I've moved!

Please follow me at my new bloggy home.

Same great level of mediocrity. New digs.

Occasionally I blog

Seems like the kids have taken over my computer time. Funny how that happens.

What with the Google Reader now extinct, I'm not even sure if anyone subscribes to this blog any more. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't it's been hit and miss for a couple of years now. Mostly miss.

But I'm trying to get back in the groove, and I'm starting with a new blog to document our homeschooling journey. Whether it be a short jaunt down the road or we pave it into an interstate, I'm going to try to journal it more closely online at Apostolic Honor Academy.

Right now my kids are being as loud as possible and I've been ignoring it for a few minutes, so I'm gonna jump off here and referee awhile. Hopefully it won't take a few months.

"Ask me what I'm drawing, Mommy."

"What are you drawing Zach?"

"A warthog."

The Star of Gosslehem seems to be off course a tad, yes?

Baby talk

One of the things we miss most about each kid learning to talk is the way they say basic phrases. I'm pretty sure Zachary will graduate high school saying "lellow" instead of "yellow."

Gracie has the caYUTEST way of talking where she pauses between words to emphasize her intensity. And right now the funniest thing is when she tries to say "make sure you ..." or "make sure you don't ..." It comes out as "makes much you..." and "don't makes much you ..."

I won't miss the screaming. Dear God. It is so shrill. She has the same pitch of a scream for tragedy, pain, and offense. So I never really know if she is attacking Zach out of pure meanness, or defending herself. And I can't hear what anyone is saying over the screaming.

Gabriel is joining in. He says "Momma," "up," "Dada," and my personal favorite, "uh Dada" when he is looking around for Chris. Saying "where's Daddy?"

That's right. I just bragged that my 9 month old is forming sentences. But that's why you read the blog, right?

The elephant in the room

My sister Instagrammed a funny picture of a spine, with the caption: "Eva wants to know who ate the whole elephant."

I thought it was so funny, so when the kids started getting up for breakfast I asked them if they wanted a waffle for breakfast, or an elephant. Zach was happy with a waffle, but Gracie informed me she wanted an elephant for breakfast, and one for lunch, and one for snack ...

And then Zach brought me a fresh onesie for the baby. With a wee little elephant on it.

Well, hello Dolly!

I love that line.

Eight  months later.

I have kept my family fed, reasonably clean and mostly clothed. It's always a question if Gracie will be wearing anything resembling the outfit I so lovingly laid out for her. And Zachary changes his socks the moment he senses any discomfort whatsoever.

Gabriel was a puke baby. Mercy. He is getting better but for awhile there ... gross. We have done a lot of laundry. (of course by "we" I actually meant Chris.)

(no judgy)

We have refrained from any major car accidents, no one had any stitches or broken bones, and almost everyone had a birthday. 

I can count on one thumb the number of children who still nap.

Momma is a stress-eater, and judging by my clothing size at the moment, it's been a rough eight months. But that's a topic for another day, and would someone please pass the donuts ...

We were blessed with a newer washer and dryer set, for which I am super happy about. My dishwasher is broken. Fridge falling apart any moment now. Ergo, other new appliances are on the horizon.

Facebook has been deactivated for the last time. I'd like to deactivate a few people. But we will just settle for comment moderation on my old friend The Blawg.

I don't plan on pressuring myself to be the best blogger out there, and photos are mostly gonna be published on Instagram, but here I am with as much wit as I can muster between all of the feedings and baths and the non-napping :)

Love to you all!

The reality check has been cashed and SPENT

I'm sure it is no surprise to anyone reading this still that I have been cah-RAZY busy and absent lately.

I have a busy 14 year old who has recently grown up into a very helpful young lady with the kids.  However, there's only so much entertaining that big sister can do for a knowledge-hungry 4 year old boy and a whirling dirvish two-and-a-half girl. Then there is the 6 week old baby boy who loves loves LOVES to cuddle and be held by Momma. Allthetime. I am completely smitten with him, and you can find me wrapped around his precious little finger.

Consequently, I rarely get to sit down to the computer with two empty hands to do much more than my basic banking and the actual work that I do for the church. I'm dependent on my phone for any internet fun like Twitter or Facebook, and that is always on the run.

I am giving myself permission to stop pressuring myself about blogging. You can always find me on Twitter, Facebook, and more recently Instagram as lgossom.  I'm on Pinterest as well - pinning my hopes and dreams of a perfect house on the interweb ;)

I've been blogging for close to seven years now. I'm so thankful for every friend I have made and every acquaintance renewed through the community of blogging.  Social networking does not replace local friendships for me. I feel like it has enhanced my ability to listen and converse without judgement, and definitely I am a better person because of you. Yes, you!

It's a new season of life for me, one which I have long dreamed for. I'm excited about how our family has grown - and you have been there with us.  Thank you for all the memories!

Much love,

Liz

Gabriel Anthony

We are proud to introduce our newest addition!

Gabriel Anthony joined our family Thursday, March 1st at 6:43pm. Weighing in at a nice 8 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 19 3/4", I'm thankful that he is our last baby.  If I had gone through labor like that either time before, we wouldn't have had any more children.

It started out pretty normal for me. I was still only dilated 2cm at my appointment the Monday prior, and the doctor agreed to induce me Thursday even though he stated the baby was pretty high up there, thus a risk for a c-section. My other labors hadn't even a hint of a complication, so we pretty much poo-pooed his worries and he said he was comfortable with delivering on March 1st. This put me at 4 days early, since they did change my due date to March 5th.

I really thought with the level of contractions I had been having all week that I would be in the hospital Wednesday night.  We distributed the children to their home for the week, and showed up at the hospital at 5:30am on Thursday. The same nurse who started my induction for Gracie was there, so that was nice. We had the Pitocin drip started by 7:10am, doctor broke my water around 9, and by 10:45 the epidural was in effect. On schedule to deliver early afternoon, if things went according to how Zachary and Gracie were delivered.

But I still just didn't dilate. Unfortunately, our favorite doctor was only there until 1pm, and after that was the doctor I saw that previous Monday. When he got there, I was barely at a 4, with no dropping.  He started spouting off about high risk for c-section, baby not ready yet, that's why they don't like to induce early, yada yada yada. I got to hear that nice little speech every hour until 4pm. I finally got to a 5 then, and the epidural started wearing off.

For the next hour I was maxed out on the Pitocin. The epidural slowly wore off, and I really started to be in pain and uncomfortable.  I could feel extreme pressure, but still not dilating any. At 5:00, the doctor let me in on a little secret - my cervix was leaning to my left, and the baby's head wasn't dropping down into it but was pressing on the side of the opening. In fact - hind sight is 20/20, of course - I had been having pain on my lower right abdomen for the last 6-8 weeks of my pregnancy.  I wasn't comfortable sleeping on my right side at all, and if by chance I rolled over onto my right side without having hoisted myself over there, I always turned back over to my left side. Excruciating pain, but I didn't ever think to tell the doctor because I just thought it was pregnancy, and pain happens.

Anyways, when he mentioned that tiny detail about my cervix not cooperating, the nurse suggested that I reposition to my right side, instead of the sitting up we had been trying, to allow gravity to take its course. Dr McSmartypants also threw in one final "if she hasn't delivered by 8pm, we will have to do a c-section."

I think at that point I started going delirious. About the last thing I remember is crying, asking Chris to pray for me because I was so scared. I just held on to the bed railing and cried every contraction. At some point Chris started calling around for prayer for me, because it just was not looking good at all.  My bff Christina got there some time after 6. I do know I was so relieved when I saw she was there because that's just what we do for each other.  Finally around 6:30 they pronounced that I was complete and ready to push.

Chris and Christina have had a really great time sharing with our friends and family that I told off the doctor about telling me what to do, and giving the anesthesiologist down the road ... I don't really remember all that.

(I did ask if I cussed, and thankfully I did not.)

(I will not say that those words did not pass through my mind but apparently even in my miserable about to die state, the Lord had mercy on me to help me not be profane.)

At 6:43pm, the most precious little bundle of fat rolls came tumbling out. Zachary had asked me how the doctor was going to get the baby out, and would he come through my belly button? I decided almost 4 years old is still too young for some facts of life, and told him that the doctor would know how to help me get the baby out.  So he thinks Gabriel came out of my back. I'm going with that. :)

Even though he was bigger than the other two babies, I have to agree with my sister in law Catharine. She had a 9 pounder first, and then again a 7+ pound baby just a few months ago, and said they both felt the same coming out. That is exactly the way I felt, even though the labor to get to that point was different for each child, the actual pushing of a human out of my body didn't feel any different.

I still wouldn't call this labor traumatic. I was disappointed at the lack of support I received from the doctor who was delivering. However with my body not really lining up the way it was supposed to, I don't think the labor would have gone any differently if I was induced on or after my due date.

Enough about me. THE BABY! He is so precious!  Takes a paci, thank you Lord for small blessings. Loves to snuggle right into my neck, he's a great nurser, and last night he slept from 11pm to 4am, and again 5am to 8:45am.  It was fantastic. He does have a spitty problem, but I'm working on resolving that by just shortening his feeding times because I think he is just a super sucker haha!

This was today. Zonked out on my lap.

We're so pleased at how the kids are doing with him. Gracie has finally figured out it is a he, not a her. For the first night she was saying "Her so tute!" every 30 seconds. Zachary is oh so protective of him, and tells everyone he is a Big Brother.  Like he hasn't had a little sister for the last 2 1/2 years. Kelsey is head over heels for him.  I think it's different this time for her because she is older, and has lived with us the whole pregnancy. It's more real that a new baby joined the family rather than us picking up a baby doll at the store.

Affectionately we call him our love child because he was totally unplanned. But I wouldn't take him back for all the 100% birth control plans in the world.

One Square Yard For Liz, One Giant Leap For Decoration

I have some plans.

When we left off painting in June - directly correlated to the time I got pregnant and lost all will and energy to do anything that required thought or planning - we had begun to paint the family room area.  My original plans to do a charcoal gray and yellow theme fell through about 12 hours after we painted the toyroom (now my craft room) yellow.  Feather Plume from Behr, to be exact.  It is so bright. No, bright is an understatement. I was inspired by my mother in law's home, her kitchen is this color. It's delightful, welcoming, cheerful. Everything I want my family room to be. However - her ceilings are probably 3-4' higher in the kitchen than in my family room. 

It makes a difference.  There is a reason the Sun is 150,000,000 miles from the Earth.

I am still in love with the deep gray we have painted the bottom half of the walls and one entire wall (split level - we have ledges). So everywhere downstairs that it is the cream/taupe from the previous owners and ALL OF THE SUNSHINE, we are going with a few shades lighter gray on the same chip.  I'm excited about that because I can use colorful and easily changed out textiles for my window curtains.

And my side curtains!

For the brief time that my other mother in law lived with us, we had a curtain separating her private living space from the rest of the family room.  She has since moved on, and I simply added onto the curtain rod to extend the curtains to either side of the opening.  

Like so:

see the yellow? The lights are OFF. It's like heaven, where there will be no more night.

I have been looking for inspiration for how to have neutral gray walls, colorful fabrics, and still reconcile the big red couch.  New furniture for the downstairs is a long way off, although I hope to add a futon couch and a few easy chairs soon. But a whole new set? Meh. I'll wait until the kids get a little older. Especially now that I know my new carpet shampooer does wonders on microfiber. 

Where was I? Oh yes. Inspiration.  

Inspiration came in the form of Sis Pastor's Wife who had received this remnant of fabric years ago as a gift. After spending the afternoon Saturday here with my baby shower, she brought this to me Sunday to see if I could use it, because it doesn't really flow with her decor. 

I. Love. It.   

I wouldn't want a whole set of curtains from it, but it is a start. I am going to make it a pillow, and pull colors from it for other pillows and base all of the curtains from it as well.  

I'm especially excited, because the changing table/dresser that I stole from Gracie to start off my craft room needs to be repainted. This DIY project brought to you by a quick nap from Daddy while Gracie went cah-RAZY on her whole body, the changing table, and Zachary's wall with a blue highlighter. It came off of everything except the changing table.  Which is fine, because as it is, it looks like a changing table. My goal for that area is to be able to set up my sewing machine full time, and do whatever I need to do when I need to do it instead of waiting for an opportunity for the kitchen table to be available. 

Also, I love this image that I pinned from The Pioneer Woman's website:

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Liz on Pinterest

Doesn't that look so inviting?  And wouldn't the ever-popular Robin's Egg Blue shade found in the fabric sample be delightful on a changing table/dresser/don't-ever-touch-Momma's-stuff?

Maybe I could just give Gracie back that blue highlighter and let her go to town on the changing table, because it is a close match.