What an incredible Thankgiving!!

One of my good friends, who was due with baby #6 10 days ago, finally had her baby....today!! She had asked me to basically be her doula and help her through her home birth.

The funny thing was, she and I had talked on Monday. I told her we needed to have a "plan B" in case he decided to come on Thanksgiving. Her family was supposed to join my family here for Thanksgiving dinner. This morning I woke up just after 5:00 and had barely started getting the butter ready so I could put the stuffing together. Five minutes later, my friend's hubby called. I knew this was it!

I got there about an hour later. Let me tell ya...this was my first home birth to attend and very definitely my first au'natural birth to witness up close and personal. Last night when I had the feeling the baby would come today, I sent a prayer up and asked my great grandmother, who was a midwife in the early 1900's and delivered hundreds of babies, to somehow be with me and show me what to do. It was nice to think of it that way, not ever having really helped someone through labor.

The midwife was amazing, I think I would consider using her if I ever have the opportunity again. She's been delivering babies for 23 years and I think her numbers are close to 1000 babies. It was such an intense time. The baby was posterior until right at the end when he finally flipped. I know that added to her already excruciating pain. My arms hurt from holding back my friend's leg and giving her pressure in the back (not at the same time, mind you!), but it was SO worth it.

To watch little Matthew come into this world was incredible and I feel so blessed and honored to have been a part of it. We have so much to be thankful for today. My friend and her baby are both doing wonderfully, we couldn't have asked for more!

The midwife said that I have a "knack" for being a birth assistant. I thought that was really cool since I'd never done anything like it before in my life. All I did was do what felt natural. I'm sure my Great-grandma was there guiding me.

By the way...he was 7 lbs 13 oz, 20 1/2 inches, with apgars of 9 and 10. Auntie Amanda is SO proud.

Due to this exciting event, we're having our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. The older couple that we had also invited took care of my DH and girls today. They brought over the ham that they'd planned to provide, along with several side dishes. My friend's family will be coming tomorrow too, but I think she'll be staying home to rest with the baby. It was funny at their house everything was all set out in the kitchen to prepare and bring over today, so I guess it will just have to keep until tomorrow. My in-laws will also be joining us.

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What I need to do today....

I'm writing this post as a little bit of accountability for myself. Hopefully by doing so, I will complete more of what I need to do to get ready for Thanksgiving. As usual, I'm hosting the big dinner. I don't even remember the last time we went somewhere else, where I only had to worry about bringing in some food and NOT having to make sure the house is spotless for our guests to come into. But, as it is, I'm the host most years and obviously like to clean before company. So....here is what I can think of that needs to be done today:

1. All three bathrooms cleaned. Launder the towels and rugs.

2. Living room straightened, dusted and vacuumed. Note to self: Put away all scented candles or scentsy pots so as not to make my mother in law go into a coughing fit or asthma.


3. All tile vacuumed and mopped. Emily did it on Monday but it needs going over again.

4. Get Jason to finally change the burnt out light in the refrigerator. Its really dark in there and I can't see what's in the back. I'm sure somethings got mold. (science project, anyone?) Need to make room for all the food (leftovers!) that will be coming in soon by clearing out the old leftovers.

5. Make sure the school room and play room are in decent order, including vacuumed.

6. Get the back porch swept off and cleaned up. Jason's been doing an addition to the bunny cage and there is saw dust all over.

7. Vacuum the stairs.

8. Have the girls clean up their own rooms, including vacuumed.

9. Take Grandma M. to a hair cut appointment with my stylist.

10. Grocery shop for any last minute things I may have forgotten.

That should be a good start anyway. I'm sure in between it will be meals, dishes, computer and hopefully some schooltime!

~a dad, a mom & three daughters~

Sisterly Love!

A sampling of our newest family photos!

I am so pleased with how these turned out! My friend has become our family photographer and I think she does such a fabulous job! If any of you in our area would like her information to schedule your own photography session, I would be happy to put you in contact with her. I know she's trying to get the next couple of weeks scheduled out so people can get things done for Christmas. She is very reasonable!

Now I get the joy of selecting which picture(s) to use on our 2008 Christmas cards!

Chasing ducks!

We went for family pictures the other day, and much to my surpise, there was a pretty little pond at this park we went to. Our photographer had suggested this location and we'd never been there bef0re. Sarah wa thrilled to have some ducks to chase around. We'll definitely have to go back with some old bread to fee them. What a beautiful little tucked away place! :-)

The ducks followed them right over when they were getting their pictures taken! They must be really accustomed to people!

So proud of our scholar!

What can I say? I'm so darn proud of Maegan! It has been really neat to see how she's blossomed as a young lady and taken off into her Scholar Phase. Its true what Oliver and Rachel Demille said about just "trusting the process". When we first started homeschooling when she was barely nine, it was hard to imagine how things would look a few years down the road. We went from a child that had started to develop a hate of learning by the third grade to now being a girl who truly studies for several hours a day on her own! Its going to be neat to see what the next few years bring, and even more studying and in-depth education!

Here are a couple of her recent projects and accomplishments.

First, she did a project for her Young Women In Excellence program, to learn more cooking skills. She made a display of several meals that she'd prepared while working on her goal. It was a fun thing for her and of course we'll continue to work together on more cooking skills.

Second, yesterday was her presentation in the Key of Liberty class at the Commonwealth school. Her project was about the French and Indian War. I wish I could have seen her presentation, but, she said she'd be more nervous with me there and "wanted to do it independently, mom!" So I had to respect that and let her do it without me there. Its been great to see her confidence in her public speaking skills grow!

She is nearly done with semester one at the Commonwealth. This semester she is taking both the Key of Liberty class, as well as Shakespeare. Happily, she is almost through with the requirements for these classes. She's got a few more Shakespeare plays to watch (or read or listen to!) to achieve her status as "queen" by the time they have their royal banquet. She also needs to focus now on finishing memorizing the Declaration of Independence for Key of Liberty. This week she finally completed what she considers to be the worst book ever written on George Washington. He is a man she has grown to love and admire...yet reading this one particular book was painful for her. B-O-R-I-N-G!!! But, she got through it and probably learned a few things too. I'm excited to see what next semester brings for her, including participating in the play!

We hosted our homeschool group's November activity!

November was our month to host our little homeschool group's activity. We have 4-5 families that meet with us once a month to do something fun---a field trip, project, activities, etc. Each year its been a little different: sometimes we met once a week or twice a month. This year we all decided that once a month would be a good since we have so many other activities going on in our own families.

Anyway...last November we did a full fledged Thanksgiving dinner here. Not feeling up for that again this year, I chose some simple activities. First we read a few children's Thanksgiving books. Then we made Thanksgiving "thankful" chains. The kids got strips of construction paper and wrote things they are thankful for, then attached it to a cute Thanksgiving poem. After that, we played Thanksgiving bingo. The kids played for a while and the moms visited (of course!), and then we ate pumpkin pie with whipped cream! YUM!

I only got one picture of our afternoon to share, however!
(By the way, this is only some of the kids. The older kids went off on a hike by themselves...these things are too juvenile for them, I guess!)

Storytime at the library!

A friend of mine reminded me tonight that I really need to update my blog. I guess she's right. It's been a few weeks and I have some stuff to add!

So, let me start my November updates with Sarah and story time at our local library! I recently decided that Sarah needed a little something that is just hers. Maegan and Emily have a weekly piano lesson for an hour. Usually I run some errands during that time, and Sarah isn't too thrilled. I discovered that the library has a story time with our favorite library lady right during the hour of piano lessons. Perfect! Its free! Its educational! Its fun! Its social! We've been going there for a few weeks and I think Sarah is really enjoying it. Some of our homeschool friends have been going to this same story time for a while, so we get to see them too. :-)

Sarah is on the left side in the pink jacket.

Here they are doing a silly song and dancing around with bean bags! What fun!