Resting....

I'm resting alot and taking naps :) No more regular contractions like the other day....just some pains here and there. I'm anxious for my ultrasound next Wednesday to hopefully get an idea of how much she weighs.
With only a little over 4 weeks left of schooling, we have tapered off...I think I crammed about a year and a half's work into our daughters schedule this past year!! She needs a well deserved break. I do odds and ends with our 4 year old right now....keeping up with his reading mostly and reviewing numbers and spelling. They are getting in a lot of coloring lately :) Something they do while I have my feet up in the air. I've also been getting in alot of reading since I have to rest. I've gone through the book Creative Correction by Lisa Welchel and I'm going through Grace-based Parenting right now by Dr. Tim Kimmel. I've had my eyes opened to a few things that I do which I am eager to adjust.
We are also preparing to do some major organizing to clear up some space in the bedrooms. (or should I say I will be directing while hubby organizes!) Hopefully our ideas will work out well....I guess we'll see this weekend :)

Contractions

For the past hour and a half I've been recording contractions....yikes! Hopefully this is just false labor pains. They are very light, not lasting too long, but have been coming anywhere from 3-5 mins. I'm now up walking around to see if I can shake them. I think it is probably a good time to think about packing the overnight bags etc. and getting things organzied for the hospital. I've been hoping for an early delivery but this is just a tad too early :) I'd like to get to the end of November!

Appointment

Went for another appoinment today. Blood pressure still very high!! I was put on the monitor for 20 minutes to check baby and she was very active and I even had a contraction recorded :) All my blood work from last week came back fine. He just said REST!! I need to put my feet up and lay on my left side during the day. I also went from measuring 32 weeks to measuring 35 weeks ( I am currently 33 weeks) He said blood pressure problems were suppose to decrease rate of growth...not increase :) So I get an ultrasound next week to measure growth and see how baby is doing. I always love getting a 'peak' at who is growing in there :)

So funny

Last night at supper I sat down and asked for someone to bring the utensils. Our 4 year old went and got everyone pencils! Oh we had a good laugh :) I guess they sound similar enough huh?

Improvement!

I get so excited when I see big improvements in the kids schooling! For the past several days our son has grown leaps and bounds in reading!! So far our reading has consisted of sounding out each individual word and then repeating the word as a whole word (m -a - p map). I started getting him to sound out the words in his head and then say the word aloud. But recently I have had him look at a word and just say what he sees altogether....no sounding it out. WOW! He really caught on and there is very little pausing to sound out a word. We are going through the book Succeeding at Reading by Keepers of the Faith. We do timed drills as well and today he was up to 14 words a minute!
It is so neat to watch him out in public sounding out words. We went grocery shopping the other day and after a couple days of learning about the phonics sound 'sh', he was standing at the meat section and said "Mommy, that says 'FRESH'. Daddy and Mommy we both excited to see his excitement at reading such a big word!
What a gift it is to be able to watch these little minds grow and provide the enthusiasm and encouragement to help them along!! I just love it!

Next year's schedule

I've been working on our next years school schedule...wow! I thought it was hard scheduling one child but 2 is a whole other story :) I think I finally have something I am happy with. I may change it the more I think about it but so far I have our daughter doing most of her independant seatwork in the morning while I work with our son and then in the afternoon I concentrate on our daughter.
Our new subjects added this year are
*bible memorization class (with sticker chart),
*character studies (we will cover respectfulness, obedience, truthfulness, cheerfulness, and kindness....see how many we get through!),
*reading/book report for our daughter (so far reading has been aloud to mommy but now I will have her do silent reading and book reports on her own)
*homemaking class for our daughter...looking forward to this! It is a 6 year course filled with some great ideas so for next year I have chosen Needlepoint, Scrapbooking, Letter writing, household cleaning, and sign language.
Now I just need to work on getting charts and booklets all put together and planning the individual subject material. No sweat! *smile*
Now to go relax for a bit....and give my brain a rest.

Appointment woes

Today I had a check up and all seems well with baby but not mommy :) I'm measuring right on schedule and she has a good heartbeat, but my blood pressure was HIGH! The end of my last pregnancy resulted in an early induction because of blood pressure. Today, I had to go have some blood work done and they want to see me next week again. With 8 weeks to go I'm not sure what my options are just yet if my blood pressure doesn't come down. I've been put on chair-rest (as opposed to bed rest) I am to sit with my feet up for much of the day. Over the next couple days, I'm going to try and get the last 6 weeks of schooling all organized for the kids so there will be little for me to do and there will be no more grocery shopping or outings for me :) Did I mention I'm soooooo thankful hubby is home during the day.....the Lord worked that out well!

I got home from my appointment and our little one had finally gone down for his nap. I went to check on him (before going to put my feet up!) and what a character....always something! He fell asleep coloring in bed...drool on his paper and crayon in hand. What a boy!

Homecoming Sunday

Today was our Homecoming or Old Fashioned Sunday at church. We have our morning service followed by lunch and activities. This year the horses returned and as always, the kids have a ball riding and petting them. (A couple in our church owns them and takes the kids around the field) Thank you to Nana for bringing her camera because I did it again.....got half way to church and realized I didn't bring mine. It was a cold day today, so much of the time was spent inside. I think Fall has finally arrived for us!! It's been so warm up until now :) Hopefully, if mommy's car sickness isn't too bad we will go for a ride up through the mountains to see the changing colors soon.

Hubby's birthday

Today is hubby's birthday. He has been working from the house pretty steadily for the last 2 weeks but today he has been out of the house all day. The kids are busy making cards for him, we are not having a cake or party since he is seriously dieting, so we are just going to hang around the house tonight and spend some time with the kids and just relax for the evening.
I did want to give him a big birthday wish though....

My dearest love,
I'm so thankful for you. I don't praise God or thank Him enough for you. Life can get so busy and many things I take for granted, including you. You are such a dedicated and loving husband and father. I'm thankful for what you do for us, without complaint, and with determination. I'm thankful for your love for me and the children and how you look forward to our growing family. I'm thankful for your desire to serve the Lord and your desire for our family to faithfully serve the Lord. We have had a wonderful 11 years together, growing together, loving one another, experiencing life together. God has blessed me tremendously with such a faithful and loving man and friend. You have made life such a joy, filled with wonderful memories, and such an anticipation for the future. I love you with every bit of my heart. I hope you enjoy your special day!
All my love,
your wife

Advice

Homeschooling one child can be a lot of work and I often wondered what I was going to do when it was time to do several at a time. How do these mom's do it?? Well, you do get the hang of it and it will come in time....just takes a little while to get into the groove, but there was some very sound advice I got about a year ago which I have definitely taken to heart and have seen the rewards from it. One of the best things you can teach your kids is how to work independently...how to be self-taught. Our daughter who is 6 does very well at this and it frees up alot of time for me to teach our 4 year old. There are some concepts that need to be taught of course....but I am training her how to thoroughly read through instruction, how to approach questions she doesn't understand...etc. Today I gave work to our 4 year old to have him complete all on his own. I went through the instructions with him and he finished all 3 pages and was so excited when he had completed them by himself (he had to show it off to daddy too!) Thankfully I have another year before I add child #3 to the mix....that will take independent work AND much organization!!!!!

Homemade diaper bag

Yesterday and today I worked on and completed my first diaper bag. There are a few things I will do differently next time, but overall I'm happy with it. I like the colors and pattern but want to do just a little something extra on the front....just not sure what yet. It has 2 bottle pockets on the outside and I made 4 pockets on the inside. Here are a few pics :)

Weekend pictures

Looks like we are going to have lots of rain for awhile. I can always tell when a front is coming through because I get headaches now. But the weekend was nice and the kids were able to get out and play. Daddy was teaching our girl how to jump rope, our boy is learning how to ride a bike using brakes and not his feet! (He got a nice warning, if I saw him use his feet anymore to stop, I'd take his shoes.....barefoot breaking isn't pleasant :) Our little guy was just enjoying running around. Here are some pics from the weekend.

I love statistics :)

Research proves again the success of homeschooling! Here are just a few statistics just published about a 2008 study done across all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico.

Academic achievement from grades K - 12
National Percentile for Public School in ALL subject areas - 50%
National Percentile for Homeschooling Students in all subject areas - 86%

Percentile scores based on Money spent on education per child
National Percentile for Public School ($9,963 spent per child) - 50%
National Percentile for Homeschooling (over $600 spent " " ) - 89%
National Percentile for Homeschooling (under $600 spent " ") - 86%

Does a teacher certification make a difference?
National percentile of homeschool parent WITH certification - 87%
National percentile of homeschool parent WITHOUT certification - 88%

Is there a correlation between student scores and parent education?
National percentile for public school students - 50%
National percentile for homeschool/no parent has college degree - 83%
National percentile for homeschool/one parent has college degree - 86%
National percentile for homeschool/both parents have college degree - 90%

Critics have for a long time insisted that parents must need to be teacher certified in order to teach their children.....proven wrong!
Homeschoolers are still achieving higher than their public school peers, scoring 34-39% higher than the norm on achievement tests.
It's not the amount of money you spend on a child's education....it is how and what they are being taught.
You CAN teach your children successfully!! This only touches on the performance part of schooling....there are so many other reasons to consider homechooling based on God's design for our children's education to start with.....
I hope all parents will prayerfully consider homeschooling their kids.....no matter if it may be a few years down the road, or you already have school age children.

2 year photo

I've seen so many changes in our boy recently since turning 2 years old. He is saying alot more phrases now, he is completely self-feeding, drinking from a cup (or juice box) on his own and doing really well!!! We finally got his 2 year photos back and he is looking so grown up...aaahhh. It's hard to believe he's not going to be the baby in another 2 months.

Spelling

Our boy did great with his spelling words today. We are reviewing short vowel words a, e, i, o and tomorrow is u. He is almost to the point where I don't have to constantly remind him to LEAVE A SPACE BETWEEN YOUR WORDS!! *smile* I had to let that out....it must have been my 100th time saying it to him :) I only had to remind him a few times this spelling test. I gave him a lot of new 4 letters words to write and he did wonderful sounding them out. We are down to the last 7 weeks of school. Our daughter has already advanced to grade 3 math. I didn't want to wait until our next school year since she was ready. She is almost through the first half of Horizons 3 Math and doing so well!! The toughest part for her is word problems. It's just something we will have to keep working on until it clicks :) I'm excited about starting written book reports with her next school year. I have a few good books in mind for her Christmas presents :)
Here is our boys spelling work and a picture of him. Notice his special holding place for his eraser....typical boy!!! (I didn't even notice when I was taking the picture)

Children's Choir

Here's a video of the Children's choir. Our daughter is in the back row, far right and our son is the front row, far left. Their cousin is in the front, far right.
It was such a sweet thing to watch. They all did a great job!
(Thanks to my sister-in-law for the video....my pregnant mind is so foggy I forgot our camera)

Chores that teach

I've been needing alot of help around the house lately since bending and standing for long periods of time are too difficult. Our daughter who is 6 can do alot around the house on her own which I am thankful for, and I'm even more thankful when she does it willingly without being asked. She helps alot with laundry, dishes, and clean-up and our 4 year old has been getting more involved as well. There are certain chores I like him to do because they are very teachable ways to involve schooling with housework.

One of my favorites for him is shoe organization. If you were to see our pile of shoes, you would think 10 people lived in the house. Everyone has Sunday shoes, running shoes, and sandles which is at least 15 pair of shoes always on the go. By the end of the week, our organized lined-up shoe mat is one big heap! I get our 4 year old to organize the shoes (teaching matching pairs) and I can change it up to have him order them from biggest to smallest, smallest to biggest, organize in groups (all Sunday shoes, all sandles, all running shoes)...etc...teaching how to sort.

Another favorite is tidying up the bookshelf of kids' books. Again by the end of the week, our organized vertically stacked books are thrown in one on top of the other. This teaches more problem solving than anything. Watching him yesterday was quite funny. He has to figure out how to keep the books standing upright while he reaches for more. Usually the books he has already stacked fall over when he lets go. I allow him time to figure out methods of keeping the books stacked upright on his own ......until sometimes the tears start flowing cause it's just not working!!! Yesterday he was talking to the books telling them how frustrated he was getting that they were not co-operating. Many times he would tilt the last book to keep the rest from falling but yesterday he was having a tough time. When I saw he was getting too frustrated I showed him a heavy toy that was near him and how he could use that to help keep the books in place while he was stacking.
He also helps with folding the laundry into each person's pile and other little things around the house. I'm trying to get them more involved around the house. I am the type that likes to do things myself because it will get done the way I like the first time! But I know they need to learn things so it's just a matter of patience and time on my part :)

Weekend

Schoolwork is done, some organizing going on, I really need to clean the house but just too pooped at the moment :) Just one of those lazy days. Already had a nap before noon! Not too much excitement over here today....

Hubby is going to be having a birthday in a couple weeks. I was excited about making a cake but he doesn't want one. He is FINALLY motivated to lose some weight and I don't want to tempt him!!!! He is down 11 pounds so far and I'm so proud of him. I on the other hand I have been gaining what he is losing...oh I don't know how I'm going to make it another 10 weeks. So I think we'll skip the party this year.

I never got a call back about my gestational diabetes test, so I am assuming all was well! Thank you Lord :) Well, off to put my feet up and order, eerr...I mean guide my kiddies through some household chores to help Mommy *grin*

I am Mommy

Our son turned 2 a couple of weeks ago and since then both da-da and ma-ma have gone through a name change. Our two older kids were coaching him on how to say Daddy and Mommy and right away he made the switch to Daddy. It was funny hearing him say it but the ma-ma still stuck around. Now for the past several days I have been Mommy... no coaching. I actually miss the ma-ma but now I am Mommy to all 3 :)

Pirates

Our son is into pirates right now. He loves reading about them and pretending he is one. We even saw a pirate suit at the store (meant for Halloween) but since we don't celebrate Halloween - just dress up at home - I told him to write it on his Christmas list. (That being the first Christmas gift I have bought :) So we went to the store yesterday to pick up some groceries and all of the sudden he just stopped and started getting really excited. Pulling on my shirt he says "Mommy LOOK!!!! A real pirate!!!!" I turned around to see what he was talking about and I just about died laughing!! It was 2 people dressed up in motorcycle gear (all black leather) and bandana's around their heads. It was quite funny. I tried to explain the situation to him, but he is very convinced he saw a pirate yesterday :)

Answering machine

I got a good laugh from hearing this answering machine message at a high school in Australia.
Thought you might enjoy a good laugh too :)

Gastroenternologist

Our daughter went for her appointment today for her stomach pains. It's been 3 months now. I have to say September has been much better than the past 2 months. He looked over all her tests, bloodwork, etc and he really doesn't think there is anything bad going on right at the moment. He felt around her abdomen and he could feel gas and fluid. I'm sure glad we have met our medical deductible because that would have been frustrating to pay out a couple hundred dollars to hear she has gas!!! *smile* The doctor said we can try any of the gas aids out there and stuff to see if that helps. He did want us to try taking her off dairy for week or so. Because she has been having bowel issues as well for a couple months, this could be the beginning of a lactose problem. So I guess we just wait and see if things improve with these few changes. If not, he said to come back and we'll look more into it.
While we were out, I also picked up my first Christmas gift :) I've spotted it for weeks now and knew it wasn't going to be around for long. Hard to believe it is less than 3 months away!!!

Colds, colds go away!

All 3 kids are now sick with a cold. I'm staying home with them today so no singing in the children's choir tonight :( They don't seem to mind it during the day but at night, when they lay down, I think the congestion really sets in and all 3 were crying or whining at some point throughout the night. Hopefully it's one of those childhood colds that hubby and I have already had so we won't get it :)
I've also been really tired lately!! It seems like I just run out of energy way too quickly. After my shower in the morning I have to lay down for awhile because I feel so exhausted. I set out schoolwork for our daughter (all her seatwork done on her own) and do some school with our son, then go and lay in the recliner for awhile.....etc, etc... I'm so thankful hubby is working alot from home cause I sure rely on him alot throughout the day!! I'm finding it really hard now to go out and even grocery shop for awhile...I just get so worn out! I think these last 2 months will find me laying around the house alot conserving energy :)

Cloth diapers

There is a giveaway at Life in a Shoe's blog for some cloth diaper accessories! All cloth-diapering mommies will want to go check it out. I'm hoping to win *smile*.

Just updates

The van is in the shop till about Monday and we are enjoying a tiny rental car with 3 car seats crammed in the back :) The compressor went out for the air conditioning, so it's going to be a big job. We've been having air conditioning issues over the summer. It just wasnt' cooling like it should but since they found no leaks or anything, it wasn't covered under our warranty. Now that the compressor is kaput, warranty kicks in!! Yay :) We have already gone above what we paid for our warranty so it was well worth getting it this time around.

Our daughter has been hit with a nasty cold. Today I hear the barking cough. I don't know if she will make it to church on Sunday or not. The kids are all suppose to sing in the Children's choir. I may also have to cancel her appointment on Monday with the pediatric gastroentronologist (sp?) - for her stomach pains. She doesn't complain nearly as much as she used to which was daily, but she does still complain about it while she eats sometimes. I'd like to find out if it is some kind of wheat allergy or something. Hopefully she won't have to wait another couple months before getting in.

We are also thankful for the work that came in this month for hubby. The first couple weeks in Sept. were really slow, and it was going to be a struggle to get what we needed for our end of the month bills, BUT as always...God has provided and we even paid off 3 more medical bills :) Our God is good!!!

Today's news

Today hubby is taking the van into the repair shop....again. Our air conditioner completely died yesterday. No cool air at all. I sure hope they fix it right this time!! What a fiasco the last time we took the van in for repairs.
Our daughter is also having a rough day today. I don't know if it is her allergies or she is getting a cold. She was sitting on the deck yesterday for some sunshine, but our back yard is full of trees (some of which she is allergic to) so I'll keep an eye on her today to see what it develops into. Last week I don't know what got up her nose, but her day was full of sneezing. Same thing today....all in her nose....poor girl.
I'm still waiting on the results of my gestational diabetes test I had on Monday. They said no news is good news, so I'm hoping NOT to get a phone call!! Our baby counter is almost in the 70's!!!! Woohoo.
Hubby opened the door this morning to go clean out the van and we had another friendly visitor on our doorstep. He slithered off into the grass....I'm looking forward to the fall and winter!! Speaking of visitors, we have had several dogs dropped off in our neighborhood lately. I guess people can't afford to feed them anymore or something.....but this is the 5th stray that has wandered our subdivision. It's getting annoying and they scare the kids when they come running up barking at them (gets me annoyed when they are all dirty and want to jump up on the kids clothes!!)
Hopefully the rest of our day will go smoothly.

Tooth #3

Just as we were about to head out the door for a cousin's birthday party, our daughter was really annoyed with her loose tooth. I had been checking it for the past couple weeks and it still hadn't reached the point of being yanked.....but as we were all putting on our shoes, she was complaining about the discomfort. I grabbed a kleenex, took hold of the tooth...and presto!!! After a few ooowww's and ouches, out popped #3. When she went for her dentist appointment last week, the hygenist said her top 2 teeth were wiggly and will probably be out by Christmas. She was so excited to show off her new space :)

Brothers

I've been trying to catch up with the photo albums again. I'm still over a year behind....takes a lot of work to sort through and choose the ones for printing!!! I had just printed off some pics of our older son in a cute Sunday outfit and realized this past Sunday our youngest was dressed in the same outfit.....so I had to take pictures to compare. Here they both are....at 2 1/2 yrs and 2 yrs.




And here's one of all 3. Do you think someone is getting tired of having their picture taken??!!

Great Grandma and Granddad

A few pictures from our trip to see Great Grandma and Granddad.

In the golf cart with Grandpa

Watching the chickens

Watching the ducks

Sitting with Great Granddad

Great Grandma reading a book

This week in review

So this week I've been printing off more pictures trying to catch up on all the kids photo albums. I am still over a year behind!! I think I've reached the end of May '08 so I have a long way to go!
School has been going well. Our Monday - Saturday routine has held up nicely with little to normal complaining :) Our daughter is loving her new math curriculum. We were doing Singapore math which she did average with (her difficulties lied with all the word problems!) Switching to Horizons she is now is Grade 3 math and doing really well. What I plan to do (since she is so far ahead) is work through Horizons 3 and then follow up with Singapore 3. Our son is doing really well! He gets very upset if I cut his school days short and begs for more. Oh to have children so eager to learn!!!! We should definitely be done all the kindergarten curriculum before his 5th birthday. It is going to be interested adjusting and managing my time when baby arrives. With our 3rd child, I was only schooling one at the time and it wasn't too bad. With schooling 2 now, and a toddler running arounding, with a new baby.....will be quite the adventure!!!
I did want to wish my grandparents a Happy Anniversary today. Hubby and I were actually going to get married on the same day, but with our pastor already booked for that day we had to move our date ahead a few weeks. We are also heading to see the kids great grandparents today to wish Granddad a Happy Birthday. Hopefully I'll have some nice pictures to post later - if the rain stops!!

6 months and counting

Is it time for the baby yet??? I think they are all anxious to meet their sister! With 3 months to go and an ever-expanding belly, we wait as our countdown gets closer and closer. They each give her a kiss at night before bed and love to rub mommy's tummy. The other day our little one comes out with his shirt hiked up pointing to his belly saying 'baby'. Our daughter lately has been playing 'mommy' alot with her dolls pretending she is pregnant, and our older son just loves to sit beside mommy with his hand on my belly. What love this baby girl is going to be surrounded by!!
Monday I go for my glucola test for gestational diabetes. I have been fine with our past 3 children so I'm hoping for good results with this one!

Dentist

Today was the first dentist appointment for the older kids. I know I was behind the ball on our daughter since she is already 6!! I was hoping mommy wouldn't get in too much trouble for waiting so long :) Their appointments were scheduled for the same time so daddy went with our daughter, who had a great cleaning and xrays, and I went with our son who got through his cleaning but not sure if he liked it or not. They both got a goodie bag with a toothbrush, sticker, toy, sugar-free sucker and a new t-shirt! They wanted to wear their shirts during school today. The doctor said both kids have great teeth and are doing a super job with brushing!!



And a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our boy who is now 2!

Party

Our boy had his 2nd birthday party tonight....tomorrow he is officially 2!! So hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by! Right away when he saw his cake he said de-bra so I knew I had done well :) Here are a few pictures from this evening.

Zebra's

Here is a picture of the cake. I'll post birthday pictures tomorrow night after his party. I think he's going to like it....even if he is only 2 :) If I at least get a "de-bra" out of him, I'll know it was a success!
(click on the picture to view a bigger version)

Cake making day

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate a 2nd birthday :) His birthday is not till Tuesday though. Today in between services will be cake making and decorating. Hopefully I will get the majority of it done and leave just the finishing touches for tomorrow. Our boy loves zebras...he actually pronounces it 'de-bra' but he has to point them out in all his animal books and we have one nature video that he loves with them. I hope to have some cute pictures to post tomorrow so stay tuned!!

Bird fight!

This morning I heard laughter coming from the kitchen while daddy was cooking breakfast. Our little one was saying "go, go, go!!" Hubby came in to wake me up and said I had to come see this hummingbird fight. I had been going on for over 5 minutes! These two hummingbirds kept chasing after each other, not letting the other get a drink from the hummingbird feeder. It was quite funny!
We went for a couple months without food for our birds, so we were hoping now that we have some feed out there again they would come back. Sure enough they have and now the kids are experiencing what 'molting' means. Our poor cardinals and blue jays are half naked!! One blue jay was featherless on his head and we could only recognize it by the feathers left on his body. They look pretty pitiful!

hats

We love the Walmart they built 5 mins from our house. They often have some really great specials, even compared to the other Walmarts in the area. Today our $1 specials included a hat for each child and some summer clothes for $1. They wanted to show off their new hats so here they are...they look so cute!!

Reading time

There are not too many kids that don't enjoy reading!! Our kids love books and hubby always laughs at me when I read to the kids because I really get into the story with my many voices and dynamics. So while Mommy was making supper last night, it was daddy's turn. We even got a nice surprise in the mail the other day from the kids great Aunt and Uncle. They each got a new book that they keep in the car with them and a big book full of animal stories that big sister can read to them. I'm really trying to find a good series for our daughter to read on her own (grade 2-3 level) that is Christian based....so any ideas would be great!! I did come across a Rachel Yoder series that looks like it might be nice. I think I just need to get out the the Christian bookstore and search through the kids section!

We're here!

I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging :) We are all doing well....just seem to be busy lately. We are doing great sticking to our new school schedule and I have no doubts we will finish before baby arrives. I'm really liking our line-up for next year's schooling. I'm just waiting to purchase a few more books for our Bible and Science subjects.
I do want to give a praise as well. Hubby has been blessed with a constant flow of work over the past couple months. Sometimes weeks can be slow but then other weeks make up for it. Our Lord has continually provided and supplied work during these months of lay-off. We have been so excited to see how God has worked things out. Although I would love to have the stability of a full-time position, it has been so wonderful having hubby working from home and we've enjoyed the flexibility that comes with it!!
We also have a birthday coming up next week. Hard to believe my baby is turning 2!! He's quite the character and is developing a funny personality as well. Some of my favorite words from him right now are de-lick-a (for delicious), bad boy (when someone does something wrong), and 2 claps of the hand for 'amen'. He will repeat his prayer after me but when I try and get him to say 'amen' he will only clap.....(after his first time praying we all clapped for him and since then that is how he wants to end his prayers) That, he will definitely have to grow out of!!! *smile*
So now off to complete our day of school and enjoy the afternoon with daddy.

The look!!

You'd think by now I'd be used to 'the look'. It is the look I get when I am asked how much longer till baby arrives. Do I really need to go around with a sign around my neck or posted on my belly saying 'YES! I do get BIG!!!' There are several comments I get with EVERY pregnancy. First of all I get the bug-eyed look as always when I'm asked how much longer. I get big!!! I am just over 5 1/2 months and to some I look like I'm due tomorrow. I get BIG!!! Then there is the comment (with every pregnancy) 'are you sure there's only ONE????' Yes, I'm sure it's only one :) Ultrasounds are very good at determining this. I get BIG!!!!
But I had my first rude comment with this pregnancy. We were at a gas station and the cashier found out this was our 4th child. She replied 'do you know what the problem is?????" At least it wasn't the 'don't you know what causes it' comment, but still. How sad when people view children as problems or burdens or even 4 children as TOO many!
I am just so thankful that my God has seen fit to bless our family with another precious gift. I look forward to finally meeting her and continuing our life as a family of 6. The kids keep asking when baby is going to arrive. With every appointment we go to, our older son asks if I'm bringing the baby home :) I think he is anxious to meet to her!! Everyone has now felt baby kick against their hands and it's fun watching their eyes light up, especially our daughter. I look forward to another month or 2 when we can start guessing the body part....my tummy can make some very weird formations!
The anticipation is exciting! My continued prayer is that all goes well with delivery and for the safety of baby and myself. Our countdown is almost below 100!!!!!