Praise the Lord!

I had a really great weekend.  I felt almost normal for the first time in a LONG time!  Of course, I'm still ginormous and can't do a whole lot, but I felt good.  I worked in the garden, in the yard, and followed Ron around the farm.  I haven't been able to do that in months.  I know from experience that it means that my body is almost ready for this little guy to make his big debut.  I am so excited!  If he doesn't decide to come before then, we will induce on Saturday.  FIVE MORE DAYS!!!  Since I took off of work, I have everything just about ready.  My house is cleaner than it has been in a very long time.  I have kept the laundry at bay...which is kind of astounding!  Now if I can keep my monkeys from making any messes this week......


We had new baby piggies born last week.  They are so sweet!  Addie Mae thinks that it's her job to check on them every day.  The baby chickens running around the barn are also under her supervision.  She is so funny.  When they first hatched, there was a baby chick that had died.  Addie came and told me about it and insisted that she called her daddy.  When he answered the phone she told him that he "had to call the chicken doctor!! There's a dead baby chicken!!"

The new puppies are doing well.  I haven't killed them yet.  They are getting very good at going to the door when they need out.  Every morning at about six, they start barking wanting their breakfast.  That's okay because I get up then to get Cy on the bus.  However, these are hound dogs, and when they bark it is LOUD, and rather annoying.  I do my best to allow them to bark as little as possible.  Ron has forbidden me from telling them to hush, because apparently coon hunting dogs are SUPPOSED to bark like that.  They have adopted the habit of chewing on shoes.  Whose shoes do you think they like the most??  Yep, mine.  My favorite Yellow Box flip flops to be exact.

Our garden is also thriving.  We are about to be over-run with cucumbers, squash, zucchinis, tomatoes, and peppers.  We are already picking the squash and zucchini.  Canning season starts in about two weeks.  This year should be a challenge with a newborn!  I have a lot to can this time around.  We are completely out of salsa.  Ron loves pickled squash, and I plan to try my hand at making some pickles.  I really love the bread and butter pickles!

On another note, I am asking for your prayers.  This pregnancy has done a fabulous job of keeping my blood pressure and heart rate at a normal level.  However, we don't know what will happen when the swelling and pressure from the baby goes away.  Hopefully, things will be perfectly fine and normal.  That is my prayer anyhow, and I ask that you will pray that as well.  Right now, I am concentrating on bringing another healthy little boy into the world, and praising God for the opportunity and privilege of it!  I refuse to worry about the rest.  God is in control either way!

Hormones

Hormones have completely taken over my body. I have absolutely NO control over them and it is driving me nuts. My kids are stretching every ounce of patience I have. I think they know that I am going to break at any second. It's like they have some sort of Spidey-sense they acquire especially for my moments of weakness, and they think it's funny to antagonize me.  It’s not just them. My sweet babies at school were driving me crazy too. Every little bitty thing gets on my nerves. As much as I hated doing it, I have taken off for the remainder of the pregnancy. Which, by the way, is no more than nine days from now!! Since my doctor will be leaving the country on my due date, we decided to induce on the 26th. It’s not how I want to go into labor, due to the extra strain on the baby, but I love my doctor and trust her to deal with the medical issues I have.

Tonight was my nephew’s graduation from pre-K. Addie Mae decided she was going to be the worst behaved child in the building. I actually had to drag her to the car kicking and screaming. I was ready to sit down in the middle of the parking lot and have a big ol’ cry. My normal, rational, non-gigantically pregnant self would have picked her up, toted her to the car, spanked her little bottom, fastened her in her seat, turned on the radio, and ignored her until we got home. Unfortunately, that is not how it played out. Instead, since I can’t pick her up, I drug her by the arm, forced her into her seat, and then after I was in the car I entered into a screaming match. With a three year old. Wow. I really feel like super mom now.

She was asleep before we got home.

I know my husband is probably grateful that he started working out of town this week. I love him so very much. He was making me crazy too. I actually felt like punching his face. (Sorry honey.) He has to be happier away from the hormones. I know I would be!

Hopefully, very soon my hormones will be back to normal, and I will be nice again.

Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me

Today has been one of those "Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me" kinda days.  I'm feeling very sorry for myself.  I didn't get to go into work today, thanks to a continuing migraine and some really awful cramps and contractions.  The doctor tells me to REST and just to take it easy.  Bahahahahahahaha.  That is like telling me to go climb Mt. Everest tomorrow.  For one thing, with two little kids and one big kid, that is an impossible task.  Aside from that, it's just hard for me to be still.

Enough complaining about me.  We just acquired two new blue tick puppies that we are trying to house break.  Yep, my fat pregnant self is cleaning up poop and pee every few minutes on top of everything else.  They are sweet dogs though.  Addie and Cy really needed them after they lost Ellie (our first blue tick) so suddenly.  Maybe they will train easily and finish before the baby is born!

On the farming front, we have a sow due anytime to have a litter of piggies.  This makes me excited!  I love when the new animals are born.  We are also incubating chicken and turkey eggs that should hatch in a couple of weeks.  Addie Mae, aka Farm Princess, loves living on the farm and having all these animals. She is naturally good with them.  I'm trying to tear Cy away from video games right now.  I figure this summer I will have to lock him out of the house to keep him outside.  Kids don't play outside enough these days.  That's probably why juvenile diabetes is on the rise.

Ron has also been trying to get our corn in the ground, which has been nerve-racking.  First, we dealt with trying to determine when the last frost would come.  Then, it was too dry to plant.  We prayed for rain.  We got rain and started planting.  Now, the planters broke and we had to buy a whole new set.  Ron should be pulling in with the new ones any second.  However, we have to wait on the ground to dry some because we had torrential rains yesterday.  Farming is a gamble.

Through everything, I know that God is taking care of me and my family.  I know that He has a purpose and a plan.  I may not be able to see what that plan is yet, but I know there is one in place.  So for now, I am trying to sit back and try not to do God's job.

Thank goodness.  My plans always fail.  :)



“Be still, and know that I am God..." -Psalm 46:10

Nesting....

The full-blown nesting instinct has kicked in.  I was beginning to wonder whether or not it was going to.  I woke up today feeling better than I have in MONTHS.  I have had energy all day, and very little pain.  Praise God!  Since Ron will be working pretty much non-stop for the next five months, it's good that I'm getting caught up because I will have very little help!  I am very proud of my accomplishments for the day.  I have the laundry nearly caught up.  I know this doesn't really show how much of a feat this is....so let me elaborate.  Imagine a mountain of dirty laundry that consists of about 15 full loads for the washer.  Yes.  It was nearly as tall as I am.  I also washed my cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap.  I haven't done that in over a year.  I rescrubbed the bathroom.  I swept all the floors and re-mopped the kitchen.  I am on a roll.

Thanks to my sister, Kaci, my house looks better than it has in a long time.  Bless her soul, she drove the two hours (or more, since she had my niece with her), all the way over here just to help me.  I really owe her one!  Forget Aunt Bea!  I don't need her anymore! 

Leroy now has a place to sleep, and clean clothes to wear.  I think I may have been a tad in denial about the fact that a baby is going to be in our home again.  Which is probably why he still doesn't have a real name, and why I have waited till the last second to get things ready for him.  In my dream the other night, I saw his little face and his beautiful eyes.  This kicked my rear-end in gear.  I'm so grateful that we have been blessed with another baby.  Yes, we are still getting the "bless your hearts" and looks of "are you crazy."  Honestly, our hearts HAVE been blessed!  Children are a gift.  I pray that I can be a good mommy to all three of my angels.  I am scared to death though!  

I fail so many times with my own kids, and often wonder if I show them correctly the love and support that I so desperately hope to show.  Mostly, I just want to raise my babies to love Christ.  If thats the only thing I ever teach them, I think it will be enough.

I am seriously in need of Aunt Bea.  "Leroy" is not due until May 29th....however, yesterday I learned that he may be making his grand appearance sooner than we planned.  Which is awesome, because I am ready to meet this new little blessing!  At the same time, I have absolutely NOTHING ready!  My house is a disaster.  It looks like a tornado has hit the inside.  I don't have his bed up yet.  Not a big deal because I have a bassinet....big deal because I haven't took it out of storage.  I have about a trillion loads of clothes to wash.  There are still groceries sitting on the counters from where I did my shopping on Saturday.

Normally, this all would not phase me.  I wouldn't bat an eyelash at the work, and I would buckle down and have everything perfectly in order by tonight.  But no.  Since my body decided to rebel against me in August, I can't do it.  I left work at 12 today, and have been laying here on the couch since, trying my hardest to will my body to quit hurting.  God has been trying to teach me to rest for over a year now.  Let me just say, that this is the hardest lesson I've ever had to learn!!  I'm just not a "rester."  I go till I can't....well, I used to anyway!

I know I'm whining.  For my second post in the blogging world, it can't be very entertaining or interesting.  I'm being honest though.

Last night nearly broke me.  I came  in from the doctor's office bent and determined to get everything ready.  Ha!  I cooked supper, and got the kids in the tub.  And by that time, I was doubled over with contractions.  With the two in the bathtub, screaming out needs for me to fulfill, I did the best I could to fold laundry.  Meanwhile, I just didn't realize what a mess those two monkeys were making.  The GIANT bottle of shampoo/body wash that I JUST bought Saturday, was being poured into the tub, making GIANT bubbles.  So not only are there bubbles everywhere, there was also water flooding the floor.  I did my best not to flip out and ignored the mess, got them out of the tub, forced them to put clothes on, and sat them down to eat.  Apparently they are both in a "I hate food" stage, so they barely touched the meal that nearly killed me to cook.  Awesome.  By now, I am in tears, balling like a two-year-old who just got a toy taken away.

Then I had a dream in the course of maybe two hours that I slept last night.  I dreamed that I was in full and active labor, I kept hollering for Ron to wake up and help me up so we could go to the hospital.  Ron snored away as I delivered this beautiful baby boy in the middle of the living room floor, surrounded by folded clothes that were in need of being put away.  I finally got him to wake up, and take us to the hospital.  When we arrived, the doctor said the baby was fine and sent us right back home.  She said that I needed to clean my house.

Oi vey.