PARK DAYS!!!!
When thinking of ways to have fun with a limited budget I try to get creative and take the boys to different parks around the county so they don't get bored with the same old stuff. So recently we went to a new park and it had a tire swing!
No More Public School Tax for Homeschoolers!
We just got our mid year County Tax estimate and I am not staying
quiet anymore. Even though we have lived in this house for 12 years and I
knew we paid the school tax, I never questioned it. Our children did
attend public school once but it was only 3 years. Now that I am
homeschooling our 4 boys. Why should we have to pay this $700 every
year?! Imagine how many other things we could do with that money, for
the children.
I am sure we are not the only ones who have questioned
this tax. I am tired of paying for something we don't use. It would be
no different if the electric company charged us for our neighbors power
bill. It is just not logical. So if you homeschool your children or they
are no longer in school at all will you please join me in signing this
petition to stop these ridiculous taxes.
Click on the link below to sign my petition and share with friends and family. https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-more-public-school-tax-for-homeschoolers
My children are teaching me
Well I've been a mother for 13 years now and I've changed a lot. I feel like my children have taught me a lot. Some things are more important than others. Little talks about their day are more important than watching TV together. Family game time is more important than dishes and laundry. Making train tracks and playing race cars or legos is more important than blogging, Facebook or reading emails. My boys need my attention and when I decided "THE MESS CAN WAIT" it made a huge difference. When Jacob was a baby I constantly picked up after him.
Then Jaron was born and he needed extra time for feedings, so the mess was NOT priority. Dishes can wait until they go to bed. I have taught my boys that we don't go to bed with a mess so we can start the next day with a clean house. One thing I've struggled with is getting on the computer to read something and getting interrupted several times. I get impatient with them and then feel guilty for it. So I try to reserve my time online for after their bedtime.
Jonah's name means "dove" and that was God's symbol of calm after the storm in the Bible. Jonah was born after Jaron and he didn't have a cleft. I was so worried he would and we would have to go through that experience all over again. But when we found out through ultrasound at 11 weeks pregnant he was not going to be cleft affected, I was SO relieved. He was my calm after the storm. I relaxed even more about keep things so perfectly clean all the time. I enjoyed nursing him for 11 months and we bonded so much during that time. I learned to appreciate the little things.
Justus is our last child and and after he was born he got the flu at 3 weeks old. It was a very difficult time in our lives. We were so broke and it was Christmas. Chris was off work for the holiday and he stayed home with the other 3 boys while they had the flu also, and Strep throat. But tamiflu is SO expensive and we didn't have the money to buy it. Our pastor's wife came to the hospital and handed me a one hundred dollar bill and it was right on time! God always knows how to provide right when we need it. Justus was very sick with a high fever and they even had to do a spinal tap to rule out everything. I was nursing him hourly to try to replenish his fluids because he was so dehydrated they had to put his IV in his head. I know that mother's milk is like liquid gold and the best thing for a baby so I did all I could do. After 3 days of laying lethargic he finally came around and the fever started to go down. I learned to trust God in that dark valley and have more confidence in my husband to take care of the children when I cannot.
I'm not perfect and there are so many things I still want to do better. This is just some things my children have taught me. Being a mother molds us into better people. God knows our struggles and I just need to learn to ask Him for more help instead of trying to do it all on my own.
Then Jaron was born and he needed extra time for feedings, so the mess was NOT priority. Dishes can wait until they go to bed. I have taught my boys that we don't go to bed with a mess so we can start the next day with a clean house. One thing I've struggled with is getting on the computer to read something and getting interrupted several times. I get impatient with them and then feel guilty for it. So I try to reserve my time online for after their bedtime.
Jonah's name means "dove" and that was God's symbol of calm after the storm in the Bible. Jonah was born after Jaron and he didn't have a cleft. I was so worried he would and we would have to go through that experience all over again. But when we found out through ultrasound at 11 weeks pregnant he was not going to be cleft affected, I was SO relieved. He was my calm after the storm. I relaxed even more about keep things so perfectly clean all the time. I enjoyed nursing him for 11 months and we bonded so much during that time. I learned to appreciate the little things.
Justus is our last child and and after he was born he got the flu at 3 weeks old. It was a very difficult time in our lives. We were so broke and it was Christmas. Chris was off work for the holiday and he stayed home with the other 3 boys while they had the flu also, and Strep throat. But tamiflu is SO expensive and we didn't have the money to buy it. Our pastor's wife came to the hospital and handed me a one hundred dollar bill and it was right on time! God always knows how to provide right when we need it. Justus was very sick with a high fever and they even had to do a spinal tap to rule out everything. I was nursing him hourly to try to replenish his fluids because he was so dehydrated they had to put his IV in his head. I know that mother's milk is like liquid gold and the best thing for a baby so I did all I could do. After 3 days of laying lethargic he finally came around and the fever started to go down. I learned to trust God in that dark valley and have more confidence in my husband to take care of the children when I cannot.
I'm not perfect and there are so many things I still want to do better. This is just some things my children have taught me. Being a mother molds us into better people. God knows our struggles and I just need to learn to ask Him for more help instead of trying to do it all on my own.
Newlyweds
 |
| December 26, 1998 ( He was 20 and I was 18) |
 |
 |
| We took our first professional pictures together since our wedding. So young and so different without the children. Time and age can do so much for a person. We learn as we go in life and I am glad we had those first few years together before we had children. We were able to adjust to each other and living together before the boys came into the picture. |
 |
| We traveled on planes to see family out of state (because we could afford it) for the holidays. We bought our first (and only) house while I was pregnant with our first son. I worked until the day before Jacob was born. I used my maternity leave and vacation time accumulated and called my boss and told I would not be coming back. I needed to stay home with my baby. I have been home ever since. God have me my children and I didn't want miss anything so I chose to be home with them. Even if it means pinching pennies to make ends meet. That's what we have to do. It's worth it! God has provided our needs. |
Jaron's donor made it in the Guinness Book!!!
The Illinois woman has donated 16,321 ounces of breast milk — the equivalent of 816 Venti Starbucks cup or 241 two-liter soda bottles — to the Indiana Mother's Milk Bank over the past seven years.
That does not include the 7,000 ounces Boomker, 36, pumped after her first son was born nine years ago. That milk was shipped off to a North Carolina breast milk bank. Nor does it include the milk she fed to her own children, each of whom drank breast milk exclusively for more than a year.
"I have never really successfully breastfed, but I have produced a whole lot of milk," she said.
Milk banks rely on donated milk to help sick or premature infants whose own mothers are unable to provide them with human milk. Experts believe pasteurized donor milk provides these most vulnerable infants with a raft of benefits, including protecting against disease and allergies and helping a baby grow.
Boomker, who lives in Bolingbrook, Ill., started pumping a few days after her oldest child, Danny was born. He had a heart condition that required multiple surgeries, and the doctors told her breast milk might aid in his recoveries. Four days after his birth, he was wheeled to the operating room for the first surgery.
"I started pumping since he was not there. That was all I could do," she said.
Danny didn't have the strength to latch. Boomker's next child had a high palate and couldn't breastfeed either. She had a difficult recovery after her third child's c-section birth and opted to pump rather than breastfeed.
Her baby Connor, now 18 months old, tried for a few weeks but then opted for the bottle.
Boomker had an alternative: Pumping.
With each child, she would pump between eight and 10 times a day for about 20 minutes each time. In all, she'd spend about three hours a day pumping. She'd set the alarm so she could pump every few hours throughout the night. After the first eight weeks, when she returned to work, she'd drop to eight pumps a day.
The office where she works in corporate IT proved incredibly understanding, allowing her to take conference calls from the lactation room.
When her first child was born, the Indiana Mother's Milk Bank had not opened. It had opened by the time Liam, now 6, was born. Boomker started donating through the Indiana bank from from February 2008 through September 2013.
She used to have to ship her milk but in the past year or so she took advantage of one of the depots, which will accept donations and then ship them to Indianapolis for processing. The bank distributes milk in Indiana and throughout the Midwest.
When her youngest child turned 1, the bank only accepted donations from mothers for up to a year post-partum. Although the bank recently changed that policy, Boomker's supply has diminished enough so that she's no longer donating.
Still, she hopes her setting the record will shine light on milk donation and bring more donors to the milk bank.
And the certificate she got for her efforts has certainly been nice, she said.
"I went into work and showed the people this is why I have been sitting in the pump room for all those hours," she said.
~~~~~~~~HOW WE MET HER~~~~~~~~
When Jaron was born he couldn't keep down any of the formula's and I of course could not nurse him. The hospital didn't offer any kind of pump and I was so shook up didn't even think about pumping myself. So we went through several kinds of formula's trying to find something his little stomach could handle. Nothing seemed to work. Here is a list of all the different milks we tried with Jaron....
Birth June 29th, 2005-July 12 Similac
July 12, 2005-August 22, 2005 Enfamil
August 22-24 pure goats milk
August 24-26 Neocate
August 26, 2005-May 31, 2006 Dairy Free Donor Breast Milk (Amelia Boomker)
May 31, 2006-June 30, 2006 Lactose Free Enfamil
July 1, 2006-June 30, 2010 Vanilla Pediasure (3 a day)
Currently he still drinks Vanilla Kids Essentials Boost (1 a day)
When Amy's baby turned one and her milk content changed the milk bank wouldn't take her milk anymore but we needed it for Jaron. She told me she had so much in her freezer and I was welcome to come get it. So that was when Wendy's was doing a promotional thing with Airtran and the more cups you got you could get points for a ticket. So my family all helped me collect cups to get a ticket to Chicago to get the 2 coolers of milk for Amy. She met me at the airport and we checked them in as luggage and I flew back home. She really is an amazing woman!!!! I found this in his baby book.
PS: I think it's very neat we both have 4 boys!!!
No Self Esteem
I never really know how to accept a compliment from someone else. Especially from a stranger, it's so hard when someone tells me I'm pretty but I don't feel pretty. Just a simple thank you would do but I can never get the words out of my mouth.
My husband always seems to complement me on the days I feel the worst. When my head is hurting or when I feel so ugly and fat he always knows the right things to say to make me feel better. But I just can't say thank you and I don't know how to accept it and be grateful so then I feel horrible because I rejected his compliment. What's wrong with me?!?! Apparently I have a very low self esteem and its buried down deep, i just hide it well. And I am sure I am not the only one. I am just the one of the few willing to share my story.
The bullying started in 2nd grade when I was 8, I got glasses.
Then when I was 11 I moved from my moms to my dads to a new school with no friends. They bullied me there too. Kids are mean! They picked on me and my little brother.
Then when I was 11 I moved from my moms to my dads to a new school with no friends. They bullied me there too. Kids are mean! They picked on me and my little brother.
It was a very hard 2 years in 7th & 8th grade.
Then there was high school where 3 different girls I know wanted to beat me up and told me all the time and I still don't know why. Boys always breaking up with me because I wouldn't go to bed with them and the endless drama between the girls. So needless to say I never really fit in and still don't to this day.
I had to learn to like myself no matter what anyone else thought. My self confidence comes from they way my parents raised me. I am naturally outgoing and I love to talk to people. So like most people do I push those feelings far back in my mind and dress up nice and socialize trying to forget.
But when I am in pain from a headache (sometimes for days at a time) that is when satan really gets in my head. I have learned that no matter what comes against me I will not lay down and die. I refuse to let the devil steal my joy. I am not a lazy person and I am not a quitter! My husband and children need me and just because I am in pain doesn't give me the right to give up on life. I have to keep going. I have too much to do and these little lives depend on me.
So (after 22 years with headaches) I have learned to compartmentalize the pain in my mind and separate my thoughts trying to block out the pain and focus on what needs to get done. In order to function in pain I might not talk much and I probably won't be smiling but I am still doing what needs to be done. Those who know me can always tell when my head hurts. Some days are easier than others.
My self image is a deeper issue and I don't usually have much time to waste thinking about it. So when those negative feelings surface my husband is always there to remind me that I am beautiful and he loves me just the way I am. Thank God for my husband. {and thank God for make up}
But when I am in pain from a headache (sometimes for days at a time) that is when satan really gets in my head. I have learned that no matter what comes against me I will not lay down and die. I refuse to let the devil steal my joy. I am not a lazy person and I am not a quitter! My husband and children need me and just because I am in pain doesn't give me the right to give up on life. I have to keep going. I have too much to do and these little lives depend on me.
So (after 22 years with headaches) I have learned to compartmentalize the pain in my mind and separate my thoughts trying to block out the pain and focus on what needs to get done. In order to function in pain I might not talk much and I probably won't be smiling but I am still doing what needs to be done. Those who know me can always tell when my head hurts. Some days are easier than others.
My self image is a deeper issue and I don't usually have much time to waste thinking about it. So when those negative feelings surface my husband is always there to remind me that I am beautiful and he loves me just the way I am. Thank God for my husband. {and thank God for make up}
Do you struggle with these same problems or feelings? Please feel free to share your story or mine. Just click on the links below to comment or share this post.
Obvious whispering
Of course there will always be those that comment wherever I go.
"Are they all your boys?!"
"Oh MY you really have your hands full!"
{this comment bothers my oldest son}
But the ones who whisper so obviously about me as I walk by, seem to get under my skin more than others. I would rather them say it to my face. I am a pretty blunt person and I wish people would treat me with the same respect.
Are they whispering because I'm in the skirt? are they whispering because I have so many children? are they talking about me because they read my blog and they know I don't vaccinate? I will never know what they're saying.
Psalm 41:7 " All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt."
Motherly Love
Once
upon a time, I had time for myself. Now, my toe nails need some love.
My hair is neglected. I can’t take a shower without an audience. Proof
that somebody needs me. Knocking on the door little fingers
underneath...somebody always needs me. There is so much to do for these
little people that when I want to do something for myself I have so
much guilt. (motherly guilt-another post) Or I am just too tired to do
anything else.
Somebody always needs a snack, a band-aid, a different sock, ice cubes in their water, a Toy, a tissue, a hug, a story, a kiss, a spoon, a bath,...... Some days never seem to end and it can really take its toll. Then, it all started to hit me, they need ME~Mommy.
Sometimes I enjoy being needed, but usually it is exhausting. But, it isn’t meant to be enjoyed every moment. God made me their Mother. It is a position I prayed for long before I would ever understand all that it would require of me. And I have to admit this is the toughest job I have ever had.
The sooner I can accept that means that I am never off the clock, the sooner I can find peace.
Being "Mommy" is a privilege and honor. Being "Mommy" means I neglect
myself and put others before my needs. My body is usually hurting but my
heart is full of love.
Night time is the best. When my youngest crawls into bed with me. Who knows what time of night. He wraps his tiny arms around my neck and kisses me "I love you Mommy".
One day that little boy will grow up to be a man. There will no longer be any sweet words whispered to me in the night. Just the rain of the sound machine. I will sleep peacefully through the night, never a worry of a sick child or a crying baby. It will just be a memory. These years of being needed are exhausting.
I have to stop complaining of the lack of sleep and how hard some days can be. I am trying to savor every moment and enjoy the hugs and all the little things that come with each day. They grow up way too fast. I know I am going to miss these precious times so I am trying to focus on the good. I don't have a career, my boys are my career.
One day I will get myself back.
One day I will get myself back.
But today I give myself away because they need me.
I
am sure there will come a day when no one needs me. Our boys will all
be gone and busy with their own lives. I will be in some nursing home
watching my body wither away. No one will need me then. I might even
be a burden to them. Sure, they will come visit, but my arms will no
longer be their home. They won't need my kisses to cure their boo
boos. There will be no more tiny sticky fingers to wipe or shoe laces
to tie. I'm sure my heart will long to hear those tiny voices calling
out to me, “Mommy!"
Scavenger hunt at the park
We found this hollow tree the boys loved!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
