New baby pic

Here is an ultrasound picture of the new baby.  I know it's not a fabulous picture, but it's precious.

Daddy and Angela

Hello, Baby!

Kevin and I are expecting another child!

I have an ultrasound picture but I'm tired (that's definitely part of being pregnant) so I'm not going to post it right now.

I'll confess that this pregancy was a surprise on a number of levels.  First, I got pregnant in September when I was a month shy of being 42 years old.  Kevin and I have been blessed with 12 pregnancies during our marriage, so we obviously conceive easily.  We've had 7 live births, 4 miscarriages, and I'm carrying little #12 right now.

BUT, 42!  I mean really, at 42 you would THINK that I wouldn't get pregnant this quickly.  Or at least I thought.  Our little Sarah was only 9 months at the time!  But life, and the Lord, are full of surprises.

Surprise #2 was that I didn't miscarry.  Pregnancy hasn't been easy the last few years, and I've not carried 2 babies to term in a row since our 5th child was born.  In fact, I had lost 4 out of 6 pregnancies to miscarriage.  So when I got pregnant, I was concerned that I would lose the baby.

But here I am, at 13 and a half weeks, and so far Baby and I are doing great.  Now there is a long way to go, but I've always had first trimester miscarriages so I am feeling hopeful.

I had an ultrasound last week and the baby was very active and looking good. 

It has been a hard first trimester. All my first trimesters have been hard, but as I get older they've gotten harder.  But a baby is a great reason to feel sick.

I relish your prayers that this pregnancy will go well and that Little One will be born healthy, and at just the right time. He or she is due May 31st, 2012.

Thanksgiving

True confessions here, I am not a huge holiday person.

I am not a Scrooge, I hope.  It is more that I try to have the spirit of the holidays all year long. I mean, we shouldn't JUST be thankful at Thanksgiving, and we shouldn't JUST think about Jesus' birth at Christmas time or His death and resurrection for our sakes at Easter!

All that is true, but it is ALSO true that God very definitely blessed and even created holidays and celebrations for His people. There are very detailed instructions in the Old Testament about the Feasts that the Israelites celebrated to remember the Passover and the harvest and things like that.

So there is very definite place for holidays and contemplating the blessings of God.

And Thanksgiving, while it isn't an overtly Christian holiday, certainly shines a light on an important mental exercise...being full of thanksgiving and gratitude.

So today I thought about being grateful.  It didn't come entirely naturally...

I had a well child checkup for our 1 year old daughter, but yesterday it became clear that Lydia had an eye problem so I brought her in as well.

Lydia has a raging case of pink eye.

Sarah needed some bloodwork to check for lead levels so after the appointments, I took her to get that taken care of.  She didn't appreciate it very much, but didn't wail for long.

Then we went off to Kroger to fill an antibiotic prescription for Lydia.  Turned out that the pharmacy didn't have the medication we needed. Sigh.  Her eye is BAD and it is very contagious so we needed it.

I got home at 11 a.m. to find Kevin had just gotten up. He is not feeling well.  I called the doctor and they called in the prescription.  I listened to the messages on the answering machine and discovered that I had left a credit card at the doctor's office.  Sigh.

So, no huge biggie, but this morning just didn't go that well.  I felt stymied in trying to do things efficiently, and I'm all about efficiency.  I was sorry that Kevin didn't feel well as he's had a cold off and on for several weeks and is tired of it!

But then I realized how much I have to be thankful for.

I have a car so I can take my kids to the doctor.

We have insurance so I can take the kids to the doctor.

The credit card is in a safe place though it isn't in the place I want it to be.

We have pharmacies on every corner so I can get medication for my children.

My husband is generally healthy.  A cold is tiresome, but a cold is just a cold.  There are people battling far more serious health issues.

Our children are all quite healthy too.  Pink eye is a pain (figuratively and literally) but in the grand scheme of things, it is small.

All these are minor things compared to the joys of salvation and the joys of a strong marriage.  But its the little things that sometimes wear me down, and it is good to think about the things I am thankful about in the midst of life's little irritations.

Sarah is 1!

We celebrated Sarah's birthday this week!

Since we were in a hurry, we bought a carrot cake box mix from the grocery store, and some fluffy icing. But Naomi went the extra mile and colored some of the frosting so it came out nicely decorated. The weird part in the corner without frosting was for Sarah and Miriam, both of whom have problems with dairy.

Sarah didn't have a clue about what was going on but she knew we were happy, so she was happy.  And we are happy. Sarah is such a blessing to us and we were delighted to celebrate her first year!

She has a strange aversion to dry or chunky foods, so I knew she would gag and protest if I tried to feed her plain cake. So I took a piece, mixed it with coconut milk, and fed it to her that way.  It looked weird, but she liked it.

Ah, a mysterious picture.  What IS this?

It's a bonfire!  This was not for Sarah or indeed any of the little girls, as it was late and they needed to go to bed.  But Kevin and the older 4 spent several hours outside enjoying a bonfire. 

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Our Fall Back Science Experiment

When I'm at a loss to find a good science experiment...

we make a volcano!

This one never, ever, ever gets old.  We pour vinegar into a bottle (a flower vase, in our case.)  If we feel adventurous, we add some food coloring.

Then we pour in baking soda.  Voila, wonderful chemical reaction!  Lots of carbon dioxide!  Foamy stuff pours everywhere!

The kids love it. So do I. 

Barn, and internet access

First things first, our internet access has been mostly off the last couple of days. I'm expecting to lose it any  minute now.  The little lights on the modem keep appearing and disappearing.  This happened once a few years ago and we needed a technician to come and fix something.  We have an appointment scheduled for next Tuesday. It is hard not having internet!  But I suppose it is a good experience to have a break.

So, big news...we are going to build a barn!  Our home is big and out in the country. We own 5 acres of land.  Long ago, before we owned the house, there was a building with an apartment on the 2nd level sitting about 100 feet from our back deck.  Then, one exciting night, the whole thing burned down.  Now there is just a slab of concrete.

 Kevin has long been interested in building a barn. Now we have a tractor so a barn is even more attractive.  He spent some time this year hunting up bids and just this last week we got a bid that works for us.  We need to get some concrete work done to make sure that the concrete and foundation are stable for the barn.  That's going to happen in the next couple of weeks.  Starting in mid-December, the barn will go up.

I'm expecting the children to be quite excited by the process.  It surprises me that a barn can be built in winter but apparently it can.  We have electric cables that run back there (from the previous building) and at some point we'll put in electricity.  It should be a multipurpose building which will house the tractor and possibly some animals.  (We keep muttering about raising and then slaughtering a pig.)  Kevin has also thought about building a climbing wall for the children. So exciting stuff!