This week’s theme brings to mind two of my favorite family photos. - Try to say that five time fast.

This first one is of my son and I only moments after he was born at home in the water.  Feel free to drop by on Thursday for more birth-y stuff.

The second one was taken during a sudden rainstorm.  Sister yelled, “It’s raining!  It’s raining!”  and the ever curious Brother jumped up from a diaper change to run and see.

Did you play?

Do you use Stevia?  I do.  At least I do in my coffee.  It’s part of my attempt to wean myself from sugar.  I am also using Echinacea right now to curb my reaction to Tulsa’s allergy season.  Both come in similar brown bottles with droppers.  Though the bottles are similar; the contents are quite different.  Stevia is sweet.  Very sweet.  With a slight “whang” to it.  (Is that a word? “whang”?)  It is meant to be used by the drop as in 4 drops max for a large cup of coffee.  Echinacea is not sweet.  It’s yucky.  And it leaves your tongue feeling slightly numb for several seconds.  It is meant to be taken by the dropPER as in 40 to 60 drops daily.  It is also meant to be taken in a small amount of water quickly chased by some powerful, full of flavor drink like orange juice or espresso or grapefruit juice or vodka.  (I don’t know for sure about that last one since I don’t drink but I’m thinking it would work.)  So anyway all this rambling leads me to the ten million dollar question.  Does anyone else think it’s a cruel joke that one must be semi-awake to fix a good cup of coffee and yet we generally only attempt this feat while half-asleep?  I thought so.

Note to self:  Echinacea - good for allergies, bad for coffee.

I struggled about what to write today.  There is so much information available and so much I want to share but none of it seemed quite right today.  Instead, I offer a series of scriptures to boost your faith.  Having a baby is a great miracle and who better to turn to during this time of pregnancy than the Great Miracle Maker.  He destined before the creation of the earth for this child to be born - by you - at this time.  As you carry your baby, He will carry you.  Lean on Him.  Trust His words.  They are true.

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

                                                                                    I John 5:14, 15

Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.

                                                                                        Mark 11:23

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

                                                                                  Philippians 4:13

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

                                                                                  Philippians 4:19

For nothing will be impossible with God.

                                                                                           Luke 1:37

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.

                                                                                     Psalm 139:13

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits:

                                                                                    Psalm 103:1,2

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

                                                                                   Jeremiah 29:11

This is my favorite version:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

                                                                           Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)

All scriptures taken from The New American Standard version unless otherwise noted.

On the one hand, I like it when my home smells nice.  It makes me smile and feel good about myself as a homemaker even if everything else is *ahem” less than perfect.  On the other hand store bought air fresheners, besides lasting only a few minutes and being a complete waste of money better spent on chocolate, spray a host of unwanted chemicals in the air along with their fake scent.

What to do? What to do?  No problem.  My home almost always contains the ingredients for a simple potpurri.  I bet yours does too.  Here are some of my favorites.

In a small crockpot, add lemon wedges, apple slices, and half an orange cut into pieces.  (I say half an orange because I usually eat the other half as a snack but you can use the whole thing if you like.)  Leave the rind on each of these and add a couple of cinnamon sticks and a few cloves.  Fill the pot with water just above the fruit and leave to simmer.

For a lighter, less “holiday” scent, use several sprigs of mint and water.  Or just use the citrus and water without the rest.  There are any number of possibilities.  If you like the scent of it in your cupboard chances are you will also like it “mulled”.

If you must have a spray freshener consider adding five to ten drops of essential oil and 2 cups of water to a spritzing bottle.

A lovely scented home without chemicals works for me.

So much to tell but the screen is too bright, the key strokes are too loud and it hurts to sit. I haven’t had a migraine in ages and my back has been fine for months … seems like the body was saving up for this week.  On the upside I am feeling well enough to type this post so that’s improvement anyway.

Here are some things I’ve been wanting to share but will probably never get around to, given the way life just keeps coming.

• Sciatica sucks is bad and a good chiropractor is worth her weight in gold.
• Penta water is good.
• Brother & Sister both had a great time at Osaka. (It’s one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook the food in front of you.)  Though Brother was quite concerned by the wall of “FIRE! HOT!” that sprang up in front of his face.
• We loved flying kites with Aunt K. and our Saturday adventure to the middle of nowhere turned out to be really fun.
• Will’s dad is the only person I know who can cook a fabulous steak on one of those sad, little grills you find in public parks.
• IF you are Aunt K, you can play a flute with a balloon… bagpipe style.
• You can learn a lot from watching NOVA and then you can go online and learn more.  Go PBS.
• I haven’t completely forgotten how to sew.  See. (I didn’t do the whole thing just the hem and embellishment. One step at a time, people.  One step at a time.)
• We love modeling clay.
• Having mastered whistling, Sister is now learning to skate.

I guess that’s all.  Oh, no - one more thing.  This startling information from Sister.   “Did you know Curious’s last name was George? 

When you have small children an “empty” tub simply means there is no water in it.  Any remaining debris comes with the parenting territory.

Did you play?

Will has a great job and provides for us well.  So well, in fact, that sometimes I feel a bit guilty being a SAHM.  I love playing house for real and each year it gets a little easier as my experience and my children grow.  There are difficult days to be sure but for me the benefits of sticky kisses and “I love you, mama” make up for them many times over.   So, I feel guilty when Will comes home tired after a hard day while I stayed home painting pictures, building sand castles and baking cupcakes.  I feel guilty when an unexpected expense comes along and I have no money to contribute to the cause.  At least I did until I ran across this study.  Apparently, in 2002, a typical mother’s annual salary based on her job skills would have been a whopping $635,734 if she had, in fact, been paid. In a way, these numbers are just a modern confirmation of what the Bible stated a long time ago.

“Who can find a vituous wife?

For her worth is far above rubies.”

                                      Proverbs 31:10

It’s Thursday again!  Time to share more about birth.  Jump right in if you have something to share.  And if you’ve blogged about pregnancy or birth before send a link to your old post(s).  Oh, and a big congrats to this mommy who recently started another journey to birth.

Sister’s Story

The birth of our first child was easily the most empowering experience in my life up to that point. I knew from almost the beginning that I did not want to have an epidural. I would love to say that it was “for my baby’s health” or that I wanted to give birth “the way God intended” but in fact it was much more mundane than either of those. I was simply afraid of having an epidural. Knowing unmedicated birth is not the norm these days my husband, Will, and I attended independent childbirth classes and I consumed any book on pregnancy and birth I could find. After stumbling across Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon the idea of “natural childbirth” started to appeal to me in its own rite. I began to desire a birth free of not just an epidural but all unnecessary interventions. At one point we considered the option of a homebirth but we still didn’t trust ourselves or the natural process enough for that. Partly because we didn’t trust ourselves, we decided to engage the help of a doula. This decision proved to be one of the best we made. As our due date of September 21^st came and went knowing she supported our choice to avoid an induction helped us remain firm with our doctor.

Labor finally began around 8 am on October 1^st, 2001. The contractions though regular were very light. I was still working at the time but chose not to tell anyone but Will. The contractions continued throughout the day but they were still light and around 6 or 7 o’clock they stopped altogether. (I was very disappointed, thinking “Will this baby ever arrive?”) Later that night – about 11:00pm – I had a contraction strong enough to wake me up. These continued until morning when Will convinced me to stay home. He then called my manager to tell her I wouldn’t be coming in. By this time the contractions were very regular (10-15 minutes apart) and more intense than the day before. We went to see our doctor at his office around 9 am and he said that today was definitely the day but that it still might be a while so we could go home if we wanted. My mother and sister came to the house around lunchtime. Now the contractions were really intense and Will called our doula. (She couldn’t come!!!) But she suggested I get in the shower and she sent her backup, Amy, who arrived about 4:00pm. When the contractions were about 2 minutes apart we left for the hospital. Will called our doctor during the 15 minute drive. At the hospital it seemed that the elevator took an especially long time arriving but it finally did and we (myself, Will, my mother, sister & Amy) took it up to Labor & Delivery. The nurses insisted I ride in a wheelchair to my room when I would have much rather walked. I remember worrying that the interventions were only beginning. But my fears were not to be realized. After checking me (5-6cm), the nurse assigned to us read our birth plan and told us she would support our choices. True to her word, I was only kept on the monitor for about 20 min and during my whole stay never had an IV. The room was kept dim and quiet and no one ever told me to “stay in bed”. In fact, a little after 6 we went to the hospital whirlpool - - - that helped a lot! Our doctor arrived at 6:25 and stopped by to say hello. At 6:40 we returned to the room. At 7:15 the nurse shift changed and we met our new nurse, Robin. (Now at 2-3 min apart – 7cm!) The next hour was a blur of position changes. The back labor became especially intense so Will provided counterpressure and Amy talked me through each contraction. We tried a hands and knees position, we walked, I sat on the birth ball and we took a shower. Around 8:30 I returned to the bed for an exam (9+cm). My doctor agreed that I could push gently to remove the last lip of cervix. It worked and I was complete but still our baby did not seem to be coming. Our doctor ordered an ultrasound to determine her position. She was at 0 station in a “persistent occiput transverse position.” Basically her head was facing to my side rather than the more common face to my back (occiput anterior) or even the less common face to my front (occiput posterior). I now know that the occiput transverse position is an indicator for many sorts of interventions (vacuum extraction, forceps, pitocin, and in some cases cesarean section) and I am extremely thankful that my doctor trusted the natural process. He and Amy felt that a standing squat would be the most helpful given the situation so with each contraction I hooked one arm around my husband’s shoulders and one arm around my doula’s and pushed. At one point, we heard a loud “pop” but disregarded it in the intensity of the moment. We later found out that “pop” was actually my tailbone breaking as Sister made her sideways path down the birth canal. When it became clear that she was in fact descending, I changed to pushing in a sitting squat and at 9:33 Sister began crowning and I touched her for the very first time. Only 4 minutes later she was born. Her eyes were the deepest blue and so alert. My mother cut the cord and she was placed on my chest. Of course the placenta needed to be delivered and I had some tearing which needed stitched but all of that was secondary to the angel in my arms.

Born 9:37pm, October 2^nd, 2001

8lbs 7oz — 20.5 inches

We have a very small kitchen in the downstairs apartment of my mom’s house.  There is enough room for a table and two chairs but that table is often used as counter space.  Big meals are generally cooked upstairs in grandma’s kitchen where there is plenty of counter space and tables enough to seat 30.  But what about small meals? What about we’re only having a wee bit of cereal or PB&J or just a snack?  Then we eat in the living room.  But do you think I would release food into the hands two children under 6 and send them to the only room in my house with carpet?  No way! (okay, well sometimes but those are complete lapses of sanity.)  For the ultimate in carpet protection I introduce the ‘Splat Mat’.  It’s actually a cheapo mattress pad with waterproof backing on one side and cotton padding on the other.   Placed cotton side down, it will not slip around or bunch up, even under the most active toddler, and the top side is easily wiped clean of any random stickiness.  Placed cotton side up, you can be sure that spills of almost any magnitude will not make their way through to your precious Berber underneath.  (Disclaimer:  Let me not imply by this sentence that I actually have Berber carpet in my living room only that if a person were to have carpet installed in a living room, like if her husband were looking for a nice sort of gift to give said person and he thought of carpet then Berber might be a good choice for that situation……. ahem …. that’s all I’m sayin’.)  So about spills - case in point, I turned around from my typing to find this:

As far as I can tell, the driver of the orange truck lost control of his vehicle and slammed into Brother’s cereal bowl, knocking Fruit Loops everywhere…. except of course on my carpet.  It is fortunate indeed that we had the splat mat in place as the driver has no insurance.  He was, however; sent to his room for driving without a license.

Aaannyway, the Spurgeon family splat mat works for me.  Head on over to Shannon’s place for more great tips!

See what my sweet hubby did for me?  Now I have a place to finish start some new projects.

Below is how it looked before.  That is to say, how it looked before Will worked on it but after I spent a whole day clearing it out.

I’ll post some more pics after I get it looking all pretty n stuff.