Election Day Thought

I don't claim to be a witty writer to capture your attention and keep you coming back, I blog to preserve my fleeting thoughts because I can't hold onto them for more than a second or two throughout the day. Without getting too political, I think Thomas Jefferson said it all,

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against any form of tyranny over the minds and lives of men. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must take our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labors and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they [the people] will be happy."

-- Thomas Jefferson

He's a reader!

We started home schooling this year and have definitely faced a few challenges; the biggest was reading...did you catch that was? ;)

A couple months ago Connor was definitely recognizing words, he knew the sounds that each letter makes, he understood sounding it out but every night when we would read it was a frustrating and miserable task that resulted in him being in tears and me being grumpy. Fortunately, this period did not last long!

I found a great series of books called You Read to Me, I'll Read to You by Mary Ann Hoberman. I also started using Dolch site word flashcards and this combination was MONEY! Connor was looking forward to reading as he was recognizing more of the words and because of the rhyming nature of the book he was able to use the first letter or two to determine what the next word was to be.

We stuck with You Read to Me, I'll Read to You for 1.5-2 weeks and then started back on some of his First Reader books and the frustration was completely gone...so were the tears! In September we set a reading goal of 10 minutes a day for 5 days a week...10 minutes of him reading, not me reading to him. Each day he completes his reading he marks it on a calendar and at the end of the month if he completes his reading goal then he gets a certificate from Pizza Hut through their Book it! reading program.

I was able to fill out his first certificate on Friday and Connor had a special trip with his Mamaw & Papaw to have pizza on Saturday. He's tearing through books and really looks forward to reading, now...we never have to struggle through 10 minutes, I'm usually cutting him off at 20 minutes because we have to move on to another project. I am so proud of him!!!

Making room for baby

Well, we're getting geared up for baby #4. My husband has been working on a remodeling project in our bedroom to create some extra space for the baby. I have to admit, it's REALLY nice having such a handy husband around the house. Not only do I have more room in my bedroom, but I also have specialty lighting for reading and nursing that will not cause any distress to my sleeping husband. So with the bedroom project coming along I feel like we're getting closer to baby coming.

My parents are visiting from NC for the weekend and they wondered what we needed for the baby. I only needed to acquire 2 things before we were completely ready...a car seat and a baby sling. My husband, parents and children all went shopping for the day and came home with lots of goodies, including a new car seat. Since I'm suppose to be taking it easy, I was unable to join them so I shopped from home :) I found the Maya sling I wanted and ordered it this evening. We're all set!

If we can keep the bun in the oven for another month then all will seem perfect! But 1 month of bed rest with 3 young kids is going to be hard...thank God for my mother-in-law!!! I swear, if it weren't for her we would have never had 4 kids. You don't often hear women praising their mother-in-law, but I have a very special one who has been such a blessing in my life. Thanks Jane!!!

Pregnancy Moan

This might be my first real moan with this pregnancy so I can't truly complain as things have been relatively smooth with this one. As some of you may know, I have high blood pressure when not pregnant so it becomes a real concern during my pregnancies. So having high blood pressure, coupled with preterm labor with my previous 3 pregnancies then I usually don't enjoy the whole pregnancy process.

This pregnancy has been very smooth and I made it through 5 months without ever changing my blood pressure medication. This is unheard of! I am normally upping my meds every 1-2 weeks to combat my blood pressure. Well, two weeks ago my pressures started spiking and we started to battle them with increased meds and that worked fairly well. But along with the increased pressures came edema. Edema is swelling from fluid accumulating in body tissue. Usually my ankles and feet puff up and sometimes my hands will swell, but this time my hands got really swollen and my arms would go numb from the simplest of activities (typing, knitting, holding a book). Even sleeping became really uncomfortable as I would have to hang my arms off the side of the bed to get circulation going again.

I had a Dr appt on Tuesday and had to take my girls with me. They were so well behaved until the moment the Dr stepped into the room and then they were ripped coloring books from one another's hands, screaming, "Mine!" "No, mine!" over and over. I tried to settle them as best I could without being disrespectful of the Drs time. After asking how I was doing and I replied with the swelling info he continued with, "How much help do you have at home?" I had heard this before and knew what was coming...the dreaded words....bed rest.

However, I do like his approach to bed rest more than the last time I was put on bed rest. With my 2nd pregnancy at 28 weeks my Dr said, "Strict bed rest, you can get out of bed for bathroom, meals and a shower a day, otherwise you're horizontal." This Dr said, "48 hours should be enough to relieve the fluids and then you can resume minimal activity until we need to do it again." So for 48 hours I'm suppose to lie down, elevate my feet and not do anything. With three kids, even having help from my mother-in-law and husband, I find it hard to lie down all day and do nothing. I did fairly well this first day...my husband would argue, he's quite strict about the whole process. He did catch me walking through the kitchen with my 3 month old niece in my arms...man, was he mad at me! She was crying and no one was around and she wasn't happy just being held so I had no choice, Al did not agree.

Anyway, so I'm on minimal activity after the next 24 hours of bed rest so you may be hearing from me more often as I'll have more time to sit down and blog. I'm 31 weeks so we technically have 2 months left but we're praying for just one more month.

Underground Railroad

Connor had a field trip today to explore a portion of the underground railroad that has been preserved locally. It consisted of about 3 miles of hiking (Al took Connor on this one as I had a Dr appt and there is no chance I would have made the hike in my condition). The weather was cold, damp and windy but the kids seemed to have really enjoyed the nature hike. The adults were more interested in the history and significance of it all, but it was a great primer to introduce slavery in American history.

We spent some time going over slavery while discussing colonial American early this semester. We then moved on to discussing certain historical figures such as Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony. And then Connor hit the trail and walked only a minute portion of what escaping slaves had to endure. I don't think the impact of their struggle really set in, as you can see from this picture:


Although, maybe he is just expressing what freedom feels like.

If you live locally, I would encourage you to visit Woodlawn Manor in Sandy Spring as it is a step back in time.