New (temporary) Normal

I felt very sick last week, much worse than I had in the few weeks previous. I hoped that it was just a fluke. Or that I had a lingering version of the flu bug that marched through the rest of the family last week.

Now I think I’ve simply settled into a new low for morning sickness.

Sometimes I catch myself feeling guilty… guilty over everything I can’t do, guilty because my family deals with the consequences of my sick tummy.

Mommy feels sick all day long lately. So the laundry and dishes are somewhat neglected, the house is generally in some degree of disarray, the kids frequently spend all day in pajamas, and the TV is on too much.

I’ve cut our homeschool schedule back to basics, letting go of a few subjects in the hopes that the remaining subjects will not be neglected. It’s still a struggle though. Our daily schedule involves a school-heavy morning so that the kids can enjoy freetime and sports in the evenings and even with a reduced schedule there is a lot to do. Between five schooling children (preschool through 4th grade) and two babies, there is a lot to juggle every day. So we try to get reading, math, grammar, and Latin in for the older kids and reading, writing, grammar, and math for the younger ones…

The kids are good at rolling with things. No one seems to mind our new daily normal. Brenna and Joshua have loved to cook for years so they really enjoy the mornings that I ask them to make breakfast. They are experts at making pancakes, eggs, oatmeal, and toast and this really helps on the mornings that I don’t want to move for a while. They also help with babies and little ones as needed (this is something they truly love) and they are pretty good about helping with chores too (this is something they don’t enjoy). I am thankful for their extra hands and their willingness to help. I’m also thankful that they seem so happy with our current arrangement. They always seem to enjoy extra responsibility when it is thrust upon them.

This past year we got into several carpools so that helps with getting kids to different activities, and with Rick’s new (as of nearly a year ago) work schedule he is available in the evenings to get our boys to wrestling practice. So, thankfully, I have less running around to do than I used to.

I will say that I like how morning sickness slows things down so much. It’s easy to get lost in a to do list and forget about the things that matter. I find that when I am sick, our days move at a slower pace. I usually have more time for snuggling and quiet talks. The less critical tasks get dropped all together until only the most important things remain. Really, there are few things that truly matter… Husband, children, and spiritual things rise to the top of the list.

Amid the queasy tummy and the neglected household tasks, there is still that warmth inside me, that gratitude for a precious new baby. Contrary to popular belief, I am NOT addicted to having babies. I don’t really get “baby hungry.” Instead, I long for another soul to join us, another precious and unique person added to our family, another beautiful spirit beginning a mortal journey. I enjoy being a part of Heavenly Father’s divine plan for His children. I love the miracle of it all. I am thankful for my tiny role in something so sacred and profound.

Perhaps we are having another girl. I feel much more sick than I did with all of our boys (Asher being the only exception to that). With the boys, I felt good and could eat anything. Usually I ate several different dinners because I couldn’t decide which one sounded best. Now, nothing sounds good. I force food and water down when I can, but I don’t ever really want it. Now I don’t eat dinner at all because I can’t decide on something that sounds tolerable. It reminds me of how I felt when I was pregnant with Maddie… only I think it might be worse this time…

Wow, a little girl after all this time would be amazing. We’ve had four little boys all in a row and we have five incredible sons all together. It has been almost eight years since we have had a baby girl around! Maddie will be eight years old this summer, with her birthday just a month after this baby is due to arrive. (That is a whole ‘nother tangent though because I can’t believe that my baby girl will be baptized in just over six months from now!)

Years ago, when I was pregnant with Asher, I bought some sweet, tiny baby girl things. We didn’t know what we were having, but they were on sale and oh-so-cute so I grabbed them just in case. I only bought two things- a little summer outfit and a darling little summer dress. Of course, our July baby turned out to be a precious boy and those two outfits have been hanging in the closet ever since. I’ve just never bothered to pack them away. Maybe this little June bug will get a chance to wear them.

Of course, we do have amazing sons so another boy would be an incredible blessing as well.

I am hopeful that as I enter my second trimester (around Christmas) I’ll start to feel better! I’m hoping that our homeschooling especially will go off without a morning sickness hitch next semester. And I can’t believe that glorious second trimester is just weeks away!!

So, to sum it all up… The Mommy is sick. The house is a mess. Life is so good.

12 Days of Christmas

Wow, Christmas is right around the corner now! And my baby will turn one in two weeks!

I have always wanted to do a “12 Days of Christmas” unit for school. But there has always been a reason not to do it… Last year I was on bedrest, I had a newborn both of the two years before that, and the year before that I was very, very sick during my pregnancy with Asher. This year, I’ve decided that I’m doing a Christmas unit no matter what!

I cut the kids back to a lighter academic schedule- just math, reading, spelling, and Latin- to help us get through the morning sickness stage of this pregnancy and to give us more time to focus on our Christmas unit.

Our “12 Days of Christmas” will take nearly three weeks. I have lots of crafts and baking planned- every day there will be something to make and something to eat. We’ll also make Christmas presents for grandparents, do a service project, and spend a day making Christmas candy to give away. We’ll be studying Christmas in five different countries as well, baking traditional holiday treats and making crafts traditional to each country. I hope it all works out and nicely as my lesson plans have.

December 13th will be our last day of school this semester. Then we’ll had off on a family vacation/ wrestling tournament, and we’ll celebrate Drew’s first birthday while out of town. Immediately after that we’ll go visit family for Christmas. I need to get all of my shopping and Christmas prep done in the first two weeks of December because there won’t be time for last minute wrapping this year. I’m planning to spend the last week of the year relaxing and spending time with my kids and doing very little. In January, I’ll do my school planning and we’ll begin a new semester…

This year has passed quickly, and the last few months have gone by even faster. I’m looking forward to the next month. It will be fun.

Asher’s Weekend Funnies

Asher was very impressed with the DVD players installed in the headrests in Aunt Elaine’s car. “Mom,” he gasped. “They have a real movie theater in their car!”

***

Out of seven kids, Asher is my only picky eater. He quizzically surveyed his plate of delicious Thanksgiving food, wrinkled his nose, and then announced, “Mom, I don’t eat food that’s cooked.”

Asher ate only jell-o for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

***

Surrounded by brothers at home, Asher was shocked when he noticed his cousin, Hailee, getting a diaper change. As he watched, he commented slowly, “She looks very strange without a penis…”

Football Small Talks

Joshua attended his first big football game and commented, “This is the first time I’ve ever gone to a football game where the players were older than ten.”

***

Braden stayed home from the game, but greeted us with excitement when we arrived home. “Mom!” he cried. “Did you wave at me?”

“Yes, I did,” I fibbed, knowing that he’d watched part of the game on TV.

“Huh…  I didn’t see you…”

Braden donned Joshua’s crazy hat and giant foam finger and then stood in front of the bathroom mirror and chanted the football team’s chant. We didn’t even know he knew that one, and Rick was proud.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Due to a combination of bad morning sickness, car sickness from our drive, and maybe even a touch of the flu bug that the kids had earlier, I felt pretty yucky on Thanksgiving day. I ate a little jell-o for my “feast” and threw it up afterwards. But I do remember curling up in bed and being so thankful for another sweet baby on the way.

I thought a lot about our little one this weekend. Rick is absolutely certain that we’re having a girl and I am starting to agree with him…

Back to Thanksgiving… We enjoyed time with cousins, a movie with the adults, and a football game with about 30 members of the family- most of the adults and older grandchildren. The football game- a Christmas present from Rick’s parents- was the highlight of the weekend. We were right in the endzone, and it happened to be the endzone where all but one touchdown was scored. It was a blast! Joshua was the only one of our kids interested in going along so he joined us and had a great time.

Grandma deserves the Grandma of the Year Award- she stayed with ten grandchildren, six of them ages five or under, four of them still in diapers, and two of them very sick with the flu! She’s amazing!

The weekend passed far too quickly, as a trip to see family always does. We had a wonderful, wonderful time and many, many things to be thankful for!

Thanksgiving Fun (at home)

My parents spent a few days with us this week. It was fun to see them. Because we won’t be spending Thanksgiving with them this year, we prepared a yummy Thanksgiving-ish dinner on Sunday night with roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus, stuffing, veggies, and rolls. Yum!

Just for fun, we enjoyed a few Thanksgiving craft projects as well. The kids made Thanksgiving thankful turkeys- cute, brightly-colored birds with all the things each child was thankful for listed around it. I always love hearing what each of the kids is thankful for; it’s such a nice glimpse into their little hearts.

We also made turkey cookies. We used oreos (the store-brand, light brown kind) for the bodies and then decorated them with colorful feathers made with Airhead candies. We added faces with mini chocolate chips and more Airheads. The kids absolutely loved this and they turned out really cute.

Sick is Good

I have felt more sick than usual this week. We’ve had a bit of a bug going around between some of the kids so that could be the reason. Or I could just be hitting a new morning sickness low for this pregnancy. Either way, it’s made it hard to really accomplish much of anything.

I keep thinking about this sweet baby of ours. It really is an incredible miracle to have another child. I like the feeling of my body being sick, tired, and riddled with hormones, simply because it’s a privilege to sacrifice such a small amount of physical comfort for an individual so precious.

Wrestlers, Gymnasts, Cheerleaders… Oh, my!

We’ve had a fun weekend.

The girls and I (along with some friends) made cute tutus on Friday. They were super easy, fun to make, and they turned out darling!

Then I sent Brenna off for her first night away. I’ve left her overnight of course, for a new baby to be born or for an occasional overnight with Daddy. But this was the first time that she left home by herself. Her gymnastics state championship was spread over two days and some friends of ours had a girl competing each day. They went up Friday and stayed the night and they invited Brenna to go along. She had a wonderful, wonderful time! (But I still missed her and poor Maddie was beside herself without Brenna!)

Saturday morning we took the other kids to the boys’ wrestling tournament. It was a little crazy because the boys were wrestling in two different gyms so we were running back and forth trying to get them to their matches on time. But in spite of the craziness, we made it to every match and the boys did great!

We signed Asher up as a PreK 30-pounder, but there were no other boys under 30 pounds. He had no one to wrestle and got a gold medal just for showing up. It worked out for the best though because he was so tired and irritable and emotional that I don’t think he was up for any wrestling anyway. He did love his medal and we let him practice with another little guy just for fun. He also stayed dry during the entire event! (I think he deserved a gold medal just for that!)

Braden was a super tough wrestler! He won all of his matches easily and he was so happy. He pinned one boy and the look on his face while he was pinning him was priceless! He used the moves he’s been practicing- several shots, his half nelson, and an awesome little switch that always takes people by surprise. He got a bloody nose during one match, but he was so brave about it. During his last match, the other little boy started to cry and Braden was amazed that he’d made someone cry. He won a large, heavy gold medal and he was thrilled.

Joshua did great in his matches too. He won all of his matches and practiced a few of the moves that Rick asked him to work on. He did great. So we came home with three gold medals for three little wrestlers.

Brenna’s state gymnastics championship was in the late afternoon. It’s difficult to take all the little boys to a gymanstics meet because the seating it crowded and the admission is expensive. I booked a babysitter so that Rick and I could go support Brenna and leave the boys home, but she canceled at the last minute. Instead, I left Rick home with the kids and Maddie and I went to cheer Brenna on. We met my parents there also, so they were able to cheer for Brenna too. Brenna had a fall on bars- the only time I’ve ever seen her fall. She normally scores extremely high on bars, her highest score was 9.725. But even after her fall, she composed herself and did her routine and got a good score all things considered. Then she went straight to beam and did the most beautiful routine and got a 9.5. Her floor and vault were both really good too and she ended up taking the silver medal for All-Around at her state gymnastics championship.

My parents came to stay the weekend with us so they were able to join us at Maddie’s cheerleading parents’ night.  It was the first time any of us had seen her routine. She did such a great job! She was so cute and excited. She did her part so well and was such a brave little flyer.

Now we have Thanksgiving to look forward to…

Potty Training Lawsuit

Asher is finally potty training. I say “finally” because he had good awareness at least 18 months ago and I’m sure he could have been out of diapers by the time he was two. But Asher does things in his own way and his own time (all children do, but Asher has a stronger will than most, in my opinion). Plus I’ve never been one to push potty training on my children. I back off and they potty train themselves when they are ready.

I’ll admit that I’ve tried to get now three-year-old Asher excited about the process, as I have done with all my kids. Cool new undies and the promise of a special reward usually go a long way in pushing an “almost there” potty trainer all the way out of diapers. Asher, however, has simply not cared about any of the goodies that I have offered.

Until Daddy put wrestling on the table…

Asher has been begging and pleading to wrestle all summer long. He has even wrestled (and won) a real (exhibition) match at a tournament and that only fueled his desire. Rick promised him that he could wrestle at the next tournament if he wore underwear all week and kept them dry. Asher, formerly very attached to the ease of diaper use, has only wanted underwear since then.

He takes himself potty and poop, wants to be completely independent with the process, and has basically been trained since day one.  He has had a few accidents along the way though. Once he wet and tried to blame it on his brother.   Sometimes he’s just running around without pants and I know his undies are wet in a corner somewhere.

Yesterday he had another accident.

“Asher, did you wet your pants?” I asked, even though the giant wet spot on his front made it perfectly clear that he had.

Asher glanced down at his wet underwear and then up at me again. He held his hands up, palms facing me, and said, “Mom, don’t sue me!”

That’s a new one and I’m still not sure where he heard it!

Asher’s Request

Asher is excited about the new baby. Tonight he was specific about what he expects though. “Mom, I want the kind of baby that I always wanted,” he said very seriously. “I want a baby that comes with a matching ball.”

Ha, ha! This boy certainly doesn’t leave me without blog material!