Gathered Up

Kind liking all the posts I've been seeing where all the pictures come first and all the chatting comes next.

I can hardly believe July is nearly over, that the fair is next month, that we'll be starting back up with school next month and that my BABY will be ONE next month. This year has flown.

This summer is flying and I can't think of a gol-durn exciting thing to write about. We've just been living.

The weather has been all over the place: cool. beastly hot and rainy. (B. sent us all down the basement the evening we got the flooding you saw in the garden pictures. Not real fun to hear on the news: "Don't look for the rotation before seeking shelter. The clouds will not allow it and any tornados will simply appear...") cool and rainy. beastly hot. no rhyme or reason and the bugs are so bad, not real conducive to playing outside. 

I'll be picking my first batch of beans tomorrow, and probably basil. Other than a little yellow from all of the wet, the garden seems to be doing good. It's grown even more since those pictures were taken.

And I get all crazy after a day of weeding, tilling and mulching and start taking pictures of my sunburnt  dust covered self.

I've got lots of canning to do, homeschool assessments to do, last years books to put away, this years to get out, fair projects to work on (and to decide what to do) and and and...

Tonight we're going to go get a few more hens. The 6 that we got a few months ago? FIVE roosters and ONE hen. Really. I think we go took.

Or someone knew what they were doing and picked out most of the hens, because really, even though they were straight run, to get only 1 hen? Something ain't adding up.

A snippet of home and farm.

Trying to slow down and savor.

S'dang Cute

Unlike his brothers and sisters at this age, my Little Sweet Fat Plump Darling LOVES baths.

The second he hits the water he is splashing his little fat arms and legs for all he's worth.

And so the camera must come out to capture it all.

And yes, he really *is* that roly-poly and bitey.

Rent

last summer

1 Mommy, 1 Daddy, 1 Baby Sister. 2 Grandmas, 2 Grandpas. 25 Aunts and Uncles, 15 cousins.
Yesterday, with the bang of a gavel, my brother and his wife's dream of adopting him was crushed, and he will be snatched from us all. Our sweet Zac. Dedicated to the Lord one Sunday morning alongside his baby sister and my Sprout.  Right after her parental rights were legally stripped-jail time and drugs being the path she chose- his birth mother suddenly "remembered" who his father was. And someone from that family wanted him. To be their own sweet boy, what they've always wanted, we can only hope and pray. Greg and Bethany could fight it if they wanted, but we've all been praying for Gods will for Zac, and this seems to be it. And they aren't about to fight Gods will. They both have the Peace That Passes Understanding. I do too, but I'm afraid if I think about it too much, I'm going to throw-up.

We've been sick more on than off since the day after Christmas, and the end of January and beginning of February have quite frankly sucked for various other reasons. B.'s grandma passing away, marriages crumbling, and now this to top it off.
Pray for Greg and Bethany. Pray for Zac. That as soon as he sees his new family, that it would be as if he's known them all along, and has been waiting for them.

And go hug your babies close.

Edited to add: Baby sister is my brother and sil's biological baby

Happy Happy Baby!

5 months old tomorrow : (

Long Time Comin'

I really wasn't planning on this long of a break. But I'm not going to apologize. Life happens first and blogging is as it always will be. Whenever. I did miss it though.

To bring you somewhat up to speed, in no particular order, and with random thoughts on all things, and a link or two, just for kicks, I give you the following:

My ornery Beans. This kid is a barrel of laughs, and he knows it

He's 2 now.

 And really good at throwing out diapers. And being a big brother. He would gladly hold Sprout all the live long day.

My tomatoes were Fan-ta-stic this year. I had some puree from last year that I had frozen so I added that  to my last picking, since it was small, but as opposed to other years I didn't have to buy *any* tomatoes for canning. Muffin took the "scrape-out-the-tomato-guts" job very seriously.

My goal for next years sauce is for it to contain only items I have grown, my own garlic, onions, herbs and tomatoes.

Picked all this the week after Sprout was born. 

I learned that you DO NOT plant cucumbers by your melons. The melons will have no taste.

They will smell positively intoxicating, but they will have no taste.

Where shall I plant them next year I wonder?

This is very often my view. Sweet little soft head. Just a minute, I have to kiss him. Okay, I'm back.

He's nursing right now. Again. He's 2 months old and weighs over 17 and a half pounds. My friend Erin is convinced I only produce butter, not milk. Ain't no skim milk, that's fo' sho'.

A savory herb bouquet, and a sweet herb bouquet for a friend. (which reminds me, I have garlic to plant, but not right now, as it's 11:08 pm, black as pitch, and raining. oh, and cold.)

It's kind of tradition now that Biscuit plants the sunflowers.

I wish I had thought to measure this one. It's sitting in a tree right now, where Biscuit keeps a sharp eye on it, and a bird book handy so he can show me what is visiting.

Biscuit is also short 5 teeth, the first 3 lost in less than 24 hours. He freaked out about losing the first one. Come to think about it, he also freaked out about losing the 5th one. He was mad at B. for pulling them, and wouldn't talk to him. The fact that we couldn't stop laughing at his panic didn't help matters any.

We had a killing frost. Pretty though, and kind of a relief.

We pulled out the garden. And busted out the winter coats. I'm still trying to figure out how to avoid the home-schooler look for girls. Sigh.

We've been pouring over the seed catalog I forgot I saved, eagerly planning next years garden.

Bring on some raised beds for early crops.

B. and I, two of my brothers and their wives

Sprout was dedicated a few weeks ago, and out of the 6 babies being dedicated, 2 were/are being adopted (one of them will be my nephew) and 4 of them are cousins. We're planning a church take over. Not really. But we've started on a second pew.

And now I must leave you as tomorrow is Sunday, it is rather late and my alarm clock will rudely shrill before I'm ready for it to. It's the price I must pay if I want the chance of a shower .

And a kicker link, for a kitchen I am in love with, and it doesn't even have drywall up.
Actually, read the rest of their peasant kitchen posts. It's a goal I am working my way towards.
G'night.

And Before I Forget (again)

THANK-YOU everyone for your kind congratulations. It meant the world to me for all you sweet ladies to stop by and say congratulations. A warm hug to you all : )

Becoming Seven

 So, finally, the Baby's birth story. (he'll just be Baby for now, since I'm still trying to figure out a blog name for him. My MIL gave me a great one which I planned on using, but after he was born, the name just didn't suit him. Suggestions?)
Anyway, Tuesday morning, the 21st, I was scheduled for an ultra-sound. The plan was to induce Thursday, and they wanted a guesstimate on his size and presentation so there were no surprises during delivery.
Guesstimate: 10lbs. 6 oz. I wasn't worried, I've had big babies with no problem. (Unless of course you count their pension for flip-flopping around)
Came home, decided against taking the kids out to the fair for lunch (we were going to go in the evening and I wanted everyone napped), got them fed and bedded, made myself a full strength iced coffee to try to combat a headache that had been nagging all day, went out to the garden, made pesto, cleaned up and looked forward to walking around the fair.
My weekly Dr. appointment was scheduled for 4:30, with an OB instead of a midwife. It started raining while I was there. Hoped we wouldn't get stuck in the fair's parking field later. The nurse asked me if I'd had a headache that day. Aww, wasn't that nice of her? It must have shown on my face that I'd had one. It didn't. It showed in my blood pressure 150/92. The Ob took one look at it and sent me to the hospital to have blood work done and my BP monitored for a while. 1 of 3 things was causing it and 2 of those things would get me induced that night.  She was excited though, because the Pitocin, being my 5th baby, and the fact that I was somewhere between 2 and 3 cm. meant it would all go quickly. And she had no doubt that even though he was measuring big, delivery would be a breeze. I fully expected to be sent right back home after they checked me out at the hospital.

A call to B. on the way to the hospital about what was going on and I would be home a little later than expected.

 I finally was able to call him again at 9pm from the delivery room. "Call someone to stay with the kids and come down here. My BP is still up, I'm here already, they aren't going to wait 'til Thursday, and they are about to start the Pitocin." B. got there about 10. I rested while I could and once the contractions started getting a little uncomfortable, I walked the halls for about an hour. I made B. stay in my room and nap while he could, since it was going to be a long night, and I was fine walking. Actually, the walking was great, and since I was aiming for NO pain killers (epidural, etc.) I was kind of enjoying myself. A check showed I was at 6. Rock! Once I hit 8, things go fast, this will be over and done before I know it! (Baby wasn't dropping BTW.) I rocked in the rocker for a bit. When that got bad I stood and cut off the circulation to B's arm and hand for a bit. Helloooo transition. Knelt on the bed and cried my eyes out. (I don't recommend being up for nearly 24 hours once you hit transition labor, if at all possible) Laid on my back and cried some more. Nobody would listen when I told them I was all done and that I couldn't do it anymore. 8 cm. had come and gone. Baby was still not dropping. I was too tired, we were just going to have to stop. Made perfect sense to me. I've done all I can, it's someone elses turn now.  Finally I felt the need to push. Pushing was messy. I apologized repeatedly for all the trouble I was causing. And then the glorious "There's his head! One more push!"
He'd been posterior and rolled over on his way out. That was why he wasn't dropping. It took a little bit to get him all cleaned out. I didn't get to hold him as much as I wanted because I was shaking so bad, I was afraid of dropping him. And I had been awake for over 24 hours. B. held him and promptly conked out. Once they checked Baby's sugar, I was a little more relaxed, and he nursed like a champ for the first time. I cat-napped my way through the day, B. went home. put in earplugs, turned up the fan in our room and crashed. He brought me a fair gyro that evening after dropping off the kids and picking up my sister to help shuffle cars around. It was delicious. (I want another one now)

 The kids came Thursday

 And they adore Baby

 And told me all about the fair (they stayed with my family there off and on)

 Beans seems huge. Well, he is, but seems even more so now

 And despite his 9 lbs. 13 oz. Daddy's hat actually fit him. Didn't fit his 2 older brothers when I brought them home!

 Waiting for Daddy to spring us from the hospital

Fell asleep almost as soon as this was taken. And there's the story. And yes, we did ALL go to the fair later, but that will have to keep for another day : )

P.S. thank-you Sarah for updating for me, and congratulations on baby V.!

Fair Baby

Ezekiel Tobias born 8/22/12 at 4:49 AM, 9 lbs. 13 oz., 21 inches long, about 3-4 chins. Story to come later, but we are home : ) And he wasn't born at the fair.