Random Thoughts

Hello everyone!

I have a few minutes here and just thought I'd share a few random thoughts about life.

Here is a picture of me at seven weeks along.

I was looking at my blog history for this blog and realized that after winter set in...I basically stopped posting very often. Also, some of you will know that I started a diet blog last summer and have tended to post more frequently to that blog than my family blog. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing...

I will say, however, that I feel like my perspective on life has been a lot happier and better since I've gotten in shape and lost all this weight. I've lost 37 pounds since I began eight months ago.

And, quite honestly, I feel like when I'm happier...I am able do take better care of the family and the kids. This winter has went really well at home despite the fact that the kids have spent a large portion of it indoors.

I also feel, that being in shape has given me more energy and may very well be the reason we felt like we wanted to have another baby.

So, I suppose when you look at things in that perspective letting this blog slide a little bit wasn't all bad.

I noticed another blogger who hasn't posted as much. And I miss your posting, Tricia, if your reading this. How's life going for you?

I noticed too, that the other Sunshine Mama stopped posting several months ago. I wonder if she's had her baby yet and how everything is going.

I'm still working out and eating healthy. I have begun to transition our family into eating whole foods versus processed foods. So, I am trying to fix foods that have no white flour or sugar. I began eating this way about seven weeks ago in preparation for training for a figure competition. I was struck with how good I felt when I dropped all those processed foods out of my diet, and how quickly my weight dropped to even lower levels. I also think more clearly with not having those foods in my diet.

But, now that I'm pregnant, I've noticed that in the last few days I feel very, very tired in the morning. I have all these things I want to get done, but the energy is lacking. So, I've taken to drinking too much coffee.

But...I don't want to complain about all that stuff here...maybe on my diet blog... LOL!

Peach Blossom has a birthday coming up on Friday. He'll be four. Such a big boy he's getting to be.

A quick hi to Jo, Sami, and SunshineMeg! I'm feeling too lazy to make a link.

Talk later, alligators!

How We Told The Kids...

I'm writing this post as a special request from SunshineMeg. And, it makes sense to write it because telling our children that they were going to have another brother or sister was a joyful occasion, indeed.

First of all, I'll like to give you all a little preface of how we handled past pregnancies. It has been part of Sunshine Mama and Daddy Rainmaker's ritual that we do not tell outside family members (like grandma and grandpa etc) about the pregnancy until I am twelve weeks along. Consequently we do not end up telling our children until perhaps shortly before we tell the outside family, because children are not able to keep secrets well.

The reason for waiting until 12 weeks is in case of a miscarriage.

Another aspect of every single one of our pregnancies is that we do not find out the sex of the baby until the baby is born. The reason for that is because we enjoy the anticipation of waiting until the moment the baby is born. A lot of work goes into the labor and delivery and this is one thing we look forward to.

About two months ago during Christmas vacation, I went through all our baby clothes up to size 2 years old, because Stavesacre is two, and gave away all those clothes. I kept some for memories sake, but got rid of everything because I was tired of having them around, and quite honestly, they were worn out after going through four or five children. I'd even had some stuff from when Darling Rose was little.

I also thought that I might be done with having children. I did keep all of my maternity clothes, but unless I gain a lot of weight, a lot of those clothes will not fit me. Our daughter, Darling Rose, was very sad at the idea that there may be no more new brothers or sisters. But I explained to her that when you feel overwhelmed and disorganized by chaotic heaps of clothes that you don't currently use, you will be less likely to want to have another baby. Getting everything cleaned up and organized is more conducive to Sunshine Mama's frame of mind for wanting another baby.

Does that make sense?

So, Daddy Rainmaker and Sunshine Mama found out that they were pregnant Sunday night. But, instead of waiting three months we decided to tell the family. Why?

"Do not delay joy."

We keep thinking there is a scripture in the Bible that contains these words, but we can't find it. But, we are so happy. Hiding it until 12 weeks was no fun. You aren't able to share your feelings with anyone about it, except hubby. Plus, if you are beginning to show...or you imagine yourself beginning to show...you feel like you have to hide it.

I don't want to hide it. I'm so happy; I want the world to know.

So, we told the kids one night later. Here were the responses of the kids:

Darling Rose begins to cry because she thought there would be no more brothers or sisters.

Dandy Lion begins whooping, hollering, jumping up and down and saying something incomprehensible at the top of his lungs something to the effect that he's so happy to be getting another brother or sister.

Iris Anna's eyes got really, really big. And she sidles up to Daddy Rainmaker and says, "I want to have a baby too."

Peach Blossom didn't know what to think. A few days later, though, it began to sink in. His ever-constant question to me is, "When are you going to have the baby, mom?"

Eight months will seem like forever to this kid.

Then, there is Stavesacre who doesn't understand and just hangs out being his cute, funny self.

We are so glad to let everyone know. We called all of our family that night. Although, I'm sure there are some I've missed.

We also plan to find out the sex of the baby so that I can spend a joyful five months shopping for just the perfect outfits for our little one. We are also taking a cue from our sister-in-law when they find out the baby's gender, they will take the family out to dinner or do something special. That seems like a fun idea to me. The consensus from our children is that they are "praying" for a girl. Interestingly, we already have a boy's name picked out, but not a girl's name chosen.

And on a sidenote, my sister-in-law recently found out they they are having a little boy. This means they now have three boys and one girl.

So, that is the story. We are glad everyone knows so that we can talk about it and that people can pray for the baby's health. Right now I'm about 7 1/2 weeks along. I should probably start posting some pregnancy pictures.

I hope this answers your question, Sunshine Meg. I hope you're all having a good day!

A First Trip To The Dentist

Peach Blossom is the child who when asked to do something by strangers will say, "no."

We had four of the five kids at the dentist the other day, but he was the one who held off from having his teeth "sparkled."

Finally, at the last moment he decided he did want to have his teeth "sparkled" and sat in the dentist's chair, while Iris Anna watched.

He got to wear sunglasses while in the chair and received a new toothbrush.

He got his teeth counted and was found to have ten on top and ten on the bottom.

Iris Anna wanted to make sure they were counting right, because that's the exact number of teeth she has.

Ahh, a successful teeth sparkling.

I think this bodes well for the next trip to the dentist.

Question Of The Century...

Hi, folks!

How IS your Saturday going? Mine is going great.

I just fixed our five Darling children some chocolate oatmeal protein waffles, which they all loved except for Darling Rose. She had to force hers down, BUT the other kids couldn't get enough. Dandy Lion had five. Iris Anna had three or four...I lost track.

So, anyway, I love a Saturday because I can relax a little. I don't feel the need to home school our seven-year old. And...of course Saturday is also the day when I try to get some cleaning done.

I walk downstairs to the family room, which is where Dandy Lion sleeps...(we're currently working on combining him with some other kids but for now, it works well for him to use this space at night.)

But the family room isn't suppose to have any toys in it. I took them out for the express purpose of cutting down on the whole "messiness" factor.

So, my question of the century is this....How the heck do toys, then, end up in it? Where does all the crap that ends up in this room come from? I know that Dandy Lion is my little hoarder. He will take every single empty container and save it to later "make" into something. Graham cracker boxes, empty egg carton, empty oatmeal containers. You name it, he's got any idea for how to use it. So, He take all this stuff and it gets put behind a chair. Last night, I had just got done cracking some egg whites and all the kids were in bed when I turned around and he had snuck in the kitchen and grabbed the empty egg carton before I could say "boo".

I'm like, "WHAT are you doing?"

"Well, I heard the egg crack...and I thought maybe you might be done with the egg carton."

So, it looks like I need another plan here folks. The method I'm using now doesn't work. I take the toys out, and they just make toys out of crap they see laying around and then that becomes the mess.

Why do we bother getting them toys for Christmas? I should just give them empty boxes. It'd be cheaper.

1st picture: All the stuff Dandy Lion has collected recently
2nd picture: His work station with his current project.

Who's Missing From This Picture?

True...Darling Rose is missing, but she was in high school at the time....

There's some one else missing.

Ohhh...here it is...a little gift from above...

Another Darling gift from Heaven to love

A sunkissed babe from the Father's hand

Another child... on that ledge will stand

Can you feel the excitement?

Congratulations in the air?
His siblings are joyous

With another child to share

A child to share the toys they love

Another child to hug-a-bug

"Do NOT delay joy,

Do be Glad...

Be glad that God
Blesses this land

With lovely babes and sweet little loves

Who write out names

to name these ones...

At five weeks along,

we have some time

To pick the name

and get it right.

Such good ideas

from our 7-year-old
And if we don't like these

He has more, I'm told.

Yes, folks, we're changing sports.

We're trading in the basketball team for a hockey team.

Due out late October.

In Honor Of Sunshine Meg's Birthday...

Our kids drew some cards...

14-year-old Darling Rose drew a signature rose inside her card.

7-year-old Dandy Lion spelled all the words himself.

When you open up the card, this is what you see inside.

He drew her a rose for the back.

Mom, helped 5-year-old Iris Anna by drawing a flower and a house.
Then, Iris Anna colored it in.

3-year-old Peach Blossom, took his time drawing something.

Isn't it nice?

Even two-year-old Stavesacre got into the act.

To wish SunshineMeg a happy birthday,

visit her at http://www.sunshinemeg.blogspot.com/

She turns 25 on February 17.

Learning To Love...

"Loving God and others is what life is all about."

This is the first sentence in the first day of devotions from the book, "The Love Dare" A day by day, one year of devotions for couples.

This is a book that my husband, Daddy Rainmaker, picked up for us to do together.

My brief perusal of the book revealed that many daily devotions are spent investigating in depth what love is.

Each devotion is a single page in length. In fact, it took the two of us longer to get comfortable in our chair together than it did to actually read that page. However, even after the first devotion, I feel inspired about the idea of learning more about love.

"Love is the most important ingredient to any meaningful relationship."

While reading these words, I felt enlightened. I felt a desire well up inside me to truly learn more about love. I felt like I could learn to love more...be it showing my children more love, my husband, my family....

"Your quality of life is directly tied to the amount of love flowing in you and through you to others."

When I heard those words, I began to think of people who I knew who truly had an abundance of love flowing through them. These are people who love to love you. You know who they are...they take special pride in doing little things to brighten your day, to make you feel better when you're down, they send notes for no reason, and remember to send cards for good reasons.

"The absence of love leaves a devastating void. When it is not present, your spirituality becomes superficial, your benevolent deeds self-centered, and your sacrifices insincere."

It all makes sense to me now. When I am caring for our children, I know I manage them differently than when I am not being loving. Loving them makes being a mom more fulfilling. I have a desire to be filled with love so that the recipients of my good deeds, and sacrifices can feel that love.

This week's dare was... Begin praying this week: "Lord, teach me what real love is and make me a loving person."

After that first reading, we talked about my grandparents, who have passed away, and how they had showed their family love. You could always tell that when they gave a gift, or stopped by for a visit, or talked to you on the phone...that they loved you. You could feel the love flowing through them to you.

I want to be like that.

So... "Dear Lord, teach me what real love is and make me a loving person."