It's a girl!

Everything looks good; the doctor and technician both said "with 95% certainty" that its' a girl.
No good pictures, either profile or of "the goods", but all is well.

A plug for a favorite product, and a self-indulgent prayer request

My absolute favorite place to buy "mama-time" things is The Yum-Yum Shoppe. Talitha is on a message board that I frequent, and her stuff is to die for. Several months ago, at the recommendation of a friend, I switched from using regular facial-cleaning products to using the Oil-Cleansing Method. It seemed counter-intuitive at the time, because I often felt that I had oily skin. It turns out I was CAUSING my oily skin with commercial detergents trying to prevent my adult-onset acne. Good grief. Talitha makes an awesome oil blend that I've been loving for several months. I also use her facial serum for moisturizer. I've now been converted to a devotee of her Lip Butters (I got peppermint and juicy fruit), and they totally rock.
OK, commercial over, but you should seriously check out her website.

And for the self-indulgent prayer request...we are praying for a SHOW-OFFY baby tomorrow for our ultrasound. This is the "big one", where the do the anatomy scan to check that the baby is developing as s/he should. That, of course, is the main thing; that we get a healthy baby report. But selfishly, we'd also like a "boy/girl" report. Please pray that our baby will show us the goods! We'll let you know sometime after 10 AM tomorrow. Probably with pictures, too, if I can get my scanner to work.

Happy birthday to my awesome Mommy!

She's pretty much the bomb. I've been told (often, actually, and I'm not trying to brag on myself) that I'm some kind of "SuperWoman/SuperMom" thing. (To which I say...yeah, whatever.) The people I hear it from mostly are referring to my ability to seemingly just "roll with it"...that I don't get fazed by much.
Well, in case you're wondering...my mom is where I learned it. Among other things, like how to be a patient mother, a loving and forgiving and interested wife, a creative teacher.
My mediocre housekeeping skills, in case you're wondering....yeah, I got those on my own. Also my sarcastic tongue...not from my mom.
Happy birthday, Mama! I love you so much.



I know I've shared this one before, but that's baby ME in there!

My practically-teenaged parents with me. (No, they weren't really teenagers. Well, Mommy was but I think Daddy was 21.)

Bath in the sink at my Nana's house.


Mommy with Abbie, still in the hospital.


Mommy and I last year.

My "day in the life"

A message board that I frequent does this a few times a year. We take pictures of our day, upload them, caption, and show each other what we do for an entire day. I've not taken part in one before, mostly because I forget, but I gave it a shot this time. Not terribly interesting, but here ya go, if you're interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/beautifulbeachmusic/GretchenSDITL#

I'd love to see one that you guys do! Send me a link if you end up trying it. It was kind of fun, actually.

I suck at blogging, part fifty-million.

Yeah, it's been more than a month since I updated. It's not that nothing has happened, it's just that I'm lazy. ("It's just the way God made me!" Gwenn and Melody will get that.)
We started school on August 24th. It's been going pretty well, for the most part. It's been a little difficult getting into the swing of things with three kids instead of 2, but they've been great. Abbie is learning to read (!) and is enjoying it a lot. Micah still struggles with writing. I don't think it's the writing, per se, that's hard for him, but the concentration. If I'm not right on top of him, he totally zones out. I'm going to have to find some more challenging ideas for Katie, too. I think she's getting bored.
We had our annual Bender Labor Day Bash again this year. It was great fun; we had nine folks from Creation staying with us (4 in the trailer, 5 inside) and 1 staying with Mom. We went to the beach, had 2 bridge-jumping expeditions (not me!), went shooting, ate lots of good food, and in general just had a great time visiting.
We've had a busy month so far. Katie is playing soccer again, and that's usually 3 times a week. Micah and Abbie are both in gymnastics, which is only once a week, but they're not in the same class anymore, so it's still two trips out there. I'm still with the worship team, of course, and the kids are enjoying Wee Worship (a worship dance group for kids) while I practice with the team.
We've had P.E. with our homeschool group, and we are taking a trip to Williamsburg, VA, this weekend for a fun/educational camping trip with the group. Next weekend, the kids and I are travelling with my dad to NJ for my cousin Johanna's wedding. I am very excited about this, not just because of the wedding, but because I just love seeing my family and letting the kids get to know them. Daddy and I are planning to take them to Three Bridges Church (where I grew up) on Sunday morning. Melody and her girls are coming out, too, so that should be a good time.
In other news, we finally got Abbie in to see an ear, nose and throat specialist yesterday about her tonsils. He confirmed what I suspected, which is that they are abnormally large and definitely are the cause of her snoring, sleep apnea and nasal quality to her voice. So they are coming out next month (October 12th). I've been told it's a pretty miserable recovery, so please pray for us!
Well, I've got to get ready for our trip, and I've got tons of laundry to fold, so that's it for now. I'll try to update more than once a millenium. (OK, month. I've been told I'm prone to hyperbole.)

The 10-minute challenge

My mother started using this method a few days ago, and blogged about it here. I decided what the heck, and I tried it yesterday. I LOVE IT. It is so rewarding. I stuck to the ten minutes (more or less), and got the entire house (more or less) presentable in less than 45 minutes. Today I did more. This is truly a great method for someone like me with an instant gratification problem and a short attention span. Also, working with a timer brings out my competitive streak. I think I will get a timer I can carry around with me; the only one I have is on my oven.
Anyway, thanks, Mommy!

The great clothing explosion

...also known as "my kids have too damn much clothing". Which kind of makes me sick, actually. And sad, when I stop to think about it. I realized that when all the laundry is clean at the same time (which, truthfully, is hardly ever), we literally cannot fit all their clothing in the drawers. So my goal was to purge whatever doesn't fit. I had kind of a grand idea that they could keep x number of tops, x number of pairs of shorts, but scrapped that idea. The revised goal (which worked since all my laundry was *gasp* clean at the same time) was "You can keep it if it fits in your drawer".
So today I have THREE kitchen-sized trash bags full of clothing to bring to Hotline (our local thrift store).
Next in line: the dreaded toy shelves *insert scary Jaws-like music here*. It's always drama, because something gets unearthed that literally hasn't been seen in six months, and I go to put it in the Hotline bag, and somehow some kid sees it and says, "noooooooo! that's my faaaaaavorite toy! I looooooove that toy and I play with it alllllll the tiiiiiiime!" Another annoying tendency my kids have is to always want to save cardboard boxes or random packing things because "I'm making a house for my guys" or what-have-you. Now, I'm all about creative play. And I love that they can make playthings out of recyclables. But come on, now! We're drowning in old shoe boxes! And no, I'm not saving every scrap of paper you ever took a pen to! (Side note: the pre-school that my kids went to, while great in almost every way, had the horrible habit of sending home at least 3-6 pieces of random "artwork" or "seatwork" EVERY. DAY. You can only keep so much, you know? Like, none.)
Anyway, if I think of it, I'll take before and after pictures. I definitely need to do some work before Baby comes in March. Otherwise we might lose him/her in the clutter.