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I am alive….I promise!  I have been so bad about updating this blog; as I usually am when I feel like puking 75% of the time!  Another random recap and then tomorrow I will post about our boy’s bedroom redo. You know the bedroom that, if we end up with another girl, will have to be re-redone to accommodate 2 girls when the boys get moved to the basement bedroom! Yep that one! And then later in the week I will post a couple of bathroom re-do pictures!

But for now this is what has been going on in our lives for the last few weeks:

Car

We have made the move to a larger car to accommodate us all this fall.  We purchased a 12 passenger GMC Savana with a sliding door (LOVE that sliding door out here in the windy Midwest!) and love the big beast of a van in general!  It definitely sucks gas like nobodies business, but it is amazing to have some room, even with just the 7 of us!  I had to purchase two (expensive) high backed boosters for Michael and Maddie to compensate for the fact that it doesn’t have head rests.  As for AJ he fits fine without one and because he doesn’t have the added “lift” that the booster gives his head is below the seat bench.  As he grows we may have to weld some head rest on the seats, but for now it works. Faith is going to stay 5 point harnessed in until she outgrows her Radian 65 car seat and Georgia will move up to the other Radian 65 once the baby is here.  Car seat musical chairs! LOL!

Morning Sickness/Pregnancy

I am 12 weeks now and I am starting to feel a little better, although I thought after a few days at 10 weeks I was on the upswing….it came back.  I am hoping that since the 12 week mark has passed it will only get easier from here.  Over the last week or two my belly has started making an appearance and I am in maternity jeans now fulltime (wow, I forgot how comfortable they were! LOL!)  I had my first midwife appointment and the only thing that needed further investigation was my TSH was a little low.  After a double check at my T3 and T4 levels everything looked fine.  They attributed it to a high HGC count (which is apparent with my severe morning sickness).  Hormones are one area I don’t have any troubles with.  When I get pregnant, my body kicks into PREGNANT overdrive!  I guess that is a good thing because it means it is doing a good job of maintaining the pregnancy until the placenta takes over producing hormones in the second trimester.  I have an ultrasound in March and I am excited to get a peek at my little bambino.  I have been praying for a happy, healthy, easy pregnancy and an EASY GOING baby! LOL!  Care to pray for me too? Would love the extra prayers!

Spring!

Oh my, oh my!  Yesterday it was SOOO nice.  I got the apple trees, peach trees, raspberries and blackberries pruned and cut out the old dead vegetation in the front flower beds.  It was so amazing to be outside with the sun warm on my bare skin! The kids were out most of the day and the all the fresh air did them a world of good too.  Yet another thing I LOVE about homeschooling; all day recess on days like this!  Heck, we can make it up on the rainy Friday or Saturday to enjoy this kind of blessing!

Speaking of School….

We took approximately 2 weeks off during my real sick time and are getting back into the swing of school again finally!  We are still working our way through weather in science and just finished reading about the Islamic Invasion of Spain and are embarking on the great kings of early France (Charles the Hammer and his grandson, Charlemagne or Charles the Great).  As for the 3 R’s; Maddie is a super advanced reader and she is a challenge to find books that challenger her and also interest her.  She is 6 mind you, so she still wants books about princesses and ponies and some of the books that are at her reading level are just over her head (doesn’t understand the jokes, etc.), so I am trying to go through each book and help her with the more complicated themes.  AJ is finishing up his cursive curriculum and is doing really well on it!  I was a little worried, but he seems to have a knack for cursive writing!  Michael is doing really well with his phonics program and while he is not yet (officially) in Kindergarten he is reading small sentences and simple words quite fluently.  He is moving right along and I am very pleased with what he is accomplishing!

The Farm

I don’t thing our bees made it through the winter! After the hot, dry (droughty) summer and after an early swarm (I think?) they just never recovered enough to get through winter on their own.  I also didn’t help when I failed to give them a fall feed when I knew that their numbers were low!  Bad bee keeper!  Oh well, you win some and you loose some, but you always learn.  I plan on trying again in a year or two.  This year will are going to focus on the chickens, the kids, getting a little ahead in school (so we can take a long break when baby is born) and the large garden.  Also with running a business out of our home we really have to focus on what is important and putting food on the table (both by the garden and by the business bringing in money) is very high on that priority list!

The business

This is the year….it is do or die! Please pray with us that we can really get things moving along well this year.  Last year I call a huge success, especially given the circumstances (a drought during mowing season and no snow during the plowing season!) but this year is really our do-it-to-it year.  Last year, being our first year, we encountered all our start up costs at a time where there was little to no income.  Last year we carried the business by our savings.  This year we need the business to carry us.  Because we have followed the conviction of being debt free we have incurred all those costs that come with starting a business from our savings account. This year I hope to be adding to the savings instead of subtracting from it.  Because of the pressure on this year’s spring/summer season I am keeping a light load here at the home base.  I am not sure what this year will bring, but I am hoping lots and lots of work and new clients, so I am preparing for such by keeping the home front streamlined enough that I (heavily pregnant and in the heat of the summer) can maintain it myself when my husband is busy working on all that new work that we am hoping for!