Daybook August 8 2012

Outside my window...It is warm but not as exhaustively hot as it has been. It's amazing how low 90s can feel almost cool when you've been over 100 every day over months.

I am thinking...how much I love school schedule with this job. This summer was fun, but the girls went back to school this morning, and I will not lie. I did a happy dance :)

I am thankful for...beating baby hearts. Had my midwife appointment today. Such a beautiful sound to hear that heart beating. Need to go and get my blood tests, etc done at the health department in the next week or two. And (more important, imo!) get our ultrasound scheduled! May baby cooperate and tell us what s/he is.

From the learning rooms...[or in our case--the learning brain]...comes puzzles! I've done them with Blueberry in the past, but today for the first time she was just flying through puzzles on her own--getting the pieces to fit correctly, naming all the animals, etc. Very proud of her.

From the kitchen...comes a pile of vines from grapes. Blueberry has been learning how to separate the grape from the vine. Very proud of herself. I also made brownies. They smell good. May have to go make some gluten free ones as these are most definitely not. Hmmmm.....now she just threw all the vines away in the trash without being asked. This I can approve of!

I am wearing...brown maternity pants and a red maternity top. Been buying some new nursing/maternity clothes as my wardrobe has fallen into desperate time. Very happy with what I have.

I am creating...school routines for the girls again. Got a few weeks to get them back into rhythm before we abandon them for our vacation. Lots of prayer there. It makes me nervous leaving the cottage for so long. Hopefully we're not going to be doing major interventions or rehashing old topics when we return. However, I shall not worry about while on vacation! Just before. And maybe on the plane back!


In my mailbox today.. .was some things my Mum ordered that I need to take to England for her and the last of the maternity shirts I ordered. And an extra addition of my Living Without magazine which is making me suspicious. Need to see what's going on with that. We've had a number of fun things arriving lately including new suitcases (our old ones are ripped, not zipping, and, well, 12 years old!)--8lbs each. Very excited about this fact. They're so light that when I picked up the box from the office, the guy who gave them to me wouldn't believe they were check-in size suitcases!

I am reading.. .Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. Really good.

I am hoping...to finish this and get it posted before the girls get home.

I am hearing...Blueberry telling me "I see!" as she wants to watch me type on the computer (it's my 15 minutes of down time before the girls come home). She's also jabbering about Calista, the vines she threw away in the trash ("ewie away. all gone!") with the occasional outbreak of song in between.

Around the house...Things feel messy. One of the reasons I'm glad the girls are back in school is it actually gives us time to get something done around our personal apartments. When they're here 24/7, it's hard to get anything done! However, a little bit at a time, and this should be cleared up. Yay. Been sorting through Blueberry's clothes--she has, ahem, finally outgrown all of her 12 month clothes. The shirts still fit her waist/arms, but they're getting a little short, so I finally decided to just pack up all the 12 month clothes and pull out the 24 month and see where the wardrobe stands between the combo 18/24 month clothing. I can't complain, I got a year out of her 12 month clothes! Dresses have definitely gotten too short--she's shot up again the last few weeks.

One of my favorite things...that our girls have decided that our names are no longer Mr and Ms with a first name attached but Mama Hanna (or even just plain old Mama) and Papa C. They were very sweet and oh so nervous about asking permission to call us that (what were we going to say--no?!), but it felt good being asked. And much less formal than this Mr/Ms business!

A few plans for the rest of the week: Tidy! Enjoy some free time with my family. Get caught up on some projects. Make my list for England to see if there's anything else I need to buy. The countdown is 33 days!!!!!!!!!!  !!!!! I'm excited. Can you tell?

Here is picture (or more) for thought I am sharing...

Blueberry in her Thai outfit Nana sent her for her birthday. So cute!

 

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7 Quick Takes (vol. 27 )

#1 - I type as I watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Will have to watch the rerun tomorrow as most of our girls are out, and I have strong feelings about them needing to see this! My two babies are in bed, so I get the nice excuse of being home. Just waiting for the Doctor to show.

Later: What?!! They finally get to Thailand and then show all of 2 seconds of the team before flashing away to show the flags? Really? America! You have no sense of your audience!

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#2 - The big news in our lives, which has thrown me for rather a surprised (albeit happy once I got over the shock!) news is best shared by Blueberry:

Due Date--end of January/beginning of February. Will have a better idea sometime in August or September. We have officially decided that we are going to go the midwife route as opposed to a hospital birth (God willing). I don't want a repeat of my experience with Blueberry. Not quite sure how it will work out given our living conditions, but one way or the other, we will find a solution!

In general, things go as to be expected. We didn't find out until we were about 8 weeks along--the sudden onslaught of exhaustion and nausea was my first clue. The excessive exhaustion seems to be slightly abating (or maybe it's just wishful thinking at this point) but the morning sickness is still ongoing. Not constantly like it was, but hitting me at unexpected times most definitely. 

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#3 - This summer has been fun if exhausting. We've squeezed in a trip to Austin, a trip to Springfield, along with our crazy life of 9 children (we added one more this summer--we had about 1 hours warning before she arrived!). We've quite enjoyed the summer in this job. Lots of time to play with the kids and do fun activities without the annoyance of school nagging. But I will fully admit to being ready for school to get back in session--even though its technically still 3 weeks away. Things are rapidly moving into "prep for school" mode--that feeling is in the air. Now to keep the girls busy and happy for these last few weeks.

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#4 - In the last few months since I last posted, Blueberry has grown physically, mentally, and in all ways really. She is chattering away like crazy (except when being shy around, well, anyone). One of our big fights with her right now is hitting--namely Butterfly when Butterfly is getting in Blueberry's space. Sigh. She is learning, if sometimes painfully slowly. She's a stubborn little monkey--can't imagine where she got that characteristic from. Definitely her father. :)

She is still ridiculously adorable. And I'm not just being a biased mommy saying that!

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#5 - In other pregnancy related news, I ran across this article a few months ago (pre-new-baby-who-really-needs-a-nickname-but-the-only-one-I've-come-up-with-is-Komquat-and-I-just-don't-think-I-like-that-for-long-term), and I've finally found something that matches more appropriately with my own gut-feeling of baby news: New Rules for Announcing a Pregnancy.

Some choice quotes:

As I contemplated the best time to make my grand announcement, the thought of waiting too long became heavy on my soul. I couldn’t help but sense that behind all of these well intentioned words there was more than just a proper time to announce a life. There was an anchor of fear that gave the words their weight. Fear of all the what-ifs that could go wrong with this life inside of me.....

This baby deep inside of me, ever so small, is a child of God. A child that God gave to me to take care of whether for a day or for years. That care began at conception. Whether he or she lives or dies each day I am with him or her is a gift and has a purpose with eternal consequences. My baby is now a part of my life, my testimony.

This whole article makes a lot of sense to me. We took our time announcing, but I know I told some people way before was "normally recommended". And it felt right. It felt more right than hiding some of the best news of my life.

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#6 - Blessings come at unusual times. One of the big parts of summer for us are these teams of people who come from churches to both work on the campus and hang out with the kids. This can be a mixed blessing as it really does not give us a break at all as we have to be monitoring interactions at all times (and for good reason!). And depending on how well organized the group is, it can be a good thing or bad that they want to spend time with the kids as sometimes our kids wind up bored half to death because it happens to be a group that came with no action plan and no real sense of how to interact with strange kids. On the other side, sometimes they are amazing and do all sorts of cool things with the kids (baseball games for the fourth of July, unbirthday parties, spa-parties for the girls, good VBS services, and just fun water balloon games and silliness).

The other part of their attendance is that they do projects on the campus. Which means as a houseparent, I get to make suggestions for things they can do. Our entire cottage has been painted this summer and looks absolutely gorgeous (it was white on white on white before--very institutional and, frankly, ugly--now lots of color and much more home feeling). A recent project I suggested to the powers that be for some help dumping the trash that has accumulated in the disaster area that is our attic. Chris and I since we moved here have spent hours and hour sorting through the whole cottage--the attic being one of the worst places of just years of tossed trash. We've been stymied since last spring as it got really hot and busy and difficult with all the kids to move forward. We asked if they could help us at least the trash piles out and give us some room to work.

Well, the lady who showed up from the group walked through the attic with me, saw immediately what we were doing, and next thing I know has come back having bought 50 tubs from Walmart and she and her crew of teenage girls (girls, teen group this time!) spent hours yesterday and have plans for more hours today not just dumping the trash piles we've worked on but sorting through our other boxes and labeling them and, basically, finishing the job for us!

As I had resigned myself to not getting this job done until sometime after baby next spring or summer even, this has made me smile. A lot!

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#7 - I'm trying to make a concerted effort to keep up with my emails/letters in a more timely fashion. I really am hopeless when it comes to writing people. So my August 2012 resolution is to change this habit! Hmmm...I hope that this does not go the way of many resolutions.


Action plan: where I'm struggling. Suggestions?!

Daybook Saturday May 5

Outside my window...it is dark and disgustingly warm for May.

I am thinking...of World War II and the long-lasting devastation of that war. And I'm thinking of similarities that I keep seeing crop up here and there, randomly...in our schools, our governments, laws, and the ways people think. Lord help us if we're setting ourselves up for World War III. I shudder at the thought of my baby living through that.


I am thankful for...peace that surpasses all crazy thoughts and whatever  insanity the future may bring. I've been reading Treasures of the Snow to the girls during devotion time (well, after devotion time). If you've never experienced the beauty of Patricia St. John or her absolutely perfect illustrations of Christ and forgiveness and all the other lessons children and adults both need to learn in their Christian walk--let me recommend her books to you now. Reading through this particular book has been such a pleasure and a good reminder of some of the lessons I need to know.


From the learning rooms...[or in our case--the learning brain]...comes stairs! Up and down and up down. On our weekend trip to Eureka Springs recently, Blueberry tentatively learned to climb up and down stairs. Then recently she was playing with Butterfly near a set of 5 stairs. Blueberry was carefully and cautiously making her way up and down the stairs. Butterfly (8 months older) takes one look at the stairs and books her way up then and flies back down. Blueberry looks at her and proceeds to take off herself! Amazing what a little peer pressure can wrought.

From the kitchen...Navajo Tacos made their way to the table for dinner tonight. The girls love them and beg for them frequently--far more frequently than I have the time, energy, or materials to make them. But I caved tonight, and many hands made the job much simpler--and so tacos were devoured by all. Fortunately I have found a fantastic flour to make GF version of these. Had to try several different mixes and finally came up with one adapted from another recipe that definitely is a winner. Thank goodness. I don't fry things very much but my mum's Navajo tacos are one recipe I was not going to live without--gluten free or not!

I am wearing.. pajamas. Girls are watching a movie, and then we'll pack them off to bed soon.


I am creating...menus. Have to turn in very precise menus of what we feed the kids every day. For some reason I have the hardest time keeping up with these; so I'm trying to do them while I think of them. And then I thought of my blog and found myself blogging instead of writing menus. Hmmm....perhaps i have found my problem?


I am going...to choreograph a dance for our girls. I've been giving them (sporadic of late) ballet lessons, and it's time to start putting some of it into an actual dance. It's fun and they enjoy it. Need to go begging for some shoes though.


In my mailbox today.. .was no mail. It was Saturday. I did, however, get two issues of Among Worlds just the other day that I need to read. TCK magazine that makes me laugh, cry, nod my head in agreement, and sigh with a tang of homesickness.


I am reading.. .some more of the Chalet School series. Thus the World War II thoughts. Actually I have a stack of about 10 books I need to read right now. Just a (surprising?!) lack of time for reading. Most sad. Although Winnie the Pooh and I have been getting reacquainted as Blueberry and I are making our way through his stories.

I am hoping...to get the inside of the cottage (the main part not our rooms) painted soon. It's all cream on white currently and we've been told we can get some color in there. So here's hoping!


I am hearing... the sounds of Princess Bride coming through the monitor (Chris is working on the laptop out with the girls while I'm taking a breather in the back here).


Around the house...I finally feel like a rhythm is really beginning to set in, even though we've been crazy busy whenever we've been on duty lately. It has taken a long time for me to get here and I still don't feel totally settled, but that probably has to do in large part with all of the changes that I've faced all at once over the last number of months. Blueberry changes alone have been hard enough to keep up with!


One of my favorite things...working every day with my husband. And watching my daughter grow up with not only two parents in her life but two parents who are with her all the time. Such joy.


A few plans for the rest of the week: church tomorrow. That's as far as my plans have got me thus far!


Here is picture (or more) for thought I am sharing...Is the resemblance not frightening?

Here is picture (or more) for thought I am sharing...

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