Saturday, October 15, 2011

Logic & Wisdom

We can learn so much from children..

A Herd of Horses

We are not a one horse town...or should I say one horse home. We acquired our first horse when we lived in Monroe City. Breesa would gather the grass clippings in her red sand bucket to feed her horse, Katie. This kept her busy all day playing in the back yard.

One horse was enough for a while, until the girls started watching Horseland. The characters hopped right off the screen and into my living room. Soon I could hear them galloping around the track that runs from the kitchen, through the dining room and living room, around the hallway, through Macie’s room, and back to the kitchen. The name of the game is to make as much noise as possible on the wood floor so that two little girls sound like real heard of horses galloping in the open fields.

We also have a herd of miniature ponies. They aren’t really in the pony ride business but they are great for snuggling. These mini’s also like to play dress up. Their best friends are a dog named Jasmine, twin teddy bears, and a gang of other Webkinz-sized stuffed toys.

Our Hospital Birth

I went to the hospital when my labor was well in progress. However, it slowed upon arrival and I was induced with Pitocin a synthetic hormone used to control labor. Consequently, I caved into an epidural. I was naïve to the practices of a hospital.

I later learned that 81% women receive Pitocin. It is also common knowledge that Pitocin increases the pain of contractions and often causes the baby to go into shock and the uterus to work harder; rather than letting it contract as necessary to bring the baby to birth. The Pitocin and Epidural are often causes for Cesarean.

Cesarean rates were 32% in 2008. (USA TODAY)

America has 2nd worst newborn mortality rates of the modern world. (CNN)

44% of women who attempted a vaginal delivery were induced and twice as likely to deliver by C-section. (USA TODAY)

I considered my self lucky to get out of the hospital with a vaginal delivery. However, I was disappointed with the chain of events that I experienced. When I became pregnant with Nataly, I began to search for something better than a 1 in 3 chance of C-Section. I wanted to give birth in a place where my choices would be honored. I wanted to have a child birth free of protocol and standard practices, especially those that actually put me and my baby at unnecessary risk.

(Our Birthing Experience To Be Continued)

Little Princesses


We were so happy to give Breesa her first big birthday party. We try to avoid the “all about me” attitude you usually get with these parties. However, we were happy with the turn out. All six little girls were polite princesses. I was so happy to give them the opportunity to act like little ladies!!

The girls had a candy walk similar to a cake walk. Twice they played Pass the Present that included a gift wrapped 12 times and whoever peeled the last layer of paper was the recipient.

Lastly, they played Princess and the Pea where the girls squirmed around on pillows looking for the one with a “pea” under it. They danced the Chicken Dance (more than once...actually more times than I can count) and busted a piñata!




Boy or Girl?



Allow me to share my heart with you. So many people have asked if we are having a boy or a girl. Nataly insists it’s a Baby Scarlett, a sister, but I asked her if she would love a baby brother. She looked me square in the eye and said, “no”. Then she said she would poke him. Nice to know; I better keep an eye on her just in case.

She kisses on my belly and talks to baby “Scarlett”. So as time goes on, it appears Scarlett will be the name for a girl. Nataly loves babies. So I assume she will naturally mother this baby.

If anyone remembers, Macie insisted on a sister with Breesa. Then Breesa, at age 2 & 3, insisted Nataly was a girl and even said, “I told you so” upon meeting her new sister. Now, Nataly is insisting that this is a sister too, only time will tell.

Everyone asks if we want a boy this time. I’ve never understood the internal necessity to have one gender or the other. Excuse my frankness but I’ve never looked at our girls and thought, “if only you were a boy I would feel fulfilled”. We, having all girls, haven’t felt like we are missing anything.

The first time around I thought a boy would be fun because we had so many girls in our family already. Also, because many family members were hoping for a boy.

I quickly warmed up to girls, though. The other day I watched as Nataly climbed the stairs . She was wearing a bumblebee costume and carrying her stuffed puppy in one hand and broken tea set in the other. She was headed to the kitchen for a tea party while daddy cooked dinner. I thought it really doesn’t get any better.

If we have a boy, I’m sure I will find the joys of it just as fulfilling. But for now, we allow our girls to be girls without the pressure of thinking we wanted something different and thank God for our beautiful, precious children regardless of their gender.

Logic & Wisdom

While on her way to South Carolina (not Florida), Pierce asked Breesa to call when she landed so he would know she was safe. Breesa agreed and added, “if it takes a long time then we probably crashed.”

Back to School...

We are officially back to school. Macie started ninth grade at BTS and Breesa started her elective program. She had a full day of P.E., music, science, and chapel with desk work in between.

Macie loves her new school but Breesa’s first day was a long one. It was a little exciting for Breesa (or maybe just Mom) because it was her first day of going to a “real” school. She always wanted to go to school like Macie but after the long day, I think she prefers homeschool.

Nataly also got to go along for the ride. She sat next to Breesa for the first half of the day. Then headed down stairs to the nursery to run off some energy.

Logic & Wisdom

This was from a while back, but maybe you’ll laugh again if you’ve already seen the photo. Shortly after Pierce came home from his deployment, he told Breesa to clean up her room and not to put it under her bed.

She came back in the living room proudly proclaiming her accomplishment. She took her dad in to show him the clean room and his face was priceless… he forgot to mention Nataly’s bed.

Nicknames

Can you guess the girls’ nicknames?

A. Pumpkin
B. Shorty
C. Sugie (Sugar)

Personally, I think nicknames are silly. Nicknames for cities, like CoMo (Columbia, Missouri) or nicknames at work. I once worked with a Snooky and Elmo, both males. How professional is that? So I think I have good reason to despise nicknames.

However, I think nicknames should be reserved as a name for those who are close to you. We have nicknames in our house and I am fine with that. But having to call a guy I work with “Elmo” just feels wrong even if he had fire red hair.

So what are our nicknames? Well, the girls have a few! Peyton prefers to go by Macie. She is also known as Shorty, a name given by her dad because...well I’m sure you can guess.

Breesa’s nick name is Sugie. We used to call her Sugar but it was shortened to Sugie. She has always had a very sweet and gentle personality.

Of course, that leaves “Pumpkin”, my little November baby. Nataly actually has a few nicknames. We call her Baby Cakes, Pumpkin, and Adelheid. She hates to be called anything but Nataly unless she wants to be held, in which she refers to herself as “Baby”. Adelheid (pronounced Attle-height) comes from the movie “Heidi” with Shirley Temple that reminds so many of our friends of Nataly.

Back to School

It seems school is starting rather early this year. The middle of August is a little early to me. I, being of true home-schooler fashion, prefer to start after Labor Day and finish by Memorial Day.

Never-the-less, school will be starting on August 15th. We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of school because we will finally have something to do.

We found that after arriving in St. Joe and unpacking: we didn’t belong to any clubs; we didn’t have Girl Scout meetings; and basically we had nothing to do. We missed the summer activity sign-ups and everything else was on hold until fall!

So we are actually excited to start back to school. Macie will be attending Baptist Temple Schools (BTS). While Breesa will be homeschooled but joining the BTS on Mondays for electives and the St. Joe Homeschool Group on Tuesdays for co-op classes. Nataly will be along for the ride!

As far as supplies go, I have been shopping the Walgreens sale ads for the last few weeks. The necessary supplies were minimal and we had most of it. But there were a few exciting additions to our supplies. Namely, BENTO BOXES!! Bento Boxes are a Japanese lunch box. A very precise and compact way to carry your lunch. All three girls LOVED eating their first Bento lunch. A miracle for that picky eater of mine. Lunch was fun! I will continue to share as we explore our new lunch boxes.


Macie’s box with pasta, cantaloupe, pretzels, diced cheese, and a granola star.

What’s been going on?

The hottest topic in our house revolves around our newest addition coming this winter to a cradle near you… ok actually it will be us!

Our baby is due between January 26th and February 1st.


Nataly in her “Big Sis” tutu!

Introducing our Newsletter

Now that we are so far from our family and friends, I have decided to do something I have only dreamed about. I am not consistent enough to blog and time seems to pass me by before I correspond with my family.
However, I have often thought it would be a great home school project to create a family newsletter.

We will “attempt” to create a newsletter to keep you, our friends and family, updated on our adventures.

Hopefully, you will find it enjoyable. I mean, who doesn’t like to get mail. I hope to fill the newsletter with enough interesting stories and photos to make your feel like you were here with us. (Also, if you call the little ones, you’ll have something to actually talk about.)

I collaborated with the girls on a name for the newsletter . After considering some funny names, Macie came up with The Pierce Express.
We now live in St. Joe, home of the Pony Express. So she thought this was appropriate while writing from our “one horse town”.

It’s rather fitting considering the first Pony Express left St. Joe headed for Sacramento!

So even though our carrier will not be on horseback, we will be sending our newsletter on the same route!

Our logo , coinciding with our name, will be this Pony Express Rider that will be bringing the newsletter to you!

We hope to keep in touch so please feel free to send a reply to our newsletters. The girls would love to hear from you!