Checking In - Big Changes Coming

I have been really really busy since Maestro's birthday - clearly - since I have not posted here about any of the other birthdays, any of the holiday events, none of my regular holiday reposts….

I don't mean to be quiet. I don't mean to be so busy, but life has been in the way!

One of the things coming up on the blog-go here is a series on Young Living Supplements.

I was doing these classes online through FaceBook, but I need to move them here so they're accessible to my team and to others who use Young Living and so I don't have to spend that time teaching the classes, and can instead be writing new ones, traveling to see and support my growing team, and travel to some of the free trips I've earned so far. It's going to be a busy year for all that!

So here is the quick update:

Maestro is 15 now. 6'1" tall, 180+ lbs, and really involved in gymnastics,
Chef is 12, nearly 13, 5'5"-ish, nearing 100 lbs, and loves doing long runs - the 5 and 10ks

Bruiser is 10, 5'2"-ish, around 85 lbs, and looking forward to getting back into baseball soon
Buttercup is 6, just lost her first TWO teeth, is sparky and spunky and ready to go
Mr. Magoo… the boy with the oh-so-expressive face, will be FOUR in April and is learning to count and to be one of the big kids,
and Marble-the-baby is 1, ONE!! and walking, four teeth in the front, two up, two down and climbing, running, following the big dogs,

and can someone please tell me: Where did my babies go???

The White Knight has decided that it is time to retire after 20 years 

and work from home on unfinished projects, and spend time doing what most dads never have the opportunity to do: spend time with, and really get to know his children before they start leaving home on bigger pursuits. And I'm ready for him to be home. June is the day. SOOO much to do in the meantime. 

Before that fateful June day, we have to find a place to move to, get moved, I have my regional and nation-wide trips to make, because the check I make will be what we live on (We'll be ready. I've found that Network Marketing really isn't a "pyramid Scheme" but in fact can create a viable, livable income) So for a little while, you'll see more Young Living/Essential Oil/Supplement/Health stuff on here mixed in with the family stuff and "deep thoughts." I'm so excited about the 2015 changes it isn't even funny. 

I'm so glad you're here with me. Whether you are friends and family or Young Living Oily friends, you'll see the family, recipes, homeschooling stuff alongside the essential oil, health, supplement stuff. See you next time!

I made Pina Colada muffins just this morning - so YUM and the recipe will come soon. 

Thankful - and Contemplative - Maestro is 15

2013 - with a Flat Stanley

Last week my oldest boy - the one who is now taller than I am at 6'1", who wears his Pop's clothing size, chooses his own music, many of his movies, friends and fashion - turned 15. 

Introducing "Marble!" Number 6 in a Growing Clan

This is the Story of an all-natural home birth...

Well, December 15 came and went without a new baby. It is the old game of Hurry Up … and Wait. How very military of our new youngster! As we went through the week following, I worked hard with the boys to keep laundry up, get the house clean(er) and basically set up so that when the time actually did come things could still run fairly smoothly without Mom and Pop having to be the driving force.

Christmas 2014 picture with The Widmife at Sunday's two-day-old check up

I didn't take the time to look at the list of "things to have on hand for a home birth" that Jennifer Rector, AKA: The Widmife (a title given to her by Buttercup), gave us until around the 17th. (Might be something a little too laid back about my approach for some people's feelings of security, hmmm?) Finally looked at that list and had to go out to pick up a few things. So we hit Target up, and I went to get groceries to make sure we were stocked up. I had only been getting two or three days at a time up to that point - don't ask me why. The impending birth of a child was just not putting much of a sense of urgency on this seasoned Mama.

The Waiting (For Baby!) Game

Well, I am at the official "due date" of December 15, 2013, and no sign of baby yet. I have had contractions off and on, but nothing worth taking note of, just the sort that tell me I am forging ahead and that delivery is imminent. I am a no-intervention kind of gal, and do as little as possible when it comes to medical interference in natural procedures. That means no hep-lock iv, no Pitocin, no epidurals, no, no, no, NO, NONONO!!!

Hi, Baby No-Name! See you soon!
You'll look less "creepy" then.

So in the last two weeks of this sixth pregnancy, I reached out and met with a midwife that does home births. I have nothing against the medical establishment, or even military medical folks. They are doing their jobs to the best of their training. I just don't follow the contours of their box and don't want to have to fight that while in labor, nor do I want the White Knight to feel like he has to fight for me when I need him focused on what is going on with my mostly non-verbal cues. 

Happy Birthday, Bruiser! (and the give away winner!)

This post is late - his birthday was last Thursday AND I was supposed to announce my drawing winner long before now, but other bloggy things took precedence this week, so I'm playing a bit of catch-me-up! I know some are waiting for the drawing winner but my recent birthday boy gets first turn this post.

2007 - around 2 or 3 years old

29 Gifts - Day 26 - Buttercup's 4th Birthday (and a Give Away!)

This post was going to include a recipe for Sweet Vanilla Pecans. It was going to include my give away and an invitation (pleading?) to help get my numbers up by sharing my blog with those around you. It was going to be those things - but it's not.

With her Pop at about six months - wearing a dress that I wore as a baby

It's not because it is Buttercup's 4th birthday. She is spunky and clever and sharp as a tack. She challenges us at every turn - both delighting and... well, challenging us beyond what one would think endurable. With her three older brothers, our lonely-only girl often holds the reins. She comes by it honestly. She adores her brothers. She delights in being big sister to Mr. Magoo. Above all, she is Absolutely. Awesome. 

29 Gifts: Day 8 - Happy Birthday Oldest!

I'll recap my gifts of these past few days. Right now, something important has come up in the middle of my journey. Not a surprise, it happens every year, but important is important, and this is Important.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you my Oldest - Maestro - as an emerging TEEN. This child is my first gift to the world as a "Mom." He is special. Don't break him. He is wonderful. Help him stay that way. He is unique. And I am in awe of him as he grows into a young man who is now big enough to almost fill Pop's shoes (he is in a bigger shoe size than dear Mom now, poor soul!)

2012 - playing around in the garage in VA. Love that we can still laugh this way.

When he was born, we had to find "preemie" clothes for him to wear for a week or two, he was "on time" but just so tiny. Now, he can wear some of his pop's old pants (glad I saved them!) and shirts. He can help keep the house going when I am not at hand. And yet... he can laugh with his friends and play tag with his brothers and sister, and handle her sometimes-screaming fits with aplomb.

Birthdays Abound - Bruiser Turns Seven!

This time of year is "busy" for almost everyone, I know, but we have the added benefit of birthdays and our anniversary in between all of the holiday fun! So by now, we've run through Maestro's birthday, our anniversary/Thanksgiving (they are often within a day or two of one another), and Buttercup's birthday last week - this week is Bruiser's birthday. Our boy turns seven and is already so very excited! His excitement is infectious. He has asked about having a "pre-birthday" dinner, a birthday party with his friends, and (several) "after-birthday" get-togethers.

Happy Birthday, Buttercup!

Happy Birthday, Buttercup! 

Purple: a stunning color on you, and your 2nd favorite, after blue

Buttercup is dictating the color choices on the post today because today our "Lonely Only" (Girl) turns 3. She is so spunky, smart and articulate - and such a great joy to have in our lives. I wrote her birth story out last year, so this year, I'm writing a letter - mostly of advice - but really just in a vision of the kind of Lady she'll hopefully one day be.

Dear Girlie,


In spite of not watching TV, you get your "screen time" in by doing "Letters" on Microsoft Word, watching Starfall or Netflix videos or sneaking off to steal time on your brothers' Nintendo DSs. It cuts down on how many commercials you see, but somehow "princess" has started to creep into your vocabulary. We're working hard to change princess into Queen. 

The Story of a "Baby" Boy - Happy Birthday Oldest!

This post is about our oldest. Nana, Grandma Jo, Beth - feel free to link me to some early pictures if you have any digitized, otherwise they'll have to come later.

Maestro turned 12 this past Friday - every day we look at him and see the signs of a man emerging. We see him trying to take on responsibility for himself, taking charge of his own schedule. Makes me a little sad in a way. Sad in the same way that I felt when he was five or six and crossed the street by himself for the first time. He was going to play with his friends, and didn't even look back. My "baby" was leaving me behind, letting me go. Wow. What a moment.

What a stark, difficult, happy moment.

My Boy.

All the years that he's been in the back seat of the car, his face rising steadily higher in the rearview mirror as he's grown taller and taller, my mind was filling in the future years. I could - can - so easily picture the way he'll look as an older teen, as an adult, leaving Mom behind for a lot longer than an hour across the street.

Living Life Backwards - A Different Perspective

I posed this thought to my children the other day:

What If...

parents knew how old a child was going to be when that child was born 

and

as a result, we counted our years down instead of up.

Would you live your life more fully, knowing that your days were "numbered" and life had a clearly-defined ending? Would you live in fear of what was coming and try to play it safe - perhaps in the effort to "escape" the inevitable? 

The Arrival of Mr. Magoo

Now I can fast-forward to the birth-day itself. We were a week past the "official" due date, which was not particularly cause for alarm since the baby was still very active and my weight had not dropped any. When you hit 41 weeks, they have you come in for a low-stress test and an ultrasound to check your fluid levels. I did both. The stress test was fine with a good, active baby. At the office for the ultrasound, she made her notes with an increasingly quiet countenance. She asked us to wait while she had the doctor look at the results. When she returned, she said that we needed to talk to our midwives and called them right there from the ultrasound office.

The midwife explained that we needed to return to the birthing center because "the average woman has fluid levels of 10 to 20." He continued, "We like to see a baseline number of at least 5. You have fluid levels of 3." 

The Week Before Mr. Magoo

If you read Part One of this little birth story, you know that we were suddenly in need of a last-minute doctor's appointment. This was due to the pinworms that we discovered 2-year-old Buttercup had. In looking it up, we discovered several things that amounted to a pretty good health and science lesson for our homeschooled children: 1) pinworms are spread by not washing one's hands well enough and then putting those hands in our mouths; 2) pinworms are annoying but relatively harmless; 3) they are gotten rid of by taking two pills, two weeks apart; 4) the medication needed is not "indicated" for pregnant women by the FDA.

Introductions

The last two posts were about how much I appreciate the little moments with my older children. This post is to introduce our newest joy - I am so happy to find that all of our other four are excited, happy and loving toward the new baby brother in their midsts. The full birth story will come in the next few days, but here is the snapshot info for now!

Born at 0009 (that is 12:09 a.m.) on 

Saturday, April 23, 2009

weighing in at a scant 6 lbs., 15 oz., and 19 inches

 is our fourth boy.

With his proud Papa

And with Smeagol, Maestro, Bruiser, Buttercup and Grandma

Until his personality kicks in, he'll just be "Mr. Magoo." Already he brings us joy - can't wait to see what comes next!

Smeagol's Birthday Story

How terrible! I got so wrapped up in making an awesome birthday party happen for Smeagol's ninth birthday that I didn't put his birth-day story on here the way I did for Buttercup, or the way I had intended. So though this is a bit late, I am putting it up now. As I mentioned for Buttercup, these posts are largely for my children way down the line, but I am happy to share them, as I remember them, because some day I may not be able to tell the story any longer, for whatever reasons.

The earliest digital shot I could find of Smeagol - all the rest are on hard copy! He's about 3 here.

Our Smeagol is the only one of the four children that was born in a hospital with a "regular" Obstetrician (as opposed to a midwife) attending.

Buttercup's Birthday Story

December 6 is not only the day St. Nicholas is commemorated in the Orthodox Church (see the previous post for more about him) but also our young Buttercup's birthday. Last night as I watched her sleeping, it occurred to me that there are things that I did for the first three, in some fashion, but never did for her. One was to create a "Dear You" book. For each of the first three - to lesser and lesser degrees - I began journals in which I wrote down thoughts and notes and memories for them to carry with them in the future. This blog has largely taken the place of those books. Keeping up with four was just too difficult because I had so much to say!

So here is a bit of her "birth story" - for it's good, bad and funny - mostly, just for her.

Happy Birth-Day! Maybe 15 or 20 minutes old here (? Someone will have to correct me in the comments!)

My water broke unexpectedly - and at home. After four children, this is a first for me. It also is not a good sign because events go quickly for me once that happens. I have the greatly appreciated fortune of a long early labor (the non-painful part!) but it can make gauging when to take the kids to friends' houses difficult at times. In the case of Buttercup, we had taken the boys to our priest's house the weekend before so they could spend time with his family while I faced the possibility of going to the birthing center. After "imposing" on them for three days, we went back to pick the boys up - at that point it seemed clear, we were still in the earliest "hurry up and wait" part. How very military of my children!

When my water finally did break, the priest's wife had to leave town that weekend and so they couldn't take the boys. The next nearest family that I could think of on the spur of the moment lived thirty minutes to the west of us - the birthing center was around 45 minutes to the southeast of us - if there was no traffic (thank goodness it was a weekend, otherwise driving into Annapolis can cause quite a bit of trouble!)

So as I got the kids ready, made a phone call to see if this family could come out to get the boys at the last minute, unannounced, and tried to decide if this was really the time to go (or should I wait??), Jeffery worked to help me and convince me that he really did know me "that well" and that I needed to make moves to get to the birthing center - bless his heart. I finally agreed as the contractions got stronger and I was in increasing amounts of discomfort. I was putting my coat on a short fifteen minutes later, when he came over to give me a string of names "if it's a girl." Some of the names I'd heard before, but at the time it sure seemed like they were all new and out of the blue! In the end, she has three middle names and without the third middle name, her initials would spell "MACE." God has a sense of humor - ha!

We called the family taking the boys to tell them that we were on the way - but decided with them that it would be better if they met us at our church half-way in between to pick them up. Normally, it takes about 30 minutes to get to the church building - this time it took about 18, I think. Either way, as we pulled up, they were not yet there so I called them on the cell phone. They were almost to the exit to the church but told us to go on ahead and they would follow us there. Bless them - they were willing to take on a mad-dash to Annapolis on the spur-of-the-minute. It's good to have caring friends!

Here she is about 1 year old

I called the midwife to tell her we were coming - shoot! Answering service. Once she called back, she asked me all the standard questions: what's going on? What has happened? etc. probing to see if perhaps we didn't need to come in just yet. I told her that I was already on the way because once my water is broken, I have less than an hour (usually) before delivery. She agreed at that point!

I had also gotten in touch with our great friend Beth (the one who has the Spinster Beth blog) and she was on the way from her house to meet us at the birthing center. We have been friends with her for many years and she has been to all but one of my four deliveries - she is of immense help and is a wonderful friend to have at all times of the year! As we continued down the freeway, I believe I worried out boys a bit more as each moment passed. I alternately froze them out by opening the window and then warmed them up on closing it (it was early December, of course!) Labor is hard work.

After a point, I did not feel like I was going to make it as far as the Center so I called Beth and told her... then that "I have to go!" before hanging up on her. Poor girl spent the rest of the drive in fear that she would see our car pulled to the side of the road at any moment. She also said later that she had never been on the phone with me and heard such silence in the background! The boys were, as I said, a little unnerved, I think.

This past July 4th at about 18 months

I called the midwife and told her the same thing and she asked where we were at. As I looked up, I was greatly relieved to see that we were actually only about two or three exits away. Jeffery had cut a 40 minute drive down to about 20! Poor Beth, I did not have it in me to call her back to say we were okay. We pulled into the parking lot and the boys were hustled out by our friends and whisked away for a day of fun, Beth pulled in just behind them as I shuffled my way into the building. The birthing center only has three rooms, so I was relieved to see that (unlike the weekend before) two of the rooms were empty and I could go right in. Our lovely Buttercup was born a scant 40 minutes later.

In each of my four labors I have had some little thing stand out in my head even while in the hardest parts of labor. With Buttercup, as she was emerging, she was half-way into the world and I was sure that the midwife would do as other OB's do and help her shoulders so we moved along. This midwife just looked at me when I asked about it and said, "You're doing a great job!" with this nice smile. Hmmm... perhaps things were going well, but really? Well, okay thanks for the encouragement, I think. Either way, welcome to the world!

And our Buttercup at two years old. She'll make a lovely - if a bit forceful - lady someday!