Just About Three Weeks Ago...

We welcomed baby number 7, and boy number 6 to our family!  We're overjoyed to welcome Gideon Thomas!

My labor and delivery with him went well, but was rather long.  My sister had come into town to help out and be with me (as I was incredibly blessed to be with her two months earlier as my niece arrived into the world!), and on Monday (August 13, a week and a day before Gideon's due date) we decided to travel to Tennessee to visit the aquarium, as a fun outing for the kids.  It's a 2+ hour drive, but always fun, so well worth the drive.  That night, around midnight, Rachel woke up with a stomach bug, so I spent the night rocking her, cleaning up, doing several loads of laundry, and, go figure, after being on my feet all day, contractions started - real contractions, not Braxton-Hicks, accompanied by some spotting.  I was NOT excited at that point, to say the least!  I woke Michael up to let him know things were looking like they were starting... he took my place on "sick toddler" duty and let me go back to bed.  I took a quick shower, during which the contractions slowed some, and then went back to bed.  Contractions continued, but much more spaced out than before, so I was able to get some much needed rest.  (Oh, and thankfully, her stomach bug lasted less than 12 hours!)

All day Tuesday, the contractions remained continual, but never very consistent.  Sometimes they'd be 10 minutes apart, sometimes 30 minutes would go by without any.  Finally I gave up trying to track them and went about my day.  The problem with these contractions is that they were really strong!  Usually, I don't experience terribly painful, strong contractions until closer to transition, so I was really confused about what was going on.  I happened to have an appointment with my Midwife that afternoon, so I was eager to see if any progress was being made.  And, my hopes were quickly dashed when she said "no progress, we'll see you next week!"  Over 12 hours of painful contractions, and NOTHING?!  :(  I was so disappointed!  But, having been through false labor with Judah, I knew that even though progress wasn't being made, *something* was happening, anyway.  I just hoped it wouldn't go on for another week with the terrible contractions!

Throughout the night Tuesday and into the morning on Wednesday, the contractions continued.  Strong enough to wake me up every 10-20 minutes (with the occasional break for some longer rest here and there), but never really establishing a pattern.  Wednesday morning my sister and I decided to go for a nice, long walk.  We went to a local park with a 1.75 mile trail, and, slowly at times, made our way around the path.  During our walk, the contractions definitely picked up - 5-8 minutes apart.  But, once I got into the car to come back home, they again slowed down.  I had no idea what to think!  We went about the rest of our day, and made dinner together, and during dinner making, things definitely picked up again... now ranging from 3-5 minutes.  I was still really cautious about calling anyone, as I didn't want to give a false alarm.  Finally, though, Michael insisted, and I notified my homebirth "team" around 6:30 pm.

Everyone arrived by 8 pm - my midwife, her two assistants, and two of my dear friends.  Michael said he would have set up bleachers somewhere had he realized there were going to be 7 people attending the birth!  But having people close to me who I love and bring me joy is so helpful to me during labor.  We can laugh and chatter and enjoy the time together, which helps me to focus less on the pain!  And that's what we did!  I wanted to get into the pool, but still be unsure about how far along I actually was, I didn't want to get in too early.  During Rachel's homebirth, I was never checked for progress, but this time around, I needed some reassurance.  So my midwife checked me, and I was at a 7!  We got that pool filled ASAP and I got in - during those few minutes of waiting, the contractions really picked up in intensity, so things were moving pretty fast.

Once in the pool, it was immediate relief.  So relieving, in fact, that the contractions stopped briefly, which was such a nice break.  However, once they started again...!  They came on strong and LONG... the first one felt like it would never end, and at that point the baby gave a good kick, and my water broke.  The second one, I felt the baby come down, and all of the sudden, his head was out!  I had been kneeling at that point, but then I sat back a little and asked the midwives to help catch him... but my midwife calmly said, "Oh, you've got this!" and so I reached down and brought my little boy out into the world, up out of the water, and into my arms!  It was *incredible* to experience the delivery that way!  Really, I can't even describe how amazing it was.

I had felt strongly all through this pregnancy that it would be a boy, so I wasn't surprised in the least when I took a peek and saw my suspicions confirmed!  We were overjoyed!  Gideon Thomas was born at 9:06 pm, almost 48 hours from the first start of contractions.  The "pushing" phase lasted all of 4 minutes, during which I actually did no pushing at all - he just made his way into the world.  It was beautiful!  But, I'll admit, I was very glad for it to be done, lol!  This is my favorite picture from the birth - it was taken with a phone camera, so it's not the highest quality, but it's still my favorite:

And now we're settling in to "life with a newborn and 6 other kids".  It's a wild ride!  Michael has been able to be at home with me for the past two weeks, which has been a huge blessing.  All the kids have adjusted well to having Gideon around, even Rachel, who I was a little nervous about!  Gideon himself is having a bit of a struggle adapting to life in the outside world - he's a little on the "high needs" side of things, and spends most of his time awake being rather unhappy about it.  But, I am thankful that I've gone through this before and have learned a few things - First, that babywearing, breastfeeding, and co-sleeping are lifesavers during this time, and second, that it will get better!  Otherwise, he's doing just fine - nursing well, gaining weight, and being super cute!

Here are a few more pictures:

All wrapped up next to me - his favorite spot!

Snoozing

One of the first I was able to catch him with his eyes open!

Waking up from a nap (1 week old)

What I wake up to every morning!

We thank God for the blessing of another wonderful little boy!

A Song for Saturday

I've made it no secret that I'm a huge fan of Tenth Avenue North... this is one of their new songs, and it's just another one I can't resist!

Over the past few years, the Lord has taught me some hard, hard lessons about forgiveness - what it looks like from Him, and especially what it looks like from me toward others.  It has not been easy, and this has so often been my heart's cry!

Treasures of April

I didn't do much blogging this month, but thankfully, many others did!  These are some excellent posts from around the web this month.  I didn't get a chance to list all that I had found!  It was a good month for encouragement and food for thought!

Counting the Hours at Five in Tow

A Cheer for Small Things at Mom Heart

How to Live a Life that Matters at Women Living Well

For When You Think You're Failing Motherhood at gypsymama

Stay at Home Moms "Don't Work a Day in Their Lives".  Really? at ...to Love, Honor, and Vacuum

We've Shown Them the Proof at Vactruth.com

Protecting Boys from Pornography at The MOB Society

Your Children Want YOU! at The Power of Moms

The Clean Air of Gospel Mothering at Grace Full Mama

Be Holy Because God is Holy at A Christian Worldview of Fiction

Spirit-Led Parenting: How Motherhood Calls Us to Lay Down Our Lives at Keeper of the Home

The Everyday Question of Motherhood at Desiring God Blog

Home Apprenticeship at Small Town Simplicity

A Tangled Web - {When You Feel Like You Have to Do it All} at The Better Mom

Ready to Fight the Real "War Against Women"? at lifesitenews.com

The Bad News about Homeschooling at Encouraging Beautiful Motherhood

Ten Days of Intentional Parenting at finding joy

Wordless Wednesday - A Peek Inside

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. 

Ecclesiastes 11:5

Wordless Wednesday - Halfway!

Treasures of March

From The Better Mom:

•  Earning His Love 
•  Giving Your Children Purpose, Part 1 

From finding joy:

•  urgent replaced with the real
•  how to find joy - in motherhood
•  and yes, i said "you make things complicated"

Teach Children the Bible Is Not About Them at The Gospel Coalition

Who's In Charge Here, Anyway? at The Finer Things in Life

R-E-S-P-E-C-T at Good Morning Girls

I Need the Mundane at Stretching Into the Blue

Perhaps You Should Sue God at Everything and Nothing From Essex

Baby, Interrupted - 7 Ways to Build Your Child's Focus and Attention Span at janet lansbury

3 Common Traits of Youth who Don't Leave the Church at ChurchLeaders.com 

Why I'm Not Cut Out to be a Homeschooling Mom at Growing Home 

From The MOB Society:

•  Love Makes it All OK
• It Matters

From Raising Arrows:

• Seriously?
• Not Just Surviving Motherhood

Cultivating a Heart for Motherhood at Grace Fulled Mama (it's an entire series - very well worth the time!)

A Follow-Up to A Song for Saturday

Last week, I posted a song called "Beloved" by Tenth Avenue North... here is a video of the lead singer explaining the song and the lyrics.  As the Passover Season approaches, I found this timely!

God's love is so mind-boggling to me - it is so awe-inspiring, that He, the creator of all things, the One who gives life and breath, who knows every single detail about everything!  HE!  He loves me and calls me His bride.  He loves me enough to call me while still in my sin, to bring me up out of my sin, to give me LIFE! filled with His presence and forgiveness.  Not because I was good enough to deserve it, or do all the right things to keep it... no!!  Because that is who He is... He is Love.

Just... wow.

May you find joy and forgiveness in His love today!

Homeschool Odds and Ends for Sale!

I am terrible at getting rid of stuff... but eventually my bookshelves might just explode or collapse if I don't give it a try.  Here are a few things that we're not using, or that I have duplicates of that I don't need... check and see if there's anything you can use!

Vocabulary Cartoons, Elementary Edition - like new - $8 (see my review here!)

Rod and Staff Reading Level 4 (Exploring with God) - good condition

• Teacher's Manual - $5 
• Student Reader - $10

Rod and Staff Spelling by Sound and Structure, Grade 2 - good condition - Teacher's Manual - $3

Wordly Wise, Book C - brand new, never used - $6.00

Writing Strands, Level 3 - like new (no writing inside) - $11.00

Christian Kids Explore Chemistry - like new (no writing inside) - $20.00 (read my review here!)

Before Five in a Row - brand new - $28.00 (read my review here!)

The Story of the U.S.A. - Book 2: A Young Nation Solves Its Problems - brand new -$7.00 Sold

Shipping is $2 for one book, and $0.50 for each additional book. I accept paypal or money order, and will ship via Media Mail.  Email me at mrs.mike1998 at gmail dot com, or just leave a comment here to let me know you're interested - I won't publish the comments! ;-)

A Song for Saturday

I don't think there's a song by Tenth Avenue North that I don't like! Here's one that isn't played on the radio in my area, but it comes up on my Pandora station a lot.  It's beautiful!

It's That Time of Year Again!

Daylight Savings Time has come, and the forecast for the week at my house is temperatures in the mid-70s.  That means it's time for our semi-annual seasonal clothes swap!  With 6 kids, this takes a bit of time, so I've carved out several days this week in which we'll work on it.  Thankfully, a few years ago, I established a good system that works for us (many, many thanks to Michelle from My Blessed Home for the inspiration!), so it really shouldn't take too long and I can still get school done while we work.   The biggest part is going to be doing all the laundry beforehand, so I don't miss anything!

I've also found that my younger ones tend to have a *lot* more grow-into clothes than the older ones.  In fact, I usually end up with a shopping list for the older ones, and an overwhelming mass of clothes for the littles!  What I've started doing for the littles, is once it's been determined which clothes fit for the season, they (or I, depending on the age of the child), pick out about 5-7 outfits to keep in their room... the rest go back into the box!  That way, there isn't an overwhelming amount of clothes for the child to try to manage (ending up with clothes strewn all over the room, or perfectly clean clothes that end up in the dirty laundry, and so on).  And, if a pair of jeans gets a rip in them, or a bad stain on a shirt, I can just find a replacement in their box!  Murphy's Law at my house is, if I let a child have ALL the jeans that fit at one time, ALL the jeans that fit will end up with holes.  So, I keep some nice and fresh in storage!

My dilemma this year is, for the first time ever, there is no little boy following behind... so there are now boxes of little boy clothes all the way up to 2T that no one is wearing!  I am going to do a big sort and purge of them, just to cut back on some of the overwhelming amount of clothes there are.  I actually have the sneaking suspicion that the newest little one to come will be another boy, BUT, now is as good a time as any to get those clothes really organized and ready. 

Girl clothes are a totally different story!  We have been so blessed with generous amounts of clothing for Miss Rachel, and I've tried meticulously to keep them under control and organized.  I think the hardest part is all of the "extras" that come with girl clothes!  Instead of just pants, shirts, and PJs for boys, she's got pants (which include capris and leggings), shirts, PJs, skirts, dresses, diaper covers, hair bows, and so on!  So trying to organize her dresser has been a challenge for me.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, though!

Is anyone else working on the seasonal clothes swap?  Do you have a system that works great for you?  I'd love to hear about it!

7 Quick Takes Friday - Volume 15

I've really missed blogging lately!  Can you believe this post took me almost 3 weeks to write?  True story!  That's just the way life has been lately! Here's a brief summary of what's new in our world...

At the end of January, Nathan turned 5!  He's already lost two teeth (our earliest tooth loser yet!).  He has started "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and is doing really well, so far.  He was already reading a few Bob Books before then, so I am hoping the momentum gathers and reading is something that comes easily for him.  I find Nathan rather fascinating, because, in our houseful of playmates and noise... he's the introvert.  He is perfectly content playing by himself somewhere quietly while the rest of the gang are doing something else!  I had always heard one of the "pitfalls" of big families was that the children don't learn how to enjoy quiet or entertain themselves due to the constant presence of others, but Nathan proves that idea wrong!  He definitely has a knack for building complex things with legos - sometimes more complex than his older counterparts build.  I love watching him grow and can't wait to see what God has in store for him!

The little girl had her FIRST birthday and I hadn't even blogged about it yet!  How does that even happen? (Um, I'll tell you how it happened - it's called having 6 kids and being pregnant with the 7th!)  We didn't do anything big - I'm a lazy mama and don't do birthday parties until the child is actually old enough to remember them!  But it was an absolutely beautiful day, so we did celebrate by spending some time enjoying the outdoors.  She's getting so big - she's got 6 teeth, loves to climb on anything and everything, and is definitely teaching us a bit about what people mean when they say "girls are different".  There's a little more drama in the house than there used to be!  But going along with that is a lot more sunshine and sweetness, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't marvel at the fact that we have a girl!  Yes, still!

On her first birthday!

I am now 16.5 weeks pregnant, and outgrowing regular clothes.  But, I'm also at the awkward inbetween stage where maternity clothes are sort of too big and look kind of frumpy!  So, please excuse my lack of fashion for the next few weeks, if you happen to know me.  Not that I'm the queen of fashion to begin with!  I can now feel the little one move for sure, which is such a nice blessing.  No matter how many times I've felt it, I'm always excited and thankful when it happens.  I haven't gained any weight yet, for which I am super thankful for, since I started this pregnancy out with an extra 15-20 pounds of weight still leftover from Rachel!  I don't tend to fret over my weight too much, but that small detail made me a little nervous.

We are planning another homebirth, for which I am super excited.  I was thrilled for the first one, because I had wanted to try it for so long and was finally able to, and I'm just as thrilled for this one, because now I know how wonderful of an experience it can be!

Our 20 week ultrasound is next month, and I am so looking forward to it.  We're not finding out the gender, of course, but we've decided to leave all the children with a friend and actually make it a "date night", of which we only do about 2-3 times a year!  Usually we bring the whole crew to the ultrasounds, but at this point we will no longer all fit into the ultrasound room!  And I think it will be fun not having to deal with squirmy toddlers and restless preschoolers.  And, of course, I am always excited to see the little one.  The miracle of pregnancy and growing a baby becomes more and more amazing to me with each pregnancy.

Here's my growing belly!

According to general statistics, I have approximately 23 weeks left of this pregnancy... and according to my schedule, I have approximately 21 weeks left of school.  Um, yikes!  Looks like after our maternity leave, we won't be starting out fresh with a new year as I had hoped... we'll be wrapping up the loose ends of this one!  Which is... OK... but the OCD organizer in me really, really wanted to get everything tied up in a nice neat complete package BEFORE baby came!  But there really is no way that I can see that happening.  So, we'll just keep plugging along and just see how things go.  That is so hard for me! I think it's good for me, too, though.

Last year, I am sad to admit, we did not manage our finances as well as we should have.  After spending many years with no debt at all, we got ourselves into a bit of debt.  This year, after watching our tax refund go to paying that debt (instead of more useful things, like savings, or home repair, or any number of other things money is good for), we agreed that things had to change.  So we've gone back to a "cash only" lifestyle.  And, WOW!  What a difference that has made in just the two months we've been doing it.  It has definitely taken some adjustment - mostly a mindset adjustment - remembering that just because we think we "need it now" doesn't actually mean that we "need it now" - things can actually... wait!  But the savings has been tremendous!!  Several hundred dollars a month!!!  That's a big deal.  So even though it's been a little difficult, we're sticking with it, because it WORKS!

 

I love this boy!  This was how I found him the other day, during his nap.  Needless to say, that was not how I had put him to bed!  He is always a source of laughter in the house!

And no, those aren't the ones he was actually wearing at the time!

I think this has been the best winter I can remember. I think we had, maybe 10 days or less, total, of temperatures that were cold enough to make me uncomfortable (below 45 degrees or so). It has been wonderfully mild.  We have taken full advantage of this, and spent as much time as possible OUTside!  Yesterday was our first official nature walk of the season - and it was a wonderful 73 degrees by the time we finished at noon.  I love this kind of weather, and I'm especially excited about Daylight Savings Time starting!  Sunlight and I are friends :)  Here's some pictures of our nature walk!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the world!

Flashback

A little over 4 years ago, I posted about our yummy project for studying Nests in My Father's World Kindergarten.  Last week, with a new set of littles, we revisited the fun!  Of course, the big kids had to join in... and it amazed me when I compared the "then and now" pictures.  When we did it the first time, it was just Isaac, Ezra, and Joel (and they were so little!). This time there were two (actually, three, but she didn't get a nest) extra participants!  Wow, how 4 years changes things!  Here's some pictures of the yummy messiness:

Nathan, Joel, Ezra and Isaac, waiting to start!

Rachel got to try a chocolate chip.  She didn't like it!  I'm not sure whose daughter she is!

And it begins!

One of the completed masterpieces!

Judah loved the mess (and the chocolate!)!

Treasures of February

10 Essential Supplies for Homeschooling Boys at The Homeschool Classroom

The Day I Quit Homeschooling at Heart of the Matter Online

When Daddy Clears the Land at Lambs in His Arms

Mad About Babies - What's Sex Got to Do With It? at Salvo

Top 10 Reasons to Birth at Home at FastTopTen

20 Ways to "Reset" When the Kids are Having a Hard Day at The Pennington Point

Inside-Out Approach to Parenting our Challenging Child at The MOB Society

The Return of Motherhood Glam at finding joy

Digging Out of the Pit of Guilty Motherhood at Passionate Homemaking

100 Ways to Encourage a New Mom at the gypsy mama

The Mommy Truth at Family Matters

10 Things to Remember When your Child is Disobedient at Raising Godly Children

Treasures of January

The "Inconvenience" of Motherhood at Baptist Press

Why I Never Should Have Had Eight Children at Lifesitenews.com

Do Not be Conformed, but Be Transformed at I Take Joy

Don't Baby Proof the House at Raising Arrows

How to Raise Eight Children Without Even Trying at Little Catholic Bubble

2011 Lesson #2: Don't Carpe Diem at Momastery

Maybe I've Ruined my Kids at Inspired to Action

When the Red Light District is in the Living Room at MOB Society

A Kind Wife at Time-Warp Wife

From The Better Mom:

•  I Want to Remember
• When You're Not Good Enough {and the Right Things Don't Work} 

I Believe in Tim Tebow at ESPN.com

From Women Living Well:

• Anger Management
• Michelle Duggar - A Role Model for Gentleness

The 4 Minute Marriage Habit:  How to Make 2012 the Year You Fall Madly in Love All Over Again at holy experience

Grace and Gobs of Toothpaste at Purposeful Homemaker

12 Things Moms of Big Families May Want you to Know at Imperfect Homemaking

15 Ways to Show Disrespect to Your Husband... at The Respect Dare

10 Lessons I've Learned from 30 Years of Homeschooling at HSLDA.com

The Heavenly Work Before Me at Passionate Homemaking

Whose Rights, Anyway? at Meditations of My Heart

How My Mind was Changed (The Vaccination Debate)

I have a confession.  It isn't a huge secret if you know me personally, but since I've never really discussed it openly here, I thought I'd bring it up.  I am one of "those" parents - I go against the grain and mainstream medical advice, and... do not vaccinate my children.  I wasn't always of the anti-vaccination mindset.  In fact, I can easily remember a time about 7 years ago when I thought non-vaccinating parents were endangering their children, foolish, and acting out of fear.  Because I have been on both sides of the issue, I know this can be a very heated topic for parents to discuss.

Anytime we, as parents, make a decision that we believe is in the best interest of our children, and it comes under fire, there is a protective irritation that rises up!  And, honestly, both sides of the argument have judgmental and extreme supporters who can be offensive at times.  My goal is to simply explain my transformation without any offense of judgement toward parents who have chosen differently.

It started out very slowly.  My oldest two children are almost entirely vaccinated.  When Ezra (#2) was born, we refused the Hepatitis B shot they give newborns in the hospital (questioning the need to vaccinate a newborn against a sexually transmitted disease) and were surprised at the fight we had to put up to stop it from happening.  When Joel (#3) was at the age to get the Chicken Pox vaccine, I faced yet another battle when I refused that one.  I couldn't understand why there was a vaccine against a common and relatively benign childhood illness.  Yes, I understand that it is no fun to see our children sick, but I also don't see the need to try to live in an entirely sterile, germ and illness-free world.  It's not realistic, and neither do I believe that it is actually healthy!  I believe the immune system is wonderfully designed by God to grow strong naturally.

When his pediatrician gave me a long, dramatic lecture about the horrible dangers of Chicken Pox and why it was negligent of me to not vaccinate my child against it, her strong reaction started to make me wonder.  (This was the same pediatrician who, a few months later, told me I would have to wean Joel when he got to be a year old.  We stopped seeing her after that, needless to say!)  At that point, I started really looking into the vaccine issue.

I knew a few people in real life who didn't vaccinate, as well as friends on-line.  As I mentioned before, up until that point, I thought they were foolish not to be vaccinating!  But many of them said, "Do the research and see what you find."  I had to admit - I hadn't done the research.  I read the fact sheets that my pediatrician handed out at each appointment, but that was it.  So I really had no argument to support my choice, based on my own research.

At first, the research was really difficult.  Many anti-vaccination websites are very extreme - exaggerating claims and playing on fear.  That bugged me a lot, because I wanted facts, not emotionally-driven half-truths.  So I decided to research where I felt the information would be more helpful in proving my position in choosing to vaccinate - the website of CDC itself.  Ironically, the one place I went to try to support my decision is the one place that ended up changing my mind!

The CDC is very open - it has pages that list each ingredient of each vaccine produced by each manufacturer.  In my years of motherhood, (and especially having an allergy-stricken child) I had become a very careful food-label reader.  I tried to avoid as many artificial ingredients as possible - MSG, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and so on.  However, it had never once occurred to me to look into what I was allowing to be injected into my childrens' bodies!  When I came across this list, and this list... my heart sank.

Formaldehyde? Ethylene glycol (the poisonous stuff in anti-freeze!)? Mouse serum? Monkey Kidney Tissue? MRC-5 (cells from tissue of an aborted fetus?!) 

These are all things I would not ever, ever introduce to my children's diet... why was I allowing them to be injected directly into their bloodstream, bypassing the protective digestive system all together?
At that point, after discussing it in depth with my husband and praying about it, we decided to hold off on vaccines for a time being.  When Nathan (#4) was born, I believed we would just "selectively" vaccinate - meaning, choose the ones we thought the risk of the disease outweighed the risk of the vaccine.  A wonderful, very centered book on this topic is "The Vaccine Book" by Dr. Robert Sears (Dr. William Sears' son).  It discusses every vaccine on the market today, it's risks, and the chance of catching along with the risks of each disease the vaccines are for.

We continued to discuss, and to wait...  and now, 6 years later, with three children who have been completely not vaccinated, I've had to admit to myself - I'm am not a delayed vaccinator, nor a selective one - I am a non-vaccinator.  That does not mean I will never, ever vaccinate, or that I think we should all live in hippy communes and run around naked!  No, I am an average parent, prayerfully trying to make the best decisions for my children that I can, as I know most every other parent out there is, too!

You see, I do believe that vaccines are somewhat effective.  I don't enter into the argument that swirls around that line of thinking, because I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough to have a firm opinion.  But I also believe that adding all of those extra things into a child's body just can't be good, especially at a time when their own immune systems are trying hard to develop and their brains are growing tremendously.  I believe in the wonder of breastmilk and it's protective properties that God made it to have.  I believe in limiting a baby's exposure to lots and lots of other people (ie. daycare and nursery situations).  I believe in good nutrition for mama and baby, during pregnancy, nursing and weaning.

I know that by not vaccinating, I am putting my child at risk for a vaccine-preventable disease.  However, I also fully believe that when I was choosing to vaccinate, I was also putting my children at risk for numerous other problems, some more life-threatening than the disease they were trying to prevent.  I am concerned by the actions of the pharmaceutical companies - especially after reading about the repeated failures and recalls of the rotavirus vaccine, as well as the absurd amounts of complaints against the HPV vaccine.  I believe they are marketing vaccines too quickly, with too little testing, and that we, as the public, are basically the lab guinea pigs in many cases.  I know several people whose children have suffered vaccine-related injuries, and it is heartbreaking.  I also know several adults who have had adverse reactions to vaccines (most people I know will admit that the flu vaccine is ineffective or even made them sick!  Why wouldn't that carry over to other vaccines?).

I know this turned into a very long post, and if you've made it all the way to the end, I applaud you!  Thank you for taking the time to read my experience and how we got from there to here.  I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences, but please remember to keep things respectful, as I hope I have done.

(Oh, and for the record - 3 of my children have had the chicken pox. One of whom had been vaccinated against it!  And all are perfectly fine, despite the doomsday prophecies of that pediatrician.  In fact, I hope that the rest who have been born since then are able to get natural exposure somewhere in their childhood, as well, to assure lifelong immunity - which the vaccine does not give.).

Homeschooling with Morning Sickness

As you may have gathered from my last post... we're expecting baby #7!  Which is a convenient excuse for my lack of blogging. And cooking. And cleaning. And... basically anything that requires more than lying on the couch! 

I am a little over 10 weeks now, and morning sickness has definitely dominated my life for the past 6 of those.  However, as any mother knows, when there are other children in the house, it's not so easy for mama to be stuck on the couch.  Especially when several of those children are school-aged and mama is the teacher!  So I thought I'd share a little on how school goes when I'm sidelined.

Basically, we just simplify.  This is rough for me, as I am a checklist kind of girl, and get a sense of accomplishment when I can get to the end of the day and see that we've done everything.  But the Lord has taught me so much in this area, mostly through periods of morning sickness - that my value and my worth is not based on my accomplishments!  So it is OK to let things go in necessary seasons.

My method of homeschooling makes this really, really easy.  First, I eliminate the subjects that need my one-on-one focus (for us, this is Spelling and Writing).  Since they are "minor" topics anyway, I have no concerns about dropping them for a while.  Second, my independent work assignment sheets allow the big kids to continue moving ahead with their work - they're not waiting around for me to direct them, and filling them out requires very minimal effort on my part.  The one difficulty I have run into is checking and going over their work everyday.  Since Fridays are light days for us and the boys don't have any independent work then, I've been waiting until Friday to meet and go over the week's work.  It's not ideal (especially when there's several days of material they've made errors on and have to go back and fix!), but again, this is for a season, so it works for now.

Thirdly... Sonlight!  I can do Bible, History, Read-Alouds and Science (excluding experiments) all from the couch.  Not only that, but their awesome Instructor's Guides make it literally "open and go".  I do not have to plan, I do not have to stress about getting things together, I do not have to hunt around for extra materials.  I keep everything I need for 6 weeks in a basket next to the couch.  So. Easy.  I mean, unbelievably easy.  I honestly believe that with any other curriculum, I'd be totally out of the game and nothing would be getting accomplished.  But Sonlight has made it really, really easy to keep on trucking.  Have I mentioned that it's really easy?  Maybe Sonlight should steal Staples' logo.

I will say that there have been some weeks in which only independent work has gotten done, or only our Sonlight portions.  That's me letting go of perfection and surviving the day.  By now I've learned that this truly is just a season, and it will pass (no matter how dreadfully long it seems to last!) so I try not to let discouragement catch up with me.  I try to keep this mindset for all areas of living during this time.  Yes, we may be eating more processed meals, or simple things that children can fix.  The house looks like it has been cleaned by children, well, because it has.  But as long as we stay on top of dishes and laundry, things run pretty well.  And let me say, having older children is such a huge blessing!  It is incredible to see the fruit of the hard work of teaching chores and obedience when they were younger!

I am praying that in a few short weeks I will be back on my feet and running things at "top speed" again, but for now, I think we're all appreciating the simplicity!

Wordless Wednesday - Seven! (of a Different Sort)

Do you like my shirt?!

Joining our family in late August!

Wordless Wednesday - Seven!

Then:

Now!

My sweet, always smiling Joel celebrated 7 years last week!

Milestone!

7 Quick Takes Friday - Volume 14

I have some wonderfully exciting news!  See this adorable couple here?

That's my sister and her awesome husband.  They're celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary this month, and they are expecting their first baby this summer!!  I am over the moon with joy and excitement for them!  Because of a few health struggles each of them has had, they actually didn't think pregnancy was at all possible... but the Lord had other plans!  It's such a neat feeling to watch my little sister go through the transformation into mommy.  I can't wait to meet my new niece or nephew!

We have hit birthday season at our house.  Last month, Isaac turned 11!  That's weird, to think he's only 2 years away from teen years!  *gulp*  Here was my sweet little boy back when he was little...

Here he is now!  He's exactly 5 feet tall now.  By next year, he might be my height!

Please excuse the lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth!

In the next two months, we have four more birthdays coming up!  Excitement abounds!

I've always heard stories of younger members of larger families learning to read on their own, basically through just absorbing what their siblings were being taught... and I am AH-MAZED to announce that Nathan (almost 5) is one of those examples!  We've been doing basic phonics work (Explode the Code Get Ready for the Code books), and he plays Reading Eggs once a day, but I have not done any formal "this is how you sound out words" type of instruction with him at all.  I almost cried when one day a few weeks ago he came to me while I was cooking dinner, asked me to sit on the floor with him, and read me a Bob Book... one that hasn't been read outloud to him, ever.  He sounded out each word, only needing help with "and".  Totally out of the blue! He then read me three more! I was so proud!  Of course, I still plan on doing formal instruction with him, but he's definitely got a head start and a good foundation.  I'm still in shock!

We passed another awesome milestone in our house - Judah is officially potty trained!  Phew!  I think I've expressed before how much I dread potty training.  It was surprisingly easy with Judah, though.  I had tried a few months ago and only got frustrated because he just wasn't getting it.  Waiting those few months made all the difference!  In the month that he's made the official switch to underwear (I don't use pullups), he's had maybe 6 accidents total?  It is SO nice having only one child in diapers!  And just because I adore this picture of him, here's the little man:

 

I have to recommend a wonderful book - it's called "Loving the Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic.  It has blessed me so much through it's encouragement and very practical helps for dealing with all of these little people God has placed in my charge.  I have been kind of burned out on Christian motherhood-themed books, because often they either aren't very helpful, or can almost be discouraging in the "picture perfect mother" ideal they present.  "Loving the Little Years" is none of those!  I walked away from it feeling refreshed and with new ideas and insights!  I can't recommend it enough!

To get a feel for her heart, and enjoy some wonderful encouragement, be sure to watch her series "Motherhood and Work" - there are 4 in total, all are less than 10 minutes long, and are chock-full of wisdom!

• The Vocation of Motherhood
• The Conservative Tendency to Over-Romanticize Motherhood (I love this one!)
• Cleaning House and Cleaning Hearts
• Too Many Straws in my Milkshake (I love her simple statement here: "Just pour!"  I have to admit, I had never, ever thought of it that way!)

I've posted a few of the pictures we had done as a family over Thanksgiving, but I'll go ahead and share a few more.  I love the ways these came out!

Yes, they had a portrait done by a disc golf basket.  Very appropriate!

All of us with my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law!  I love this picture!

A little while ago I was reading in Romans and a verse stuck out to me (I love how that happens).  I had to mull on it a bit before I shared my thoughts about it, but I think I've gotten them coherent enough now.

Romans 1 talks all about those people... you know, the lost ones.  The ones that have no excuse but still harden their hearts to God?  The one I used to be but am not anymore. (Thanks be to God and His merciful grace!) Right?  I always thought that, until verse 21 stuck out to me:

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Wait, they knew God?  What was it that caused their heart to be darkened?  They did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.  That stopped me in my tracks!  How many times do I go through my day to day life, not only not giving thanks, but even grumbling about various minor inconveniences?! How many times to I allow my thoughts to give into worry, instead of honoring Him as God and trusting in His sovereignty?!  I know God.  I believe His word. There is no denying there is an all-powerful, mighty God!  Look at His creation, it gives amazing, beautiful evidence of Him!  Just like Romans says!  But, if I am not honoring Him as God, nor giving thanks to Him... is my heart becoming foolish and darkened?

These thoughts have given me a whole new perspective on the discipline of giving thanks, and of simple faith.  I'm not trying to get into anything deeply theological (I am hardly qualified!), but I did want to share how the Spirit worked in my heart through those verses.  Have you stopped and given thanks to Him today?  Are there ways that you are allowing fear to shove out faith, or even worse, anger to shove out His love?  It's worth a little bit of thought!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is off to a blessed new year!  Thanks for stopping by!