Blessings From Home

Baby Jacob Is Here!

I don't have a lot of time to post right now, but wanted to announce that baby Jacob was born healthy and happy on December 5, 2008 weighing 7 pounds 9 1/2 ounces, and was 18 1/2 inches long. We just got home a bit ago, and I'll post more as I have time. But for now here is a sweet photo of our newest blessing!

Pregnancy Worries

I'm really blessed when it comes to being pregnant. I don't have morning sickness, I hardly get nauseus, and I can't gain weight. In fact, I'm the only person I know who can lose so much weight during pregnancy.

Through all four pregnancies, I've lost significant amounts of weight, and with the previous three, have walked out of the hospital weighing in up to 30 pounds less than before I got pregnant.

This baby has been no different. Now with just over 8 weeks to go, I am down more than 25lbs from my starting weight. Now, before you get too worried, my starting weight was too high. I was overweight, and no, not the, I'm not fitting in my size 6's any more, overweight. I was in a size 16-18, and an X-LG in most other things.

I eat, not a lot, but I eat. For some reason I eat much healthier when pregnant. They say your body craves what it needs, such as iron, vitamin C, etc. And that's pretty much how I eat. If I need iron, I crave things like peanut butter or spinach salad. If I need Vitamin C, I crave fruit.

The doctors or midwife has never seemed overly concerned with my weight loss, until I get to the end when the baby is gaining a significant amount of weight on a regular basis. For instance, in the last week, I've lost 5lbs, and the baby should be gaining about a 1/2 pound a week. My appetite has not changed, but I continue to lose. This pregnancy, I have already lost more than all the previous ones, so I'm going tomorrow to buy some high calorie snacks and maybe some instant breakfast drinks. I'm so blessed with all the possible problems that can arise from pregnancy, that this is all that I have to deal with, but it's still a concern. My babies have all been fairly small, ranging from 6lbs 5oz to 6lbs 14oz at term, but if I continue to lose this little one may be my smallest one yet. So if you could, please pray that all is healthy with this little one and that my weight stabilizes so that he can grow healthy, I would be so grateful.

Thanks so much,

Blessings, sara 

Train them Up

It seems that I posted on this not too long ago, but it seems my children have decided to run amuck...again. I lost my temper...again. And now we are both learning some lessons from it...again.

I have been taken for granted over the last few months by my own children, and it's my own fault. I promise them that if they do not behave that certain consequences shall arise, and when it happens again, what do I do, I let it go.

I decided it was time for some drastic measures. I am in the process of boxing up all their toys and packing them away or giving them away. All they are left with is their clothes, their beds, and one stuffed animal to sleep with. I will continue with this punishment until they begin to show some respect and a helpful additude around this house. Then they will recieve one toy back, and will only get one toy back until they learn to care for what they are given. I'm also going to sit down tonight and make them each their own chore chart. In addition to that, I'm going to sit down and write up a rules and discipline sheet, and their daily schedule that we are all going to start following. The Lord has finally shown me that enough is enough, and this momma has had enough.

Sara

Baby Preperations to be made

I thought I'd post a list of things that need to be done for the newest little blessing before he arrives in just 12 short weeks.

~Make at least a dozen diaper covers

~Make 2-3 wool covers

~Make about a half a dozen doublers

~Make bumper pad and crib quilt for baby bed

~Gather all baby clothes, bedding, etc and wash and put away until needed

~Make a wet bag for cloth diapers on the go

~Make 1-2 nursing night gowns

~Set up pack and play in my bedroom

~Keep an eye out for a baby swing at yard sales

There may be a few other things that I may add to the list, but these are the main things I'd like to finish.

Blessings, sara 

Happy Birthday Nick!

I'm a little late on posting this, as the last week or so has been especially busy, but our Nicholas turned 8 on Monday! It's so hard to believe I have an 8 year old! We celebrated by taking him to the city to do some shopping for his new hamster and taking him to lunch. I had a midwife appointment, so we were up there for that also. So let's see if I can come up with 8 facts about my big boy!

1. He's a worrier, always has been and likely always will.

2. He's an adventurer, loving the outdoors and always wanting to learn new things.

3. He loves and cares for everyone, even his mean ole sisters.

4. His favorite food is mom's homemade sloppy joes.

5. He doesn't care for sweets very much.

6. He named his new pet hamster, Hammy.

7. At 8 years old, he weighs in at under 45 pounds.

8. No matter how old he gets, he will always be momma's baby boy.

I love you Nicholas! Happy 8th Birthday!!!!

Love, Mom

Buckling down

I have come to realize over the last couple of weeks, that I have been letting my kids get away with a lot, and I unfortunately mean A LOT of things that I would have never considered letting happen before. I know it's happened slowly over the last few months, slipping up here and there, and although I can blame a lot of the reason on this pregnancy and the exhaustion I've had with it, I know that most of it is my own fault. It's little things that are expanding into bigger things....bedtimes getting later and later, not timing them on their computer time and letting them stay on for "X" amount of time instead of the exact time I would set and see to it that they were off when it beeped, interupting, rudeness, sibling rivalry, not doing their fair share around the house. It's caught up with me, and I've had enough. I'm going to be spending the next several weeks, keeping them on a stricter schedule and staying on top of them about everything. I finally have my energy back, and they need to know that mom is not going to put up with their behaviors any longer. I'm laying down the rules on paper and going over it with them tomorrow during school. Praying things will get back to our normal soon, before mom here loses her head.

Blessings,

sara 

Tales of a Supermom Wannabe

Deanna shared yesterday of her tales of being a supermom. I had asked her how on earth she does it all with homeschooling, housework, and all the duties that come with both. I had been feeling a bit inadequate in those areas and was, in all honesty, feeling a little jealous.

She made me realize, however, that we all have those wonderful days where everything flows smoothly and all your to dos actually get done. I also realized that, lately I have been biting off a bit more than I can chew. We moved just over a month ago, and have since been working not only on unpacking, but also on remodeling a few rooms of the house. Nothing major, but fresh paint, new cabinets, new toilet and sink, and new flooring. That coupled with the care and schooling of my three young children, and the blessed burden of carrying another little one in my womb, does a frazzled momma make.

Today and yesterday I sat back and thought over what I needed to do to make our lives a little less crazy, and a little more structured and therefore easier. For some reason, I stupidly, and subconciously fight structure and routine with every fiber of my being. I know that it makes our lives so much nicer, but something in my brain sabotages it all. I kept praying that some miraculous answer would come to me and it would all make sense, but nothing came.

So what's it going to take for me to get it done then? Some plain ole self-discipline and baby steps. I've always been the type that when I want a big job done, I jump in head first and try to do it all in one flying leap, and always end up falling short. But I need those babysteps. I'll be working on that today, and Lord willing, I'll have something in place as we step into this new homeschool year, now homeschooling two instead of just one, and things will be a little easier for all of us.

Blessings, sara 

It's a Brudder

She's finally potty trained!

My little girl, Emily, finally decided it was fun to use the toilet! No accidents for nearly 3 days! Yay! She's been my hardest yet to potty train. It's been a month since her 3rd birthday. Her brother and sister were all potty trained by 3. It just goes to show, every child is different!

Blessings, sara

Happy 6th Birthday Madelynn!

Today is my middle daughter, Madelynn's birthday! She's 6! It's hard to believe, my kids are all growing up so fast. Here's the birthday girl on her first day of school this year.

6 Facts about Madelynn:

1. She has been my hardest labor thus far. It lasted only 6 hours, but it was the most painful of all the babies I had.

2. She is my biggest helper for everything.

3. She is my most challenging child. I think they call it high spirited. lol. I think it's because we're so much alike.

4. When she was little, her favorite thing to do was line things up in a row. Anything, dolls, blocks, toys. She never played with them, just lined them up.

5. When she was born, she had a head full of black hair, (all my other babes have been blondies). She had so much hair, I could already pull it up in a ponytail.

6. She's my picky eater, but her favorite food has always been peanut butter.

Happy Birthday sweetie, Mommy loves you! 

My little one is sick

I haven't had much time for posting. My little one is very sick with fever. I'm not sure what's going on, but we're having to keep rags on her and give her several cool baths a day. I'm taking her to the doctor this afternoon. Please say a prayer for her if you don't mind. Thanks so much.

Blessings, sara

Happy 3rd Birthday Little Ladybug

Today was my baby girl's 3rd birthday! What a big girl she is! We had a great time at my parent's house celebrating her birthday.

Three Fun Facts About Emily

1. She LOVES Dora the Explorer

2. She was my quickest delivery thus far, taking only 3 hours from beginning to end.  

3. She is the loudest snorer in the house. 

For her birthday her grandparents bought her a big girl Dora bicycle. She loved it, ofcourse. We had some family come over and all the kids played and played. And now she is passed out on the couch with her brand new Dora purse and fur real monkey. My precious angel. Mommy loves you! 

Well, am I or not?

I have to be the most impatient person on earth. I've been having some major pregnancy symptoms for the last week and a half. So finally Wednesday, I took a home pregnancy test, even though my monthly was not due for another 4 days and it appeared to be negative. I kept saying that I saw a faint line, but just couldn't be sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me. So I decided I would wait a couple of days and take another on Friday. They have these tests now that supposedly can tell you if you're pregnant or not 5 days before your monthly is supposed to start. I took another one this morning and my husband and I could both see some sort of faint line, but we both just can't be sure.

I don't know why I can't just wait and see if I miss my monthly and quit wasting money on HPT. Ridiculous, huh! I'm a planner, I need to know what's going to happen, so that I can plan. lol.  I will wait another day or two and take the last pregnancy test that I have, and if it's still inconclusive, I'll just have to wait, I guess. I'm so impatient.....

sara

Potty Training

The time has come. My youngest, Emily, has come to the age of potty training. I've never been one to push my children to potty train, I just kind of let them lead. I introduced the potty to them, helped them understand what we did there and let them decide when they're ready to use it. My oldest was 3 when he potty trained, my middle daughter was 3 months shy of her 3rd birthday, and now my youngest will be 3 in April, just 2 short months away. She has started asking to go to the potty more and more, when she gets there, sometimes she goes and sometimes she doesn't, but more than not, she just wanted to try and ended up not doing anything.

Yesterday, she asked to go potty and I set her on the toilet, and decided right then and there, we would start officially potty training. I put big girl undies on her and set my time for 15 minutes and every 15 minutes I made her sit on the potty. She didn't go once! I was a little frustrated, but like I said, I didn't want to push her. But what frustrated me more than anything is right after she got off the toilet and hadn't done anything, she would pee her pants. So after 4 times peeing her big girl undies, I gave up for the day. We'll try again another day.

Blessings, sara

The High Spirited Child

I've heard this term many times used for when parents have a child who are a handful. Now my children are all fairly well behaved, but my Maddy, my middle child,  is what they call high spirited, the child that has given me the most trouble, or as Deanna has put it, my wild card. As a baby and toddler she was very easy going and always very calm, but as she's gotten older (and especially since she's been in public school) she's gotten quite a temper and her behavior has been less than desirable.

Last night, while at my parent's house, she was asked to help do something and insisted that she always has to help and her older brother never does anything. Well, that's totally untrue. Since he's homeschooled, he has more responsibility than most kids his age. And the fact was, it was her that was asked to help and there should have been no qualms about it.

After her little rant, realizing that she was indeed going to have to help, she proceeded to stand up and kick her brother in the back, in which he retaliated with swinging a string around at her and brushing against it her arm, a string, give me a break. Well, then my little drama queen screamed in agony as if the string was made out of razors. Seeing it all, she was then placed in the corner until I could calmly deal with her. We also placed Nick in the corner as punishment for attempting to hit back.

While standing in the corner, she proceeded to scream at the top of her lungs and started kicking the wall. Needless to say, I was on fire and didn't think it wise for me to punish her until we were at home and I had calmed down. My husband loaded her into the van, and while we were saying our goodbyes to my family, she started kicking the back of the seats in our brand new van nearly puncturing the leather, and she continued to scream the whole way home.

Once at home, I sent her to her room, and my husband went in and gave her a paddling, and I went and had a nice long chat with her about her temper and how dissapointed I was.

I called my mother later and we were discussing this episode and we both came to the realization that these temper tantrums hadn't started until she started in public school. Imagine that!

I'm so ready to have all my children at home with me. She will be in PS for 4 more months and then she will be homeschooled. Praise the Lord! For now we will be doing some tomato staking when she is at home to curb this temper of hers. Does anyone else have trouble with a child with a bad temper, and if so, would you mind sharing how do you deal with it?

A Little Rant

 I don't rant often about things but I just had to let this one out.

Tonight, oldest son had a cub scout meeting and I was truly appauled at one woman who was actually letting her 7 year old grandson kick her to get his way and then after the meeting they left with the woman literally dragging him on the ground.

The rest of the meeting went really well, and I had a nice long talk with the den leader  and told her that if things didn't straighten out, then I would find something else for my son to be involved in where he can actually learn something. I mean, I hate to brag so much on my son, (just kidding, I love to brag on my kids) but while most of the other kids were running around like wild monkeys, my son was sitting there attentively waiting on instruction. My kids aren't perfect, far from it, but they know their limits, and they know mom and dad will strongly enforce those limits. They are well behaved in public and know that if they choose not to be well behaved, we will leave...everytime. I'm consistent with my children. I don't beat them or threaten them with horrible things. I do spank (never out of anger)  and I do discipline.

My kids  don't get whatever they want. I am perfectly capable of walking through walmart without buying my children one thing aside from good nourishing food. They don't even get to pick a cereal and they certainly don't get candy as we're leaving the store. I know parents that can't leave walmart without buying their children a toy. That's absurd! You used to go to the store and you would be able to see the parents leading the kids through the store getting what they needed, now you go and you see the children leading the parents through the store, or worse, kids just running around the store unsupervised!

Call me mean, call me old fashioned, I don't care, I have well behaved children who know the Lord, love and respect their parents and each other, and who know their limits. Praise God for that! Sorry for my rant, but I'm just so tired of people's kids being so out of hand. I mean, I can't help but to look at some of these parents out here like they're nuts.

I once saw a friend of mine give her 1 year old son 3 cookies right before dinner all because she was afraid that if she didn't give them to him he would get upset. .....And?.......First of all, you should never be afraid of your children and second of all if this child is not allowed to feel dissapointment now, what's it going to be like when he's an adult and doesn't get the grade he wants or the job he wants?

I just wonder sometimes if I'm the only one out there that has these old fashioned values. My husband and I feel like we're the only ones around here that still feel like the parents should be in charge and the kids shouldn't always get their way. If you're still with me, thanks for listening to my little gripe. Sometimes it just feels good to get these things out in the open. Thanks for coming by...

Love,

Sara

Funny things kids say...

On the way to the doctor's yesterday to see if my daughter's ear was doing okay after her tube fell out, and was covered with a large rock like ball of wax, my son out of the blue, says..."Mom, so, how did Maddy's ear get so constipated anyways?"

Now, where did he get that?! I couldn't help but laugh.

Blessings,

Sara

My son doesn't want to go to school

I'm at a loss, and I need some help, advice, something. As most of you know, I desperately wanted to start homeschooling my children, but my husband has asked me to wait one more year, and I want to respect his wishes. He did say that if something happened that we would consider taking them out during the year. So here's my dilema.... My son is 7 years old and in second grade. First of all, I want to say he loves learning, so this is not a problem....we had a great time with our trial run of HS this summer and he does his homework without trouble. He's a very sensitive little boy, but he doesn't cry for no reason...In pre-k, he went to school the whole year without shedding a tear....In Kindergarten....he cried nearly every day and had to visit the counselor a lot....In 1st grade he cried for about the first 2-3 months of school....And now this year in 2nd grade, I walk him to school every day, but one day last week and today, we had to leave and come back home because he was sobbing, and making himself sick. I've asked him what is the matter, and he said last time that their  was a boy that wouldn't leave him alone, not a bully, just a kid that wouldn't leave him alone, always talking to him, picking him up, chasing him, etc... and Nick didn't like it. I immediately talked to the teacher and she assured me it would be handled, which apparently it was because when I asked him if that boy was bothering him again, he said no, but he couldn't tell me what was wrong. He begged me to bring him home and once home I asked him again, there has to be a reason, why are you so upset? He couldn't tell me, but he begged me to let him stay home and let me teach him. I just don't know what to do. If there's a reason then I'll fix it, but he can't give me a reason, he just doesn't want to go back. I don't feel he's in any danger and have asked him every question I can think of that might be why he doesn't want to go back, but he answers no, every time. Now, my mother's heart is say, Yes, a chance to homeschool my children, but I also know I need to deal with whatever this "problem" is. Maybe the "problem" is he just wants to be homeschooled. I don't know. Does anyone have any advice? I'd be so gracious.

Sara

Help with 2 year old

First, a little background info, I have 3 children, and when it came to bedtime, I was strict. Meaning, I made sure that all my children's needs were cared for...clean diaper, fed, etc. and then I put them in their bed to go to sleep. If they cried, I let them cry for a bit. When they were still waking in the night to nurse or have a bottle, I got up and I fed them. I checked on them if they weren't feeling well and most of the time you would find me right outside their door until the crying stopped, but  I didn't want to be the mom with my 5 year old still in bed with me or the mom that every time my kid cried I would get up and go running. I believed it was okay for them to cry it out a little. As they got older, my older two children learned that when it was time for bed, mommy would tuck you in, read you a story, say prayers with you and they would be left to go to sleep on their own. My older two were both in toddler beds before they were 2 with no problems at all.

My youngest is a different story. A few things were different when she was a baby, such as, I nursed her until she was 14 months old, whereas the older two were unfortunately not nursed past 6 weeks. So at night time when she'd wake I'd get up put her in bed with me and nurse her, inevitably falling asleep. I did this with the older two when they were nursing, but she was waking for feedings until she was 6 months old. Now when I'd wake back up, I'd pick her up and put her straight in her bed. But somewhere along the lines, she realized how much she liked mommy's bed better and when I'd put her in her bed, she'd scream, and scream, and scream some more. Well, I persevered and let her cry in her bed, most times crying with her right outside her door, knowing that like my other two, she'd eventually learn that mommy's not coming in to rescue her and she wasn't going to sleep with mommy and daddy.  Her cries did indeed grow shorter and shorter, but still at 2 1/2 years of age, every time I go to lay her down, she cries for at least 5 minutes. I never give in to her unless I feel she is in danger, such as coughing, choking, etc. But still every night, she cries. We follow the same routine every night and every night when she knows it's almost time to go to bed, she starts tensing up and gets upset. I just don't know what to do with her. I've talked to her about going and getting her big girl bed and how she has to go to bed just like sister does, etc, and she says she'd like that, but as much as she hates bedtime, how on earth am I going to keep her in a bed she can get out of on her own? She's beginning to outgrow the bed she's in, which is just a pack n play with some extra cushion, and we have a toddler bed in storage for her to use, but I'm just not sure if it will work. If you're still with me on this long winded story and you have any wonderful words of wisdom to share with me, I'd love to hear it.   Thanks so much,

Sara

My Baby Boy is 7!

Happy Birthday Nicholas!!!

Today my first born and only son is 7 years old. A few things about Nicholas:

~He's so kind hearted

~He's my worrier

~He's been my sickest child throughout his childhood

~He has 2 heart murmurs

~He's a scrawny little guy-weighing in at only 40 lbs and still can fit in some of his 12 month shorts

~He likes to pick on his sisters, but would protect them with his life if anyone else messed with them

~His favorite dinner is sloppy joes

~And his favorite past time is baseball!

I love you baby boy!

Mom