tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217329722024-03-05T21:38:30.772-05:00Growing with my GirlsMy life with a wonderful husband, living my vocation of raising three girls Catholic in a secular world, finding myself more counter-cultural and farther from the mainstream every day, and trying to grow in patience, knowing that they will not be little for long.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.comBlogger705125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-41539913997133623302018-08-16T17:34:00.002-04:002018-08-19T20:20:13.679-04:00Catholic Used Curriculum Sale!!I have a few items for sale - this post is linked up thru the <a href="https://www.showerofrosesblog.com/2018/08/book-sale.html">Shower of Roses curriculum sale</a>. $3.99 media mail shipping rate will be charged in addition to the price of each item. Can combine shipping at same price unless you buy so many that shipping cost is increased due to extra weight. Most of these are duplicates that haven't been used - by us, anyway - and were given to us new or I bought new/slightly used and then realized I already had a copy - whoops! Leave a comment if you'd like to buy something.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLLHn-WWlD_gBwvLBLPGQu8Z9KpvJ4hgHyClxszZOI9JXJQmicsU1eykmHT7kx6Ci4JVMWtdLtaw7AbErw5-I7I8LwFNwjOjmsNqdEDH2ZX69zB8moEpG3-q6T38GXwDiNFOI/s1600/IMG_20180816_171817741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLLHn-WWlD_gBwvLBLPGQu8Z9KpvJ4hgHyClxszZOI9JXJQmicsU1eykmHT7kx6Ci4JVMWtdLtaw7AbErw5-I7I8LwFNwjOjmsNqdEDH2ZX69zB8moEpG3-q6T38GXwDiNFOI/s320/IMG_20180816_171817741.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Stories of the Child Jesus from Many Lands </div>
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New, was a duplicate copy</div>
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Asking $8 </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrQaCm7zt6jtod0i-PWMPs0ABO2JZw6o8GDKUE7w4kHWCcqApdjz9r4QBQ1MKADz4kYDUKKtuotDg3aZegmMru5pb4FXBBieCw4_po169wC5iGrDKtCTuBeFIszv87sh8T8xC/s1600/IMG_20180816_171831677_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrQaCm7zt6jtod0i-PWMPs0ABO2JZw6o8GDKUE7w4kHWCcqApdjz9r4QBQ1MKADz4kYDUKKtuotDg3aZegmMru5pb4FXBBieCw4_po169wC5iGrDKtCTuBeFIszv87sh8T8xC/s320/IMG_20180816_171831677_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Can You Find Saints?</div>
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New, hardback, duplicate copy</div>
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Asking $10</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgufnrj08Mu5gNrsQ1Drt45A5FyRMDyYq2qBT3Ob2fpxE1QTMuvZOf5YBxy-OAILaSnov15EuNG43JZdZUHNKAs_Gyxw-6O6xzNvmoPTcy-GQF74X0wy09m4kDMK-31mqq-EbqG/s1600/IMG_20180816_171839053_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgufnrj08Mu5gNrsQ1Drt45A5FyRMDyYq2qBT3Ob2fpxE1QTMuvZOf5YBxy-OAILaSnov15EuNG43JZdZUHNKAs_Gyxw-6O6xzNvmoPTcy-GQF74X0wy09m4kDMK-31mqq-EbqG/s320/IMG_20180816_171839053_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Immaculate Conception</div>
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duplicate copy, very good condition</div>
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$2</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGQvc5z2NNxflrhmlswuLDVXhKQje2ELJkm8V1AF5OrmebmC_bFB3mOFM6Nwl8o_rxT3fhB12sIV_2ZAr9ARZlXwTc16_SjawIli420near7QJf_TWuM2YmldKNDidw-GMgzZ/s1600/IMG_20180816_171848676.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGQvc5z2NNxflrhmlswuLDVXhKQje2ELJkm8V1AF5OrmebmC_bFB3mOFM6Nwl8o_rxT3fhB12sIV_2ZAr9ARZlXwTc16_SjawIli420near7QJf_TWuM2YmldKNDidw-GMgzZ/s320/IMG_20180816_171848676.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Witness to History: World War I</div>
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duplicate copy, very good condition</div>
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Asking $7</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJMwsRELsC3vnZ-cg2IscLrGF0sYwN0m_MLNlR2t_Q_gizhL30ay_QIyo2EybPuSEeyJQZbO6Isz67j_WpNcohstpol4_eMkG-IgkxysJwaXNkouLpQuSn2dXCDFUTeWTFJKz/s1600/IMG_20180816_171855607.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJMwsRELsC3vnZ-cg2IscLrGF0sYwN0m_MLNlR2t_Q_gizhL30ay_QIyo2EybPuSEeyJQZbO6Isz67j_WpNcohstpol4_eMkG-IgkxysJwaXNkouLpQuSn2dXCDFUTeWTFJKz/s320/IMG_20180816_171855607.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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The Way of the Cross by Inos Biffi</div>
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Hardback, like new (duplicate copy)</div>
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Asking $15</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PG30qK4Dg-qtYDOFBOg7aaiYf8kmoWoRrV3mz5yOzicLiRljvFW9XjyucE1miggXBnskKTAoyA7DD9zTcEq_FZB70ZL6wVfO421M9XYtlkAHcXZQS4239I7sp_V7h14-VpCx/s1600/IMG_20180816_171901850_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2PG30qK4Dg-qtYDOFBOg7aaiYf8kmoWoRrV3mz5yOzicLiRljvFW9XjyucE1miggXBnskKTAoyA7DD9zTcEq_FZB70ZL6wVfO421M9XYtlkAHcXZQS4239I7sp_V7h14-VpCx/s320/IMG_20180816_171901850_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Jesus Calling: Bible Storybook</div>
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hardcover, like new</div>
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Asking $5</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJk3VcjrLFGBAetuSd5eCK4RIfcRNqc3P3Pk4m3O48BvyJR6591l6hyphenhyphentiE0Zbb4LIKqTAlfLuTlu3u7reQoaxx4ZoiKRBzYi7GCVgERY1GNek_NlIgdwziYlkHWe-ZyJLU02q/s1600/IMG_20180816_171930949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJk3VcjrLFGBAetuSd5eCK4RIfcRNqc3P3Pk4m3O48BvyJR6591l6hyphenhyphentiE0Zbb4LIKqTAlfLuTlu3u7reQoaxx4ZoiKRBzYi7GCVgERY1GNek_NlIgdwziYlkHWe-ZyJLU02q/s320/IMG_20180816_171930949.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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History Study Time Travelers New World Explorers CDROM</div>
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used, bought and never used it myself</div>
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$15</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BixyNHgnDLaMb35FMkDUssP0IS9D1iPnkgsHeDoNY5ROBVkLnr41x_8AjVKDZD-_92hqjlRZ_lO955Y78QBiZc7fnUpP4dVk-MbJJUBosFhLeDeDx5XdaN9Wtg8Vq9nxvei0/s1600/IMG_20180819_201231484_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BixyNHgnDLaMb35FMkDUssP0IS9D1iPnkgsHeDoNY5ROBVkLnr41x_8AjVKDZD-_92hqjlRZ_lO955Y78QBiZc7fnUpP4dVk-MbJJUBosFhLeDeDx5XdaN9Wtg8Vq9nxvei0/s320/IMG_20180819_201231484_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Catholic ABCs, never used, like new</div>
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$35</div>
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<a href="https://www.showerofrosesblog.com/2018/08/book-sale.html">See the other used books for sale linked up at Shower of Roses</a>! Check back; I'm cleaning out and may post more!</div>
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<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-19224988728525442512016-06-16T12:04:00.001-04:002016-06-17T23:23:54.800-04:00The Birth Story of Frances Philomena<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Could it be possible that you will be the last tiny one I
will hold against my chest, the last one I will feel moving and shifting inside
me? I have realized this beginning with
my second baby, Cecilia, and I know the possibility is there more and more, the
older I get. You are precious to us as a
perfect gift from God, and I feel even more blessed as you are a “rainbow
baby,” one who came following the loss of the fourth baby we had conceived,
Mary Karol, and then many agonizing months of wondering when we’d even be able
to conceive again. That wait was for
you, Frances Philomena, and as I sit typing this with you asleep on my chest, I
marvel at your perfect round soft little head and your gentle breathing. It has been a long time since I’ve had a
newborn – over four a half years now. I
am relearning everything, yet it is all so familiar and natural to me after
having been through this with three babies before. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Your birth was to be a planned home birth, seeing as our
third baby, Lucy, was accidentally born at home. We had seen a homebirth midwife team for one
initial appointment in late 2014 while pregnant with Mary Karol, and I had
initially planned on using them for you.
However, two people I know mentioned another midwife, Ouida Sinclair, who
lives closer to us and comes to pregnant moms’ homes for every prenatal
appointment. This was very appealing to
me, as the other set of midwives, who have a great reputation, were an hour’s
drive from our town. So we set up an
appointment to meet Ouida at our local coffee shop, Swift and Finch, once I was
about ten weeks pregnant and we had already seen your precious little form with
beating heart on ultrasound at about seven weeks. You see, I had been under the care of a
pro-life, NFP-only GYN in Atlanta after many months of inability to get
pregnant again after the miscarriage.
Dr. Raviele had my hormone levels checked and, as I had suspected, my
progesterone was low. Low progesterone
can not only interfere with the ability to conceive, but it can lead to first
trimester miscarriages if you do get pregnant.
So I was on progesterone for the first twelve weeks of my pregnancy with
you, and I am so thankful for the support it likely gave my body in helping to
carry you through those crucial early weeks of pregnancy. So after that ultrasound, I felt good about
securing a homebirth midwife to care for us throughout the pregnancy up until
the birth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ouida was very friendly, had been attending homebirths for
35 years, and actually charged $500-600 less than the midwives I would have had
to drive to every month – she was everything we could have wanted in a
midwife! So we set our first appointment
with her for a week later where we got to hear your little heartbeat come up
immediately on the Doppler. Ouida even
came back less than a week later when I was concerned because I had a tiny bit
of spotting and was worried about you – so she came back and found your
heartbeat for me again, even though her next visit wasn’t supposed to be for
three more weeks. She also didn’t
require any payment until I was 38 weeks pregnant! I can’t say enough good things about her
level of care throughout pregnancy. She
was great to have as our support throughout this pregnancy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLRmi_d6WxMCkVVrieV1zVrAQMTRBRDnWFkuAEkPiki_Hu66VHoLpQyXjSQksmwaJOUPJ71CmKsMKNXt3WK3s-ZAeyBEYe11jX5eMrcoi3GALwRNCohaPfUCcl6-vtrbGaBOIK/w858-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLRmi_d6WxMCkVVrieV1zVrAQMTRBRDnWFkuAEkPiki_Hu66VHoLpQyXjSQksmwaJOUPJ71CmKsMKNXt3WK3s-ZAeyBEYe11jX5eMrcoi3GALwRNCohaPfUCcl6-vtrbGaBOIK/w858-h643-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">announcing our pregnancy at the start of the second trimester in December</td></tr>
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My belly began to grow and I insisted on lots of profile
photos… when you have lost a baby, you try to make the most of every chance to
make a memory with future babies. I
began to feel your ever so slight movements around 12-13 weeks, and then began
to feel definite movements around weeks 16-18.
We were so excited to see you and find out that you were a girl at our
20 week ultrasound. Ouida, and pretty
much all the homebirth midwives in North Georgia, uses an OB in Atlanta named
Dr. Bootstaylor as her backup OB. He can
order bloodwork and do ultrasounds and anything else medical during the
pregnancy and is very supportive of homebirth.
We all went to Atlanta - Ouida met us there too, something else that not
every homebirth midwife will do! – and we saw you on ultrasound and learned
that you looked just perfect, growing right on track. The ultrasound tech said she was “over 90% positive”
that you were a girl, and over the next few weeks I began to picture our family
of all girls and how much beauty there would be in the gift of four sisters all
together. We went out to lunch afterwards
at a nearby Jason’s Deli to celebrate!</div>
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I continued to see my belly grow and Ouida came for monthly
appointments, and once I hit that 28 week mark and knew I was in the last
trimester, I began to breathe easier that you would soon be here in a few short
months. Sometimes they dragged by and
sometimes they seemed to fly, but your movements inside became even more precious
and I cherished the feeling of leaning back on our new couch every evening and
feeling you shift and kick. You liked to
have your rear end sticking out on my right side so that I was always slightly
asymmetrical. I could pat gently right
there on my belly and I’d see a foot or a knee jut up on my left side. Your heartbeat was always detected on my
right side lower down after about 20 weeks.
You had your head down early on, as all my babies have done. I loved carrying you, Phronsie, and I glowed
with adoration whenever I looked down and saw my swelling belly. I gladly accepted the backache that came with
the loose joints and added weight of pregnancy, because it meant I was getting
to grow another tiny human life inside me.
I look down at your sweet round head and soft skin now, almost a week
after your birth, and I almost can’t believe that you were in there giving me
all those sensations of movement. I miss
feeling you move inside of me now… however, I get to marvel at your movements
against my skin now, where you will pretty much live until you become mobile,
pressed up close against me nearly round the clock. You have left the inside of my body to now be
attached to the outside, continuing your gestation out here in the world as a
helpless tiny one, dependent on me for everything.<o:p></o:p><br />
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Also during the final trimester, I began to drink red
raspberry leaf tea… hot at first, then iced as the weather got hotter. I loved it and hoped it was helping to tone
my uterus as it supposedly does, helping with a quicker labor. I continued focusing on lots of protein for
strong membranes… cottage cheese with berries and cacao nibs was a favorite. I craved orange juice from pretty early on in
my pregnancy with you.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As I was in the final three weeks, knowing you could come
any time was exciting. My first three
pregnancies had all gone to 40 weeks and Ouida believed this one likely would
too, even as people would say, “Are you sure you’ll go to 40 weeks? You’re really big now; can you get any
bigger?” I got into week 39 and our
family attended an outdoor show of Midsummer Night’s Dream, in downtown Rome,
where we sat on the grass on blankets, and I began to think I couldn’t go much
longer because of how uncomfortable I was getting. I continued through that last week with plans
to stay very close to home. I started to
get a bit antsy halfway through that 39<sup>th</sup> week, seeing that pretty
much everything on my to-do list was crossed off, and knowing that now I was
simply waiting… waiting for you, waiting to meet you. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLH8RIUh3HuVF7i8Zb5kP24Y9Qj24yO0oMrlv4U17p-EVddU5lUZpx2i_QStD1CdVtz0KwhSpXmUCfvCYJr9iZC_YkgSFCZ1Cn9s8Z424ahNCrKis2rFwI3JmtmHmapJ7vTybz/w483-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLH8RIUh3HuVF7i8Zb5kP24Y9Qj24yO0oMrlv4U17p-EVddU5lUZpx2i_QStD1CdVtz0KwhSpXmUCfvCYJr9iZC_YkgSFCZ1Cn9s8Z424ahNCrKis2rFwI3JmtmHmapJ7vTybz/w483-h643-no/" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">full term at 37 weeks, and with my last pre-baby haircut!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaIZb1AbMk8T1frLvYV_5NnHbnj2Ww09i_oeo5w6DfuJDxIjwipv0-Lq7_3cv5-Ki1bPb44rVhgKdXDE1NnsiFdb6kqnP69Bo0bHk5QVSMILEdMecHPaZfsUVQTYpBz-3rCpy6/w858-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaIZb1AbMk8T1frLvYV_5NnHbnj2Ww09i_oeo5w6DfuJDxIjwipv0-Lq7_3cv5-Ki1bPb44rVhgKdXDE1NnsiFdb6kqnP69Bo0bHk5QVSMILEdMecHPaZfsUVQTYpBz-3rCpy6/w858-h643-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">at Midsummer Night's Dream at 39 weeks and feeling like a beached whale trying to get comfortable sitting on the ground!</td></tr>
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Your due date was June 7, a Tuesday. Ouida came for a prenatal appointment the
Thursday before and checked me to find I was dilated to two centimeters. She felt your position and remarked that you
felt right about eight pounds to her.
She also said she’d be in town on Monday checking on another client and
that she’d stop by and see how I was doing then. On Saturday I went out around 10am to run
errands, what I thought would likely be my last marathon errand trip for
awhile! I went to Aldi and bought frozen
pizzas for “emergency meals” post partum to have something to throw in the oven
for lunch quickly. I actually have never
spent as much as I did at Aldi that morning!
Frozen berries, bacon, I can’t even remember what else! I also went to the local coffee shop first
for one last “get a fun drink” trip for awhile and got a decaf java chip
frap. And I did the Krogering. I felt very close to labor just walking around
those stores, moving very slowly. In the
late afternoon we got ready to go to the 5:30 vigil Mass, and I sat through
that feeling exhausted and very, very “full” – that’s the best I can describe
it. We went to Bella Roma for dinner
after Mass… yes, I had eggplant parmesan to see if the old wives’ take would
work! Last family dinner out for awhile,
and it was delicious and we had fun. On
Sunday morning I actually felt better and like labor was not so eminent as it
had felt the day before. We just had an
overall lazy day at home. We did take a
long afternoon walk in the heat, me in my end-of-pregnancy maternity sun dress
from Old Navy, the only thing that fits comfortably at that stage. I was hoping some walking would encourage you
to get ready to come, and I did have a few contractions while walking. Lucy rode her scoot bike, and we walked out
of our neighborhood across Billy Pyle Road, and all the way down the newer
neighborhood road to the cul-de-sac and back. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiebPufV33ROfdRNTsIBSaXTvED_7dicFtFgqUgEUNRBbrCP8oci2Kvkjo7yrbU4MCiHZ0WwJ75abnyGEIlSbXU-RgLzsnBg4yVuRaZ4KVIqqRFsyE1bnSAlgnRNetV2IwRA_Q5/w483-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiebPufV33ROfdRNTsIBSaXTvED_7dicFtFgqUgEUNRBbrCP8oci2Kvkjo7yrbU4MCiHZ0WwJ75abnyGEIlSbXU-RgLzsnBg4yVuRaZ4KVIqqRFsyE1bnSAlgnRNetV2IwRA_Q5/w483-h643-no/" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saturday evening, one of the last baby bump pictures!</td></tr>
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I woke up Monday at 5:00 AM thinking maybe early labor was
beginning because I had a few contractions that felt slightly stronger than the
ones I’d been having randomly over the previous weeks. I didn’t wake Chris up, and they subsided
somewhere between 6-7:00. I slept a bit
more and then got up, thinking maybe this would be the day and if I moved
around some then they’d kick in again.</div>
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Over the morning I hardly had any contractions – maybe one
every hour and a half. I felt like I was
just waiting all day, in limbo. Around
11 am I had some “bloody show” but no increase in contractions. I had put my mom on alert after the early
morning contractions. Ouida came over
about 1pm, and I was surprised to see she had Teresa with her, who is her
partner – they back each other up at births so there are two sets of hands and
eyes to assist during labor and birth.
Teresa lives in Tennessee and will drive down here to attend Ouida’s
births, and Ouida will drive up there to assist at Teresa’s births. Teresa had come down on Sunday to be ready –
which is great because I didn’t know how quickly things would pick up! So I mentioned the bloody show to them but
that I wasn’t feeling contractions with any regularity, but they got excited
and said I’d likely be having the baby tonight or maybe the next morning. I still couldn’t believe it myself, but they
knew what they were talking about! They
checked baby’s heartbeat and Ouida mentioned I should take a nap if I could. They said they would stick close by, even
though at that point I felt like it wasn’t necessary… but I am very glad they
didn’t leave Rome! They went and walked
around at a few stores in the area. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At 4, I put on a movie for the kids and laid down. At 4:30 I woke up partway, noticed I was
having a contraction, and dozed off and on through three or four of them until
5. When I got up, they continued. Ouida had texted at 4:30 asking how things were
going… she knew somehow; it’s amazing to me!
I told her I’d had several contractions over a half hour while trying to
nap. She said they’d be there in five
minutes! I texted Chris and told him it
looked like contractions were picking up now, and was he about to leave
work? He said yes, as it was just after
5:00. Talk about perfect timing for him
to get in a full work day! Ouida and
Teresa arrived, bringing in all their supplies, and I finally realized maybe
this was really it! She checked me and I
was a little disappointed to only be at 3 cm, but I soon realized that didn’t
mean anything because of how rapidly my labor progressed. I called my mom and she asked if she should
leave right away or not, seeing as leaving Atlanta at 5:15 PM on a weekday
means you’ll be sitting in rush hour standstill traffic heading north on I-75 out
of town. I told her I’d call her back
shortly… Chris got home by 5:40 and things were continuing with frequent
contractions that I had to pause slightly through but not yet requiring full
concentration. I called my mom back just
a few minutes before 6 and said she should probably leave soon, and she said,
“I’m in the car leaving the neighborhood right now.” So all my support people were there or moving
into place, and things started to pick up rapidly and get intense. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I went to the bathroom and changed into my bathrobe. Ouida and Teresa had the waterproof mattress
cover and the old fitted sheet on the bed before I came back out. After sitting on the exercise ball a few
minutes and then standing and leaning on Chris through a few contractions,
they’d gotten strong enough that I wanted to lie down and really be able to
relax through them. I resumed my
favorite intense labor position, on my side with one arm behind me, and laid
still and tried to release all tension as each contraction came. Chris was kneeling by the bed near my head,
and he was timing the contractions and writing them down… we said before they
got intense that he really didn’t need to do that this time – the midwives were
there, we didn’t need to decide when to leave to go anywhere… but I said I
wanted a record just to see how they played out this time and because all my
other births have a contraction log that Chris made! So he kept track once they began getting more
intense at 6:00 and continued for an hour until the point when they became too
intense and he could focus better on me.
Ouida rubbed my feet with lotion through some of the contractions and
Teresa rubbed my back and shoulders, commenting on how soft my bathrobe was and
that she wanted one, and Ouida said she’d get her one, ha ha. Chris was feeding me ice chips made of tea
between contractions… I’d brewed a very strong batch of red raspberry leaf tea
and frozen it in ice cube trays a few weeks before, and he went and crushed
some up and spoon fed it to me from a bowl.
He also got crackers from my snack basket I’d prepared… Go Raw pizza
flavor sprouted seed crackers. I also
had dried papaya spears (I found them at our natural foods store and am
addicted!), mini peanut butter sandwich crackers (Horizon brand), and some
cacao almond crunch stuff that I made a week prior (recipe found on Food Babe
website; she calls it “candy” but it is not!).
Labor was so quick that all I ate was the pizza flavor sprouted
crackers, but the others would come in handy afterward. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN23miBRXmhFBqpMS7A2InhVPgVf3TB6Eu0AxDthElXRGdSoUjHc6nOoovupQAnoacYihvMWTodSlT9D3vL5XAcIMGV0PMmHffIZD8L7hEhq6wjTrvsVljbaTs-cF_xIN9ur6d/w483-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN23miBRXmhFBqpMS7A2InhVPgVf3TB6Eu0AxDthElXRGdSoUjHc6nOoovupQAnoacYihvMWTodSlT9D3vL5XAcIMGV0PMmHffIZD8L7hEhq6wjTrvsVljbaTs-cF_xIN9ur6d/w483-h643-no/" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the contraction log... there is just one more on the back, only about an hour's worth because she was born 45 minutes later!</td></tr>
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At some point I thought maybe I was close to pushing – I had
to be, I thought, because I knew I couldn’t take much more of the intensity and
said so, recognizing transition this time… and having that sensation in my
outer thighs, like I was splitting apart, and remembering that as coming soon
before I had to push with Lucy. I got on
my hands and knees and realized after a few contractions that I wasn’t quite to
pushing yet and decided to lay back flat into the bed, where I could better relax
through these last powerful contractions that would get me to the end. Ouida checked me again at this point and
found I was dilated to 8 but had a cervical lip – this is where the edge of the
cervix is over the baby’s head slightly, and sometimes it can delay labor, or sometimes
it can move on its own pretty quickly.
So Ouida pulled it back through a couple contractions – which was
horribly uncomfortable! – and then said it seemed to be stretching over your
head at that point, so she left it alone after that and I was very soon ready
to push. I had gotten quite loud at this
point, higher-pitched than I’d ever been in labor, Chris told me later. I had wanted to push on hands and knees but
also didn’t have the energy or motivation to get back onto hands and knees… it
doesn’t seem like it would be difficult to go from side-lying to hands and
knees, especially when at that same point in a previous labor you have gotten
up from a seated position, taken a couple steps, and gotten down on hands and
knees… but at that moment it seemed a monumental task. In retrospect I wish I’d made myself do it
anyway because gravity would have helped me push easier. Nonetheless, it only took five or so minutes
of pushing to get you out. I had that
urge, that feeling of something heavy suddenly there, and gave my first push
cautiously. After that, the body starts
to take over. When they realized I was
pushing on my side, Chris held my top leg up (and out of Ouida’s face, ha) and
I could feel your head coming close to crowning. I felt that burning sensation as you crowned
and remember thinking I hadn’t felt it with Lucy because she’d come out in just
two pushes with membranes still intact. You
entered more slowly, but still came out after about five minutes. No tearing, and hardly any swelling or
discomfort afterwards either. For
comparison, I’d pushed for an hour and a half with Caroline, breaking the water
in the process, and for 15 minutes with Cecilia, with water already
broken. So Chris used one hand to hold
my leg and another to put under you as you emerged, while Ouida guided you out
with her hands. As your head came out,
they could see that the membrane was still over your head. I remember hearing Teresa and Ouida comment right
before you crowned that it felt like the membrane was still there and that they
didn’t think the sack had broken. Your
body came out completely, and the membrane was tearing around your chin and you
were making some gurgling sounds, so they decided to pull it off right away due
to that… so I again missed seeing my baby still in the sack, just like with
Lucy! I did have a view of you right
after that, and reached down to feel you, and I felt that the membrane was
rolling down around your middle. Ouida
put you on my belly and I pulled you up on me.
You were crying loudly and nice and pink. You didn’t want to nurse right away but were
nice and active. I got my sports bra
that I’d been wearing off so you could nurse soon. I’d thrown off my bathrobe at some point
earlier, maybe when I had tried getting on my hands and knees. You sounded a bit gurgly in the throat so
Ouida suctioned your mouth once with a bulb syringe, and after that and I got you
calmed down a bit, you began to look for the breast. We left the cord intact and called the other
kids in.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixWeVqGBxAzGSywrDsNw1Bj2hDxbC1vAQ-EDjJKLC76H-k1W7WPaq2uTiHxFdWa6wsl18NRwxvA6IUeZG6BeizaaOrwkoRm5zkYTderFn-EWJcGzJ-7uFGZnNPo0qiQnRB7fdR/w858-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixWeVqGBxAzGSywrDsNw1Bj2hDxbC1vAQ-EDjJKLC76H-k1W7WPaq2uTiHxFdWa6wsl18NRwxvA6IUeZG6BeizaaOrwkoRm5zkYTderFn-EWJcGzJ-7uFGZnNPo0qiQnRB7fdR/w858-h643-no/" width="400" /></a></div>
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My mom had arrived about 7:40 and had come in and found the
kids in the backyard (they had gone out there when I’d gotten loud at the end),
so she stayed out there talking to them a few minutes and must’ve come back in
the house right at or after 7:50, because she went back out and told the girls
that she heard a baby crying! So they
came in to see her and they all felt the cord, which we had not yet cut but had
stopped pulsing at that point. Chris cut
it a few minutes later and then Ouida felt that my uterus was still very high
up, so they wanted me to try to push the placenta out. I did, and they pushed on my belly on the
outside to help get it out as they encouraged me to keep pushing. I later realized that they were concerned
with it still being up so high that it might have bleeding up behind that they
wouldn’t see until it came out. The
uterus usually gets lower more quickly than that, apparently. So I nursed to help it along and pushed it
out and they examined it closely under the flashlight from Teresa’s cell
phone. In the ultrasound I’d had an
extra little lobe visible on the placenta, but it appeared that it had fused
together with the rest of the placenta.
Right after you were born and before the placenta was out, Chris helped
me dig into my snacks a little more – I was hungry! He opened the peanut butter crackers and
between me, him, Ouida, and Teresa, we finished off the whole box quickly. They were good! <o:p></o:p></div>
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You nursed awhile and then Ouida put you on the scale – you
were 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 21 inches long, and your head was 14 cm. We took some family photos on the bed and
Ouida got your footprints on a certificate with your full name, Frances
Philomena Lewis, and your measurements on it.
I ate dinner, which had been prepared in my manic nesting cooking frenzy
on Saturday – I’d put a dish of chicken tetrazzini in the fridge, intending it
for dinner on Sunday and then deciding to switch it to Monday, as Chris was
home Sunday to help prep another meal we’d planned for the week, not knowing
which day labor would hit! He had put
the tetrazzini in the oven after getting home so my mom and the kids would have
dinner all ready for them – that truly worked out perfectly. And it was a big enough dish that the
midwives could eat some too, so everyone was fed! After the hard work of labor, it tasted so
warm and wonderful to me!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">first family photo with all six of us</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDweqRU57w6rzf-Umxz2c_A4U-cDmLgakt4ExivXzrULyNWtZ6gxP-gcwgJ9KmRqHpV8fLA2UQbdw35DdCDtMbF5bHMwLW9kiyKGj9oN5EGSSpCiuPGnN2ANWortq89EFpttP/w858-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDweqRU57w6rzf-Umxz2c_A4U-cDmLgakt4ExivXzrULyNWtZ6gxP-gcwgJ9KmRqHpV8fLA2UQbdw35DdCDtMbF5bHMwLW9kiyKGj9oN5EGSSpCiuPGnN2ANWortq89EFpttP/w858-h643-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">getting weighed and measured</td></tr>
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After a bit, I got up to go to the bathtub. When they’d arrived, Ouida had asked if I
wanted to start steeping my postpartum bath herbs so I could soak in the bath
afterwards, and I wasn’t sure if I would want to bathe right away or not… but after
the birth, I thought that sounded nice, so Chris got the herbs steeping and the
tub filled. I soaked in the tub with you
nursing on my chest for awhile, then my mom and Chris took you and dried you
off and Ouida pulled out a onesie to put on you. My mom held you awhile and Ouida helped me
out of the tub and to dry off… then it was back into the comfy bathrobe and
into bed to rest and nurse more. The
midwives had cleaned up everything while I was in the bath, towels and the
sheet had been thrown in the wash and the bed was remade, and everything was
nice and comfy. Ouida asked Chris to
lead a prayer of Thanksgiving for your birth before they left and said she’d be
back within 24 hours to check on us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bath bliss!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOBbw94aXGg4ML__sXJVh5jNjdau9iPVctW6aLg5A4EUNjlg1beJ1SOCiQOZlAAMQrUEj6OCohODDK1_HNM7zFJYPNcI4bcEDgmfV1Q34cLynT9qkGBO4IJ0GW8xK_IDP0kNU/w858-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOBbw94aXGg4ML__sXJVh5jNjdau9iPVctW6aLg5A4EUNjlg1beJ1SOCiQOZlAAMQrUEj6OCohODDK1_HNM7zFJYPNcI4bcEDgmfV1Q34cLynT9qkGBO4IJ0GW8xK_IDP0kNU/w858-h643-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">with Gramma</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtj08OuMCLUOhi5jzyf1h6Qoi-JFt9LL9K0An0QFKGRN1pROe24JCIQeD8l9nVEiOiM3CDqu-va1g0h3hTkHRZwY0jBGrnrFO-l9bnzts4hm7NhBbaUTAVhNSQOYrOiAy_qfA/w858-h643-no/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtj08OuMCLUOhi5jzyf1h6Qoi-JFt9LL9K0An0QFKGRN1pROe24JCIQeD8l9nVEiOiM3CDqu-va1g0h3hTkHRZwY0jBGrnrFO-l9bnzts4hm7NhBbaUTAVhNSQOYrOiAy_qfA/w858-h643-no/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">nursing in the tub</td></tr>
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You were here at last, four hours before your due date! I’ve been swelling with love for you over the
past week and falling totally in love with your perfect round head and soft
hair and precious sweet skin! We love
you, Phronsie, so very much!!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ouida with Phronsie a week after the birth.... we forgot to get any photos with her at the birth!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ouida and me</td></tr>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-8896034744666783312016-02-10T00:20:00.004-05:002016-02-10T09:07:16.448-05:00Getting Ready for Baby! (an update, at last)I have not written anything here in many months. To my two faithful readers, I apologize, ha ha. <br />
<br />
The big news is that we are finally pregnant again - 23 weeks pregnant now! We found out on the second morning of our trip to Austin that I shared photos of in the last post. It couldn't have been more perfect - a very rare husband/wife trip away (first one ever since kids) and finding out that we'd actually brought one along with us! That was beautiful to me. This baby is looking great, everything measuring normally, feeling lots of kicks and movements, and she looked great on the ultrasound we had two weeks ago. That's right, she - of course, what else did I expect? ;) Good thing I don't have to change my blog name or buy any baby clothes, ha.<br />
<br />
But I am definitely planning for and joyfully anticipating this baby, and I thought I'd write down my plans here, because I need to write them somewhere anyway!<br />
<br />
The topics:<br />
Nesting (aka cleaning the house)<br />
Things I Need (aka minimalism with a baby)<br />
Getting Ready (aka freezer meals and prep for postpartum, birth supply list)<br />
The Birth Plans (at home, like, intentionally this time)<br />
Hopes for the Babymoon<br />
Consciously Embracing and Enjoying (in case this is my last baby; I will turn 37 this summer, ack!)<br />
<br />
First off, I want to say this: pregnancy following a loss is very challenging emotionally. Lost is the innocence of pregnancy before a loss, where everything is guaranteed to turn out fine. You know now that things don't always turn out fine, that babies die, and so you worry more. Every milestone seems like a huge accomplishment: heartbeat on ultrasound at 7 weeks, heartbeat with doppler at 12 weeks, moving into that second trimester measuring normally at 14 weeks, beginning to feel movements, 20 week anatomy ultrasound, first kick felt exteriorly by husband... age of viability coming up soon for us now. The truth is, loss makes you realize that while each milestone is an accomplishment that improves the odds, there is no guarantee until you have that baby in your arms. Even then, there's no guarantee... you could lose them still in a week or a decade or once they are adults. A loss causes you to think things through more deeply like this, to consider thoughts you'd never had before.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you feel a twinge or ache and think, "Good or bad? Normal pregnancy growth feelings, or something is horribly wrong?" This was worst before about 14 weeks for me, but it still never fully leaves, apparently, until the baby is born safely. Losing a baby I never met, then experiencing what I define as being borderline infertility for ten agonizing months, and now going through this next pregnancy with hopes for the best as fears linger in the back of my mind and heart... It is all worth it for the chance at having a new member of the family join in to experience life on earth with the rest of us. But it sure isn't a simple walk in the park!<br />
<br />
Going past my lost baby's due date and not being pregnant again yet was awful. Not even knowing if she was actually a girl, wondering if we chose the right name, is a mind game that doesn't go away. How can you be 100% sure of a feeling, a dream, when you never met and held and saw that tiny person? You can't; I don't care how good you think your intuition may be, you just don't know for sure. Knowing a gender for sure might make grieving more... tangible? Not easier, but less like a bad nightmare and more like tragic reality. Then the unexpected difficulty of passing the dates of finding out she had died and the actual miscarriage date... while pregnant again, and thankfully at the start of the second trimester, when we do have more hope that a pregnancy will continue with a good outcome... but wow, I expected it to be sad, but it was worse than I'd expected. I had been generally happy and thankful and relieved to finally be pregnant again, as I had been starting to fear that it was not really going to happen again. But when those dates came... those dates marking when I lost my baby that I never held or saw, dates that I felt the emotions and nobody really even knew because nobody remembered that as a significant date - or if remembered, my lost baby was not acknowledged or memorialized in any way to me in mid-December, one year later... which dragged my emotions into a bad place of, "Did she really even exist? If she's barely tangible to me, then of course she's not to other people; get real, you expected somebody to send a card or mention her name or something?" I understand it is different for a person who was seen, touched, known even if briefly... my baby was none of those, and if I cannot remember her tangibly, then I cannot hope that others will acknowledge her... if she was a her. See what I mean? It was a traumatic ER experience, losing my fourth baby, and maybe it was like a mild PTSD. And again, nobody expects a "thinking of you on the anniversary of your emergency hospitalization" card... so really why was I expecting, hoping for some kind of acknowledgement? I wasn't going to announce the anniversary date to people; I only mentioned to a few others who I knew would understand that it was the date of the loss... other people who have lost, too. I am glad to say that it was only about a week that I was dragged down into that sadness, and now I know that I might go through it again next December, and if so, it will not last. And I will have a new baby in my arms and consuming my time and emotions then, thankfully. God is so good - I didn't have to go through that anniversary with an empty womb. I have also had to tell myself that I don't need to expect anyone else to validate my lost baby to me - she is remembered and loved by me on that date, and nothing else matters. The quote "a person's a a person no matter how small" comes to mind here. She was so small that nobody ever saw her, yet I can still choose to remember and acknowledge her life myself.<br />
<br />
Something I have learned in this is that I want to acknowledge other miscarried babies to their mothers... I know moms who have lost babies to miscarriage before, but have not known one to go through it while I was a close friend or family member. Maybe I won't have to, but if somebody close to me goes through a miscarriage in the future, I will take my own experience and think about what helped me in the immediate days - like the people who watched our other children for us, those who sent cards or other small gift remembrances... but also, I am going to try to remember the date of the loss. Maybe the following year that mother can feel a little better when somebody mentions her baby to her and that he or she is being thought of on that anniversary, or to receive a card acknowledging the day in a "thinking of you" kind of way. These kind of tangible items are very meaningful to those of us who lost babies of whom we don't even have a photo, a piece of clothing they wore, maybe not even a final resting place - or an unknown on whether we actually buried our child's remains or not. The tangibles are not what is truly important because we can't take them with us... but in the imperfect presence of life on earth, they can help to soothe the sadness. If the awful thought can be alleviated in a mother's mind of, "am I the only one today who is remembering what happened on this date?" then that is huge. Even if it is just a text, a passing verbal comment, a little brief note... something I plan to do for any of my close friends or family if they have to go through a miscarriage at some point and I am aware of the date, even the month during which it happened.<br />
<br />
So, trying to focus on this fifth baby and all the love and hopes I have for her, for preparing the home and family for her birth... what are some of my plans? What do I need to get moving on and have done between now and June? Looking forward with excitement to this has been another healing part of this journey, and it is one I am anticipating with lots of joy!<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">~Nesting~</span></div>
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I am already having the urge to clean everything lately. My key areas:<br />
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* Kitchen cabinets: I already got rid of most of my plastic food storage containers, replaced with glass Pyrex containers with lids that I got for Christmas! I really want to go through all the plastic cups and water bottles that we seem to accrue somehow and purge most of them. More glass and real dishes, and the junky stuff will get tossed.<br />
<br />
* Hall closet: I have four bins in there that can probably be partially purged or at least moved to the attic. I mean, do I really need to be able to get to my high school yearbooks easily? Or my childhood Snoopy collection? If I can get those bins out of there, I will have room for more bins for the girls' shoes: we now own every single size imaginable, as Caroline's feet are equivalent to a woman's size 7... Did you know girls' 5 is the same as women's 7? I just learned this. Maybe I can also use the space for the next season's clothes bins. The weather changes gradually here, where you need shorts for a couple weeks and then back to jeans and long sleeves, so this would be helpful. My kids have too many clothes for each season, and as such, I can't just stuff both seasons into their drawers and closets. And I don't have the time/energy to sort through all the bins and decide what to get rid of; usually I will just pull out what I consider to be a non-overwhelming number of items each season and the rest get put back in the attic. I don't mind excess clutter that is out of sight, it is just the process of trying to sort through it all. Cecilia has had, I kid you not, 30-40 shirts in each of the last few season's bins. I do not know how this happens. I only pull out maybe 15 of the nicest shirts, after a few seasons of overwhelmedness with so many shirts she couldn't close her drawers.<br />
<br />
* Craft closet: Oh, who am I kidding; that's just not gonna happen. It all stays hidden in there anyway. If I needed more space for craft stuff, I would need to purge it... but as my girls get older, they will like the access to scrapbook supplies and everything else in there.<br />
<br />
* Dining room: We are getting our chairs!! Five custom-made oak chairs and a bench to go with our half antique/half custom made oak table. We decided to go ahead and use some Christmas gift money to buy oak instead of pine - it costs a lot more but is a much harder, sturdier wood that will match the table and stand the test of time. We'll be able to seat at least nine people at our table this way, 11-12 by pulling up a couple more chairs. I love squeezing everybody in at a big table at family gatherings. This is the most we will probably ever spend on furniture, ha ha. I love our assortment of hand me down/gifted furniture. My mom recently mentioned that her old coffee table that we have in our den is from Ethan Allen. Good job, I told her - now I'm never getting rid of that thing!! I don't care if the finish is rubbed off the edges; it is super sturdy and smooth, and what's a coffee table when there are better things to spend money on? It is functional and well-made.<br />
<br />
* Speaking of furniture, we got a huge new couch, which has been on the list of home improvements for awhile. It is a sectional, but not the redneck kind with built-in cupholders and made of fake leather. It is high and deep, which I love. And it cost less than the chairs and benches will, yet it was the firmest one we sat on when looking in at least five different stores. Now all we need is a taller floor lamp, since our old one looks pitiful trying to peek over the higher back of this couch!<br />
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* Toys: Time to go through them yet again and decide what to give away. Obviously it is not that I have toys they have outgrown, because there are more little girls coming along to move into the right stages for all the toys we have... it's just too much. Like my plastic cup cabinet in the kitchen, ha. Caroline just got a closet shelf organizer installed - she and Chris put it in together. So that will help them keep their Calico Critter and dollhouse things organized, plus make more room for her hanging clothes and the hanging clothes that are between Cecilia and Lucy's current sizes. I already keep at least half or more of the toys in a latched cabinet and let them switch out occasionally. But once that cabinet is full... I'm not going to find another space. The cabinet is at full capacity and I have still not quite evaluated whether all the Christmas gifts have made it into there yet, if they are not some of the current toys out in rotation. The board game shelves are completely full; I should probably purge those and see which ones we have somehow yet never play (first on my list to go would be Trivial Pursuit; I'm awful at that, ha!). But really, do we need real Monopoly and The Simpsons Monopoly? Do we need multiple memory matching games? Do we need a dedicated set of "Old Maid" cards, or can we just be normal people who use the regular deck of cards to play Old Maid? There are some fun strategy type games that I know we will like having as the girls get older, and so I want us to only keep the ones we really want and enjoy. The craft kit and art supply shelf is also packed full right now. Hoping for a rainy day soon where maybe some of those will get enjoyed and moved out. The books... I did a purge/reorganize of adult books and school books when we moved our schoolroom last summer. The kid books: Caroline has a huge bookshelf full of her chapter books. She reads a LOT, so this is good, but there is only so much room. So we took a little shelf out of her closet and moved it into the little girls' room to start moving some of the shorter chapter books onto for Cecilia. The picture book shelf in their room: full. So that is one I need to go through and cull. I am a book snob, trying to keep only quality literature around - because why keep the really lame stuff when there is not room? It is part of my homeschool philosophy; surround them with quality literature as a natural way to instruct them in language arts. So bye bye, <i>Hippo Lemonade</i>; I don't think I can stand reading you one more time, even though you were mine in my childhood. I will, however, keep <i>Moose, Goose, and Little Nobody,</i> because really, some lame books are just beyond any others, in a class by themselves. But these are a major exception and not the rule - as primary educator to these children, I make very considered choices on the books we own and keep. And part of that brings me to the next item...<br />
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* School stuff: We have lots of book and paper material in our house that normal people don't have. Most people don't have books and materials for grades K-5 on shelves and in bins and file cabinet drawers in their homes. This takes up space, and is another reason why I can't keep lame children's books or grown-up books that are never referenced or read. To try to explain to people why I get overwhelmed easily when extra stuff is brought into my home, I mention that most people aren't going to keep in their homes every book and material they needed from their school classrooms from grades K-12. But I have to save the 5th grade materials for when the younger kids get there. Lots of books, as we do a pretty literature-based way of learning. So... I need to plan 6th grade for Caroline, obtain the needed books, and then gather up the old 3rd grade materials for Cecilia, so I will be ready for August. And move out anything we don't need or use. <br />
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I am sure there is more stuff to clean and organize... and I may not get to it all. I still have a school year to finish up here and would like to make a dent in planning for next school year before the baby is born!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">~Things I Need~</span></div>
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Not much that I need for this baby! I have plenty of baby girl clothes in all sizes and seasons at this point. A few items...<br />
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* a new sling. My Maya Wrap sling has been through three babies/toddlers and was used when I bought it, and the fabric is getting slick where the rings are. This makes it harder to adjust and keep it tight. I always loved padded ring slings with babies under six months, but that would be hot in the summer, plus they seem to have gone out of fashion and are hard to find. I loved the Over the Shoulder Baby Holder brand, but I don't think they make those any more, unfortunately. A friend recommended the Lenny Lamb slings. They have lots of pretty fabrics, like <a href="http://us.lennylamb.com/web_page/5500">this one</a> and <a href="http://us.lennylamb.com/web_page/5287">this one</a>. They also have <a href="http://us.lennylamb.com/shop/by/erp_product_type/ergonomic_carriers">soft structured carriers</a>, maybe one of those down the road when baby is bigger, because my Ergo has a loose buckle, and it has never fit me very comfortably on my narrow shoulders... I will need to do some major research first on which type of carrier has straps that are accommodating to narrow shoulders.<br />
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* I'm considering a new rocking chair/glider. The one we have has very thin padding on the arms, making it painful to lean against while nursing a bigger baby or toddler to sleep. I can probably hold off on this; I spend the most time in the glider once the baby is 6-9 months and older. I am gathering info on which ones are most comfortable and would have to decide between a more traditional glider like I have already, or a chair with no exposed wood, like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/babyletto-M9887PP-Babyletto-Trapeze-Glider/dp/B00QJT7QT4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8">this one</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dorel-Asia-Swivel-Glider-Taupe/dp/B00I2HDG7W/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1454817951&sr=1-2&keywords=babyletto+bento+glider">this one</a>. Ouch on the cost of that first one especially; the second one might be more comfortable to slouch over to the side in with the wings for head support!<br />
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* Evaluate diaper supplies. We use mostly cotton prefolds, and the newborn ones are probably still in excellent condition. The covers will need to be looked over, and the size after newborn probably needs some help, as I think my kids tend to stay in those until they are out of diapers; they never get big enough to need the toddler-size prefolds before they are three. So we've never bought any of those. The Bummis covers we like did start to leak on Lucy and we had to get some more; those will need to be looked over. Probably some additional prefolds, covers, and maybe a few pocket diapers will be helpful. I have been out of the cloth diaper market for awhile; some people are obsessed with buying them and there are tons of brands and patterns. I like to stay pretty cheap with the diapers, so prefolds and basic covers work well, with the occasional pocket diaper or fun cover thrown in here and there. I also love the Aristocrats wool covers for overnight, or as Chris has affectionately nicknamed them, bum sweaters. I have a few of them and will have to make sure they are still in good shape - it has been so long since I've been changing diapers now!<br />
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Baby needs nothing else bought, except a car seat. Again, so many new ones out there now that I will have to do some research. I am also looking into a new <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/StarbrightBaby">"chew-raffe."</a> We somehow lost Lucy's; it probably fell out of the car somewhere since we took it everywhere. I contacted the Etsy shop owner to ask if they still have that same fabric that our old one was made from, and they do!!! So I can get this baby the same one.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">~Getting Ready~</span></div>
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This might just be the most fun thing to plan... what will I need to prepare for the birth and the early postpartum weeks? These are things I will need to get ready in the month or two before the birth.</div>
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First up, freezer meals. I plan to make some double meals in the last couple months so we can freeze one and eat the other. Some that freeze well are chili, chicken soups/stews, lasagna... I will also hopefully make some batches of chicken stock and beef stock to freeze in two cup portions to be pulled out as needed. I'm thinking nourishing here, so the homemade stocks are the way to go. I'm also thinking of what other foods might be best to have on hand and to ask my husband and my mommy to make for us in the early weeks! It will be June and warmish to hot (because this is the South; you never know for sure in early June if it will be comfortable warm or stifling warm). </div>
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Here are the foods I want for labor/immediately after:</div>
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* orange juice - good to replenish the blood sugar really quickly after delivery</div>
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* <a href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/04/14/raw-cacao-candy-crunch/">Raw Cacao Candy Crunch</a> (it is not candy; the Food Babe must've been delusional when she named it)</div>
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* During Lucy's labor I was eating some peanut butter crackers right up until maybe a half hour before she was born... those were easy to eat between contractions, so I may do that again. Nothing worse that laboring for hours without eating anything!</div>
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* I am hooked on these dried papaya spears I have bought at our local health food store. Those will also be easy to eat during labor.</div>
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* I'd like to have some good postpartum herbal teas ready to brew and drink. Although iced tea might be more palatable in the heat, warming foods are good for postpartum women in those early weeks. But I can have teas on hand to have either hot or cold. <a href="http://www.modernalternativemama.com/2013/02/25/monday-health-wellness-nourishing-postpartum-tea/">This postpartum tea</a> sounds good, and I'm pretty sure all these herbs are in the bulk section of my natural foods store. <a href="http://realfoodoutlaws.com/diy-postpartum-tea/">This tea</a> is more involved with more herbs in it, but may be another good option. Red Raspberry leaf and nettle seem to be a popular ingredient in both pregnancy and postpartum teas. It is good for toning the uterus. Some sources say to wait until closer to the third trimester to drink raspberry leaf tea; my midwife agrees and says in the third trimester 2-3 cups a day is fine.</div>
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* Lactation cookies: not because they really work, but because they are yummy, ha ha. There is anecdotal evidence that oats, flaxseed, and brewer's yeast help with lactation, but I don't think women have to eat certain things to produce milk. Can't hurt to have them and they taste good, though, so I may make some dough up ahead of time and freeze into balls to pull out and bake easily.<br />
* Something to consider: placenta encapsulation. Going to ask the midwife about this as she knows people who will do it for you. If you don't already know what that is, then you probably don't want to find out, either!</div>
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What else to prepare? Well, I get to shop for birth supplies, and I am so excited about that! Didn't think it could be fun to shop for postpartum mommy hygiene products and that sort of thing? Well, maybe I am weird then, but I had a great time <a href="http://www.inhishands.com/">perusing this website</a> the other day... since we are planning a home birth, I will need to buy some supplies for the birth and postpartum that the hospital would typically have there as part of my delivery fee. Midwives typically tell you specifically what birth supplies they want you to have on hand before labor begins. Some of the necessities will be:<br />
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* waterproof mattress cover (if you plan to give birth in your bed - which I do - as soon as labor begins or even beforehand to be ready, you have somebody put a set of sheets on the bed, cover them with a waterproof cover, and then another set of sheets. This makes cleanup simple after the birth - strip off the top sheets and the waterproof cover, and you are ready to climb into bed on fresh sheets with your newborn!</div>
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* towels</div>
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* postpartum hygiene supplies for me - I'll spare you the details, but I hear that Depends are much better than those hug pads they send home with you from the hospital, ha!<br />
* Peri bottle... and maybe some nice soothing herbs to soak in the water first. There are also lots of postpartum herbs on the In His Hands site both for steeping for tea and steeping in a warm bath to be soothing in the days after birth. Those might be nice!<br />
* Speaking of herbs that are soothing, I made several of these herb-stuffed pads when Lucy was about to be born... and I only used a few with her as I had no tearing and minimal discomfort. I realized I still have the rest of them in a ziplock under the bathroom sink... you soak them in boiling water and then use them on top of a regular pad. I wish i could remember where I found the recipe... I have no idea what herbs are in them! I made them by stitching together unbleached coffee filters with he herbs in between.<br />
* nursing bras: I could use a few new ones that aren't all stretched out. The Walmart and Target ones only last so long. I really liked the one Bravado bra I had; maybe I will get one more of those. It was very comfy and supportive and lasted through the entire time Cecilia nursed (3.5 years) before it got really pitiful.<br />
* My midwife will let me know if we need to have supplies like chux pads, etc. Some midwives will have the clamp for the umbilical cord; others will include it in the supply kit that you order.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">~The Birth Plan~</span></div>
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It's pretty simple, I suppose. The basic plan is to call the midwife, and she and her assistant come over. They support me through labor and birth while Chris and I do most of the work ourselves. Chris will be the one supporting me and helping to actually deliver the baby; the two of us can actually catch the baby ourselves with the midwives just there in case of problems. We did it once before ourselves, so we know what we're doing, ha ha - but having trained professionals there as a "just in case" is the smart way to go here. Being at home, as I have been through the majority of all my past labors, I can walk around, shower or soak in the bath, eat and drink when I feel like it, lay on my bed or the floor, etc. I have a big exercise ball we can blow up for me to sit on if I want, helping with opening up the pelvis. <br />
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When the baby is born, she will go to my chest and stay there - no bath. We will cut the cord after several minutes, maybe even after the placenta is delivered. The baby will be weighed at some point, then put back skin to skin with me. It will be warmish, being June, but I will cover her with a hooded baby robe so that she stays warm on her back while having it open in the front for more skin to skin contact. And I plan for us to stay that way for a good long while! I'll eventually put a diaper on her at some point. Those postpartum uterine contractions as the baby nurses and signals the mother's uterus to contract back to its normal size... those get more and more intense with every birth. They are doing their job well!! Those alone are reason enough to stay in bed for a good long while!<br />
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I will have some snacks and easy to grab foods on hand for the midwives... in case labor is long, or they are there right at a meal time. I plan to ask them first what kinds of things they'd like me to have there. I also have to consider that labor could be in the middle of the day as opposed to the night (one can only hope - Lucy's daytime labor and birth was so much easier than Caroline's 11 pm birth and Cecilia's middle of the night wakeup call/rush to the hospital!)... if so, the kids will be awake and I will call my mom to come up to hang out with them... probably taking them outside to play or on a walk or to the park for the actual birth part, but keeping them nearby so they can meet their sister pretty soon after she's born. If it is the middle of the night, we will probably just let them sleep and not worry about it! My mom ca come here and sleep in case they need her, ha. The midwife likes there to be somebody assigned to the care of the other children, somebody who is not helping with the birth. My second labor was only 3 hours (maybe less?), my third one was 6 hours. Unless it appears that there is any trouble, then I assume this one will not be too long either. <br />
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I would really like to hire a birth photographer for this time. Maybe that sounds weird, or frivolous, but I have a few reasons. Lucy's birth has no photos associated with it. Not one was taken until maybe 45 minutes or more later in the hospital. And she was born in the caul - how cool would that have been to have captured in a photograph! So, I kinda want to make up for the lack of photos from my last birth... and if super lucky, get to have another in an intact bag of waters, maybe? Don't know how likely it is that this will happen in subsequent births. Second reason is because I have no photos of my fourth child. Having that loss makes me want to celebrate this baby even more, to be able to treasure this time, and photos as a way to remember will be a good thing to have. And what if this is my last baby? Might be my last chance for birth photos. These photographers do this very tastefully, I might add... while they capture the actual birth, it is of the baby and not like a legs spread wide kind of angle. They are good at shooting in low lighting with no flash, and at capturing the emotion and beauty of the scene rather than any gory details. I have seen the work of one who lives in the NW GA area, and she also would do a maternity photo shoot at Berry, which I would love. Again, maybe it is a frivolous use of money, but it is about treasuring this baby and the process that I didn't get to have with the last baby and that I only get to have a few times in my life, that each baby will only go through once.</div>
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Chris will take at least three or four days off work after the birth, and we will just bond as a family, with me resting and caring for the baby and him taking care of the other kids' needs. Then once he goes back to work I will want family and friends to help! My mom and mother in law both typically come and stay in the few weeks after the birth; their support is crucial and so appreciated so I can continue to recover, nurture the baby and start off with a healthy milk supply, while the other kids are cared for and meals are made for all. I am excited that this baby is due when my mom is off from work during the summer - she's a preschool director - so maybe she can stay for a whole week or more. My only problem... I don't have a guest bed, and I know that does not help with encouraging people to stay and help very long. :/ The kids giving up their beds won't even help - Lucy's is on box springs on the floor under a low loft, Cecilia's is in the low loft that probably isn't even rated for adult weights, and Caroline's is a loft that is six feet off the floor. Not the easiest beds for grandparents to sleep in. Otherwise, we have an air mattress. Maybe I should think creatively about sleeping accommodations in the next few months...<br />
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That brings us to...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">~My Hopes for the Babymoon~</span></div>
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This is the part where I always say, "With this baby, I'm going to stay in bed at least a week..." and then it never happens. :( Modern society says get back into things, "back to normal," as soon as you can. Many women overdo this and don't give their body enough time to heal and recover from the marathon they have just been through. I did better this last time with Lucy, but I still didn't quite stay in bed very much. Many cultures traditionally have the mother stay in bed for a month, her only responsibility to care for the newborn, while other women would do the cooking and caring for the house, and make sure the mother is fed.<br />
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I will, realistically, have to leave the house for a pediatrician checkup within the first week. Luckily, my midwife comes back to check on me at home, first in the next day or two after the birth and then again at about six weeks. I will also of course plan to baptize the baby pretty soon after birth, by 2-3 weeks ideally. So that will be a trip to the church, but we can be flexible and not tied down to a specific date and time, since my brother will be doing the baptism! One month before, he'll be here doing the First Communion Mass for Cecilia and the other second graders, since we don't have a priest right now and they need extra help from visiting priests with things like that. That will be the first big chance for people to come see the baby and celebrate, but we will keep it casual with lots of food and no real schedule other than going to the church for the baptism and coming back home to celebrate.<br />
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What I really would love is this: if some nice, grandmotherly type woman would buy the house next door to us that is for sale, or ask the people who own the house on the other side of us (which is also empty yet not for sale) if she can just live there temporarily. Somebody who can cook nourishing meals, a grandmother who makes homemade chicken soup from her homemade bone broth, who grows vegetables and brings chickens with her and makes her own herbal remedies and homemade non toxic cleaners, who bakes and cleans and has the older children cheerfully helping her when they aren't just running wild in the backyard and having fun... yeah, okay, that's quite a dream, huh? But that would be awesome. Maybe I will be this imaginary lady when I'm grown up, if my daughters want me to come help for an extended time after they have babies. I know many women say they don't need or want help after a birth, that they feel bad asking for help for more than a few days... but I'm all for it, the longer the better. Ideally, every new mom would have somebody staying with them or living next door who could cook for them and clean and care for basic needs of the other kids, so the new mom has that time with her baby... the time she can never get back, those newborn days, to just enjoy the new baby, to spend time with the older children joining her in bed or on the couch to get to know their new sibling and have mom read them books, talk, other quiet activities that often get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday living, where mom is often busy with cleaning and meal prep and keeping on top of everyone's activities and schedules... with my first baby, I got cabin fever, because I thought I was "supposed" to find things to do; plus I was used to being busy and having daily things to do - like going to work early every day! More and more I find that I just want to relax at home - we don't have to busy and going places every day. I want to teach my children to be content and be able to be at rest and find the joy in just simply living, rather than living for the next big exciting entertainment that is being orchestrated for them. The more we are entertained, the more we expect it and cannot find peace and rest and contentment in just being, in having free time. It starts with the parents - we have to model that it is okay to not have something on the agenda, someplace to go, most every day of the week. Especially during these newborn weeks, it is important to me to model this.<br />
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So, we plan to be done with this school year and I hope to have a big chunk of next year planned out already. If it is possible for me to just take it easy with baby for the days/week that Chris takes off from work, then have my mother and mother in law taking turns here for additional time after he goes back... if I can do at least two weeks of just resting with the baby, not leaving the house other than the ped and then the baptism after maybe 2-3 weeks... that would be heavenly. Especially if I don't get dressed in "real clothes" for two weeks. With my first, I wanted to get out of the house as soon as I could - because I didn't know any better. I was used to leaving the house daily for work. I want to do what is best for my body and the baby at this point, not for societal expectations of "getting back to normal" or anything. It is time we will never have back, and I really want to try to rest and nurture my baby with my complete attention for a few weeks!<br />
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So this is where I will hope for help with cooking and cleaning in particular, and general guidance of the older kids throughout the day. This will be the beginning of their summer break, and they will be thrilled to only have daily chores and otherwise unstructured time to peruse their own interests like art/craft things, playing outside in the mornings before it gets too hot, all-day Calico Critter marathon games in Caroline's room... Lucy will be thrilled to have her sisters available to play more since they won't have any school reading to do. I will be able to read to her more while resting in bed with baby, too! And maybe I can spend some of that time pre-reading Caroline's books... she gets ahead of me like lightning with her books she reads for school. <br />
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The meals I want to prep ahead and freeze or have made for me during this babymoon period:<br />
*homemade cream of chicken soup<br />
*chicken rice soup from the new LLL cookbook<br />
*lasagna (full of veggies and grass fed beef)<br />
*beef and bean chili - easy to freeze!<br />
*chicken stock<br />
*homemade yogurt!<br />
*more that I will hopefully remember in time to make ahead - brain not working fully right now! ;-P<br />
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A couple blog posts that have parts that I like:<br />
<a href="https://thebestseasonofmylife.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/the-fourth-trimester-take-two/">Fourth Trimester</a><br />
<a href="https://bearmamamedicine.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/creating-your-babymoon-a-guide-for-a-healing-postpartum/">Creating your Babymoon</a> (not really feeling the "plant allies" and crystals or whatever; the practical advice is good, though)<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0892819308/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0892819308&linkCode=as2&tag=beamammed-20&linkId=F25P25GVFC2TIFAC">This book</a> looks great!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">~Embracing~</span></div>
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This kind of goes with everything already written here... to take the time to slow down, recover and rest, and consciously enjoy the miracle of a newborn baby! To take the summer months of June and July slowly. To take lots of photos of this baby girl! The "embrace" part is why we plan this as a homebirth, why I want a pregnancy/birth photographer, why I want to stay in bed with baby for the most part for two or three weeks. I don't know how much longer this season in my life will last... but it is guaranteed to be over within ten years, likely less. I will be 37 in August, so this new baby season is not too far from fading for me forever. And we have no guarantees, as Mary Karol's life taught me.<br />
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I know I am forgetting some things... like how I am exercising during pregnancy... but this is long enough that I am going to post it now and maybe add to it later as my list is refined so that I have my hopes for the rest of the pregnancy/birth/postpartum all outlined for my reference!Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-22792134772884401332015-10-02T22:33:00.001-04:002015-10-02T22:33:16.380-04:00Long Time, No Update...I'm often finding myself too busy to update the blog... I really should make a grocery list right now, or sweep, or do laundry, or something otherwise useful, but I will throw out a little update here. We are doing very well, just busy! Chris and I went to Austin and San Antonio, Texas - first trip alone with no kids ever, since before Caroline was born over ten years ago. He had a business trip in Austin, and I attended the evening events with him - snacks and drinks the first night, a full dinner and party with live band the next (and they played Bon Jovi and Metallica, so it was pretty awesome). It was a conference for computer geeks, so it has a Star Wars theme:<br />
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Lucy turned four a few weeks ago... getting so old. She is still nursing once a day and the trip didn't stop her, of which I was glad. She is almost done, I know. She can finish up at her leisurely year-long pace if she wants. The girls all stayed with my parents - we just dropped them off on our way to the airport in Atlanta. I had not flown since 1997!!! Honestly, it wasn't much different. I expected a much bigger hassle, but we had plenty of time to spare and even rode the train (which sadly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOZX2xa9OhI">does not sound like this anymore</a> - but I pulled this audio up and listened on the train for old time's sake) to all the concourses - to visit my brother who was passing through on a connecting flight, and to see the newest concourse, the international concourse F. With Hartsfield being the only airport you are used to (<a href="http://erinsformerlife.blogspot.com/1997/08/hanging-out-at-hartsfield.html">I used to hang out there in high school</a>), most other airports seem pretty lame. The flight to Austin announced that we would be landing at gate 6. Just gate 6. Not E6, or B6. Just 6. So, flying was fun, if not a bit unnerving after so long. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-WkPuoOqX2uEp08nPShdt3EeEXwmWx8S2WZcpuztoTM1Zlf8r5Dn9BhbDpYPNA2YkTFX-BB9p__djiCBW_qB9SWkYLZvcXzkyORmEWd5A20Ltz4g1ub1yq-4JGSLAAc_N_TL/s1600/2015-09-23+12.03.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-WkPuoOqX2uEp08nPShdt3EeEXwmWx8S2WZcpuztoTM1Zlf8r5Dn9BhbDpYPNA2YkTFX-BB9p__djiCBW_qB9SWkYLZvcXzkyORmEWd5A20Ltz4g1ub1yq-4JGSLAAc_N_TL/s400/2015-09-23+12.03.34.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look who we found!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj18OI324LSFnjOHbIwYMsJlThfIi1aWHAWKTJCMg8pDUDqSP2wWicQI2ymb790p13fc1U2lH0mhEZ3ORmkumqlYXmv_GQJaoCwwGesN7ZLY_RIEYXG4unmNPP7pkb9lXAwe2tO/s1600/2015-09-23+12.16.21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj18OI324LSFnjOHbIwYMsJlThfIi1aWHAWKTJCMg8pDUDqSP2wWicQI2ymb790p13fc1U2lH0mhEZ3ORmkumqlYXmv_GQJaoCwwGesN7ZLY_RIEYXG4unmNPP7pkb9lXAwe2tO/s400/2015-09-23+12.16.21.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant Chupa-Chups and Mentos... only in the international terminal of the airport...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the plane, trying not to be scared to take off</td></tr>
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San Antonio was lots of fun. We stayed on the River Walk and explored there on Saturday, along with visiting the five mission churches in the area. We drove there from Austin in a rental car. A yellow 2015 VW Beetle, ha ha. Our hotel was in a historic bank building downtown. It is lots of fun to walk down the River Walk - way too many restaurants to choose from, and ice cream shops!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hotel lobby - the Drury Inn</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Alamo</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VuN8_4Ffk8jUJI_etkGjeXnC6XsOIVjCXMQpa-PlP-q9Rr69uWTATXfWMDRvxaX-ClpAWLQDlyBLdVm1A0dWpg1DxBeaJFEm9BVBiyEiXkYs3cSdyibTjwgfy2ctGJlkkhaA/s1600/2015-09-26+16.08.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VuN8_4Ffk8jUJI_etkGjeXnC6XsOIVjCXMQpa-PlP-q9Rr69uWTATXfWMDRvxaX-ClpAWLQDlyBLdVm1A0dWpg1DxBeaJFEm9BVBiyEiXkYs3cSdyibTjwgfy2ctGJlkkhaA/s320/2015-09-26+16.08.31.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cathedral in downtown, directly across from our hotel. They do a light show on the front of the building every night!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5NdyNwScYX4Rk8JPQ07z72ErTa7icS2YtSKnRV4ZXOQPLwChu6yKQlTPV7QZ8DJRmZcYVNzzoGGCQ-OG4fmH7uUW5rloWTpmNtiCB9VB1979paxWRMORScvT9lw9LW-nSOGv/s1600/2015-09-26+16.14.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5NdyNwScYX4Rk8JPQ07z72ErTa7icS2YtSKnRV4ZXOQPLwChu6yKQlTPV7QZ8DJRmZcYVNzzoGGCQ-OG4fmH7uUW5rloWTpmNtiCB9VB1979paxWRMORScvT9lw9LW-nSOGv/s320/2015-09-26+16.14.23.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyy3eXg8dGJ7cJU-aa1Dm_W9LHKVaetBQeAiUCfXPK-ueo_GGIV-ZkPhhp2lX9IPYaRyImwtb0J9hI1QbxkNkQrzNgl7WIRpTj7CCdVWc4eMWrJYTk8sjMiGQbyf1tTJh1JzVN/s1600/2015-09-26+16.29.21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyy3eXg8dGJ7cJU-aa1Dm_W9LHKVaetBQeAiUCfXPK-ueo_GGIV-ZkPhhp2lX9IPYaRyImwtb0J9hI1QbxkNkQrzNgl7WIRpTj7CCdVWc4eMWrJYTk8sjMiGQbyf1tTJh1JzVN/s320/2015-09-26+16.29.21.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">prayer intention in the cathedral</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM989RqQ1wAJ0MN9MoshYoI4AosltK00BUsqLQ-ZSJQN9_RFNw_YMm3DYDRQN3ZfS9d8Qv_4dOCNVo6f9WuWXWI0Dr447I9PXK6SU3htFd6WM9EczY1Zi4zQGs1PURhxa-BBch/s1600/2015-09-26+19.24.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM989RqQ1wAJ0MN9MoshYoI4AosltK00BUsqLQ-ZSJQN9_RFNw_YMm3DYDRQN3ZfS9d8Qv_4dOCNVo6f9WuWXWI0Dr447I9PXK6SU3htFd6WM9EczY1Zi4zQGs1PURhxa-BBch/s320/2015-09-26+19.24.55.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creepy monkey thing that asked us to "please play with me" while we waited to get ice cream cones</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJz8IV9tqOe3xCjdGb0a8ng7MQGvcCCqXwSRvmkqwAbBzqJtOFV4UB8cLra-7jx_NhzFCpFMeBsq4LWBD0gzM8bO0b5BmOC29yoBzZ4jsOAWpZmSD4Wn5zAWLLhniw-cMeIeg/s1600/2015-09-26+19.35.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJz8IV9tqOe3xCjdGb0a8ng7MQGvcCCqXwSRvmkqwAbBzqJtOFV4UB8cLra-7jx_NhzFCpFMeBsq4LWBD0gzM8bO0b5BmOC29yoBzZ4jsOAWpZmSD4Wn5zAWLLhniw-cMeIeg/s320/2015-09-26+19.35.37.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ice cream while waiting for our boat tour ride!</td></tr>
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So, what else have we been up to? Lots of feast day celebrating this week. We had the feast of the archangels on Monday, St. Jerome on Wednesday, St. Therese on Thursday, and the guardian angels today. Here are some of the meals we had to incorporate the saints on these days:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE_sYBKZW-S7WAO_cgmIFzmt10hc8zCoo1AYK_45A_w5RczkTqczddQtuDFWksWabqsFr31lkKhsZkXM9ffKUIkvwPxMpg1-HmFQURx3mz4e031bHWK1dHWY__P0_o5imSyBg/s1600/P9290213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE_sYBKZW-S7WAO_cgmIFzmt10hc8zCoo1AYK_45A_w5RczkTqczddQtuDFWksWabqsFr31lkKhsZkXM9ffKUIkvwPxMpg1-HmFQURx3mz4e031bHWK1dHWY__P0_o5imSyBg/s320/P9290213.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feast of the Archangels... apple chicken, angel hair pasta, steamed carrots, salad, blackberry cobbler</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFbMA3ihp-EUm-C1LZAPV1CSww1JQBeWmzDLpukC9YKIBR7xZ33UF5pJzK_JdQNL13Sxmbh_9q36G6OjofqKXJhQU1NDtPeYuKds5a0PfXSv1M9FBPTKEPXXEg-H2ek_r0nOR/s1600/P9290214.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFbMA3ihp-EUm-C1LZAPV1CSww1JQBeWmzDLpukC9YKIBR7xZ33UF5pJzK_JdQNL13Sxmbh_9q36G6OjofqKXJhQU1NDtPeYuKds5a0PfXSv1M9FBPTKEPXXEg-H2ek_r0nOR/s320/P9290214.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRegNUoXkhogu3mvgdWy_eynn2_x3otO4K3RW9IFvvMPNf_O1pHOOG6XzBfWtzGAexqinDx_ld9v_UPRlZLpIyx3ngj9lo-wCOC_lAi0I-BI0uHWQQG4ah_NgBK-53ynP6itEh/s1600/P9290215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRegNUoXkhogu3mvgdWy_eynn2_x3otO4K3RW9IFvvMPNf_O1pHOOG6XzBfWtzGAexqinDx_ld9v_UPRlZLpIyx3ngj9lo-wCOC_lAi0I-BI0uHWQQG4ah_NgBK-53ynP6itEh/s320/P9290215.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cobbler is for St. Michael the Archangel... legend says when he kicked Lucifer out of heaven, the devil fell in a blackberry bush, spoiling them so that they are no good to eat after this date every year. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3J7fcsz4KXBk5hy8ire7S-5iEgiFLzaV3XPcsSSZ8OCNYXEcucR3ioDipievU87KihyphenhyphenUzb2OH94Emyevim0Zcdyq9Ea9a6TAe-NkR3WIbors7CDvzntf1AKL_yBAGyzskllB/s1600/P9300217.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3J7fcsz4KXBk5hy8ire7S-5iEgiFLzaV3XPcsSSZ8OCNYXEcucR3ioDipievU87KihyphenhyphenUzb2OH94Emyevim0Zcdyq9Ea9a6TAe-NkR3WIbors7CDvzntf1AKL_yBAGyzskllB/s320/P9300217.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lion pizza for St. Jerome, said to have befriended a lion. Tapioca starch pizza crust, yum!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnixjl1wEPD9Yr1-GMG4YcVhqasi6JLFvbEVBbGoeUrHsIL7Uw0lyZneEGFnklIjMDTJ7rdRIlZ3toRVBWvzAX3Fl6acmPNs46lM1HVOGaCJu2vCBLrHI-hsRhTwZdzuxmRyL/s1600/P9300223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnixjl1wEPD9Yr1-GMG4YcVhqasi6JLFvbEVBbGoeUrHsIL7Uw0lyZneEGFnklIjMDTJ7rdRIlZ3toRVBWvzAX3Fl6acmPNs46lM1HVOGaCJu2vCBLrHI-hsRhTwZdzuxmRyL/s320/P9300223.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOIcJWC4BSOJOimor_Qr9YN3qQwHAPIQ_mCC0s-zYiXD8uPy8zIQuqit5UG0jnxul2UcBSCA4UtM7olBSVoAwSut2jg9JGpjYiOb-ebIWFzd9qjx5wvsZgNBmdK1l63bjmCCnR/s1600/PA010224.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOIcJWC4BSOJOimor_Qr9YN3qQwHAPIQ_mCC0s-zYiXD8uPy8zIQuqit5UG0jnxul2UcBSCA4UtM7olBSVoAwSut2jg9JGpjYiOb-ebIWFzd9qjx5wvsZgNBmdK1l63bjmCCnR/s320/PA010224.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French Onion soup for St. Therese of Liseaux... homemade beef bone brothsimmered since Monday to make this! Topped with sourdough and raw gruyere that was under the broiler for a minute.</td></tr>
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Our homeschool co-op is going along nicely. We finished geology and began anatomy this week. I am in the nursery with the preschool group this quarter, so I brought some angel coloring pages and watercolor paints as well as a little angel craft mobile to make and hang up there. Thinking of more games and activities we can do with them, maybe some songs and rhymes to give them a little preschool-type experience. Next quarter, beginning in January, I will be leading a unit on writing and literature. We'll be singing parts of speech songs, playing games to learn prepositions and adverbs - which they can begin adding consciously to their writing to add interest - reading from a chapter book and practicing restating/rewriting things from memory, and more that I haven't fleshed out yet. I will need to start prepping folders for each kid sometime.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZr0CKOQHbXJd0QvPgt411QR4xIJYBTmsf9dVMK3mHpLvJe9pI-A4tCtny8q94IafDGvwzJEMZuB-4fHVi944sMPNHlmEk2kDAHSJ1V1vb43WZOWqz0t7iylrBI1cETaA4jhz/s1600/2015-09-11+10.54.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZr0CKOQHbXJd0QvPgt411QR4xIJYBTmsf9dVMK3mHpLvJe9pI-A4tCtny8q94IafDGvwzJEMZuB-4fHVi944sMPNHlmEk2kDAHSJ1V1vb43WZOWqz0t7iylrBI1cETaA4jhz/s320/2015-09-11+10.54.30.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the earth's plates</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">volcanoes!</td></tr>
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Our Little Flowers Group is also off to a good start... only seven girls this year, but they had fun at the first meeting playing games and they are enthusiastic about earning badges. Next week our meeting will be followed by a family cookout! Fire pit, hot dogs, marshmallows, and everybody bringing sides to share.<br />
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I'm also busy typing up the LLL of Georgia Area Conference program booklet - that will be the first weekend on November! The conference is so much fun; I haven't missed one since Caroline was 13 months old! It is being held at Jekyll island, so we will be making it an extended trip to explore the area a few days after as a family. <br />
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Hmm, what else interesting? Chris pulled the sliding doors off the tub last night. They need to go. the gasket underneath was all rotted out. Maybe it will be easier to keep it clean without the doors there against the edge of the tub. He worked his butt off though, until close to midnight last night! Oh, and yesterday I got to explain to my older two what circumcision was... yeah, that was fun. They were absolutely horrified - and I didn't go into graphic detail. It came up as we were reading a book about the life of Jesus, and it mentioned that on the 8th day following his birth, he shed his blood for the first time at his circumcision. So Caroline asked what that meant, why he shed his blood as a newborn. I figured they needed to know about it sooner or later, and not having any brothers, this may be the most teachable moment I get. I told them that it was a rite the Jews did on all baby boys, but in the Bible Paul explained that circumcision is not necessary for salvation and that it is under the old Jewish laws like not eating pork and such, not the new Christian faith, so it is not something that we are bound to have done to our babies... but that many people still practiced circumcision today for non-religious reasons as well. Figured I wouldn't go much into the cultural American aspect of it with them! I was actually surprised at how horrified they were; I figured they'd just say "gross" or laugh or something.<br />
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Lots of things going on this month... lots of chances for fun outdoor activities, like apple picking and such. Busy month of October!<br />
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Well, dinner time is here, so I better go cook! But I will leave you with something that may just be more terrifying than circumcision:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mascot on this sign is the stuff nightmares are made of. This is near where Chris grew up. Is it a man-butterfly, or an angel, or... what??? Why is his face painted?? I'm terrified that if I went in there, a real person would be dressed up like this inside. good thing I don't need quick cash!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okay, that would be mean to leave you with that as the last picture... so here are Lucy's birthday flowers. Got them from a local farm that sells at our farmer's market.</td></tr>
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<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-79563215551795970882015-07-09T13:09:00.001-04:002015-07-09T13:09:59.788-04:00DiscouragedThis is a long journey, and it is very difficult to get away from the feelings of discouragement. When you are discouraged over a big thing, like wondering why your body can't conceive after losing a baby, then little discouragements - while they may seem insignificant in comparison - seem to build up, like piling extra pounds onto an already existing burden. <br />
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With what would have been my due date approaching in a few days and an empty womb, seeing other discouragements just leaves me feeling drained. <br />
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Little things... my tomato plants are getting yellow from the bottom up. Not much on the Cherokee Purples or the Rutgers, but the Romas and the other variety we have planted are yellowing quickly. There are over a hundred green tomatoes out there, but how many will make it before the plants die? So many possible explanations found online for what causes this - too much water, too little water, blight, fungus... and all we can do is try something and hope it helps. If it doesn't, then it is discouraging. So it might be a bacterial thing or blight, and there are some sprays we can try on the plants. <br />
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Little things... my kids arguing with each other. One pestering the other, one screaming at the other. The thought that creeps in of how maybe you don't deserve to have more kids if the ones you have are acting like this... that you should take care of what you already have better somehow.<br />
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Little things... like trying to put forth an effort to keep groups going. Our La Leche League meetings have low attendance, and interest from others in becoming Leaders along with me will crop up and then is gone. I cannot even count how many people I have had who are interested in becoming a Leader and then aren't. I have had one co-Leader in the seven and a half years I have been doing this, and she moved after a couple years. Yet there are many nursing moms who will pay for a $150 breastfeeding photo shoot... but they won't come to free LLL meetings. It is discouraging to run a group when there is little interest. Larger towns don't have this problem - they have many Leaders and more moms coming to meetings. The idea is to find a common ground with other moms, meet friends, get support in an area that often is saturated with formula-feeding and people who think breastfeeding is gross. It is discouraging to try to get a group together and maintained on any topic. My Little Flowers group looks like it has no interest this year. My girls want to keep doing it; I want them to keep doing it for the virtues and Bible verses they learn, for the camaraderie with other Catholic girls, for growing in the virtues they are learning as stepping stones towards Heaven. I do not have a leadership type personality (I am actually a phlegmatic/melancholic), so it takes inner determination to take on these kinds of things for me and carry them through. So it is discouraging when they fall apart, or when plans are made and only one person shows up at a meeting... although I can't feel like my time has been wasted if that one mom who comes to a LLL meeting is helped in some way. Those little here-and-there moments when a mom tells me she is so glad LLL was there so she had some support while nursing her baby... those counteract the discouragement. It is still hard to keep trying and not just give up when there is very little interest or even negative responses to anything you are putting effort into. I have been telling myself not to take it personally - that it is not necessarily me or my leading style that keeps our LLL meeting attendance low, for instance... because taking it personally would be that much more discouraging. Trying to stay positive is hard, but it is what I have to do in order to keep moving forward. And remembering that if something is helpful to just one other person besides myself, then it is worth it to keep going.<br />
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And as silly as this is, seeing other pregnant moms, or hearing people talking about how easily they get pregnant, is discouraging. Inside, I am screaming, "It might not always be so easy - I always thought myself how easy it was for me, but it can change on a dime! Don't take it for granted!"<br />
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And my dreams have been so vivid and intense lately... so detailed. People and places from long ago playing into them. Feeling like they really happened right after waking up. I can recall all these little details in them immediately and then I forget everything. <br />
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I have to be encouraged by the doctor I am seeing who will look at things like hormone levels and not just brush off concerns. One who knows the normal rhythms of the body and expects that her patients know their own bodies too. I have known about this doctor for years (and went to high school with her daughter) as being one of the few in the state who is knowledgeable about natural family planning - rather than prescribing birth control as a band-aid fix to everything. I am glad that a friend encouraged me to go ahead and see her when I was just considering it. I am encouraged that I was able to say, "I think my progesterone might be low," have it tested and confirm my suspicion, and then have my body respond favorably to a natural progesterone supplement to support my hormones during the appropriate time. <br />
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But I still have to make myself focus on the encouragement rather than the discouragement - big and small. It takes will to do this rather than to give up. What happens when people can't make themselves find some encouragement? It is hard to do when you're just not feeling it. It is hard to try to stay happy and positive. It is hard to even pray about it all - but I am thankful that I know that even when a prayer doesn't "feel" sincere or deeply moving or profoundly spiritual, that doesn't matter... it is not the feeling you get from it, or a happy feeling about God, but just plugging away even when you don't feel it... because a commitment in any relationship is more important than how it feels moment to moment. So just trying - just doing things even when they feel pointless, like nobody cares, like they will bear no fruit, like they aren't working... just plugging away anyway. It is hard... life is hard. But it is all I can do, really.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-38267358354280446272015-06-14T22:37:00.004-04:002015-06-14T22:37:36.535-04:00Six months...<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-version="4" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/37rwF6M_VS/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_top">A photo posted by Erin Nadolski Lewis (@erinnadolski)</a> on <time datetime="2015-06-15T02:11:12+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jun 14, 2015 at 7:11pm PDT</time></div>
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This is what six months looks like. What one month until my due date, yet not pregnant, looks like.</div>
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The trees are in full foliage over our church's Respect Life Prayer Garden. I still wait for new life... </div>
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Praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy on my rosary, I noticed the reflection of it in the monument which reads, "In memory of the unborn and all our lost children."</div>
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Just keep moving forward... one day at a time towards July... please, God, pull me through this desert. Mary Karol, please beg God for a new sibling for yourself... for us... one that we can keep with us for awhile.</div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-49761546378531617332015-06-04T23:21:00.002-04:002015-06-05T09:52:25.766-04:00I had a bunch of paragraphs in my head but now that I sit down to write, I think most of them are gone. I will try anyway.<br />
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I went to Atlanta last weekend to attend a Catholic homeschool conference on Friday - it was free, and there was some encouragement from the speakers and some good deals on some books I can make use of with the girls. My heart wasn't totally in it, as with most things lately. I am trying to get motivated to do some things. That sounds vague, I know. My girls' Little Flowers girls group will be having our end of the year tea party this coming weekend, and I have been trying to get into the planning of that and do some fun things there. So I started making up menu cards, made certificates for this year for the girls who earned all their badges, and sewed the remaining badges on Cecilia's sash. Gotta do Caroline's soon. I have been feeling like I let Little Flowers slide this year and haven't been making it as fun as I could, with a little extra thought and effort... it is hard because I was leading the December meeting when I started miscarrying, so of course that meeting was crap... I knew in my heart what was happening as that meeting began that day, even before confirming it at the ER with an ultrasound. I still haven't gotten an ultrasound image from the hospital; I know I want to have it but I don't have it in me to get it right now, either. I am still finishing the school year and then want to throw myself into reorganizing the rooms in the house and planning for next year, and I hope to find the motivation to get myself occupied with that.<br />
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When you lose a baby and are approaching what would have been that baby's due date and you are still not expecting another baby, you have to take comfort in the little things. While in Atlanta, I went shopping with my mom, looking for a dress for her to wear at my brother's ordination party. The one in the above photo is one she bought but doesn't think she will fit into in a month, so she let me try it... and it works. Score one for a new dress with no effort. Then we found a few more cute summery dresses at Steinmart, so she bought them for me. Retail therapy - being able to buy regular clothes is a small perk, but it not only makes me happy to get a new dress, but also deeply sad, because I shouldn't be fitting in regular dresses right now. I should be hugely uncomfortable instead. But the dresses are nice, so there's that little bit of comfort. One thing to be able to enjoy. Thanks Mom for the dresses.<br />
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So, I saw a good doctor in Atlanta who understands how hormones in women work (why is that such a hard thing to find in a doctor???), and she tested my progesterone levels for the post-ovulatory phase of my cycle. She found that my progesterone was low - ding ding ding, we have a winner! Finally, proof to what I already suspected due to symptoms I have been having. So I will go on progesterone supplements next cycle for ten days and stay on them once I get pregnant, if I ever get pregnant again, that is. feeling pretty pessimistic about that currently. Feeling pretty mad at my body too for it failing on me... I have been taking a vitamin for months now that is supposed to help correct low progesterone. Many people report success with that. Not me, apparently. If my progesterone is supposed to be 10 and it is 7.5 during the luteal phase, then I think it is pretty safe to say that this has not helped me, so I am going to stop taking it and switch to a raw food based prenatal multivitamin. I am wondering if I should add some fermented cod liver oil too. I am pretty angry that I have been eating so healthy along with this supplement specifically targeted at my problem, and it is not helping. It makes me want to throw in the towel. I am not eating processed foods at all, I am eating very few grains (and when I eat them they are soaked or sprouted, generally)... basically I am eating the best I can afford. Apparently I spend like 21% of our income on groceries - and that's not including stuff like toilet paper; that's just food. So we will see what the progesterone does. Maybe it will be the answer after six months, three doctors, and lots of reading on nutrition. Along with continuing what I am doing otherwise...<br />
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...like buying grass fed beef. On Saturday in Atlanta, I went to a farmers market to pick up half a cow I ordered. A quarter of it just barely fit in my deep freeze, and the other quarter was for my friend's family. We each got 60 pounds of ground beef... and much, much more, as you can see by the above glance at my freezer inventory. I see that I forgot to include the kidney. I don't know what to do with beef kidney, but I am sure I will figure that out. Lots of organ meat from grass fed animals - see? Nutrient-dense diet. Somehow it's not enough, though.<br />
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Here is the full deep freeze. Since this picture was taken, a pound of ground beef and a chuck roast have been used. Up next: bacon liver meatballs and sausage patties I will attempt to make from ground beef and heart. And probably some bone broth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So this post is also a photo dump from my phone. This is the entrance to The Real Mandarin House, family restaurant of my youth. When my family went out to dinner when I was a kid, there were no requests made, because we knew we were going to the Mandarin House. And that we would be getting Happy Family whatever dinner. Sadly, it has closed, after over 30 years. I noticed when we were going to Trader Joe's. Now I will mourn it alongside the former Wolf Camera.</td></tr>
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I have been swimming laps at the pool at Berry, I am sure I have mentioned before. Lately, there has been a water aerobics class taking place in the other half of the pool on Thursdays. Now, it should inspire me to see these old ladies moving around instead of wasting away with inactivity, but it is actually a little depressing... you are swimming laps and look over to see ladies in their 70s wearing black tennis shoes and shorts in the pool, slowly transferring weight from one foot to the other like they are going in slow motion to the beat of Tina Turner's "You're Simply the Best." Somehow that is depressing to me even though it is impressive at the same time to see them dedicated to exercising there every time. Maybe it is depressing to me because I can still move faster than that and one day I won't be able to do so. When the instructor calls out, "Now let's cross the pool!" and they all jog in slow motion the 20 foot distance through the water like it is the culminating difficult part of the workout, I just feel kind of blah inside. But then, I feel like that about lots of little things lately. baby birds are depressing... why do their babies live? How come they have babies with no problem? Then I felt bad for thinking that about them when a crow stole the eggs from our backyard mockingbirds. But yes, the pool... they play music for the water aerobics class, and it is often the same set of songs, unfortunately. Rod Stewart makes frequent appearances. Or whatever an auditory appearance would be called. I knew I never liked Rod Stewart, but I never realized just how much I disliked "Maggie May." And I always realized how much I hated "Forever Young" and have had to be reminded repeatedly, unfortunately. To make this more torturous, this is a pretty new pool with state of the art speaker technology... there are speakers in the pool. Like under the water. And when you are swimming, every time you come up for a breath, you hear the distant speakers across the pool, and then you go back under and hear the tinny, no-bass blasting music. Brain confusion ensues. Rod Stewart does not belong in my swimming pool, thank you very much. I try to pray the chaplet of divine mercy while swimming and can get through it twice with time to spare... when the music doesn't distract me. Try praying the chaplet with Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" playing underwater... it probably borders on being sacrilegious. I never realized how truly annoying those Wah wah wah wah wah's could be. A few weeks ago, I thought for a split second that an Alice in Chains song was starting - I liked their music in high school, so I was almost excited, and then realized that if they did play Alice in Chains, anyone swimming laps would probably just give up in despair in the middle of the pool due to the deeply depressing music and just drown. Thankfully it turned out to be something else that was annoying enough to keep up my motivation to keep swimming to work out my irritation. <br />
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a break for a photo since that paragraph is already way too long: Lucy cuteness!!!<br />
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My baby is too big! I am feeling very close to her lately, and she is so very sweet... when she's not whacking Caroline in the forehead with a baby doll, that is. I am feeling very loving to her despite those kinds of things. And very protective, too. Also of Cecilia... she had a headache a few nights ago, and I was secretly freaked out and paranoid that she had a brain tumor or something... because do seven year olds normally get headaches bad enough to make them lie down crying? Then Chris reminded me that the brain has no feeling, so it couldn't be that. Then Caroline was 25-30 feet off the ground in our maple tree, and I was like, eh... I guess you should come down; that's kinda high. My motherly protective instincts are whacked right now. <br />
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So anyway, back to the boring story I was telling about the music at the pool... tonight, the music was a little different. I came in and Rod Stewart was ending, yay! Then they played the Rolling Stones, so I was cautiously optimistic. Some other not-awful song... and then... Styx.<br />
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Oh well, they were almost doing well before they plummeted to a new low. At least it wasn't "Lady." Then they might have had to clean up puke from the pool, ha. I fully agree with Homer Simpson here. But then they redeemed themselves a bit by playing Tom Petty. It was a song I didn't recognize, but you can't mistake Tom Petty's distinctive central Floridian hick accent localized to the Gainesville/Ocala area, even when playying through tinny underwater speakers in an Olympic sized pool. That dialect is found nowhere else. And then they crashed out by ending with the grand finale... a Phil Collins song. Now, I love me some sappy 80s love songs Phil Collins like "Take Me Home" and "I Don't Wanna Know." But not the sappy cheesy Phil Collins songs of 1990 such as the one that was played, "Another Day in Paradise." It makes me think of "We are the World" or the New Kids on the Block's "This One's for the Children." Gag. So there is my analysis of the senior water aerobics class, because I know you really cared deeply about that.<br />
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A new printer! It was so big that we put it on the bottom half of the desk and moved the books to the top shelf. Soon this will all go in the living room somewhere... not exactly sure yet how I will manipulate everything to fit nicely in there. The old printer was leaving random marks on all the papers. It was time for a new one.<br />
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I am truly so excited about my brother's upcoming ordination. I am hurting that I won't be pregnant at it and so I am mad that it will be tinged with sadness for me... I told Chris I shouldn't have so arrogantly assumed I would be pregnant again by this time, but he said it's not arrogance, it is logic and reasoning based on several past pregnancy experiences. But I know it will be a very exciting weekend: the ordination, followed by a dinner reception, and then his first Mass. If you are in the area, some to St. Jude for the 2:30 Sunday Mass to see his first time ever as a priest celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass! I might just cry, and I don't usually cry at weddings, but this is my baby brother who I sort of helped to raise.<br />
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The ordination is by ticket only. There are only four men being ordained, but the tickets are still quite limited. His three nieces age five and under are becoming lap babies for the event so they won't have to use tickets. An ordination is a truly beautiful event, full of all the liturgical splendor that is the Catholic faith... and I hope it will light a fire in my soul because I have been feeling pretty bad at praying lately.<br />
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Random food pictures... Trader Joe's sells these canned clams. We made clam chowder a few nights ago, with raw milk, yum. So it wasn't as raw after I heated it, I guess, but I did so gently, not to a boil. Yes, that is clam juice in the Pyrex... some of it from the cans goes in the soup. Better than Mountain Dew (okay, so that's crab juice, but still, it's funny, and I thought of it as I was reserving the clam juice):<br />
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I kept looking on the box for the "serving suggestion" message, but apparently they don't intend for flowers to be a suggested side dish to these enchiladas. I used to eat these like once a week when Caroline was little... it was like a treat to myself when she was napping. I randomly bought a box earlier this week, either to reminisce, or because I was so surprised to see it at Wal-mart that I couldn't resist and bought it out of amazement. Sometimes I get in a rut with what to make for lunches every day... apparently this will save me one day in the future. Me, not my kids. So I will still have to use half my brain to figure out what to feed them.<br />
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Real men do their own car work. Don't trust a man who doesn't know how to do an oil change, that's my expert advice. I'll close by bragging on my awesome hubby, who fixes the car. And is left-handed. Just like Phil Collins. And now you have a random trivia fact to revel in the knowledge of. Yes, I ended a sentence with a preposition... my standards must be falling or something. And now to work on Tim's slideshow for his ordination party reception... like I should have been doing in the first place. The night is still young, and I am already up to about 2009, so only a few more photos to go (by few I mean 50, probably).<br />
<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-88624896981247672412015-05-27T00:22:00.001-04:002015-05-27T00:22:29.415-04:00Daybook for May 26, 2015<span style="font-weight: bold;">Outside my window...</span> hearing the frogs in our little pond. It's evening and the kids are in bed, and now I have a chance to write a bit. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am thinking... </span>about too many things right now. We are finishing up the school year and I need to start thinking about planning for the next one, and I just am not motivated. I am kind of in a rut. I also want to make some plans to redo the school room as the dining room and get a new table to put in there. Waiting to finish the school year before thinking of moving furniture around. The plan is to tear off the wallpaper that was here when we moved in, paint, get laminate flooring put in that room and the den, and put all the school stuff in the living/dining room. The current school room will get the new table, a china cabinet, and the old radio. My grandaddy's speakers are too big to move in there, so they will stay with the school stuff... we have to decide if we want to get a different china cabinet or if the one we currently have will work. Current dining table will go, and the school table will just move in there. I am having memories of measuring furniture and making a to-scale diagram with my roommate of how we'd arrange furniture in our dorm room for the next year... thinking I need to do the same for this rearrangement of rooms too!<br />
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This is where I think we will get the new table from: <a href="http://www.simplysouthernhomedecor.com/farmhouse-table-pricing.html">Simply Southern Home Decor</a>. I want one that is 7 feet long and 42 inches wide. Okay, I really want one 8 feet long, but it would be too tight in the room I want it in. I want the basic style, the first one at that link, with five chairs and a bench for one long side of the table. And I want to paint the room grey with bright white chair rail and crown molding.<br />
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I am also wanting to plan some trips to the Creative Discovery Museum this summer, because we have a membership pass for all of 2015. And I want to take the kids to play in the fountains downtown for an end of the school year party, maybe get together with some other homeschooling families to do that in a couple weeks when we are all done.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Tim, less than 2 months old. He was disgruntled in all of his first holiday photos. Here, he plays baby Jesus with our mom holding him in the church nursery pageant. I am considering captioning this one with both "Early Vocational Sign" and "I hate halos!!!" </td></tr>
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And I am thinking about my brother's ordination, coming up in just one month! That is about the only thing I am motivated on right now - I am making a PowerPoint slideshow of old photos and such. I am going to smatter some of my favorite silly photos of Tim throughout this blog post that I am planning to include (if he and/or my mom doesn't veto them). I wish I could get out of this blah and be motivated to get moving on some other plans... reading a book for my moms' book club which, ironically, is on planning and organizing life for a homeschool mom to make the day to day things go more smoothly. But all I really want to do is work on the slideshow, and maybe go on vacation with just my husband and do nothing. And maybe just go out somewhere pretty with a camera by myself and take photos. And sit and read about planning without actually doing it. I have thought to myself that if I could just be pregnant again, then I'd be motivated to make school plans, organize the house, etc., because then I'd have a reason to want to slowly but surely get things in order. But even that probably wouldn't help because I have a phlegmatic personality. It is nice that I can blame it on that when I feel lazy, ha. I was so much more motivated when I was pregnant with Lucy, though... but that may be because it was our first year homeschooling and so I was still fresh. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From about 9 months to 2 years of age, we would say, "Tim-Tim, do your grin!" and this is the cross-bite squinty eyed response we would get. Baby brothers have huge entertainment value. Sorry for the poor photo quality; this was probably taken with 110 film on a $10 camera in 1989. We called him Tim-Tim at this age despite the random sticker with the name that my mother tried to get us to call him but in vain. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am wondering... </span>why it is so hard to just try to live a natural, healthy lifestyle. Okay, because I am not motivated, maybe. If I want to feed my kids healthy foods most of the time, I can't just rely on store bread and cold cuts to be lunch. Which means there is food prep to be done alongside our homeschooling. I need to motivate myself to train Caroline to do some of this. Some days it is hard to think of ideas. Today I sauteed bok choy and mushrooms in coconut oil for myself mostly, but the kids had it on the side with some leftover soaked oatmeal bake stuff from yesterday's breakfast. Cutting up fresh fruit takes time. It seems like it is often 12:45 before I get a chance to start on lunch some days. I am in a rut on meal ideas for easy lunches and recently discovered a tuna mixture to put in avocado halves - that is easy and yummy and healthy.<br />
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I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining, because I love, love, love to cook. The kitchen is one of my favorite places to be, and feeding my family well is one of the most important things I can do for them. I just sometimes wish I had a grandmother living next door who would be preparing the lunch while I take care of the little one and read with the medium one and answer the oldest one's questions... a grandmother from another century who wouldn't be microwaving boxed stuff, but cooking from scratch. That would sure be nice!<br />
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I am also wondering why the city of Rome wants to make it even harder for decent people to feed their families healthy foods. Chris went to a city commission meeting tonight at which another citizen was applying for a permit to keep a few chickens, based on the guidelines created when we were trying to get permission to keep our hens. I didn't go... did I mention my lack of motivation lately?... I am disgusted at the effort we put forth a couple years ago only to get turned down, and the time and energy it takes to attend meetings that take place at dinnertime on weeknights when you have children... well, let's just say that they know it is a lot of work for people to take the time to care, and they like it that way. They like that people only make a stink when they oppose something, and that minorities who are essentially activists for a cause are easy to dishearten. It is hard to see that your time was essentially wasted when you try to be reasonable and they tell you that you can't do what you want on your own property because your neighbors, while not directly impacted by it, "don't like the idea of it." The man who applied for a permit for hens this time was denied - by more votes than we were, even though he had more property. Huh, you say? He met the recommended guidelines that they came up with for our situation, yet they still voted to not let him have any hens. He has over two acres of land! The only reason that some commissioners stated was why they didn't approve us is because we only have about a third of an acre of property. One commissioner voted that we should be able to keep our hens two years ago despite not having the recommended amount of land, yet he voted against this guy tonight who has lots more land! This man lives in a wealthy neighborhood and had a few of his neighbors, including the president of the HOA there, speak in opposition to his request. So, the commission once again caved to what they perceive to be the majority... chickens in a rich people neighborhood? How scandalous! So, only three of nine voted in his favor, and I knew ahead of time who those three would be. The city commissioner who two years ago told me that it doesn't matter if my chickens wouldn't impact the neighbors because after all, they wouldn't allow a drug dealer to live next door to me, even though that wasn't my business and didn't impact me negatively... huh??? Exactly how is it a person's "private business" to sell drugs next door to me when that increases potential for crime and traffic on my street? Apparently she thinks that both dealing drugs and owning chickens are harmless activities that are only banned because people perceive them both negatively. I want her to tell me the last time a chicken killed somebody, brought crime to a neighborhood, or increased the comings and goings of random people to a neighborhood (unless people were driving by to gawk at the freaks who have - gasp! - chickens in their back yard behind that fence, because we sure weren't selling the eggs to the public the way a drug dealer is selling something!)... so anyway, that got me riled up again, sorry... this same commissioner who made this comparison apparently said at tonight's meeting, "Well, dogs are domesticated animals, and chickens aren't." Then what are they, wild? Feral chickens? Deep sea creatures? This is the kind of stupidity we are up against in this town. All I want is some fresh, non-GMO, more nutritious eggs from chickens who are exposed to sunlight and eat plants and bugs like God intended them to do. Yet another discouraging hurdle to healthy living. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3464%3A%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734756864335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3464%3A%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734756864335nu0mrj" height="275" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was so proud of this photo... taken in motion, with his Kindergarten diploma, with my at that time new zoom lens. I loved my SLR camera and made good use of it in becoming the family historian.</td></tr>
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<b>I am praying... </b>for the endurance to finish up the school year, and in thanksgiving that I found a doctor who will test my cyclical hormone levels and will actually know if they are off and what to do about them if they are, after one doctor brushed me off and another was willing to help but didn't know about normal hormone levels unless I was already pregnant. I will be glad to know if something is off, or if everything is normal and it is just taking longer to get pregnant this time for no particular reason. I so was wanting to be pregnant by the time my brother is ordained... don't know why, but just so I can feel like I can enjoy it better somehow. There is still a chance, and I sure would love to have all his newly-ordained priest friends give me and a new tiny life a special blessing. I may just need a blessing in hopes of achieving pregnancy instead though. I am realizing that so many more people than you even think lose babies. I have been seeing prayer requests for a couple who were just recently in a car crash and lost their two year old as well as the baby the wife was 8 months pregnant with... how devastating. And so many people who keep miscarrying baby after baby... and it makes me think, well, why not me too? I haven't done anything special to deserve to avoid the same pain that happens to so, so many other mothers. A depressing thought, and maybe I am not in the best place to do so myself, but I am praying for these families and offering up my own sadness and fears for their own heartaches. <b><br /></b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv387%3C3%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A58335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv387%3C3%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A58335nu0mrj" height="400" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I am sure it will look good to have a photo of a newly-ordained priest in an Alcatraz prison cell as a child...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am thankful... </span>that my children have creative imaginations. With summer vacation coming, I am starting to see those articles that talk about how to keep kids from being bored, and also the ones that say parents should help their kids learn to do something constructive with their boredom rather than expecting to be entertained by them. Well, I guess I don't entertain my kids, because they don't come up to me and say, "I'm bored!" "Play with me!" or "Aren't we going to go somewhere fun today?" They really don't. Maybe because I don't play with them in the first place - that's what they have each other for! Maybe because they have limited structure already... we do their school stuff in a structured way, but it doesn't revolve around them and scheduling most of their day. Lucy does get bored at times when the older ones are busy with schoolwork, but she doesn't know it is boredom, and she often will entertain herself well much of the time. She will join me in the kitchen or I will read her a book in between helping Cecilia and Caroline. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv33686%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A59335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv33686%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A59335nu0mrj" height="400" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love this goofy photo for some reason. By this point he had become Timmy. Sometime while I was in college, he grew up and became Tim. It was very sad.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37355%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734756867335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37355%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734756867335nu0mrj" height="400" width="350" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what happens when your baby brother thinks you are awesome... he thinks your high school boyfriend must be awesome too and gets him to spike his hair for him so he can be equally awesome.</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br />I am hearing...</span> nothing. Apparently it is past the frogs' bedtime now. Oops, I take that back. Chris is watching Strongbad on his laptop/tablet thingy (I can't keep up with the technology; it is a "Surface" which is kinda in between the two). Somewhere in the last decade I must have become geeky, because I actually think Homestar Runner is funny now when I hear it.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37%3B75%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734756865335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37%3B75%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734756865335nu0mrj" height="400" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love this one too... it makes me want to yell out "Jenga!!!" like those old commercials. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Learning at home... </span>Cecilia made an iceberg today to see how most of it is under the water and only a small portion of it sticks out of the water, and she looked at Google Maps to see where her grandfather's father and his siblings grew up in Superior, Wisconsin. We were amazed at how close they lived to their local Catholic church and school, to the bar that one of them owned, and to Lake Superior itself! Caroline studied the Great Lakes this year herself and looked in to see where the town of Superior is located (it's on the "wolf head's nose", just for reference!). We are trying to wrap up our study of birds using the Burgess Bird Book for Children... and had a real-life example of the fact we learned about crows eating the eggs of other birds as we watched mockingbirds build a nest in our fig tree, lay two eggs, and then have them both robbed by a crow, sadly. Caroline has finished her math book and I am trying to decide if I want to keep using that program or switch to a cheaper one next year with reusable texts rather than consumable workbooks. We only use two workbooks in all our curriculum - math and a series called Maps, Charts, and Graphs. The Maps series is cheap each year, but the Math U See workbooks cost a lot more.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3656%3B%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734767857335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3656%3B%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734767857335nu0mrj" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecilia and her iceberg. Not Tim.</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-weight: bold;">From the kitchen... </span>I made roasted slices of butternut squash be pizza crusts tonight. We had baked oatmeal soaked for 24 hours in raw milk, which I got at the farm in Rockmart (yes, that is a real name, and no, I have yet to see anyone selling rocks there). I also made raw milk into yogurt and exploded a thermometer in the process... ah, science experiments in the kitchen. In order to not kill the good enzymes in it, I only heated it to just shy of 110 degrees. Then I whisked in starter yogurt as well as grass fed gelatin. I made four quart-sized jars and did one with no gelatine, one with 1 tsp, one with 2, and one with 3. The no-gelatin one was very runny, as expected, and the whey was pretty separated, but it stirred up nicely and has been perfect in smoothies. The 3 tsp jar is very thick, but too... well, gelatinous. Almost chunky. but very well-incorporated, no separate whey. The 1 tsp jar is a nice consistency - runny, but not like water. I haven't dug into the 2 tsp jar yet. I am afraid that I may have killed them anyway though during incubation... I put them in a cooler lined with a towel with a steaming pot of just-boiled water. I am assuming it got over 120 degrees in there because the thermometer only went that high, and it shattered. luckily the yogurt jars were lidded, so it was all still safe from glass shards. I also have sauerkraut and pickle relish going on the counter... hoping the kraut won't grow mold in the process this time. The pickle relish smells divine but I am going to let it go a bit longer; it's only been working since Saturday evening. I couldn't find pickling cucumbers so used regular organic ones; hoping that doesn't matter. We also got spring water from Cave Spring this weekend, so now we have that for drinking and cooking, yay!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38782%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A5%3A335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38782%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A5%3A335nu0mrj" height="271" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I am pretty sure I was laughing as I took the picture because the sun was in his eyes. That's what big sister are for.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am reading... </span><i>A Mother's Rule of Life</i> for my moms' book club, <i>Beautiful Babies</i>, and <i>Swallows and Amazons</i>. That last one is a read-aloud to Caroline and Cecilia and has been very engaging and makes me wish we had a lake and an island on it nearby where I could just set them loose for a week this summer. The second one is a book about traditional nutrition for fertility, pregnancy, and beyond, recommended to me by a Natural Family Planning counselor. I love it because it encourages eating lots of grass fed meats - especially liver, raw milk, pastured eggs, fermented cod liver oil, fermented veggies and condiments, limited but soaked grains... and fun stuff like oysters and clams. Too bad those are hard to come by in Rome, GA. I looked for whitefish roe at Kroger and was sadly disappointed! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3B4%3C2%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A5%3B335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3B4%3C2%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A5%3B335nu0mrj" height="271" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And this is one I always hoped to show to his future fiance as an example of his dorkiness... darn, guess the joke's on me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />To live the liturgical year... </span>Pentecost was this past Sunday, one of the biggest feasts of the liturgical year. We had 12 cookies - one for each apostle, except Judas was gone then and Mary was there instead when the Holy Spirit descended on them - and we lit a candle on each to represent the tongues of fire. Then the kids sang Happy Birthday to the church and blew the candles out - because a "great wind" came into the room when the Holy Spirit came. The cookies had avocados in them as the fat, and so, so much dark chocolate... <a href="http://thesmoothielover.com/healthy-avocado-chocolate-cookies/">this is the recipe</a>. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38%3B%3C%3A%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734767855335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38%3B%3C%3A%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734767855335nu0mrj" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More not-Tims. Cecilia felt sick, so she missed out on the tongues of fire excitement, unfortunately.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37%3A45%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734767856335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37%3A45%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734767856335nu0mrj" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">One of my favorite things... </span>trying new recipes!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37432%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A62335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37432%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A62335nu0mrj" height="400" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So adorable!!!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am creating... </span>Uhh, sauerkraut? Not much else right now. Oh, and the slideshow. That counts.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38857%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A57335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38857%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A57335nu0mrj" height="267" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love this one... me with my awesome 1996 sunglasses, ha ha. Great example of sibling love!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Around the house... </span>See the aforementioned home improvement/furniture swapping project plans.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3959%3A%3Enu%3D3734%3E5%3B7%3E73%3B%3E28255%3B782%3C244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3959%3A%3Enu%3D3734%3E5%3B7%3E73%3B%3E28255%3B782%3C244ot1lsi" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When he entered the seminary, my dad had the hilarious idea to give Tim the Pope John Paul II 1000 piece puzzle. Yes, Catholics have this sort of thing in our basements. We did this puzzle once as a family and I think it is the only big puzzle we ever did. You can see why - we thought that if all puzzles consist of a person wearing mostly red against a solid white background, then it just wasn't worth the frustration.</td></tr>
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<b>Pondering these words... </b>From Pope Francis: <br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things'. Here, in four words, is a spiritual and pastoral programme of
life. The love of Christ, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
enables us to live like this, to be like this: as persons always ready
to forgive; always ready to trust, because we are full of faith in God;
always ready to inspire hope, because we ourselves are full of hope in
God; persons ready to bear patiently every situation and each of our
brothers and sisters, in union with Christ, who bore with love the
burden of our sins."</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv36237%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734769849335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv36237%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734769849335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And then we grew up into this. Neither of us are quite so cute any more...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv33%3B97%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734769857335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv33%3B97%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D3734769857335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But we're still just as goofy. Including the cat. Actually, the cat is just plain stupid, bless her little heart. And we love her for it.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">A few plans for the rest of the week... </span><br />
* Sign up for summer reading program at the library<br />
* <a href="http://www.ihmconference.org/georgia/schedule/">Catholic homeschool conference</a> in Atlanta on Friday afternoon... I will take the girls to my parents' house and go to the conference, hopefully for some much-needed inspiration. This conference is FREE, so come on out if you are a local Catholic homeschooler! It is at the Cobb Galleria, and you just walk in, so need to register. And there will be free coffee!!!<br />
* Pick up half a cow at the Decatur Farmers Market on Saturday - yay!!!! I have been missing my grass fed beef for a while since we ran out!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">A picture thought I am sharing...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35639%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A56335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35639%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D373475%3B%3A56335nu0mrj" height="275" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And this one makes me want to cry. How did he grow up??? Why isn't he this little four year old that can sit in my lap any more?? And where did that awesome green rug go??? And that hard-shelled suitcase behind me?? And this is why I want my own children to have more siblings!!! Waaa!</td></tr>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-32006760086595546532015-04-06T22:40:00.000-04:002015-04-06T22:40:58.417-04:00The Waiting is the Hardest PartIt really is, despite how cliche that phrase sounds... although when Tom Petty sings it, you have to agree that he doesn't do a good job at making waiting actually sound hard. It sounds all laid back and upbeat when he sings it. It's not really like that, though... it is a true challenge. I have been waiting each month to see if I am pregnant or not, and it is like a rollercoaster. Waiting and then being disappointed is emotionally taxing. I am waiting again, for the third time now since the miscarriage. That may not seem like much waiting, since apparently the average couple takes between three and six months to get pregnant. But the longest it has ever taken me before is three months. And that was just once, the first pregnancy. In the more recent three pregnancies it has been much quicker... two months being the longest time, and only for the most recent pregnancy. I will never take my fertility for granted again after this. It is pretty disheartening when it has always happened so quickly... to have lost a baby and then not be able to conceive again afterward with the same timeliness as is my history. So this month is like a tipping point for me... after this, it will be longer than it has ever taken me to get pregnant before. After this, there will be no chance of a baby in 2015. I hate to sound so pessimistic, but that is the rollercoaster. A couple days ago, I had high hopes that with this Easter season I would be welcoming new life in our family, yet... today I feel like it won't happen. I am trying to hold on to hope. The hope of a baby being due right after the anniversary of the miscarriage and how healing that would be... and not wanting to be disappointed. Then the thoughts creep in like how many people might say I already have "enough" kids and should be grateful for the ones I have already... or the idea that maybe I'm really not doing the best job with the kids I do have, so why should I get to have another... it is tiring to wait and then be let down, and then do it again... and maybe again and again and...? I know I am so blessed with the children I do have. I know there are families who have lost multiple children, who have lost babies after birth and beyond, and I know my trial is nothing compared to that, nor is it anything to those who have tried for years to conceive. Yet it is difficult for me due to my history. I feel like perhaps I should have been open to a new pregnancy much sooner, and maybe that is the lesson I am learning: that I am not in control and to be more relaxed in accepting life as a gift from God, whenever it happens, rather than when I feel totally "ready." Because really, when is anyone ever 100% "ready" to have a baby? It is just what life is about... living and growing and welcoming new human beings to the world, a promise that the world will go on!<br />
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Please say a prayer for me if you are so inclined, that I can endure the waiting patiently, that I can stay positive in hope, and that I can face whatever answers I am given in this journey towards the hope of another baby. Easter is a season of joy, and I am trying to remember and focus on that.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-40885800744787338592015-03-23T23:43:00.002-04:002015-03-23T23:43:43.975-04:00The Here and NowI would have been 24 weeks pregnant now. What a great stage that is in pregnancy... feeling the baby move often, but not feeling exhaustedly huge yet. Some days are a breeze, others are difficult. I hope and pray for another baby, yet I also realize that I will always have the knowledge of the fear of losing any others. Some days I see everything continuing around me and wonder if I am the only one who ever thinks about it, that my baby died. If, since I am functioning well, then everyone else has forgotten about it. <br />
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I have been reading a book I got recently called After Miscarriage by Karen Edmisten. I have enjoyed her blog and was glad to see a book specifically for Catholic mothers regarding to miscarriage. As it says in the book, mothers who are open to life are also open to death. The more open to life we are, the more opportunity for being open to the possibility of death as well. But also the greater the understanding of that child's eternal life in heaven. The knowledge that your family has its own saint in heaven... I still haven't wrapped my brain around that yet, but I have prayed for Mary Karol's intercession, that she will beg God for us to give us peace and patience and another sibling for her if He wills it. Our visiting priest who just did a mission at our parish, Fr. Luke, encouraged me to pray for our baby's intecession. I am learning slowly how to do that and have considered starting a journal as well, where I can write "to" my baby. If writing to dead people makes one crazy, then send me to the asylum!<br />
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I cannot bear to take the dead blooms off my hydrangea. Maybe I should; it is probably better for the plant. This hydrangea is for Mary Karol, and I am thrilled that I have kept it alive so that I can plant it in the yard once it stays warm enough. Seeing it in my windowsill, watering it each time the leaves begin to droop, reminds me that she existed and the new little leaves springing up at the base and on the top are a hope in the knowledge that life goes on and that new life can exist, that I can hope in that. It also helps me to remember that others have supported us and acknowledged her life, as I think back to getting this plant, to the friends who helped us out during the miscarriage, to my mother's help when she came when I was hospitalized, to the few cards we got that acknowledged the life of this baby. The thing is, nobody can talk about it because nobody has any memories of this child. It isn't like a child who was able to be seen and touched - nobody can say, "Remember that time when she..." because nobody remembers things that didn't happen. Even me - I can remember how I craved broccoli and how I was exhausted, but I can't remember feeling movement, seeing a heartbeat, seeing my belly begin to bulge... none of that. I still need to call the radiology department at the hospital and ask for an ultrasound image from before the miscarriage began, when they measured the baby and saw no heartbeat. One more item that I can add to my very small collection.<br />
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I had planned for a homebirth with this baby. Started considering a water birth. Entertained the thought of pregnancy and birth photos and where I could find a photographer who was good but also who I would want at my birth. After the miscarriage, I remembered seeing mention of a place that does belly casting - they make a mold of your pregnant belly, somewhere around 30 weeks or so, and then they turn it into a piece of pottery. A belly bowl. Then you can curl your newborn up in it and take a photo. I love that idea and want it for the baby I lost, which I can never have, so I hope for the future.<br />
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My midwife referred me to a OBGYN that they use - who I would have seen about four weeks ago for bloodwork and ultrasound midway through the pregnancy - so I can get a (hopefully) compassionate and respectful response in my questions about my progesterone levels. I have one symptom that can be a sign of low progesterone, and even though the other signs all look normal, I want somebody to take this seriously, because low progesterone levels can lead to miscarriages, and why would I wait to lose another baby before getting it looked into seriously if I am having a symptom? My local OBGYN brushed off my concern - bye bye, $40 copay down the toilet. So I am going tomorrow morning to the midwife-recommended doctor in Atlanta. He fortunately could see me while I will already be there tomorrow. Please pray that he will be receptive to my concerns. If low progesterone is an issue, this is actually one thing they can address - most early miscarriages cannot be prevented in any way, but a woman whose progesterone is out of whack can be helped to get that normalized. I have already been taking supplements since the beginning of the year that have vitamins that are specifically useful in helping the body to have normal progesterone levels. If I can get a doctor who can listen and not scoff, then I will feel much better as a mother whose baby has died and wants to make sure all the bases are covered for when and if I get another chance.<br />
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After my appointment and a lunch date at Jason's Deli with my girls, and dance shoe shopping, and photo-picking-upping, and Trader Joe's shopping, I get to go on a dinner date with this sexy guy:<br />
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That is printer toner all over his hands and shirt because he hacked the printer. Guy who can fix your technology problems = swoon. Dinner should be fun; it is free and at Maggianno's! A company who is a vendor for his company is doing a presentation over dinner. I will listen to techie talk for an open bar and free Italian food, absolutely!!<br />
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And so with that busy schedule in mind, I need to get off to bed now. Just needed to write a bit first. Nut granola for breakfast, yum, and then we are off early for our all-day trip.<br />
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$11 of cashews, soaked and dehydrated, baby. They became granola tonight with their friends the walnuts and pecans. High protein breakfast for our busy day.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-11411606134737574222015-03-16T00:02:00.003-04:002015-03-16T14:01:56.863-04:00Happy Laetare Sunday!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent - meaning we are a little more than halfway to Easter! This is one of the days that the priest wears rose-colored vestments - there are only two days per year on the liturgical calendar when rose is the color. Lucy and Cecilia have been counting the days using the Lent calendar on the wall in the background of the photo above, and today Lucy wanted to change our little wooden priest's vestments to rose. So we had a little celebration by making "Laetare Sundaes" with pink (strawberry) ice cream! And I do mean a very little celebration...<br />
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...because these two are the only ones who could participate, unfortunately. Chris and Caroline both came down with a stomach bug this afternoon. Oddly, Cecilia and Lucy both had it on Wednesday... just for maybe 6-8 hours each, and they were done throwing up by mid-afternoon (Cecilia by mid-morning, actually)... so how do two more of us get it four days later?? I didn't know anything could incubate that long, but apparently it can. Blah (literally)! at least they are all getting it over with before Caroline's birthday this coming weekend (unless I get it in four more days, on Thursday?!?). She will be having friends over for her birthday this year instead of a family party, and she is extremely excited!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy, who ate her ice cream out from under her toppings and said she needed more ice cream to go with the rest of her whipped cream... ha, nice try!</td></tr>
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So, here I sit, praying I don't get it as well. I was sharing a water bottle with Chris earlier when we went on a little hike this morning. I have not thrown up since high school - truly! I mean like 18 years ago. The last time I threw up was before I met Chris, so I am not about to start now if I can help it! He must always know me as having a stomach of steel, ha ha! Because if you knew me when I was 16... I had the weakest stomach ever. I figure I have earned my puke-free streak because of how much I puked as a kid, ha ha. I used to get sick to my stomach when I slept away from home... starting with sleepovers when I was maybe a 2nd or 3rd grader. Then in high school, I'd get sick to my stomach in social situations, especially things like going out with my boyfriend. I spent the entire prom my junior year in the bathroom, ha! I would go sleep over at my friends' house and feel sick, then go to Six Flags the next day with my thermos of lentil soup which for some reason was my recovery meal the next day. My mom and I retroactively diagnosed me with social anxiety disorder, in a half-joking way, because I didn't feel anxious in any other way except by my digestive tract's response... Zoloft came out a few years later, and we'd see those commercials with the depressed egg that bounced around and sat off to the side looking sad while the other eggs were partying (anyone else remember those??), and my mom would say, "You needed Zoloft, Erin!" Ha, funny, Mom! Maybe it would have helped, who knows? But I randomly outgrew it somehow, at the end of high school. By then I didn't feel sick at all with sleepovers at friends' houses, just sometimes in dating situations. I guess maybe college cured me of it completely, where I had to sleep in a different place all of a sudden, with tons of my peers in the same building... I remember feeling a twinge of queasiness once in college, and never again. I was done, cured, and so I'll be darned if I am going to break my streak now, you hear that, stomach virus?? I have been sick to my stomach enough to last a lifetime just in those few years! I was even anemic from throwing up back then. Way too much information about my problems of my past, yes? But see, this is why I am trying to talk myself out of getting this bug too. Can you convince yourself not to get a stomach bug? Because I feel it in my system - either that, or I am paranoid because of everyone else having it - and it is not making me throw up yet, just feeling kinda blah in the digestive system. Surely I can talk myself out of letting it make me sick, right???<br />
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Okay, so I better close and get some sleep soon, just in case it is coming to get me too. I am so hoping we didn't pass it on to Father Luke, the priest we took out for dinner last night - I would hate that if we did! He did a mission at our church this past week and was driving home to Missouri today, his sixth time doing a mission at our parish! We love him; he is so friendly and engaging and gives solid, encouraging talks at his missions. The mission week is always a great thing to have during Lent! So say a prayer for me, and for Father Luke who is 75 years old, that we are spared!!<br />
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So I'll close with this bird, a new one to us! We think it is a pine siskin, which is one we have never noticed in our yard before this past week. There are a few hanging around our feeders - this one must be a female, because she doesn't have any noticeable yellow on her, and then yesterday the girls took a walk with Chris around the block and found a dead one on the street that had the yellow identifying marks... otherwise, it looked like this one. So we are thinking we have IDed it correctly. Any bird nerds out there who can verify it for us? We also saw Northern Flickers for the first time a few weeks ago in our yard!<br />
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Off to bed I go now... not going to be getting myself a Laetare Sundae tonight, as much as I'd like to... just in case!<br />
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[Updated to add: My streak has officially been broken, boo! All the words in the world couldn't talk my body out of it, unfortunately.]Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-48047880053214033362015-03-04T21:27:00.001-05:002015-03-04T21:27:23.575-05:00Some Good ReadsCame across a few articles lately that are very good reads... and since I'm not sharing stuff on my Facebook page, I thought I would link them here.<br />
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<a href="http://catholicexchange.com/praise-catholic-homesteading">In Praise of Catholic Homesteading</a><br />
I so want to do this.<br />
"God speaks through things <em>He has made</em>, and it seems that the more we are surrounded by things <em>we have made</em> the harder it is to hear Him."<br />
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<a href="http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/quality-education-is-not-rocket-science">Quality Education is not Rocket Science</a><br />
This speaks to why memorization of information is not a bad thing for young children - that it is a natural ability of theirs. We employ this in our homeschooling by memorizing prayers, beautiful poetry, nursery rhymes, Bible passages, Shakespeare passages, hymns, and math facts/skip counting patterns. It is not drill-and-kill, it is simply done as part of our natural rhythm each day.<br />
"One of my favorite professors in graduate school grew up on his
grandfather’s farm in Saskatchewan, back in the days when a wheat farmer
would spend long hours behind the plow. He told us that his
grandfather’s neighbor spent those hazy hours sometimes reciting
Milton’s <i>Paradise Lost. </i>He had gotten it by heart. Notice what
great difference there is between the phrases “learning by rote” and
“getting something by heart”? You cannot do such a thing without
considerable intelligence and love."<br />
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<a href="http://mychildiloveyou.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-legacy-of-motherhood.html">Legacy of Motherhood</a><br />
I love this one because it starts with my favorite Chesterton quote of all time: "“How can it be a large career to tell other people's children
about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children
about the universe?<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> How can it be broad to be the same thing to
everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No. A woman's function
is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I
will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her
for its smallness.” A short read, check it out!</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.iew.com/help-support/resources/articles/the-work-of-a-child"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Work of a Child</span></span></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">And finally, this one on letting children learn at their own pace - that providing them with large quantities of great literature is enough.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">"</span></span>One thing I knew and often reflected on is this: The salvation of his soul did not depend on his reading ability."<br />
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Enjoy! Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-44007635788084224342015-02-26T21:44:00.000-05:002015-02-26T21:44:22.624-05:00Trip to Blue Ridge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thought I'd share a few photos from the trip we took to Blue Ridge with friends that I mentioned in the last post. We had six adults and 14 kids ages 1-10 at our friends' cabin for the weekend. Here are several of them roasting marshmallows. Lots of them had given up sweets for Lent, but this was Saturday evening after the vigil Mass that we attended, so they were on their Sunday freebie day at that point. Apparently you don't have to abstain from whatever you've given up on Sundays during Lent... nobody ever told me that when I was a kid! So I tend to just give something up throughout Lent including the Sundays. This year for me: casual Facebook use and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate is a huge sacrifice for me, let me tell you.<br />
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Lucy and Rachel, partners in crime. These two are about 3 months apart in age and used to regard each other with suspicion, but lately they have become buddies.<br />
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An aerial shot taken from the stairs of several people watching a movie one evening</div>
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Some of the grown ups on the porch</div>
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Me with the handsome hubby</div>
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Group shot of all the kids... If Lucy and Rachel look less than enthusiastic about this, it's because they are. Both were dropped into the shot by their dads on the count of three for the photo because both were refusing to participate. Antisocial three year olds!</div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-31562612140029908002015-02-25T23:19:00.002-05:002015-02-26T17:29:37.879-05:00Artwork and Thoughts, on a Snow Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv377%3B6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A5%3B%3B%3A335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv377%3B6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A5%3B%3B%3A335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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That comma in the title is intentional... because I don't have many thoughts on the snow itself, just other thoughts. But here are the gratuitous kids in the snow photos... as the snow was falling, I convinced them to at least go outside and check it out. The older two did last about a half hour. The snowflakes falling were the biggest I have ever seen (which probably isn't all that big, seeing as I live in Georgia). <br />
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This is when the snow had only been falling for about an hour. My younger two kids are not big fans of the snow. So I am kinda glad to have given up Facebook for Lent (except when I have to go on to check La Leche League related messages, which is quite often lately, or to specifically send a message or post to somebody... but I am not going on Facebook to just scroll through and read things during Lent or to post things and make comments and such, hoping to free up time to do some reading and stay on top of Caroline's school reading better). I know there will be lots of photos of people's kids loving the snow, and mine just don't. Caroline does - she'd stay out all day if other people liked to be out there with her. Chris came home early as the snow was falling, and they went out together and sledded. Cecilia and Lucy went out with him briefly and then came back in, but hey, there was no crying involved, so I count that as a victory. If it is still cold enough tomorrow, maybe we can both go out and convince them that sledding down the road is fun! Our neighbors always loan us their sled because their daughters are both mostly grown up.<br />
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Snow calls for popcorn and something warm to drink. Here's my coffee snob equipment. My brother gave me a coffee grinder for Christmas! So I have whole beans from the awesome coffee shop. I also have a travel mug that brews the coffee in it like a French press (it's there behind the coffee, with the red lid). I can be a total coffee snob when I travel, too! Today I wanted the whole four-cup pot, so it was trusty Mr. Coffee that got the brewing job this afternoon.<br />
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I promised to share some of the girls' artwork, so I will stick it throughout the rest of this post. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3B578%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97463335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3B578%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97463335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Collages based on the book <i>The Last Straw</i>... they traced a camel outline and then used fabric scraps, strings, beads, sequins, foil, etc. to make the things on the camels' backs. Caroline's on the left and Cecilia's on the right.</td></tr>
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I am so excited that we are having a La Leche League of Georgia conference in November!!! It will be November 6-8 at Jekyll Island, and our keynote speaker is Dr. James McKenna! He runs the mother-baby sleep laboratory at Notre Dame, where he has studied the way nursing mother-baby pairs sleep and how they sync up with each other. The science backs mothers' age-old instincts: breastfeeding babies were designed to sleep in close proximity with their mothers. I saw him speak at the last La Leche League International conference in 2007. I am so excited to talk this conference up - I hope we have lots and lots of families attending, in addition to many of Georgia's LLL Leaders!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv352%3A%3A%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97464335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv352%3A%3A%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97464335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecilia did both of these self-portraits of herself in her ballet recital costume. The one on the left was done with pencil before she added the color, and the one on the right was drawn with the watercolor crayons as well as being colored with them - resulting in two different styles of artwork.</td></tr>
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I was so hoping that I could be bringing a new baby to the conference... but that won't be happening now. Having the newest baby at the conference would have been so fun... although the drive to Jekyll with a two week old wouldn't have been, ha. So... on the chance that I could be very pregnant at the conference instead - which is also fun, but not as much as having the tiny baby in a sling as you move around to all the different sessions - I will just hope and pray that my midwives would be cool with me traveling to Jekyll a few weeks before my due date. I'm the one responsible for getting the program booklets all typed up and ready for printing, so that along with just loving to be at the conferences makes me really want to be able to attend! I already booked our room! I am so ready to be pregnant again, so if I have to miss the conference because of that, then so be it... but I will try like crazy to be able to make it there!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35978%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97462335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35978%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97462335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This drawing should have been up higher, apparently, with the LLL conference paragraphs...<br />
Caroline drew this from a statue of Our Lady of La Leche when her art assignment was to make a line drawing by looking at an object with form and trying to draw the outer edges exactly as they appear.</td></tr>
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Another exciting trip to look forward to... Chris has a business trip to Austin, Texas in late September. I would imagine I wouldn't be "too pregnant" to travel then, and so I am planning to go with him! Lucy will be four by then. It makes me sad to think that I have not had that big of a space between any of my children so far. I can't believe she will be so old! Chris and I haven't done any trips together without kids since before we had any kids! The last one was a trip to Charleston, S.C. at the end of December when I was pregnant with Caroline, over ten years ago, so this will be a fun special treat for us! Chris is going for a Spiceworks conference (think big computer geek thing with awesome stuff like open bar evenings with geeky clear cups with Windows logos on them with flashing LED lights in the bottoms, ha ha). So he will have meetings in the day, but there are a few mealtime and evening events that I will be welcome at, and then we can also spend a little time exploring Austin. I have never even been to Texas before! Supposedly Austin has a big music scene. We will plan what we will do closer to that time! We will fly out of Atlanta... it has been ages since I have flown, too! The last time would have been when I was in high school!!!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38%3A55%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B9746%3A335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv38%3A55%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B9746%3A335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecilia's contour drawing of a toy horse</td></tr>
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And speaking of high school... and music... I think I am having an early mid-life crisis or something. A few weeks ago, there was that thing where Kanye West insulted Beck at the Grammys. I so don't do pop culture any more, so I barely know who Kanye is. But Beck - I know Beck!! I was pretty much going to marry him when I was in high school. So I read up on the story, because he was my favorite musician all through high school and into college. After my Guns 'n Roses/Metallica/Megadeth phase of 7th/8th grade, and my Nirvana phase of my freshman year... then came Beck. So I started listening to a couple beck songs on Youtube. How did we ever do anything before Youtube??? See, I sold off most of my Beck CDs sometime after getting married, because I just didn't listen to them any more (and at that point the dream had died since I was married to somebody else, ha ha). I sold a bunch of others, too, but certain ones I kept that I still did - and do - listen to some. Spacehog, The Toadies, The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots... I kept those. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35%3A%3C%3B%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97469335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35%3A%3C%3B%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97469335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I LOVE this watercolor drawing of Caroline's. Something about it is so kid-artsy. I just made that term up so I hope it makes sense to somebody besides me. Cecilia made the unicorn and ballerina cutouts that are also pinned to the corkboard.</td></tr>
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So anyway, about Beck. I was reminiscing and listening to some Beck songs. And then I go to wondering, if Beck is still releasing new albums and has been pretty consistently since his beginnings in 1993, then why did I stop being a Beck fan? Why did I stop buying his CDs, and when did that happen? Was there a big gap between the last album I bought and the release of his next album and I lost interest? So I looked at the dates. Odelay was the last album of his I bought, so I looked at the release date - 1996. Makes sense; I remember buying that one in high school and then taking it and all my Beck albums on to college with me in 1997. So I looked at the next album's release date - it was fall of 1998. I was shocked - a Beck album was released in fall of 1998 and I didn't buy it??? But I still loved Beck then! At least... I know that I had pictures and posters of him on my dorm room walls in my early college years, at least the first whole year. And fall of 1998 was only the beginning of my sophomore year. So how could I have not realized - or not cared - that Beck released a new album??? Well...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv367%3A6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97467335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv367%3A6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97467335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecilia's drawing of "princess Lucy"</td></tr>
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... I decided I would listen to a few of the songs from that album, because surely I would vaguely recognize one of the popular ones from radio air play, right? Right. I did. I recognized some of the titles and listened to those, and I knew them. So I started to play the other songs on the album... and I knew them, too. I listened to the beginning of each song on that album, Mutations, and I KNEW THEM ALL. Yet I didn't remember buying or owning that album. It was like REVERSE DEJA VU, if that is even a thing. But you don't just know every single song on an album that was less popular than the album to which it followed, unless you owned the album. I was dumbfounded. I must have actually OWNED THAT ALBUM and somehow not even remembered!! I kept asking Chris, while sitting on the hearth making s'mores with my laptop playing Beck songs at midnight, "What is wrong with me? How could I have forgotten owning this album??" His answer: "Maybe your brain is broken." All I could think was, "Yeah. That is the only explanation."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37%3B%3B6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97465335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv37%3B%3B6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B97465335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caroline's watercolor of herself and two others in her dance recital</td></tr>
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So I bet you guys all think I am nuts now. What would be the big deal about me forgetting owning an album? I bet lots of people have done that. And I forget lots of details. But not that! That is not the kind of thing I forget. Especially Beck, who was a long-lasting musical obsession of mine. So yeah, I think my brain is broken. And now my midlife crisis: I bought some old CDs that I used to own. A few bucks on Amazon and I will have Beck and Radiohead to listen to in the car again. If that is the worst midlife crisis I have, then yay. Although I think it is still technically too early for a midlife crisis, seeing as I am not 40 yet. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv36839%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A6948335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv36839%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A6948335nu0mrj" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another watercolor of Caroline's</td></tr>
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We went to Blue Ridge with some friends over the weekend who have a family cabin there... lots of fun. We had six adults and 14 kids there! The adults had fun pulling up songs on Pandora and Youtube... after the kids were in bed, my friend Elizabeth and I reminisced about our Guns 'n Roses days. They pulled up a Beck song for me. We listened to a wide range of music, from the 60s through the 90s. Apparently I liked some of the same music as my friends, friends who are now old parents along with me, ha ha. From music I owned on CD like Jane's Addiction and Tom Petty to music that I liked when their songs were on the radio or MTV but didn't own the albums, like Weezer and Talking Heads (which are very different from the music I hated but still knew well from the radio and MTV, like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins - although now I can tolerate the Pumpkins some in my old age, ha)... we listened to some fun stuff. Another band I used to like, Pearl Jam, was brought up... I really stopped liking them by college, but said that I still loved their song "Black." Elizabeth agreed that was one of the best songs ever - we really should have known each other in high school, ha. It was nice to be able to hang out with a group of Catholic homeschooling parents for the weekend. We talked some about our plans to start a moms' book club, which will be nice. I need accountability to make myself get some reading done - instead of blogging and reminiscing about 90s music, ha ha. Maybe we will talk about the impact of music and pop culture on our kids... I really don't know what to do about that. Of course, in my opinion as an old parent, today's music stinks for the most part. I can see that my parents really didn't limit my musical preferences when I was in high school... other than to express disapproval when I brought an album into the house with a "parental advisory - explicit lyrics" label on it. I can look back as an adult, and I can say that I wasn't really negatively impacted by the music I listened to overall... but I recognize that some of the messages in some of the music I liked were potentially poisonous. And that will impact different people in different ways, and I don't know that you can identify how it will impact you ahead of time. As I was listening to a few Radiohead songs the other day, I was almost crying because they were so mournful to me... yet they didn't impact me that way back when I was listening to them in high school and college. They were just good songs to me then, and I guess I didn't think very deeply about the lyrics. So, something to ponder. Always something to ponder with parenting decisions, and I don't think there are any easy or obvious answers. Being overly sheltering and protective can result in them not knowing what to do with these kind of things when they grow up completely and leave the house... so, as with most things, I don't know the answer. I do think that by homeschooling and not having things like cable/satellite TV, we already have a more limited exposure to things like popular music of today and such. I guess we will cross those bridges when we come to them, trying to talk about it all so that our kids know what is going on in the world around them... that whole "in this world but not of this world" idea.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv33332%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A6947335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv33332%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A6947335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Had to include Lucy's artwork too. She likes to use glue, so often I will cut random scraps for her to glue onto paper.</td></tr>
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So if you see some crazy lady in her mid-30s driving around blasting Radiohead or Beck next week, you will know that it's me. Living my early mid-life crisis. If I start buying old Nirvana albums, please have me committed, because I really can't even tolerate their music any more now! If I start buying New Kids on the Block albums, well... you will know I am too far gone to be helped at that point.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv363%3B6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A6946335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv363%3B6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3C5%3B%3A6946335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecilia's St. Cecilia statue and Caroline's Joan of Arc, made with clay yesterday</td></tr>
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Thoughts, yes, but not many about snow. As I promised. At least I have an excuse for my rambling thoughts now - my brain is just broken. ;)</div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-51448420153476559422015-02-04T23:01:00.001-05:002015-02-04T23:01:30.609-05:00Modern Mothering and Miscarriage, Rants and ReflectionsSo here's some of the loveliness that is going around online lately...<br />
<br />
First, the whole vaccination thing. Apparently the measles outbreak where 90 people at Disneyland came down with it has some people up in arms against the "anti-vaccine nuts." Apparently some of them want others to be charged criminally for making parenting decisions that they disagree with. Honestly, I loved <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/so-should-we-just-round-up-the-anti-vaccine-parents-and-ship-them-to-guantanamo/">this response by Matt Walsh</a>, that basically, people who want to make skipping or changing any vaccines on the typical schedule a punishable crime are trading in our liberties and essentially allowing for the government to make decisions for us about our children. <br />
<br />
This quote from the article:<br />
<h3>
"In short, as we have seen time and time again, despite Ben Franklin’s
urges to the contrary, many people will choose safety over liberty, no
matter how slight the risk and how serious the infringement."</h3>
Yes.<br />
<br />
He goes on to detail how the risks are indeed slight compared to the risks related to actual crimes that have the intention of harming others, such as drunk driving. Good article, so I won't say much more about it.<br />
<br />
Vaccines are one of those very tricky parenting topics. I mean, we all know that breastmilk is the optimal nutrition for babies. We all know kids are safer in carseats than in a regular seatbelt when they are young. But we really don't all know all there is to know on vaccines. I honestly don't know who is right or wrong on this. As a result, we have selectively vaccinated our children. I am always open to learning more and always debating which ones we should consider getting. Up for current consideration is the MMR vaccine for our oldest because she hasn't had it, and I have found in my research that the risk of arthritis in adulthood increases if this vaccine is gotten in adolescence. I want my daughters protected from rubella especially before they reach childbearing age because of the devastating effects it can have on unborn babies whose mothers catch the illness. So I need to first get a titer done to see if perhaps maybe she has been exposed to rubella naturally and built up immunity to it... and if not, make a decision. I hate that the rubella vaccine is cultured on aborted fetal cells and that Merck has a monopoly on it in the US - I can't get it made more ethically here even though it can be and is being made ethically in other countries. And I am not traveling to Japan to get an ethical vaccine. Also, Merck will not make a single dose vaccine - your child must get the combination measles, mumps, and rubella shot in order to get any of those vaccines at all.<br />
<br />
I hate that people are so angry about this... I have seen people personally say that parents who don't vaccinate on schedule are "negligent." What those people fail to realize is that vaccine injuries do exist and so how, exactly, is a parent concerned about vaccine injury negligent? Usually these people have read and asked questions very thoroughly. I still find myself on the fence... there are so many vaccines now, whereas up until about 1990, there were just three shots: MMR, DTaP (then the DTP version), and polio. That is a huge increase in what we are being asked to inject into our children and so people who don't do it and have concerns are certainly thinking about it - they aren't usually making an ignorant or negligent choice. What those who want to treat this choice as criminal cannot answer is this: How is a child who dies of a vaccine-preventable disease more important than a child who dies from a vaccine-caused injury? There is not really an answer to that question. And I have seen a few anti-vaccine people say things like, "How awful that you inject poison into your child!" Also unnecessarily harsh and not what the vaccinating parent is trying to do, just as the non-vaccinating parent isn't trying to spread illnesses to vulnerable people. I can see both sides of this issue, being one who is still somewhat undecided, and I am always dismayed when I realize that other people cannot. And that they even want to demonize people who have come to a different conclusion.<br />
<br />
The thing is, some people who choose not to vaccinate have reasons that they believe are for the greater good. They aren't simply doing it out of the selfishness of not wanting to potentially expose their child to toxins in vaccines... some truly believe they are bad for our health and are leading to all sorts of auto-immune diseases and other health concerns that seem to be rapidly growing in our society currently. And until we have real, solid answers - proof of how and why we are experiencing increases in some of these illnesses and health problems - then we can never be totally sure. Some people believe that exposure to some of these viruses in the wild is what is truly going to build healthy immune systems... so for this line of belief, avoiding vaccinations <i>is</i> done out of concern for public health. Do I believe this myself? I have no idea, honestly. I am ready for somebody to come up with some proven and unmistakable answers, but I don't think that is going to happen.<br />
<br />
So, the idea that <a href="http://www.today.com/parents/should-you-be-able-sue-parent-not-vaccinating-their-child-2D80459459">people could sue other parents</a> (first 3 paragraphs of that link are filled with "fighting words" designed to fuel outrage, btw) if it is proven that their child passed a vaccine-preventable disease on to somebody who then suffered from complications of the illness... where does that end? How far do we trace back to find where the disease originated and can we sue all those people as well? What if the disease actually began in a vaccinated individual, who was injected with the live virus (measles being an example of a live virus vaccine) and the virus then "shedded," meaning got out of that person's system and infected another person with measles... do we get to sue those parents for <i>choosing to </i>vaccinate? What about parents who don't get antibiotics for their child and he infects others, can we sue them, too? Can we sue other adults who come to work while fighting off colds and such and then get others ill? Doubtful, seeing as how important the bottom line is to many employers in this country - what, you're skipping work today because you have a stuffy nose?? Can we sue parents who "choose" to work, sending their kids to day care when they didn't "have to" financially, because their kids are sick more often and more likely to spread illnesses? <br />
The bottom line? ILLNESS HAPPENS.<br />
<br />
From the article linked above:<br />
"“Life has lots of risks,” Holland explained. “And the idea of
imposing legal liability on parents who don’t vaccinate implies that
vaccines are both perfectly safe and perfectly effective.”<br />
“Vaccines
aren’t perfect. Sometimes they don’t take,” said Holland. “There are
vaccine strains of disease and wild strains, and allowing parents to sue
one another gets you into some crazy places and complicated problems.”
Take a parent who believes their first baby has had an adverse reaction
to a vaccine.. If those parents decide against vaccinating a subsequent
child, are they exercising a medical or a personal belief exemption —
and would a person be able to sue them for their decision not to
vaccinate?"<br />
<br />
And, the fact that nobody speaks of... perhaps because they don't even know this... if people should be able to sue parents for not vaccinating their children, then shouldn't people be allowed to sue vaccine companies after being injured as a result of a vaccine? What's that, you say? People can't sue a vaccine manufacturer if that vaccine causes their child injury or death? No, they can't, as of 1986. The government created the "National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program." If they deem the injury or death to be truly vaccine-caused, then they will pay you, instead of you sueing the maker of the vaccine - because then they might not have enough money to keep making more vaccines, causing potential for shortages, and the government has decided getting vaccines is in our best interest above and beyond those individuals who have serious life-threatening reactions to vaccines. These drug manufacturers are protected by the government from paying for any wrongful injury or death that their products cause... what other products are protected in this way by our government? <br />
<br />
And so who pays for these vaccine injury claims? Where does the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program get its money? Each vaccine is taxed at a rate of 75 cents. Combination vaccines are taxed for each separate disease they are vaccinating against: the MMR vaccine, for instance, is taxed at $2.25 per vaccine. So the drug companies are completely protected from losing money over lawsuits as well as losing credibility by having their names involved in lawsuits. In its first 20 years, the NVIC program had paid out nearly 2 billion dollars to those deemed to have been injured by vaccines, and only about one in three claims filed is even judged to be vaccine-caused.<br />
<br />
So, up next in the cheerful world of parenting news... Similac made a "commercial." It really is just a video that you can watch online, which on the surface appears to be telling parents, "Let's all get along; we are all good parents trying the best we can." I watched it and immediately didn't like it. I felt the sentimental goosebumps at the end that the advertisers who made it intended (that's the power of advertising via media!), but my brain was saying, "Wait. I don't like this." Similac did an excellent job, I must say, at portraying this loving emotional feeling to make people think they are trying to help break down the largely media-fueled "mommy wars." The thing is, nobody really acts the way the stereotyped moms in the ad are acting. The reason I dislike the ad, I have come to realize, is that it portrays these people as the worst stereotypes you could come up with of what they are. Then it makes it so that since everybody in the ad comes together despite their differences, then all parenting choices must be accepted as being equivalent, meaning that those who want to support breastfeeding are just pushy and mean to moms who had to use formula... when in truth, most moms actually want to breastfeed and many need support to do so. Anyway, <a href="http://evolutionaryparenting.com/that-similac-ad-you-know-the-one/">this article on Evolutionary Parenting</a> does a better job than I can do at explaining my discontent with the ad, really, so I recommend reading it if this ad has been on your radar recently (and you can watch the ad there, too, if you haven't seen it). Sure enough, as soon as the author wrote that she didn't like the ad and why, she got a bunch of commenters who were personally offended that she didn't like it because they couldn't breastfeed for x y and z reason... when she had said nothing at all about their personal choices and circumstances. All from saying she didn't like an ad that everyone else had jumped on the bandwagon for with loving admiration. In effect, starting another "mommy wars" battle. Because a FORMULA company wanted to make an ad that would make us focus even more on these stereotypes of mothers supposedly judging everyone just because they breastfeed or want to help other women to breastfeed. The formula company has further pointed out and focused on our differences, and that part sticks, not the happy ending. In effect, Similac has succeeded in causing formula-feeding parents to point the "hater" finger at breastfeeding supporters simply because they cry foul at this ad made by marketers of infant formula. Well played, Similac, well played.<br />
<br />
From the article:<br />
<h3>
"After the initial shock that so many people could read something so
personal into something about an ad by a company, I realized that my
prediction of what would happen was shown to be true, just earlier than I
had anticipated. The ad has now perpetuated the <b>mommy wars</b> and helped some moms see <b>judgment</b> <i>everywhere</i>."</h3>
<br />
and this: <br />
<h3>
"What was more baffling though was that people decided that <b>not liking an ad equals not liking people that use the product.</b>" </h3>
and finally, this:<br />
<h3>
"Whatever you personally felt about this ad, please just be willing to
accept that someone else didn’t like it. Someone else has a view of
marketing that is perhaps more jaded than yours (and <i>perhaps</i> more realistic?), but that it says nothing about you personally. <b>Not every comment is a dig at your choices.</b> "</h3>
So... on to other parent-related topics that are in my own personal brain rather than fueled by online articles lately, then. These were just two that made me think recently.<br />
<br />
On miscarriage... there are lots of questions mothers have about it, questions you don't think of before having had a miscarriage. From the drastic, "Will I ever be able to carry a pregnancy to term again?" to the simple yet seemingly unanswerable ones like, "How soon is it okay, medically speaking, to conceive again?" Apparently each case is different anyway, so some women will experience a return to normal fertility immediately whereas others may take months for the pregnancy hormones to completely leave their bodies. Nobody seems to be consistent on the answer as to whether or not a woman can ovulate again while she still has low levels of pregnancy hormone in her system following a miscarriage. One nurse told me that you won't ovulate again until the hormone is gone completely, and that makes logical sense, but apparently it is not always true. Looking around online, you find many women who say they ovulated when their pregnancy hormone levels were under 100 but still above 5. Mine were at a 7 when last checked in early January, which the OB/GYN deemed acceptable, that I didn't need to have the level checked again unless I had problems come up.<br />
<br />
So, according to the experts, when is it considered okay to conceive again? Here are the answers:<br />
<br />
"No need to wait; once your body is ready, then you are fine. No increased risk of another miscarriage based on not waiting like we used to think; waiting is outdated advice." - an OB/GYN<br />
<br />
"We tell people to wait through one full cycle before trying to get pregnant again." - a nurse at an OB/GYN office<br />
<br />
"Give your body two to three months to heal." - a homebirth midwife<br />
<br />
"Wait three cycles. You need to build up a good uterine lining so a baby has a soft bed to land in."<br />
- another OB/GYN <br />
<br />
"Three to six cycles is what we are supposed to recommend, but I know plenty of people who conceived again in the very next cycle... we aren't in charge; somebody up there is." - an ER doctor<br />
<br />
So... yeah. I was even more baffled that the "your body will know when it's ready, no need to wait" advice came from a medical doctor, because it sounds so natural-minded. And it is backed by science: Mayo Clinic agrees that conceiving again right away is not associated with increased risk of repeat miscarriage, and that the risk actual does increase if you wait for six or more months. A reassuring fact comes in the form of this information: that less than five percent of women will experience back-to-back miscarriages. Reassuring, that is, until you think of the people you know personally who have experienced multiple miscarriages in a row. And you think, "Do I really know that many people, or has this really happened to more than 5% of my personal friends who have miscarried?"<br />
<br />
I don't like not knowing what my body is doing, so emotionally it was hard to recover in those first several weeks, not knowing what my body was doing cycle-wise. Seems to have gotten back to normal now, so that has been reassuring. I don't like being on edge or overly worried... I know there are risks with pregnancy as with many other things in life, and getting neurotic about it won't help anything. I do like the attitude of "we're not in charge." Letting nature take its course rather than trying to formulate some exact science in when it is medically "okay" to conceive again.<br />
<br />
So, we said a St. Gerard novena, since he is the patron saint for pregnant mothers and those wishing to become pregnant... hoping for more peace on the situation and to be relaxed going forward, not to overthink things to the point of needless worry. I am going to start a novena to Our Lady of Lourdes tonight, since her feast day is on February 11, which is the earliest day I could take a pregnancy test this month... not knowing at all what it would show. Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to St. Bernadette and told her, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Conception. My kids and I will be hosting our monthly Catholic homeschool group this Friday, and we will be focusing on Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette, watching a movie we have on the story and reading a story. I would greatly appreciate any prayers for peace of mind and acceptance of God's will for me from those who happen to read this (about the whole fertility thing, not the homeschoolers coming to my house, ha ha). I'm kind of hiding it way down here after all the ranting above, I realize. ;)<br />
<br />
One thing I found to be very certain for myself: I wanted to talk more about it with other moms who have had miscarriages before than with those who have never had one. <br />
<br />
I have read a couple things about miscarriage... just one or two articles of "things you should know about friends who have miscarried" kind of things. And I have found that they don't really fit me somehow. It is still all so abstract to me... when you lose a baby you never were even able to see, then it doesn't even feel completely real. So no, I don't find myself wondering or imagining what she would have looked like... I don't even know if she was a she or a he, anyway. Maybe once I hit those dates... what would have been my due date... next Christmas... maybe then it will hurt and I will be wondering what that day would have actually been like had things been different. Everything I have that is a concrete reminder that she really existed is in a little box on my dresser. I also have a hydrangea for her sent by a sweet friend that I will plant outside when it is warmer, so that will be another concrete reminder... and we have an engraved brick for her in a prayer garden at our church. Today we placed her remains under it - finally, after waiting over a month for the monument company to stop dragging their feet on finishing it - and our deacon performed the Rite of Committal. <br />
<br />
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<br />
When they first built the prayer garden a few years ago, anyone who wanted to could buy a brick, either for their own family or as a memorial for somebody. Our deacon told us that a few people have placed miscarried remains under bricks there - so that is not its main purpose, but it is a respectful way of handling miscarried remains.<br />
<br />
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<br />
We chose to use the brick under our family's brick... to spread the bricks evenly around the garden when they first built it, they spaced the bricks out with blank ones in between. So there was a blank one available under ours. After placing the remains, we all went into the church and prayed the rosary together (well, Lucy ran around a little in the empty church, but the older girls, Chris, and I prayed the rosary). That is my special rosary for Mary Karol around the brick in the photo, another tangible item I have as a reminder of her.<br />
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Over Christmas, my brother who is currently a transitional deacon gave me this beautiful blessing.<br />
<br />
I have also learned now, having gone through this, that it has made me sensitive to comments others make. I never liked the comments of, "Oh, we're DONE having kids, thank goodness!" but those particularly come across hard now when I hear about parents with that mentality. It is also hard overhearing people being thankful for <i>not </i>being pregnant, or saying things like, "Oh gosh, I hope I'm not pregnant!" I know this is my problem, and I can remember times when I was overwhelmed with my current kids and thinking no way could I handle another baby at that time, so I understand... but this has given me a new perspective. It will be more difficult to fear pregnancy in the future because the ones that are carried to term will be that much more precious to me. Another difficult thing is seeing people who are announcing that they are due around what was to be my due date... or a month later, and knowing that they have made it through that first trimester with a normally-progressing pregnancy, and knowing that I was ahead of where they were - that I should have been holding a newborn before they would be - but I won't. Their arms will be full before mine. It is also hard knowing some pregnant moms who didn't even intend to become pregnant and are - not that they are acting bitter about becoming pregnant unintentionally, but because... well, because they just are, and I am not. Selfish thoughts, really, but maybe somewhat normal. My body did go through a major hormone shift of rapidly rising hormone levels to rapidly falling hormone levels. My body was expecting to be pregnant and to be needing to be in maternity clothes soon, and that didn't happen - it's like a disconnect between brain and body. So in expecting to be pregnant, my body senses it when my brain picks up on the fact that other people are pregnant. So it is hard to see/hear about pregnancies, although seeing babies themselves, already born, is comforting to me somehow. I know I have been a lot more sensitive to my own toddler, my "baby," lately, and wanting to snuggle her more... as she grows more and more independent each day, and I ask myself, "Surely I would have been ready to have another baby now; why did I wait so long? Lucy is so grown up lately!" Hindsight... I didn't predict it nine months ago because she was still quite a handful then! She has grown and changed so much in a few short months...<br />
<br />
So, all that to say... there is not necessarily a "normal" way to process miscarriage, and maybe some people will be more sensitive to some things than others. And since I get that, I am not going to be mad at anyone for saying or doing anything that might make me bristle... I mean, a pregnant mom can't help walking past me looking pregnant, now can she? Or that she happens to have difficult pregnancies when I love being pregnant? It's not anyone's fault. I am very grateful to people who have continued to ask how I'm doing and for expressing their thoughts and prayers for us. The few cards given to us are kept in that little box because, again, they are tangible reminders of something so intangible to me, even though I have the confidence that her soul is a very real thing... it is till hard to grasp it when I never even saw her.<br />
<br />
One other thing... nobody tells you exactly what to expect during a miscarriage. I had a very helpful online friend who gave me the most realistic idea of what to expect. I certainly didn't expect to black out, though. I also didn't expect the doctors to not be able to tell me when I'd passed the baby's remains. The ER doctor insisted that I wouldn't be able to tell, although apparently many moms have been able. He said he never could distinguish it visually in this early of a miscarriage... and as I was at ten weeks, I was thinking, "Early??" The baby was only measuring 5/6 weeks, however. Without going into too much detail, I will say that with the help of ultrasound, we are confident that what we placed under the brick was what we intended to place there. But if any other mothers who are faced with a miscarriage are reading this, hopefully they will understand that it is not always a clear thing to tell for sure... that you can't expect closure from actually knowing the moment that the actual remains of the baby have passed. It upset me at first that I couldn't, and I think my expectations were influencing me there. Like so many other things - there is no exact textbook way something will play out; every case can be a little different.<br />
<br />
It still doesn't all seem totally real, nor does it seem right to add all this onto the bottom of this post, but it feels weird to give it its own post, too. There is no normal, I guess is what I keep learning.<br />
<br />
So... one last thing to wrap up this way-too-lengthy post. Those legwarmer thingies that I have mentioned a few times and promised they are cute and not tacky or 80s-looking... I took a picture so I could prove it:<br />
<br />
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Except it doesn't really prove it, because I am sure some people probably still think they are ugly. But I love them, and they are warm!! But yes, everyone's experience will be different, and so... if you think they are tacky, just don't tell me that. ;)Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-9933030554277872392015-02-02T22:08:00.000-05:002015-02-02T22:08:58.303-05:00Ramblings, Part III<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Beef
stock... looks delicious with all those vegetable chunks floating
around in there, huh? Well, it was, after I strained it, that is. We
made beef stew with it a couple weeks ago and froze the rest, although I
should probably just thaw it and have us drink cups of it. Maybe that
will help us with these little colds that we seem to keep catching.
Cecilia has been coughing since about four days before Christmas,
literally. Right now I have chicken stock simmering on the stove to use
in <a href="http://thenourishingcook.com/carrot-is-the-new-pumpkin/">cream of carrot soup</a>
tonight (I know, sounds gross, but it is absolutely delicious, I
promise, and my kids all love it). I still can't get my stock to gel
and considered being a cheater and just adding <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Great-Lakes-Unflavored-Gelatin-Kosher/dp/B0008D6WBA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422763548&sr=8-2&keywords=great+lakes+gelatin">this gelatin</a>
to it myself, ha ha. We have used it to make our own lemon gummies and
also to just add into smoothies, so maybe that makes up for my gel-less
stocks.<br />
<br />
I have been on a health food kick lately
(I mean more than usual, if you can believe that is possible). Coming
off the Christmas season, I wanted to get back to normal since we had
been eating more treats and junk food than usual. And I figure that has
made us more susceptible to illnesses. So, lots of nourishing foods
lately to help us through this cough and cold season, and also to give
my body lots of nutrients to recover from my miscarriage and to get me
on track for healthy eating should I get pregnant again soon. I have
also been adding some good-for-fertility vitamins to my own diet as well
as daily flax oil. The kids are taking vitamins C and D daily, and we
are all taking elderberry syrup as a flu preventative every day (so far,
so good, crossing my fingers)... except we just ran out, and I can't
make more until our local health food store gets more raw honey. I may
have to see what honey options they have at Kroger.<br />
<br />
Lucy has been developing her palate impressively in the last few weeks... we have been eating lots of vegetables lately:
broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, beets, parsnips, carrots, kale,
spinach are just a few from the last week off the top of my head. Lucy
has been my most reluctant eater-of-vegetables so far, but she is
catching on suddenly! I always put a bit of everything on her plate,
even if she has said she doesn't like it, and we always have them take
at least one bite. So, most of her solid-food-eating life, she has been
given the head of one spear of asparagus on her plate whenever we eat
that as a part of dinner, and she would take a little nibble as her one bite.
She gets a small salad every time we have it for dinner, and she has
started eating several bites of that on her own. She will now eat an
entire spear of asparagus without any prompting from us (she had to ask
for more the first time because she only had the one token piece on her
plate). I cooked eggplant slices under the broiler and then baked them with marinara sauce and mozzarella, and she
asked for seconds. When I was cutting up some raw kale, she begged for
some. Then she thanked me profusely, ha ha. She did the same with raw
cabbage while I was chopping that up to go in a salad. She ate the
celery sticks instead of just licking the peanut butter out of her "ants
on logs" snack. And she likes cauliflower in most of its forms at this
point (covered in cheese being the favorite). When we were at the
Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga a couple weeks ago, she noticed
some kale growing in a planter on the rooftop area and asked, "Can I
eat this?" It is exciting to see how accepting she has become of a lot
of our commonly-eaten vegetables. I figured she would start to eat some
of them eventually since the older two did... I am a believer in the
exposure method. We eat them frequently and they see them on their
plates often, and eventually they eat most of them. Lucy still won't
eat corn or peas... but hey, who needs corn, anyway? It is funny
because most kids who don't like many veggies <i>will </i>eat corn! <br />
<br />
On
the topic of healthy eating... I have been debating whether to keep
drinking decaf Irish breakfast tea or to switch to decaf coffee for my
morning cup of enjoyment. The thing is, I have to have a little sugar
in my black tea. I have tried to like it with honey, tried to like it
with stevia, and I just can't. I use raw sugar from the health food
store bulk bins, but still... sugar. I like to try to only have
sweeteners like raw honey, maple syrup, and the occasional baked item
make with sucanat. And... I love coffee with no sweeteners. All it
needs is cream or milk to be perfect for me. So... decaf coffee with a
little whole milk? Or decaf black tea with the same milk plus a
teaspoon or so of sugar? Which is the healthier option, especially for
somebody who hopes to become pregnant? It is good quality decaf, both
the coffee and tea, decaffeinated by the water method, which is supposed
to be gentle and chemical-free. Feel free to weigh in with a comment!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3B578%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C973335nu0mrj" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3B578%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C973335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gabby selfie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The
morning after we went to the Emerson Hart concert, Gabby was being her
usual friendly self, laying on top of people and shedding on us as a
token of her love. my brother was on a trip to the Holy Land at the
time, and he had been sharing photos from his trip on Facebook,
including one where there was a cat in one of the shrines that looked
very similar to Gabby - Gabby's scraggly Middle-Eastern cousin, I
assume. So Gabby texted a picture of herself to him using my phone,
since she was sure he missed her, and she didn't want to get replaced by
some cat in another country! He responded with, "What, no Mason
photo?"<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3C586%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C552335nu0mrj" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3C586%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C552335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mason selfie attempt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So
he got this a few hours later when Mason took a break from her
aloofness and graced us with her presence briefly. I was surprised that
she actually approached the phone while it was focusing and sniffed at
it... her PTSD must be wearing off for her to not be afraid of
approaching a strange object held by the Bringer of the Loud Two-Legged
Ones.<br />
<br />
Also in Atlanta was this sad sight...<br />
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<br />
This
used to be the house across the street from my parents. It was there
at Christmas, and it was gone two weeks later. It is sad because they
are knocking down all these houses and building McMansions that cost
over half a million dollars each. The houses take up most of the space
on the lots so they barely have yards and they tower comically over the
older homes that are still left. I am so glad my parents' house is safe
because nobody wants their lot since it has a creek on it that has
occasionally flooded into the basement. My parents are probably not so
thrilled as I am, ha. They don't get sentimentally attached to houses,
although they have lived in this one since before I was born! But I
think their lot is great - a corner lot, creek, woods, plus a flat yard
area... perfect for kids. My brothers and I practically lived in that
creek in the summers!<br />
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And
here is my favorite place to go when at my parents' house: Trader
Joe's. My mom and I discovered the little clothing store next to it,
the Lemon Drop Shoppe... it is where she got me the legwarmer thingies I
talked about before. As I was there taking this picture, it struck me
that I have likely spent months of my lifetime in these two shops...
Trader Joe's only in the past seven or so years, but before that, in
high school and college, I was in the space where the Lemon Drop Shoppe
is practically every few weeks for many, many years... because that used
to be Wolf Camera. After I no longer seemed to live in the creek, I
seemed to live at that Wolf Camera, ha ha. It only closed with maybe
the past five or so years. I spent much time and much money in there!<br />
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And
finally, a piece of what appears to be some kind of deep poetic writing
from Caroline. I found this written on a napkin. Chris and I thought,
"Wow, that 'death is not an expirement' part is really deep!
Especially with how the word 'expirement' is set off by being alone and a
few spaces below the rest." Nope, it is actually a misspelling of
'experiment.' And it was apparently based on a fortune cookie that my brother Tim got when we went to Restaurant with him several months ago. So... yeah. <br />
<br />
Well, that is enough rambling for now, I suppose... maybe more soon! :)Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-63702370728460472642015-01-27T22:42:00.000-05:002015-01-27T22:42:15.813-05:00Ramblings, Part II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv39839%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C539335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv39839%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C539335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></div>
<br />
A creepy photo of Lucy to kick this post off... those are stickers from Trader Joe's. I love Trader Joe's... except that they think kids need 20 stickers each. When I was a kid, we would get one, maybe two stickers. That's it. A lollipop at the bank? That was like winning the lottery. A sticker AND and toothbrush AND a bouncy ball from the dentist? That was excess in my day. Less is more, people. See, these two eye stickers entertained her fine. The other 18 are probably all over the inside of my car. Thanks a lot, TJ's cashiers.<br />
<br />
She stuck them on her own eyes herself. I bet if she could have seen herself, she would have been disturbed and pulled them right off again, ha. The hooded cloak, though, is adorable. It was a Christmas present for her because she loves to dress up. I got it from an <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/196608396/toddlers-cloak-toddlers-cape-lady-bug?ref=hp_mod_rf">etsy shop here</a>. <br />
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This is Cecilia in our local coffee shop... no, not drinking coffee. She and Lucy split a hot chocolate in two cups. The older girls take dance lessons at a studio down the street from the coffee shop, so I sometimes stop in there to grab a drink after dropping off Caroline. Cecilia's class starts an hour later - that was the closest I could get them to overlap - and so she, Lucy, and I run errands before her class begins. This was an extremely cold day, so I told them that in honor of the cold weather, I was treating them to hot chocolate.<br />
<br />
I love the atmosphere in this coffee shop... see the background, how the light fixtures look? There are several mismatched wooden tables scattered around the place, a few armchairs and couches, and local artwork (for sale) displayed on the walls. A nearby CSA does their vegetable share drop off here on our dance day. We haven't done it ourselves because it is pricey, but I would like to try it one day. And, it is hard to believe it now, but this space used to be our local photography store. Sadly, it closed because the owner just wouldn't go digital... but I used to come here for film developing, and now I come here for coffee. The building has come full circle for me... if that even makes sense. I gradually stopped going because I had switched to digital and only occasionally went to get reprints of old photos, and then it closed... and then it became another local business that draws me in. Sometimes I will try to remember where things were when it was Clyde Collier Photography, and I barely can. Or I will sip coffee and think, "There used to be pictures here in this building that I took." Weird.<br />
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Lucy clearly didn't want her photo taken. She kept trying to block me with her foot.</div>
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I have cut back almost completely on the caffeine. When I was pregnant, I stopped drinking coffee except for the occasional decaf. I switched to decaf Irish Breakfast tea as well. I like to keep caffeine out of my system during pregnancy. With the emotional sadness of the miscarriage, I wanted to turn back to caffeine... but didn't for some reason, overall. I have had an occasional cup of coffee here at Swift and Finch, but more often get decaf. Mostly decaf tea at home, too. I figure I might as well keep it mostly out of my system as I hope to be pregnant again sometime soon...</div>
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Here is an example of some of the local art hanging up in Swift and Finch... this is totally my kind of decor: beer cap mosaic. I made one myself over a year ago in the shape of a big N for my brother, although I superglued them on. This guy's got the right idea - he pounded them flat and staple-gunned them to the wood. Much more durable, as the superglued ones kept falling off. Anyway, can you tell what scene this artwork portrays? If you lived in Atlanta in the early 90s, you would recognize this as the "Braves win! Braves win! Braves win!" moment when the Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburg Pirates to go on to the 1991 World Series... their first World Series ever. Everyone in Atlanta became a baseball fan then, because the Braves had truly sucked up to that point. I collected the newspaper articles, I watched all the games, I recorded the cheesy musical tributes on VCR tapes at the end of the season... I had a foam tomahawk... yeah, I was into it, ha ha.<br />
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So, I didn't go back to caffeinated coffee after the miscarriage, but I did decide we were going to a concert at a bar in Atlanta. Which I might have done anyway had I still been pregnant, just for the music, but it was much easier to decide that Chris and I needed to go out and do something fun together, because we really did at that point. So this is me in a photo I texted to my mom for fashion advice, ha. We had seen these cute cable-knit sweater button down legwarmer type thingies (I swear they don't look all 80s or anything; I realize they may sound that way!) when I was in ATL around Christmas, and my mom said I should get a pair... I just didn't know what color to choose and said I would look at some of my outfits to see what would be most versatile. They are the kind of thing you have to wear with leggings. I am very picky about leggings - I don't believe they should be worn as pants. They need to be worn under a dress, tunic, long shirt... something that covers the crotch, in my opinion! At least on me. So this is me, modeling a grey tunic-ish thing and a maroon shirt under it with black leggings and mismatched boots. One dressier black knee high boot, one black combat boot circa 1997. Just so she could give a good opinion based on what I might be wearing these legwarmer thingies with. So she got me a pair and then we went to Atlanta a few days later, and I wore them with this outfit to the concert. With the combat boots, of course. I need to get the toes on them redone... the leather is all scuffed up. I am just kind of overprotective and don't know that I trust somebody to take them apart and put them back together again with some new leather. Kind of like how I won't leave old negatives for reprints (see, back to photography again!) at places that send them off because I am afraid they will lose them or shred them up in a post office machine or something. I think that's called paranoia or something...<br />
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So we went into Atlanta to see Emerson Hart perform at a club called Vinyl. It has a parking deck underneath that must be classified as an antique at this point. It took me about seven minutes to get into the parking space - really. Tight, tight, tight. We got there just a bit before the opening act went on - and there were two openers - and yet there were no tables left. I hadn't realized they would have a bunch of tables; photos online of this place looked like an open area with people just milling about. But there was a raised platform area towards the back that had couches and armchairs on it, so we sat in the two armchairs, and this was our view from there.<br />
<br />
This was the third time I dragged Chris to see Emerson Hart. It was the first time we'd heard him tell so many stories and cuss so much (Emerson, not Chris), ha ha. The stories were very interesting, although he got very rambly the later it got, after a few people brought him shots of Jameson. The show was open to all ages even though it was in a bar, and there were a couple of people who had kids there around maybe age ten... so he kept apologizing to them, saying "I'm sorry, sweetie, those are bad words. I shouldn't say that." Then he'd keep it up anyway, ha. Lesson: don't take kids to concerts in bars at 10:00 at night. Three kids at Gramma's house, none in my uterus - check. No kids exposed to bad language. And I was able to have my favorite beer which they had on draft, Terrapin Hopsecutioner. A small treat in the grand scheme of things. But it was good to get out together and just listen to music (and stories, lots of stories).<br />
<br />
And that is enough rambling for now... I keep thinking I have words inside me that I need to get out in writing, but I don't think they are coming. So you get this jumbled reflecting instead. ;)Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-54554108155989095072015-01-21T22:56:00.001-05:002015-01-21T22:56:55.578-05:00Ramblings, Part I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35562%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C537335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv35562%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D36%3B%3B99%3C537335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The nun habits the girls got for their dolls for Christmas... so cute</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, this will be a rambling post... and every time I sit down to try to put an update here, I feel like I have so much to say, and then... nothing comes. So I will add lots of pictures from the past month and see if that gets my brain moving as I comment on them and also hopefully follow the tracks of my brain to where they actually want to go. If that makes any sense at all.<br />
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So, this was a fun thing... I am very sentimental, so this piece of wrapping paper is still on my desk. My constant battle between minimalism and sentimentality rages on within me. I am really hoping to work on minimizing things in my house this year... kind of a New Year's resolution. I don't know where it all comes from, but if it doesn't have a use or it makes my children bicker, out it goes. If it holds sentimental value to me, well... hard to let go of some things. I have thrown out stuff in the past and then regretted it later based on the sentiment attached to it.<br />
<br />
Back to the wrapping paper... this was a roll of wrapping paper that I hadn't seen used to wrap presents since I was much younger and still living with my parents. I assumed it all got used up like in 1994 or something. well, apparently it did - all but this scrap of it. You know the scrap that you had to cut off and then saved because it might be able to wrap a box of earrings or a baseball card one day? Don't scoff, I am not being random here; I used to get my brother a baseball card of his favorite Braves player every year for Christmas and then wrap the card about ten times, and this scrap would have been perfect for that. Well, maybe for half the card. Apparently this year, my dad decided to use these last scraps. He wrapped them around the handles of gift bags with a tag attached to them (creating mass confusion in the large family gift opening department, as the previous years' tags on the bags themselves did not get covered up, and he had to explain,"No, look at the wrapping paper scrap wrapped around the handles; that is who it's for!"). And I gleefully announced, "Oh, I remember that wrapping paper - I loved it (alternately, "It was so ugly; I guess it is still around because nobody wants to use it!" - although the pineapple paper has not made an appearance in well over a decade, perhaps two)! I'm so excited that we still have some!" Er, had some, as my dad burst my bubble by saying this was the last of it. So I rescued two of the last of the old wrapping papers, and now, hmm, maybe I will make them into laminated bookmarks or something? Again, usefulness and minimalizing! But these philosophies must also intersect with my style of reused/reclaimed/handmade decor. See exhibit A, my license plate collection which adorns the walls of the sunroom (and contains a few sentimental pieces with stories behind them, of course), and exhibit B, my search for a farmhouse-style dining table (either antique or made from reclaimed wood if new) for our hopefully still-growing family.<br />
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So that is another resolution I have for this year. Find us my ideal table. I already found a few on Craigslist and they already sold. To other people. I am the kind of person who needs to look at ads for tables the day before I could actually drive two hours to buy one. If I look at them and save them for later, they will be gone before I go look at them. It doesn't help that the tables are all a few hours away from me. Chris and I need a date day, a table-looking date day. This is one thought that kept popping into my head a week or two after the miscarriage: I just want a day all alone with only my husband. We will go to Mass and go table-shopping. That is all I want to do. It was strange how strong the urge was at that time... but yeah, I do still want to go find a table. <br />
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I found this setup a couple of times during the Christmas season... various toddler dollhouse people gathered 'round the nativity. This is a child-friendly nativity that my mom started us one, adding a few new figures each year. The wise men and camels were this year. Lucy liked to have all her dollhouse people come to join in the Nativity of the Lord. I don't know what happened to Cloth Dollhouse Daddy there; it looks like his wife pushed him over. He was one too many for the crowd, apparently. The plastic brown-haired people... those came from a teacher supply store marketed as dollhouse people for toddlers (because they are chunky and easy to hold, don't have hinged appendages that can pinch tiny fingers, etc)... but the description on the box was unfortunate. They were labeled as the "safe, soft, white family." Sold alongside the Hispanic, Asian, and black dollhouse families. Many a joke was made that Christmas, and seeing as Caroline could read that year, they are still referred to as "Lucy's safe white family." Thanks, Mom. ;)<br />
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See, I told you this would ramble. It's even uglier than I thought, ha! And all that from a wrapping paper scrap. Sometimes it is exhausting to be in my own brain. So with that, I will take a break and come back later to add more... I think I will post this in parts. Otherwise, it will just sit and I will keep adding to it slowly and then it will be quite long. Small dose rambling is probably easier on the brain anyway.<br />
<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-85485149758913199862015-01-19T22:00:00.005-05:002015-01-19T22:00:55.371-05:00Soul Gardening JournalI started getting this wonderful little magazine this past fall... it is written by Catholic mothers and is mailed out, in print, for free. They exist solely on donations. And I was so impressed with it after reading half of one issue that I sent a donation myself as past of our charitable giving at the end of December. It seems to be speaking directly to me - giving me the comfort that there are others out there like me and that maybe I am not alone in my craziness, ha ha. Homeschooling, chickens, photography... all covered in this one issue. An excellent encouragement for mothers of young children!<br />
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Here is an example of one of the articles (see, they are short, on small pages, perfect for a busy mom with her hands full of toddlers and babies to read in short snatches here and there)... you'll have to click to see it large enough to read:<br />
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I need to update more here, maybe eventually get around to sharing the Christmas photos, reflections on miscarriage, and sharing some of the girls' artwork and other things we have been up to... eventually...</div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-78823519580184352332015-01-13T23:10:00.002-05:002015-01-13T23:10:32.698-05:00Family Geography Studies<br />
Some fellow homeschoolers recently asked me to share our Family Geography studies here on the blog. This is something we do in the first grade as a way to learn some geography and history that is relevant to the children's own background. It is a suggested topic of study in the plans from <a href="http://materamabilis.org/ma/">Mater Amabilis</a>, a free online "curriculum" of sorts. I use the quotation marks because it is more a set of suggested resources and guidelines rather than a boxed curriculum of texts. If you click on Level 1B, you will find the guidelines and suggestions for Family Geography. Below are some photos of how we have implemented this study in our own family.<br />
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Three things that have been very helpful to us for Family Geography:<br />
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1. Use of Google Maps. We have looked up addresses of where parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents have lived. Using the satellite and street view shots, we can look at the houses, the yards, and nearby landmarks such as rivers and oceans. My mom and I even "drove" around on the street view for a small town in Ohio where she lived for about six months in the 50s as a toddler, armed with only a photo of the house... and we identified it after about an hour of looking!<br />
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2. Obtaining old family photos. I particularly have pulled out photos that show the houses where people have lived with the family members outside of them or of other geography of the area. There is one old photo of a great-grandparent at a major river in his hometown, and then we visited that same spot and took a photo of our children standing there. The old photos have been scanned so I can print them, and then the girls have glued these photos into their Family Geography books. <br />
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3. Visiting the old homes of grandparents and great-grandparents when possible. If they don't live there any more, we have driven by and taken photos as we pointed them out to the kids.<br />
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I have done this with my oldest daughter and am currently doing it with my second one. So at the beginning of the first grade school year, I have given the child a blank book which we put all of our maps, photos, and information in. The following photos are of some of the pages from these books.<br />
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We printed a family tree template found online and filled in the child, parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. We also included the birth and death dates and birthplaces of each.<br />
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Map page showing locations of each family member's birthplace</div>
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We tied in landform study... Georgia, our home state, has almost all the major landforms and bodies of water. One relative grew up in a town on Lake Superior; one alongside the St. John's River... I had these state sheets from an old teacher workbook and made copies of some of the states that were relevant. We also visited major landforms in some of the states... my husband grew up in Tennessee, so we went to the highest point in the state, Clingman's Dome, and spent time in the Smoky Mountains.<br />
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Page on how my parents came to Georgia and where I was born, as well as my own children's birthplace</div>
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><span id="goog_134006164"></span>My parents were both born in Florida... this page shows where they were born, how they met, and shows some photos of them in front of their homes. We compared a bay to a gulf since my dad grew up on the St. Petersburg peninsula, in between the Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.<br />
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More Florida photos... my mom as a baby on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville</div>
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><span id="goog_134006164"></span>We made some recipes that had to do with states or family members... this is peanut butter balls for Georgia. My daughter narrated the steps and I typed them for her to make this page along with prints of photos of her making the recipe.</div>
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><span id="goog_134006164"></span>Recipes related to my grandmother</div>
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><span id="goog_134006164"></span>Map of Tennessee to show the towns where my husband and his relatives were born</div>
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><span id="goog_134006164"></span>My daughters standing in the same place by the Cumberland River as the old photo of their great grandfather</div>
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><span id="goog_134006164"></span>Another suggestion was to learn about saints from any of the states with a family history... my mom's father was from Pennsylvania, so we made pages on St. Katherine Drexel and St. John Neuman. We have also visited the site of the first Mass in St. Augustine, FL, and this would make another interesting page or pages for those with relatives in Florida.<br />
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There are so many little tidbits they can pick up through this... my grandfather's family owned a slate mine in Pennsylvania, so we found the possible site of it on Google Maps, the house where he lived, how far it was to the university he attended... they could see the mountainous landscape of that region and learn that slate is mined there. We have a piece of a chalkboard that came from the slate there. It is neat to tie all these things together!<br />
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<span id="goog_134006163"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_134006164"></span><br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-61523107468071918802014-12-22T15:37:00.001-05:002014-12-22T15:37:24.233-05:00Advent 2014It has been awhile since I posted any updates on what is going on here. We have had a very difficult past two weeks. I had a miscarriage at 9-10 weeks into my fourth pregnancy, and now we are all battling bad colds. It is the worst feeling when you feel like crying over the loss of your baby but making yourself hold back because of the intense sinus pain that you know would only be made worse by tears.<br />
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We named the baby Mary Karol. I had a dream that the baby had been a girl. We found out that there was no heartbeat on December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mary) after an ultrasound I got in the ER, knowing something was not right. Then the miscarriage began on December 15, the feast day of St. Mary di Rosa. So the name Mary seemed very fitting when put with my dream. I still don't have a definitive feeling on the gender of the baby, and the middle name Karol sounds feminine in our culture but is actually a male name in Poland and was the name of Pope Saint John Paul II. My family has Polish Catholic heritage, and he was the Pope when I was born.<br />
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I am so grateful to the people who have helped us... this is already a busy and complicated time of the year, so we have needed the support. My mom came to stay with the girls when I had to be hospitalized overnight after passing out during the miscarriage. Our friends from church took the girls both times when I had to go to the ER and fed them dinner. Another friend took care of the girls and drove them to their dance classes for me as well as bringing us dinner, and one of our neighbors offered to bring us a meal this past weekend. Having meals made for us has been truly the best thing... it has been one less thing we have had to manage. My wonderful husband has been holding us together otherwise, being the only one not struck down by this cold. He has been doing Christmas baking and keeping everyone fed on the days he has been home from work. My brother who is a transitional deacon has also been very helpful in looking into how to best go about with burial of the remains of the baby... we want to respectfully do something that is in line with our faith. Other than the specific things people have offered to do for us, having other moms tell me about their own miscarriages has been so helpful. It seems that almost all of my friends have been through this at least once. I am sad that any of us have to go through this, yet it makes us all feel less alone when we realize how common this situation really is.<br />
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Please pray for peace for our family at this time. I took several photos of how our Advent was going before this all began, so I am going to share some of those now... as I sit under the influence of this cold while my kids watch yet another movie, ha. Movies have been helping to get us through the sadness and sickness.<br />
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Our advent wreath before lighting it on the first Sunday of Advent... and Mary and an angel. We put our main nativity set figures around the room and have them travel gradually to the stable.<br />
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Our three kings wait to make their move after Christmas, so they will arrive on the Epiphany, January 6th.<br />
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Our baby Jesus stash... they hang out in a sugar bowl until Christmas day, when they are placed in their corresponding nativities. We also have two play nativity sets, and those already have their baby Jesuses and kings so the kids could play out the whole story of the nativity.<br />
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My mom started this Fontanini kid-friendly nativity last year... it looks very nice, but the figures are a durable resin type material. They are constantly being rearranged, and the grass stuff is all over the floor, ha.<br />
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Cecilia and Lucy enjoying the play nativity sets</div>
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Some of our Advent and Christmas books... we have been reading at least one each day</div>
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The sacrifice manger has been getting filled with straws to make baby Jesus a nice soft bed... each time one of the girls does a good deed or makes a sacrifice, she can place a straw in the manger.<br /><br />
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Each day we have been doing a reading from the Old Testament on one of Jesus's ancestors and adding an ornament to our Jesse Tree (Jesse was Jesus's 24-greats grandfather). Last year another mom hosted a Jesse Tree ornament swap online, so we made 30 of one ornament and then mailed them to her, and she sent everyone a complete set! I love that we have a handmade set of these to use each year!<br />
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The girls made St. Nicholas cookies for his feast day on December 6 and we shared them at our homeschool group as well as with some neighbors.<br />
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Lucy loves wearing the Christmas Snoopy apron</div>
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The girls got up on St. Nicholas morning to find treats in their shoes... holy cards, clementines, chocolate coins, and a few new Christmas books.<br />
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Then we had our traditional St. Nicholas breakfast: bread shaped like a bishop's crozier filled with cream cheese and jam, clementines, and hot chocolate stirred with mini candy canes (croziers!).<br />
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Our priest has been wearing purple vestments most of December... Lucy is learning to put the vestments on according to the liturgical calendar.</div>
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St. Lucy day was on December 13, and since it is Lucy's name day, we always do something special to celebrate... the girls wear their St. Lucy crowns, which is a custom on this day in Sweden, and we bake Santa Lucia bread in a wreath shape like the crowns. They have fun blowing out the candles afterward. Chris and I were sort of glad to be able to come home from that ultrasound and make the traditional St. Lucy bread, to do something normal for our kids and our family, while waiting for the miscarriage to begin.<br />
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The girls decorated a gingerbread house recently... I always buy one of those kits on clearance after Christmas and then save it until next year. That way I can tell them not to eat it because it is too old, ha. They usually decorate it on one of the days getting close to Christmas on which the O Antiphons are prayed... one day the prayer is, "O Key of David, and Scepter of the House of Israel, who
opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens; Come and bring forth
the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow
of death." So they build a house to represent this antiphon. Yesterday's antiphon was O Rising Dawn, which speaks of light... we typically go out on a drive to look at Christmas lights on that evening, but with everyone feeling so awful with colds, we put it off and are hoping to go maybe tomorrow night instead, if we are feeling up to it. Chris and the older two might be well enough, but I know Lucy and I wouldn't last long. I am praying we are mostly over this by Christmas eve.<br />
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Cecilia decorated some gift bags that we will fill with some treats to give to friends and neighbors for Christmas. I have a huge stack of old Christmas cards for crafts... some were given to me randomly and are from unknown people. Funny thing, one card was a musical one from 1995, according to the date in it, and it started playing when I opened it... and it wouldn't stop. It played on and on for days. I was very impressed with its battery life, and it was almost sad when it finally stopped (after sounding quite pathetic as it died down) because it had become part of the background in our house, ha.<br />
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I hope everyone has a merry Christmas season and that you have some time of rest with family and friends.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-71484329073274716842014-11-09T23:44:00.000-05:002014-11-09T23:44:52.651-05:00All Saints CelebrationsThis year, Halloween fell on a Friday. We went to the vigil Mass of the Feast of All Saints Day, where the children are invited to dress as saints or figures from the Bible. There is a "trunk-or-treat" in the parking lot after Mass, so we did about six cars there and then went home so they could trick-or-treat in the neighborhood as well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On our front porch after trick-or-treating</td></tr>
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The vigil Mass has always been a mostly-Hispanic Mass; however, it is advertised as being bilingual (which it is) and everyone is welcome to both the Mass and the trunk-or-treating in saint costumes afterward. Yet in the two times we have gone, we have pretty much been the only non-Hispanic family there, which is a shame that there is such a divide within the parish that families see it and just assume to themselves that it's a Hispanic thing. This year, since All Saints was on a Saturday and the US Bishops decided to abrogate the feast, there was no All Saints Mass on Saturday at all. So the vigil was the only option if we wanted to attend an All Saints Mass, and we did! We love this feast day!<br />
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Something we did for the first time this year, in addition to carving a jack-o-lantern, was to carve "Saint-o-lanterns." There are ideas of symbols to carve in a book that I won in an online giveaway a few years ago, <a href="https://www.chcweb.com/catalog/AYearwithGodCelebratingtheLiturgicalYear/product_info.html"><i>A Year with God</i></a>, and our neighbors had given us three little pumpkins, one for each of the girls. So they drew the designs they wanted, and I carved three of them - Caroline carved her own with the Swiss army knife that her uncle gave her when she found it in my parents' house.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A435%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27992673%3B%3C244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A435%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27992673%3B%3C244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy's monstance pumpkin - a symbol of St. Clare, since she held the Eucharist up as the convent was about to be attacked by an invading army, and they turned and fled!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv9898%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E2799267424244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv9898%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E2799267424244ot1lsi" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cecilia's crown pumpkin - a symbol of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a queen</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv67%3A7%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E279926742%3A244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv67%3A7%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E279926742%3A244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caroline's pumpkin shows a palm branch surrounded by three drops of blood - her saint, St. Joan of Arc, was a martyr</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv7357%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27992673%3B6244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv7357%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27992673%3B6244ot1lsi" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy with two of the jack-o-lanterns, holding up my vintage McDonald's Happy Meal pumpkin bucket that I got when I was in college, just because.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A%3B73%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27992637%3A4244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A%3B73%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27992637%3A4244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy as St. Clare</td></tr>
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<i>~All Saints Homeschool Party!~</i></h4>
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On the Friday after All Saints Day, we had our annual All Saints homeschool party! The kids can all dress as saints and then they play saint-themed games, have saint-themed snacks, and try to guess each others' saint costumes. We have done this in the parish hall for the past two years, and it has worked out really well there. We have plenty of space and tables there.<br />
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Caroline was Joan of Arc again, but this year, she dressed as her as a soldier - last year, she dressed as Joan of Arc as a shepherdess, before she led the French army. Her blue dress is a cheapy costume from Oriental Trading or some awful place like that, ha, and then I made her "armor." The top part is a shiny silver fabric that cut into a rough shape and then sewed up the sides, leaving arm openings which I cut slits in to look like armored sleeves... we used this photo of St. Therese the Little Flower, who once dressed as Joan of Arc in a play, and that is what we modeled the costume after:<br />
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The skirt part is some skirt material from the craft store, again cut to look like St. Therese's costume. I did no hemming; I used Fray Check! I thought it would be practically impossible to hem both these types of fabric anyway, and I was going for function and not for them to be able to be worn daily or anything like that. So, I hope it will hold up for other kids to wear in the future! The fleur-de-lis is supposed to be an iron-on from the craft store, but again, finicky fabric... so I had to stitch it on after it came loose after being ironed on. Her sword is just a scrap of wood that Chris cut out from the leftovers from the Winnie-the-Pooh tree. We didn't have paint for it, but maybe one day we can improve it with some silver and gold paint. Caroline made her flag herself by drawing it to look as described in a novel she has about Joan of Arc, and then I went over her drawing with gold puffy paint. I love that she copied the flag from her book's description! I taped it to part of her shepherd's crook from last year. <br />
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Cecilia chose to be Saint Elizabeth of Hungary - she wore most of Caroline's costume from a few years ago when she was St. Elizabeth. We got lucky when our neighbors gave us this royal-looking dress up costume in a bag of hand-me-down clothes several years ago. Her veil is a white piece of fabric I hemmed years ago for them to play with as a doll sling, and the crown is something I made for them last year - they each get a little handmade something for Epiphany. The crowns are easy to make: you just need felt, fabric glue, and elastic and can then decorate it with stick-on jewels or puffy paint or even embroidery. I used <a href="http://www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/2012/08/howtomakeafeltcrown.html">this tutorial</a> to make them. She is holding some fake roses because of the story that when St. Elizabeth of Hungary was feeding bread to the poor of her country, her husband the king stopped her because he didn't think a queen should be going among the poor that way, and when she opened her cloak, the bread was gone and roses were there instead!<br />
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Lucy, dressed as St. Clare in her Poor Clares habit, certainly looks poor with that scraggly hair, ha ha! She kept pushing it back and rumpling up her hair and then having to try to tuck it back in! This costume was also used previously by Cecilia. The brown tunic is an inside-out brown shirt of Daddy's, tied at the waist with a piece of knotted rope. She has a simple wooden rosary hanging from her belt. The part around her face (i think it is technically called the wimple?) is a white shirt of Daddy's with her head partway through the neckhole, which I pinned to make it tighter. This works better with a white turtleneck just a few sizes bigger than the child actually wears, but I didn't have time to rummage and see if I had one in a bin of clothing, so this worked fine too. The veil is two pieces of hemmed fabric: one white, one black, pinned to the top of the t-shirt. It also works better to pin the excess t-shirt in the back behind the neck - I had tied the sleeves together behind her neck, but it didn't stay.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our snack table with our <a href="http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2013/01/all-saints-day-banner-tutorial.html">Happy Feast of All Saints banner</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kids all got snacks first</td></tr>
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Some of the snacks were Juan Diego's tortilla chips and salsa, St.
Francis's animal crackers, St. Bernadette's "firewood" (pretzel sticks),
and Saint Halos (pineapple rings), St. Isidore the Farmer's Veggie Patch, and Archangel Trumpets (Bugles chips)...</div>
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...and I brought deviled eggs, or St. Lucy's eyes! She is the patroness of eyesight and was supposedly blinded during her martyrdom. Her name means "light," which we know is essential for sight. <br />
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The games were set up in stations that the kids could go back and forth between. This one is Crown Mary the Queen of heaven, where they toss the cown ring-toss style over the statue of Mary that I brought from my garden.<br />
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The Guess How Many jars are so fun to put together... and to see what the kids guess. We had guesses as low as ten and as high as 100,001! This year we had a jar of caramel candies (Rolos) for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, star-shaped cereal for the Our Lady of Guadalupe, candy corn and pumpkins for St. Isidore the Farmer, Goldfish crackers for St. Andrew, patron of fishermen, marshmallows for the Holy Souls, and animal crackers for St. Francis.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris got to come to the party because he took a half day off work to make up for the four hours he'd worked the previous Sunday (because sometimes IT guys have to work at crazy times)!</td></tr>
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Here are two of our group playing the St. Juan Diego Rose Toss game. It works like an egg toss except it is less messy! The goal is to keep trying to catch the roses in the cloak. Juan Diego was a man who lived in Mexico, where Mary appeared to him and gave him fresh roses in winter as a sign to show the bishop. He gathered them in his cactus-fiber cloak called a tilma, which can still be seen in Mexico over 500 years later with Mary's image still on it. The fact that it has not deteriorated based on what it is made of is incredible!<br />
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I came up with a new game station this year, mostly for the older kids who knew more about the saints. We had some trivia sheets, a saint memory game, the Church Windows card game about the four evangelists, and Saint Guess Who. I printed the images off; I can't remember exactly where, but this is an example. Anyway, I made a set of saint sheets for our own Guess Who game and then the kids could play it!<br />
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Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this year's St. Isidore's Pumpkin Patch Race, which is lots of fun to watch! I did take several photos at <a href="http://mommyerin.blogspot.com/2013/11/happy-feast-of-all-saints.html">last year's party</a>.<br />
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The kids played saint bingo as a large group and then did a mini cupcake walk where the child who was standing on the saint that was called out got to go pick a cupcake. While they played bingo, I figured out the winners of the Guess How Many jars... both Caroline and Cecilia won something this year. Lucy didn't make any guesses, but if she had, they all would have been 41. For some reason that is her favorite number right now!<br />
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Just before the cupcake walk, the children all played Guess My Saint. Each child who dressed as a saint went up to the front and the others tried to guess what saint they were based on their costume and on any clues they gave.<br />
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<b><i>All Saints in Heaven, Pray for Us!</i></b></h2>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-76589326289694789332014-11-02T22:31:00.000-05:002014-11-02T22:31:09.366-05:00Daybook for the First Week of November, 2014<span style="font-weight: bold;">Outside my window...</span> it has cooled off significantly. Rainy here and there in the past couple days, but beautifully sunny today, although still windy and chilly. The kids have been enjoying the back yard this afternoon despite the cooler temp - the neighbor's cat, Tarsus, is out there visiting with them. Such a sweet cat - he even lets Lucy pick him up under the arms and try to lug him around. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am thinking... </span>about the media's depiction of the Catholic Church and how that must influence public opinion. I think there is so much that could be misunderstood about Catholicism - it really requires a very deep look to be fully understood (and even then, we have to take some things on faith because they surpass understanding). The latest thing was how the media responded to Pope Francis's comments regarding evolution... we had the "progressive" people on the one hand declaring they were glad to see that Catholicism isn't so backwards and stuck in the dark ages and anti-science as they thought (and that the current pope is teaching things that go against what the previous popes said), and then we had the "fundamentalist" Christians on the other side saying isn't it awful that the Catholic Church no longer believes in a literal seven-day creation, some even going so far as to say that Catholics are removing God from creation (not true) and that this is further proof that we are followers of Satan and certainly aren't real Christians (they apparently have no background in history if they don't see that the Catholic Church was the first Christian religion).<br />
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Anyway... all of this confusion would be lessened if the media didn't jump on stories like this and act like it was something new. There are those in the media who, whether intentionally or not, want to present our pope as breaking with long-held Catholic teachings. They don't get that it doesn't work that way - the Catholic Church cannot just change doctrine. If we believe it was divinely revealed to the Church through the Holy Spirit, then how could a pope just say, "Oh, we're not going to believe that any more." The Catholic church has always been a friend to science, and it was a priest who came up with the Big Bang as a theory. Pope Pius XII actually stated that theories of evolution can be compatible with Catholic beliefs way back in 1951. So this is not some new thing, not a break with traditional Catholic beliefs. We believe that faith informs science - they are not at odds with each other. Ultimately, it is not important how we began other than we know it was because of God. <br />
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So... the Church is not changing, the Church doesn't hate science, the Church does not state that a literal seven-day creation story is the definitive way to explain how we got here. The Church does believe that God made us.<br />
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It's the same story when it comes to the Church holding a synod on the family. Certain media outlets were acting like the Church was about to change the definition of marriage. Not going to happen. And it isn't because the Church is backwards and stuck in the dark ages, either. And it certainly isn't because of a hatred or intolerance. It is out of a deep respect and love for humanity, and I certainly cannot do the topic justice myself - but the Catholic teachings on marriage, the family, and sexuality are beautiful. Trust me if you don't think so and do some digging. There is a reason why, when all other Christian denominations have okayed contraception, the Catholic church remains steadfast in her teachings against it. All in beautiful love, and not always communicated clearly, unfortunately. I know it took reading and searching on my own, and with my husband, to gain a deeper understanding of all the whys of Catholic teaching. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am wondering... </span>if the things I have been saying/writing in the past week have made sense, ha. I am losing words; I try to say something and can't find the right way to express it. My brain is just sluggish lately.<br />
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<b>I am praying... </b>for all who have died. November is the month dedicated to All Souls. This morning, we walked through the woods behind our street to the cemetery that is at the other side of the hill we live on so that we could say a few prayers there for the deceased. Visiting graves and praying in a cemetery, especially on this feast of All Souls Day, is an act of piety.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our All Souls mantle display... all family members who have died are pictured here so that we can remember them during the month of November, especially when we pray as a family each evening.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am thankful... </span>for a special new blessing. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">I am hearing... </span><span class="Apple-style-span">the wind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Learning at home... </span>we are planning a mix of things this week... a visit to the aquarium, a couple of art projects, a nature hike one day, along with some of our regular reading and such. Last week, we had some nice outdoor time at Berry. I would love to come back to this specific spot with a larger group of kids and some open-ended materials and tools like rakes, buckets, ropes, old sheets, and just let them have at it:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-weight: bold;">From the kitchen... </span>my chicken broth gelled!! Well, it was really just the liquid in the bottom of the crock pot when I cooked a whole chicken, but my plan was to save it and use it in a soup the next day... and look how beautiful it was!</span><br />
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I was bummed, though, that the big pot of stock I made from two chicken carcasses plus veggie scraps didn't gel at all... boo. so now I have a theory... the raw backbone may be what helped the stock in the crock pit to gel. When I make a big pot of stock from leftover bones, they have already been cooked when I cooked the whole chicken. I have one recipe I like in which I have to cut a whole chicken into pieces, and so that leaves me with a raw backbone section. Maybe if I save two or three of those in the freezer along with additional bones, I can get better gelling results by using them all at once.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am reading... </span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Word-Rethinking-Foundations-Education/dp/1621380041">Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education</a>. </i>Also, the latest issue of Family Foundations, the magazine of the <a href="http://ccli.org/">Couple to Couple League</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">To live the liturgical year... </span>about two weeks ago, we celebrated the first-ever feast day of Pope Saint John Paul II. Being a quarter Polish myself, and this being the pope I was born under, we had to do a little something to celebrate now that he is a saint! On Facebook, my brother posted a photo of JPII when he was the pope that I had taken myself, and it made me realize - wow. I took a photo of a saint! It was when I was 16 and we were visiting Italy while my dad was there on business for about a year's time. We visited Italy for ten days and toured around the country, including a stop in Rome, where we heard Pope JPII give his Wednesday audience and then, as he passed by us on an open cart (not the actual Popemobile, more like a golf cart without a roof), my brother Stephen touched his hand as he passed by, and I took the photo just before that.<br />
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So, to celebrate a special pope who is now a saint, we made a <a href="http://globaltableadventure.com/2012/10/05/recipe-polish-apple-pie-szarlotka-with-poll/">Polish apple cake</a>. I used the recipe found on <a href="http://globaltableadventure.com/">this awesome blog</a> of an old childhood friend of mine from Girl Scouts... she decided to cook foods from each of the 195 countries in the world, one country a week!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">One of my favorite things... </span>fall weather, fall scents, fall cooking. And a fire in the fireplace. </div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am creating... </span>I am filling a few jars for a Guess How Many game for our homeschool group's All Saints party. since All Saints Day fell on a Saturday this year, we are having our party the following Friday after noon Mass. I helped the girls create their costumes this past Friday, and they will get to wear them again for the party. I spent a few evenings sewing some "armor" for Joan of Arc. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Around the house... </span>I need to straighten up some areas, clean some things out... after we went camping with friends last weekend, this past week/weekend was spent doing a little laundry catch-up and some much needed sunroom sweeping (me) and vacuuming (Chris).<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<b>Pondering these words... </b><i>"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen."</i><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">A few plans for the rest of the week... </span><br />
* Trip to the aquarium tomorrow along with lunch with an old friend and his son!<br />
* Gran comes to visit for a few days on Tuesday!<br />
* Date night on Tuesday - Gran with the girls and Chris and I out to dinner and whatever else... maybe mini golf? <br />
* PSR Wednesday evening<br />
* Nature hike one morning<br />
* Dance classes on Thursday<br />
* Noon Mass and homeschool All Saints party on Friday - lots of fun saint-themed games and snacks that my girls are really looking forward to! <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">A picture thought I am sharing...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv6697%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E2799263789244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv6697%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E2799263789244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What homeschooling looks like... Caroline helps cook while watching her Math-U-See lesson on DVD</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dressed up as saints at the All Saints vigil Mass... more pictures of Halloween, All Saints, etc to come soon!</td></tr>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-82202996353457108942014-09-29T21:16:00.002-04:002014-09-29T21:16:40.803-04:00Daybook for September 29, 2014<span style="font-weight: bold;">Outside my window...</span> cool temps and humidity. We had rain this morning. It is damp, but I think I will get the kids outside after rest time is over so they can enjoy the cooler air. It will be back in the 80s tomorrow, supposedly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv7%3A68%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27945%3B7%3C83244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv7%3A68%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27945%3B7%3C83244ot1lsi" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look! Jeans and light sweater-type thingies are possible now, because of the cooler weather! And Lucy can wear her favorite fall outfit (the one that 2 year old Caroline referred to as "my ensemble") that I have been finding her wearing at least three times a week for the past month... finally, she might even be comfortable in it most mornings!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A%3A65%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27945%3B297%3C244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A%3A65%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E27945%3B297%3C244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was outside my window last week... Chris's homemade ham radio antenna fell out of the tree. See the pine tree behind my hand? If you look closely you can see the rest of the rope dangling from the tree up there. We don't know if a squirrel chewed through it or what...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am thinking... </span>how Cecilia is learning her father's sense of humor. Those of you familiar with Kerrygold butter may get this joke. We had recently also had packages of the salted variety, and the one she is holding here is the unsalted. She picked it up and said, "Hmm, shouldn't this kind be called Kerrysilver butter?"<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am wondering...</span> why Lucy gets colds so easily... she has the first one of the season already. Warning - discussion of childbirth ahead, for those who don't like to read about that (I know you exist, even if I don't understand, ha ha)... Here's my possible theory... based on what I know of childbirth, the baby gets colonized with the mother's bacteria as it passes through the birth canal. Since Lucy was still enclosed in the membrane as she passed through, I am assuming she had less contact - or no contact - with any of that. Here is just<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/06/02/babies-born-by-cesarean-section-may-not-gain-benefits-of-vaginal-microbiome.html"> one example of an article</a> about how c-section babies miss out on these microbes. So could it be that a baby whose face (and Lucy's whole body was encased still!) is covered by the membrane also misses out on these beneficial microbes? I want a study on this! Then again, I am going to guess that babies born "in the caul" used to be far more common... many OB/GYNs and even more naturally-minded midwives will sometimes prematurely rupture the membranes on purpose. Eating lots of protein during pregnancy is said to create stronger membranes, and I have experienced that myself. I tried to eat at least 80 grams of protein a day while pregnant, and my membranes did not break until I was pushing hard with the first birth, and then not at all with the third birth. Keeping the membranes intact as long as possible makes for a smoother birth because the contractions are less painful - you still have that cushion of fluid. So, all that leaves me wondering... which is better? And could Lucy have benefited from being colonized? Of course, she has also been getting all the good bacteria and living enzymes in breastmilk for three years now, so I know that is helpful. Her colds are always very mild... she just always seems to have a runny or stuffy nose every few weeks unless it is summer.</div>
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<b>I am praying... </b><a href="http://passionateperseverance.blogspot.com/">for this family</a>. Such a beautiful story, such a positive example of the beauty and value of every human life. They need prayers as their daughter is moving towards the end of her life. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am thankful... </span>that I have a handy husband. He can fix so many things... like our refrigerator/freezer. It has been having issues and he has been able to fix them all. Plus car issues he has recently fixed, and the blender, and several other things.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span> Good for money-saving! <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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He was doing work on this computer for somebody last week... so it was sitting here by the door for him to take with him to get it back to the owner. Lucy came up to it and said, "Mommy, what is it?" I asked her to guess, and she said, "I don't know!! It's Daddy's." Cecilia guessed it was a printer. Then she said, "It's a computer case." As in, a case in which to carry a computer. When I told her it was itself a computer, she said, "Where does it open?" She was thinking laptop. I had to explain that it has a separate screen and keyboard that are not attached to it. I guess these things are rapidly becoming dinosaurs...<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">I am hearing... </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Lucy moving around in her room over the monitor... she is having rest time in her room, and I am just hoping when I go get her in a moment that she will not have emptied out every drawer of Cecilia's side the dresser again...</span></div>
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***She was wearing a pair of leggings and a long-sleeved shirt under her short-sleeved pajamas, but those were the only things she had taken out of the dresser. Yay! She loves to dress up!***<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Learning at home... </span>we are studying birds in-depth this year and have been reading through the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Burgess-Bird-Book-Children/dp/1420930524">Burgess Bird Book for Children</a>, which we all love (<a href="http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=burgess&book=bird&story=_contents">free version online here!</a>). I have saved some old milk jugs to make into a few bird feeders to place around the backyard, hoping to attract more of whatever birds may be migrating through the are this fall, so we will probably get those made and hung up this afternoon. This weekend, Cecilia and I noticed two birds we had never seen before, but by the time we got the camera, they were gone, and we were unable to find them in a bird guide. We thought they looked like woodpeckers, but one had yellow on its breast (but no red head), and the other had red on its breast (again, no red head), so maybe they were females, or juveniles? No woodpeckers in our field guide looked like either one. Maybe I will do an in-depth post about our bird studies this year at some point... <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-weight: bold;">From the kitchen... </span>made kale chips yesterday, and some of this <a href="http://thecoconutmama.com/2011/10/coconut-flour-pumpkin-bread-grain-free/">coconut flour pumpkin bread</a>. I told Cecilia we'd make peanut butter balls since we are learning about Georgia and which of her relatives were born/lived here... but I might not have all the ingredients right now. This weekend, we had <a href="http://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2014/01/homemade-chicken-enchilada-soup.html">this chicken enchilada soup</a>, except I made it by using the broth that was made in the crock pot <a href="http://www.reformationacres.com/2013/10/slow-cooker-chicken-fajitas.html">from this recipe</a> and the extra shredded chicken from it as well... both were winners, and a great way to use one whole chicken to make two meals, including the broth for the soup. Yum. The soup was great topped with sour cream and guacamole. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I am obsessed with grilled eggplant. <a href="http://www.domesticate-me.com/grilled-eggplant-with-fresh-mozzarella-tomatoes-and-basil-vinaigrette/#/">This was our dinner </a>last week - very Italian.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am reading... </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Sleep-Nighttime-Strategies-Breastfeeding/dp/0345518470/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412038521&sr=1-1&keywords=Sweet+Sleep"><i>Sweet Sleep</i></a>, the latest book published by La Leche League. I bought a copy for our Group library and am pre-reading it before sticking it in there for the moms to check out. I have also been reading the <a href="http://www.ccli.org/">Couple To Couple League</a> magazine, Family Foundations, that came in the mail several weeks ago. And I have a stack of books I need to skim through that I got for Caroline... she will be ten in March, so that means we have to start having certain talks soon. There are a few Catholic resources on these "growing up" topics: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wonderfully-Made-Babies-Catholic-Perspective/dp/1491078189/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412038617&sr=1-1&keywords=Wonderfully+Made+-+Babies"><i>Wonderfully Made - Babies</i></a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/All-Things-Girl-Friends-Fashion/dp/1936453207/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412038621&sr=1-1&keywords=all+things+girl"><i>All Things Girl</i></a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joyful-Mysteries-Life-Catherine-Scherrer/dp/0898706300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412038681&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Joyful+Mysteries+of+Life"><i>The Joyful Mysteries of Life</i></a>. I also got a copy of the American Girl book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Care-Keeping-You-Younger-Revised/dp/1609580834/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412038694&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Care+and+Keeping+of+You"><i>The Care and Keeping of You</i></a>, and will look through it as well, in trying to decide what to read with her and when. And I have also been reading through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tea-Cake-Saints-Alice-Cantrell/dp/0976469154/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412038758&sr=1-1&keywords=Tea+and+Cake+with+the+Saints"><i>Tea and Cake with the Saints</i></a>, which is such a sweet, fun little book - a generous friend sent it to us a few weeks ago! It had been on my wish list for the girls for awhile, and it is even better than I had hoped!</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">To live the liturgical year...</span> today is the feast of the archangels, so we are having angel hair pasta for dinner, along with carrots (because St. Rafael is the patron of eyesight, and carrots are supposedly good for vision), and a chicken and apple dish. Later in the week are St. Jerome, St. Therese, and St. Francis's feast days, as well as the Guardian Angels - Lucy was baptized on that day, so I am going to make angel food cake with whipped cream for her baptismal anniversary. St. Jerome's symbol is a lion - so we are going to make pita pizzas for lunch tomorrow to look like lion faces and read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/St-Jerome-Lion-Margaret-Hodges/dp/0531059383"><i>St. Jerome and the Lion</i></a>, which we reserved from the library. And we will have <a href="http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/cider-cheese-fondue">Swiss cider fondue</a> for dinner on St. Therese's feast day... isn't fondue French? It sounds French. Boom - feast day incorporation. I want to also do meat fondue... where you put the raw beef into the boiling broth to cook it. I need to figure out which cut of beef is best... I have a rib steak and a loin tip roast. Not sure which to use...<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">One of my favorite things... </span>hmm... coffee. Now that Lucy is three, and not a baby at all anymore, the possibility of another baby is on my mind, and so I have thought about how I would want to decrease my caffeine consumption if I am pregnant again. And apparently my emotional response has been to drink MORE coffee than usual, and black tea, to get it while I can! Oh, and more beer, too. I guess I will end up going cold turkey if I become pregnant again. For now, I am thoroughly enjoying it all.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">I am creating... </span>I need to be creating a few checklists... I need to pick some poems for Caroline to learn this year and make a list of them and a checklist for her to keep track of them. I tried letting her choose her own this year, and she picked three and then asked me to pick the rest for her. We use <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Poems-Old-New-Selected/dp/0385076967"><i>Favorites Poems Old and New</i></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harp-Laurel-Wreath-Dictation-Curriculum/dp/0898707161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412039004&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Harp+and+the+Laurel+Wreath"><i>The Harp and the Laurel Wreath</i></a> to choose most of their poetry work... both have a wide selection of classic poems. They have also learned poems from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Child-Knees-Mary-Dixon-Thayer/dp/0912141069/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412039044&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Child+on+His+Knees"><i>The Child on His Knees</i></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/When-We-Were-Very-Young/dp/0140361235/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412039068&sr=1-1&keywords=When+We+Were+Very+Young+by+A.+A.+Milne"><i>When We Were Very Young</i> by A. A. Milne</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Around the house... </span>almost time to put away summer clothes and get out fall things. I hate doing that - and now I don't have an extra bedroom to stash the winter clothes boxes while we are in transition and the weather is still fluctuating. I will have to get out about four fall/winter outfits per child and then switch everything else once cold weather is here to stay.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
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<b>Pondering these words... </b>"Even when children go to schools taught by qualified persons, some insight on the part of fathers and mothers is useful as hindering the teacher from dropping into professional grooves, valuing proficiency in this or that subject for its own sake, and not as it affects the children." - Charlotte Mason<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">A few plans for the rest of the week... </span><br />
* No PSR at church on Wednesday - fall break.<br />
* Dance class on Thursday.<br />
* Celebrate Lucy's baptismal anniversary on Thursday with angel food cake and the relighting of her baptismal candle. <br />
* Noon Mass followed by lunch and October Homeschool Group at our church.<br />
* Moms' Night Out on Friday evening - going to meet at a restaurant for drinks and maybe snacks/desserts with a few other Catholic homeschooling moms from our group!<br />
* <a href="http://www.berry.edu/stulife/activities/mountainday/">Mountain Day</a> at Berry - BBQ lunch on Mountain Campus and then Marthapalooza Faculty/Staff Family Hour... they didn't do this when I was a student, boo. I would have LOVED it... they bring in carnival rides and open them up for students from 10-2am... and they have funnel cakes and that kind of junk, and games, and one year Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell made a guest appearance (weird, right??)... anyway, for $5 each, we can go for an hour in the afternoon, since Chris works on campus. Anyway, Mountain Day is Berry's big thing every fall, and it really isn't as exciting as it sounds (my friends and I actually skipped it most years because we were antisocial, ha), and this year is the 100th Mountain Day... so, that is pretty cool, so we figure we should go to part of it, anyway, seeing as we still live nearby. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">A picture thought I am sharing...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I still haven't put photos from our beach trip on the blog... only on Facebook. I hope to get a post done one day with them... this was way back at the beginning of August!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21732972.post-19343280023297215532014-09-24T21:35:00.000-04:002014-09-24T21:35:20.644-04:00Lucy is Three!Lucy turned three on September 12, and we celebrated her birthday the following day with family. I can't believe my baby is three - she is not a baby any more! ;(<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The birthday banner... I made this for Lucy's first birthday and have added a section with each girl's name, so it has gotten plenty of use and has been a very versatile decoration!</td></tr>
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I typically ask my children what kind of cake or theme they want to have for their birthday... both Caroline and Cecilia have had a fairy castle cake, Caroline had an Irish "Lucky Seven" birthday since her birthday is right after St. Patrick's Day (her due date was actually March 17th and she has a semi-Irish middle name... and she's about 1/16th Irish, ha)... Cecilia had a "Favorite Things" Sound of Music birthday that I copied the idea from another blog since my girls were obsessed with the Sound of music at the time...<br />
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Well, I usually don't ask my three-and-unders what theme they want for a birthday because they just don't quite get it yet. When Cecilia turned three, she requested a "candle cake," so I cut it into the shape of the number 3 and told her it was a candle shaped like a 3. I think Caroline had a cat-shaped cake when she turned three because she liked animals a lot at that time. So, I was thinking of what things Lucy is interested in when trying to decide what kind of cake to make for her. Since I figured nobody else would really be up for a strip-off-all-your-clothes-and-run-naked-in-the-yard party, I decided to focus on another interest of hers.<br />
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I bet Lucy is the only child who has had a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-Morning-Maine-Picture-Puffins/dp/0140501746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411583528&sr=8-1&keywords=one+morning+maine">One Morning in Maine</a> birthday party. I actually looked online for ideas, and apparently if somebody has planned a party with this theme, it was never shared on the interwebz. We discovered this book several years ago when Caroline was a Kindergartener and were checking out library books from a list that corresponded with the alphabet. One Morning in Maine was one of the M books. We had checked it out again at the beginning of this year when Cecilia was doing M week in Kindergarten. I bought us a copy of our own finally, and Lucy - quite to my surprise - has requested it to be read to her again and again. It is quite a long book for a two year old to sit still for - it probably takes a good 15 minutes to read the whole thing through. But she sits attentively for the whole book every time (and that is saying something for this firecracker of a toddler!). I guess that is a mark of good children's literature! If you are not familiar with the book, you probably know the characters from the book Blueberries for Sal. The author, Robert McCloskey, also wrote and illustrated the classic Make Way for Ducklings, which I remember enjoying as a child.<br />
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I loved how easy the cake was for this... no cutting it into a cat shape, making castle turrets out of ice cream cones... In the book, Sal and her father are digging for clams on the shore. They also take a boat ride across the harbor to the local store, where they get ice cream cones - chocolate and vanilla. After contemplating how I was going to turn a cake into a boat, and then being unwilling to use nasty blue dyes to make the icing look like water, I had an aha moment of simplicity: a chocolate cake, with some mini chocolate chips and cacao nibs sprinkled on top to resemble the rocks they were digging in... and then a printout of an image from the actual book. Then, serve it with vanilla and chocolate ice cream cones. What could be easier?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cake... with the ubiquitous coffee maker in the background. I think that thing has been photo-bombing since before the term was even first invented.</td></tr>
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I scanned in this illustration from our book and then printed it at high quality on cardstock. After cutting it out, I taped some craft sticks to the back and stuck them in the cake to make it stand up. It is fun to sometimes make elaborately decorated cakes, but this one was perfect for Lucy when done in this simple way - it was something she instantly recognized!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super-amazing tutorial photo: tape on three sticks. Insert into cake. At least I didn't share 83 different angles of the same thing like some of those annoying recipe blogs do. Just get me to how to make the food, is what I say!</td></tr>
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Lucy was ready to dig in, with her cousin Julianne looking on! But first, we had...<br />
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CLAM CHOWDER FOR LUNCH!!!</div>
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Just like in the book.</div>
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Lucy enjoyed it... she had tried clams at the beach and didn't like them plain... but she had also tried clam chowder at a seafood restaurant and loved it, so I made some for our lunch... yes, I realize it is probably weird to say, "Come to a three year old's birthday party for a clam chowder lunch followed by cake and ice cream cones!" I cheated and used canned clams since this was my first attempt at making it - and it was very easy. I followed this basic recipe with some adjustments like some of the reviews suggested - like pureeing a bit of the soup in my blender and then stirring it back in, because apparently a good New England clam chowder is never thickened with flour or cornstarch - according to the internet, that is. I wouldn't know personally; I have never been north of Washington, DC.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clam chowder, fruit with dip, sourdough bread with butter, and arugula/fennel salad</td></tr>
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Then Lucy opened her presents... she got some new books, clothes, and dress-up tutu made by her Aunt Crystal, some animal finger puppets, a Winnie the Pooh bedsheet for her new bed, and several handmade and found items from her sisters... they even gave her one of their old American Girl mini dolls. I also bought her the downloadable <a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-Morning-in-Maine/dp/B0016NBXPG">audio version of One Morning in Maine</a>, which she can listen to while she looks at the book. it says it costs $4.95, but I was only charged $1.95 when I downloaded it...<br />
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And she also got...</div>
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...a mini trampoline! That climber and slide in the background in the first photo has since been disassembled and put away, and the trampoline is now in its place. She had pretty much outgrown the climber and slide. The trampoline can hold Cecilia's weight too, so they have both been enjoying jumping.</div>
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I have to embarrass my little brother by putting in this photo... Lucy will still jump on her trampoline, a couple weeks later, and say, "Uncle Tim lays on my trampoline!"</div>
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And here's a sweet one to make up for the silly one... aww, almost 26 year old boys still love their mommies.<br />
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After presents, we served the cake and ice cream!</div>
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Happy birthday dear Lucy, happy birthday to you!</div>
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Cousins Julianne and Chloe opted for ice cream cones. The birthday girl had some cake plus a tiny ice cream cone!</div>
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Hers was mostly vanilla (so the drips won't spot). She didn't ruin her appetite for lunch since she had already eaten her lunch - in the book, they have their ice cream cones before lunch and don't want to have more so they won't ruin their appetites for their clam chowder!<br />
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Another thing we got out for the party was a basket of items I have collected from around the house so that Lucy can act out the story... I had this idea to let her play with these while I was working on school stuff with the older girls each day, kind of like her own preschool-related book activities. So I got some rubber ducks with baby ducks for her to play Make Way for Ducklings, and I gathered a bunch of stuff for One Morning in Maine and put it all in a basket... here she is playing with everything a few days before her birthday party:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv7%3A35%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66345244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv7%3A35%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66345244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sal pushed back the covers, hopped out of bed, put on her robe and slippers, and hurried out into the hall.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv6%3B7%3C%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A65%3C%3B%3C244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv6%3B7%3C%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A65%3C%3B%3C244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Then she squeezed some toothpaste on her own brush and when she started to brush her teeth something felt <i>very strange!</i> <i>One of her teeth felt loose!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3C57%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66335244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv3%3C57%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66335244ot1lsi" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"May I help you dig clams?" Sal asked.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv9%3C6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D369%3A%3B57249335nu0mrj" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv9%3C6%3Enu%3D333%3A%3E335%3E8%3B8%3EWSNRCG%3D369%3A%3B57249335nu0mrj" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I found a tiny baby one!" said Sal. "You certainly did," said her father. "But it's too small. We just keep the large ones, like this. Let's put the baby clam back in the mud so he can grow to be a big clam some day."</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv8825%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66323244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv8825%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66323244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Then I'll make my wish on this feather," Sal decided. "Perhaps the sea gull has already made a wish on that feather and the wish is used up," suggested her father.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A473%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66344244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A473%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A66344244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When they reached home Sal's mother and sister Jane were waiting with a box of empty milk bottles to return to the store and a list of things to buy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv63%3A9%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E2793%3A42956244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv63%3A9%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E2793%3A42956244ot1lsi" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sal was just about to ask how long it would take for a new spark plug to grow in when Mr. Condon reached up on the shelf and picked out a new spark plug, and put it into the motor. Sal picked up the old spark plug and handed it to sister Jane.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A%3B98%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A65%3C%3B%3B244ot1lsi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp93232%3Euqcshlukaxroqdfv%3A%3B98%3Dot%3E242%3B%3D426%3D9%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E278%3B%3A65%3C%3B%3B244ot1lsi" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They walked down the path to the harbor and down the runway to the float where their boat was tied. They all climbed aboard, carrying the outboard motor, the box of milk and groceries, the feather, the spark plug, and the ice cream cones.</td></tr>
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I am always on the lookout for ides for self-directed play for Lucy to do while we are reading and doing other school things... especially using items that we already have lying around the house or that are multi-use. Chris had the old spark plug already, we had the glass jar for a "milk bottle," the plastic rake and the boat float came from our beach and pool toys, the blue water was a large piece of fabric from the girls' dress-up clothes, the seagull feather came from the beach this August... and the slide was the perfect ramp at the boat dock!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Happy Birthday, Lucy Marie!</i></span></h3>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029296444906951529noreply@blogger.com0