Since I am taking the time to blog tonight...

I figure I should take the time to make a blog announcement about our current news.  Especially considering my dear husband made a Facebook announcement almost a week ago which pretty much makes it official to the whole world.  Here I will announce to anyone remaining that was left out of that round.
























I am...

(Yes that is a fuzzy picture of a plus sign.)

Everyone around here is very excited.  We would appreciate your prayer for this little bugger.  This is very early and announcing this soon breaks all the rules of pregnancy announcements but we would rather Christian brothers and sisters know and pray for us than to walk the journey alone.  I calculate that I am due between 1/21 and 2/05/13.

I found out that we were expecting just shortly after I became very blue about the fact that I should be holding a newborn right now.  The baby we lost last September would have been born in March or April.  But God is good and has a perfect plan and his plan for us now is, we pray, to carry this new baby to a healthy full term.

If you are tempted to make family size comments, don't worry I've already heard them all...three children ago!!  http://blogginbridget.blogspot.com/2007/12/large-families-faq-with-come-backs.html  (I didn't laugh at all of these...some are not called for and not funny but I have to say that I have been tempted with all of them.)

Little Bit of Dayton

Our town is a great place to raise kids.  There are great parks and playgrounds; a good local college that has a variety of opportunities for the community; and we are close to larger cities for the things that the little town doesn't offer.  Our town also has lots of history and one of the most famous historical happenings for our little town is the Scopes Trial, AKA Scopes Monkey Trial, AKA profit making scheme thought up by a bunch of local businessmen after the local coal company failed in the 1920s.  The Scopes Trial still makes the town money as they recreate it every year though Dayton really is a sleepy little town when it comes to economics.  This week I had Mommy dates with my oldest son and oldest daughter.  When I went to town with my son, we went to the courthouse and I talked to him a little about Dayton's history and we walked the sidewalk that has a timeline of Rhea County. 






As my son and I read the timeline, some of the tidbits were personally interesting like:

You see there where Andrew Jackson visits Old W.... in 1801.  That said Old Washington; I live in the heart of Old Washington--actually on the property where the jail for Rhea County once stood.  That was cool for me to see and be able to tell my son.  This next picture just made me smile:

See there, 1879, poor Rhea County had nothing noteworthy but they didn't want to leave that year out.  I'm very curious if that is some sort of inside joke that I don't know and something crazy happened that year that Daytonites would still like to forget but still mention it or something.  

(Better pictures of the sidewalk by someone I don't know: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewrobbins/sets/72157624538827529/detail/.)  Also I can't write about this without mentioning that Dayton has been on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Tonight, my oldest daughter and I went on a date.  We went out to eat and then to feed geese.  Here are pictures from our fun:

Hiking

Today I took the kids and 2 friends hiking at our local Pocket Wilderness which is part of the Cumberland Trail.  We had a lot of fun despite the fact that we were in a hurry to hike in and out before nap time meltdowns (didn't make it) and the rain (made that one--still hasn't rained today).  We had lots of fun once the kids got over the disappointment that since I was the loan adult we were not getting off the trail and we were definitely not going in the water.  The following pictures are from today; I forgot my camera of course as I usually do so they are taken with my low-tech camera.  Besides that they would have probably been blurry anyway on the real camera because all these were taken in a big hurry while I chased the 7 kids so that I could keep everyone in sight.

Little Buddy was lagging behind and our little friend went behind to help him. 

Holding his arms up to keep the leaves out of his face.

The group with a head cut off.  This was a steep rock they chose to sit on.

This one is especially blurry because my not-quite 2 year old is suspended on this steep rock.

We made it back to the parking lot!

This most excited little girl threw herself down several times on the way back to the car as she was very tired.  She walked the whole way though (she had to!!).

Talking about Lego's now that the hike is over.

Afternoon Pictures

These two are such good friends.

This little guy is always just along for whatever is going on.

Favorite activity: hanging around. 

You might not be able to tell from the picture: There is a bird's nest with baby birds in that light...the cat is just waiting. :(

This is all the garden I have so far this year but it is doing well.

On Teaching the Older Daughter to Read

SEH, 5, is doing very well learning to read.  And she is an eager student.  However I do have to fight smiles and a little laughter when she is reciting words to me.


"/b/-/e/-/d/ BED!!"


"/r/-/o/-/t/ ROT!!"


"/m/-/a/-/t/ MATTRESS!!!"

Bed in Summer

Last night, the Mister stayed at his brother's house due to a late evening in the city--he works only 5 minutes from my brother-in-law's home.  Since Daddy wasn't coming home, we skipped nap times yesterday and had an early bed time.  This is something I used to always do when Daddy worked a job that had him out of town several times a year but the kids are not familiar with the practice anymore.  I remembered and recited the following poem for the little dears though I don't think they were fooled, not the two oldest ones anyway.

Bed in Summer
~Robert Louis Stevenson
In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people's feet Still going past me in the street. And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day?

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

This post is primarily for my husband.  The children might look like little clones of him but they have acquired many of my habits.  


Some proof in pictures:

My husband has never understood my desire to read before bed and my ability to fall asleep while I read.  (Of course, I have never understood his ability to lay his head on the pillow and be absolutely and completely sound asleep within seconds...)

Dr. Jekyll and little Mr. Hyde

We usually go to two churches every Sunday.  The first is our home church, the one we have been going to since before we were married (we have been married for 10 years so we have been going to Cornerstone OPC since January 2001...I think) that we drive an hour to get to; the other is a church plant in our town that we are hoping will become established into a church. 


Today, the baby was crazy which is why I am bothering to write a note about our otherwise typical Lord's Day.


In morning worship, he couldn't have been any more difficult.  "Gum?" "Mommy, I want gum." "Cheeries? [cheerios]"  "Water. Mommy want water. Water. Mommy get water. Water. Mommy water. Water. Mommy want water."  Etc etc etc.  It was exhausting and I didn't hear a bit of the sermon while I was trying to keep him quiet and appeased.

Then at the afternoon church in town, he was as good as a two year old could be.  He whispered when he talked, the words he said were him repeating words the pastor said.  (I got tickled when the pastor said illumine and JSH said "lemon pie?")  He did ask for water again and I was prepared this time and had some.  But he didn't want to drink it.  "Water?" [Me handing it to him.] "Put it down."  But he said it in a whisper, although he whispered it several times.  


I can not help but feel like I was dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after the wresting match of the first sermon and the cuddle fest of the second.  Crazy, sweet kid.

Fun Morning

It is that time of year when it is too early to turn on the air conditioner without guilt but not scorch in the house in the middle of the day.  So we went out and read and started a fire (so we could scorch outside too!).  While we were out baby climbed a tree for the first time by himself.  Yikes--what a crazy summer this will be if I have to keep the (almost) 2 year old out of the trees!

Don't ask but I wanted to include this one for my family's sake.