked how his little friend Ashlin was, he said, "GREAT!" And then he added, "She asked 'Boyfriend Girlfriend? and I said, 'Yeah!'" He was thrilled about that since she's been giving him the cold shoulder since school started. I guess distance really does make the heart grow fonder. We'll see for how long.
I had a doctor's appointment at 5pm and yup, I'm still pregnant. Baby's fine. I'm fine. No signs of delivering anytime soon. No big surprise. My due date is the 30th of this month but I fully expect to go over a day or two, putting me at October 1st or 2nd. I'm getting a little anxious but I think I'm more scared about what happens after I deliver, so I think I can wait.
 
 
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Monday, September 12, 2005
I was going to write a "poor me" blog this morning but decided against it. We had a rough night last night and I was sort of feeling picked on. Hunter picked up a stomach bug somewhere and spent the entire night vomiting, from about 7:00pm to about 7:00am. He barfed all over the bathroom I had just cleaned and woke me up several times between 10pm and 3am, when I finally took him downstairs to watch TV and try to comfort him. He said he "couldn't stand the pain" in his stomach anymore. So we turned on Nickelodean and watched all the old game shows I watched when I was little (Finders Keepers, Double Dare, etc.) I rubbed his back while he barfed and wiped his bottom and changed his site and changed his site again and rubbed his back and fetched him popsicles and coke and tried to sleep inbetween barfing episodes and finger pricks. His blood sugar was through the roof and he was spilling ketones like crazy. He couldn't take his seizure meds and I was a little stressed out to say the least. By the time 7:00am rolled around I was exhausted, but of course the little boys were refreshed and rested and ready to go. That's when I started thinking, "Oh, poor me." But then I thought of a family at Hunter's school who just lost their mother last week to a massive heart attack and how they must be suffering. And I thought of all the people suffering down in Louisianna. And I thought things could definitely be worse around here and decided to count my blessings instead.
One of the first things I thought of was popsicles. I really love whoever came up with the idea of freezing juice on a stick. The healing power that comes from sucking on a popsicle when you've been barfing all night and are completely dehydrated is amazing, both for my kids and myself. I'll never forget the way Denver sucked on his cherry popsicle in the hospital two years ago after three days of barfing. And this morning, the way Hunter inhaled his Otter Pop--you'd think the thing had saved his life. So who cares that I'm exhausted and fat and pregnant and swollen and achey and the house is a mess and Hunter is sick? At least we've got popsicles and they sure do taste good.
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Sunday, September 11, 2005
On the way to church today Noah shared with us what the three most important things are: "Jesus, Heavenly Father, and Breakfast." Just thought you'd like to know.
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Because the raspberries have had a rough season this year and we couldn't go raspberry picking (I'm completely devastated), we spent most of this weekend working on reorganizing the house, once again. Only two and a half weeks before baby boy number four arrives and of course, everything's gotta be perfect. Mark has our stairs completely stripped and just about ready to paint. The boys' room and our room is finished. I managed to start putting together our 72-hour kit (a result of Hurricane Katrina), and the boys enjoyed putting pills in pill boxes and adding odds and ends that they thought were important. The basement is almost clutter free--minus a few computer-room details and the Fall clothes are out and washed. The bathroom needs a fresh coat of paint and that'll be it until the new year. (I'm planning on completely shutting down for the month of October, so I can stay in my pajamas all day and enjoy the baby for awhile--no big "to do lists" stressing me out.)
The Primary Sacrament Meeting Program went without a hitch and we received many wonderful comments on the kids' and their fantastic performance. I was thrilled--they were so reverent and they sang almost every song perfect, except for when I sang the wrong words and they all went right along with me. Afterwards we played musical chairs with the kids and ate Mark's famous chocolate chip cookies. I can't think of any place I'd rather be than right down there in the primary with those kids, singing and playing games with them. Next week is Stake Conference and the following week is Fast Sunday. With the Primary Program finished, I may stay home these last two Sundays and spare the ward from the misery of seeing my bloated, swollen self waddle down the hallways, clutching my back in pain. We'll see.
We attended a baptism after church and then ate lunch with the family at their home. The boys jumped on the trampoline and climbed up in their treehouse and we all enjoyed sitting on their deck chatting in the cool breeze. I'm so glad it's cooling off. Then, we returned home to watch "Indiana Jones" (the boys' expressed an interest in those movies a few weeks ago) and eat some of Mark's delicious bean soup made with a leftover ham bone we froze several months ago. A pleasant but very productive weekend, minus the lack of homemade raspberry jam.
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Friday, September 09, 2005
Here's another very easy but very tasty dinner. We just got country style ribs on sale and bought two packs so we can freeze one in the marinade and cook one up for dinner tonight. Hunter and Noah were crazy about it!
3 pounds boneless country-style ribs
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. salt*
1 tsp. pepper*
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
Place ribs in a large shallow glass container. Pierce several times with a fork. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients (*I salted and peppered each side of the ribs instead of adding the salt and pepper in the marinade); set aside 1/2 cup for basting. Pour the remaining marinade over the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight, turning once. Drain and discard marinade. Grill ribs, covered, over indirect medium heat for 10 minutes on each side. Baste with some of the remaining marinade. Grill 20-25 minutes longer or until juices run clear and meat is tender, turning and basting occassionally. Serves 6.
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Wednesday, September 07, 2005
There's something about making a fourth baby fit into a teeny tiny house that requires a lot of work. That's what we did this weekend. It was almost as bad as moving to a new house. We finally gave in and gave up our Master Bedroom to the boys. "The Nursery" looks great and all four boys will fit in there just fine for another couple of years. Heck. . . if we invested in a couple of trundle beds, we could have six kids in there. . . easy! Our bedroom, on the other hand, is a bit of a tight squeeze, but nothing we can't live with. Our king size bed just barely fits in one end of the bedroom and I have nicknamed it "the box." It's wall to wall bed in there but at least we have a window, which helps with the claustrophobia. At the other end of the bedroom we still have room for a dresser and a desk and miraculously we fit all of our clothes in the closet. Anyway, with that done, I think we're almost ready for this baby to come. . . almost.
We spent the rest of the weekend at Mel's baby shower, watching movies, practicing for the Primary Program and hanging out with the ward at the Brown's house. I can't believe how fast the week is going. If the next three weeks go by as fast, I might just be able to make it to the end of this pregnancy. I don't have time to think about being miserable. It's just one thing to the next, a gigantic "to do list" that seems to be getting longer every day. But I'd rather have it this way than have the days dragging on and on with nothing to do but sit around feeling tired and achey. So here's hoping for three more speedy weeks and a speedy (but healthy) delivery.
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Thursday, September 01, 2005
We're officially in first grade!
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