How often are you supposed to wash your books?

Aidan did tell me that there was a book in the washing machine. I was having the boys help me load the washer and he had mentioned that there was a book in the washing machine. I checked but didn’t see anything, I just thought he was mistaken about what he was seeing. I even moved the clothes around a bit. Well, this book along with all it’s little washed pieces, was right on top of the clothes when I opened up the washer after it’s cycle. The thing to the right is what the dryer caught :)

Ours broke this weekend. Okay, so that is not completely true. Ours broke several weeks ago (oops while I was reading this to my husband he corrected me) 8 months ago, and my brilliant husband, encouraged by his money conscious wife, duct taped the toilet seat. It actually did the trick and I think he felt pretty proud of himself. Only this past weekend, the other side broke. Out of absolute need he went to the pantry and retrieved the duct tape once again, but this time was not nearly as successful in masking our toilet seat to near perfection like the first attempt. He did offer to put a piece of wood underneath the seat to stabalize it better, but I relented and handed him $6 to go and purchase a new toilet seat. I think the whole family, and any guests that we might have in the near future, will benefit from the purchase.

Have you ever reluctantly sent your husband out the door with a list? Tonight I had a list of things I needed at Wal-Mart. Bandaides, cheap ones for my son who is desperately trying to stop sucking his thumb, I put one on his thumb every night, so I want the cheap ones. Rubber gloves, size large, pink or a feminine color if they have them, I wash dishes by hand and have found rubber gloves really save my hands from cracking. Anyway, I had a few other things to buy,  am I crazy? It’s so hard for me to send him out the door with this list. I love my husband dearly, he’s amazing in so many ways but we are different. He is an opptomist, I tend to see the negative much easier. He is a spender, and I would rather wear holey jeans for two years than buy a new pair. And so consequently when I send him out the door with the list, the things that come back in his bag tend to look a little prettier than if I had brought them home ;) Well, he just got home and I’m anxious to see what he got!

Wow, I’m impressed! He was perfect, didn’t go over budget and he even found pink rubber gloves and they fit perfect, I like them even better than my other ones! So, now it’s my turn to return his wishes. He wants me to go to a bridal shower this week and my first thought has been (it’s an hour away), but what about the gas money?! So I will have fun shopping for a gift and will have a great time enjoying a night away with the ladies, while my very generous husband stays home to take care of our children. Thank you Lord for such a great husband!

So, we were on a roll, and I was feeling pretty okay about our progress. But, we were not done, and I was starting to sense that the natives were getting restless because now I’m starting to see little messes where our just cleaned floor had been picked up! I’m wanting to get it all just right, once today, if even for just a few moments, “I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MY HOUSE CLEAN!” Cait is really not that much of a helper quite yet and we are working on the rest of them. But she committed “the sin” at just the wrong moment. If it had been an hour earlier, or even an hour later, it wouldn’t have mattered. I was trying to get the kitchen done when Aidan came into the kitchen to let me know that “Cait just dumped water on the rug.” This is her new thing. She demands likes to take a drink out of someone’s cup and then immediately dumps the rest on the floor.  Unfortunately we have this “rule” about taking drinks out of the kitchen, and Eamon had “forgotten” and left his 32 oz jug on the floor, in the livingroom. Of course, Cait delightedly found this treasure and took a little sip and then dumped the other 31.5 ounces on the rug.

Mom to the rescue? Not quite. Maybe this is where Guenna derived the term “Mommy’s a  monster“? I was angry. Not at Cait, of course she still doesn’t know any better, but my 3 year old, now he’s “been told!” I proceeded to tell the children, remind them ONCE AGAIN, that they are “NEVER TO TAKE WATER OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!!” And this is why guys, do you see this water? Guenna, my precious two year-old-daughter says, “you screaming mommy?” I do have to add this disclaimer though, she accuses me of screaming when I barely raise my voice, I think she instinctively knows when I’m in the wrong and likes to point it out ;) I said, “I am angry Guenna, that my children are NOT OBEYING ME!” Okay, so what does that say about the last two hours of cleaning they just worked really hard to accomplish with me?

So, I knew I needed to calm down, and I knew I was in the wrong. I got them to the table and I finished getting their lunch ready and then after I had calmed down I asked them all to come into the room and I apologized and asked them to forgive me. I explained that it was wrong of me to get so angry and that I’m working on not doing that. They all had little smirks on their faces while they said, “I forgive you mommy.” Then Aidan said something to me that just blew me away. He told me, “When you ask someone to forgive you, it means you wont ever do it again.” Whoa, is that what he expects of me? Or is he just clarifying? So I responded, “Well, when you disobey me and you ask me to forgive you, does that mean you wont ever disobey me again?” “No.” And I said, “Well son, I’m a sinner just like you. And God is still helping me to not sin, I’m changing but it doesn’t mean that I wont do it again even though I don’t want to.” “Well, when you are old, you don’t sin anymore.” Hmmm, I can tell that I’m dealing with a real perfectionist here, “No, that’s not true Aidan, did you know that nana and papa still sin (sorry to uncover you guys like that!;)” Well, he didn’t and I think he was just a little disappointed, but that’s reality folks. We all have sinned, and we all still sin, that is why we need His grace and forgiveness, daily.

As this interchange with my children, especially my five-year-old son was taking place I was really beginning to grasp how extremely important it is that we confess our sins to our children. We have our children confess their sins to us all the time, and ask us for forgiveness and they do it with oneanother. But in order for them to really grasp the importance of confession they need to see it in us. Otherwise they will begin to believe that one day they will arrive to that age where confession is no longer necessary. Like, now I’m 18, I’m an adult and now I can do what I want and I don’t have to confess my sins anymore! Freedom. It’s almost as though this passage into adulthood gives them passage into freedom to do what they will, without guilt or the need for confession. No wonder why we have so many teens who fall by the wayside as soon as they get over to that greener grass. The other thing that I can see confession doing in my children, it connects us. They now feel that we are more on the same level, she’s a sinner, and I’m a sinner. I think that we parents are afraid to confess to our children that we were in the wrong becasue they will somehow lose respect for us. But really it does the opposite. When I’ve confessed my sins to my children, immediately afterward there is this feeling that I get from them like, “maybe I’m not doing so bad, even she messes up sometimes!”  I feel more connected to them and I actually feel that they respect me more. And they get a real understanding that this life is a process of becoming more like Christ, we never get to leave this process, but we live a life longing to be more like him no matter how long we’ve been a Christian.

So all of that to say. Have you sinned against your children? Admit it in your heart, confess your sins to your children. Humble yourself and ask their forgiveness. And then move on. Don’t beat yourself up, let them forgive you and let Him forgive you. He’s still working on all of us and He wants to use our children to refine us, refinement is not punishment. He refines us because He loves us. Those of us who have a lot of children must need much more refinement ;)

Well I better get going, I need to play fetch with Eamon’s dog, Curly (Aidan, and I’m Eamon’s mommy).  Oops, now I have two dogs and they both want to fetch. I love this life!

Hello, all. Because I have to pump at 1 a.m., half and hour from now, I’m going to post an update here. :-) Talk to the nursery about what tomorrow holds. They said he would definitely not be checking out at 11 a.m., the anticipated check out time. Our nurse said she is going to post us as a late check out. So, unless they have extra rooms and we can stay longer, we will be checking out at 3 p.m. Friday, without our son. Eian needs to have been outside of the incubator for 24 hours, room oxygen, at normal respiration rate. He’s basically breathing normal now, at only 2% higher than room oxygen. Another added feature is that he was coming kind of jaundice, so they have him under a UV light. It’s doing the trick. He’d only been under for maybe 3 hours and he was already looking better and he made really good doodoo while I was feeding him. :-) First diaper change was a doozy! With all the wires and the incubator, I was glad San could hold one leg on the other side while I held a hand and leg in one hand and cleaned him up with the other. Ha! I wish we’d gotten a recording of that! He just laid there and watched us clean him up. He was so cute! My sister is right he is a strong boy and he’ll be out of there in no time. God is our healer! Amen!? Give me a witness!
He has given us much grace to deal with all of this. An incredible diversion from my plans for postpartum bonding. But, I’m doing what I can to make sure he gets as much contact with us as we can. I’ve started pumping and I’m able pump exactly what he needs each time. I was warned, “Don’t be discouraged if you only get a few drips to start out with.” I thought to myself, “Whatever. I’ll get what my son needs.” Sure enough, God is good and has helped my body to be ready. . . and what he needs right now is his mama’s liquid gold and contact with San and I coming down to feed him every 3 hours. Speaking of which, it’s time to shut my eyes for 20 minutes, before I attach the torture contraption. :) God bless you all!!! And thank you for your love and prayers!!! Give God glory!
More updates to come! Thank you, Sis, for helping the rest of the world keep updated! You are wonderful! Aloha! Call me tomorrow.

I’ll just add my own two cents worth (that must be where Aidan gets it ;) It’s got to be so hard to think of not taking your baby home with you, but, these days will fly by so quickly and he will be home so soon and will have all the bonding he needs. I know God has given them a good perspective and patience as their little one is getting all better. I think that my sister is handling it all much better than I would have :) I don’t know though, I’ve never been in a situation where my baby needed to be in the hospital right after birth.

Another side-note, my kids keep looking at the pictures of Eian and whenever they see them they get excited, they want to hold him and see him so bad! Yesterday when Cait saw him she said excitedly, “BABY!” She loves babies. The hardest part for me is knowing that I wont get to hold him until he’s about 9 months old so I will miss out on those precious newborn days. But, that’s life right? I am thankful that we get to see them in March, they have been so good about coming to visit us even though plane tickets can be quite costly. Well, I better get going now, I need to eat something before the heartburn takes a hold!

Update to my update:
Tam said that Eian is doing really well and thinks he’s on schedule to leave tomorrow. She sounds like she’s recovering quickly and is really excited about getting to hold Eian without any wires or tubes! She got to nurse Eian today and he did really well! Yeah! So we are praying that their evening with driving back and forth to nurse the baby wont be too long, and that he will be stable all day so they can take him home tomorrow and adjust to a “normal” life with a newborn. Thanks again for your prayers! Please stop by their site, they have posted a video of the cute little guy, he is so beautiful!

Yesterday we had the privilege of spending the afternoon playing in one of the local park with the Searles family. Sue and most of her troops were camping this week and they went out of their way to come spend the day with us, what a fun day! Aidan, who is pretty shy around new people, was so bummed when we had to leave and he keeps telling me that he wants to meet them there again really soon! We all had a great time spending the day with you, and we do hope to see you again soon!

Guenna and Lily especially had a lot of fun playing together, they were so cute playing together. And the boys had lots of fun playing with the “big” boys, and Cait had tons of fun dragging Ezekiel all over the park :) Thanks again you guys! We love you, and hope you have a safe trip back home. You have such a beautiful family! Blessings!

Talked to Tam this morning. She said that Eian is doing better today but still not 100% so he is still in the nursery. They had him on 25% oxygen in the little incubator and are weaning him down to room level which is only 21% so he’s almost there. Tam is anxious to get him out of there and to get him in her room so she can be with him at all times. It’s so hard to not be able to be with him so please pray with us that he will be completely stable today and she can take him to her room and then home tomorrow. In my humble opinion, the baby will recover much quicker when he’s close to his mama, like he’s used to.

Tam is doing really well, feeling much better today. Must have been that night of sleeping without contractions every 3 minutes! That will do it every time :) Thanks for all your prayers for Tam, and San, and baby Eian. I know they really appreciate it!

Welcome to the world baby Eian! He was born at 4:27pm (Hawai’i time) and weighed 8 lbs 4 oz. You are such a beautiful little guy! We are so proud of your mama and papa, they’ve worked really hard to bring you here. Can’t wait to meet you sweetie!

Aidan, Eamon, Guenna and Cait were all huddled around the computer looking at the picture of baby Eian. Guenna said, “Baby Eian belly button?” Eamon wanted to know what the blue thing to the left was and was asking if we could go to Hawai’i now because he wants to hold him, Aidan was confused because he was naked and then said, “he looks like a Japanese guy!” :) And Cait I think just wished she were there so she could poke him in the eye, or belly button, or whatever body part she could reach. We love you baby Eian and wish we were there so we could see you in person, you are a sweet little baby and will bring many many joys and laughter and sunshine into your mommy and daddy’s life. Bless you all!

UPDATE:
Just talked to Tam, they are all doing pretty well but Tam has a bit of a fever and her heart rate is up. Think she just needs some food and a good few days of rest. But Eian aspirated some meconium and is in the nursery on oxygen right now. He’s got a bubble thing over his head so he can breathe without having the tube on his face, I bet he looks like a little astronaut :) Please pray for him to recover quickly and for peace. Tam wants to nurse him right away but he has to be breathing stable first.

Another update:
I talked to Tam again and they said he would be in the nursery for at least 24 hours, possibly 48. They did a chest x-ray and he’s got a lot of fluid in there. I know they are anxious to just hold him and be with him so please pray for grace and a quick recovery for little Eian. And that nursing wont be a problem once he’s breathing stable and has the fluid out of his lungs. He looks like a strong little guy so I’m sure he will be just fine, it’s just hard for a mama who’s worked so hard to not be able to be with her baby right away. Hang in there sis, hopefully tomorrow!

Love you!

Doesn’t that just say it all? How can you resist those sweet little slobbery cheeks? Cait loves watermelon, as do the rest of the kids so we try to eat at least one a week. We can eat one big watermelon in almost one sitting. Anyway, these are some of the really fun days just being outside hanging out together. Speaking of which, I can hear that I should be outside instead of inside :) Still waiting to hear more from Tam, trying hard not to bug her but it’s so hard!

I guess they don’t have wi-fi at their hospital, so no updates from the hospital when they get there, but I will do my best to keep you posted. I know that there are a few of her friends who are anxious to hear how she’s doing :)

I know that you aren’t supposed to eat citrus, chocolate, caffeine, tomato based foods, vinegar based foods (which deletes many of my options). So do any of you know what foods help? It seems the only thing that helps me is cold cereal and milk, but I don’t want to be eating that for the next 3 1/2 months, six times a day. I know that eating small frequent meals help, but what should I be eating? I want to eat healthy, but fruit gives me heartburn and so does salad dressing! I love both salads and raw fruits. With Caitriona I just struggled through it but I just cant seem to motivate myself to eat things that are going to make me feel like I’m going to throw up! One good thing though is that sugar and chocolate give me heartburn too so that helps with that category.  Little side note-while typing out this post I have sitting next to me a big glass of iced orange juice and a small handful of animal crackers, they balance out the citrus in the juice ;)

Anyway, just pouring out my heart. I know this is my fifth pregnancy and you’d think I would be a pro by now, but it’s always good to hear what has worked for other women. Thanks ladies!

“Daddy’s a man…mommy’s a monster…Guenna’s a princess!” (first two phrases spoken with somewhat of a contemplative thought, and the last spoken with a cheery confidence :)

Then, as usual, Aidan felt the need to finish her thought, he says…”I’m the king, and Cait’s a princess and Eamon’s a prince.” Eamon wasn’t too happy with his position. But at least he was a human, I mean, come on! All this mommy does for you all and no one is defending that mommy is something more than a monster?!!! Come on guys, where’s the love? ;) We all laughed out loud at this interchange. And this my friends is one of the best things about sitting down to meals together. If you don’t do it, you really need to try it! Well, I’m tired and I really need to get to bed so, good night!

Sooo, this morning San sent me a message that her water broke and they were going to wait around for her labor to start! Yeah! I’m so glad they went to the doctor last night, she really needed those meds and hopefully is able to get some good rest. I so wish I could be there with my sister, if I could I would hop on a plane right now. But I’m so thankful that she has such a great caring and loving husband and my auntie and cousin will be there for the birth. And my mom will be going on Friday to be with her for a couple weeks. San has to go back to work on the 24th so this little man has decided to come at just the right time, what a gentleman!

Well, I will keep you posted, but you can check out their occasional status on Tam and San’s blog :)

For those of you who’ve been wondering if I’m ever going to do a pregnant shot with this baby, here you go! On Friday I will be 6 months or 24 weeks pregnant. It’s flying by! Tonight I have heartburn, and lately my varicose veins really bother me (pretty much all day every day), but other than that I’m doing great! My boys are always talking about taking care of mommy and just today Aidan asked me if I could help him put a tire back onto an airplane and I was struggling a bit and doubful that I would be able to get it back on, his reply, “daddy could do it mommy.” Thanks for the encouragement son. ;) They are so cute! And thankfully they are mostly old enough to be more aware of my growing tummy and more mindful of not stepping on it, especially with their shoes on! Well, I’m really going to bed now. Good night!

The girls are getting so big, both of them! Guenna is talking up a storm, and did you notice she got glasses? ;) We thought she looked pretty cute with her glasses and summer time piggy tails! Guenna is two, and life can be a little rough when you’re two. But, on the other hand she is a very sweet and loving little girl, thank the Lord for that! Cait continues to bring us many smiles and laughs, and the kids are all soooo impressed with her walking abilities, still ;) She’s so fun and gains more personality with each passing day, I love having daughters!

Nana Judi came up and helped us celebrate the 4th, it was so fun! We had a blast spending most of the day at Nana and Papa’s, we have such great family! And of course the highlight for the kids was seeing their baby Eva, she is growing sooooo fast

!

Lovin’ that papa!

We’ve been having a lot of fun in the yard lately, enjoying all the sunshine and our growing plants, including the neighbor’s morning glory! This is Aidan’s “plunger” I think like LarryBoy :)

The kids now have a dirt box behind “Fort Burns” and the other day I managed to get it covered with a tarp (of course last night Guenna and Eamon decided it would make a nice hammock. Um, no. Thankfully the tarp didn’t rip! I know that I never actually said, “please do not climb on top of the tarp, but now you know and I hope it’s really clear, “that is NOT okay!”

Okay, I finally have enough going on in my garden to show off what we have growing so far! Here’s the corn, one whole box dedicated to corn.

Pumpkin plants in the corner, and our first little pumpkin to the right. If it turns out like it appears, we are going to have loads of pumpkins! It’s been so fun to see them blooming!

Top to bottom, cilantro which is almost done, two boxes of kohlrabi, and lettuce.

Red beets on left, kale, peppers, tomatoes, and orange beets on right.

Here is my biggest tomato plant, it’s a yellow cherry and doing really well! Almost ready to pick some fruit!

Carrots in the corner boxes, califlower in the two center, and romaine lettuce on the back side of the large tomato plant. All the gardening has been fun! The kids seem to really be enjoying all the work of tending to the garden, and I have too. Today I’ve been weeding and planting some more seeds. Guenna decided to help me out. I left the seed packets on the swing outside and came out later to see that she had emptied (I probably had about 15-20 varieties, most of which belonged to my neighbor), them onto the swing. Thanks sis. What a big help you can be at time. I will hold my tongue and thank the Lord that it didn’t happen before I got any of my seeds planted! Oh well, what’ $40 worth of your neighbor’s seeds, right?!

And this one, she’s becoming just as much of a helper as her big sister! Well, one day they wont be little anymore and I will miss all their sweet little messes. Thank you Lord for all these wonderful moments that you’ve given me with these beautiful children! And so many to help, please give me the grace to laugh when I want to cry. Well, I better wrap it up. Good night!

One last cute thing. I like to talk to the kids about their dreams for their future (Aidan wants to own a watermelon store currently, and Eamon wants to help him with that). Well, I was talking to Guenna about how we’ll go into business together when she’s a woman. Aidan joined in, “yeah and I will work in the store too because then we will be friends.” Speaking of he and I. I don’t remember ever having told him that but he’s pretty perceptive and I think he’s gathered that from the relationship he sees between Chris and I, and his nana and papa. Such a cute little man!

By the way, we are back from camping! We had a blast and we’re so glad to be home. Soon I will post pictures of our trip but I’m still just trying to get back into the swing of things, and I’ve been working a lot on our garden so I’ve been busy!

Here are the boys, patiently waiting for mommy’s name to be called. On the way in I had informed them that they might not be able to go in with mommy to the appointment. They have a one adult one child policy and we pretty much far exceed that, so I told them, maybe if you guys are really good and quiet, they will let you come in (hoping!). Eamon was so cute while we were waiting he sort of asked/told me, “Maybe I should whisper and be really quiet.” I said, “yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” Our tech was wonderful and didn’t even flinch when Chris wheeled in the two others! So we all crammed into the room and the fun began. The kids were really fascinated and loved seeing our little one on the screen…

This one is my favorite, I was so glad that she was able to get such a great profile pic, I think this is only the second of five kids that I’ve been able to get one (no one else wanted to cooperate, come on, smile for mommy!)

The girls were getting a little “busy” so Chris went ahead and removed them away from all the expensive machinery and took them back out into the waiting room while the boys and I finished out the rest of the ultrasound. At the very end she got an amazing view of the legs, I asked her to stop there and was showing the boys the details of the legs. The baby was totally cooperating for us and did some fancy dance moves so we could see those little legs in action. I think it was a really neat moment for the boys, which was really cool to them. I’ve seen this before but it’s all so new to me. So the ultrasound was over and we now need to load everyone and head back to Chris’ work.

Hmmm, that was interesting…

Me- “Chris, I think we are having a boy.” (Me thinking-I’m not really sure but I think I saw something during that little leg dance move.)

Chris- “Yeah, me too. I wasn’t going to say anything but when she first started I thought I saw something but you weren’t looking so I wasn’t going to say anything if you didn’t.”

Hmmm, we told her that we didn’t want to find out but both of us are really suspicious now. Before, I was really strong, I didn’t need to know. But now I have this piece of information that will bug me for the next 20 weeks! 20 weeks, that is so far away! Oh well. So we loaded the kids and then Chris handed me a pen. “Here, take this back and ask the tech if we are right.”

So, feeling a little silly, I went in and asked for the tech who came out a minute later. “Um, yeah, a weak moment here. We thought we saw boy parts, did we?” She smiled and said, “do you really want to know?” Feeling just a little bit juvenile for having explained to her how we were so excited to keep the gender a secret this time, “yes.” “Yep, you were right. You’re having a boy!”

Oh my goodness, another boy! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe we know, already! That was so not the plan, but oh well. How exciting! The boys were very excited (although I don’t think Guenna’s choice of a name will fit very well for this one, “Eva” is her choice for pretty much any baby right now!) Well, it shouldn’t be nearly as hard to come up with a name now that we know the gender. I’m really kind of in awe, another little man in our home. I feel so blessed, so honored, and a little scared. Boys have a lot of energy. Well, I wont dwell on that thought too much, just like you don’t want to dwell on labor for too long when you are close to your due date, it’s just not healthy. Cross that bridge when I get there.

Thank you Father. For this sweet little boy. It’s hard to imagine, and somehow I feel so unworthy, so unprepared. Can I really mother another little boy who will one day grow into a man? Will I be able to help mold him into a man of virtue and godliness? Will I fail him, or will he rise and called me blessed one day? I’m truly humbled as I look once again at the job description that God apparently sees me fit to accomplish. And I am so thankful that He will never leave my side, always molding me, reshaping and refinishing, his mother. And everyday as they get older I see those glimpses of Him in their eyes and I know that He’s the one doing all the molding, I’m just another empty vessel doing my best to be willing and ready to be used by Him. Thank You Father.

I think the picture above is so sweet. Guenna wanted to hold baby Eva so bad and so after I got her settled down a bit (her mommy was drinking coffee and she did not appreciate that!) we set Guenna up with a pillow and her little baby. I was surprised that Eva just felt right at home and fell asleep in Guenna’s arms. Most of you moms know that this doesn’t happen very often for a two year old, and you can imagine that Guenna was very pleased to be able to hold her cousin for so long. Well, we are enjoying our little girl, she’s such a little cutie, and is getting quite the little arms and thighs, we love those chubby thighs around here!

Happy birthday sister! Hope you had a wonderful birthday! I’m so glad that I have a sister in law so close, hey we should do something this week ;) Love you, and Happy Birthday!