Handsome

My husband is great.

One thing I love about him is that he is a great dad.

Super Great.

In the words of my 4-yr-old, "Duper" Great!

Most pictures that I post are of the children...

But I was so excited to discover that some of the best shots in my most recent batch included my handsome husband loving his boys.

I feel loved when he loves our kids.

Why isn't that one of Gary Chapman's Love Languages?

It probably should be.

Summer Snapshots, Ed. 3

New Friends

We moved into a house on rural property at the beginning of the summer.  During the last 6 years living in town(s), there were never kids nearby for our kids to play with.

But, we move 10 miles out of town where we only have 6 neighbors within a mile-radius...and there are kids just 2 doors down!

There is a boy who is right between my 2 oldest boys in age.  And a girl who is  1 month older than my girl.  AND...a baby boy who is a few months younger than our latest lad.

And, if that weren't cool enough...They're NICE! :)  I'm excited for our kids to grow up together. :)

Summer Snapshots, Ed. 2

Goggles

Summer Snapshots, Ed. 1

As I've been on a blogging sabbatical, I need to do some catching up on the events that I've missed sharing with you.  

The first series:

Summer

Tree-Climbing

Mother-Son Bonding

First Braids

Baseball in a Big Back Yard

The Bug

 I'm starting to catch the blogging bug. :)  I hope this results in frequent posts....we'll see how it goes. :)

So...an update on what's been going on with us:

We started homeschooling!  We've been at it for about 4 weeks now.  We've put a lot of energy into our homeschool room, and I'm starting to love it.

My princess is getting so big!  Her sassiness is letting up a bit. :)  She's a joy to be around!  I have lot of cute stories...maybe they will be the subject of an upcoming post.

My 2nd boy turned 4 last week.  I kept asking him if he wouldn't mind staying 3 for a while longer.  He was not interested.  I'm making him think I'm overcome with sadness.  But, the truth is, I'm glad he's 4 and not 5.  4 is still a little boy...and I'm not ready for the bigness that comes with 5.

We've been trying to enjoy the outdoors a bit.  On a nice evening, we walked to a nearby pond for the sunset.  It was pleasant and memorable. :)  We hope to go back and go fishing sometime!... maybe before it snows. 

My baby's getting big.  He's really zooming around and getting where he wants to go in his walker.  It's nice having all hardwood floor, so he can have a little bit of independence.  He's happy. :)

He's also crawling.  He's 7 1/2 months old, and we didn't put him down on the floor until he was 6 months old.  As soon as we got our rug and laid him on it, he started rolling all over and trying to figure out the mechanics of crawling.  It didn't take long.  He's still my sweet, cuddly guy...just a little more of a big boy.

I do hope to post more about our homeschooling, our new home, our recent travels, and of course the kids and the funny, sweet things they do.

Reformed Church in Casper

For those of you who live in our area, we are excited to announce that our pastor from Laramie will be conducting a monthly Bible study in our home here in Casper.

As you may know, we became members of the Laramie Reformed Presbyterian Church during our short time living there.  We have grown to love the church, and we're excited to see how God intends to expand the work of the RPCNA here in Casper.

If you are interested in a Bible Study from a Reformed perspective, please contact me or check out the Reformed in Casper blog that we've set up.

Oh, What a Wonderful Day

Verse 1 & Chorus of "Heaven Came Down, and Glory Filled my Soul" :)

Our Home

I know, I know...it's been forever.

I'm sorry.

I've been trying to focus on making memories instead of documenting memories. :)

But...I miss blogging, and hope I can get right back to it.

For now, I wanted to share a picture of our new home.

I love this photo!  Thanks to Pastor Bob for capturing a snapshot of the view from the end of our dirt road.

Do you see the wind turbines on the horizon? 

Ours is the one with the open garage door and 3 vehicles parked in the driveway.

We're enjoying our home.  I'm excited to share more with you about all that's been going on....mostly about how God blesses us each day much more than we deserve.

Another Dreams Post

Oh, man...I've got to get this down before I forget.

This morning I had my funniest conversation to date with my 2nd oldest.

Me: Hey, buddy...did you have any dreams last night?
Him: Yeah.
Me:  What was it about?
Him: Lost.
Me:  What?!?!?  
Him:  Yeah, and I was in a blog.
Me: {Laughing hysterically}
Him:  Hey, don't laugh about it.
Me: {Trying to stay composed...feeling kind of bad for laughing at him} Ok, tell me about your dream.  What happened in Lost and on the blog?
Him:  {Long pause} Hmmm...hard question.
Me:  {Can't control the laughter}

For those of you who haven't been following my blog for long, I'm addicted to ABC's Lost, and I often have dreams about Lost on Tuesday nights after the newest episode has just aired. :)

Music

I was a teacher for 3 years before I had my first baby.  I taught middle school, and discipline/classroom management was a big issue.

An older cousin of mine who also taught middle school once gave me the best advice: "Put a big sign in the front of your room that reads 'No Arguing'".  If a student starts to argue with you, just point at the sign.  I followed her advice and found that it was very helpful in keeping myself sane. :)

Though my occupation has changed, I still employ the "No Arguing" policy with my "pupils". :)

My 3-yr-old has a hard time in this area.

Here's a typical conversation:

Me: Sweety, I need you to put your toys away.
Him: Because I don't want to.
Me: Just say, "Ok, Mom."
Him: Ok, Mom.


Me: Honey, I want you to go get your pajamas on.
Him: Because I want to be naked.
Me: Just say, "Ok, Mom."
Him: Ok, Mom.

THEN...one day last week, we had a conversation like this:

Me:  It's time to turn off the Wii.
Him: Ok, Mom.
Me: What???  I LOVE YOU!!!!  Come give me a hug!  What a sweet boy you are!!

"Ok, Mom." = Music to my ears

Somber

I recently read this book:

If you can't read the caption at the top, it's the theme of the book:

"A Mom's Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline"

The idea behind the book is that we shouldn't discipline to simply change our children's behavior, but we should be working to train their hearts.

We are born with sinful hearts, and it's our job as moms to help our children understand their sinful natures and their need for a Savior.

It makes sense to me.

Tonight, at the beginning of our nightly "Family Time", we were going through catechism questions.  We've learned a lot about the sin of Adam and Eve and how that sin condemned us all.  Now, we're just starting to cover questions regarding the Covenant of Grace.

These are the questions we covered tonight:


Q: Why can't anyone be saved through the covenant of works?
A: Because all have broken it and are condemned by it.


Q: How did you break the covenant of works?
A: Adam represented all people, and so I fell with Adam in his first sin.


Q: How, then, can you be saved?
A: By the Lord Jesus Christ through the covenant of grace.


Q: How did Christ fulfill the covenant of grace?
A: Christ obeyed the whole law for his people, and then suffered the punishment due for their sins.


Q: Did Jesus ever sin?
A: No. He lived a sinless life.

Since these were relatively new questions, we talked a little bit about what they mean.

My oldest said that Jesus suffered by dying on the cross.  He said that he saw the holes in Jesus' hands and feet. (a picture in a book perhaps?)  He knew that the holes were made by nails that kept Jesus on the cross.  We talked about how Jesus was sinless but died for our sins.  My boy looked...sad.

I quickly transitioned to the singing segment of Family Time.  My boy did not sing along with the first song.

I asked him, "What's wrong?"

He said, "You told me Jesus died on the cross for my sins," and he started to cry.  A very genuine,  heart-aching cry.  I was touched.  It was so sad to see him, but it was so encouraging to see how personally he views the death of Christ.

We talked after that about how joyful it is that Jesus came back to life.

Oh, Lord...give me the heart of a child.

Hurdles

My dear husband is graduating from college in 24 days.  I'm so proud of him.  He is an incredibly hard working, determined, positive-thinking, big-dreaming, man of integrity.  I love that God blessed me with him.

Since we decided 5 years ago to embark on this journey of higher education, we've added 3 babies to our family and changed residences 3 times.

Now, we're so excited to settle down with our beautiful family.  This involves moving to a town about 150 miles away.  The job is secure, but the housing is proving difficult.  

After viewing over a dozen homes, we made an offer on the only one that fit our criteria.  The offer did not lead to a contract, and we felt we'd exhausted our options.

So, I started getting a little more creative.  I started looking into the possibility of buying land and building.

Pictures don't show the majesty, but this is the view from a lot that I fell completely in love with.  Challenges: no well (yet), no electricity (yet), relatively high price

I spent a week trying to figure out how to make this land 

work for us.  I looked at modular homes, picked out a couple floor plans I liked, got prices for home, basement, well, electric, septic, driveway, etc...

I started thinking about all the things I'd like in a custom home.

Wood.  Hickory.  Cabinets, trim, doors.  Ahhh...love it.

This door is actually alder...but imagine it hickory, and that's what I have been dreaming about at night.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to make this idea work in real life (yet).  And, just around the time we realized it, we got a call saying that we could maybe get a contract signed on the house we originally made an offer on. :)

So...we are currently negotiating the contract on that house...it's not going as smoothly as we had hoped.  But, if it pans out, I'll let you know.  It's a very nice house, and I'd be very excited to call it home...and I have plans to start installing some hickory. :)

We're praying....you can too if you want. :)

2 months

It seems like just yesterday, I posted my birth story.

Now, my baby is 2 months old already! 

Thought you might want to see some pictures. :)

A Positive Contrast

No need to despair about the hair tragedy blogged about a few days ago.

I trimmed it up, and it looks decent.

AND...

Today was the day of the first braids for our Little Pigtails!

I love having a little girl. :)

Mr. Independent

My boy decided to cut his own hair today.

I think he wanted to keep it a secret.

I found out.

:)

Oh, my....

With much futility, I have spent the last hour searching my hard drive for a photo I took last summer....
Update:  Found the picture! :)

In the process, I'm coming across pictures like this one:

My babies are growing up....

I'm a little sad about it.

Sweet

We're planning a big move in the next couple months.  As a result, I'm spending much of my time and energy trying to figure out what dwelling place we will be moving into. :)

This can be very consuming (time-wise, thought-wise, energy-wise)...and today I'm trying to focus on other things, like my children and housekeeping.

I was just getting a movie set up for my 2 oldest boys.  As we were waiting to get through the previews, my oldest said, "Let's pray real quickly."

I thought he would pray about wanting the movie to start faster, or maybe that he was going to request that God give him his new favorite toy at Walmart.

Instead, this was his prayer:

"God, please give us a new house to move into."

What a sweet boy...and what a sweet reminder from my God that He is in control.

Just wanted to share...I'll try to share some pictures of the kiddos soon.

Reading Progress Again :)

Just before Little Prince was born, I decided to a take a break from formal home-preschool/reading training.

My oldest seemed distracted during our reading lessons, and I was getting more frustrated than I liked...so we just stopped.

A couple weeks later, he started gaining interest in recreational reading.  He started asking me to help him sound things out, etc.  It was encouraging.

He has always been interested in spelling.  He will get a piece of paper out, and ask me to give him spelling words essentially.  He also likes to make grocery lists for me, where he writes, "SOBRS" (strawberries) and "GREPS" (grapes) so that I remember to get him his favorite fruits at the store (if they're on sale. :) ).

Here is one of his spelling sheets:

"JoJo" (From Horton Hears a Who...My boy knew how to spell JoJo, because we keep the closed captioning on :) ), "Dad, "Mom", "Fox", "Box", "Hot", "Sun", "Bed", "God", "Red"

Since he loved spelling so much, I was thinking about how I can use this passion of his to help him with reading.  

With the paper he wrote above, I asked him to read it back to me.  It was fun for him!  He read the words quickly and easily, and he was very excited.

So...I think I've found a loophole of sorts. :)  Now, I just need to figure out a way that I can use this new information more often in our reading lessons.  

Here he is, reading a library book to his new baby brother. :)  Love it.

Birth Story

I know some people are interested... I would assume that some people are not so interested.  So, for those who are...here's the story.  And, if you aren't one of those people...maybe you want to skip this one.  :)  (I'm not going to get into any gory details...promise.)

I didn't really have an official "birth plan".  But, I had hoped that I would go into labor naturally and not get an epidural.   Mostly, because I thought this would be the most efficient and risk-free plan.

As many of you know, my first three babies were pretty big, and none of them came early.  Because of that and a number of other factors, we decided it would be best to induce a few days early.  I was induced with Pig Tails, and it was my best experience up to that point, so I wasn't too nervous about the induction.  

I checked into the hospital at 6:30 am, and my midwife administered a dose of Cytotek with the hopes that it would get me started laboring naturally.  It worked. :)   I started contracting about every 3 minutes.  The contractions were near pain-free, which was nice..  I progressed from 2-4 in about 4 hours.  I wasn't surprised that I hadn't gotten past a 4, since I was experiencing almost no pain at all.

My midwife was willing to wait it out, but I didn't really want to be there all day and still have no baby, so when she asked me if I wanted her to break my water, I said, "Yes!".

Hard labor commenced almost immediately after my water broke.  I was very happy to be able to get out of bed, walk around, and utilize the exercise ball while in labor.  But...I decided when things really started getting intense, that I wanted an epidural. :)

So, at 8 cm, I got an intrathecal.  It was magical.  A few minutes later, I started pushing.  Our little guy was...well...not so little, so pushing took more time than I had expected.  Pig Tails took only a few minutes, but Little Prince..well...he took a little longer.  I would say no more than a half hour.

This time period is a bit of a blur to me.  I could hear on the monitor that the baby's heart rate was dropping alarmingly at the height of each contraction.  Someone gave me an oxygen mask.  The nurse was getting very worried, trying to get me to change positions.  The midwife was trying to calm the nurse down.  Someone said "epinephrine".  I learned later that they gave me some in my IV...I assume to give me that extra energy to push, push, push our distressed baby out.  Something they did must have helped the situation, because I didn't hear the heart rate drop so low again, my midwife was assuring me the baby was ok, and they took the oxygen mask off, which was nice, because I couldn't hear anything they were saying to me with the oxygen hissing on my face.

And....Little Prince finally came out.  Healthy and perfect.

It's been a week and 3 days since birth date...and I feel almost completely recovered.

So...how do I feel about all of this?

Mostly really great.   I would classify this as my best birth so far.  I LOVED having a midwife.  More specifically, I loved MY midwife.  She was there all day with me...she was encouraging, personable, down-to-earth, knowledgeable, and confident...among many other great characteristics.  I also loved my nurse, and I was very impressed with the facility.  I had a huge birthing room, and they kept me in there overnight.  My husband was able to sleep on a hide-a-bed chair thingy.   

Also, I got to spend more time with my baby than any hospital has ever allowed.  In all of my previous births, the baby has been whisked away shortly after delivery so that he/she could be poked, prodded, and tested.  That was not the #1 priority at this hospital.  In fact, they didn't even weigh him until he was a couple hours old.  And, the person who did that was the anesthetist who administered my intrathecal. :)  (Oh!  She was great too!...don't want to leave anyone out..)

About the epidural:  I feel silly for caving and getting it.  I'm struggling with some guilt for not being able to get through it on my own.  Can I admit that to you all?  Truly...I knew when I made the decision, that the baby would probably be born very quickly, but, gosh darnit!  I wanted some relief anyway.  Part of me is glad that I got the intrathecal, because pushing was very difficult, and it would have been even more difficult if I had felt the pain fully.  And, it was important that I pushed with all I had in me...because my baby needed me to.  So, it's hard to say..."what if".  As it turns out, it all worked out great.  The baby and I are very healthy, and I'm thankful for that.  

Child birth is such a miracle, and I thank God for providing me with a healthy baby and a great experience that I will cherish in my memory forever.

A Quick Update

I've been wanting to blog....

....but I've been too busy holding my baby instead. :)

It's a little difficult to type with one hand while an adorable baby boy is in your other arm.

But, his daddy's holding him right now...so I'm stealing away to leave a quick post.

I have to apologize.  In my last post, and in a birth announcement email I sent out, I indicated that I would post our little angel's name on the blog once his name had been decided.  However, I apparently had a little lapse, because I forgot that I try to keep the blog as anonymous as possible.  So...no names.  Sorry...because, his name is pretty darn cool...I'm tempted to post it...but I don't think it's in his best interest.  So, from here on out, he will be referred to as Little Prince.

And, he is...my Little Prince.

We are all quite fond of our little guy.

The kids are adjusting well...even the Little Princess. :)

Grandma stayed with us during the week that Little Prince was born.  I can't thank her enough.  Thanks, Mom!!

I have more to share later...when Little Prince decides he doesn't want his mom holding him so much anymore.  I don't look forward to that day...

It's a Boy!

Psalm 127:3

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.

Born on February 9th  at 3:35pm.

8 lbs., 10 oz., 19 1/2"

Yay!





Mom and Baby are home and doing great!






No name officially yet...

The Story of the World

I hope to blog more about my ever-developing homeschool philosophy and my curriculum desires.  But, for now, I just need to leave a quick post.

If anyone is interested in using The Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer as a history text for elementary-aged kids, the 2nd volume, The Middle Ages, in hardcover, is on clearance through Peace Hill Press.

It's such a great deal!  I bought it, even though I won't need it for at least 2-3 years.  I read through the whole book last week, and I'm so excited to get a better history education.

I want the other volumes now!

Funny Dreams

I had a funny dream a few nights ago.  I was checking into Labor and Delivery at a hospital in Boston...when I got there, the nurse told me that a cryptic note had been left, letting the staff know that I would be arriving and that I had progressed to such-and-such a degree.  The letter was signed...."Locke".

So....Baby and Lost are apparently consuming my subconscious.  :)

Every morning at breakfast, the kids and I discuss our dreams from the previous night.

Want to know what my baby dreamed about this week?

For My Mom:

How to Leave  a Comment:

At the end of each post, there is a link that says "0 Comments" or "1 Comments" or "2 Comments", etc... Example:

Click on this link.

A pop-up window will appear.

Type your comment in the box, scroll down and choose "Anonymous".

See?  Easy Peasy... :)  See you in Comment World!

Love you. :)