Time's Change

This was a different kind of week in our homeschool.  Our oldest child really wanted to give public school a go, so we enrolled him in the local middle school as a 6th grader.  The house seems less full with him gone all day.  I am still homeschooling with my 9 year old daughter but I miss my son while he is gone.  I am excited for him!  His first week seemed to go very well.  My hope is that he is happy and successful at school and that he makes many new friends.

My 9yo completed Unit 9 in Bigger Hearts this week.  She is really starting to shine in her schoolwork this year. I am looking forward to the rest of the schoolyear with her and getting some more projects for the toddler going.

Short blog today but just wanted to get some thoughts down....

LIFE Girl's Club

Today is the monthly Girl's Club meeting for our homeschool group.  All girls from 9-12 are invited to join in the fun.  We get together to make a craft and play.  Today we had three girls who made fleece hats.

In December we will be decorating gingerbread houses.  That's my Joanie on the right!

Native American Crafts

Joanie is finishing Unit 5 of Bigger Hearts for His Glory this week and starting Unit 6.  I think these crafts may have been from Unit 4 though.

She really enjoyed the Native American "sand painting" project.  We took salt and added food coloring to it to make 6 different colors.  She sketched a design and painted over it with thinned out glue then sprinkled the salt on top to make the painting.  If we were doing the craft again, we would color the salt the day before to give it plenty of time to dry.  It was still damp and clumpy when she tried to use it.  It worked but not as neatly as she would have liked.

The other craft was to make an "indian blanket".   She drew a center line on the "blanket" then drew her designs on the top half and mirrored them on the bottom half to make a symmetrical "blanket".

Lunch from scratch

In between grocery runs and looking for something to make for lunch today so I created a Blackeyed Pea soup. The kids only complaint, it didn't go far enough.  Everyone got one bowlful and it was gone.

My Blackeyed Pea Soup:

1 cup dried Blackeyed Peas, soaked overnight then drained and rinsed.

3 cups water

2 celery stalks with leaves chopped

1 carrot thinly sliced

1/4 cup diced ham

3/8 teaspoon ground thyme

1 tablespoon dried chopped onion

2 chicken bullion cubes

1/2 cup Israeli Couscous (from Costco)

Mix everything but the cous cous and simmer for one hour.  Add the cous cous and simmer for 10 minutes.

Confessions of an Organizationally Challenged Woman

If you drop by my home unannounced and the van is in the driveway but noone answers the door, I'm probably hiding upstairs.  Just kidding of course, but seriously I am often embarrassed by the state of my home.  I am an organizational junkie.  I have cleaned and organized only to let entropy take its course and the house fall back into chaos.  I've missed appointments because reminder cards got misplaced or I didn't check my calendar.

Even as a kid I fondly looked forward to a new school year, with fresh pencils, notebooks, and a planner.  I loved organizing everything and dreamed of everything staying neat and tidy all year long.  In the same fashion,  I start our homeschool year organized with a fresh outlook each year.  I take the manuals and use Post-It ready tabs to divide it into sections: 

I organize things with boxes, baskets, tubs, and drawers.  But no matter how hard I try, it's always been difficult to keep up with my organizational systems.  This summer I am hoping to thin out our school resources and sell off what we no longer use.  I am considering boxing up books we won't need this year and storing them in the basement, while only keeping out this years books.  I need to consolidate the art supplies and restock them.  I also need to toddler proof the room and get the pencils, markers, etc... put where Lilypie can't get them.  She draws on everything!

A new year always brings new hope of being organized, one of these years I might even achieve it.

Planning for the new school year.

    We have switched back and forth between two homeschooling curriculum providers over the years, but I am happy to say that we have finally settled on one program for the rest of the homeschooling adventure.  It is the one we started with back in 2004 when John was first starting preschool work.  The company's name is Heart Of Dakota.  In the beginning they only had plans for elementary aged guides and were recommending that everyone switch over to My Father's World for high school, but they have decided to continue writing curriculum through 12th grade.

     I ended up using some of both for elementary ages.  So far we have used 4 programs from Heart of Dakota (HOD) and 2 from My Father's World (MFW).  I have found that the style and content of HOD is a much better fit for my family than MFW.

     For the last 2 years, the kids have been combined into one main program through MFW with language arts and math at their own levels.  This year we will be separating them into two completely different programs again. This way they both work at their own level throughout the day and we can still come back together for bible study and storytime to enjoy learning together.

     Joanie will be using Bigger Hearts for His Glory with the extension package add on since she will be in fourth grade this year.

     John will be using Creation to Christ with the History Interest package. History is his favorite subject.

     And of course we will continue our Community Bible Study in Brighton.  It's a year long study.  This year we will be studying Kings and the Minor prophets.  The kids do the same study the adults do but with fewer questions.

       I am so looking forward to this year.  Both kids will be moving to more independent learning, using the teaching guides as their own daily school planners to do their work and hopefully feeling more ownership about their work.  This looks to be a great year.

6/13/2011 - Girl Time

Like many little girls today my daughter wanted an Americal Girl doll.  She loves to pour over the catalogues they send out and knows all about the different dolls.  She sometimes searches EBay for American Girl items.  One year we got her an American Girl doll for her birthday.  We've never bought any of the American Girl clothes or accessories just the one doll.  But our daughter loves her doll.
My hubby and son went on an adventure this weekend leaving me home with my 8 and 1 year old daughters.  Perusing the local thrift shop we found an 18" doll that needed a little TLC for a $1.  Joanie asked if we could rescue it so her American Girl would have a companion.  I wish I had taken a before picture, the hair was dirty and ratted but we shampooed it, conditioned and started brushing.  Undaunted, we scoured the web for ideas.  The steam method looked intriguing.  We dutifully boiled a pot of water and held the doll over the water for a few seconds then combed, then steamed and combed until the hair was tangle free.  It was a simple trick but it worked wonderfully, it made it very easy to comb her hair out.
We went to see the new Judy Moody movie, taking along the new doll of course, and then wanted to do something else fun together.  We like to sew but rarely find the time so a sewing project seemed like the perfect idea.  Joanie loved this idea for a strip skirt, and wondered if we could make matching skirts for her and her dolls.  She's always wanted matching clothes but the Americal Girl sets seem so overpriced.  This was a perfect idea for a fun project.  The strip skirt called for 12 strips that are 4" wide for a child's skirt.  Using a ratio of waist measurement to skirt width, I figured out the dolls strips should be 2" wide so that the doll skirts would also have 12 strips.  We got busy cutting the strips and Joanie sewed her doll skirts together on her own little sewing machine (which was another thrift store find):

Then we worked on skirt for Joanie together.  I decided to make it slightly fuller by cutting 4.5" strips.  Joanie ran the foot pedal for me while I sewed up the skirt on my sewing machine.  the finished skirts are very cute:


Joanie is very happy with their matching skirts!

5/10/2011 - Obsessed with knitting...

It's amazing how much craftier I've become since having kids. When I was a little girl, my Grandmother was always trying to teach me to knit, crochet, sew or quilt. I hated it with a passion and even went so far as to try to sleep over at friend's houses when Grandmother was coming for a visit. I was not a very good granddaughter, was I? Birthday and Christmas presents were always knitting needles, crochet hooks, or sewing kits. The only one of those I actually appreciated was the cherry pie knitter. The rest went unused. The problem I think was that I couldn't find any practical use for the stuff. Grandmother wanted me to help her on a King size double wedding ring quilt, or to learn to knit dishcloths and potholders. I think if I had realized then that I could make barbie sized quilts and knit little stuff for my dolls, like maybe small rugs for the dollhouse that I might have been more interested. That's not Grandmother's fault, I just couldn't see any use for it and didn't want to learn.
Fast forward to today.
With my hubby unemployed when I was pregnant, I tried to make my own stuff whenever possible.  I made a wool mattress for my cradle from two old army blankets, one mine, one my Father-In-Law's.  To hold it together I made a pillow sham from an old sheet to fit the size of the cradle and stuffed it with the blankets.  It made a firm but cozy sleep surface.  I sewed a nine patch baby quilt, made curtains to cover some of our bare windows, sewed diaper covers and longies for the baby and knitted hats for my two big kids on the Knifty Knitter Looms that my son wanted me to buy him at a yard sale several years earlier.
Now I was hooked on seeing something emerge from the basic raw materials, the things I sewed and the hats I knitted started from nothing. I love the feeling of accomplishment when you see the finished creation and the look my kids give me when I give them something I made just for them.  So I joined the church knitting group.  These are mostly older women, but there are one or two younger women.  They taught me to cast on and off, and taught me to knit and purl.  The rest I've learned from YouTube videos, and the facebook for knitters, Ravelry.com.  I am a slow knitter so I haven't made many things yet but I have a start.  I knitted an Ipod cover at the request of my son, fingerless mittens for the baby for playing outside, and diaper soakers and shorts.  My current project is a blanket for my baby made from the softest yarn I have ever felt, a birthday gift from my husband.  This time I DO appreciate the gift.  Thanks Dear!
Unfortunately I have designs in my head for so many projects that I will never have the time to do them all.  Between homeschooling, kids programs and day to day life, I barely have any time left over.  My scrapbooks haven't been touched in a year and a half.  I need to dejunk the house, clean it and organize and plan craft time into my day alongside meaningful bible study time, homeschooling, taking care of my Husband and Children and trying to keep up the house.  I used to be able to get more done in a day.  Maybe after Lilypie quits cutting teeth I can catch up on sleep and get my energy back.

5/10/2011 - Lily's Talking!

Lily is our third child and of course they are all different. I'll admit that I was starting to get a bit worried over my little Lily's lack of speech. At 16 months she said very little but a month later she is exploding with words or at least partial words. She points to the door and says "duh". She pokes you and says "poke, poke". She frantically points to her cup saying "cup, cup". She can say:

1. poke
2. "duh" for door
3. "puh puh" for potty
4. Hello
5. bye
6. Mama
7. Dada
8. Jaw (for John)
9. Juh (for Joanie)
10. daw for doll
11. baw for ball
12. ow
13. go
14. toe
15. uh oh
16. stop it

She shakes her head Yes and No and she will grab your hand and point to where she wants to go. She has a sign for nursing. In short, she is starting to communicate and she is both excited when it is successful and frustrated when it isn't. She has fewer words than my other two did at this stage but she is talking and I am relieved. Another child on the way to sassing their parents by age 10, lol.

4/21/2011 - Living in Cloth

When I pregnant with Lily, my husband lost his job.  To cut down on expenses, I decided to cloth diaper our baby.  I researched it and figured out the least expensive diapers would be flat diapers like my Mother used or prefolds.  These diapers are made of cotton so of course you need some kind of covering.  My mother used rubber pants.
Nowdays people use either PUL, wool, or fleece.  In earlier posts I showed how I've made fleece soakers for diaper covers.  They are soft and machine washable, easy to care for and they work well.  I've also made wool pants (called Longies) for Lily from sweaters, these are wonderful, especially for night, but they do require more care.  Wool has to be washed by hand and lanolized, but you only have to wash every couple of weeks unless the wool gets dirty or starts to leak.  I've also used Thirsties Duowraps which are PUL.  These are ok but they don't breathe as well and we get more diaper rash with them so I mainly use them if I need a really trim diaper cover under those cute two piece baby outfits she has.
In addition to cloth diapering, we practice Elimination Communication or EC.  EC is based on the idea that even little tiny babies know they need to go potty.  But in our culture, we teach them to use diapers for their elimination needs.  In many countries, diapers are not used and babies learn early to eliminate on cue and then later to signal that they need to eliminate.  "Potty Training" as we know it is unheard of in those countries.  So I started practicing EC with Lily at 7 months old and after a week, she learned to pee on cue.  That doesn't mean she does it all the time or that she doesn't still go in her diapers.  But with every trip to the potty, that's one less diaper I have to wash and one more chance for her practice her potty skills.  Before she started walking, she was even getting up at night to pee.  She was successfully going all night without peeing in her bed or in diapers.  Once she started walking and cutting molars, everything changed and nightime potty trips are fewer but that's ok.  Lily is perfectly comfortable going potty in public bathrooms or even in parking lots crouched behind a car door.
So between cloth diapering and practicing EC, I have found that we do many things differently than we did with our first two kiddos.  For one thing, I dress Lily much differently than I dressed the others.  No onesies, they are a pain in the butt to snap over top of a cloth diaper and diaper cover and an even bigger pain in the butt to unsnap in a hurry when you are trying to get a baby on the potty before she pees. This winter Lily has mainly worn fleece or wool Longies paired with a tshirt and sweatshirt.   She stayed warm enough without them...  Who knew.  If I had cloth diapered my first two, I would never have bought all those onesies or two piece outfits.  This summer she will mainly wear fleece or wool shorts with a cloth diaper or training underwear underneath and a t'shirt or dress.
Cloth diapering is a little more work than disposable, but not much.  Until Lily started eating solid food I didn't have to do anything special with her diapers.  You just dumped them all in the washer, did one rinse cycle and then washed on hot and rinsed twice.  After starting solids, you have to wash poopy diapers out in the toilet first but that's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  After all I already had to go through washy poopy underwear when the first two went through potty training right?  Knowing what I know now, I wish I had cloth diapered the first two.  It would have saved us so much money.  And even more, I wish I had learned about Elimination Communication when I was pregnant with my first.  Many people who start EC right away with a newborn baby are completely out of diapers by the time the baby is one.  Lily is 16 months now and I don't see her out of diapers any time soon but sometimes she tells me she needs to go or that she went in her diaper.  And even going potty a couple of times a day helps because I can go longer between washing diapers. I am thinking I might just put her in training pants this summer and see how things go.
Well, I've rambled enough for now...

2/28/2011 - Sabbath Days

Our Pastor is doing a series on the Ten Commandments.  Today was the fourth commandment about honoring the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is a gift from God to be enjoyed.  How often do we really enjoy the Sabbath and treat it as a special day?  I have gotten into the habit of doing laundry on Sunday.  Catching up on other chores.  Trying to get ready for the week ahead.  That's not the intent of the Sabbath.  Really, it's not just "Ok" to rest that day?  You mean it's a day given for rest?  That's quite a change in how I think about it.  I'll admit that I still washed a load of diapers today but we had simple sandwiches for lunch and leftovers for dinner.  Easy meals on paper plates.  I played Twister with the kids and we went swimming tonight.  It was a very good day.

2/27/2011 - Rice Crispy Treats - Take 2

I revisited the rice crispy treat recipe in Deceptively Delicious today.  It calls for brown rice cereal, only 1 tablespoon butter and the addition of 1/4 cup flaxseed meal.  The standard rice crispy treat recipe calls for ordinary crisp rice cereal and 3 tablespoons butter.  So this time I just made the regular old recipe and added the flaxseed meal.
They were great.
Everyone loved them.
They are all gone.
The true test of how good something is, is whether or not it dissappears.  We already add flaxseed meal to cornbread, muffins and pancakes, it was good in the rice crispy treats too.
I had forgotten how quick and easy rice crispy treats are to make.  I should make them for the kids and their friends more often.

2/26/2011 - Deceptively Delicious

I received as a gift a few years ago, Deceptively Delicious. The book takes vegetable and fruit purees and adds them to typical family recipes. I haven't made made most of these yet as they do seem like a bit more work than I would like. But they are a way to add some extra vegetables to our family diet. So maybe that would be a good place to start.
We are a family of five, our three children are 10, 8, and 1. Our older kids eat their vegetables most of the time. My main goals in this experiment are to try new recipes and add some extra vegetables in that we might not normally eat. I am well aware of the fact that most of these recipes only have a small amount of veggies added to them and that the nutritional content might not be great since the veggies are cooked not once but twice in many of these but I'm going to give it a shot. At the very least it's something new to try at the dinner table.
When I first received this cookbook, I dove right in and made the ranch dressing and the greek dip. My daughter loves the ranch dressing, it was a hit. The greek dip however was not as big a hit. However the next time I tried the greek dip I accidentally mixed up the ranch and greek recipes and created a new dip We just call it John's garlic dip since I make it for my son, but the whole family loves it (even the baby). It's reminiscent of hummus, but it's made with artichokes and great northern beans. I never got around to trying any other recipes until recently.
Last week, I made the sweet potato fries (which was really more of a tip than a recipe). I used to make these when the kids were younger but had forgotten all about them. They were so good, especially dipped in real maple syrup. Similar to the ones we get at restaurants but better for you since they aren't deep fried. They dissappeared in a flash, next time I need to make more. One sweet potato was not enough!
Sunday, I made the Banana Pudding Pie. My son loved this and had 2 pieces. I thought it was incredibly sweet, too much for my taste and a bit too artificially banana tasting. My daughter tasted it but didn't like it and the baby refused it. Unfortunately, they only liked it the first night. The true test of how good something is, is long the leftovers hang around. Not one person has touched it since that first night, so I don't think I will make it again.
For our dinner that night, I also made the chicken nuggets with the sweet potato puree. These were awesome! You could not taste the sweet potato at all but it made the nuggets tender and juicy. The panko breadcrumbs and flaxseed meal made for a crunchy breading. They were a bit time consuming to make but very delicious. We will definitely make these again.
Next time however I will have to spend a couple more minutes while cutting the chicken to try and get thinner chunks but not too small. about an inch square but half an inch thick would have been perfect. It's a bit tricky getting the sweet potato puree to stick to the chicken but I think that's why she has you sprinkle salt on the chicken first. I might add an extra egg or a little water next time to thin out the sweet potato puree first. Even with the egg that the recipe calls for mixed in, it was a very thick mixture.
A few days ago, my son was sick in bed so I thought it might be a good time to try the Hot Cocoa recipe as sort of a treat. I had my doubts that you could put sweet potato into hot cocoa but thought I'd try it.
The recipe combines chocolate syrup, milk and sweet potato puree. It claims that the result is a rich creamy delicious treat. That claim couldn't be farther from the truth. The cocoa had a gritty texture from the sweet potato puree. The cocoa didn't taste very good and the texture was gross. I didn't even serve this to my kids. I dumped it straight down the drain. YUCK!
The last recipe I tried this week was the Marshmallow Crispy Treats. It's hard to ruin a ricecrispy treat right? Well, the recipe calls for brown rice cereal. The only brown rice cereal I could find is Arrowhead Mills puffed rice. While these taste like regular rice crispy treats, the texture is wrong, they are way too chewy. Next time I will try these with regular crisp rice cereal and see how they turn out.
I don't know that I will try all the recipes in this book, so far only a few have come out worthy of making again. I think for instance that adding vegetables to the desserts simply doesn't work. The main course ideas might be worthy of trying though.

1/7/2011 - A New Year a New Beginning

Why do we all love New Years?  I believe it's the chance for a clean slate, a brand new year clean and bright with no mistakes yet.  Face it we can all look back on 2010 and see things we wish we could change:

• not enough time spent with loved ones
• not enough time spent doing things we enjoy
• not enough organization of our time, homes and lives
• too much gluttony, not enough exercise
• too much TV
• etc..., etc...,

But with the New Year we have the chance to make up for all of that.  We can do better and be more organized, right?
Well actually No, we can't be better on our own.  On our own we can do nothing.  It is only through God's help that we can change.  For the heart of man is sinful and incapable of becoming better without the saving grace of God.  New Years resolutions are great.  We should resolve to be better.  But we must understand that the strength and ability to actually become better come from God.  So make those resolutions and then pray for the help to keep them.

10/15/2010 - Diaper Soakers for Sale

All 15 soakers

Newborn size soakers

Fits up to about 9 lbs.

Small Size Soakers

Fits up to about 13 lbs.

Small Long size soakers

In Between small and medium.

Medium Size Soakers

Fits up to about 18 pounds.

8/9/2010 - August Days

I can't believe Lily is 8 months old!  Her first birthday will be here before I know it.  She is such a Joy in our lives.  Lily is the best birthday and Christmas present I ever got!  Today is our anniversary and we went out for Thai food.  The owner of the restaurant came over to hold Lily and talk to us for a bit.  She talked about child rearing in her country and how different things are here.  The funny thing is we are already doing some of the things she mentioned.  I wanted to ask her about potty training practices there as we have begun teaching Lily to go on the toilet, but we were out of time.  We had to get home to pick up the kids from VBS.
About 10 days ago we started playing around with EC - Elimination Communication or infant potty training.  It is absolutely amazing to me to see Lily peepee on the toilet.  I never knew that you could really do this...  Of course she still uses diapers but we're using less diapers now that we know about EC.  She still wears mostly cloth diapers and disposables at night.
As for diaper covers, I've learned to knit now so that I can make her wool diaper covers.  They are so soft and comfy.  She seems to like them.  Here is the newest one.  I still need to sew some bigger fleece ones.  Fleece ones are much faster to make than the wool ones.  I like them both.  For fall I'd like to knit her a pair of legwarmers to wear with her diaper covers.

4/17/2010 - April Days

No pictures today but I will put some up soon.  Lily is 4 months old already!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  I finally finished her baby quilt last weekend.
Cloth diapering is going well.  It's alot easier than I expected.  Now that Lily's getting a bit older, I only have to wash diapers once or twice a week.  They hold up really well and we've had virutally no leaks and only an occasional blowout.  If I known then what I know now, I would have cloth diapered the first two, at least now during the breastfeeding only stage its super easy.   Not sure how things change once you introduce solid food but for now I'm loving it...

10/22/2009 - Budget Cooking

We've been dabbling with creative cooking trying to use up the stuff in the pantry as much as possible before buying anything else.  The other day I made Peanut Pumpkin Soup for dinner.  It wasn't very good, but after you added some Mongolian Fire Oil to it, it wasn't bad.
I do a lot of cooking from scratch and make a lot of soups these days, sometimes from a recipe, sometimes from my own thoughts.  I made a wonderful potato cheese soup last week, too bad I didn't write down what I put in it!  Now if only I could find a really good recipe for baked Maccaroni and Cheese.  Not the velveeta kind, but the real cheese kind where the cheese gets all gooey and the top is crusty.  I have tried several but I haven't found the right one yet.
My favorite recipe site for lower cost meals right now is the Hillbilly Housewife.  Her "My Best Cornbread" recipe is a favorite with my kiddos.  And since I can't eat beef these days, we make her Lentil and Rice taco filling so I can still have a taco.  It's pretty good.

10/21/2009 - 33 weeks down, 6 to go!

Well I am now 33 weeks.  If I deliver a week early like the last two times, then I have roughly 6 weeks to go.  Of course I know they are all different and this one might not come at the same time, but I like seeing the number of weeks left going down!  Everything is looking well.  I saw the Midwife last week and I am still measuring right on the averages.  I am starting to think this might be a smaller baby than the last two.  That would be nice.  My weight gain is definitely less.
After fighting a cold for the last two weeks, I'm behind in everything.  I spent last night and tonight furiously doing laundry to try and catch up.  Meanwhile the list of stuff to do before baby gets here is not going down fast enough.  I need more energy!

9/30/2009 - Yay, I'm 30 weeks now!

Pregnancy is supposed to last 40 weeks give or take a few weeks for each woman.  I have now hit 30 weeks.  So based on the last two kids who were born at 39 weeks, I have 9 weeks to go.
I had my checkup with the Midwife this morning and everything looks good.  I'm still measuring average for my date.  Hopefully that means that this baby won't be as big as Joanie, she was my 9 pounder.  Smaller would be good.
Can't wait to meet this new little baby and find out if it's a boy or a girl.

9/30/2009 - Quilting Obsession

I thought it would be fun to make a baby quilt for this baby.  Up to now, the largest quilt I've made is for an American Girl doll.  A baby quilt seems small right...
I started with a basic 9 patch design.  I had planned to make a quilt out of all 9 patch blocks.  After making a ton of them:

9 Patch Quilt Blocks

I decided not to make the entire quilt out of them.  I found a nice pattern on the net and changed it a little bit.  Here is my finished quilt top:

quilt top

The irony of the situation is that as a child, my Grandmother was always trying to teach me to quilt and I would escape to friend's houses to get out of quilting.  I had no desire to EVER do that.  Now I'm making a quilt of my own.  Too bad I never learned how from her, Grandmother was an expert quilter.  I am quite the novice.
Now I just have to put the batting and backing on and to the final quilting.  I'm very pleased with how the top turned out.  This is definitely the most challenging thing I've ever sewn.

9/7/2009 - Getting Ready for Baby

So I've got that nesting urge going on these days.  I've been pulling out all our old baby clothes and washing them, then hanging them out to dry in the bright sunshine to bleach out the stains.  It's amazing how those old stains reappear after sitting in boxes for a few years.  You put the clothes away clean and tidy and when you pull them back out, YUCK!  But Sunshine removes the stains wonderfully.
Anyway, today I used my 50% off coupon from Michael's to buy a baby scrapbook kit.  The box said you could assemble it in an hour.  It took a little longer than that, but I did have two 9 year old boys running around asking for popsicles and snacks while I was working on it.  In about an hour and half though, I had it all assembled and it's now ready for pictures.  It was a fun project and it's nice to have it done and ready for when baby gets here.  It'll be so easy to throw in pictures and text and have something to show for it.  I got the Peek A Boo Pals Kit.  This is the first time I have ever gone with a box kit.  I usually prefer to do my own scrapbook designs but I'm feeling the need to have stuff done and ready now!
The next project on my list is to get the swing, high chair, and exersaucer out and scrub them clean.  They were stored in Mom & Dad's barn for several years and they are quite grubby.  Nothing a little elbow grease can't fix though.    And I still have dejunking the house and holding a garage sale on my list. We have way too much STUFF.  I really need to thin out every room in the house and then deep clean the basement and sun  porch.  I don't know why I have so much trouble getting rid of stuff.
My due date is 90 days away.  How much can I get done in that amount of time???
I had my 26 week checkup with the Midwife last week.  Everything looks normal and healthy at this point.  I have to do my glucose test this week and I start going in every 2 weeks now.

8/28/2009 - Switching to a Midwife

Wednesday morning I met with the Midwife through McLaren hospital.  She was wonderful.  She spent 45 minutes with me going over the questions I had, asking me questions, and telling me about the Labor and Delivery area of McLaren and the Midwife delivery room there.
While at my OB practice, you might have one of 3 doctors in the day or one of 7 doctors on call at night, with this Midwife, you are almost assured of having her there at the birth.  She said she has only missed 2 births in the last 2 years because her husband was ill.  She was a Labor and Delivery nurse for 10 years and has been a Certified Nurse Midwife for 15 years.  And since you give birth at the hospital, Tony is much happier.  He was afraid I'd try to have a home birth.  :>  Now as long as I don't go into labor in the middle of a snowstorm, we'll be ok!  But seriously, how often does it snow in Michigan in early December?
This child will be born at the same hospital Tony was born at.

8/23/2009 - 25 weeks down, 15 to go!

 

As of today, I am 25 weeks along, the official due date is Dec. 6, so that's 15 weeks away.   I had an ultrasound at my doctors appointment on Thursday, but no new pictures really.  The baby is still breech at this point and wouldn't let them see the spine.  Get moving baby, I don't want a C-section!  He or she better turn around before December....  Most babies turn by their due dates so I'm not worried, although it is a Slosar and Slosars are stubborn.
Here's the latest picture I took of the kids after getting squeaky clean in the bathtub.   They are so excited, they can't wait to meet their new brother or sister.

John and Joanie

Someone at church told me about the McLaren Midwives program so I'm planning to look into that.  I've had normal pregnancies so far and I expect this one to be as well.  Midwives tend to do things a bit differently than the doctors.  Now to find out if they take my insurance.

On a side note, we started our Homeschool year 2 weeks ago.  This year we're using a program called Adventure in My Father's World.  This year is focused on American History.  By starting early, we'll be able to take a few weeks off or go at half speed as needed when the baby gets here.  It feels good to get back into the swing of things.  The kids aren't thrilled to start earlier than their friends, but they know they will have a break when the baby comes while their friends will still be in school.  So they aren't too upset.

8/23/2009 - Having Fun Sewing with Joanie

Well, I couldn't figure out what I did wrong on my first cover, so I cut out new leg cuffs and a new waistband and put it together. 

My first Cover

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn it inside out before I sewed on the first leg cuff.   I quickly realize that and sewed the waistband and the other leg cuff in the right way.   Joanie likes that the first three I made have the polar bears on the butt.
 
Then we realized that we only had blue covers and we thought a pink one would be nice if we have a girl.  I also figured it would be nice to have some size small covers on hand for when Baby outgrows the newborn size covers.  So Joanie and I went to JoAnn's fabric and bought some colorful fleece.  Joanie helped me cut out and assemble 1 more newborn cover in pink and 5 size Small covers in various colors.

Cutting out pieces

Pinning it together

So after cutting out and sewing the parts, Joanie laid them out and played around with what color cuffs should go on which cover.

 

Then she rearranged them again and I got busy sewing them together.  I now have 4 newborn size covers (at the top of the next picture) and 5 small size covers. 

Finished Diaper Covers

I think now I might make some longies to go with them.  Longies are like little sweatpants for Baby.  They take the place of the diaper cover but keep the little legs warm too.

I never got to around to sewing for my other two babies so I've been having fun sewing for this one!

8/15/2009 - Making Diaper Soakers

So we're planning on using cloth diapers with this child, at least in the beginning while he or she is breastfed.  Now I've been trying to figure out what to do for diaper covers (soakers).  When you use cloth, you have a basic diaper and then a cover over the diaper which is often called a soaker.
Right now I'm experimenting with Katrina's Soaker pattern.  I've only made one newborn size so far and something's not quite right, the waistband and leg bands seem too small for the body of the soaker.

So now I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  This one is supposed to be a fleece soaker.  Maybe I'll just cut longer waist and leg bands and try that.

2/27/2009