Our Great Pumpkin

We finally got around to carving our pumpkin last night. We got a huge pumpkin this year. My job is to cut out the pattern, tape it on to the pumpkin and trace around it. Daddy does the rest. This year the girls came running in "Daddy got pumpkin all over." "When he pulled off the top pumpkin went flying!" A few minutes later daddy came in and his shirt and face were covered with pumpkin innards and seeds. It was kinda funny :) Anyway, this year he decided to use a Dremel tool to cut out the shapes he needed. Now hubby can be kind of a Tim the Toolman Taylor so I am usually a little skeptical and more than a little concerned. But, on further inspection his plan seemed to work out just right! He was able to cut out the pumpkin face in record time and kids were amazed! Enjoy the pictures . . .

Frustrated, Impatient and Depressed?

When I went to the midwife on Tues she informed me that baby C was an OP baby. I tried to understand as best I could what she was saying. Some of it made sense and some of it was just way over my head. The part I did grasp though, was that the little bugger is facing up instead of down - "sunnyside up" as I have heard it referred to. So, yesterday I decided to look it up on the internet. This is the information that I found - this can stall labor, make delivery difficult and very painful and possibly end up in a C-section. The last thing you want is your water to break because then it makes it virtually impossible for the baby to turn but it happens a lot with OP babies. Ugh!! You almost have to take drugs because the pain is unbearable but if you do it relaxes the muscles that help the baby to turn. (Sometimes I curse the internet.) I have been here before when the baby was breech. I am again going to try my best not to worry. God and I were chatting yesterday and I once again praised Him and thanked Him for the miracle he performed for my breech baby. Now I am asking him for a miracle with my "sunnyside up" baby . . .

Traditions

I would like to think tradition is a big thing in our house. At certain times of the year we make a special effort to do things that have become fun for our family. Last weekend we went to the Halloween Howl at the Jr. Museum. I think it had been our third year in a row. The kids love and look forward to it. Then of course there is the pumpkin patch on the corner near our house. It has been where we have gone for the past 5 years. Yes, the pumpkins are outrageously priced but the whole experience is well worth it. Then we have a fall festival/Halloween party at our house that is in its 4th or 5th year as well. We invite a couple of family friends and have chili and hang out and then go trick or treating. It has always been a great time of food, fun and fellowship. Last night was the "highlight" of our fall tradition - "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Now this one can sometimes fall through the cracks unless someone makes sure they look out for it. It is only played on network television once and if you miss it, oh well. This is something daddy and I grew up watching. It was made in 1966!! And to me, those are the very best kind of traditions, the ones we as parents did as kids :) Thankfully Grandma called during dinner to let us know it was on. We had already had a fire in the fireplace. We just had to finish dinner and take showers/baths and get ready to snuggle on the couch. Everyone was ready by 8. Teeth brushed, PJs on, blankets, pillows and stuffed animals on our massive couch that fits all 5 of us. For the next half hour the kids were glued to the TV just waiting to see if the Great Pumpkin would arrive. Little Mama had lots of questions about Snoopy and the Red Barron. Other than that every one was silent for 30 minutes. Including Mommy and Daddy . . .

Best Friends

My sister hung out with us this weekend :) If she said it once she said it repeatedly "The girls are best friends." Of course from my perspective I see it just a little different. I hear a few more of the petty squabbles and the tattling etc. But as I laid in bed this morning (been awake since 5:45) I really started to think about it. They are best friends! A friend of mine who I had been talking to about homeschooling when we were in our decision making process told me this story. She had a boy and a girl just a couple years apart. They were very close. When the son started school and the daughter stayed home their sibling relationship suffered. They would argue and bicker when they were together and they were just not as close as when they had been home together all the time. When the summer came it took them an adjustment period but by the end of the summer they were best friends again. So, when they decided to homeschool her oldest son and daughter became and still are the very best of friends. I believe the son now is 18 and the daughter is 16.

So why do I bring this up today? Well, yesterday I am in my favorite room of the house - the school room (surrounded by books, and worksheets and a globe and flashcards :) and I look out the front window where the girls happen to be playing. Nature Girl has Little Mama on the top of our little grassy hill in the front yard and Little Mama is on Nature Girl's bike. Now, Nature Girl's bike does not have training wheels. Here is Nature Girl teaching Little Mama how to ride without training wheels. I just sat and watched. First try Little Mama makes it about 1/4 of the way down the hill. Second try about half way. Then all of a sudden Little Mama is riding Nature Girl's bike! Eventually she falls over. The best part was - Nature Girl runs down the hill and picks Little Mama up and is hugging and jumping with her and smiling and laughing and celebrating the big accomplishment!! It brings tears to my eyes right now just replaying it in my mind. They both come running in to tell me. I hug on Little Mama for such a wonderful accomplishment and wink and smile and mouth the words "Thank you" to Nature Girl for being such a wonderful big sister. Yes, we are blessed to have good friends and I am thankful to God for them but we are doubly blessed to have our best friend as our sister . . .

Two and a Half Weeks

and counting. . . . if you took a look around our house you would never know that in about 2 1/2 weeks we will have a new addition to our family. So far we have a couple cute neutral outfits, two packs of diapers, 4 pacifiers, 5 bottles and I think that is about it. No carseat or bassinet yet. No overnight bag packed or clothes washed with that special detergent. Not even real sure where the little bugger is going to sleep. Have I mentioned we have not settled on names? I am not sure what we are waiting for. It is soooo different from the first time around. Yesterday I saw an acquaintance I hadn't seen in awhile and he said "I guess it gets easier the more kids you have." And in a way it does. When you are pregnant for the first time you have nothing better to do, really, except obsess over the fact that you are pregnant. The more kids you have and the more busy you are the less time you have to obsess. Don't get me wrong, I want to obsess but there is always something that needs to be taken care - now. The whole day is filled with things like that. The next thing you know days pass, weeks pass and months pass and you are two and a half weeks away from your due date and most everything still needs to be done. Part of it is you don't worry as much. You learn over the years what you REALLY need and when you REALLY need it. Experience has told me I do need a carseat (should be coming any day now), a couple of sets of newborn clothes (we won't be going anywhere for awhile but I also won't be washing so the basics are fine), diapers (easy enough to get each time I go to the grocery store), a pacifier (speaks for itself) and really that is about it. At least for the first couple of weeks. The rest can be taken care of sometime after the fact - if it is even needed at all. I suppose there will be something major I will forget but it will get taken care - I have faith :) And a lot of good help . . .

Silent Sunday

Monopoly

I have always been a big board game fan. As an adult I haven't played games much but just the idea of the family and friends huddled around a game board on a Friday night or around the campfire is kind of neat to me. I remember playing Monopoly and Mancala with my cousins. I remember playing Gin Rummy the one or two times we went camping with my dad. On one or two holidays we played Monopoly with mom, Chas and Sissy. My brother and I used to play Checkers and War. Hubby and I have played poker twice with friends. So, about a year or two ago I established malt and game night at our house. The kids were pretty young so the games were Candyland, Shoots and Ladders and Bingo (family favorite). But as life went on and the family grew and the schedule got a little busier it kind of went by the way side (to soon be reestablished :) Now that Nature Girl and Little Mama are a little older I have been able to teach them War and Mancala and they play those games on their own. Sometimes I have included game playing in school. Well, yesterday was a horrible rainy and cold day. I had just gotten home from having my hair done and Daddy and Boop were napping. The girls were bored and wanted to play Monopoly which is one of my favorite games. They had never played before and I was afraid the concepts of buying, selling, rent and bankruptcy might be a little hard for a 7 and 5 year old to grasp. Heck, they are difficult concepts for me to grasp!! Well, I got out the Micky Mouse Monopoly game that we got a couple Christmas ago and unwrapped all the pieces and parts. I tried to give a brief overview but it is one of those games you just have to learn as you go. I think we played for over an hour. And believe me they got the concepts. They went from timid players asking me what to do to basically listening to my advice and then doing what they wanted! To me, one of the great things about playing games with them is watching each girl develop her own strategy. As each girl thinks their own thoughts and concentrate on their own ideas and approaches to the game, each girl develops their own totally different strategy. Once I got the hang of not getting involved it has been AMAZING to me to watch their brains function. Their thought processes are so very different but equally successful in what they are trying to accomplish. No one girl wins all the time. I love watching their faces as they think and ponder and strategize (not sure if that is a word). Anyway, we finally had to put the game away because we had plans for the night. But, as Nature Girl was putting her head on her pillow last night, her last request was "Can we play Monopoly tomorrow?" . . .