Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Beach trip and a little more.....

Last Saturday June 21 was the first day of summer.  It was also the first time we were able to make it to the beach.  Being 28 weeks pregnant I was hesitant to go.  Larry doesn't like the beach too much so he was trying to find a way out too.  I told him let's do this for the kids.  I certainly wasn't going for me.  That's just how this parenting thing works.  We had promised them we would go back at the end of May and one of them ended up with a fever on the day we were planning to go.  We probably could have still went but he would have been miserable and so would all of us because who wants to take a fevered child to the beach.  Heh!  Not I!

So we ventured off to the beach on Saturday morning.  We went to Jekyll Island.  It was nice and breezy but got really hot the closer it got to lunchtime.  We left pretty early and got there around 9:30AM I think.  Jekyll is about 2 hours away from where we live.  We had a few chairs and a blanket to set up and we did that, sprayed sunscreen on everyone and off they went.  There was low tide so there was a sandbar pretty far out.  There were people on it but because we thought the tide may come up while we were out there we didn't go out.  Walking down the beach Caleb found tiny hermit crabs in a puddle, a muscle in a pretty shell, and a dead jelly fish(yuck!)  I decided to walk out into the water because Noah and Caleb were out waist deep and not five steps into the water I stepped on something and started bleeding bad.  It hurt.....bad.  Then Larry tells me that it's squirting blood.  I was just going to keep walking but ended up having a foot that was tingling to my toes.  The cut was on my heel.  Caleb ran up to our chairs and got a beach towel and brought it back to me so I could put pressure on it.  The only thing is I didn't want to sit in the water with the towel because the waves were just going to wet the towel.  I had Noah go get me a chair to sit in out in the edge of the water.  I finally got it to stop bleeding and got back up to where all our stuff was.  The kids played in the water for a little longer.  By that time it was lunchtime.  They had ate a few snacks but it just wasn't filling.  Larry went to the truck and got the cooler while we waited on him under the pavillion with the picnic tables.  It was just too hot to eat out on the beach.  Poor Sarah got too hot, got a headache, and threw up.  Bless her!  After she threw up she was fine though.  She's like me. If I get too hot that happens to me.  I hated that she got sick because I know how she feels but I was glad it wasn't me and I was glad that it was short lived.  Everyone was tired from being out in the heat so we left after eating lunch and headed to Waycross.  We looked up movie times and figured out we could go walk around the mall for a bit and then go to the theater to watch a movie.  We watched How To Train Your Dragon 2 and afterwards went to eat at Rodeo Mexican Restaurant.

Overall the day was fun.  It wasn't overly stressful and I wasn't too terribly tired.  That was surprising to me since I was 28 1/2 weeks pregnant at the time.  I'm unable to upload pictures at this time.  Maybe another day when my internet is loading them faster or I may share them on FB.  Not sure why they aren't loading.  Frustrating to say the least but that's ok.

I will always leave a Bible verse to close.  May you have a blessed remainder of the week.  Thanks for reading.

Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (NIV)







Thursday, June 19, 2014

Wow!  It's been a while.  We now know what the gender of our baby is and we have a name.  Of course we found this out a few months ago but I've just not taken the time to type up a blog post about it. Of course those on my Facebook and Instagram know all about it.  It's just easier to share on there as opposed to writing a blog post about it.  LOL!  Well here goes....for those who don't know we already have  2 boys and 1 girl.  We thought it would be nice to have another girl to even things out.  That would be ideal.  Well God has answered our prayer.  It's a GIRL and her name will be Hannah Ruth. We are very excited about the arrival of this sweet baby girl.  My daughter is very excited about having a sister.  I am thrilled to give her that.  She admitted a few months after we found out we were pregnant that she had prayed HARD for a baby sister.  Well all i have to say if the faith of a child is much more than us adults.  The lack of faith that I had in God to help me with a 4th child was nothing compared to the faith that my child had in God to give her a sister.  She ultimately won with that faith.

My pregnancy has been typical.  I had the nausea on and off and then aches and pains when I grow.  Finally started feeling Miss H move a good bit around 22 weeks. At the end of May we had planned a trip to the beach but a fever and sore throat my youngest had stopped us from going.  It probably would have been cooler than this coming weekend however, our plans are to go on Saturday. I've been having severe back pain and have started some pregnancy yoga and ball exercises to help relieve that.  Hopefully that works.  I just started it yesterday.  It really works on me to not be able to participate in stuff and just be there with my kids for everything.  Yesterday I took them to the library summer reading program and left early.  A friend kept them there and took them bowling for me and I came home and was able to rest and cook supper.  Other than the back pain, I have been healthy. I am now 28 weeks and glad to let baby cook for at least 10 more weeks. My pregnancies last anywhere from 38 to 39 weeks so I am anticipating an end of August birth however, my DUE DATE is September 10th.  My prediction is August 27 in which I will be exactly 38 weeks just because my body has went quicker and quicker with each birth. I am doing different things to prepare my body for a nautral birth that I did not do with any of my other 3 pregnancies.  It's funny what you learn when you are older and how you want to do your own thing as opposed to what everyone else is doing.  I breastfeed but I will not be cloth diapering.  I wore my daughter with a ring sling but didn't wear my boys.  I've already bought a cotton/linen wrap, moby wrap, and sling to wear this baby.  The difference between then and now is the fact that I homeschool.  I feel like it will just make it easier on me to wear baby.  I can't wait to wear her.  I've done a lot of research and it seems so beneficial to their development and security when they get older.With that said I also have a stroller and will be using that too if she will let me. If not, then that's okay too.  I have a lot of plans in how I want things but one thing I've learned from having children is the fact that I can't plan too much because they will for sure change my plans.

I never thought that I would be given a baby shower for my 4th child.  Wait....I never thought I'd have a 4th child so I just feel so blessed.  My good friend is hosting a baby shower for me in July and I am excited.  I've mainly got the bigger items but the smaller stuff is what I have waited to get at the shower.  We have a crib and pack and play.  I've bought her some outfits.  I just couldn't resist.  LOL! We have a relative who makes clothes so she has made her several pieces and they are just darling.  I can't wait to put her in them and take tons of pictures. This child will be the only one I had as a baby with my new SLR professional camera so she is going to know what a camera is early on.

My plans for schooling the children haven't changed as far as whether I will home-school them or not.  There were relatives who put their two cents in and told me different things such as "you're crazy for having a baby AND homeschooling" and "don't make life hard for yourself.  Just send them to school"  Well I feel like I would make it hard if I did send my children to school.  Having a new baby and then sending my kids off to school like the baby is the cause of me taking away the very thing that they love which is to be with me and for me to be their teacher would be a huge adjustment and would result in them resenting the little one.  Both my husband and I never questioned whether we would continue to homeschool after finding out about our surprise blessing.  It was just a known.  I am so thankful we are united on this and pretty much everything when it comes to running our household, parenting our children, and spiritual beliefs.  I know this is what makes our relationship one that isn't easily broken.  Now mind you we get on each others' nerves but we never let our children see us fight.  We never even argue in front of our children.  And for a hormonal pregnant girl this is hard when he does something that rubs me the wrong way.  I've learned though that a gentle reminder of our goal for our children after they go to bed is what works best.  Loving, constructive criticism and not yelling at him while I am still irritated and waiting until I've thought it through to talk to him definitely works better. We never talked about whether or not to put the kids in school because the new baby is coming.  I am so thankful for his support in teaching our children according to the Word of God and according to our calling as a family.

As far as the school year goes we will start July 7 and finish up August 8.  After that we will await the arrival of our baby and I will take 6-8 weeks off after the birth of the baby.  If I feel like I want to start back before then, I will.  I am telling the kids they will begin school again in October after baby is born.  They aren't too happy about the July thing but I try to remind them every time that while others are in school in September and possibly some of October they won't be because they are starting in July.And there's always different stuff they can do besides their curriculum that we call school.  It's not just limited to school books and organized instruction.  School is everywhere for my children and I plan to use a lot of real life lessons on the weeks that we are off to teach them.  We are working in a routine for our school days and a schedule for chores and such.  We shall see how that goes.  My 10 and 8 year old should be fine but my 5 1/2 year old isn't too keen on doing chores.  He is getting better but still not a fan of them but he is all boy so I know I can expect that however, that doesn't make me not still make him contribute.

Next week all three of my kids will be in camp from 8-4, 9-3, and 9:30 to 3:30. Then they will be gone from 6-9PM to VBS down the road at a friend's church.  I am looking forward to having the time to plan for the two older's schoolwork for the July 7 to August 8th period.  I'm sure I will have plenty of time to plan for Oct-Dec while having downtime with the baby.  I'm taking it one month at a time right now though.  So much can change so I am not planning past August 8th on planning.

So there's an update on everything.  By the way my next appointment is Friday June 27th.  I see the doc every 3 weeks now.  I'm in my 3rd trimester.

I will leave you with a verse.

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:19