Our first week without Mike since JULY!

Mike has traveled for years. I think he first started locally when Josiah was a baby. When we were in Houston and he began working for Peregrine it became national travel. With this current company which he started with a few years ago it became International when he went to Israel. We've become completely accustomed to his travel but with my pregnancy this summer he cut way back. What a treat! He was able to come to all of my trips to Denver, my ultrasounds, meetings with specialists ... it was wonderful. But, this week, it started up again as he traveled to Manhattan. Wow, we miss him. Being flighty by nature Mike keeps me on task. Without him I'm terribly tempted to throw all routine and schedule to the wind. I make it maybe 2 days and then my mind starts to think, "maybe we should go to the river tomorrow for school" or "I think I'll try this brand new, horribly complicated recipe for dinner at 5:30" or "I'll let the kids skip afternoon chores since they are playing so happily outside". All of these are ok occasionally but extremely unwise combined or too often. Let me just say I've had ALL of these thoughts this afternoon alone! I need that very grounded man 'o mine! I may still go to the river tomorrow ...
On Sunday I had been up with Elijah all night with his cold and Mike flew out at 7:00 a.m. so the kids and I didn't try to go to church. We took a picnic to a very close mountain park. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Within five minutes of getting there Elizabeth stepped on a cactus in her crocks and a gazillion tiny spikes went straight through to her foot. Josiah brought a stack of books and sat at a different table from the rest of us (where is the eye-roll icon when I need it?) Rachel fell and skinned her knee. Elijah spit up a bucket full. Bees swarmed on our lunch. And then it was time to come home. But here are a few pictures of the joyful moments ...

Benjamin, Anna, Rachel and Timothy ... can you see how dry it is here? No wonder it smells like smoke from wild fires every other day ...
Anna and Rachel hiking up the trails with me ... I am REALLY out of shape which is why you won't see a picture posted of ME hiking.

We came home and collapsed. Mary hogged the baby as usual! This is our favorite way to cuddle him and we all fight over him having to rotate through turns ... at least he's all mine at night.

He's just the sweetest little lamb ever and Mary may be the all time best big sister and daughter.
I thought this was a funny picture of us doing school. We have a table, we have desks and yet we end up at the island complete with the giant roaster.
Timmy caught a cool leaf bug before school and the kitten couldn't leave him alone. Silly boy. Silly cat.
Elizabeth matching letters

Now that I've entered the land of the living again I've started processing through my garden. A ton has gone to waste or withered so I hope to salvage as much as I can. Elizabeth got a real kick out of dicing tomatoes for some reason.
This weekend is Homecoming at Ridgeview for Josiah. Since it's a small, charter, Classical school they don't have a football team. Soooooo, they have a game on the Friday before the dance with boys against girls ... the boys have their hands duct taped together to make it more fair. I can hardly wait to go watch and offered to bring cow bells and dress up the kids in school colors but Joe frowned upon that idea. I'll post pictures about that later ...

Josiah looking dapper and Elijah sounding snuffly ...

On Josiah's first day of school we couldn't find our camera so here is a picture from this week to make up for it ...

Doesn't he look so nice! We also asked for an intellectual pose in that he attends Ridgeview where naval gazing is a team sport.
Josiah humored us which was very gracious.

On OUR second day of school several of the kids came down with sore throats, runny noses and 2 had fevers. Despite my best efforts they infected Elijah by day four of school. Here he is with his new little humidifier friend.

Poor snuffly little guy.

And this picture is just for fun because this baby is so amazingly cute ... he's also very pious. Notice how he's praying ...

First Day of School Fall 2010

Today was the first day of school for the year ... oi! Long day. I started late because I chose sleep next to Elijah above getting up early for quiet time ... and I'd do it again ... that extra hour was delightful. Despite my joy in that little extra sleep it was rough to start the day behind. After making Josiah's lunch and breakfast Mike drove him to Ridgeview while I fed Elijah and got the troops going. Luke made us breakfast and we had a sweet time of devotion. I opted for the "Bible In A Year" website to make it easy and the Scriptures for today were ideal. We talked about the Fruit of the Spirit among other things. We started school late and just as we started sweet Elijah wanted to eat ... so it goes with a newborn.

Anna, Timothy and Luke

Benjamin, Elizabeth, Jacob, Mary and Rachel
Elijah was working hard growing.
Luke helping Mary with the breakfast mess since we were running so late ... I love Lizzy peeking out in the corner.
As I was working on phonics with the girls, Elijah spit up his breakfast all over ... I mean all over me and all over himself and all over the blankets ... so we switched gears and gave him a tub in Rachel's doll bathtub. We talked about "s" is for "spit-up", "b" is for "bath", "c" is for cutie ... Elijah did not enjoy the experience as much as we did.
Poor baby.
He recovered quickly from the experience after much love and adoration.

This was all before 10:00 a.m. From this point on the fun of recording the day waned and survival mode set in. The younger kids finished school by lunch time and I will confess I booted them outside while I made lunch and assembled dinner. At some point Elijah exploded once again in a much less glamorous way involving a whole new outfit change but Mike was on a conference call so a 2nd tub was avoided. By 12:45 I was counting the minutes until Rest and Read time at 1:00 so that I could take a short nap. I made it down at 1:30 and zonked until the kids realized it was 2:00 and that Rest and Read time was over ... they felt it necessary to inform me of the time exuberantly. I did feel better after a nap though and we quickly folded a few loads of laundry. I had several phone calls to make so once again I booted the kids out to play. Mary and Luke rode their bikes to the Cathy Fromme Prairie while Mike went to exercise and pick up Joe. Joe is on the Yearbook Committee so stayed late ... wow, we miss that kid when he's gone. That pretty much sums up the day I guess. I made Chicken Parmesan on Spaghetti Squash for dinner using all kinds of veggies from our garden. It was delightful. My simplified menu for the fall is this:

Monday-Spaghetti
Tuesday- Tacos/Enchiladas
Wednesday- Soup
Thursday- Potatoes/Eggs
Friday- Pizza
Saturday-Leftovers/Burgers
Sunday-Nachos

I may shake this up a bit when I feel motivated but motivation is in short supply. My spaghetti squash went nuts this year so it's an easy Monday solution. I put 1 1/2 squash quartered into my crockpot with some water and let it cook until it was done. The kids prefer real pasta but this is so much better for them.

Bed time is near although with a newborn I always feel like I'm living in one very long day broken up by short little naps. I enjoy him at night though. He's all mine at night and I have to be careful not to get so caught up in loving him that I forget to go back to sleep. Goodnight!

Elijah James

After a long, tiring pregnancy Elijah James arrived on August 28th, 2010 at 10:47 a.m. I had no idea how the anxiety of the summer had weighed on me until he was born. I spent the entire first week after he was born staring at his perfect face, crying with thankfulness. God has been so merciful to us. After watching his growth since our 20 week ultrasound and seeing him fail to thrive the miracle of having a perfect 5 lb. 5 oz. baby boy seems unreal. By the Wednesday of the week he was born his growth had dropped from the 12th percentile to off the chart. By Friday he was moving less and had lost fluid. I hadn't realized how much my health had been affected until after he arrived. I had struggled to eat being sick 24/7 and had lost weight. My summer mosquito bites wouldn't heal, I had no energy and could barely focus on anything. Once I held him in my arms I truly felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. The only thing the doctors can attribute his lack of growth to is his very unusual umbilical cord. It was tightly coiled at the top and bottom with a long straight strip in the middle. Despite my best efforts to eat and rest he just couldn't get all he needed. What a gift he is. He's like Christmas, birthdays, Easter and the first day of Spring all rolled into one.

My first thought right after they took him out and I heard him cry was, "This is the best day."













Proud sister, Mary, watched the whole thing. She's braver than I am! I certainly didn't want to watch! Doesn't she look darling in the blue scrubs!
My support team. What would I have done this summer without my amazing husband who canceled all his travels and went to Denver with me for each and every appointment and Mary who held down the fort at home with Luke so he could.
With his tiny immature lungs and lack of growth we never even dreamed we'd get to hold him after he was born. But here he is in all his glory breathing on his own.

Josiah











Mary








Luke








Benjamin (and smiling Timmy)











Jacob








Timothy











Anna Grace











Rachel











Elizabeth






The kids all came the next day and held him. He is so adored his feet will never touch the ground. The kids wake up early to come see him first thing, hold him, love him, brag about him and plan for his future. Timothy was in tears at the thought of having a fishing buddy after 3 little sisters.
Baby Elijah was on jaundice lights from birth for a full 10 days. The only time I could hold him was when I fed him so we lingered through each meal. At 17 days old today he is still not nursing which is discouraging but I am persevering hoping as he gets bigger and stronger he might catch on. The blessing of him bottle feeding is that he's really able to put weight on faster. Even on the bottle he eats so slowly and loses milk because his suck is so weak. Don't you love the goggles!

That's all I have time for right now but I have plenty more to come. For example, pictures of his baths in Rachel's doll bath tub ....