I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

even though I feel like I did!

I have just been soooooo busy that my head is spinning far to fast to grab something rational out of it and make them into a post.  We didn't even celebrate Mother's day this year, how bad is that!?

I'd rather not leave you with nothing, so here are some random thoughts-

I am really enjoying this pregnancy, even with the troubles at the start.  I am 28 weeks now, and the baby kicks me harder than any other, I love it!  It already hurts at times, and it is hard to imagine how much stronger the kicks will become, but they are wonderful.  I am feeling great, I haven't had any of the troubles that usually accompany my pregnancies (heartburn, sciatica, varicose veins, complete exhaustion, anemia, you get the idea) and I attribute it to our change in diet (some day I'll post about that) and my super awesome Super Mom vitamins, plus D3-5, Red Raspberry Leaf, Alfalfa, and Probiotics.  I also have hopes for making our own probiotic and microbic foods over the next couple of weeks, I'll let you know how it goes!

I failed my 1 hour glucose test so I had to do the 3 hour test, that was fun.  Fasting for 12 hours and then drinking a bottle of liquid sugar really makes for a happy momma.  Add that with having your blood drawn 5 different times and sitting in a tiny room with 5 kids for 3 hours and you have a great day!  Actually, other than looking like a bruised pin cushion the appointment went great. My kids are awesome sports.  I got the results a few days later, and of course they were normal.

I was informed by my midwife that I might prefer to have my baby in a travel trailer, or even in a parking lot rather than the local hospital.  The hospitals here are not supportive of natural birth, breastfeeding, keeping the baby in the room with mom, not vaccinating or anything that is normal.  I have heard all kinds of crazy stories from mom's who have delivered here but I wanted to stay positive.  So I asked the midwife to lay it on me.  She shut the door and lay it on me she did!  Not very encouraging at all, everything I have heard is true.  She said it is so bad that the midwives (who aren't part of the hospital, they just deliver there) will actually "forget" to let the hospital staff know that a mom has had her baby just so she will have more bonding time right after birth before the staff takes baby off to the nursery for the "mandatory" 4 hour monitoring.  Shocking!  Then I had to meet with the head OB doc to get VBAC approval (that is a normal birth after a c-cestion) and he was even less encouraging.  After looking over my chart he said that if he's working, he'd let me do a VBAC, but if someone else is on when I go in, they may not let me.  Oh, and there are two doctors that definitely won't let me because they are just against it and they won't even let their own patients.  I wanted to clarify so I said "So you are telling me that if I come in there in labor and some doc is having a bad day, he will tell me I have to have a c-section even though I have already had 4 natural births including a VBAC and I meet all the other requirements??!?"  Yeah, I heard him correctly.  I seriously believe if that happens, I will march my in-labor-behind back to my van, have Dad catch the baby, and then go back in.  Wait, why would I even go back in?  Does anyone know how to get a birth certificate if you have a baby at home?  Ok, I won't really have the baby at home.  I hope. But I am determined to have a great delivery and maybe even change a hospital policy or two while I'm at it.  I'll let you know how it goes, (only 84 days left according to the desktop ticker) and please pray for me if you think of it!

Our garden is doing AWESOME. I will get around to posting pictures, someday...  Everything is doing so well and I'm excited that it's completely organic.  We had to re-pot some tomatoes because they were getting huge and turns out we underestimated the size we needed for the pots. We even have our first little tomato growing!  I am hoping to get enough tomatoes to can a whole bunch for spaghetti sauce and what-not for a year.  I could already eat a salad for all the lettuce that is growing, and yesterday I used basil and lemon balm for our chicken dinner.  Home grown jalapeno poppers on the grill, here I come, yum!  I can't wait to live somewhere with a huge yard to have a huge garden.  We are really enjoying it!

I have changed up our schedule again, added more to it.  We are making progress to finish up this school year.  We normally school year round, but I have to plan ahead for the new baby and then for moving at the end of this year so I am trying to double up a bit.  We are starting at 7am and going until 3pm at least until the baby comes.  And we've added a new grammar curriculum, Rod and Staff, and we are really enjoying it.

I had to un-attach a tick from Sis's neck.  I've seen lots of ticks in my life, but something about having one attached to your child really changes things.  NASTY!

We watched a water moccasin swim across the lake and slither up the bank on our side, less than 15 feet from our "yard".  I grew up swimming in the Skunk River off the Mississippi with plenty of water moccasins, but something about seeing one where your children play changes things. Why do things change after you become a mom? YUCK!

Mr. Pilot has also been so busy his head might be spinning, but his busyness has been extremely exciting.  He started FORMS last week, that is flying formations in the sky with another plane.  He has to keep his wing 3 feet away from another plane while the other plane is doing all sorts of flips and rolls and turns and stuff that makes my husband come home with sparkling eyes every night.  He also got to do some tail chases (playing tag in the sky according to Sis) that really sent him soaring.

He received a promotion on Sunday to Lieutenant Junior Grade, congrats!  One of the things that comes with a promotion is new uniforms, and since you are an officer, you get to pay for all those required uniforms and silver bars (it's only like $300), congrats again!

Yesterday Mr. Pilot started the forms with other planes.  4 planes flying together with their wings 3 feet away from each other, doing all sorts of flips and rolls and turns and stuff that makes my husband come home with even more sparkling eyes every night.  Makes me wonder if having a hardcore adrenaline rush for several hours a day is a good thing, and if it is, I might be a little jealous.

It's also Dad's favorite season of the year, Softball season.  So we've been going to games a couple evenings a week to cheer Daddy on and enjoy the game.

Oh, and he is still leading family worship at night, and reading The Journey to us.  We loved the first book in the set and we are completely enjoying this one too.

These are all the random thoughts and happenings I have time for right now. When things settle down I'll get better at posting.

If things settle down...