Christmas Tea Party

 

 

This and the following 2 posts are some of our Christmas festivities that we have had going on. I cannot do them all at one time due to my beloved dial up issue.

I was pondering what to do for all these precious little girls that we have in our lives and I could think of nothing better than a Christmas tea party. It was so fun. We had sugar cookies, chocolate goodies and hot cocoa. We talked about what it means to be little ladies and how to use our manners. The highlight of the party was all of us sitting around the TV watching Barbie in A Christmas Carol. It is such a good little girl movie and it is so festive. At the end of the DVD there is a carol-oke special feature. We sang and laughed. I hope all those little girls had as good of a time as I did. There were 6 little girls who were out of town and couldn't come. God has blessed us with so many wonderful friends to share our lives with.

Gingerbread Houses

 

 

 

 

All I Want For Christmas...

IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH!!!

 

Choir Concerts and A Humbling Dedication

 

K-6th grade choir

 

pre-school choir

Today was our Home school Choir Christmas Concert. They all did such a great job. It is amazing how much talent is that little choir. Most of those children have a special talent in music so, this choir may give us some exciting shows in the near future. This time they sang a few hymns and some carols. Bailey sang a solo in The First Noel... she sounded so sweet. My favorite part was all those toothless grins. Most of them were missing at least 1 or 2.

The preschoolers also sang a few of their songs they do in Sing, Spell, Read, and Write (our Co-Op preschool program). They were so cute. Each of them got to hold the mic and sing thru the numbers song. Jadon remembered all the words to the shapes song which was a worry since he is the loudest one. Today he blended in better than I expected. He wore his new suit and tie. He says that it is his "Christian" suit. Who knows where he got that one.

Today we also dedicated Judson to the Lord. We have several of these dedications a year at our church but Carlton always makes each one of them so special. Of course my family can't do anything without having a story to go along with it. I spent forever picking out clothes so that we would all match since the whole family would be on stage. We were all in our Christmas black and red, suit and tie best. Half way through the dedication, as I am holding the squirming Judson, I discover that 3 out of 4 of my dress buttons are unbuttoned. OMG! And if that wasn't bad enough, Jadon tee-teed on himself while standing on stage. Thankfully he never acted as if he had to go, he just went and as soon as we left the stage he told me, and no one noticed my 3 unbuttoned buttons. Isn't it funny how I took all that time to make my family presentable because I knew we were going to be called up on stage only for it to backfire on me and leave me laughing at myself in embarrassment. God does humble the proud, doesn't he?

Scheduling

This has usually been something that I have been pretty good at. But, here lately, well its been a slow decline for a while, I've been struggling. I need your help. I am desperate for ideas on how to better schedule my time and ways to be more efficient. Also, pray for me. Whatever I decide to change, I will have to be disciplined to stick with it. Here are a few things that I could use some advise or scheduling tips with. 1.) Spending quality teaching time with each on the ones that are in school (pre-school, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th) and creative things to do with the others that are not 2.) Spending time playing with them all. 3.)Time with Eric. 4.)Time alone. For those of you with large families, I have a hard time keeping the house straightened. Do you have toy rules, clothes rules, kitchen duty, laundry duty ect...My children clean very well but they don't keep it clean. We all make huge messes then clean it up at a certain time in the day. That works sometimes but how could I stay on top of it more. My children are not lazy slobs, they work very hard, we are just so busy, even when we are just staying at home. It seems that all of our time would need to be structured and scheduled since there is so much for us to do in a day but everyone needs some freedom, right? I used to be on top of all these things but not anymore, 4 children is a world away from 7. I am tired of chaos and I need order. Please comment or E-mail me some ideas, large family moms or not.

Will they ever survive?

Monday was another one of those days that had me functioning on autopilot with little emotion. You know those days that are just so jammed packed with school, meals, dishes, laundry, more school, more meals, and more dishes. By 6pm I made the announcement that the next time I heard "Mama, I need you" I would spank. Eric had a hurt back and came home from work and went right to bed so he was little relief to the all day chaos. By 9pm all I wanted was to nurse my little man and go to sleep. My flesh was screaming of my woes of having no time for my self and if sleep was all I was allowed, I wanted all I could get. Get this, Judson would not nurse. He would latch on and bite, latch on and bite, ect. I was so mad. I would pull him away and say sternly, "NO!". How dare he bite me when I was so tired and just trying to feed him. Finally I gave up and just put him in his own bed to cry it out. He finally fell asleep. 30 min. later John Mark was awake and needing loving, so in my bed he came. This woke Judson up who wanted to nurse. This time he would not even latch on. He would root around but only to refuse. This went on for 5 hours. Miserable doesn't even come close, you know. Judson was screaming and would not accept any comfort. Around 3am he threw his head back in a fit and I saw something in his mouth. He had a furniture tack stuck in the roof of his mouth. The nail end, thankfully was already gone and not stuck into his flesh but the rough round end had created a STRONG suction to the roof of his mouth. It took great force to remove it. He ended up with blisters and scrapes on the roof of his mouth. He was so traumatised that he refused to nurse the rest of the night and on thru the next day. He still is very hesitant to nurse but is getting better each time.

How long had that thing been in his mouth? Where did he get such a thing? Was he biting me or was I being irritated by the tack? Was I being stern and jerking him away for something he wasn't even in control over? My poor baby. Will I ever lie down at the end of a long day and know that I did a good job that day? Will John Mark ever stay or be where I think he should be? Will any of them ever survive my feeble attempt at parenting? Thanks be to God, when I am weak, He is strong.

Good News / Bad News

 

Okay, bad news first. Today was Judson's ocularist appointment to get another conformer. BTW, They are getting so big and hard to get in but Judson handles them so well. Today I found out that BC/BS will not pay for the conformers nor the scleral shell. That's a whole lot of change $$$. Because of Judson's problem he is also on Medicaid but...Medicaid will not pay either. So pray for me as I start battling the insurance company through appeals to try and get them to pay something. It really doesn't make since to me. Why would they not cover the cost to give my baby a chance to have a normal looking appearance? I mean this isn't like I am having his teeth whitened or something. If they will pay for a prosthetic leg or breast than why not an eye? Anyhow, that's the bad news.

Now, the good. Judson has been tolerating the larger conformers so well that he will be able to get his painted scleral shell January 26th! YIPPEE. I was told that he would be in conformers until he was a 1 or 2. He will be 9 months old and already have his. I don't know really what to expect. The next appointment will take half the day while they get a mold made from the conformers and hand paint it, clear coat it, shine it up and put it in. I know that they will not get to do a mold of his good eye until he is 4 so this first shell may not be the "perfect" fit that later ones will be. I also found out that the normal length to keep one shell before needing a new one is 7 years. We will need to have it cleaned and adjusted twice a year. Of course, all this would not be covered under insurance and totally out of pocket unless God intervenes. But today I am just thanking the Lord and kissing all over my baby boy for being able to handle these irritating conformers so well. Tomorrow I will ruffle my feathers and get down to business with the big wigs.