Evening the Odds...and a Few Glimpses of Life...

Well...we have known for about 7 weeks what this little wonder is going to be....

but because I was only 13 weeks along when they told us, I wanted to make sure before we shared...although it would have been a pretty funny story if they had been wrong. But we had another ultrasound confirming the first.

Here are a few pictures to lend a few clues...the lovely box was sent full of gifts for comfort by a precious friend when I was ill, and now it holds special little items intended to bring to the hospital....

It looks as though we are going to be evening the odds around here, giving us an equal 4 boys, 4 girls(that is including ma and pa-no, we are not having triplets!). This new littlest life is a wee boy, giving us three girls and three boys. Never in my wildest, did I expect those fun ratios especially when we had 3 girls following our oldest son!! It will be pretty fun to see Noah and this little man become buds. Weird to think that my last two kiddos at home will be young men! But we are of course very excited about this upcoming addition.

For the first time, we are really unsure of a name, we always had a name picked way before we knew the sex of the baby, but this time proves to be a first. Although, he is affectionately known as "fireblast" around here due to Noah being convinced that, that is in fact a name the baby would be proud of!! So fireblast it is until we have settled on the "real" name.

I had a check up yesterday in which the Dr said, well it only took 21 weeks for you to finally look pregnant. Isn't it funny, how it seems to all of the sudden creep up on you! And when it does, your reflection kind of takes you by surprise -"oh wow, I guess I do look pregnant" and your husband laughs at you because it is nothing new to him. So, here is the new look at just about 22 weeks. 18 more weeks at this rate seems a little scary, but, I am savoring this last time and keeping a good sense of humor.

I am doing much better now, almost as normal as I will get! Struggles with migraines, nausea, and stamina are starting to fade. I am getting out of the house more often for the kiddos birthdays, quick runs to the store with Matt's help, and even a movie!! Mornings are tough, so church has been difficult, especially after getting all of the kids ready for Matt to take. I usually end up sick and have to wave them off. But, even that will change soon enough. I am a bit anxious about this weekend, Madison has her Olympics and I do not have any idea how I will be able to sit on bleachers that long in a hot gym-but the idea of missing them bothers me even more. I am praying for an extra dose of the Lord's strength for it and no passing out(which unfortunately I have done more than I would like to admit)!

I have been able to work on the store quite a bit, sitting at the sewing machine is very good for me right now-my mind is completely working overtime, but my body is not as cooperative-so I compromise. I have also been able to finish some projects around the house needing my attention. Here is a peek at a few...

Joslyn has been wanting a Bible cover for some time, so I was able to make one for her birthday. I really loved how it turned out!! It was a fun project to design.

We have not had a rocking chairs for years now, so we have been looking for a new one, but the budget was not cooperating;). We stopped in at a new thrift shop after dinner with Matt's folks when they were visiting. We were blessed to find a beautiful glider and ottoman for only $20. It is in perfect condition and was even the color wood we had been looking for! I was able to recover it with fabric I already had waiting for the perfect use!!

I used the original covers for the pattern.

And it turned out wonderful!! I am so excited about it!

I have been thankful for projects like this one, that were designed and ready to be sewn. Since it is hard for me to be on my feet for very long. All this one needed was the quilting to be done-what a relaxing project!! And it feels really good to finish all my unfinished projects!!

I had 3 bunting sets ready to sew from years ago, and was finally able to get them accomplished as well! Vintage linens-nothing better!!

Lots of fun new napkin sets added to the shop. Made especially for school lunches.

And lots of unfinished hats have finally been finished and added to the store-maybe a bit late for this year, but good none the less, to have them ready for next winter!

We are almost through all of the birthdays until May and July. Cole turned 14, Joslyn turned 10, Bell turned 7, me 36, and Matt-37 this week. We also celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary and went away for a few days-time in a peaceful cabin in the middle of the snowy woods of Door County-HEAVEN on earth and the perfect pace for me right now! Busy months, but full of blessings!

Like our 3+7 on the cake-we aren't so great on having the right candles-but hey, we can improvise! Joslyn, the Lord's gift of laughter to our family.

Hard to believe Cole is already 14!!! But he is a true joy!

Bell turned 7-she loved getting her ears pierced and picking out her very own guinee pig to take care of!

Time at the cabin to just sit and read!!

And time to sew a few dolls for Bell's birthday...

Madison continues to bless me with sweet little notes and pictures of encouragement, a true gift she has of encouragement!!

Bell is always hard at work with her creativeness. She bought a paper dolls book with some birthday money and makes the most beautiful clothing for them!

On one of my first outing after being well enough to go out, I picked up 5 of these brown paper construction rolls at Menards. One for each of the kids. They act as a sort of art journal for each of them. They have always loved when I had big rolls of shipping paper they could roll out on the floor to make murals, so this seemed even more perfect, giving them their own to create with when inspiration struck. I look forward to the sotries they will tell over time!

Ohhhh! And I almost forgot!! I hit the 10,000 sales mark in my shop this weekend!! What a fabulous adventure this has been!! I am having a celebration sale right now. You can use this coupon code "CELEBRATION35" to receive 35 % off of your entire order!! Thank you to each of you who have made my work so blessed and who have continued to encourage and inspire me daily! May the Lord bless the work of your hands!!

I Am Ready to Peek Out My Window...

It has been so long since I have connected with all of you! I hope each of you are doing really well and that the Lord is real and near to each of you as you are going through your days.

I am doing much better! I am now 17 weeks, feeling this little one move, and much stronger and healthier! I have been able to enjoy my family, participate again in life, and begin to help out in the normal day's activities. Food is no longer my enemy;)- I still have rough days and wrestle with nausea and an absence of an appetite, but all is so much more manageable!! Gaining my strength back from 2 months in bed and a lack of good nutrition has taken a bit longer than I had hoped for, and honestly, my patience wore thin at certain times. I have begun to roam outside my four walls with the help of Matt. A Quiet dinner date, short trips to the store for birthdays, and even 2 times journeying into a thrift store with Matt as backup when it became to much. Driving... not really there yet, although I need to drop off one of the kiddos tonight, which makes me nervous-weird isn't it-"do I still know how"?! In some ways, this slowwwww pace has forced me to learn some new things about priorities and gratitude for the strength granted by the Lord. I am free of feeling the "HAVE TOS" when I wake up and more thankful for the "CAN DOS" that have been accomplished by day's end. There is time to really enjoy cuddling with the little kiddos and talking with the older ones. Funny how the focus is now on how much joy I find in just giving the little ones a bath, or being able to do a load of laundry-grading the kids homework feels awesome and cleaning my frig out is monumental considering I could not even enter the kitchen just four weeks ago. My folks still come every other week or so, not so much to completely dig us out anymore, but more to simply help me maintain some tasks that are still difficult for me. The last 2 weeks I would have considered going to church, but my little ones have been sick(which really was a first this winter!!-very unusual but appreciated), and I am not sure I could handle the length of Matt's mornings there yet. It has seemed like such a long time since I have seen the faces of my church family except for those blessed souls who have dropped off meals and groceries for us!!

I have been able to experience the joy that comes after a very difficult trial, knowing that the Lord has once again walked with us through it. As we have felt a peace about this being our last child( something I had not yet experienced until now) - I have also experienced something else that is difficult to explain correctly. It is a humbling yet thrilling thing, knowing that our decision to have another babe despite the gravity of my pregnancies, is something that we can bring honor to Him for!! I did not think I could ever do this again-but I also did not feel a peace about finalizing having children-now I am so grateful we listened to the Holy Spirit-if I had turned my ear for practicality, common sense, fear of suffering and illness or the like-I would have never known this little one intended for us !! Life is a miraculous gift and there is no doubt that children are His blessing to us!! I feel like I have run a very long and difficult race (one at times I was very ready to quit), but the victory-the day this last little baby of ours is born-will be ever so sweet!! How grateful I am for each of our children-who are worth more than anything I can humanly give. I cannot even imagine what it will be like to hold this little one at the end of a 15 year journey I have been on with my best friend!! A little more than a year ago, a strange feeling swept over me when we all sat down to the dinner table-one that made me almost count my children, feeling as though someone was missing-imagine that;) Guess it was in the works by my Heavenly Father before we even had plans. Pretty fun story Matt and I have been a part of! Thank you Jesus!

We were quite surprised a few weeks ago during an ultrasound, to find out the sex of the baby!! I didn't even plan on asking since I was still so early in the pregnancy. But the tech was quite confident and asked if we wanted to know! So.... I will be sharing that news with you very soon! I attempted to pick up a little something for the baby that day on our way home to help us announce to the kiddos that we were having a "girl or boy", but I made it to the first isle and had to give that idea up-it was just too early for me to be doing much of anything, so with Matt's help we made our way back out to the car-crazy!!

I am slowly getting back to working more on the shop-not just keeping up with shipping(which I was unfortunately very sluggish at for a time) I have added a few things here and there, done a tiny bit of sewing but been very flooded with ideas and the desire to create-That is a real sign of mental healing for me! Creativity eludes me completely during my darkest times of the illness and with that, my mind just seems to function in a haze. So this has been a blessing, helping to motivate the stretching needed to heal in every way. The desire to create has been one of my most precious gifts from the Lord, I have felt.

Instead of major overhauls and projects that I accomplish in a day-"the old me"-I have become satisfied and content to slowly work on things needing attention, even if it takes me weeks! I have been slowly cleaning and working towards making our room ready for this new little one, and this morning, I was finally able to bring in the best part!! Matt brought down our antique cradle up in the attic for me. I cannot believe how peaceful it makes my room feel. The kiddos just seem to congregate around it gabbing about how they can't wait until the baby arrives. One of the hardest parts about being sick for so long and in bed, is that those 4 walls seem to close in on you. I could not even make my bed let alone clean or work on preparing the room for the baby. So when I began to start feeling better, the last place I wanted to be was in my bedroom again!! But time has helped and this past week I set my mind to working on small areas a little at a time. We switched out some dressers to make room for the cradle, I cleaned and dusted as Matt moved furniture, and sure enough, it came together. Last night, I actually wanted to curl up in my bed as though it was a breath of fresh air.

Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words-they have helped more than you know! Hopefully we can connect more often now! Blessings to each of you!!

A Little Update...

Let's see, I believe I left off on Monday of this past week. As many of you know, I am expecting my 6th wee one. I am one of the 2% of women who struggle with hyperemesis or HG during pregnancy. I wanted to share this journey with others since we have experienced it multiple times and help to bring a little understanding to it.

So, Monday, I had the PICC line placed to allow for 24 hour IV infusion along with meds. When Tuesday rolled around, I met one of my nurses and she walked us through a refresher on the infusion pump, all the meds, etc. But I had been having such pain in my chest that was finally determined to be coming from all the acid I had been vomiting. So as soon as my nurse had me hooked up, Matt and I headed to the cancer care clinic in town for some new meds. The cancer clinic is one of the rare group of DRs and nurses that work with these pumps, nausea, etc. I have been there in other pregnancies as well. My doctor wanted to try something new, they were adding Pepcid to my infusion. It is supposed to help with reducing the production of acid and help to digest food quickly. I was also receiving a pain shot since I could not hold down anything for pain orally. The nurse there was so sweet and helpful. I have been since then, adding the Pepcid everyday to the IV solution and this is the first time I have actually seen a real difference. I have gone 36 hours without vomiting-a true miracle. The zofran I have always taken for nausea never seemed to help a whole lot. And Reglan, another anti nausea med, I have a bed reaction to. But right now, I have 3 IV doses of zofran and 2 doses of Pepcid. I am also receiving vitamins through the IV solution-this is a first for me on that as well. All of them working together, seem to be helping. I have eaten some very small meals and held it down. Huge victory.

On Wednesday, when my nurse came, she noticed that there was some swelling in my right calf, and upon looking more closely, she thought it may be a blood clot, so we were out the door again to the hospital. Thankfully my team of nurses and DRs were able to have me seen as an outpatient instead of having to wait hours in the ER. I had a dopler test done on my leg and it showed no blood clot, Praise the Lord!! But by this time, with all of the chaos, my mom was on her way to stay with the kids and help me. Wednesday nights are pretty full evening for us, so this came as an upset that left us scrambling a bit to figure out how to make everything work. Some friends from church graciously took over Matt's responsibilities in youth group, another couple of friends came to pick up our older kids for church, and another friend was going to take our little ones for the night if need be. The hospital had us in and out though in time for Matt to get to youth group and mom arrived 20 minutes after he left for church to help me with the little ones.

Thursday, was the first day I was home all day. Mom got all of the kids except Cole packed up and was taking them home with her. Giving them a break from the chaos, giving me a chance to rest, and giving Cole a bit of a break as well from managing things around here when Matt was at work. I was really sick on Thursday though. And before Matt left for youth group that night, I just wept while we sat at the edge of our bed. I felt like I could not do it any longer. I had no relief the idea of months more of this was more than I could handle at that moment. So, as I wept, Matt prayed for relief, for healing, and for comfort. I had such pain from not eating that I couldn't take it anymore and had some mashed potatoes made. I slowly ate them while I was in bed and then fell asleep. I woke hours later feeling a bit better, and as time went on, I was surprised to see that my meal was staying with me. That night, I slept really good, and woke up feeling much much better. A step in a good direction.

So Friday, I managed to hold down some more potatoes and did not have any vomiting. We had to cal my nurse though because my PICC line was leaking. She came over and was able to get it working right again. There are so many little things that can go wrong with the PICC. My arm gets achy from it and itches horribly from the dressing. I have the dressing changed once a week and I remember how good it felt to have the old dressing pulled. It makes life a bit more difficult, hard to take showers because it cannot get wet. So preparing for a shower is a lot of work. It makes sleeping a bit difficult too. Last night, somehow I would my line around my neck while sleeping. Many nights we are awoken to the pump alarm going off because somehow I have kinked the line. I have a little pack that I carry around the IV solution in, which is much more convenient than having a big ol' IV pole to trip over. The kids are good about being careful not to tug on the line. It is almost discreet enough to go out in public with and not draw too much attention, which I am thankful for, although I do not have much energy to go out anymore.

By yesterday afternoon, I had started to bleed. It was crushing to have to call Matt at work to tell him. Because I had been feeling better and then this, I was sure that I had lost the baby. My team of Drs and nurses sure jumped to get me in and find out what was going on. My exam showed positive results but we still needed to have an ultrasound to make sure. The hospital was so busy, so the Dr seeing me, took Matt and I up to another dept that was closed for the weekend and did my ultrasound there. Sure enough, there was that tiny little heart just beating as strong as it could-amazing!! She let us just watch the baby for awhile. What relief!! Matt and I had braced for the worst. And my biggest fear was that I was afraid I could not try again after how hard this pregnancy had already been. It is one thing to be surprised and know you need to see something through because the Lord has handed you this amazing gift. But it is another to willingly walk into it knowing, fresh in your mind, the hardships that await you! Thank you Jesus for choosing what we did not have the strength to!! We are so excited!!

Some wonderful friends had dropped dinner off for Matt and Cole-what a blessing!! And I was so excited to see a big pan of assorted homemade Christmas cookies!!! I have been so bummed that I could not bake this Christmas for the kids. This is the first of Christmas goodies around here! It was so good to see Matt finally sit down and eat when we got home from the hospital. Cole helped out by signing for my medical supply delivery while we were gone. He let our friends in too.

So it is Saturday morning, I am doing alright, Matt is working on all the shipping for my shop and then we will try to get a handle on the house. I am hoping he and Cole can get out and do something together later too. Cole and Matt need a break big time. The rest of the kiddos will be coming home tomorrow. We miss them.We will work for one more week on school and then break until after the New Year.

To My Sweet Little One...

My Strong Little One Growing Safe Inside Me,

This has been a very long and difficult week. I have been seen either by the Doctor or the hospital at least once each day. Yesterday was the hardest day of them all. I thought I had lost you. I had been feeling much better for almost a day and then I started to bleed. I thought for sure with those two things, that you were gone. The hardest part was to tell your Daddy, he was crushed, he has been so excited about you, and doesn't mind a bit taking care of me until you arrive. Mama has such a wonderful team of doctors that worked quickly to see what was going on. One of the Doctors even brought us in to a part of the hospital that was closed for the weekend in order to find out if you were still growing safely. Jesus has just prepared everything we have needed before we even need it. The Dr made sure to let us know quickly how you were, and to our amazement, there was your tiny heart just beating away. She let us just watch you for awhile. What a miracle you are! What fun it will be to bring you to meet all of the doctors and nurses that have rallied around Dad and I during this time and have shown such compassion. We are blessed.

Your Grandma Lois rushed out Wednesday evening to help me and your brothers and sisters. She took all of them home with her for awhile except for Your oldest brother Cole, who wanted to stay and help me here. I am so thankful for her and all the help. Couldn't make it through without her. I miss them all though, but know they are doing well without having to worry through all of these adjustments being made here at home.

I can't wait until next Christmas, when you are here with us. What a celebration that will be!! With all my love sweet little one, Mama

Ain't This Just Grand...

So, humor is a gift, and it is one we put to great use around here starting about now in my pregnancy. I am attempting to accept, with grace, that this time is not going to be the exception we were hoping for. We make small adjustments, with laughter, to the fact that I am now, once again, the queen of puke(sorry if that offends you!) around here. The moments of humor are the moments that help us through the tears though-because make no mistake, this ain't grand at all;). I am beginning down the not being able to hold anything down, as a matter of fact it took me 4 tries this morning to keep just a few crackers down. Finally by noon, I could get out of bed today. And this is my wonderful menu plan now.

The altoids are not for nutrition;) they are to help my sinuses, because as you can imagine they take a good beating from losing all of my meals. The peppermint helps just a tad with nausea, but since I cannot keep any pain relievers down for head aches, this has to do.

We made a quick trip to the doctor this afternoon to have some things checked out and sure enough I have lost weight and my lab work is showing that I am already dehydrated. We will be picking up some meds for nausea and be back on Monday to see how I am doing. I cooked up a batch of beans today-plain old beans-and am trying to eat them-thanks to a friend, I read an article by a nutritionist, that claims beans will work against the nausea unlike the silly claims that B6, saltines, or anything else will somehow work miracles for women like me. We have tried it all, but we'll give this a shot too.

So, here we go, another trip down the hyperemesis train, I know it's not very glamorous, but it's real. And yes, it is worth it even when I have to say it in the middle of a puddle of my own tears!

My Creed For This Journey...

This

This morning I was awoken by a throbbing headache that made me arise with fear in my heart that already we were going to be starting the trial period of this pregnancy. I was overwhelmed by it. The day has a full schedule. Matt and I have a funeral this morning, and we are going as a family to help a friend to rake up her yard this afternoon. In all of that, I have orders to finish and send out, and school with the kiddos, so I was feeling the impossibility of the day. No one was up yet, except my husband, so I got myself dressed, grabbed my phone, the dog, and bundled up a bit to head out for a long walk. It was a chilly rainy morning but I knew that if I was going to get through it, I needed to spend some time in worship and prayer away for all of the things needing my attention. I set my pandora radio to the Selah station and was blessed with this song "Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer." The words to this hymn could not have been more pertinent to what I am preparing for. I just wept as I prayed this song to the Lord. But was so filled with His hope. Ellie just walked along peacefully next to me not even fazed by my overflow of emotion. Even she is a gift from the Lord during this time. It was one of those times with the Lord that lingers and that song will become my creed for this pregnancy. I wanted to share it with you to encourage you as I was.

I returned ready for the day and all that it holds. Noah asked me, Is your headache fixed?(he had awoken just as I walked out the door wondering where I was going and I told him I had a headache I needed to get rid of). And I was able to respond with a joyful yes! I just needed Jesus! I know the Lord is walking it with me, I know He concerns Himself with even the smallest of details in my life(wether it is helping me get through a headache or taking it away), and I know He is my biggest cheerleader(something that I have not always grasped). But the awesome thing is, I do not have to earn it and I do not have to do it alone-all my impossibilities are possible with Him.

So here is my creed!!

JESUS DRAW ME EVER NEARER

Jesus, draw me ever nearer

As I labor through the storm;

You have called me to this passage,

And I'll follow, though I'm worn.

May this journey bring a blessing.

May I rise on wings of faith;

And at the end of my heart's testing,

With Your likeness let me wake.

Jesus guide me through the tempest

Keep my spirit staid and sure;

When the midnight meets the morning,

Let me love You even more.

May this journey bring a blessing.

May I rise on wings of faith;

And at the end of my heart's testing,

With Your likeness let me wake.

Let the treasures of the trial

Form within me as I go -

And at the end of this long passage

Let me leave them at Your throne.

By Keith and Kristyn Getty~ Ireland.

I Must Count My Blessings....

As you may have read in one of my latest posts, we just found out this week that we are expecting our 6th child! A pure joy surprise!! As most of you may not know since I did not start blogging until after our 5th was born, is that my pregnancies are very difficult. I have Hyperemesis Gravidarum. There is still little known about this condition, but health care professions are starting to understand it better and at least begin to help treat it, unfortunately not cure it;(. In the simplest of terms, it is a never ceasing, very overwhelming version of morning sickness. That in itself is quite icky, but as you can imagine, after facing that for weeks to months without being able to hold down any food, the lack of nutrition and fluids become the real issue and can cause, if not treated, other complications.

I have had it with each pregnancy, and with each pregnancy, it gets worse. My pregnancy with Noah, the "morning sickness" lasted until 6 months. I had a surgery to place a PICC line to deliver 24 hour fluids and medication. Fortunately I was able to, with the medication, eat just enough to not need IV nutrition thankfully! I had a home nurse that checked in with me as often as needed to deal with the bandage changes from the PICC line, check on my vitals, deal with medication changes, check on Baby:) and teach me how to deal with changing fluids, meds, and I was even taught how to put a catheter in my leg each day when my PICC line had to be pulled for complications. I had 3 separate PICC lines placed during that pregnancy due to the risk for infection that they bring with them. Migraines unfortunately are a problem come about my 11th week, which I assume have something again to due with the hormone changes compounded with the lack of good nutrition. This always lands me at the Drs to get a shot to finally break the migraine.

I did not have good care with my first three, the diagnoses was not even whispered, I am sure because of insurance reasons. This ended up causing multiple hospitalizations due to dehydration. So, even though, it is difficult to go through all of the treatment, and it doesn't really relieve the most obvious miserable symptoms, it keeps us together as a family, the baby healthy, and hope for getting through the nine months.

Now, with that said, I know, many people wonder "why in the world would she go through that over and over" That is very simple-all I have to do is look at the miracles each of my children are, and there is no question of "is it worth it?"-IT IS!!

The other question might be, "why dwell on all that difficulty, especially when you are most likely about to relive it?" The answer to that is kind of why I am writing this post. Remembering those valleys in our lives in turn reminds us of how God was faithful to get us through it! I can also see fruits that came from those times, especially in my children. They learned at a young age the blessing of helping one another, as well as the gift of life-how precious it is-what it is worth! I am also going to hopefully face this time with a chance to hang on to the simple blessing each day has. Already, we have begun to prepare for the worst, but pray for best!! I want to share that journey with each of you!! This will probably change a lot about this blog. At some point, if I do in fact go through this illness again, the shop may have to take a back seat, creating all together probably will. We are usually in a very basic survival mode around here, because I am bed ridden for a portion of the pregnancy. What I am hoping is that I can, at that point, at least muster enough mental power to connect and share about God's faithfulness.

So with this in mind, I want to share a few praises...

As some of you know, I was diagnosed with a heart condition 3 months ago. The medication, unfortunately is not safe during pregnancy, but my Dr believes that my heart issue has resolved itself-WOW!!! We are in the waiting period of no medication to make sure-how cool is that!!! Only three months and I thought forever!!!

Matt and I went out last night to look for a few things that the kids needed, and I was feeling the countdown quite overwhelming and the need to take care of it before I physically can't. I needed winter boots for Madison and found a super good pair at the thrift shop for pennies-Thank you Jesus!! Along with a few other needed pieces of clothing for the other kiddos that Matt will not have to worry about.

I was able to cut Noah's hair today and feel confident he will not need to have it done at a barbers, it can be done at home making less errands for Matt who becomes Mr Mom.

I was able to start a special family cookbook for the kids, who already know how to cook quite well. But this specific book will have recipes that are easy, cost efficient, and ones they enjoy and will not have to spend time hunting down. I am hoping to make a few new recipes in the coming weeks to test before I can't be around food. I have a few funny titles I am working on for this family crisis cookbook-to be announced;)

Madison made breakfast this morning-homemade doughnuts-YUMMY!! And yep-the kitchen is a bit dark but that is changing-yeah!!

Matt and I ventured out to the Re Store today and were blessed to find the light we needed for our kitchen at a fraction of the cost we thought we would be spending. Instead of saving until after Christmas, and Matt having to wrestle with home repair while being Mr Mom, we were able to knock that big need off our list today(and bring a little light into the kitchen for making Thanksgiving dinner) I will share pics when it is installed

We picked up a mini vacuum for hard wood floors to help with upkeep since i will not be able to keep up daily with the beloved dog hair, glitter, crumbs-ya know!! I remember that being such a silly but seriously aggravating problem during my pregnancy with Noah-isn't that funny! But even Noah loves using this new little vacuum, so we are set;)

I was able to move our antique guest bed up into our living room yesterday to use as a daybed. It will be a blessing for me to be able to rest in bed while being out with the kiddos instead of isolated in my bedroom.

I finished 6 pairs of mittens for the shop( I won't overwhelm with pics of all of them) and enjoyed it as a gift to sit at the machine.

I am trying to enjoy the preparation instead of feeling the pressure. I am working to soak in the moments and give thanks. I am replacing thoughts of fear with thoughts of Hope from the Lord, and I am just a bit giddy about the miracle that I will feel a wee one in my belly again!

Someone is Missing....

The Lord is blessing us yet again!! We are expecting.....soon enough that sweet little chair will hold a sweet little baby! It has been quite a year for us and to end it with the news of a new little one just makes us squeal with excitement!! I actually took these photos without the kiddos knowing the news yet-they just thought I was taking photos for Christmas. Fortunately they were distracted enough with all the chaos not to notice the sweet little empty chair and baby booties. There was a lot of laughter and a little bit of tears(good ones) at dinner tonight when Matt and I spilled the news. With Noah being 4 1/2 now, this has been the longest span without a baby in our arms- and we were quite certain we were done. But I sure love the Lord's plans, they are always better than our own!!