Labor Day - a few days late

Warning: Baby Talk happening

So I saw this idea on a friends blog and liked it. What woman doesn't like to talk about their labors!

My Piggy:
I started having contractions the night before I went into the hopsital and stayed most of the night timing them. They weren't painful though. I went to the hospital about 7 in the morning. I was determined to be having pre-eclampsia symptoms and hooked up to magnesium sulfate fairly quickly. That slowed things down so I was pumped up with Pitocin. From start to finish at the hospital my labor was about 12 hours maybe a little more. I don't remember pushing too long, but apparently it was about an hours worth. My son was 7lbs .60z and was born naturally and without pain medication. He was also born in the caul (amniotic sac still intact) and I remember it was quite difficult to puncture.

My Boo Boo Princess:
I was induced with my daughter. My doctor was going on vacation the weekend I was due and I didn't want to risk having a doctor I didn't care for. I got to the hospital about 4:00 and was contracting regularly as I had been for days. I asked for a hep lock but not to be hooked to an IV which they agreed to. My doctor came in about 5:30 to brake my water which was very difficult to do. He ended up using the sharp point from one of those things they use to monitor baby's heart beats in utero. I had told him I grow them tough! I walked around, took showers, and labored for about 7 hours total. My daughter was born at 12:00AM exactly (the nurses had a hard time deciding what the date of her actual birthday was). She was 7lbs 3oz. Born naturally without pain meds.

My Nator:
This was my favorite labor experience (of course all the births were equal in joy). I was having a home birth this time around and I wanted no unnatural intervention...especially not AROM (braking water). Once my due date passed and I had already started taking herbs and rethinking the lack of intervention, my midwife and I started to talk about my possibilities. We finally decided she would do AROM as they thought I might have excess fluid that was keeping the head from engaging. She too had a hard time braking the amniotic sac. Once broken at 5:30PM contractions started to get serious about 30 minutes later. I walked around my neighborhood with friends (there were 7 women there, one boo boo princess, and my husband). I took a bath, hung on whoever was closest, and generally enjoyed prancing around my home uninhibited. My Nator was born a little after 9:00PM. He was 9lbs 5oz and got a little stuck coming out as he had his hand up by his head. I remember being shocked he was so big!

I hope you had a happy labor day! Thank you to all of you who work to keep America going economically.

The sound of music...

See the title? Here the music? Just guess what I shall be musing about today.

So what you are listening to is a style of music typically heard booming from souped up low riders, honda civics, and small trucks in our town. Don't worry the artists skillfully pounding out rhymes on the tracks you're listening to are Christians. (Note: I am not well versed in hip hop please try not to laugh too hard when I try).

Now aside from that one DC Talk CD I owned back in the day, I'm not a big follower of rap. I've rolled my eyes plenty of times when we passed by one of those low riders that you could actually see shaking with the vibrations of a bass turned up WAY too high. I've covered my children's ears when we were close enough to actually tell what words were being rhymed, and I've made my share of jokes about "platinum grills."

This music is Awesome, God honoring, gospel sharing, artistic praise music. Artists like Lecrae, Trip Lee, Shai Linne, and others are using their God given talents to glorify him and share Christ. I have been challenged by the lyrics to songs like "Send Me."

My husband and I hope to use this music to minister to the people in our community. There are some awesome gospel tracts that include a 10 track CD with some of these artists. You can view and purchase it here.

I hope you enjoy the music...it took some getting used to for me, but the words are what got me. I'm not forsaking my other musical loves (there are some of those on here too), but for now I'm taking a detour down Jesus Muzik Lane.

Gotta check with my peeps. I'm out.

I'm so copy catting!!!!

A few people have been doing a wordless wednesday...Obviously this Wednesday is not wordless (that is a very hard concept for me), but just take a guess as to what is taking place in this picture:

Church

We attended a MEGA church yesterday for Sunday services.

My husband and I have been listening to this pastor's messages for some time and have been continually encouraged by the spirit at work. So, with that and the fact that I have a family member that attends there we made the trek an hour away to visit.

The church is held in a high school but that didn't strike me as odd and they had plenty of signs out in the parking lot to help you find where to go. What did strike me was the amount of media, tables, chairs, and overall transformation that had to take place to turn that high school into a church and a comfortable one at that. I am still wondering what time of morning the "crew" gets up to prepare that place for worship. Maybe they do it Saturday night but it still has to be put up and taken down every week. There was a full stage with the background covered with curtains and three big screens mounted. Speakers have to be chained to the cealing and lights constructed on the sides. All the classrooms where the children go have to be cleared and toys, portable rocking chairs, and mats are brought in. This occurs in at least 15 rooms that I could tell.

This church has 4 services on Sundays. There is at least one midweek gathering and 200 small groups that meet in homes. The pastor did ask this Sunday for 200 more people to step up and volunteer to host small groups.

The worship portion of the service was like attending a rock concert. The music was loud (in a good way) and the musicians are very talented. The songs were repetitive but that really caused me to focus on the words and mean them. We sat in the back and just about everyone in front of us was tall. It wouldn't have mattered much if we sat in the front as most people had their hands in the air praising and the view still would have been obstructed.

The pastor's message was awesome! Click here to listen to it. He really encouraged us (again) with his message about running the race (for lost souls) to win from 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27. If you've ever wondered what it took Micheal Phelps to become the althlete he is today, it's detailed in his message.

I am grateful for Bible teaching churches who desire to be servants of Christ and want to wholeheartedly follow God. I am grateful for my own church. We had so much fun worshipping and growing at the church we attended yesterday.

Who is mom 2?

As told by Boo Boo Princess age 3:

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
"O"

2. What makes mom happy?
"B"

3. What makes mom Sad?
"P" (Ok I realized she thinks we're playing an alphabet game and try to regroup)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"I don't want that..." (and she stomps off in a huff)

5. (The reaminder of the questions go unanswered)

Who is mom?

Ok, I borrowed this from a friends blog and she borrowed it from another person's blog, but I like it. Mom according to My piggy (age 6)

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
"DEAR Time" (Drop Everything And Read)

2. What makes mom happy?
"Obeying her."

3. What makes mom sad?
"When she looses a baby or someone gets killed." (where did I put that baby?)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"By being funny"

5. What was your mom like as a child?
"I don't know"

6. How old is your mom?
"22" (that's better than I thought he'd guess but still off by two years)

7. How tall is your mom?
"Taller than me."

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
"Scrapbook"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
"I can't answer that question because when I'm gone I don't know what she's doing."

10. What is your mom really good at?
"drawing" (???I draw one cute butterfly and I become an artist to the simple minded)

11. What is your mom not very good at?
"I don't know b/c she's good at everything" (apparently I am good at being deceptive)

12. What does your mom do for her job?
"Takes care of us and the house"

13. What is your mom's favorite food?
"pizza"

14. What do you and your mom do together?
"Lots of things"

15. How are you and your mom different?
"We both like different things"

16. How do you know your mom loves you?
"By doing nice things"

We're going on a bear hunt...sorta

So in my attempts to be a "fun" mom, I took the kids on a bear hunt (up the 1/4 mile lane to get the mail). Once David realized where we were really going he was sorely disappointed and whined that he wasn't going to get to use his plastic swiss army knife to protect us from the bear. Aine started crying when we "ran away from the bear," because she thought we were running from her.

They did ask if we could make a real bear when we got home. So I got out construction paper and proceeded to show them how to make tear bears. After all a 6 year old and a 3 year old should be able to tear paper right? NOT! They complained and whined the whole time "my head's not straight, I tore the arm, can you do it for me?"

After all that they broke out the markers and drew...Aine made a circle and David made an ant. Like my beear?

This is why I homeschool! Because I'm a fun mom!