A Pregnancy Update

Since I am still having the "can't figure out my pictures" problem and I don't have any pictures of me pregnant(ugh) or of the baby, I thought I could at least give a quick pregnancy update.

I am now 31 weeks along. Although we don't know what we are having, I can definitely say that this is one very active baby. With the rest of them I felt kicks and punches but with this one I feel flips and rolls. Boy, maybe???

This pregnancy has gone by pretty fast. I guess because B#11 has really hung on to being the baby of the family. We are STILL trying to get him to sleep through the night and stop getting into bed with us in the mornings. Well, I am trying to stop the morning routine but dad loves having him climb in bed with us.

Next week starts my twice a week visits with the doctor. Life basically comes to a halt and we plan our days around the appointments that are made for me by the doctor's office. I go in on Mondays for a growth ultrasound and to see the doctor. Then on Thursdays I go in for Non-stress tests where they hook me up to a fetal monitor to see how the baby is responding to movements. It can seem a bit overwhelming and sometimes unnecessary but after B# 10's birth and circumstances I don't argue when they want to do extra monitoring. It is a small price to pay in my opinion.

Our C-section is scheduled for April 9th so if all continues to go well we have about 7 weeks to go but if my blood pressure goes up then it will get bumped up to April 2nd.

I can't help but pray that somehow the Lord will allow me a safe regular birth instead of a C-section. Something to pray about...

An Excuse and a Brag

Excuses first.....every time I go to blog something my computer won't let me see the pictures from my camera card so I would have no idea what pictures I want to add. I personally don't like to blog without pictures. They show so much more than words. So until I can figure out what the problem is my blogging will be limited.

Now to brag a bit on my man...since I don't have pictures anyway....He had to work on Valentines Day. I went to our church Valentines Banquet alone. Now before you feel sorry for me,  my reasoning was that I could have a nice meal, without anyone sitting on my lap or grabbing my food and fellowship with people from my church family and still get a Valentines dinner out with my hubby in a day or two. It was a nice night but I was definitely missing my hubby. The next day I stayed home from church with B#11 who has a cold(again). Hubby calls on his way home and tells me I have 10 minutes to get ready, he is taking me out for lunch. That sounds nice and I am excited to go out to lunch but he has more of a surprise waiting in his truck...all of my favorite things...strawberries, chocolate, Dark chocolate Milano cookies and Biscoff cookies. We have a ways to go for lunch so he brought along treats for me till lunch. Lunch was great. Who wouldn't love Salmon?? And I so appreciated that he had planned all of this in advance.

Ain't love grand?

Please Read and Pray for this family

I am working in my head on a new post but in the meantime....if you get to read this in time, please pray for this family. This could happen to any one of our families.

http://medicalkidnap.com/2014/11/25/breastfed-homebirthed-babies-taken-away-from-parents-for-not-using-hospital/

The hearing is in about an hour and a half from now so if you do read it in time please pray for God's justice and protection of the children.

A Wedding and a Confession

Our oldest daughter is getting married in 11 days and I am not going to the wedding. I guess I keep thinking that if I keep admitting that to people then I will be okay with it. I am not okay with it but that is just how it has to be. You see she is getting married 1900 miles away from us. There is no way for all 11 of us to fly there and driving that far would take more time off of work than DH even has available to him. Someone has to stay home with all of the children and we decided that dads don't always do so well for 5 days straight with all of the children so Dad is going to go to the wedding and I will stay home. B#4 is also going. So at least I should end up with lots of pictures, I hope.

She has a very godly mother-in-law-to-be helping her to plan the wedding so I am sure it will be well planned. It's funny...I felt pretty removed from the planning of my son's wedding but figured that is the way it is when you are the groom's family. We immersed ourselves in planning the rehearsal dinner. And now I find that I am removed from planning my daughter's wedding by such a distance. Not at all how I envisioned it all to go but I guess things just aren't always as envisioned.

So in 11 days our family will grow to add a son-in-law. I hope to be able to post some pictures afterwards.

Late Night Ramblings

It is 12:03 am, before the time change....and I can't sleep. Pregnancy insomnia maybe? Not sure but while I can't sleep I read. Sometimes that means Scripture, sometimes a fiction book and sometimes it is Pinterest.

Tonight as I couldn't sleep I was searching for Thanksgiving things to do with the kiddos and I ran across a wonderful blog that I wanted to share with you.

In our family we have 6 boys, only one of those boys has left home so that leaves 5 boys. Four of whom are under the age of 7, with lots of energy. So when I found a blog about boys I started reading. Now maybe you are thinking that since the blog is about boys and maybe you don't have boys at home then you have no need to read it. Well THIS particular post is applicable to almost everyone. It was definitely convicting to me and I am planning on printing it out so I can re-read it often to remind myself of what it says.

I have blogged one of my favorite poems before, HERE which talks about my children mirroring my attitudes and behaviors. It is a subject very dear to my heart, I suppose because it is something I struggle so much with. I tend to feel that I am entitled to be grumpy and speak rudely because I am the mom and I have a lot on my plate. But that isn't what Scripture says. As the blog author mentions in her post...

A busy house is not an excuse to talk unkindly to my children.

“There is one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword,

But the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Proverbs 12:18 

“A gentle answer turns away wrath,

But a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Proverbs 15:1 

“Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

Colossians 4:6 

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Ephesians 4:29

Anyway, these are my late night ramblings. I hope that if you read her blog you will be encouraged by it as I was. And if you happen to be the mom of boys, she has lots of great posts on raising boys. Enjoy!

Call Me Crazy

Ok folks, I know it is only November 1st, and you can call me crazy but I have Christmas music playing today while I work on Christmas gifts for the family. I don't usually get the Christmas bug this soon. We typically wait until after Thanksgiving but for some reason this year I am ready for it early. I will have to be sure to turn it off before DH gets home.

Making Pumpkin Spice Playdough