Monday Musings

I'm just going to give up for now. Thomas is just NOT ready to wean. I decided this last night when he woke up for the third or fourth time. I was tired, he was inconsolable and I was in major pain from engorgement. I little voice in my head said, "If you wean and he doesn't sleep through the night, then you'll have to deal with getting him calmed down with out the ease of just being able to nurse." Anne's probably thinking "I could've told you that!" :) And I cannot figure out how to add her to my friend's list. HTML is so difficult! Wendy suggested switching to blogspot because it's more user friendly but that means I'll have to start the blog all over again. But, I digress.........

Okay, okay. Fine. I'll keep nursing the little guy. I guess it means that he still needs me. It's nice to be needed. Maybe we'll try again in a few months. Maybe not. He is just so different than the other 6. They mostly slept through the night and stopped nursing by 12 or 13 months. He's always had sort of a grumpy disposition, although he's growing out of it . Sometimes when he'd cry when someone would look at him, stranger anxiety, they'd say, "He doesn't like me." So, I'd say, "Sometimes I don't think he likes me either!" He'd cry at me like, "Your supposed to be my mother! Why aren't you figuring out what wrong with me and fixing it woman!!" He'll always go to Tyler though. Tyler is great with the babies. He has such a gentle way with kids, they just love him. He'll be a great dad someday.

Anyway, maybe Thomas felt some remorse about his screaming fits this weekend. He tried to wash his own mouth with soap last night in the bathtub. I looked away for a minute and he'd eaten some soap that was hidden in the toys. He was spitting for about the next two hours. Poor guy.

Learning to Read

I've been working through the Bob Books with Bethany (age 6) and Brooke (4) asked if she could start also. So, a few months back I had her start a phonics book, which I do with all the children when I teach them to read. We take a 3 ring notebook with page protectors and 13 sheets of paper. I print off each letter of the alphabet on a separate sheet and stick them back to back in the sheet protectors. I got the letter print offs from www.hubbardscupboard.org. Then we take magazine cutouts, one for each sound the letter makes and paste them onto the letter sheets. We go over these periodically and then once they've grasped all the sounds then we move on to the Bob Books. I bought all five sets when my oldest was learning to read because we like them so much. (I bought them at a book store with my educator discount.) I've found that after the Bob Books, they are ready to move on to Easy Readers of various levels.
So today Brooke asked me if she could read the Bob Books. She had tried maybe 4 months ago and just wasn't ready. Today she read through the first three and did great. She was very excited and I was excited for her.
Also, I found that the Spelling to Write and Read Curriculum, I think available through www.rainbowresource.com has these great flash cards with 72 phonics sounds and blends. These are practically all of the sounds that english letters and letter combinations can make. Although we didn't stick with this particular curriculum, the kids have really benefited form using the flash cards.

Tasty Thursday

Pork Chops with Scalloped Potatoes

3 T. butter
3 T. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 can chicken broth
6 pork chops (3/4 inch thick)
2 T. oil
6 c. thinly sliced/peeled potatoes
1 medium onion
Opt. paprika and parsley

In a saucepan, melt butter; stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Add chicken broth; cook and stir constantly until mixture boils. Cook for 1 minute; remove from the heat and set aside. In a skillet, brown pork chops in oil; season to taste with additional salt and pepper if desired. In a greasted 13x9 inch dish, layer potatoes and onion. Pour the broth mixture over. Place pork chops on top. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour; uncover and bake 30 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender. If desired, sprinkle with paprika and parsely.

The anti sleeper strikes again

Yesterday was Brittany's 13th birthday. I am now officially the mother of a teenager. I'm not worried one bit. She's a pleasure to have around. She knows we've been so tight on money for a while, so all she asked for was to have pigs in a blanket for dinner, red velvet cake and for us to play a game together as a family. She has been such a blessing to us. She babysits when I need to run out, or just so David and I can go out together. And, she's even offered her babysitting money when we've needed it. I knew she'd been really wanting a digital camera and, for about the last year, I've been thinking how I really, really wished I could get her one for her birthday. So, I kept praying that God would provide some way for me to get one for her. A few weeks ago, someone gave us some extra money, and I took that as answer to prayer. We went out and got her the camera from Wal Mart, with a memory card and carrying case.
We had a book club meeting yesterday afternoon at a friend's house, who also let me bake the cupcakes in her oven, and then had the appliance drama (see the previous post) that evening, so we didn't actually get to "partying" until around 8 pm. She finally opened her gift and was in shock. She loved it! As I knew she would. She kept asking, "Is this a real camera?" "Is this for real?" I'm so thankful to be able to do that for her.
Brittany's birth story.
Hers was a surprise pregnancy in a whirlwind wedding. I turned 20 in June and she was due mid July. David and I had just gotten married the previous February, and I had just moved out to Hawaii in April. David was in the Marine Corps and this would be my first lovely and moving experience with military doctors. (Sarcasm is kind of hard to write.)
Anyway, I didn't KNOW nothin' bout birthing no babies. I think that one must give birth at least 3-4 times to really understand exactly what it going on. I think I just assumed everything would somehow just happen, and sort of likened myself to an innocent bystander. I read "What to Expect" and all, but nothing really wakes you up like actually having a baby.
I was due with her on the 16th of July, and starting the trend, that day came and went. On the 19th, in the early am, I started having contractions, but we decided that David should go on ahead to work. By that evening, we went to Labor and Delivery thinking that certainly things were happening now. They sent us home, because I wasn't far enough along, and there wasn't anything they could do. "What do you mean, nothing you can do???" We went back home and Brittany gave new meaning to the term "back labor". The next morning David went on in to work again, but came home later that morning with tonsilitis. I had an already-scheduled appointment at 2 pm, so David drove me in. The doctor discovered I was at 6 cm. and they rushed (wheelchaired) me upstairs to L and D. Hours later things still weren't progressing. They tried to break my water with this stick-thingy that must've existed in medieval torture chambers. Finally the other nurse had pity on me and told the other nurse to stop. I was quite exhausted. No sleep and no food going on 40 hours. I decided to get the epidural and of course, threw up, right as my pregnant friend and her husband showed up. She was due the next month with her first child. I must've have made quite a scary impression.
I eventually got to ten cm, and the nurse said to push, but I was so tired that I couldn't stay awake. And, she still was not coming out. So, the doctor decided, shortly after midnight to do a c-section . At 2:18 am, we had a Brittany. 6 pounds, 11 ounces and 17 and 3/4 inches. I had "failed to progress" because Brittany was sunny side up (babies are supposed to be face down with their spine facing up, but she was facing up with all her weight on my back-hence the back labor) and she was also crooked with her should trying to come out with her head.
David had opted not to come into the operating room. He was sick and more than a little overwhelmed. You know all the "risks" they let you know about with an epidural? There are even scarier "risks" they let you know all about with a cesarean. He must've been terrified.
So, they sliced me open, ripped out a human being, took out my insides and examined them, put them back in and stapled me shut. Literally. And, that's literally what I felt like had happened to me. Although, I was still numb from the epidural for a while after, they wheeled me to the recovery room for a few hours, then onto my own room. (I only got my own room because I had a c-section, I had to share a room when I had Tyler at the same military hospital) It must've been 4-6 hours before they even brought her to me for the first time. I don't know if they fed her, I don't know what happened. And, of course, I didn't know any better. The nurse came in that morning and wanted me to get up to take a shower. I thought she must be crazy. I had been in quite a bit of pain since the epidural had worn off. They gave me a morphine pump, but I was a little afraid of overdosing or something, so I don't think I ever really turned it up high enough. It would take me about 30 minutes just to get up and go to the bathroom and get back in bed. And of course, as soon as I would lay back down, Brittany would start crying.
The day before I was released, a student nurse came by to take out my staples. Well, I guess they have to practice on somebody. Ouch. I did heal fine, though, with no problems. I was so thankful for a healthy baby, but I knew that if I had another baby, I was NOT going through that again. Think VBAC.

Homeschool Field Day

I missed monday musings yesterday because I was stressing over planning a homeschool field day that two fellow TKD and homeschool moms and I had planned. You know, it's sometimes hard to get people interested in something, and then even if they seem interested it is hard to get people to commit and even harder to get them to follow through. So, we amazingly had 41 kids signed up. (We thought we'd have to beg people to come!) And out of the 41, only 5 didn't show up. We were very pleased, yet surprised.

Things went very well, and all the moms thanked us for putting it together. We had the event at our Tae Kwon Do studio. We had dodge ball, an egg relay, our instructor taught a small TKD class with warms ups, front kicks and board breaks. We also had an obstacle course, refreshments and certificates for each child. All this accomplished in an hour and a half. It's always nice to breathe a sign of relief when it's over.

Tasty Thursday

Orange Jello Salad

1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip
1 8 oz. tub of sour cream
3 oz. box of orange jello
1 can mandarin oranges, well drained
1 large can of chunk pineapple, drained

Combine the Cool Whip and sour cream. Stir in the dry jello powder and well drained fruit. Chill for several hours or over night. Serve.

Dried up Mushrooms

We actually got to some nature study today. You know, the thing that is good in theory, that I'd love to do everyday, but never seem to get around to. We've been studying about the 5 Kingdoms in homeschool and had covered fungi last week. We checked out this neat book "Katya's Book of Mushrooms" and the kids begged to go to the woods and look for some mushrooms. So, since all the rain this week I was sure we'd find some. And we did. Three shriveled, decayed, dried out mushrooms. Ugh. Everyone was quite disappointed. I guess I'll have to go get some from the store so we can do the spore experiment. You set them out overnight on a paper and the spores will have fallen on the paper by the morning. Oh wait, the nature study isn't totally lost. There are two bluejays right outside my window. One flew down out of the tree and scared away a cardinal. Well, the boys thought that was neat.