Growing Your Homeschool

I still write guest posts now and again over at http://www.growingyourhomeschool.blogspot.com/.  This week I'm writing about alternative approaches to home education-

wait-

that's what I always write about!

O well, I hope I said something new.

This week we are hanging out in the Flint Hills of northern Kansas while Ed is here for work.  I'm going nuts trying to nest in a half-unpacked house, and I've been missing the small-town silence after a short month back in "the city". 

Today we watched yellow jackets dig tunnels in the sand- why do they do that?  We don't know.  But it was cool.

I'm thinking about birth, trying not to eat crap, and enjoying the time with my little people.


"Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must."
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." 
~Theodore Roosevelt

Hey, Where'd That Blog Go???

Sorry.

It's been wild around here.

I took a bunch of "before" pictures of our 'new' (40-year-old) home, and I thought I'd start posting when I had some "after" pics.

Snort.

Ya, right!  I still have boxes in corners, and moderate chaos still reigns.

So here's a little update:

I am, indeed, still pregnant.  38 weeks and 1 day, to be exact.  I got severely dehydrated and didn't realize it a little over a week ago and actually went in to the hospital to get a fetal monitor strip because baby stopped moving.  (If you knew me IRL, you would know Id have tro be awfully concerned to do that!)  Baby was fine. 

Last week I had 2 different days of unexplained bleeding and had another NST and sonogram, which determined that the placenta is fine, but I was still dehydrated.  I managed to get my fluid back up and the bleeding, which was not to extreme, stopped.  So we assume it was just a weird cervix thing.

Over the weekend I started bleeding again but I was sure it was just a repeat of the cervix thing.  I started having really regular contractions, bleeding stopped, contractions picked up, and I thought I was really in labor.  We actually went in, all 5 of us, Sunday morning at 3 am, expecting a baby to accompany us home!  But as soon as I stepped into the birth center, everything stopped dead in its tracks.  Poor midwife!  Poor mama!

Naturally, as soon as I got home yesterday morning, and snuggled back in my own bed, contractions started right back up again.  Thanks, baby.  I explained very camly to my baby that while I, too, wish we could just snuggle in and get 'er done here, that she would have to accept the fact that she IS going to come at that darn birth center, whether either of us like it or not.

(FYI, it is not illegal to homebirth in Nebraska, but it IS illegal for CNM's to attend homebirths, and direct-entry midwives face stiff legal action if they choose to do so.  As of right now, no midwife within 3 hours of Omaha will catch babies at home.)

After a long day of contractions, everything stopped.  Out of curiosity, I checked myself and found a smooth, membrane-covered head pretty much right there.  I'm not very good at determining dilation, but I'd say a 4?  Unfortunately, she is really wedged deeply in there, posterior.  I've been trying to get her to rotate, but no luck so far.

That was probably TMI for many of you- sorry.

Anyhow, that's the news for now. 



"The thing about family disasters is that you never have to wait long before the next one puts the previous one into perspective." 
~Robert Brault

"There is no cure for laziness but a large family helps." 
~Herbert Prochnov

While you wait!

We have been in Omaha, in our "new" old house (how did we buy yet another home with a non-functional kitchen in need of a gut and remodel???) for 5 days.  We've been through 5 gallons of paint so far (no VOC, of course), used an entire box of screws, and 37 paper plates (blush).

And even though my kitchen is a 1970's nightmare, food has been coming out of it. Really boring food, but food nonetheless.

While I'm gone, I want to suggest you check out http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/.  My sister introduced me to this new co-op and I'm very excited to make my first order this week.  Unlike many co-ops, this is a weekly fresh produce co-op, with no fees.  I was pretty impressed with the things she was getting in her baskets and was thrilled to find there is one already set up in Omaha, with the drop only a couple blocks from my house. 

While there is not a drop set up in Wichita, Kansas, where many of my readers live, I looked into it, and setting up a local group seems pretty simple. 

Happy summer eating!

"Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow." 
~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros