Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Early Ultrasound

I got to go for an early ultrasound today. I am officially 13 weeks, 4 days now, and the ultrasound showed 14 weeks, 1 day. Very close. They can't tell me anything definitive with this ultrasound. However, the baby has two arms, two legs, a head, two kidneys, two feet, and two hands that like to go in the mouth. I'm thrilled. I must say I haven't felt very excited for the last six to eight weeks...I've just felt so sick and nervous. Here are some pictures.


baby_2

Profile...hands in mouth

baby

Profile...arms and legs down

baby's_bottom

This is the baby's bottom and feet. You be the judge if there is anything else there. They cannot tell us for sure at this gestation. But, obviously with three (and sometimes four) girls, we're thrilled at any possible hints of masculinity. I'll let you know in about four more weeks.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Orchestra Recital

Natalie had her first Orchestra Recital today. She was so cute. She kept looking over at me to see that I was looking at her while she was playing. I hope I wasn't the cause of her getting lost in her music. Actually, I only noticed once where she got mixed up at all. It's funny, I didn't really notice how the other kids did. :) Here are some photos of our day. Daddy treated the girls to hot chocolate afterwards...everyone except Abigail (who makes a mess of hot chocolate)...she got lemon pound cake. Poor thing. I had a green tea frappacino. What is in those (besides caffiene...bad Mommy)? They make me feel almost normal.


violin_outside_color


recital


hot_chocolate


lemon_pound_cake

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Life & Creation

Life


I'm having a difficult day today. It is the second day I had trouble sleeping, mainly I think because my tummy was bothering me in the middle of the night. I have major issues with sleep and it really effects me harder than most to not get enough. I'm normally not able to nap. So today I feel achey, kind of sick, a little dizzy, and very tired. I'm at 12 1/2 weeks of pregnancy. I should be getting over feeling sick. I was starting to.


Young Earth Book


Here is an interesting read. Considering the topic it's a pretty easy read and it's free.


Old Earth - Why Not?


I'd encourage you to read it out loud to your children. They will be inundated enough with evolution and fossil and geologic interpretations that tell them the Earth's fetures formed slowly over hundreds of millions of years. The thing I notice the more I listen to possible explanations is that the "experts" state things not as theories, but as facts. Then their theories contradict each other right and left.


Read this with your children and let them have a little amunition to realize their world viewpoint is not for the uneducated or uninformed.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

What We've Been Up To

First I want to share a couple of photos with you.


One of them is of the newest thing I am trying here. That is to make smoothies - you can get in a lot of healthy yogurt, fruit, and even veggies by making smoothies and not have it seem like such a big task to do it. And the sugar really isn't necessary. The smoothies I've made so far had banana in them and that sweetened it plenty.


red_smoothie_1


The second picture is just of Rachey playing outside today. She's decorating her tree (old cut branch) with Heather flowers. LOL. I'm so torn when I see my girls do this. They make such a mess, but their creativity is AMAZING. Isn't she cute?


rachey_playing


I've been on and off lately. I felt sick (I've still had some "morning" sickness) last night and my step-daughter was up with an aching tummy.  I didn't get up though. I made my husband do it. He did not want to. I'm glad he did. I was short on sleep from feeling sick myself. I was SOOOOOOO tired today. But, I don't do naps well. So, I actually got myself out to take a walk. That was good. I still felt tired, but it was good for me and I wasn't moping around the house.


My girls went to a dance party last night. They had so much fun. I think they may have gotten too many goodies though (perhaps the reason for the upset tummy). How to get them to decline the sixth cookie when you aren't there? It was an opportunity, however, to remind them that we don't just do things when we are being watched, but as serving the Lord. I am always reminding them of that. We don't just try to please men (or Mommy), but please the Lord, who sees our every moment and action. I remind them this when chores are done half-heartedly as well. I think it does sink in eventually.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Today

I started this blog to record the adventures of our homeschooling family and my reasons for homeschooling. It seems lately I have not been writing much about homeschooling. Yet, I am everyday impressed with homeschooling. I am impressed that even when I am doing the bare minimum, just by exposing my kids to a love of learning and by limiting their electronic access, they just keep on learning, even seemingly without me. Rachey has been writing notes and deciphering "chapter books". Natalie asks me to read and narrate - she misses it. And, they do ballet and art and violin. It's not something I have to pressure them to do. Don't get me wrong...there have been times. When violin was new and hard and Natalie was younger, she had to be pushed to do it some days. Rachey wants to play an instrument. I told her maybe next year (after the baby comes).


And they do math...but that isn't a voluntary activity...although for me that is largely a "child independent" activity, as I mainly follow the Robinson approach to Math...let them struggle with it and teach themselves...following mainly Saxon. I put Natalie (3rd) in Saxon 5/4 this year and she actually did better. Saxon 5/4 is the original Saxon - and unlike the younger grades and is much more to the point.


I got out my maternity clothes today. I had one of those crisis moments where even some of my sweats were uncomfortable and the looser of my pants were in the wash. I think most of my maternity clothes look pretty good on me, but no doubt about it, as I start wearing them, everyone will know I'm pregnant.


My husband is outside right now with the kids. I'm sitting here thinking about going to the shoe store - which is like terribly hard if I try to do that with my kids. I have particular feet and I really need a non-tennis or garden shoe that takes an insert. I don't really feel sick per se right now, but I feel achey and tired, so I'm not sure I want to go, but I"m sure I would be glad I did. Some shoes to got with my "new clothes" would be nice.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Pregnancy

This is my fourth pregnancy, and I'm still wondering?? How do you get yourself so your full (not completely starving) before going to bed? You know so you can go to sleep and not wake up two hours later?


I've been doing on/off good/bad. I think a lot depends on how well I sleep. We lost our little calf we pulled. The Momma cow, she sounds so sad. I was thinking a lot about that last night. And, today, naturally, I didn't feel good. The frustrating thing is I couldn't take a nap.

It Was A Good Day

It was a good day today. I made myself a salad with chicken breast and apple and honey mustard salad dressing I bought from Wild Oats earlier in the week. It was yummy and filling. My husband called as I was making it and had a problem with his truck. So, we went off to meet him. I brought my salad with me, but I got the kids fast food. Then we took care of our school district home schooling program co-pays and went to a park and I sat and talked with a friend. It was a sunny, warm day, very unusual for this time of year. We finished that by going to the grocery store. The whole time I really didn't feel sick.


We came home and my husband called and asked if he could bring anything home. I called in a Thai order and he brought it home. My favorite.