Get Your Pretty On!

The other day while at the library looking for books on our geography study I stumbled upon this book, "Getting the Pretty Back" by Molly Ringwald. At first glance I didn't think it would be a good read. I passed it up. But then I started thinking about this book. I wanted something to read after the kids go to bed so I went back and picked it up. As I started reading the book, which by the way I recommend,  I thought to myself  "Hum, women seem to have an issue with being pretty." When we look at ourselves we see everything wrong with us. Society has a flawed vision of pretty and beauty. Why is that? Is it the size 2 model walking down the runway that makes us second guess how we look? Is it the Victoria Secret ad that came in the mail? 

Whatever the reason is can you stop and think of 5 things that make you feel pretty? As I was thinking about this post I thought of 5 things we can all do to make us feel pretty again.

1) Know that you are made in the image of God. A glorious and beautiful Lord! God sees you as a masterpiece.

Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful!"

1 Samuel 16:7 "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart."

2) Say "Thank you!" Thank God everyday for the person He has made you. Thank people when given a compliment. Don't criticize yourself. You are criticizing the one who made you. 

3) Make Time! Ok moms. Let's get serious. I don't want to hear how you have kids and can't take a shower or whatever. I am a mom of 8 kids and I make time! I had a lady ask me one time after she found out I had 8 kids, "How is it possible that your hair, makeup and nails are always done? I have 2 kids and can't even find time to get a shower; let alone do my hair and makeup." I am not doing these things to be vain. I am doing these things because it makes me feel good about myself and when I feel good about myself I can conquer anything! 

4) Wrong Focus. If you are focused on the negative you will be negative. Try focusing on the positive things about yourself. I try not to focus on my size or the clothes that don't fit. Learn to dress the body you are in. Learn how to find clothes that minimize the things you don't like. 

5) Smile. Everyone can benefit from smiling. Clinically speaking smiling reduces stress, can put you in a better mood, and it's contagious. Smiling makes you pretty!

Ladies, don't look to man to make you feel pretty. Man will always fail you. Yet seek affirmation from your Heavenly Father. He made you pretty! He will never fail you. Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."

So What Do You Do All Day?!?

Ok. Quite frankly I am tired of this. Since there is a lot going around now about stay-at-home-moms I thought I would give some people some insight of "What I do all day." I mean, I really sit around eating bon bons all day. HA!! Do they even make bon bons anymore? Anyway, I have been a working mother and I am now a stay-at-home-mom. I know what working women do. You are busy. You have quotas to meet. You have to balance. There is no right or wrong answer if you choose to work or stay home. The question is, are you doing what's best for your family? Women can tend to get so judgmental over one or the other. Should you judge the mother that doesn't do the same as you? If you are doing what's best for your family shouldn't you be content?

I know I am but it took me a long time to get here.

I did the whole work, go to school to better myself type thing with four kids at the time. It wasn't for me. I could not balance trying to work, go to school and have a family. I know there are women who do it and I applaud them. I know how hard it is. But when it comes to my calling I get, "So, what do you DO all day?" That question is a loaded one and it bothers me. You don't see me walking up to a working mother and asking the same question. That would be rude! And yet in our society women and men think it's OK to ask these sort of questions.

So what do I do all day/night?

Well I can't really tell you when my day starts and ends because I have a 5 month old and 2 toddlers that wake me up at night. I try to get started around 10:30am. I choose that time because my lovely 16 year old watches the kids so I can try to get 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. He is amazing! Sorry I won't share ;) After I get up we try to get the littles situated so that we can start school. I try to do 2 kids at a time because this helps someone to be watching the littles while the others have my undivided attention. I am homeschooling my 16 year old all the way down to my 5 year old. This takes a while. Usually til around 4 pm. Sometimes later depending on if I have tests for the kids.

The house is usually trashed and looks like the tasmanian devil came through. There are at least 3 loads of laundry to wash, fold and put away, including cloth diapers. There is cereal on the floor and in a child's hair, dishes in the sink, legos everywhere, Thomas the train tracks anywhere my child thinks a track can go etc. Now this is light compared to most days. Just giving a little insight to things. It is around 4 pm when we have to clean up for daddy to come home. Sometimes we are successful with a clean house. Most times not!

So what am I? What do I do? I am a servant of God, wife, mommy, a teacher, a playmate, a nurse, a housekeeper, a laundry attendant, a referee all rolled into one. And it's 24 hours a day! I don't get vacations, sick leave or holidays off. About Parenting says: a stay-at-home-mom would get $117,856 yearly salary. Whoa!
It is more than a full time job. But do you want to know something? It is not just a JOB. At a job you are expendable. I am not expendable. I am really EVERYTHING to this family! Let's face it if my husband were to loose me he would have to hire a lot of help. And it wouldn't be cheap! So no this is not a job. This is a calling. This is a lifetime investment of little people that I get to love. I get to see them every waking moment and not miss a first step, or a first tooth, or learning how to read. I get to do all this! I get to be there kissing boo boos. And I wouldn't miss it for all the earthy things so many treasure. I am so Thankful to God and my husband to be able to have this privilege. Because it is a beautiful privilege.

We Are Not Your Average Homeschool Family

Yes! I have 8 kids. Yes! I homeschool. But that doesn't mean that all homeschool families are alike. They differ just like every other family. We LOVE technology! We love kindles, computers, video games, TV, cell phones etc. It's good to be unique! I would encourage your family to be only what God has designed for your family.

I find it interesting that almost every time we are out with all eight we get these questions."Do you want to be like the Duggars?" "Do you wear skirts?" "Are they all by the same man?" "Do you use only one letter for all the kids?"

I want to answer these questions. Yes they are all by the same man!!! The next question I usually get is, "Do you want to be like the Duggars?" I respond with; No I do not! I want to be what God created our family to be. On Tv their life looks wonderful and it may be; and I think they are a great family. But no one should strive to be like someone else. The only thing that makes us alike is that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

"Do you wear skirts?" The answer to that is; not all the time. I love skirts! They come in an array of colors and shapes but I also love my yoga pants too. I mean, they are so comfortable! Anyway, I think skirts are great but why does that define a homeschool family? Is it Modesty? Because I believe you can be modest in jeans or what ever you want to wear. I know there is a lot of controversy over leggings. I do wear these but always have something covering my rear end.

1 Peter 3:2-5 says Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. 

One time we were at Costco and we had the whole family. It was warm out so the girls and I wore skirts. A lady came up to us and said "Oh you all look lovely. You don't see families dressing like this. I bet you homeschool too!" While it was a nice comment it seems like, Hey! You're wearing a skirt you must be this, this and this....I want to wear what my husband likes me to wear. It is his headship that I am under. And he likes to go shopping with me. :)

Finally, no I don't use just one letter of the alphabet. I am not bias. I like all the letters of the alphabet. At one point my husband said, "We are not going to use the same letter twice!" I thought it was funny but we kind of stuck with doing that! 

If you are a homeschool family I'd love to hear in the comments some off the wall questions you've been asked.

Transitions

As we were transitioning into 2015 that was not the only thing in our house that was making transitions. Jackson, my two year old, informed me he was a big boy by falling out of his crib. Luckily, Titus put blankets down to break his fall. As I went in during nap time to check on them they were laughing and it was so sweet. I asked Jackson how he got out of his crib and he said, "Tity me out!"  So I decided the crib needed to be adjusted to the toddler bed setting. "Nooo!" Jackson said. He wanted to sleep in Tity's bed. He really loves his older brother.

As I was making the adjustments to the room to child proof it and take the crib down it made me sad. Jackson and Madison are my last babies. Parents always look forward to the kids growing up and getting older but I have now done this 7 times and it is hard knowing the kids are getting older and going to leave the nest. Gabe is 16 and going to start college this year. I can't believe it! The time fly's by so fast. So I have decided in 2015 to enjoy every little moment with my little ones. As the poem says, Babies don't keep.

"BABIES DON’T KEEP"

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Author: Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

When one gets sick we all get sick....

Last Tuesday we took my sweet baby girl Alexandra to the ice skating ring for her birthday. I say baby girl but she's 9! Anyway, we were all having a great time until we got home. Brian, Gabriel, Faith, Alexandra and Zachariah all got sick. Now there are a lot of advantages to having a big family like there is never a dull moment, there is always someone to play with, bulk discounts etc. But, when one gets sick we all get sick......And sometimes it can go on for weeks......

Thankfulness

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I can't even begin to show my gratitude to the Lord for the children He has blessed me with. I want to write about something that is dear to my heart. NAIT.

I am often reminded of God's grace when I think of NAIT. Especially, seeing the group of women who gave birth around the same time I did. Seeing their babies makes me a little teary eyed. It is something I feel strongly about raising awareness for. So please pass this on to friends. This is a condition that not a lot of people know about and it can be a silent killer.

My husband and I decided back in 2008 to get my tubes untied. I had PTLS (Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome). And yes! PTLS is a real thing and women are suffering from it every day. We traveled to Chapel Hill North Carolina to get the procedure done, which was a success. Dr. Burger from Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center has been studying this for years. After the reversal my husband and I were convicted to have as many children as the Lord would give us. 

I got pregnant with Zachariah in 2009. It was a pretty uneventful pregnancy. Right at the end I started to have some complications which led to us having an emergency c-section at 36 weeks. When Zachariah was born he was bruised everywhere and very lethargic.

The next day a pediatric hematologist told us that Zachariah had NAIT (Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia). Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia (NAIT) is a blood-related disease that affects expectant mothers and their babies.

Most people are familiar with the red blood cells that make up the majority of the blood in our bodies, but may not be aware of a second type of cell in our blood stream called platelets. These small cells are responsible for stopping bleeding in the human body.
Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia is a disease that develops when platelets in the pregnant mother and her baby become incompatible and cannot exist together. 

Zachariah's platelet count was 10,000. Normal platelet count is 150,000 and up. My body was attacking him and he was bleeding out. He had a platelet transfusion and Ivig. Ivig:

1. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a blood product administered intravenously. It contains the pooled, polyvalent, IgG antibodies extracted from the plasma of over one thousand blood donors. IVIG'seffects last between 2 weeks and 3 months.

They said it is very rare and that we were so lucky to be at Memorial Hermann in The Woodlands, Texas because they wanted to bring in a pediatric hematologist and that there were only 3 in the US and one happened to be in Houston, Texas just 30 minutes away. Dr. Brown from Texas Children’s Hospital confirmed that yes he indeed had NAIT and that we were to get genetic testing after we left the hospital. 

After going through NAIT my husband and I didn’t know what to do. We were convicted of having as many children as the Lord would give us and we would not stop a birth with any form of birth control. I prayed about our situation and at one point after Zachariah was born found out I had Hyperplasia of the uterus’s without Atypia. The on start of uterine cancer. I pleaded to the Lord and found out that in high doses birth control can kill the growth. Feeling very convicted that I didn’t want to do birth control I was devastated. But the Lord is gracious and I felt at peace doing the birth control because it wasn’t stopping a birth it was going to help me to create a new life. After the hyperplasia was fixed I found out that I was pregnant in March of 2010 just 10 months after Zachariah’s birth. What a thrill that was but I ended up loosing the baby. They couldn’t rule out NAIT but said it was probably due to something else. Then in May of 2010 I fell pregnant again and was scared to death. I lost that baby as well.

In July of 2010 after moving to Louisville, Kentucky I was having some familiar symptoms. I found out I was pregnant and was scared. I found a perinatologist in Louisville who put me on a baby aspirin and progesterone. Everything was going great. I still didn’t know a lot about NAIT and apparently neither did my doctor. I was 32 weeks when at my weekly check up my doctor informed me of IVIG. Thinking this was great I wanted to do it but he said it wouldn’t work. I was a little dumb founded! That’s when I came home and found the NAIT support group on Facebook. They were such a tremendous help. I started getting information that I just couldn’t find online or anywhere else.

At 36 weeks and 4 days Dr. Pietrantoni ordered an immediate Amnio to check the baby’s lungs. They got the amnio back 2 days later and his lungs were developed and they did the c section at 37 weeks. It was a good thing because Titus was born with a platelet count of 24,000. He had a platelet transfusion, IVIG and spent 5 days in the NICU.

After moving back to the St. Louis area we met a Doctor that was extremely knowledgeable about NAIT. He is an amazing Doctor! Dr. Michael Paul at Missouri Baptist.

Jackson was born August 15, 2012 and had a platelet count of 148,000! I did weekly 18-24 hour Ivig infusions from 20 weeks until I delivered him at 35 weeks. He was small but his platelets were normal. He spent 2 days in the NICU just to make sure that he was ok.

Madison was born August 9, 2014 and had a platelet count of 199,000!! Woohoo!! The treatment with her was by far the worst side affects that I have dealt with. I ended up having brain swelling and had to be put on mannitol. It was a form of meningitis brought on by the IVIG. But it was so worth it! She spent no time in the NICU!!! Unfortunately, I had a uterine rupture with her. That has been the hardest for me. Not being able to have anymore. I cherish everyday that I get with these little miracles!

Thank you for listening to my story. If you know someone who is suffering from NAIT let them know they are not alone and there are support groups out there like naitbabies.org

There are also facebook groups that are there to help as well. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Blessings!!

Just Another Manic Monday

You know the song, "It's just another manic Monday. I wish it were Sunday. 'Cause that's my funday. My I don't to runday. It's just another manic Monday." It was definitely manic that's for sure. At one point today I was trying to unpack boxes and put things away, put up another Christmas tree, cook dinner, fix the sink because it was clogged, keep the little sinners from hurting each other, keep Titus from coloring on the wall and walking around nursing a hungry baby. You'd think I'd lose weight from all the running around!?! I decided at one point I'd like to go back to Sunday. 'Cause that's my funday!