Sickies, sickies, GO AWAY!!!!!!

This round of the sickies started last Monday. John got sick in the middle of the night and it continued on into Tuesday. The poor little guy pretty much slept the 2 days away. After that he got a runny nose and a cough. For the most part his nose runs clear, but every now and then it has been green. EWWW! YUCK! The cough has gotten progressively worse over the last 2 days. Today he has just coughed and coughed and coughed and coughed. And CRIED!!! Oh my, it has me on the brink of insanity. I felt helpless. He woke up from his nap with a low temp so I gave him some Motrin. While that brought down the temp, it didn't help the crankies. He didn't know what he wanted. I took him to see daddy and daddy tried to listen to his lungs to see if he was wheezing, but he wasn't sure since he was so fussy. Daddy recommended a call to the doc. I dosed him with Tylenol w/ codeine and gave him a breathing treatment. He refused the bath. When I took his clothes off to get him ready for bed, you could see his chest sucking is with each breath. It is so heartbreaking. As of 11 pm, he is finally sleeping peacefully and currently not coughing.

Now in the middle of all of John's crankiness, Brandy complained of a stomach ache. Not 15 minutes later, she started vomiting. NOT AGAIN!!!!! So I kept running between rooms checking on the little ones. Brandy just had another episode and I got out the Phenergran suppositories. I hope they work for her. Last time she was sick, we wound up in the ER for severe dehydration. So right now she is in her bed watching 101 Dalmations and Ash has chosen to sleep on the couch tonight since they usually sleep together.

My plans for tomorrow are now all mixed up. It looks like Mark will take the older 2 and go to my niece's 1st Communion. I will take Ash later and go with her to the mass with the Archbishop in honor of her work on her religious award in girl scouts. Glad Mark is home tomorrow. That way at least one of us is there to participate in the activities.

Summer of Learning

I feel the educational system around here is highly lacking. I feel my kids are being slighted in their chance to love learning. My oldest is in 7th grade and the next is in 4th grade. My 7th grader has NEVER done a book report, a bug collection, a science fair project, or a research paper. The only difference for my 4th grader is she has done ONE book report. Are we short changing our kids because everything is focused on the standardized tests? How accurately do those test really show what they have learned? As you can tell this is really bothering me.

I don't want to ACTUALLY homeschool my kids, but I want them to have a more complete and well-rounded education. I do believe them attending public school does have its own merits - social, sports, clubs, etc. That and I don't believe I am actually qualified to teach them everything they need to know.

So I have come up with a plan. A summer of learning. A summer of FUN educational experiences for my family. The most surprising thing is they are excited about it. So you might ask, what do we have planned?

• ant farms
• bug collections
• Elvis (a trip to Graceland is planned)
• the history of Kentucky (vacation destination)
• caves and bats
• museums
• nature walks
• leaf collections
• photography
• book club
• research projects
• science projects
• raising butterflies

I have already given them their first project. What is something that was invented in Oklahoma? Why? Where? Who? When? I have given them a week. Ashleigh already has most of hers done.

They each have their own notebooks so they can keep their notes and I can write down each of their projects. I hope this instills a love of learning into each of them as they realize it can be fun to learn new things. If it goes well, we may well continue our projects through the school year.

Wish us luck on our new journey.

New friendships

So I mentioned in my previous post about meeting a lady who has 8 kids. Let me clarify a bit. I actually met my friend "J" 2 years ago at church. John was a newborn and she was expecting her 8th baby. I don't remember if she told me originally how many she had. I liked her immediately. She is such a wonderful person and so true to our faith. I saw her again last Sunday and chatted with her a few minutes and I got her number to call her.

After a few rounds of phone tag this week, I finally got to talk to her today. We talked for over an hour. She is even more incredible than I could have imagined. I have always been drawn to her even before I considered added more to our family. She is warm and wonderful person. Totally into her family and her church. I admire her so much. I asked her so many questions. Who woud have guessed that she lives in a house not much bigger than ours? Or that financially she is in the same place we are? Or that she orginally only wanted 4? Or that her family and friends have acted the same way towards her as she added on to her family as mine has?

We talked about shopping with kids. How much the older ones help out. How much her husband helps out. Her reasons for homeschooling. My reasons for not. Her two recent miscarriages. How her oldest boy and mine are so much alike. How we were worried about the older ones feeling neglected by having so many younger siblings.

Matter of fact I was so engrossed in our conversation that I missed my turn to go to the Arts Festival and wound up on the other side of town. LOL! So I turned around and got there and realized it was way too crowded for my likings so I took Brandy to the park near home instead.

I see this new friendship as a blessing. Even if we choose to not add more to our clan, I look forward t a blossoming friendship with her and her fmaily.

So it made me start thinking

I have 4 beautiful children. They are fairly well behaved for being children. I mean you can't expect little adults, right? Ever since John was born Mark and I have told everybody that we were done. We have 4, 2 of each. The numbers were perfect. We are done having babies. EXCEPT, I have never wanted to get Mark snipped. I have fought this with every fiber of my being for 2 years now. And really for no apparently good reason, because like I said, we are done.

Well now I have changed my mind. Why am I no longer satisfied with 4? This month I was 10 days late and it really made me start thinking (and unfortunately Mark as well). I'm not done. That's plain and simple to me. There have been a bunch of tears shed in these past several days. Less than 6 months ago, Mark was talking about another one. When I mentioned giving up trying to persue the cause of my aches and pains, Mark told me if I gave up, he'd go get snipped. That I promised him another baby someday.

It was so incredibly exciting to think I might be expecting again. Well for me anyway. Mark was stressed. He even told me he didn't want it. Which just stressed him out even more because he knew I did. We have NEVER been on opposite sides of a major issue before and didn't quite know what to do. We did a lot of talking and soul searching. We each made propositions to the other which the other didn't accept. We then started talking about compromise.

I need to put out here what his proposition to me was as it really played on me and he knew it would and then I will also put what mine was to him as well as the final compromise.

He told me if the pregnancy scare was a complete false alarm, that he would get me a horse when John went to school all day. That is still 3 years from now. I have been asking for a horse off and on since we got together. Can I trade a baby for a horse? Hmmmm? It really makes me think. Am I ready to move past diapers and nursing and sleepless nights and toddler tantrums?

Now my proposition to him was a bit, ok well a lot, more selfish on my part. I asked for 1 month. Unprotected. If it was meant to be, it would happen. If not, then we were done. Of course, Mark has a conscience and wouldn't do it. Said if he agreed then it was no longer and accident.

This is what the main crux of our conversation was over the past week. On Sunday, I met up with a lady that has 8 children. I love her to bits. She is so funny and warm and caring. Her kids are always well mannered and well kept. I got her number so I could call her and talk. I plan on doing just that today. Mark has been asking me how we can do it with 5. He needs to know families can and do survive. She sat with us for a few minutes and regaled us with funny stories of her youngest boys. Mark is still chuckling about it. I needed him to see that it will be fun to have more and not just a burden.

So the original compromise was to re-evaluate in 1 year as to if we wanted another. I guess that was more if he was willing to give me another. We settled on 6 months. I can do 6 months. I also know that I will get my way. He has never NOT given me something I wanted.

As for my horse, we will wait and see. When the time is right it will happen and that much I know. With or without my husband's proposition.

For now, the fat lady has sung.