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20 weeks!
I am now 20 weeks pregnant! Halfway there! We had an ultrasound this past week and decided not to see what it was. Long story short...I was going to a midwife but now I will be seeing a CNM and delivering at a hospital, as with all the others in the past. We were going to try a homebirth but both of us didn't feel completely at peace with the decision so we went back to a doctors office. Now, things are looking up and brighter for our peace.I am really feeling close to 40 with this pregnancy! I am tired most of the time. Good news is, I haven't gained much weight! So far, 13 pounds! That is pretty good for me. I have not been exercising like I should though. That is always tough.
When I figure out how to post a scanned picture on here, I will show you our little baby in utero.
Entangled....
The sun is peaking through the sky with a twilight twinge coming up over the horizon. All voices are quiet and resting. Peaceful. Sleeping. One lonely little voice quietly rumbles under the cool of the morning. "Mommy, hold you, pweese.........mommy, hold you, pweese........zzz....pweese......" Without resisting I pull my tired, morning-sickly pregnant body out of the covers and grab the small voice with reckless abandon. Get her a cup of milk and pull her close to me in the sheets.Satisfied and happy. Her legs entangle my legs and her hands, my mid-back length hair. She rubs my face with sweet little hands. Caressing gently the beauty and grace that signifies, to her, love and comfort. My heart swells with feelings of motherhood that only come from deep moments of time and expands all throughout all eternity. She pulls my cheeks and kisses me gently. As gentle as dew on the rosebushes outside the window. "Where did she learn to be so tender?" I lie there thinking to myself for a brief moment and remember the way that I sometimes kiss her. My hands wrapped around her rosy little cheeks and head. My lips gently and smoothly showing her the love of a mother. They do learn what they live.
I am taken back into time, almost 21 years ago when I first planted a loving mother-kiss on my first one. My child that made me a mother. I no longer hold her cheeks and head and entangle with her, but only in our memories. I often see her entangle with the youngers on the sofa reading aloud to them. I often see her giving kisses everso gently to the littles. I think...."yes, this she learned from me...the gentle art of "mothering"." She will carry this into her own life in the future and make her own memories.
In the present, daylight strongly breaks into the windows and the quiet is broken with the alarm clocks, signifying a new workday. Soon, all voices will be rattling the rafters and feet will be scurrying along the wooden floors and the day will be in full force. For now though, I lay enraptured in my thoughts of mothering. Entangled with the baby of two years. Listening. Breathing. Holding her while she sleeps again.
Taking Care of Our Families....
Taking care of our family and ourselves to the very best of our God given ability. It is taking time to research things of importance dealing with our health. Spiritual, mental, relational, bodily, eternal perspective. I am going to share what we do in our home. Doing a bulleted list is the easiest way for me right now. Now, I do want you to know right now that this is not the way that you need to do things, I am in no way saying that. It is for my family. You may be led to do things quite differently and that is fine.Let's start with ourselves:
1. Be happy. Just do it! The way to do it, is to be content in whatever state you are in! Whatever the Lord has given you accept and be content.
2. Don't worry or fret about tomorrow. I am serious. It is right there in your Bible. Read it and do what it says!
3. Read your Bible and pray often.
4. Memorize any scripture you can. Even if it is just a verse a month. Just do it!
5. Get plenty of rest. And if you don't, then just get up and get going and don't dwell on the way you didn't rest! There have been many times in my over 2 decades of mothering that I haven't rested well at night. And I will say that I have had only a handful of all nights sleep during those over 20 years! I could count on one hand seriously the full nights I have had. But you know what? I just get up and thank God for the sleep I did get instead of dwelling on the sleep I didn't get. The Lord has always been faithful to carry me through the days on whatever rest I have gotten. I really think the key goes back to number one up there!
6. Drink plenty of water. If you get thirsty, it is too late, you are already low on hydration. If you get thirsty, drink a glass of water with about 4 grains of salt in it. That will help rehydrate you. Every time you get the littles a glass of liquid, drink some water yourself.
7. Eat a proper portion at meal times. Look up what a serving is and familiarize yourself with it. Eat three meals a day, about five hours apart for good digestion and don't load your plate up. If you are pregnant, eat what you can.
8. Get outside for at least 15 minutes each day. Even if the sun isn't shining, you still need to get fresh air. Sit on the porch if it is raining or other inclimate weather.
9. Get up and do something every day. Don't just sit there. Make yourself move fast and hard for 15 minutes a day at least. Do it outside and you are doing two things at once.
10. Don't worry about the "me-time" myth! Yep, I said myth. The only me time you need is to be spent with God! Seriously, try it! It works.
For our honeys:
1. Make sure he has the things he needs for work, the night before. Uniforms, suits, ties, briefcase, lunch. It will save him time and worry in the morning.
2. If he wants you to get up, get up and make him a good hearty breakfast. My dh likes his quiet time in the morning. He likes to be alone before the Throne of God in the early morning hours. If he asks me for assistance, I get up promptly and assist! I do make him stuff to just pull out of the freezer and heat up. Biscuts and sausage, breakfast burritos, pancakes, etc. I always make sure he has his sandwich for snack packed in the fridge so he can just grab and go. I may not get up with him, but he is well prepared for the morning to be easy and not rushed.
3. Even if you "don't feel like it", do it anyway. It is better to willingly give and have a good happy heart than to let satan put others in his path! Enough said on that subject.....this is a family friendly site.
4. Never whine, nag or complain about your circumstances. Talk things out, yes. Whine, nag, complain....never! (See number one on ourselves above.)
For our children:
1. We don't vaccinate on schedule. We only do one at a time on selected shots. I have done so much research on the subject and we have come to the conclusion that this works best for our family. They don't need all those shots. Do your research. Look at both sides. The CDC website has good information for researching your options along with 909shot.com and other sites out there.
2. Make them get out there and get fresh air every day. Do let them be idle. Exercise is good for them.
3. Read them the Bible every day. Tell them stories from the Bible. Tell them about God and His Son. It is great for their soul!
4. Make sure they get enough rest. Ours have to lay down for at least 30 minutes every day. I call it rest and read. They may get up only when I tell them it is over. Babies and littles fall asleep, big ones rest quietly on their beds or some other pre-approved spot. No talking, no singing, no getting up unless "fire, flood or blood". They go to bed at a decent hour each night. Most nights for anyone under the age of 13, they go to bed at 8:00 pm. Teens go to be at least by 11:00 pm. Everyone needs to be up by 8:00 am.
For our homes:
1. Eat as close to the natural state of things as possible. Don't buy anything pre-made, pre-packaged. We buy canned fruits and veggies because it is what the budget allows. We buy a certain amount of fresh each week and eat that and when it is gone we go to canned. I try to serve a salad at each dinner meal.
2. Butter instead of margerine. Olive oil instead of other oils. No shortening. If you can't afford it, do what you can afford!
3. Use herbal remedies when you can. Use them first and the doctor's office as a last resort. I always give my children the "rule of three". Three days and they need to be over what ails them or we go into the doctor. Almost all of the time the sickness has passed over and I haven't needed to take them in.
4. I give them a vitamin C each night. They get at least 1000 mg a day. When they are run down they get more.
5. I give them acidophilous every day. It is important.
6. I don't give tylenol or motrin at the first sign of a fever. The fever needs to do its work.
7. They get maybe a glass of milk a day. I can't find it raw so they don't get much. They get calcium from natural sources. We go through a gallon a week. I cook with dry milk.
8. I don't even buy juice, soda, koolaid.
9. I don't give them lots of sugar. If they get sweets, I have usually made it at home.
10. I enforce handwashing. It is so important for keeping things away. We don't use alot of anti-bacterial unless something is going around.
I could go on and on about this. This is a hobby of mine. I love studying health and wellness and I love it when my family is healthy. I like to keep them that way!
Taking care of the sick at home. Labor as long as possible at home. Birth, if you can, at home. Elder care at home. It is all important. I hope you find something you can use here today.
I am here...
Sorry I have been absent...I have been so sickly with morning sickness and life in general. I didn't mean to leave you all hanging. I am almost nine weeks so the morning sickness shouldn't last very much longer.I had a prenatal appointment last week and my midwife at the ob/gyn's office said all looks well. I have to go in for a dating ultrasound this week because I have been so very ill. If you top off the morning sickness with a yucky sore throat and plain old blahness, then you have what I have been dealing with for the weekend! Ah...life. Thankfully no one else in the family is hit with the sore throat thing!
I plan on posting some other things soon...maybe today, maybe tomorrow. I just wanted to say a quick hi!
Welcome...
I decided to start this blog to encourage other mothers who have many arrows. When I was a young mother with three, then four children, I wanted someone to come alongside of me and share what they were learning or had learned in the ways of childrearing and dailiness of living with children. Staying at home, homeschooling, and raising an ever-growing family year by year are far removed from the "way" things are these days.Now, I have nine children with number ten on the way and I desire to share with other mothers things I have learned along the way since then. We have children ages 20 down to almost 2. I hope you find a bit of encouragement here. This is my place to share. I like the close setting that homesteadblogger has. I miss my friends from when I blogged here before. Nothing makes you feel loved like family and homesteadblogger has the tops for that feeling!
Hugs and blessings...
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