Finally a picture of the big news

Blessing #3 lost her first front tooth a couple of weeks ago and she lost the other one one night this week. I finally took a picture. This isn't the most flattering picture of her but I was doing the best I could.

 

Due to my complete lack of energy I have decided I need to do three "duh" things. Things I should be doing but just don't, I know... I know..... but I haven't

1. Get outside every day, even if just for a few minutes.


2. Eat a little better. I am back to not really caring about food and not enjoying cooking.


3. I had failed to take my vitamins and chlorophyll for two days, I got them all down today.

Here we are outside today. Blessing #1 got these "bunny" boots this summer. They keep feet nice and toasty warm.

 The kiddos watching the dog run around like the bone head she is. It wasn't frigid this morning and the sunshine felt good on my face. I am still tired and heading off now for a little nap. We are going to go up to help our friends who just moved into their new house. I am going to do a lot of watching and talking but my husband can help move and unload things. Plus, we are taking pizza up for dinner as well.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Checking in

I have done so well lately of at least keeping up with posting, so I will do so again tonight. I have had one of the wierdest days of my life. I have been sleepy all day. I hope to feel rested tomorrow when I wake up. If not,  will I have to make myself go stand outside in the cold until I wake up? I may just have to do that tomorrow. We did accomplish schooling which is a miracle within itself. I am now at 34 weeks, only 6 weeks until baby comes, that is so difficult to believe. Well, it is off to bed and more sleep for me.....

May the Lord find us faithful.

Academics update

This is week 11 here at our little home school.

In science, we have been studying birds. I stumbled across a great resource for our narrations in the form of mini-books for this lesson we are currently in. We are all enjoying them. At one point in time I attempted lapbooks but I found them rather bulky storage wise. I have since settled on 3 ring binder notebooks using many of the wonderful free notebook pages and lap books that I find online. I do admit to being quite frugal so I first look at what I can glean from the generosity and creativity of others, using my favorite homeschool resource, the internet.

History:  We continue through Ancient History using Mystery of History. Our Winter Promise study this week is Roman persecution of Christians and the ruin of Jerusalem. The study we are going through is an overview of History from the beginning until now so we are moving through quite quickly.

We continue on with the three R's for each blessing, moving at their pace through the whole process.

I finally took the time to sit down with the typing program I purchased a month ago and got that going for the blessings. It is nice to have something that blessing #3 can come do since she finishes her school work first being as she has the least amount of work to accomplish each day. Oh, the joys of first grade!!! I love preschool and miss those "fun" preschool days, good thing I will have another blessing to go through preschool. Yahoo!!!

I need to get the camera out and place it next to my school chair, but honestly there isn't a whole lot going on right now to record through pictures.

I am continuing to take care of little neglected areas in our home. Tonight's chore was the oven. I think it will have to sit overnight but I will go check it as soon as I finish here. Some day we will have an oven that cleans itself....but I am thankful that this one keeps holding on to life for us. And, my husband is clearing out the garage tonight so the van can park inside!!! I love having a garage and with -18 degrees this morning, it is time to get into the garage. He had to wait until after his return from hunting so he could prepare and then put away all of his hunting gear.

Prayer request:  A man we know was mauled by three bears while out hunting on Kodiak Island (far from here), he is in the hospital and it looks as though he will recover just fine but they are concerned over infection as he was out for two days after the attack before getting to the hospital.

 

May the Lord find us faithful.

Moving right along

Since I am not a morning person, it doesn't surprise me a bit that I do not get a lot accomplished in the mornings. I really want to be a morning person, but I just cannot seem to get there from here. I woke up early this morning and tried to stay awake but I was back down in no time.

We are accomplishing much with our schooling but I am not finding time to do most household chores until evenings after dinner.  (Tonight I cleared, cleaned and organized the pantry, this was a very over due project. Now I can see most everything and there were way too many empty boxes in there, you can tell the blessings have a little more "freedom" in this area than normal. )This is very much not like me as I generally do my work in the afternoons but now our afternoons a filled with school. Oh, this is just an unusual time for our family. Thankfully, the blessings are doing well with the new norm and I must just go with the flow as it will all change again in a few short weeks!! Oh well, this is truly life. When we first found out we were to be blessed with another baby, I moaned about a December due date, now I welcome it as we can have the time off from schooling for Christmas and get adjusted to the new one all at the same time, all with just one lapse in schooling time.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Our Weekend

I am so thankful that baby is holding on and keeping to full term. Have I had problems? No. Have I had problems with past babies coming early? No. It just seems that so many women do have so many pre term problems and end up delivering early. So, I am just thankful for every week that we stay put and hold out for the true end of this pregnancy.

Our weekend was full here at home. My husband arrived home from a week long deer hunt with a very injured back, injured for the whole trip. I didn't find out until Thursday evening and not from him....that's another story. The injured back means he spent most of the week on the boat with minimal hunting time, that said, he still got the biggest deer (which by moose standards is tiny). I am thankful that deer are tiny, especially when it came time to process the thing on Saturday afternoon. It didn't take long but between his back and my pregnancy, we neither one were very energetic when all was said and done. I didn't even take any pictures of the deer's antlers. The back was feeling better yesterday but not so great this morning.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Posting without pictures

I really prefer to have pictures with my posts but it just isn't going to happen right now. So, here I sit posting without any pictures. Maybe there just isn't enough going on lately... who knows...or, do I have some one take pictures of me taking my daily nap? By the time we school and have lunch, it is my nap time, then it is time to make dinner. I have even been folding laundry and doing my daily home cleaning in the evenings instead of the normal afternoon time frame of times past. Flexibility people, we must be flexible and prioritize, naps take precedence right now.  Tomorrow I am off to my check up, then I get to skip one whole week and then the weekly visits begin. Time is ticking away.....

May the Lord find us faithful.

Title goes here

We are keeping on keeping on. Tomorrow we will complete 10 weeks of school and I am very pleased with that. I normally do not "count the weeks" but for some reason I needed that week count for my own reassurance. By the time the baby comes we should have a good 15-17 weeks under our belts. We will get a good break in December and get back into the swing of things after Christmas. I am definitely beginning the "nesting" phase of this pregnancy. On Saturday a friend came over and helped me clear out, and reorganize the girl's bedroom and closet. The boy room will not take a whole day and should be able to make it to my list this weekend depending upon my husband's schedule. He shot a black tail buck yesterday!! I don't know how to handle such a small animal!!! I have learned that I cannot tackle these bigger projects during the school week and this Friday is a DR check up and I will have the daughters of some friends of ours, so that day will be a little bit too hectic to tackle a closet.

It has snowed here all day along with blowing winds. We took the careful route and stayed home from church tonight. It feels so wierd to have been home all evening, plus I had a couple of stops I could have made but nothing major that cannot wait until Friday. Hopefully my sweetheart will be available to drive me around.

Yesterday evening we attended a workshop on attracting birds to your bird feeders in interior Alaska. I did learn a couple of things and it spiked a little interest in the kiddos. We need to get the right bird feed into our feeder and put up a second feeder. Plus, we need to go visit the Alaska Bird Observatory to check out what they have there. We are studying birds this year.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Homespun Holiday

 

Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter's first horse! Oh, and she's not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You'll see photos from the 50's through the 80's.

But, you'll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane.

Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It's all about the fall and winter holidays - mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it's not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first  - for FREE ($12.45 value)!

Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their  Fall Special.

If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you'll get

Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years
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PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE!

This is over $250 worth of product for only $39!!

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May the Lord find us faithful.

Monday

Why do I still not enjoy cooking? Oh, I tried making homemade carmel apples today (which  didn't turn out as the recipe said, the carmel was too brittle, teeth breaking brittle, and I followed the recipe exactly) but to actually make a meal just does not happen with ease. Food only appeals to me when my blood sugar has dropped to an unhealthy level and I need to eat NOW! I am making homemade mac and cheese  tonight, but I never just make mac and cheese. I will make sure they eat some fruit or something with it and I will as well, but this just isn't like me.  I look forward to the cooking me that should return in only 7 weeks or so. We were blessed with a wonderful loaf of bread made with freshly ground wheat berries last night, we have enjoyed that today!

 

May the Lord find us faithful.

This week's activity

Wow, 32 weeks, the weeks are really passing quickly at this point. It is difficult to believe that in 55 days or less we will have a little one here with us.

So, what is the activity keeping everyone busy in the afternoons this week? I haven't taken any pictures but, blessing #3 (my "must always have something to do") child, pulled out the potholder loom yesterday. This activity spread through the house like wildfire. To the point that I had to order a third loom and extra loops this morning. So, if you get one of these for Christmas, act surprised please!!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

This week

I had a request for pictures to be emailed to Kayla since she has not seen me pregnant and was having a difficult time remembering my pregnancy since she hadn't seen me. She also seemed a little concerned about my surgery so I also had O take a picture of my neck since. So, here I am at almost 32 weeks and me sticking my neck out!!! The scar doesn't look that bad.

 

Oh, yeah, we also do more school than just building things around here. We are studying Zoology I, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day using Apologia Elementary Science. We have been studying feathers, which is great timing as I was able to pluck quite a few off of a couple of ducks that my husband and son and my husband's friend brought home a few weeks ago.  Last week, we looked at how feathers on some birds, waterfowl, are "waterproofed". Our duck feathers were definitely freshly oiled before they met their demise and were later eaten by our friends. Okay, don't be all yuck and all that, it is a fact of life, plus, it would be worse if they hunted the ducks and the ducks were not eaten.

Getting water to test the feathers.

Dipping and looking at the feathers

Looking at the feathers

Today was Columbus Day and Dad was home so there wasn't formal school today, tomorrow we will get back to our regularly scheduled day. The blessings did get to spend all day with their Dad and I was able to get some much neglected house cleaning accomplished. I even sewed some game bags for my husband's upcoming hunting trip. Now, I am going to go sit on the couch and knit a little (I am making my first knitted clothing item, a cardigan for the baby!!!) to get to the point of needing help again, Wednesday evening I will get further instructions when I get to my "sticky" stopping point. Some day I will be able to knit socks!! It will take a while but I will get there. Goals, we must have goals.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Bear

Where? On my plate. Yes, I said on my plate. Yesterday evening we went to dinner at the home of some dear friends and we had black bear roast for dinner, it was delicious. My husband had had a bad bear experience years before we married so we have never done much with bear meat except maybe a little sausage, plus there haven't been that many bears brought home over the years, I think only a total of two. But I know that bear will be coming, it is kind of a "coming of age" first hunt for many a young fellow and I would think that within the next two years my oldest blessing will join the ranks as he has sat out at the bear stand for the past two years as a spectator and he always helps get the stand ready in the spring.

On a more everyday note, I had my OB check up today. Baby is measuring about 32 so a little larger than my 31 weeks. I personally do not think this a big deal since the baby could be all stretched out plus I was seen by the PA in the office today and not my OB Doctor, things are always a little different when a different person takes a look at ya. On a good note, I have not gained any weight in the past month. That always makes me happy, my weight gain is right where it should be. I am not nauseted any more but I can still take or leave food. I mainly eat for necessity sake. No gourmet dinners coming from my kitchen any time soon!!  I also received my pre-registration packet for the hospital, this is really happening. This whole pregnancy has seemed un real to me for some reason. I mean I am pregnant and not in denial of that fact, the baby is constantly moving but it just doesn't seem real that we will be adding a new family member in just a matter of 8-9 weeks. We'd better get things ready. The to-do list is long but I tried shopping at Wal-Mart today and there just isn't much gender neutral items out there. So, I have two sleep gowns with the elastic at the botttom (I love those for those first few weeks especially for thos middle of the night diaper changes when you are barely awake.), and a couple of packages of white onesies. I will begin picking up diapers next grocery trip. Oh, we must get a wipey warmer for those middle of the night changes as well. Daddy can't stand to change a baby with cold wipes. He is a good daddy that way.

May the Lord find us faithful.

My Kayla meets my Governor

Pa-Pa's daughter was able to attend a rally and see Sarah Palin and she was able to get her Bible signed by Palin. Pa-Pa has pictures posted at her blog if you are interested in seeing them.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Gladiators and Caesars in Rome Week 6 Plus a little family life thrown in for the fun of it

It seems as though I am the weekly blogger at this point in my life. I know it will get better especially when we have little precious baby pictures to post. Only 9 more weeks left!!!

I think I mentioned last week that we have friends that just moved back to Alaska from the lower 48, we have had their two dogs a Chessie and a Lab since their arrival last Monday. Thankfully, their dogs are garage and outside dogs so I do not have three dogs in my house. I couldn't get a picture of the Chessie but here are the labs checking each other out. The three dogs look so cute together as they are a yellow lab, chocolate lab (ours) and the Chessie which is a mocha brown.

 

Last week we did not do a build  with our Winter Promise plus the week was all wonky due to sickness and busyness with the arrival of our friends.

Back to our regularly scheduled Hideaways in History. Rome.....

Our build for this week was to build the Colosseum. I have decided that Dad is a much better builder so he gets the priviledge of building as much as possible.

Taping the boxes together.

A little help from big sister, yes my girls wear hats almost all of the time. Don't ask me why.

 

Trying out the Colosseum.

 

This online book about gladiators was a fun read for us yesterday. It reinforced what we learned and was a good visual reinforcement.

 

May the Lord find us faithful.

Where does the time go?

We are all still around here, we are getting into the daily schedule and routine of life for this season of life.We are progressing in our schooling and have finished the first 6 weeks of school. The 7th week has held many interruptions, some welcome, some not... I will get to that later. I will first, catch up from last week. Our Winter Promise Hideaways in History readings were about Greeks and Romans. We were supposed to build a trojan horse but we will do that tomorrow, remember I said interruptions. We did attempt to see what clothing would be like with wearing chiltons.

We are planning on building that trojan horse tomorrow.

The weekend brought a birthday celebration for blessing #3. I cannot believe she is a year older.

She wanted to decorate her own cake and with everything else going on what a blessing that my girls are old enough to do these types of things with minimal assistance.  This isn't the best picture but she enjoyed putting her cake together. She chose to make a cake with a log cabin and a tree... go figure, but it is what we had.

One of our birthday "traditions" is to let the birthday person choose colors, themes, etc. for their birthday table. Then, I and others help get it all decorated after the birthday person goes to bed. Then, they get a "surprise" in the morning when they wake up.  Here is what she chose.

On the celebratory day, Dad made breakfast  and presents were opened.

 

 

She asked for a gun for her birthday, so Dad was more than happy to get that for her. She also recieved a gift from brother and sister that they picked out and purchased, and she also asked for some new scrapbook supplies (we are very balanced women in our home, we can shoot a gun, but we enjoy our cooking and crafting) After breakfast we bake the cake and then the birthday girl wanted to do a little shopping with some birthday money that was burning a hole in her wallet. When we came home, we made frosting and got to work on the cake decorating.

Then, Dad and children went to try out the new gun and I was able to take a nap!!!

Then, dinner and cake and ice cream.

The proud cake maker.

Now onto this week.....

This week of school has been hit and miss with birthday day off for the birthday girl, battling colds (most of us) I have not come down with a full blown cold but wake up every morning with a sore throat and I really don't want to do anything. But, we trudge on.

Monday evening our friends arrived back in Alaska and their first stop was here to drop off their trailer, two blessings and two dogs. It was so good to see them and visit for a while. There was no school on Tuesday due to the extra kiddos and a lot of catch up playing. The afternoon held dentist appointments and grocery shopping for us. That's when I knew that blessing #1 was really not doing well. He has a barky, dry cough and just plain looked worn out. He spent today on the couch or my bed and didn't complain a bit about not being up and about (he has said many times he doesn't know how those kids sit at school all day, he enjoys moving) So, I took today as a catch up day and got the kitchen and dining rooms cleaned, made a crock pot of vegetable moose soup and did school work with the girls, read aloud a little with all and here I am finally getting caught up with a post at almost 11:00pm. Oh, yeah, I took a nap this afternoon as well. That rarely happens but seems to be becoming a needed event in my day every couple of days or so. (In this post alone, I have mentioned two naps)

Oh, yes, can you see my pregnancy ticker at the top of the page? I am 30 weeks, only 10 more weeks to go until we meet blessing #4. Now, if coming up with a real name were that easy.......

May the Lord find us faithful.