Does anything come forth without work?

This person will be 3m old next week, so I guess I really need to get back into the swing of things. Look for a One Little Corner post next week. I don't know what corner it will be since I have so many to get to, but it'll be my bedroom on our school room. Those are my top priorities in the next month. My bedroom because, well, since we came home from the hospital and added Gideon it's been a disaster. You don't even want to know. The schoolroom also needs an overhaul and since we are starting back to our full schedule in September I need to work on getting it all together. Fun times around here!
For now a quote:
“There needs to be a homemaker exercising some measure of skill, imagination, creativity, desire to fulfill needs and give pleasure to others in the family. How precious a thing is the human family. Is it not worth some sacrifice in time, energy, safety, discomfort, work? Does anything come forth without work?” 
― Edith Schaeffer, What Is a Family?

I've been a little busy...

Here he is in all of his beautiful chunkiness. Gideon Nathaniel. He was born May 28th around 6:45p.m. weighing a whopping  9lbs 6oz. He flipped around right after my last blog post and I thought we were good to go until the next growth scan when he started measuring big. In the end I did end up with a c-section, but it was all good as I had a lot of peace about it. 

He's an eater. Usually when I sit down at the computer he starts that, "Hey I'm hungry cry!" Like right now. LOL Seriously, I'm typing that sentence and there it is  - The Cry. :) Enjoy these pictures of my little chunk of joy while I go feed him... again! The good news though is that while he eats constantly during the day he is only up once or maybe twice a night. I'm loving the extra sleep. I hope ya'll are doing well. 

 

We have a very breech baby at 36w and 4d. Mommy is not a happy camper. I started going to the chiropractor today to see if we can get this little person to turn. I have been camped at the Spinning Babies website and on Youtube for the past week. It means I've been caught is some weird positions. I'm so thankful for all the resources that are out there to help you turn your baby.
You know what else I'm thankful for? C-section stories. Positive, uplifting, encouraging c-section stories. My browser has been locked onto them as well. I now have a back up list of questions to ask my OB, things to take to the hospital, and ideas on recovery. It took me a week to be able to Google anything about C-sections without crying.
I've heard this over and over again and no matter how reassuring people try to sound it's not really working: Well, all that matters is a healthy baby.
Um, duh! Yes, that's what matters to me, but you know what also matters? The birth experience. Am I ready to adjust my expectations? Truly. Am I ok with a c-section if he does not turn around? Yes, or I'm getting there slowly. Does it mean that I don't get to grieve the feeling of pushing out my baby and having them plop him down, having our eyes meet for the first time, me reaching out with no encumbrances to touch him to pull him to me? Does it mean I have to give up the memories I have of having Lily, getting out of bed right away with minimal pain and taking care of my baby? NO! I get to grieve the loss of all of that. I get to grieve the new direction my birth experience seems to be going in. I am so thankful that people are working to find the right words to say and ya know what, if all you've got is, "All that matters is a healthy baby!" I will smile at you, nod my head, and graciously accept your encouragement- on the outside. On the inside my heart will break a little bit. I won't hold it against you. I know what you mean when you say that. I know you care about me and my little boy. I know you just don't understand how much it hurts.
I've struggled with feelings of guilt. I've faced infertility. Nine years of infertility. I've faced the hurt of miscarriages. I've lost a baby and a fallopian tube at the same time and it was traumatic. Shouldn't I just be thankful I'm about to have a healthy little boy to love on? Should I be worried about how he gets here? I've decided that it's ok for me to be sad about not having the birth experience I want. I still want my baby here, heathy, and whole. If it means they have to pull him out of me via c-section it's ok. I'm still going to cry though. I'm going to be sad. It'll last a little while, but then one day I'll be ok. I'll look into my son's eyes and know that however he got here I'm just grateful he's here.
So that's what is going on with me and baby number 7. He should be here in just a few more weeks. I'll let you know just how he gets here. ;)

Fitting them all in...

This is the closet system I made up for Lily and Gideon. Our house is a bit crowded at the moment and I don't have a room to move Lily into so for now she is staying put in our room. Gideon will be nursing exclusively so he needs to be in our room as well. I found the bookshelves with the tension rods idea on Pinterest and then my vision expanded to the cubbies. I really think it's going to work out. I need to organize it a little better, but you can get the general idea here.
I'm 35w pregnant right now and have much to do to finish this room. I can't believe how close we are getting to the actual day I will be holding my little warrior. I keep praying that God will make me into a better mom. I've seen Him work so much in me just in the last 7-9 years of being a mom. We just celebrated our 7th adoption day! I look back on the overwhelmed, inpatient mommy I was then and am thankful that while still overwhelmed and sometimes inpatient, I have learned to delight in my children. When I find myself not being a joyful mother of children I try to remedy it by going to God and asking him to make me joyful, loving, and kind. To make me delight in my children. Usually not long after that I will find myself just thrilled to be sitting in the same room with them and talking. To laugh at their jokes and antics. To connect with them. God always answers this prayer for me and I'm so thankful.

Loving the Spring

Not really doing that great on my blogging, huh? I actually just got back into reading some homemaker blogs this past week and I've been so inspired. Now being 34w pregnant I have not been able to really get out there and do all the stuff I want to around the house, but it's been nice to at least have the desire back. :) We are enjoying some beautiful spring weather here. Usually by now it's hot, hot, hot around these parts, but lately it's been breezy and beautiful. I'm hoping it holds out for another month at least! We were able to get a van recently that our whole family will fit in, plus room for a few more... ;) Our first trip was a picnic to the beach. We are going to a "theme" park a couple of hours away next week for our end of the year field trip with our homeschool group. That will be the first BIG trip (and last for a few months!) Our son, Gideon Nathaniel will be joining us in about 4 - 5 weeks and everyone is excited. Especially mommy. I am very tired and in pain a lot of the time right now. I joked with my husband this morning that last minute school work catch up and growing a person are really getting in the way of my nesting! It's ok though, it will all come together. 

 This is the Spring Family Basket I set up for the kids. We don't do a big Easter here, with baskets, bunnies and such, but it's nice to be able to give them a little something. Oh, and we do hunt plastic eggs because I think it's cute, not because some fictitious bunny dropped them off. :) In the basket I put some new art supplies, some stuff from the dollar spot at our local craft store, a thing of copy paper because they always steal mine, a package of candy, scripture cds, a couple of books, and a hymnal. I don't have the rest of the picture, but they also each got one chocolate bunny and their own hymnals. Now everyone in the family has one, plus a few extras for when our family expands one day.

This is a picture of Jonathan and Lily on Resurrection Sunday and one of my spring landscaping projects. Hobby Lobby had those whirly gigs for 50% off back in March so I snatched them up for decoration for my 13yos garden tea party. :) The rest of my kids had run in the house to change before I could snatch them for spring pictures. I love this one though. To me it looks a little vintage or like a postcard. Whatever it is, my babies are beautiful! :)

Hope you are enjoying a lovely spring as well!

Our Praises from 2012!

 This is our praise book from 2012! In it are all of the answered prayers from last year. In the morning before we do school we take time to write a prayer request and put it in a box. Then we each grab a request from the box and pray over it. If God has answered the prayer we write praise on it and then put it aside. I also have a basket set up by the box with extra index cards and pens so they can write them down throughout the day.

 This was our stack from last year. I have some already in the book and these are the ones still waiting for me to get to them. Look at that stack! All answered prayers!

These are the pages I already have done. About 2 to a page front and back! I love sharing this with my kids and showing them that God does answer prayers.

P.S. Quite a few of these praises were for another baby! :)

I hope you are having a blessed year so far!

Getting the New Year Started!

 Well, I think I am actually ready to start the New Year. One of the things on my list was blogging. I might only get to it once a week, but I really do miss it so I'm trying to get back to it. It's been a crazy month already. We spent the first week with a stomach bug. It really knocked us out and ruined all of my ambitious plans to start the New Year off with a productive week! Thankfully, we all survived!

 The next week we spent getting ready for Jonathan's 7th birthday. My first baby that I got to bring home from the hospital at 2 days old. How did he get to be 7?? We celebrated with a Peanut Butter cake, because he is a PB nutcase. I'm talking, if anyone in our family was ever diagnosed as allergic to peanuts this kid would pack his back and move to grandmas without a backward glance. :) The cake was ok. The kids loved it, but it was a bit much for my taste.

He loves spy stuff and comes up with the most elaborate missions! He was overjoyed to get so much spy gear. It's been one mission after another since then.

Our last big thing for the month was finding out that number 7 due in May/June will be a boy! Above is Lily with his Build A  Bear.We used this to tell the kids they were getting a new baby brother! They were thrilled.  His name is Gideon Nathaniel which means Strong Warrior, Gift from God! Fits him perfectly!

We are excited about starting a new year. I am really excited now that I actually have some energy to get stuff done! Hoping to share some of my upcoming projects here in the next few weeks!