1 MONTH

One month.

  Eating well.  Sleeping well.  Doing all the things babies do. All around good guy.

DELUGE

Hardcore soccer practice.

Just a teensy bit of rain.

I'm sure the kids had fun anyway!

CO-OPS

We're nearly back into the swing of things--

one of our co-ops started back in August (!!!)  

Obviously, I have not been attending yet.  This was the first day for the older kids.

We were able to work it out so that I didn't have to start back right away and one of the parents there is my "go-to parent" in case anything happens.  The other kids and I will start attending in a couple of weeks. So far, they have been enjoying their classes..

Some of the classes include violin, piano, dance, woodworking, voice, critical thinking, and a couple different types of art classes.

Our other co-op started a week ago--much more of a reasonable start date in my opinion.

Daddy was able to swap his day off  for co-op day and took all 6 for their classes, covering my duties while there.  I also will not be attending this co-op for a couple of weeks.   Some of the classes at this co-op include Busy Bees, Little Movers, Lego Club, Fallacy Detective, Sewing, Nature Notebooking, Yearbook Club, General Science, Westward Expansion, Science Explorers and Gym.

We have a pretty full schedule once again--but knowing a little one was due, I didn't go crazy.

We are not doing full days at either co-op and I am not teaching at all this year.

It will be a big change from the past few years, but necessary as we adjust.  Sonny was almost a year old when we started attending our Thursday co-op, a far cry from having an infant.  I'm thankful though that both co-ops were willing to work with us in delaying the start date and so forth.  Oh!  Another thing that I am super excited about is Bubs and Sonny will be receiving speech therapy at co-op!!  How awesome is that?!  I've been suggesting for a few years that we get someone in there to do speech and finally it has happened!  

Here is hoping for a great year!

BROTHERS

This has been our largest gap in between siblings. 

Sometimes you don't know how they are going to react to a new person in the family.

I have to say though, these two have been over the moon about their new brother.

He is constantly being checked on and given kisses on his head.  

These expressions are precious.

Overall, this little guy is definitely being enjoyed by his siblings.

UPGRADE

This guy is taller than I am...

it was time to upgrade to a new bow. The old one just wasn't cutting it anymore.

He got some money for his birthday to put toward a new one and a couple weeks ago--got all set up!

This one should last into adulthood and is quite versatile.

Decent grouping there too, eh?

HUH?

This is NOT our chicken.

I wonder what the appeal is for random animals to hang out on our porch.

BIRTH. A STORY.

This was my 9th pregnancy.  My 7th time giving birth. You'd think it would all be old hat, right? Nope.  Again, each of the children has something unique about their birth. 

I don't know if it was age or the heat of summer or a combination of both, but July was pretty miserable--it was disgustingly hot and I was tired and achy.  We have never had air conditioning in our bedroom--until this year and I am SO glad we did. I prayed that the baby would stay put until 37 weeks.  FYI, the midwives won't do a homebirth until the pregnancy has progressed to 37 weeks.  The way I was feeling, it was questionable.  So, 37 weeks came and went--and I was ready. Another week went by and things kind of settled down a bit.  I had some severe round ligament pains but that eventually went away too after a few days.  There were several nights I went to bed wondering if we'd have a baby in the morning.  It should be noted that all of the kids (except Travis whose birth story is completely different) were born overnight or in the early morning.  Each morning I woke up STILL pregnant.  So, I finally said to myself, who am I kidding--he is probably going to be late!!  I might as well make the best of it and come to terms with that fact that it is going to be awhile longer.  That was August 27th.  

I woke up the next morning, normal time--fed the cats, took a shower and started breakfast. I had plans to run out that afternoon and an appointment with the midwives after that. Around 8am, I started feeling....pressure.  I'm not sure how else to describe it.  Not contractions, just really low pressure.  And I had to use the bathroom just continuously it seemed.  The kids were up at this point.  They kind of took over making breakfast for themselves as I paced up and down the hallway and in the playroom.  It was a scorcher already at 8am and there is a widow a.c. in the playroom.  I ended up calling Mike, but he was with a customer so I told him to call me back.  I continued pacing. 

He called back as I was starting to text him--it was now around 9am.  I told him I wasn't sure what was going on and it was quite possible it was a false alarm, but I would feel better if he were home.  No hesitation, he said he was leaving and made me call the midwives to give them a heads up and ask an opinion.

I did.

There are a lot of new midwives in the practice since I'd last gone this route.

I reached the on-call midwife, a new one and the one I had hoped would NOT be attending my birth. She didn't really help.  Said to time things and call back in awhile.  Gee, thanks.  I called Mike back and complained..but a few minutes later the midwife who had attended all of my births with the practice texted me and asked what was going on and if she needed to come right over.  She was in Madison.  I still wasn't sure that this was labor, so I told her Mike was on his way home and something was going on--not sure what.

She ended up coming straight to us.

I am SOO glad she did.

I continued pacing in the air conditioning.

Mike got home around 9:45ish, Lisa arrived around 10:30ish..very shortly after she arrived the tub was set up and filled and all the paraphernalia was ready. The assistant and photographer (both of whom I had never met) arrived shortly after. I got in the tub around 11am, my water broke in the tub (yay! no mess!) and Levi William followed immediately arriving at 11:25am.  All 9lbs 10 oz, 21 inches of him.  He came pretty fast.  I probably could have slowed down the pushing process a bit, but I wanted him out in the worst way.  He did NOT come overnight or in the early morning.  The kids were pretty much herded outside and hung around by the porch until he was out.  They came right in once he was out to meet him.  

Want to hear a weird story?  We don't share our names.  Never have, not about to start.  Anyway, so Mike really wanted to tell the kids the names we had picked out, I nixed that.  He would joke around with the kids about different names and what they wanted to call the baby.. the girls especially kept asking what the name was going to be.  So, one morning Carina tells me that she had a dream that the baby's name was Levi.  Of course, I didn't let on at all, but I texted Mike asking if he slipped up and told.  He insisted he had not.  She insisted that no one told her the name, it was in her dream.  Levi is a biblical name that we liked.  It is Hebrew meaning "attached, pledged or joined."  As you probably remember, we do family names for middle names and William was the name of Mike's maternal grandfather.

We missed the two other cousin birthdays that week.  I'm glad of that as well.  

I don't have the pictures back from the midwives yet.  

Here are a few from us.

Definitely not flattering, but authentic.

I debated putting this up, but eh--here it is a few minutes before I got into the tub.

Baby boy!!

So, very grateful and blest we are.

Time to get weighed and measured..After he did an enormous poop on my tummy as I was holding him!

All cleaned up and dressed.

We are praising God for this beautiful gift and that all went well.

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: You have put off my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever." ~Psalm 30:11-12

AND WE'RE OFF!

The 2018-2019 school year has begun!

We are (most of us anyway) back to co-op and trying to get a "schedule" going.

We actually lightly started back (or should I say, we never really stopped) in August--but then a baby happened and so we called September 10th our first official day.  This will be our 8th year homeschooling.

We definitely need to find our new rhythm with lots of changes this time around.

We have Bubs starting Kindergarten!!

Boogie needs to buckle down a bit for 2nd grade..

Pre-K is all fun and games, right?

Middle school??!

Dad can't wrap his mind around the fact that he has one in 7th.

He says he remembers 7th grade like it was yesterday.  How about you?

Missy has been waiting for 4th grade for 3 years so that she can FINALLY join Hot Shots!!

This guy is pretty relaxed with his schooling, but nonetheless he will be learning so much in the coming year!

Bean is Bean.

Watch out 6th grade!

Lots of different levels and some changes to how we do things, 

but praying for a great year for all!!

A GIFT

We have been blessed with another gift from God.

Meet Levi William.

He arrived on August 28th at 11:25am

9lbs 10 oz of perfection

21 inches long

I will get a birth story up in the very near future.