Books and Babies

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I have been spending my time for the last week and a half.  I haven't had much sleep.  It is hard to find time for the little things, like eating, taking a shower, going to the bathroom. . .  My mom has been nice enough to take the kids during the day since C. Bear was born so I have had plenty of time to get to know and enjoy this cute, chubby girl, 

and since I can hold her in one arm, and a book in the other I have gotten in plenty of reading too.  I finished two fun books and have started on another.  I have been sticking to lighter reads, since there are plenty of interruptions with a newborn baby.  The first book I read was one I was actually surprised that I hadn't read yet.  It was Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott.  I love Little Women, but for some reason I have never felt compelled to read Little Men.  Although it is not as good as Little Women, I really enjoyed the book.  It is very idealistic and and somewhat moralistic too, but there were so many great bits of parenting wisdom in it.  I hope I can be as wise and patient a mother to my crazy boys as Jo was to hers.  The other book I finished was by one of my favorite authors.  It was The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter.  If you have never read any of her books, I highly recommend that you do.  She has some beautiful insights into education, and our relationship with God, nature, and our fellowmen.  This book was no exception.

While we're on the topic of books, Meg posted a list of 10 books she loves to read today and invited others to do the same.  She has a great list, and I have a few books that I think I will be tackling next thanks to her.  Here is my list of 10 books I love (in no particular order).  

• Laddie: A True Blue Story - Gene Stratton-Porter

• Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

• The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom

• Approaching Zion - Hugh Nibley

• Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis

• A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

• An Enemy Hath Done This - Ezra Taft Benson

• Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

I hope you'll post yours too. . .

Easter Thoughts

I am home from church today with C. Bear and wanted to add some spirituality to my day, so I was reading this month's Ensign.  Since Easter is this month, much of this issue is on the atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Savior.  One of the talks I read referred me to Elder Holland's talk from last April's General Conference.  It is one of the most beautiful talks on this subject I have ever heard.  I highly recommend reading the entire talk, especially in preparation for this Easter week, but here is a wonderful video of a portion of the talk .



It is impossible for man to fully comprehend the magnitude of the gift that the Savior has offered to each one of us, but as we use the blessing of the atonement more readily in our lives we will see more clearly the love and peace He is waiting to bless us with if we will but turn to Him.  I hope that in return for this matchless gift I can always answer the challenge presented by Elder Ballard:  "As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death, for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Be the Change You Wish to See

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."  ~Thomas Paine

A little over a year ago I wrote this post  about why I was supporting the Constitution Party, after a lifetime of voting Republican, in the upcoming elections.  It was clear to me then that our two party system was destroying freedom in America.  That fact has only become more clear to me over the past year.  While admittedly the most sweeping and radical moves toward statism have been sponsored by the Democrats, the Rebublicans have voted for and even sponsored many bills themselves which take power from the people and place it in the hands of the government.  It is a troubling trend.  One that gratefully many Americans are beginning to wake up to and resist, but if we are going to restore this country to the Provident freedom it once enjoyed it is going to require change much greater than "flipping the house" is going to provide.  I have felt so frustrated and hopeless about the state of our nation recently.  I have had a strong desire to do more about it, but haven't know what I could do.  Little did I know what was to come. . .

Last week, the day before C. Bear was born, my husband and I were approached by members of the Utah Constitution Party asking my husband to run for Congress.  Our first reaction was, "There is no way."  We had a list of excuses a mile long.  Among the top reasons why this was an unreasonable request were:

•We were about to have a new baby.
•My husband is incredibly busy at works right now, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
•My husband has a very demanding church calling right now.
•We don't have the money to successfully run a campaign.
•What was the point?  There was no way a third-party candidate was going to win against a heavily favored Republican, so why try?

We had two days to let them know.  At first "no" seemed like the only logical answer, but through prayer we were both brought to realize that we couldn't keep complaining about the state of things in this country if we weren't willing to pay some price to try to make it different.  This quote by Edmund Burke,  "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." kept coming to our minds and we knew what our answer needed to be.

Last Friday my husband drove to the State Capitol and filed his candidacy for Utah's Third District Congressional Seat.  He started setting up his website over the weekend, and I encourage you to take a look at it here. If you like what you see, pass the word along.  We want to get the word out to as many people as possible.  If you would like to contribute time or resources to the campaign, we would love the support.  If you don't live nearby we encourage you to find and support candidates in your area that honor and uphold the constitution as it was intended by the founders of this nation.  Who knows what this year will hold for us, and what the fruits of this labor will produce, but at least we can say that we have done something to try to prosper the cause of freedom.

Welcome Baby!

After a long wait C. Bear finally made her appearance into the world at 4:13 am on March 17th.  She was a whopping 10 lbs. 14 oz. and 22 inches long.  Amazingly enough hers was my easiest birth.  I was in labor for only 2 hours and I would say only 15 to 20 minutes of that was really painful.  I guess she made up for all the torture she put me through those 10 extra days she decided to wait before being born.

We had a bit of a scare after her delivery though.  My water broke right before she was delivered and there was a lot of meconium in the fluid.  When she was born she went limp and wouldn't breath.  They had to perform mouth to mouth right away and got her breathing.  I was terrified.  Luckily Doug was calm and said he knew everything was going to be alright.  They then inserted a tube down her throat and sucked out a tube and a half of green fluid.  She started breathing and crying a little more normally, but we had to give her oxygen for about a half hour.  Thankfully, after that everything seemed fine.  She started eating and probably could have done that for the rest of the day if I let her.  We had to watch her closely for the first 24 hours, but she has been thriving since that first scare.  

The kids came to see her a few hours after she was born and were so excited.  They all love their new baby sister, and can't get enough of her, which sometimes drives mom crazy.  They have been such big helpers though, getting me food and water and diapers and whatever else I need.  H. Man even did two loads of laundry for me yesterday which was such a help and so needed.  

Little C. is a little jealous and bothered by the fact that mom can't do all the things with and for her that she normally does.  She still loves her baby sister though and wants to hold her as much as I will let her, despite the fact that she tried to pull a handful of C. Bear's hair yesterday.  Hopefully this phase will pass quickly.

Doug has been amazing as usual.  He has been such a great help and comfort, doting on his new daughter and I and making sure the house stays clean and we all get fed.  He is the greatest husband and father I could ask for.  It will be hard to have him go back to work tomorrow.

We are just grateful to have C. Bear here and healthy and to have the opportunity to embark on this new journey as a family.

Gratitude

 Doctrine and Covenants 59:21 And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.

I typically find it easy to recognize and acknowledge the Lord's hand in my life, but somehow whenever I am pregnant and my due date approaches, or passes by unheeded, my "woe is me" attitude kicks into hyperdrive.  I assume that many of us tend to have times in our lives when everything seems to be going wrong and we start to wonder what we've done to "deserve" this.  I have to admit that I have been feeling this way for the past week or so.  I could (and usually would) choose to look at my life and be grateful that my husband has a job that brings in enough income to provide for our needs and allows me to stay home with our children, that I have family (namely my brother) kind and generous enough to donate 2 months of daily work to building our basement, that I have had a healthy pregnancy so far with not much more than the common discomforts that naturally accompany it, etc.  Instead, for the past week or so I have too often chosen to dwell on the fact that my husband was supposed to get a raise a year ago that still hasn't materialized, that our basement was supposed to be finished a month ago, but realistically won't be for at least another month, that I am one day passed my due date and am begrudging all the women that I know who have never delivered their babies later than a week or more before their due dates, etc.  

I was feeling really sorry for myself yesterday (my "due date") as I headed into church to face the many sympathetic comments like "Oh, I'm sorry you're still here." or, "Isn't your due date really soon?" I especially felt cheated when someone shared in "The Good News Minute" that a woman in the neighborhood, who's due date wasn't for 3 more weeks, had her baby on Friday.  I almost wished I would have stayed home for all of church with my sick and ornery 2 year old, instead of trading off with my husband so we could both attend some of our Sunday meetings.  Luckily we had a great lesson which brought the spirit to soften my heart, and then Heavenly Father allowed my softened heart to be humbled a little more by prompting a friend of mine to share with us that she found out last week that she has cancer.  Despite this terrifying news she bore her testimony of how blessed she is and how much she has seen and felt Heavenly Fathers love and peace in her life over the past week.  There is nothing like seeing the problems of others to put our own shallow worries in their place.  I came home with a greater resolve to look at the good in my life, and accept the challenges that Heavenly Father allows me to face with more gratitude and humility.

President Monson gave a wonderful talk on gratitude in the October 2008 LDS General Conference that  helps remind me what is truly important in life, and how truly blessed I am.  In it he quoted Sarah Ban Breathnach saying, "Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”  This is such a beautiful truth.  No matter who we are, or what our circumstances may be, we can find numerous blessings in our lives, or numerous problems, it depends on what we choose to focus on.  

So tonight as I try to sleep with my aching back, and when I wake up once again at 2:00am with unbearable heart-burn, I will try to focus instead on the fact that I have a warm house and a soft matress to sleep on, and that I have a loving and supportive husband next to me who will do all that he can to help me and provide for me and our family, that God loves me enough to bless me with the four amazing children we have and another child that will inevitably arrive any day, and that most of all he has provided a way for all of us to be together with him for eternity, if we but choose to follow Him and endure well to the end.

Great New Blog

I just found out about this great new blog for LDS Homeschoolers, and I though I'd share.  It's called Latter-Day Homeschooling, and it is filled with lots of great resources and wonderful articles like this one, written by LDS homeschooling mothers.  I think it is wonderful that this resource is here, and I look forward to reading more.  Check it out, and while you're there, enter their grand opening giveaways!

Waiting for Baby

For the past few weeks I have had plenty to occupy my time, and attention.  Between trying to finnish our basement, school, trying to get the house ready for a baby (despite all of the construction) and being sick with a severe head-cold for a week which then morphed into bronchitis that lasted for another week, I have had plenty to keep me from going too stir-crazy waiting for the baby to be born.  Unfortunately things have calmed down a bit now.  I am healthy again, and I think I am as ready as I am going to be for the baby; I have a freezer full of meals for after the baby is born, all the baby's clothes are washed and ready, and the house is as organized as it is going to be until the basement is finished.  Now all I have to do is wait, and that is one of the hardest things to do when you get to the "I'm too miserable to bear another minute of pregnancy" state that I have now reached.  My husband keeps trying to console me by saying that since my due date is less than a week a way, we know that at the most I will have the baby within three weeks, but when a day feels like a week, that is little consolation.

I thought I would pass some of the time by sharing some of the things I've learned over the past few weeks.  Here they are, in no particular order:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 2 tablespoon honey, heated and mixed with 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper is a good natural remedy for sore throats.  Gargle a bit and drink the rest.  It didn't even give me heart burn. . .
• That same 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 2 tablespoons honey heated, minus the cayenne pepper, can help sooth a cough, but not always . . .
• Eating an apple is a great natural way to get rid of heart-burn.  It has worked for me every time.  Even with the really bad cases that wake me up at 2am.
• These are great freezer recipes.  Double or triple the recipes and make some for dinner tonight and put the rest in foil baking dishes in the freezer for another night when you can't, or don't feel like cooking and you won't have to do any extra work to fill your freezer with food.
   Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
   Vegetable Enchiladas
   Lasagna Primavera
   Vegetable Chowder (I froze this and the next recipe in gallon freezer Zip-Lock bags)
   Tomato Soup
I also made and froze meatloaf, and spaghetti sauce, but those are recipes I have to type up if I find the time.
•  This is not a great freezer recipe (or regular recipe for that matter).  Unfortunately I didn't find that out until after I made a double batch. . .
   Mandarin Orange Chicken
In all fairness, I did recently find this recipe in its original form, in the book Once a Month Cooking.  It looks like their instructions would have corrected many of the things that caused the recipe to be so terrible, but I don't think I will give it another try.
• Babies come when they're ready, and no amount of wishing otherwise will change that.  Once they are here you forget all about the waiting and have a whole new set of joys and challenges in your life, so you might as well enjoy the moment.  (Well this is one I am still trying to learn, or at least remember.)