A Hard Decision and A Miracle

Last year, my husband and I made a hard decision.  A really hard decision.  We were facing the birth of our 5th child, who we loved so much already and couldn't wait to meet.  The difficult thing was, we had just had a baby 15 months before her.   And one 2 years before that.  And one 17 months before that.  And another one 17 months before that.  We were about to have 5 children ages 6 and under.

Home life was busy and stressful as many of you with small children already know.  Finances were getting tighter with each new baby.  Each child receiving a little less attention as their slice of the parental pie got a bit smaller.  Each pregnancy began with morning sickness starting earlier and lasting longer than the last pregnancy.  Last, but certainly not least, my last prenatal blood screening revealed an antibody present in my blood which had been passed to me through a previous delivery, when my baby's blood and mine had mixed.  This antibody "Anti-JKA" was multiplying and had the propensity to attack my baby's red blood cells, if it reached high enough levels.  It gets more complicated from there, but I found a very informative blog post that it explains it pretty well, which you can read here.  I saw specialists during my pregnancy, having lots of extra ultrasounds and blood tests throughout.  The specialists at the Maternal/Fetal Center at the children's hospital monitored my antibody levels closely up to the end of my pregnancy and felt that they were low enough that they were not a present threat to the baby.  My frequent in-depth ultrasounds confirmed that she was doing well.  However, they cautioned my husband and I that we should not have any more children, because the antibody levels in my body would only continue to rise and would become more of a threat to my next baby.  This was an extremely stressful time for us.  We absolutely relied on God in so many ways, every day; for His provision, for His peace, for His strength.  That is why we named our new daughter Brianna Faith:  "Strong" Faith.

So, we made the hard decision to have my tubes tied after the birth of our 5th baby.  The procedure took place in February 2014.  I cried on the operating table as I ended a special chapter of my life.  I thanked God for blessing me with my 5 beautiful children.  I told Him that I trusted Him to carry and lead me through this next new chapter.

That was our hard decision.  And about the miracle?.....

We just found out that I am 5 weeks pregnant.  Today, on my 28th birthday, I saw my little miracle's heart beating on the ultrasound screen.

God gave us the faith.  He has always provided for us.  We have His peace and are resting in it.  He will bring us through this, as well.

Cinnamon Flop

I have recently discovered a delicious and simple recipe called "Cinnamon Flop". I am not sure about the origins of it's name, because there is no "flopping" involved in it's making; and it turns out wonderfully, not at all like a "flop," but perhaps there is some mysterious explanation floating around on the internet. I challenge YOU, readers, to seek this information out and post it in the comments below. Inquiring minds need to know!

Funny name aside, it is basically a recipe for two identical coffee cakes, baked in two cake/pie pans.  It is very simple to make and you mix everything in one bowl! It is an old Amish recipe and something I will be baking regularly for years to come, I'm sure, as my go-to coffee cake/quick dessert/quick breakfast. I changed some things from the original recipe I had found (like subbing in almond extract for vanilla because I was out, and using less sugar because one whole cup seemed a bit much.) 

I sincerely hope you can read my rusty cursive (I was feeling old-fashioned) and I encourage you to comment with any questions if you are unsure of the recipe.  I managed to snap a few photos with my phone this morning while baking, and I hope they inspire you to try this tasty recipe for yourself.

The pictures below are of the first time I made it this morning.  I had to bake it again for dessert, because my husband missed the mid-morning baking of the first batch (which the kids devoured), and said he couldn't listen to my tales of it until he'd had some for himself.

A close up of all that delicious butt-ah!

Toilet Scrubbers and Baby Doll Carseats

If you've ever had to explain to a crying toddler that they can't scrub the toilet right now.....because you're using it....well, that happened in our house tonight.

Yes, it was our little Evelyn, but fortunately for me, Brianna crawled by and Evelyn ran off to play with her.

Some time after this, we were all joking and goofing off in the kids room while putting them to bed, and Tim gave us the biggest laugh by putting Brianna in Evelyn's baby doll car seat.

Never a dull moment around here!

Flopsy and Old Mrs. Rabbit

I took the children on a small excursion to a grassy area today, with watercolors in tow. We spread our quilt on top of dozens of gold and crimson fallen leaves and began our paintings. I brought along Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, for artistic inspiration.  The children started in painting and drawing with markers.  

I thought I would try a rough sketch before I painted.  I tried a new technique using short, quick strokes to rough out the subjects, after first drawing a few large ovals to save places for them.  I started adding in a few details just to get a feel for it, but had to pack up just then to get home and cook dinner.  I studied my drawing for a moment before I put it in the stroller, and I felt very happy and optimistic, feeling that I'd stumbled upon a method that will really work for me. I have always formerly attempted drawing by simply putting pencil to paper and moving in long, dark strokes, and feeling that I could never graduate past elementary level doodles of which you might discover in a child's notebook. I had thought I just wasn't any good at drawing; a disappointing discovery of my childhood, since I had always felt very artistic and drawn to artsy activities.  I guess I was just doing it wrong all these years.  Maybe a person has to live to almost 28 to realize some of these things.  I know it isn't the stuff of art galleries or anything, but I am pleased that it at least resembles the illustration in the book.  Anyway, I feel very hopeful, and can't wait to work on this piece some more. 

The first photograph is of the children's artwork. Aiden painted the bird, Declan painted the red man and also drew the red squiggles which I quite like, Evelyn drew with markers and then painted over that with water, and Caitlin drew the person with the blue sky above.

The second photograph is of my drawing next to Ms. Potter's book.

(I am trying to refamiliarize myself with Blogger, so I don't know how to fix this yet, but my uploaded photos are cropped in my recent posts. If you click on them, a full size version will open up, however.  So odd.  My apologies.)

A Sunday to Remember

Yesterday was a day that I will treasure for a long time to come.  We overslept church but still had a pleasant family time at home. Tim had a wonderful idea to clean out the car, so we all did, and felt great afterward, because it was long overdue.  He also thought it time to promote little Brianna to a forward facing car seat, since she turned a year old on December 31st. It was an exciting yet emotional thing for this mama to do, and I'm glad my husband made the decision.

After the car was clean, we all loaded in and headed to our local five dollar drive through car wash. We picked up two coffees from Starbucks on the way, with our Christmas gift card. It was fun to drink our coffees and chat while the track pulled our car through the wash.  It was even more fun to watch the children's delight as the suds and brushes moved across the car windows.

Next, we headed to the grocery store and did our weekly shop as well as picked up a few extra treats for an afternoon picnic! Once at home, Tim and I rushed to put the groceries away, grabbed our double stroller, and we all took off again.  We parked near our city's walking/biking trail, loaded the babies and our picnic into the stroller, and enjoyed a really beautiful walk. 

The trail took us behind some pretty two story houses, a ponding basin where geese kept taking flight in groups up and over our heads (wow!), and finally to a park where we sat and ate an early dinner of salad, sandwiches, chips, and cookies. It was really beautiful and I feel like it swept all the cobwebs from my mind. The children played on the playground until the sun got quite low, then we set off on the trail again, back to our car. It was a two mile walk, round trip, and we all felt refreshed and ready for a rest at home.  Tim's parents met us at our car to drop off Aiden and we all headed home after a wonderful, wonderful day.