Baby Eliza

My youngest, Eliza, has some health issues. We have been to a few doctors and finally got to see a 'real' doctor. (I call him a real doctor because he knows what he's doing! Never once did we get an "I don't know" for an answer.) Dr. Wilson sent us to Children's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. That's where he is from. There isn't a better children's hospital around here. I wish we could go there for anything a child needs.
Sunday night, Eliza and I stayed at the Children's Carolyn Scott Rainbow House. What a wonderful service they have there!! We would have had to leave at 3:30am or before to get to the hospital on time or sleep in the van if it weren't for them. I am so thankful they are there for families of sick kids. She's sleeping FINALLY at 2 am Sunday night.Monday morning we were at Children's Hospital at 7am. We had to keep her distracted from wanting to eat. She was very patient and cooperative. She had a bronchoscopy scope done.
Through out the day we had other various x-rays and ultrasound done on her chest and abdomen. All looked good. No tumors. All of her organs are good and working. Good news!!

She was happy and content to just lay in the bed for awhile hooked up to the monitors. Monday night we did the sleep study for her breathing, heart, lungs, etc. That came out fairly well. Her heart beats good and her oxygen level stayed within the normal range for the most part. Her chest/abdomen don't rise and fall in sync.Tuesday she had an upper GI done. They had to put the tube in her nose because she wouldn't drink the stuff from a bottle. She loudly objected to that. Then later in the afternoon she had another follow up test done and a swet test. When they wrapped her arms in the green stuff for the test, she couldn't figure out what was going on with her arms. She didn't fuss a bit. It was cute to see her be so curious about it.
We left Children's about 3 on Tuesday after everything was done and the doctor got all of his info. Eliza has a breathing problem called stridor and moderate laryngomalacia, acrocyanosis/circumoral cyanosis. We have to watch her carefully and if it becomes severe, we will talk to an ENT about the surgery. For now, we will continue to watch it carefully.
She is a very tiny girl. Only weighting 10 lbs. We will have the results of all of the blood tests ordered in a few weeks.

Is it really the middle of June already???

I got a new faucet!! The old one wash short and broke more than a year ago. We've had to wrap a towel around the base to prevent anyone from taking an accidental hot shower everytime the water was turned on. So Nate was playing with it and broke it off completely the other day! YAYAYAYAY! Which meant I got a new faucet. A tall one this time. Even came with a new sprayer. I have to remember it's there because the other one broke a couple of years ago and never got fixed. See a pattern here? It's YEARS before anything gets done around here.

So Katie then decided to make pancakes in the skillet. I don't have a frying pan anymore. But this works good. She made them from start to finish all by herself. Burnt her arm in one little spot, but it's healed great! And we can was the skillet IN the sink now!!

Do you need a game for the car? Are your kids driving you nuts today? Have you seen one of these before? Our Chiropractor has one in his office. It's probably the best kid invention in the world! Take 1 washed/dryed out soda bottle. Fill it with little things like a penny, nickel, button, paper clip, pop cap, screw, bolt, tac, broken crayon, small eraser, etc. I added 14 things to ours. Then fill it to the line or so with birdseed. This one is a 1 liter bottle. 20 or 12 oz bottles work as well. Glue the lid shut with some super glue. A presto! Your kids should stay busy for awhile trying to find things! Mine were working together to try and find everything. The only thing I heard for 1/2 an hour was "oooh! there is X or X" It was reletively quiet in my house!

We spent all of last week at VBS. Jessica was soo excited after day 2, I took her picture to calm her down for a few mintues. HA!

Now that it's June....it's time to think about the Christmas gift to buy for the Christmas challenge. I have 1/2 of it done. Walmart has a clearance table of pencils, pencil cases, cute erasers and such. I got things for 3 of the kids. I will get the others this weekend. Hopefully they are still there!! For about $3 each I had pencils and matching erasers in a pencil case.

Tales from supermom #4

Today was our last MOPS for the season. I love the second Wednesday of the month! For the summer, I will look forward to Tuesday mornings. I bought a new stroller just for the occasion.
K and A leave for Disney tonight. My parents are going down with them to my sisters house. So lucky they are! I might pack myself in a bag and go too. What should the rest of us do while they're off having fun?

Eliza was singing to me. She had a rough rough start today. I almost took her to the hospital. But she pulled out of it. I love when she sings to me. She's my lady bug.
The house was quiet. I heard water running. hhmmm...No boy to be found. He was making a muddy mess in the bathroom. Apparently someone had already began the mess on the mirror. I'm certain I will be the one to clean it up later.

I hear Nate coming in the yard. I forgot to set out a bowl of chilli to cool. Best do that before I show him that I bought a stroller today. :-) The kids and I will get lots of use out of it this summer though.

Tales from supermom #3

A week ago, a good friend gave us two school desks. My kids are loving them! (and they aren't fighting over them either!) Garrit got to be the first to try this one out for size. He colored on his papers for a good 1/2 hour that night. Sure was quieter around here!


















Isabelle got to take ballet/tap dance lessons this year. She was adorable in her tutu for the recital. If I knew how to put her video up, I would. But I haven't mastered that yet.They did two routines for each age class.


















Eliza continues to have health issues. She is on an apnea monitor now. She had her hernia repaired and that is healing wonderfully. Her breathing is the ussue now. I took her to see a pediatrician in the city and she thought it was most likely Tracheomalacia. A congeniital disorder of the wind pipe. Scary stuff! In June we will go back to see a pediatric pulmonologist to get some real answers and possibly move onto an ENT doctor.




Now that gets us up to Mother's Day. We had a special party for Grandma. We thought she wouldn't make it to see another Mother's Day back before Easter. But she surprised us and pulled through. Because of her having the 'superbug' she couldn't see Eliza. This is the first time they got to meet eachother. So someday I can show Eliza that she really did get to meet her Great Grandma. And tell her how much she loved her.





And lookie!! I actually got to knit!!!! Last week during the race and yesturday on the drive to and from the city. I am in need of new dishrags. The others have holes that are too big now. I got tired of patching them. So I made 2 new ones. :)

Tales from supermom #2

I love this picture of Eliza. My precious tiny baby.

A few of the kiddos and I made a trip to Le Mars this morning. I needed to look through VBS things from last year. And see what I needed for this year. The huge box of things already came that I ordered. But I'm going to need it all. I did not get everything done that I wanted to, but that's ok. It will wait for next weekend. Soemtimes there is just nothing a mama can do when the kids are fussy.
During our trip around Walmart, I came across these! Recycled yarn towels. I love that they say I am not a Paper Towel!! I got a pack for myself and another pack for a Christmas gift. So my Christmas gift for April is bought. The month isn't over yet though.
Tomrrow is Easter. We will go to my parents for dinner. Grandma is going to try and come. We are so glad she is still with us. She had a pretty rough time not long ago and thought she was going to be gone by now. So we will spend Easter with her and my family. This year, instead of buying baskets and grass and all of the other junk, I am going green. I think I talked about that before here. The older 6 kids will get a chicobag, binoculars/lantern/water bottle depending on their age and Anna will get a cool pillowcase for her gigantic pillow. Eliza will get the cute little shoes/socks. Then I have a chocolate bunny and some Peeps for each child. Dad and I will eat Eliza's bunny and peeps. The pillowcase and waterbottle are made from recycled products. We're going to a great summer of hiking and bird watching and other things with our "green" gifts.
It's time to get back to things. Laundry is calling my name. I need to make sure everythign is ready for tomorrow!

Tales from supermom #1

Today....was just another day...for us. Everyone rolled out of bed at various times of the morning. Breakfast was interesting with 1/4 gallon of milk left, no Cherrios just mom's organic granola in the cereal cabinet, no clean spoons or bowls (because mom fell asleep before chores got done last night), and 7 people who needed to eat. Plus one fussing hungry baby who wants the mama. Fun right? After a quick swish of dishes and mom dividing up the milk, breakfast is done. I, supermom, had a pbj sandwich...for breakfast.
We moved slowly onto chores and then everyone did nothing for a realllllly long time. Cartoons and Veggie Tales for the little people. Computer for me. Searching for my Easter basket replacement idea. I've never liked the whole basket deal. So this year, I'm throwing 'tradition' to the wind. I bought 7 carabiner clips on clearance at Kmart, and 7 tiny magnafine glasses for 76cents each, to go on those clips. Then I bought 7 Chico reusable bags. The clip/magnafine glass will hang from the bags. I will add a book and some Peeps chicks to each bag. Easter baskets good-bye! Supermom is going green with Easter too! We will hide eggs (saved from previous years hunts) and have fun. For Eliza though, she will get a dress in her bag instead. The whole idea behind this is not only to be eco-friendly, but an adaption of what my friend Amy does with her girls. While I can not afford to buy awesome backpacks for each child (wish I could!!), I am doing this. During our many, many, many hundreds of trips to the parks around here and in the city, each child can just grab their pack, clip it on their belt loop and go have fun searching for things. If they find something, like a leaf or rock, they can put it in their fun little Chico bag. Then tuck the bag back into it's puch and hang it up for next time. How will they tell their bags apart? I got one of each color.

So now that I have that all figured out, 5 loads of laundry done (with a load of diapers and plenty more to do), 7 or 8 diapers changed today, I don't have the foggiest idea what we'll have for dinner. No milk. No bread. Which means no potatoes or sandwiches. No meat is thawed or cooked. But there is chili left over. Not enough for 8 people though.
The husband of Supermom isn't home from work yet. So I can't get groceries. I guess it comes down to how creative I can be for dinner. I should go work on that. It's already 5. And the little people are telling me they are starving.

Oh! For the Christmas challenge, I bought two extra Chico bags for part of two Christmas gifts. The other parts of those will be gift cards so I can't get those until then.

Another day and new additions...

After a trip to the dentist for Belle today, I decided to skip the grocery store and instead we went over to Bomgaars (local farm type store). I love this store. Today they had some cornish rock hens. YAY! We got 4 for now. I will go back and get more. I enjoy raising chickens and ducks. They will have ducks soon, so I will get a few when they come in. If our dogs get them this time, we will be out two dogs and will never have another one again! I'd rather have a thousand chicks/ducks than one dog.
Anna ran into the coffee shop for me on our way out of town. I'm not sure that the vanilla-bean mocha is any better for me than a pepsi, but I do know that I can put it in my own coffe mug and not buy any plastic bottles or a dozen aluminum cans. It costs a ton more, but I'll take the cost to save my planet. :-)

Thinking outloud

In May, our MOPS group has a wonderful pamper the mom morning. A few of the ladies that have home businesses set up a table to show off what they have to sell. So I am wondering, if I can figure out my MIL's sewing machine (I still have yet to replace mine! grr!) and get some pretty and fun bandanas, hair bands and cute bags done, if they would be popular? Or if I would just look stupid? I'm seriously afraid I would just look stupid and nobody would buy any. When I see stuff like that, I always think 'I can make that myself!'. Would they too? I suppose my girls could just wear them and use the bags if that happened. They love the ones I've made for them. And I've made lots! Maybe bandanas and hair bands are too old fashioned. They would be under $5 since I always use the scrap material I've made something else out of. Bandanas for maybe $1 and bags for $2 or $3 probably is all. Ak. What do I do? Take my chances or just be safe and forget it? I would do dresses and such but there's not enough time or energy in my days for those. Raising this many kids is expensive for 2 income families but doubly so for those of us with just 1 income. I've always wanted to do something with my love of sewing things. But most people prefer Walmart or Target. Any suggestions on whether or not I should go for it? Or do girls just not wear those kinds of things anymore?

Knitting...eerr...maybe not

I had the best of intentions. Really. I did. I started this discloth. Eliza promptly woke up with a hungry tummy. Garrit had a fever and wanted my free arm to snuggle with. That was Sunday. This is Tuesday. I am a tad frustrated with not being able to knit or crochet or anything. AK! I wanted something quick like a dishcloth since I need a couple more anyhow. I also want to get going on the initial wash cloths. But how can I?? AAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Where does a homeschooling mom of 7 with a tiny baby fit anything except mama duties in, Lisa???? So since I can't sit and knit without someone needing me, I thought I would reorganize the stash. HA! I got some done. Then Eliza woke up hungry. Funny...how she keeps doing that just when I want to get something done. I did get quite a bit done. I won't show you the rest of what I did not get done. It's a disaster area where my sewing cabinet is. Yikes!

My boy turned 2 the other day. Where did that time go? He shouldn't already be 2. He's still my baby. We had planned to go out for lunch. Maybe DQ or something so he could get his favorite chicken/fries/ice cream meal. He LOVES fries! Doesn't matter where they are from, he loves them. But the weather was so bad, we decided to not venture over to the church and then out to lunch. So for lunch I made pizza from scratch as usual and then I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and borrow 2 candles from Grandma. (my candles got used up last year)

The poor boy had a fever about the time the pizza was done. In the 1 1/2 hours it takes to make the pizza, he turned up sick. Ugh! He did enjoy his trains though while he layed around sick.

In our cleaning up today, we moved the kitchen stuff around a bit. I took Eliza's dresser and made it into the holder of all kitchen set toys. So now, poor baby, she doesn't have anywhere for her clothes except ontop of Garrit's dresser. I don't think she'll care just yet.

It's hard to type one handed. I thought Eliza would sleep for awhile. What do I know? The diapers are washed and hanging to dry and two other loads are folded. 3 baskets remain unfolded and clothes have not been put away. There are probably 10 more loads to wash yet. But I didn't just hear myself say that. Dinner...uummm...Oh yah, I cooked the chicken yesterday. What to go with it though? I don't know. I'm not real excited about peeling potatoes. But I suppose I will. Or better yet, I could just throw the chicken in for soup! Ah ha! Soup it is. Now do I have the stuff for that? Let's hope so. Otherwise it will be chilli. But I don't have any fritos. Scratch the chilli. Chicken noodle soup. With or without everything.

Someone really should tell door-to-door salesmen, esp those that sell insurance, to get a real job. One where they don't bother people!!!!!!! I can't stand pushy people. The guy who stopped by again today was just that. Like I have time for his mumble about extra insurance I can't afford?! Sell books or chocolate instead!!!!!!!!!!

Got a letter from Grandma today. She's dying and I haven't been able to go see her. The nurses at the hospital said not to come and not to bring Eliza because Grandma has the "super bug" and Eliza has been so sick. :( She's so sad she hasn't met Eliza yet. We'll ask them again this weekend since she's moving to the nursing home.

So it's diaper changing time. One peed through and the other did a doo. Didn't I just have them all washed and hanging up? There will be another load of dipes to wash tomorrow. Back to the sweet life. Eliza is hungry yet again.

March already?

Knitting- Ha! I'm having the hardest time with this. I just can't find 10 minutes that I'm not doing anything else. I'm certain my goal of doing an afghan per child is long gone. It's just not going to happen. A few of the girls have requsted their own personal wash cloth with thier initials. So I might do that. And embroider their names on a towel. I might also do a basket with patches and their initials as well. This Christmas is going to be about the practical. Toys are out. I saw cloth baskets for $5 in lots of colors at W-Mart. I'm sad that I won't be able to do afghans for them. But I can't torture myself with trying to get them done. Esp since 3 months are already gone in the year. Just thinking outloud.

I found Boyle makes bamboo knitting needles now. I don't have to go all the way to the city or order online and wait 3 days. (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being able to order online and have it come to my door. I do that for many things.) They don't have all sizes at W-Mart, but a few. I don't NEED anymore needles right now. Well...except I lost one of the size 9's somewhere. Can't finish Connie's afghan without it. So I bought a new set of 9's yesterday.

I am going back to the old way of eating. I miss salads and stuff. And eliminating acidic foods. Not totally, but mostly where I can. I ordered hemp milk and hemp powder. Should be here soon. We can't find that kind of stuff around here. But I want to get away from cows milk a little. Not totally, but some. We already drink organic milk, but it's still on the acidic list. I've read that hemp is an alkaline forming drink/oil. I may have to go to almond milk though since it's easier to buy locally and I've used it before.

I take a gazillion pictures. I LOVE pictures! I snapped this one of Eliza the other day. She's already 3 weeks old.

I should be working on Awana or VBS. Being the Sparks director and the VBS 2009 is a lot to do right now. Yikes! And thinking about curriculum for next fall. I love spending money on books. I'm not a big shopper otherwise, but I'll buy up every last book that we can use for schoolwork! I wish I could get past being so shy and go to the homeschool moms night out meetings in the city. But I won't. I've tried. It causes panic attacks almost. Ugh.

So that's about it from this mama of 7. I hope I can go to coffee Friday. I've grown to love my time chatting with the few ladies that come. That's my kinda get together. Coffee and a few other moms. Small small group.

Oh! The Christmas Challenge....

I failed in January. Didn't buy anything. I blame being pregnant and sick for that. So in February I was saved by my MOPS group fundraiser. Thank you, Rachel!! I ordered pillow pets for each child except Anna. I probably should have just ordered one for her too, but she's into fancy pillows. So I'll have to find a fancy one for her somewhere. So my February challenge gifts are taken care of. They'll be here soon. Then I have to hide them somewhere. Probably at Grandma's house.

For March, maybe I'll go get the things to make the baskets. hhmm...That's a good idea. Then I can get patches and fancy things for them each month. There's an idea!!

Saturday Feb 14, 2009

Today is one of those days during the year that just make me mad. Every year I get up and think it's not going to bug me....get over it already...but haha on me. It generally starts to really make me mad about mid-afternoon. And today, is no different. Something to remember warn all of my girls about in the future is that Valentine's day is just another day. I'm just the mom, cook, maid, cleaner, blablabla... But onto better things.... Some of our week was actually spent doing school work. We didn't take the entire week off. I think the girls would have gone crazy shortly after I did. They needed something to do, so we did schoolwork. I thought I would take a picture to prove that we actually DO school work.

The little man trying to look so serious. Trying to be cool. He's so much fun to just sit and watch. Gar can be very serious with his expressions and then giggle and laugh from his toes. I'm so glad I have a son in the mix of all the girls.
Eliza was a week old yesterday. That's crazy! It was kind of a crazy week. But I think everyone is adjusted now to having Eliza here and not in my tummy. Although the house hasn't adjusted. What happened to my little mice that should be making the house tidy while I sleep? Oh! Wait! I don't sleep anymore, so they can't come do their job. But that's ok. I'll trade little to no sleep to have a precious tiny baby to nurse instead.

I have done nothing crafty. No knitting, crochet, sewing, nothing. The yarn stares at me through the boxes and I think of ways I could be putting that into something. But that's just going to have to wait I guess until I can get a handle on the everyday things of life. It gets a little harder with each child I think. Only because there are more people that need to adjust to the baby.

A star is born

Eliza made it safe and sound. 7 lbs 3 oz on Feb 6. We now have a child's birthday each month Feb-July and December.

The end of January

I decided that I am done buying paper towels all together. I was going to buy one roll a week to use only for diaper wipes. People couldn't keep from using them for other things. So instead, I got out the two bolts of flannel I have and started cutting squares. Then I got out my finer crochet cotton and started doing a blanket stitch around the edges. A machine would have gone sooo much faster, but that's not an option. And tada! I've got wipes. This is just the few I have done. There are a couple dozen more waiting right next to me. To buy the same kind of flannel wipes cost between $8 and $15 for a dozen. All it's taking is my time to make them myself. The flannel was given to me more than a year ago. And the crochet cotton I've had since well....I haven't the foggiest idea how long I've had it. And who doesn't have a pair of scissors and a needle? I've been working on these yesterday and today during school time and whenever I can sit for a bit too. The ones that don't get done will go to the hospital with me since I'll have two days to be bored. (But it's a good bored!!)

I have about 8 inches or so done on the third afghan strip. So my goal won't be reached. Oh well. I'll probably take it to the hospital too.

Since we've had so much snow and it's finally warmed up enough to be outside for more than .06 seconds, I've sent the kids OUT! Dad pushed a big pile for them to slide down on the sled they got for Christmas. Gar finally wanted to go out with them. It took like 5 minutes to get him dressed up. He was out there for maybe 10 minutes. It's still just too cold for him and he's not a snow fan anyhow. He's like his mama. If it's hot and sunny he won't come in. But if it's cold he won't go out. The cat snuck in apparently while we were getting ready to go out. She got thrown right back out where she belongs!

After warming up, the girls were playing with the k-nex. Belle put a rabbit together. While the other girls were busy with squares and buildings, she was busy creating a bunny. I assume it was to go with the other girl she made this summer out of rocks. Such creativity!!

As of today, baby E is still tucked sideways in my belly. I don't think a person can be pregnant forever. I suppose I could prove that wrong.

Today marks 39 weeks pregnant. I can hardly walk because of the pain in my legs. So hopefully Eliza will join us sooner than later!!

Afghan update: It's still in the same state it was before. I haven't started the next strip yet. I haven't done any knitting or crochet at all since my last post on the 16th. Needless to say, the strips aren't going to get done in January. Not too sure what gift to do for January now. hhmm...Oh well. I have a week to figure out what to do about that.

Gar was eating a pbj sandwich the other day and fell asleep in the middle of the floor with it all over his face. Guess it was nap time!
Anna was still working on her schoolwork at rest time the other day. The others were having a good time watching her work on it. There are some neat little instruction videos on these curriculum cd's they were watching. They were all so quiet I had to check to see what they were doing! B was gone to her ballet lesson, so she missed the fun.

OOOps...I decided to not work on the next afghan strip just yet. I crocheted a couple of towels instead. The green one I did on Wednesday and the cream towel I did yesterday/today. I love the chevron pattern and the towels are perfect for it since it's a very short row. These crochet up so fast! As fast as knitting a dish cloth. I might try and crochet a dishcloth too, but I haven't decided yet. We'll see where the next few days takes us. I seriously need to get back to to the afghan strips! I think I'll work on one on the trip to/from the city. That's a good 2 hours total of work. It's the middle of January and my goal is to have 2 more strips done before the end of the month. Will I make it? I seriously doubt it.

It seems like every time we use the vacuum (every evening) something goes wrong with it. Last week it was something plugging the hose in a very hard to get to spot. Two nights ago, it was something in the brush. Gar couldn't resist helping dad. Such a precious boy.