Another week

Hello All,
In case you didn't realise, I also played sick most of yesterday, but enjoyed having my mother about for a few hours yesterday evening.

Today feels like a day that I night almost want to accomplish something, although I am not quite sure what yet. M aby I will call and annoy my manufactors to get the prototypes in time to shoot them and get them in the line sheets. Maby I'll annoy my Graphics person and get him working on some Round Belly labels.

I dreamed of a red haired baby last night with clear blue eyes. Although I am not sure who or what baby that is. Because I also dreamed Amy had twin boys. She better get well if she wants to manage twin boys :) (evil laugh)

Ewan decided to try his hand at being mean to other children this weekend. He ended up in his room and told to think about "being nice to other." It always seems to shock little children when they get punished for something they have never done before, But I just can't tollerate purposly being mean to others. Pushing and name calling is unacceptable. So he had a good little cry about it, then decided to come out and be nice.

Well, I don't know what else to say right now, but I'll talk more when I do.

Well, I actually got dressed and made breakfast this morning, so Now I am ready for a nap.

You know, there are a few problems with having baby who thinks his head should be up.
The breech baby practices to be a teenager by always kicking you in the butt. But that alone is not so bad. What is bad is that his head pushes upwards and gives your stomach no room to expand when you try to eat. So it feels like all the food is just piling up in your chest.

One would think nature would have designed it better, that at a time when you have to take in food for 2 people you have less space for it then you did at 1 person. And then the more calories your baby needs, the less and less space there is. I guess this is another proof that God is a man.

And why is it that men can only see one thing at a time? You know how tought it would be not to have the whole interconnectedness in view when you make decisions? Or even decide what's for breakfast (because you have to think about what's for dinner, how it impacts the grocery budget , trains the children to good nutrition, ect). You know one can really start feeling sorry for men when you think about how strangly thier head is wired.

he loves me!

he brought me home some OJ- not from concentrate. Of course it took him 2 hours to leave to get dinner. So I gave up and made my kiddeos vegatarian Bow Wow. Galen had 4 bowls.

Meanwhile to day was a day I'm glad I won't have to repeat. Not feeling well, nothing to eat and and not feeling well all played into that.

Also Ian enjoyed getting into my cupboard today. He poured the whole thing of vanilla into the can of dried onions. What do you do with vanilla flavored dry onions?

Then, even after I locked the kitchen he managed to reach my spice cupboard and rip up all the bags of my herbal tea.

But the cutest thing he did today . . . when my cell phone rang Ian answered my desk phone and said "Round Belly Clothing." That completely charmed Mike- and he had to wake me up from a nap to tell me about it. Other than that I joined the world of those who were to sick to go in today and skipped class.

Time for bed. Good night y'all

Good Theethers or An Ounce of Prevention

My children went to the dentist today, And I am very happy to announce that none of my kids show any signs of tooth decay. I felt so sorry for the family before us. They weren't even aware about the dental insurance mix up (back in 2001) that resulted in thier lack of coverage until they came to see the dentist today and between the 3 kids they were looking at somewhere in the $20000 range of repairs. One of the girls had 11 cavities and 4 absences and had to have some bridge work done. She was only as tall as Galen. I would guess maby 8 years old.

From what the dentists are now saying there are 2 good reasons why children need dental work 1. they don't brush or floss
2. they are allowed to drink pop, juice or other sugary, acidic liquids all day.

I am however feeling very fortunate that our efforts to get the kiddos to brush thier teeth every night and get them in for regular dental cleanings have saved us a lot of hassel and expense.

And am also very thankful for the wonderful insurance we have been given to cover all of the prevenative dental care, medical care and yearly eye exams. . Speaking of eye exams, The exams will be covered, but I am concerned about the new glasses that I'm going to have to get Galen (and Mike). I wish there was some prevenative work we could do there.

As for me. I still am fighting that cold. But luckily most of the coughing has changed to nose blowing instead. So now I have a very sore nose, but only a minorly sore throught and very little body racking coughing going on.

I am starting to get concerned over Galen's school work. They are starting into "busy work". They might just learn the hard way what happens if they don't keep Galen's mind active.

Galen, luckily is starting to pull out of his autsitic behavior, and acting more calm and more productivly creative. Last night he wanted to turn a cardboard spool (5 ft long) into a horse to ride. He got out a paper bag and I helped him stuff it, draw a face on it and attach it to the pole. I felt very good about his idea that would produce something creative rather than be destructive.

6 am and I'm up

Why am I up?
Because 6 people do not fit into my bed. At 2 this morning Ewan woke up with a coughing fit. So I let him sleep on our floor. Hten Galen joined us sometime in the night- and Galen cuddles so close he sqishes my belly, and makes it so I can't roll over. So at 6 am i got up to go potty and Ian saw the light. So he woke up to join us.

so becasue I have no place to sleep, I quess I will wait until the others are awake, and then I will sleep.

I need a mom

Can you come and play mom for me? Take care of the house and kids and tuck me into bed?

Do days happen when Moms are out of it?

What happens when a week with no laundry is dirrectly followed by a week with severe coughing (for the one that does the laundry and a few kiddlets)?

You get a alot of people asking for clothes. Poor Ewan. His coughing made him throw up on his clothes this morning. Needless to say he is not going to preschool today. Galen didn't want to go to school either. He spent so long getting dressed that he didn't have time to eat any of the pancakes he requested for breakfast.

Can you beilive it? I only made a single batch of pancakes for breakfast and most of them i had to put in the fridge. That is how we are doing today.

So anyways, I think I might give up trying to type in between coughing and go get some rest.

Sunday Night

and all the kids are in bed. It feels like I should go to bed too.

Well, we have the colds for the season taking up residence with us. Ewan was too sick to go to church today, adn Galen, Ian and I all had the cough too. It isn't overally pleasent, but not a wipeout either. Even so I am sure we can weather these colds without much problem. Sleep and good food are what's needed.

So I think I'l get to the sleep part and pray the good food will take care of it'sself. (actually we had some great chicken noodle soup for dinner, and whole wheat biscuits. Of course Ewan didn't feel like eating anything. Tomarrow Mike will be going to the store to pick up some more organic oranges to act as a strong and healthy vitamin C source, and

I hate having the hicups when I'm pregnant, it feels like everything is going to come up with every hicup.

Another day in our house . . .

We had the kids tucked in bed by 6:30 this evening. They were so fussy because they stayed up late last night That I didn't even realize how early we put them down. Then Ewan woke up crying of monsters and coughing. so now he is playing with Galen. But at least they are in thier bedroom, adn know that if we have to see or deal with them again that they will be seperated with lights out.

Meanwhile we had a busy day of people visiting our house. We had our ho use cleaner- God bless her sole. She is never itimidated by what my kids have doen in the past week and just gets to work without complaint. Today she had to sweep out the catfood from Ewan's room. (luckily we only buy dry cat food). Then I had an old lady over wanting to buy some of my organic fabric. Luckily I got warning this time and had it all ready for her.

Then one of my sewers came. And I recieved finshed goods, paid for them and handed her a whole course worth of marketing books.

By the time people stopped comming and going it was time to start dinner already. So I was running tired having missed most of my nap today and when the sun goes down just start assuming it is bed time for anyone who needs my attentions.

I am now up to a half hour of prenatal yoga a night. And I try to do at least 15 minutes worth even on days when I have been running all day.

What other things can my scattered brain think of right now? Why isn't there anything decent on TV on a saturday evening? And how come it just happenes to be the one day this week we don't have any movie rentals hanging around the house? maby I'll dratg Mike upstairs to watch something anyways.

And by the way . . . buy organic. We now have awsomely professional sheets for sale at www.roundbelly.com

Hi Y'all

Today I been getting more used to the idea of my baby being a boy. We had just assumed that it was a girl because of things we had learned earlier. But the baby boy is bouncy and happy. I think he's probaby also happy for finally being acknowledged for being a boy, and loved anyways.

We have a cute ultrasound picture of his perfect feet. Baby feet are always so lovely. They start to loose thier lovelyness somewhere in toddlerhood.

Galen is still off the walls today. Today he left red footprints all over the bathroom wall. It was a good thing I knew it was a mushed crayon or chalk before I walked in there, or it could have looked like something out of a horror film. So there goes another new crayon. Crayons never seem to have a chance to get old around here.

And Amy I understand your excerise in fustration I felt that same way this afternoon when I was trying to order electricity for our booth at the show. They forgot to put the link on line, so i called one of the services companies and they were able to give me a phone number for the people that do the electric. So I called the number- automatted response that told me to go to the website. So I went to the website, only the website was a search engine! So this went back and forth for a while, never talking to a real person and never getting the electricity ordered. i might have to wait until we are at the show to order the electricty- but what will the people do who have to store icecream?

On wensday I was so proud at having had a mostly clean house all week. Today I am so glad my house cleaner comes tomarrow. I really need her help now.

Anyways, that is what I know. Have a good one- and eat a brownie for me :)

This is a test, this is only a test

This is a test of the Galen Autism connection. If this was the actual event there would be a constant siren sound from Galen and a lot of strange and hyper behavior. (Like Galen grabbing the 24 pack of toliet paper and singing wildely as he happily flings and unrolls it through out the house)

We have learned through an unexpected means that there is no doubt to the dairy connection to Galen's autism. Yesterday after the ultrasound Mike and I brought home 2 chicago style pizzas, and we had pizza for Lunch adn dinner, then I went grocery shopping and bought some cheerios. Galen had 3 b owls of cheerios with milk for breakfast and another few for lunch. His behavior this afternoon had prooved to us why we have tried to keep him on a low dairy diet. I wonder how long this will take to wear off? I wonder how much longer we can survive it?

Cravings,

I have now identified a few cravings. . .
Olives- must be for the fat
pickles- first time I've craved pickles in a pregnancy (but second time in this one)
Cheerios- weird huh, I think it must be for the iron, and after having 2 bowls with rasions last night- my kids have been eating bowls and bowls of them for breafast and lunch today.
A strawberry, chocolate brownie blizzard but Dairy Queen doesn't open for another week!

Let's see I have now gained 8 pounds. 1 of which is baby himself. Estimated at 1 pound already when most kids his age are only about 12-13 ounces. But I always grow them bigger then average. He also has a bi gger stomach than normal (about 1 week ahead of the rest of him) but I just figure he takes after Ian!

Let's see what else did I forget to tell you yesterday? That the placenta is on top like and umbrella and the child is bungy jumping from it. Maby we need to rethink the ceieling fans.

After my gastric system reacting to the 2 meals of pizza in a row yesterday . . . I am almost feeling better, but very hungery only I don't know what I can eat without feeling sick.

Well, it looks like . .

We have a very heathly, very beautiful, very active little boy. Of course, the final say is never given until the newborn cries.

The placenta is on top of the uterus and the boy is bungy jumping. Currently his head is up, but he moves alot and the position the kid is in at 22 weeks will still change about 5000 times each day. And that's why we call him squiggly.

I was suprised at how through the ultrasound was and how many different developmental problems they specifically look for, but of course everything is perfect on this kid. So squiggly he will remain until he is given his formal name at birth. Mike and do have one.

In other words: we only have to paint 2 bedrooms this summer instead of three. If we can talk Galen and Ewan into sharing a room then squiggly and Ian can share the nursery. And the nursery is going to be yellow, but we already decided on that before we knew the sex. So I guess I have to revamp my layette to have boy summer stuff. I already have a layette of girl summer stuff and of boy's winter, but I've never had a boy summer. But I think it will mostly contain recieving blankets, Eco Sprout T shirts and diapers :)

ps- mom I placed the order for the private label eco sprout T's yesterday. :)

Today is a big day

for those of us in the business of growing my baby. I have the ultrasound at 10am. so do not call me until afternoon, if I did not call you or post by then.We hope to find a very healthy and happy baby, who is right on scheduel for development and who will be moving away.

Meanwhile, I will thank my wonderful babysitter before hand, knowing that she does this out of the greatness of her heart. (and that she will do a great job, becasue she has no lack of experience) :)

Meanwhile, while waiting for dinner to cook last night, I noticed the frigde was almost completely empty (which didn't bother me because today is payday and grocery day) so I scrubbed it and made it sparkle so I could go shopping and put new food in a clean fridge. It is always nice to have something clean for a few minutes. (then last night i cleaned the living room so the babysitter could actualy walk and sit down).

have a great day! I sure hope too.

If you are not close to the Lord at the time of the death of your child, then it is its job, and it will rip your heart out and leave you completely hollow inside. So that when all your internal searching comes up empty, that you may humble yourself and turn towards Christ, and come to Christ, until all your sorrows becomes joy and all your pain turns to love.

But meanwhile you feel your heart ripped out so literally that you feel you could look down and see it beating in your hands. What do you do when your heart is in your hands, and there is nothing left inside you? There is no desire to put the heart back in. And you can’t toss it away. So you give it away. And the Shepard’s hands so gently receive it from you. He holds it so carefully, and so sure, as he has handled millions of hearts before yours. He heals it and purifies it. And your heart is malleable in his hands, and he makes of it what he will.

Found it!

We finally found what we have been looking for! The cause of that wet basement floor. It turns out when the wash machine is draining all the water comes up out of the floors drain and gets the whole floor soaked.

The only problem is, I don't know what to do about it. Do we get the drain snaked? and get it declogged. probably, anyways until we get the plumber back we will have a 1/2load of towells sitting 1/2 way washed in the washer. Fun, but what else can you do with half washed towells if you don't want your whole floor wet again?

Friday Night

Well, I was just trying to figure out what to do next, then I realized it was 10pm already, which means I really don't have to find anything to do before going to bed.

Time today has not been a constant. This morning I was accomplishing a lot of things in no time, then in what felt like 3 minutes, a whole hour was passed. That kind of drag and makeup has happened too often lately. Do you think inconsistant time has anything to do with global warming or other enviromental impacts?

We had a plumber out today. And he helped us find a leak at the edge of a bathtub that was leaking into the basment. I made sure to fix that one tonight. The other one is still a mystery. Our wet basement floor in the laundry room seems to have no obvious cause. So today I put all of the clean clothes away, then I dryied the w hole floor and have been watching it ever since to see when and how is gets wets. So far it has remained dry. So kids taking baths and dishwashers and sinks and teethbrushing have no effect on it. Tomarrow I will run a load of laundry and see if that has an effect on it. Then I will wait and see if the water softerner recharging has a link to it.

Anyways, I hate plumbing mysteries. OF course, it could also be ground water leaking up, but it seems unlikely in our location. However, if everything in the house is ruled out, that would probably be the only thing left. So the mystery continues. . . until we walk into the issue, and get wet feet again!

ok, so I need to read Galen a story before putting him down, good night!

Happy Blog!

In a few minutes that I have to sit here, I am going to spend the time to thank everyone who as part of my life yesterday.

First of all Mom. Thank You Mom, you did an amazing job spoiling the kids in the 3 hours you watched them. Last night they all brushed thier teeth with no complaints. And Mike and I really enjoyed our time and activities together and are looking forward to going back and getting the rest of the sons sealed to thier famlies :) Then We'll be after your names!

Thank You Joanne. I always love your class as a spiritual up lift and spiriutal food for thought. I also need to give you a great big thank you for watching my kids last Saturday. I am so glad you had fun together. How do you make a big batch of waffles?

Thank you Amber, you thoughtful gifts and cards help to brigten the day.

Thank you Amy, for expressing for us some of our feeling on Cat and Trish. And how helpless we feel, because we can not get her to see what she is doing or even to show up.

Thank you kiddlets for handeling the changes in routine and going to bed with out complaint. Thank you Mikie, for being with me. I love having you there and present (in mind).

Thank you God for allowing a wonderful day to happen in the midsts of a busy life.

What a day mom had

I had a day. Of course, days are had, weather we are had or not. But after 2 Dr Appoints, shipping, cleaning and just plain life. I am ready to relax. But am I going to? Of course not. First I am going to spend 15 minutes doing some prenatal yoga to strengthen adn tone a body that seems content to spend all day in bed.

I haven't even had time to day to feel my baby move much. That is probably becasue I haven't been conscience and in one place for more than 2 minutes. The baby was sure squiggly at the dentists office the other morning though. I think she liked the music and was squiggling to it. We may have another dancer on our hands.

Next week is our big ultrsound. I'm slightly aprehensive about it, but at least I know this time the kid is squiggly which should therefore mean alive and healthy. Whoa, I have to update my website again, just sold out of something. Well, gotta go. Mom's comming tonight, adn we all know what that means!

Is Ewan trying to be a teenager?

If you take his words out of context he could be. After talking my ear off since the moment he woke up, he finally said "Mom, I don't want to talk with you."

"Then, shut up." I replied

"Don't you mean 'shut down?'" he asked.

OF course, he never actually stopped talking.

We had a weekend

First of all, I made over $600 in sales this weekend. (Fri-Sat) Most of it was Round Belly brand too!

Then, of course, I had my birthday, and we bought a new toliet. We are still working on installing it. I thougt if we managed that this weekend then I could have named a post "The Super Toliet Bowl." But alas, the rusted bolts got the best of me, and the old toliet is still sitting there.

And our kids were babysat so Mike and I didn't have to worry about them for hours at a time! and thier sitter said "Galen behaved with perfect manors the whole time." That is an increadble statement for my Galen, but he made up for it yesterday.

Yesterday was a day and a half. We had a few business visitors, ones who almost kinda wanted to learn about organic, but didn't want to listen to a thing I said. They also thought that I'd be willing to give them the patterns for my new cute designs (Eco Sprout signature line). Man, if I wasn't trying to be nice, I would have laughed in thier faces. And then to top it off, they wanted to buy a few things for thier grandchildren at cost, because they couldn't resell it at a full markup. (but becasue they wanted to give it to thier grandchildren, it is concidered retail, not wholesale, and even so I still need to make something off of it, or I'll just give it to my kids).

Anyways, I felt quite used and abused by the time they left. And swore that I wouldn't waste another Sunday on a few old women who only want organic because it's a buzz word, adn have no understanding of the costs involved.

Then to get them out of here, i told them that I'd add them to the wholesale mailing lists. I didn't tell them that our wholesale minium was $200, and that to do it legally we need thier tax numbers, but that will all be on the wholesale information sheets, they will get sent with the line sheets.

Then it took me a while to cool down enought to nap. After nap we had dinner and our family party of cake and icecream. Tonight we will serve the rest of the cake and icecream as a Family Home Evening treat.

Galen had a hard time understanding that there were older women here who had no interest in him. Then Galen started acting up to try to get the attentions he was not recieving. He continued with his attention getting activites for the rest of the day. I kind felt sorry for him and tried to give him extra love. (in between the screams of "why did you empty 3 glue bottles on to my couch?" and "leave your brother alone!.")

Today, however has been quieter. I went back to bed this morning to try to fight a sinus infection before it becomes a problem, then I went to the dentist, who was very suprised that my teeth had no discoloration or build up, she had to check 3 times! Mike and I are wondering if switching to the organic toothpaste had anything to do with that.

Well, I am running out of things I wish to say. So have a good day!

Somebody loved me enough to . . .

send bright flowers

buy me 6 dark chocolate bars

pay for a new toliet

babysit my children (for 6 hours!)

take me to lunch

wish me happy birthday by email

Pillow Talk

What strange euphemisms do you come up with to get things going in bed?

and please post annonomously- we don't want to envision anything!

For Susan

Whole wheat biscuits:

Mix:
2 cups whole wheat flour (I prefer fresh ground)
1 heaping Tb baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
then add:
3Tbs olive oil
3/4 cup water

Need for about 3 minutes, roll out and cut, bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

varriations:

breakfast biscuits:

add to dry mix:
2 TBs brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
then add to wet:
1 Tbs vanilla
1/2 cup rasions

Special Sunday Biscuits:

add to dry ingredents:
2 Tbs herbs ( parsley, rosemary, Thyme)
add to wet ingredents:
1/2 cup shredded cheese

I wonder if Squiggily will be as boney as Galen is? Galen was boney in the womb, in fact we always knew what part of him we were tickling. Mostly what I feel of Squiggily is her bones. They come to the surface and like to stick out, adn be rubbed.

busy yesterday

I didn't realize that I didn't write yesterday, until I just looked. I must have been busy, but then paydays around here are always busy for me. Because I have to do everythign from ballance the budget to the grocery shopping for 2 weeks, (plus the usual business, and household stuff).

And now it feels like nap time.

Using my noodle

Well, I am not as wiped today, and squiggly has been active, even while I've been moving. Galen and I just enjoyed reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. Dr. Suess does such a good job at making books easy to read for begainers. (yeah, too bad learning to spell is not as easy as reading).

Today we had some absolutely excellent chicken noodle soup, with homemade noodles and a wonderful golden broth. Of course, I made the noodles when both the older boys were at school and them hung them to dry as I went and played taxi. By the time I time I remembered to check the noodles Ewan had eaten half of them right off the drying rack. The kids enjoyed dropping the noodles into the soup.

Then I worked on a few ad things for Round Belly, and did many mommy chores like dishes, laundry, changing diapers, talking to teachers, and schedueling dentists.

OverallI have enjoyed being able to move without every muscle proteseting, and look forward to getting things done. Does anybody want to take me grocery shopping tomarro? Or plan my menu to fit into my grocery budget?