Why am I the only one in the room who thinks this is wrong?!

26^th Sept 2011

I went to the OB last week.  He was a very nice man, and taught my 8 yr old a science lesson during the ultrasound.  He like the kids and let them push buttons when he needed them to be pushed.  Nevertheless, I won’t be going back.  We got along because I kept my mouth tightly shut.  The problem is that he wants to conduct prenatal care in a manner I disagree with.  Like many doctors, he’s firm and convinced of the correctness of his opinion.  His patients don’t have a lot of options—his word is law.  It’s his perfect right to conduct his business that way, and it’s mine to choose my own style of healthcare.  To many, doctors are experts, the authority, and should be consulted and obeyed.  To me, they are people I hire to advise me.  However, I am still the consumer, and am paying them to provide the healthcare I want.  The responsibility for my health is my own.  If I don’t agree with the advice given I won’t take it.  Back to the midwife I go (who, incidentally, does whatever I ask—barring the crossing of moral lines, which hasn’t happened).

Life is uncertain at this point.  Simply meaning that once again, we don’t know quite what we’re doing or when.  I’m thankful that the gospel is a steady, unchanging conduit of light I can depend on when other things in life are unsure.  In the midst of uncertainty we can still have family traditions and routines that keep our focus on what is most important.

I’m ignoring my children for the next couple of months while I try to get through this last semester.  But then I’m done.  And I’ll be a good mom again.  I didn’t realize how much of my time it would take, and should have stuck to the one class I needed to graduate.

Still, the kids are healthy and relatively happy, and they are learning a lot about religious, political, and moral questions around the dinner table.  Because that's when I talk to Shawn about what I'm studying in my classes.  I'm the odd one out in every class.  The extremist in every situation.  I disagree with almost every other student (at least with what they write) and am avoided because of my ideas.  (The problem is I don't generally disclose my ideas unless I'm in a comfortable environment but because of the nature of the online discussions, I'm forced to give and defend an opinion.  I simply can't gush about how I agree with a lot of nonsensical idiocy, and I have a hard time being politically correct...so I'm just hoping to pass the class I need.)  I even call my mother to ask her just how far off-base I could possibly be.  I must be okay, because she usually agrees with me, and on the rare occasion that she doesn't, she at least lets me know my opinions are decent and that I'm not crazy.  That means a lot...I value my mother's opinion.   

Shawn, schedules, and I'll probably feel better tomorrow.

Roundtable tonight.  We learned how to make water rockets with 2 liter pop bottles.  My scouts will love it!  You should have seen all the adults out on the lawn in the dark launching a rocket...it was hilarious to watch.

Well, Shawn's going to China a week earlier than he was supposed to, but he comes back two weeks earlier than we expected.  So we don't get to see his family, and he won't be gone over Thanksgiving.  I believe he only gets a four day weekend for Thanksgiving anyway, so I may get to learn how to cook a turkey this year...or maybe I'll just turn it over to him and let him do a ham.  (They love ham, and I hate it, so they never get it unless Shawn actually goes out and buys and cooks it.)

We're going camping tomorrow (ward camp out).  The boys were quite put out this evening, because we packed the car today so they thought we were going today. They had friends over this afternoon and they all went outside and rode scooters.  I love it when they find something fun to do and entertain themselves.

Got all my homework done for the week, so I don't have to worry about it this weekend.  Of course, that means we didn't get a lot of homeschool done this week, just the basics.  It also means the house was barely liveable all week.  I'm grateful this is my last semester.

We're good...I mean alive, fairly healthy, still learning and growing, etc.  Trying to get a good schedule/routine down to cope with this semester and Shawn being gone for a while.  Can you go crazy in five weeks of no contact with your husband (while pregnant and in school?--I should have kept it down to one class)?  Well, maybe he'll be able to e-mail me.

While I'm living a pretty nice, drama-free life (except for nursery, which was just hilarious :)), I am also getting restless here.  I'm ready to be done and we have another 9 months here.  I'm sure I can handle it, and it's not the place; it's beautiful here.  It's the schedule.  Twice this week I saw Shawn for about an hour before I had to leave and he had to go to bed.  My love language is time, so it's not working out very well.  It's interesting that he doesn't do anything with friends (not that I'm complaining).  He likes to be with me during every free moment (I don't coerce him, that's just how he is)...he just doesn't have many of those lately.

The end of a comparably decent day

Oh goodie, a new month.  Shawn is over halfway done here!  I've noticed that most of my intended posts lately have just ended up in my journal.  I really do write most nights, they just don't always make it onto the blog.

The cub scout's outdoor cookout went better than expected :) and I think they all enjoyed it.  Families were invited and all the little kids looked like they were having a blast.  We have two new scouts and two more coming in this month!  I'm sure glad we just split into two dens.

I just finished the handouts and class outline for the herbal class I'm teaching (which was called a "medical emergency class" in the e-mail sent out to the entire ward.  By me?  Ha!  I just agreed to share the herbs I can't live without...hope the crowd isn't too disappointed). 


And now, I do believe it is time for bed.  The headache I've had for the past two days is finally slipping (the advil probably helped) and my hives are going down.  Hives from what?  I don't know.  I just get them occasionally.  This bout wasn't bad.  Sometimes I look like I have welts across my face and entire body.  I think it's a food allergy, although I can't figure out what food.  I've been told it's from stress.  Here's to a low-stress diet :).

August in Pictures

Demetri at Lover's Point.  A pretty nice beach as far as the beaches here go :)  The kids had tons of fun exploring!

Teddy on our field trip to the Art Museum...okay, so this is outside of the museum.

We had a temple trip this month.  Babysitting was provided at the stake center there.  The kids now LOVE the Oakland temple and ask when we can go back; they had a tour of the grounds (even went on top of the temple!) and visitor's center.

Demetri is now my picture guy.  He loves being in them, taking them, videos of everything...and I must say, some of his stuff doesn't turn out half bad!

After the temple we went out to eat.  A group wanted to give the kids these homemade cupcakes left from their huge birthday party.  My kids were only to happy to comply, and we sang happy birthday to Olie several times.  He even got a candle in his ice cream.  They loved it :)

A Tie-dye shirt from his Pitcher Grandparents

Writing (tracing) thank-you letters...which he actually likes to do.  We've been writing a lot of letters this month!

The new bunk bed, which all of the children like and which has been the cause of several mishaps (usually while doing something they weren't supposed to like jumping off of it).  There is now a "no playing in the bedroom" rule...which works sometimes.

Shawn and Demetri made this fort out of Lincoln Logs.  I now have about 15 videos of it, and Demetri completely freaked out when anyone came near it because he didn't want it knocked down.

 As I was looking through my sister's blog, I noticed that mine lacks any visuals of any kind.  So, taking a cue from her, I actually relearned how to put pictures on my blog.  This is August in a nutshell.  I don't take a lot of pictures, but we try.  Maybe I'll be a little more diligent about getting them posted!

The value of blogs, books, "playing" on the internet all day, and chicken noodle soup

I told my mom she should start a blog.  Just because she knows so much.  I stumbled onto a blog when I was looking for something about vocal instruction on the net.  It was super awesome!  This lady, who is raising and homeschooling ten children, just talks about things she thinks/learns/knows, and she has inspired me to do better.  It’s nice when those who are a little older and wiser share with those of us trying to learn everything in a hurry.  I was thinking back to all the things my mom taught me, all the fun things we did.  I remember making gingerbread houses (both from graham crackers and from scratch), cooking all sorts of things, making our own ornaments, gardening, canning, sewing, piano lessons, singing, etc.  It just seems like she knows so much about everything!  I can’t say I do all those things with my kids, but when I read inspiring blogs from other moms, or think about my own childhood, I get up the motivation to do a craft or project that otherwise would not have been on my “to do” list.

Today has been one of those days where I didn’t backslide on the house too much, but definitely didn’t make any progress.  The kids got most of their schoolwork done, but we didn’t do anything spectacular.  What I did do was spend hours upon hours on the computer looking at curriculum, homeschooling support blogs, more resources, reviews, authors, etc.  Sometimes productivity doesn't exactly look productive.  It looks like mom sitting on the computer surfing the net.  I have a big long list of books I want to read (preferably before actually buying them), and a slightly shorter one of books I want for the kids this year.  But right now, I’m going to go eat chicken noodle soup (not homemade but helped along by adding stuff) and play Boggle :) (Demetri's spelling lesson for the day!).

A Happy Productive Day

We were very productive today.  Demetri usually gets up before me and does his scripture study, which he did today.  Then we have breakfast, and I get the kids started on writing practice.  Olie is tracing letters and numbers.  Both of them love to write letters and send and receive mail.  While they do schoolwork, I do the dishes and clean up the dining room and kitchen.  Then it’s math time.  We were done by 11:30, in time to go to the opening of the rec center, where the kids enjoyed the tour and the hot dogs.  We came home for naps and more school (reading and then math games on the computer for fun).  I had a headache and ended up taking a long nap; I still have a headache and I’m trying to decide what to do about it (Shawn doesn’t want me to take Advil!).  But even so, we did a lot!  It’s almost 9:00 and the kids are in bed, much of the house is clean, and all the dishes are done :).  We had an easy dinner (shepherd’s pie) and there was enough left over for Shawn’s lunch.  We had FHE, sang, read a story, practiced violin, and the kids were in bed almost on time.  Demetri begged to stay up and help me clean after I had the other kids in bed…which is the reason the living room is clean.  Some days absolutely nothing gets done and we struggle to get even one school subject completed.  This wasn’t one of those days. 

Why I Blog

Blogging is a form of procrastination for me.  I like to write, when I actually get around to it, and blogging is an excuse for not currently cleaning the kitchen, doing more laundry, or planning tomorrow’s cub scout activity.  Things you’ve been putting off become more stressful the longer you put them off, and blogging also relieves some of that stress (no idea why).  

I have a new bed.  I love, love, love this bed.  I’ve never been on one so soft.  I am beginning to appreciate that value is relative and subjective.  

I’m exhausted.  Homeschooling is a lot of work.  I don’t know how long we’ll do it, but I’d better get organized in a hurry if it’s going to be very long.  Shawn’s working on putting a curriculum together. 

We’ll be working on perfecting a crockpot chicken pot pie this week.  I have 3 recipes to try.

SO very elated about the new rec center opening next week.  Free gym and swimming pool a 2 minute drive away (the other one we’re allowed to use is 20 minutes each way).  Shawn has volunteered to watch the kids whenever I want to go…think he’s trying to tell me something?!  Anyway, he’s been really good about not bugging me to work out (I think he got too frustrated).  It’ll be a lot easier to go now that there’s one that close, and Shawn can take the boys swimming…if he’s that brave.  It’s hard for one adult to keep an eye on all of them in water.

Pinterest is interesting.  Not sure I have the time, but it sure is entertaining.  One more form of procrastination.