I watched a friend’s two children today. Josiah was fascinated with Baby H. Not sure what she thought of him, though.
We did start school on Monday, but I just never got around to first day pictures! Wonder why?? So, here’s a picture from Zoe’s Science experiment. Our unit is on the Tower of Babel/building, etc. So, w gathered some samples of soil around our neighborhood. She glued some of them to paper to show how they’re different. Then we looked at how each type of soil compacted when you added water to it. Zoe enjoyed getting her fingers dirty! She didn’t like the way the red clay felt though.
So, I listened to some of Kevin Leman on Focus on the Family yesterday. One of his suggestions in dealing with temper tantrums, I decided to try. His suggestion: take the child, without speaking to him, and put him in his room until he calms down and then talk to him.
Of course, Liam and Ace both allowed me to try this technique out recently.
First off, Ace: I can’t remember exactly why he started his tantrum, but I put him in his room. He was in there for a little while when I heard, “Somebody help me.”
And then, a pause.
And then, “Oh Lord, please help me. Help me Lord, please.” This continued for about a minute until he calmed down.
Being the sweet sensitive mother I am, I was reduced to laughing silent tears, so he couldn’t tell I was right there.
And for Liam: Well, Leman didn’t take into account that when your child calms down he may actually be somewhere getting into something. No, his solution was that when you open the door, he’ll be sitting quietly clutching his sweet blankie. Leman hasn’t met Liam. This morning I walked into his room after about 5 minutes of a tantrum, he was on top of the dresser…standing up. I got him down, he did it again after pitching another tantrum. Yeah, Leman’s never met Liam. I don’t think this is going to work for him. Do you think if he breaks his leg, I could send a bill to Kevin Leman???
I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly blessed this week, and it’s only Tuesday. Today’s been a sleepy, nausea day but yesterday was so good and I was really able to enjoy school with Zoe and Ace.
I’ve got the yucky morning sickness that keeps me out of the kitchen. I’m not thrilled with this and because I felt so good when we first found out, thought I would escape it like I did with Josiah. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened. Mark is now fixing meals at night, after I’m in bed. He’s also prepping the kids lunches. So, all I have to do is go in, pull out and set out for lunch and breakfast. I’ve had it really bad like this with Zoe and a little bit less with Ace. The smell of cooking food makes me want to…you know. The look of food cooking does the same. No more Food Network or any pictures with food. At least it’s going to be this way for the next four to six weeks.
Anyway, I was thinking yesterday how great it would be if we had friends who would bring us meals during this time instead of post partum. Okay, all my friends, I’m not suggesting this, I’m just saying, I was talking to God about how nice that would be. I will cook my second and third trimester and have enough meals in the freezer for two or more months, so post partum meals are nice but not always necessary. Anyway, I saw a neighbor yesterday and she asked if she could make a meal for us next week. Wow! God so blessed me with that. I wholeheartedly agreed and thanked God for helping us out, even if it’s for one night.
That was one. Add to that, I am not going to have to cook for our family when we visit B &B, which I didn’t mind having Mark do, but it is nice not having to do it either.
And then this is a cool one…I don’t want to put too much, because it may not happen, but we’ll see…Mark was supposed to go to China on a mission trip in October. However, the group felt God calling them to go earlier to help in the earthquake zone in Indonesia (I think that’s where it is) and so they’re going earlier, which means Mark can’t go because he doesn’t have enough days. We really felt God was calling Mark to go to China as that country and it’s people have always been on our hearts. God just flat out closed that door.
Sunday night was Summer Missions night at church and all the groups that went on missions got up and talked. We do a lot of mission work in our church which is awesome and a great way to see how God works.
Let me back this up by saying, I’ve never been able to go on a “mission trip.” I’ve done some mission work around my town but never have gone off somewhere. I’ve told Mark before how much I’ve wanted to do it, but with China, I knew I couldn’t go because of the cost and now because of the baby.
Anyway, our Minister to Mission (or whatever his title…he does a lot) was talking about a recent trip he took with his wife to a church plant. I was familiar with the trip because his wife had talked to me about it and my heart went out to the church. A lot of them are new Christians and are now raising children and trying so hard to follow God’s Word, but not knowing where to start or where to go. Okay, back to the story again (just trying to see how many different branches I can grow). So, he mentioned this at the mission night and Mark and I looked at each other, knowing we just wanted to go there to do what we could (I told Mark I wanted to move there). Then our minister said they were planning on taking a small team to there in October to do a marriage conference. We’re in…if they’ll have us, was what I thought! Both our minister and his wife were excited when we said we wanted to go. Okay, so it’s not overseas, but it’s somewhere where people need God and that’s good enough. I’m excited, but waiting to get all the details before I post where and what we’ll be doing. I don’t care if I’m just holding someone’s baby so they can enrich their marriage, I just want to help! Mark is super pumped…I think it’s the going together and where we’ll be going and who we’ll be going with. We really respect our minister and his wife (by the way this is the minister that Liam asked if he was God) and can’t wait to glean some wisdom off of them!
Now off to rest, some more…just four to six more weeks!
My pants still fit, but they have a lot of give in them…at least three of them do. My shirts, however, are not covering my belly that sticks out over my pants…guess it’s on to maternity shirts soon…pants to follow!
After a rocky start to the day, including a quick trip for milk for breakfast, we started school.
It went pretty well, except we forgot something for Ace’s so he did start his preschool curric., Interlock like we wanted…he’ll start it tomorrow, though.
Only a few tears from Zoe and Ace. Zoe on not getting the map of her room drawn to scale and perfectly. Ace because he whined while working on letters and couldn’t have a sticker.
Only 179 more days to go 🙂 Like we don’t do any teaching during the other days.
Ace really was excited about phonics. I’m wondering if I should have started him on two lessons a day like I did Zoe. He pretty much knows all of his letter sounds. I think for maturity sake, we’ll just stick with how we’re going.
Now it’s on to getting ready for our home visit from our social worker today!
Well, our home study social worker lives in Savannah. We had our personal interviews with her on Friday and thought since bebe #5 is coming in March, we should try and do at least one getaway before then (yea, I know we have a while, but have you seen my schedule??). So, Mark’s mom generously came up to watch all four of my young’uns for us to have a night out on the town. We splurged and stayed at a nice bed and breakfast called The McMillan Inn. It’s right in the historic district.
We walked to City Market on Thursday night and ate at a great restaurant called Garibaldi’s. I didn’t have much nausea that night (and I’m thanking God for that…I did a lot of praying for that) so the food was really good.
On the way to City Market, we passed by this place!
We sorta/kinda wanted to eat here, but you have to be at the door at 9:30 in the morning to get reservations and we’ve heard lots of people say it’s not as great as it’s hyped up to be. Fame has a price. I’ve also read that it was really good before Paula Deen became famous. Just thought I’d share where we passed by!
We also saw lots of Spanish Moss! I think it’s beautiful!
Any guesses who this guy is???
It’s John Wesley. He set up an American Parish here and we got to walk by it.
We also walked through an old cemetary. I believe it was Colonial Cemetary. Anyway, there were several historical markers set up, so Mark and I loved it. Here’s pictures of the historical markers…
Yep, this gives a whole new meaning to the Bible verse, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” This is the actual grave below. I wish I had brought some paper and stuff to do some grave rubbings, but forgot.
Savannah’s a really spooky place…you see all sorts of shadows everywhere. Notice the hand shadow on this grave marker…it seems to be holding something…oh wait, that’s Mark’s shadow with the camera (I knew that but thought it would be funny to post…It’s late, give me credit).
Apparently, the old bicycles are still in fashion here. We never saw any, sadly enough.We rode a Pedicab back to our B&B. A Pedicab consists of a man on a bicycle with a two seater trailer on the back. It was a nice ride and we would have asked him to ride us around more but he was so hot and I hated seeing him work so hard so I didn’t have to trek it back to our B&B. He gave us a nice tour/history of all the areas we passed.
We passed by a house that’s been on all these travel shows. Apparently, it’s the most haunted house in Savannah. I asked him if he ever saw a “ghost” since he’s lived in Savannah his whole life. He was pretty straightforward in saying, “Nope.” He likes to laugh (or roll his eyes) at people who get in his cab and tell him they’ve seen all sorts of ghosts on the ghost tours. So, we had a little conversation about how people can trick themselves into seeing things. I still believe demons are real, though, and can really mess with you if you allow them to and don’t trust in the Holy Spirit to guard and guide you. That’s all I’m gonna say ’bout that.
After arriving at the B&B, we sat out by their dipping pool (which was a little shallow pool in the courtyard…very cute and sweet, but I forgot our swimsuits) and soaked our feet while we munched on cookies. It was very relaxing. We then went to our room and watched PS I Love You, which is not a movie to watch when you are pregnant or want a sweet love story, but is great to watch when you need a good cry.
We slept okay, until about 2:30 when some kids across the street thought that lighting up Black Cat firecrackers would be fun. I went right back to sleep but woke up a little later because I was suffocating from the lack of air circulation. There was no sort of fan in the room. Mark got a heater out of one of the rooms and directed it toward the a/c thermostat which kept me nice and cool the rest of the early morning. I still woke up before 7 though. Uggghhh.
After a yummy breakfast, we headed to Factor’s Walk, which is on the river and did a little sight seeing. It’s also where I found a very nice wrap for half off but had to mail it in for an exchange when we got home because it had a two big holes in it. Hopefully a new one will be in the mail this week.
We left, to do our one on one interviews, which didn’t take too long and then headed back to Factor’s Walk for lunch and kids’ souvenirs. We ate at Spanky’s (yea, what a name, huh?) and it was very good. Lots of fried food but good. Then we went to the Savannah Candy Kitchen and got the kids some taffy, of course. And then we headed home. Ahhh! Very nice and relaxing.
Making “gophers” at the Savannah Candy Kitchen.
Something I always have wanted to do but haven’t been able to yet, go out on a Riverboat. We also would have loved to do a historical tour since we’re both history junkies, but we didn’t have time. Maybe later!
I’m sorry I haven’t updated in forever. The pregnancy blahs have hit and I’ve had all day nausea on top of extreme exhaustion so even making it to the computer has been tough. I’ve felt better today, but been getting ready for school tomorrow. I’m starting a week early so that we won’t finish late because of the baby coming in March.
Anyway, here’s some pictures. We were blessed with lots of rain last week. I believe it rained at some point every day. Mostly thunderstorms. On Thursday afternoon, however, it started raining a rain shower with no thunder. I told the kids they could go out and play, but they chose otherwise when they saw a huge “Laura Ingalls” size grasshopper by the door. After a little while, Zoe checked to see if the grasshopper was still there and when it wasn’t asked if she could go play outside. It was still raining a little. So, off they went. And here’s the results of them playing in mud.
Josiah wasn’t too sure about the muddy water.
He decided the car was a safe bet away from the rain and mud.
Here is Zoe making mud for mud pies and Ace is supervising. He prefers to direct than get into the thick of it!
Zoe, ever the adventurer with her mud.
Skipping through the rain.
Liam played a little bit in the mud, which is why I’m not quite sure how he got so dirty on his face and hair. There was even sand in his hair. He looks cute though.
We have some dear friends who moved away in December to St. Louis. They were great friends and the first ones we met when moved to Augusta. There’s a connection with them as Mark’s dad and C’s dad were Gideons together. However, C and M are Auburn fans…but that’s pretty much their only flaw, so we try to overlook it. Anyway, they came through town visiting their “old haunts” so we were lucky enough that they were able to come to dinner on Monday. It was a lot of fun. Chris & Annette, more friends, came with their two children. So, we had a total of nine kids. However C & M’s oldest is 12 and will be in seventh grade next year. Yikes! She was starting first when we first met her and their second was just walking. And their third wasn’t even here! Their third, a boy, S, is the same age as Zoe. They are really good friends and Zoe has missed him a lot since they moved. She and her other good friend talk about him a lot and I’m sure this visit will trigger more talk. Ace loves to play with S too. They all have a good time and this visit was no exception. I wish I had gotten a picture of their kids with the Alabama jersey and helmet on, but I was in the blahs, so please forgive!!
Josiah hanging out with C.
Miss K in disguise!
Chris getting attacked doing some kind of crazy thing. To quote Madame Blueberry in Duke and the Great Pie War, “It’s complicated. I’ll explain later.”
L enjoyed toting Josiah around. He enjoyed it too!
All nine of the kids! Here’s their initials (sorry, trying to use privacy for friends): S (4), L(almost 12), Liam (2), Ace (4), Josiah (1), M (8 or 9, I can’t remember), Zoe (5), K (2 1/2), S (5). That was a couch full!
Zoe enjoyed seeing the fish, although here her eyes are closed.
Josiah ringing the dinner bell.
Holding down the fort.