The Safety of Homebirth
Often, in our culture, when a woman announces to her friends and relatives, her desire to home birth, she is treated as if she is foolish. This is an unfair assumption, as most of those desiring to have a natural, homebirth, have done a lot of research. Every mother only wants what is best for herself and the baby.The choice of birth location is a very personal decision for every mother, as she will have to live with the consequences of where she labors and births. I am hoping that the trend of looking down at homebirthing mamas will cease, soon.
It can be so helpful to know some facts about the safety of homebirth, when discussing it with others. I have been reading Creating Your Birth Plan by Marsden Wagner, a medical doctor and former director of the World Health Organization. In this book, Dr. Wagner cites four ways that homebirth is actually safer than hospital birth. Firstly, Dr.Wagner states that at a homebirth, a woman is allowed to let normal, physiological birth occur. Natural birth allows hormones to be excreted, such as endorphins, which can make the pain more pleasurable. In a homebirth setting, there is little to no interference, so the cervix is able to thin and stretch to make room for the baby.
Secondly, women are familiar with the germs in their own homes. A woman's body creates antibodies against the germs that she is familiar with. Every hospital patient has a 1 in 20 chance of getting an infection. Unfamiliar germs are often brought to the hospital by sick patients, and these can readily transfer to other patients, especially by hospital staff. Remember the heart wrenching story of the patient who died from an infection when given an epidural?
The third way that homebirth is safer than the hospital is that the patient can avoid routine interventions, such as ivs, electronic fetal monitor, induction drugs. The woman has a full-range of resources to use such as a birthing ball, birth stool, labor pool, side-lying position for resting, food and drink for energy, etc.. As Dr.Wagner says, " Evidence shows that technology sets up women for more invasive practices." As a former, hospital birther I can attest to the validity of that!
Fourthly, the dangers of medically unnecessary inductions and cesarean sections are avoided. Because the technology is available, most doctors tend to want to use it, if labor stalls or doesn't begin when they wish. Most doctors have been instructed to use it, and on the whole, know of no other way to assist a woman in birth.
Ultimately, of course, the choice of birthing location should be made prayerfully, by the expectant mother and her spouse. I hope that more hospitals will be accepting of natural birth. Homebirth has been a wonderfully blessed experience for me. Even if I had the best, local hospital, complete with birthing tubs, I would still choose birthing at home. My natural birth experience has changed my life in many ways, and I thank God for the privilege of guiding me through it. Blessings!

"Never once during obstetrical training are doctors required to sit with a woman throughout her entire labor and birth. As a result, obstetricians have little experience with normally, healthy births, but a whole lot of experience with those few births where serious complications occur. At those times, their training and take charge mind set are valuable." -Dr. Marsden Wagner

Rejoicing in the Lord's Gift....
My dear friend, Shelby had a beautiful homebirth on Friday! I rejoice with my sister in Christ, over her precious baby! God is so faithful! Please stop by and congratulate her! Wishing you a blessed Labor Day weekend!

Free Homeschool Curricula
With all of the amazing educational toys, curricula, and games, one could spend a fortune on homeschooling! Thankfully, with the help of the internet, your children can receive a wonderful education, for free! Here are a few links that I have found helpful:


Letter of the Week website has lesson plans for children 1-8. This is a very fun and practical curriculum. The focus is on learning one letter at a time, and doing coordinating math, science and literature activities.

Hubbard's Cupboard has a ton of wonderful lesson plan ideas for preschool and kindergarten students.Check out their Bible Memorization section.

An Old Fashioned Education covers grades K-12.This site even contains links to most, if not all of the required books, to read online.


Homeschool Share has a plethora of unit studies, lap books, and other resources to make. This is my favorite, free homeschooling site to utilize.

Ambleside Online is a Charlotte Mason style curriculum, for grades K-12. Even if you don't follow the site completely, the book recommendations are wonderful!

For more frugal ideas, visit Crystal.

Free $50 Gift Certificate from Vision Forum

For every $95 that you spend at Vision Forum , through August 30, you will receive a $50 Vision Forum gift certificate. It definitely sounds like a great time to do some Christmas shopping in August. Blessings!

Easier Menu Planning
At this point in my life (homeschooling a kindergartener, and mothering a three-year old, and a one-year old) , I like to keep meal planning pretty simple. One thing that has really helped me is to pick a theme for each day of the week. For example, on Mondays, I try to cook an Italian meal, such as spaghetti, chicken alfredo, lasagna, etc.. Tuesdays are rapidly becoming my "breakfast for dinner" days. I like to use a variety of recipes on Tuesdays, such as omelettes, pancakes, waffles, biscuits and gravy, hashbrown casserole, fruit salad, and bacon. I like to think of Tuesdays as my Cracker Barrel night. Wednesdays don't really count for me, because I only cook once a month on Wednesdays. My sister-in-laws and I take turns. It sounds great, but when I cook, I have to cook for a crowd (around 20 people). I guess this is good practice for the future! Thursdays are my Mexican foods night. We enjoy foods such as enchiladas, burritos, tacos, nachos, and enchilada casserole. I would love to add a delicious spanish rice recipe to it. Fridays are usually our family night and we enjoy having homemade pizza. I often try to make breadsticks and or cinnamon rolls, to add to it. What is fun about these theme nights is that if you get bored with a particular meal, you can always glean the internet to find more recipes, under that theme. Sometimes, I may switch a few days around, but we generally eat from each of those topics, once a week. I have found that when I don't have a theme idea for each day, I have a difficult time thinking of something to make. Keeping menu plan simple definitely works for me.

Time with my Baby
It is a rare treat to spend one on one time with any of my children. Last night, Stephen ran to the store with Lily and Stevie, and I got to have some reading time with Anastasia.

Baby Blessings

So many precious babies have been born lately, and many are due to arrive, any day! Please keep in prayer the following mothers and babies, and please pray for a blessed birth, safe arrival, and a healthy post-partum period.

I have been eagerly following the story of Brittany, who was due with twins, in September. She has four children, and was expecting identical twins. She found out at birth what she was having. Everything went really well, despite the fact that she was in a car accident, which started labor. I cannot imagine how scared she was after her abdomen hit the wheel! Thanks be to God, the babies have arrived, are healthy and gorgeous, and never spent a moment in NICU. How amazing! To find out if she has six boys, or 4 boys and 2 girls, check out her blog and wish her well. What an amazing tale of God's amazing Hand in our lives!


My dear friend, Sheri, just had a baby boy, a week and a half ago. She was having a planned, natural hospital birth, but hubby delivered the baby. I cannot wait to read the birth story.

Shelby , another dear friend, is due any day now. She is due the day before her's and her husband's birthday. Could you imagine sharing your birthday with your wee little one, and your spouse? Well, whenever her sweetie is born, it will be so exciting! This is her first homebirth, and I know she is eagerly anticipating this birth.

Kelly, is due in September with her precious baby bundle, baby number 4! Kelly is a precious friend of mine, whom I have met in real life. Kelly and I have so much in common! We are both 27, we even share the same anniversary (June 8th, 2002), both of our firstborns were born in March 2003, and we love writing. She is a constant encouragement and blessing to me. This will be her third pink bundle!

Jamie, a sister in the Lord, whom I met last year, is due in September. She has been having a difficult pregnancy, and may meet her little one, next week. I know she will be elated to hold her wee little one.

Tarrah, a friend of a friend, had a precious baby boy, this past Tuesday. He is a darling babe, and such a gift. Please be in prayer for Tarrah, as after her baby's birth, an emergency hysterectomy was done, due to a massive tear in her uterus, because of a complication with a previous birth. My heart was so saddened, when I read this. My heart goes out to Tarrah and her family.

Please also pray for Lora Lynn, who is expecting her fifth blessing. If I am not mistaken, after her baby's birth, she will have five children, four and under. Taking care of four little ones, while being pregnant is pretty amazing; but to top it off, she is on bed rest. I could not even imagine. Whenever I think my life is pretty hard with three children, five and under, I check out Lora's blog. It leaves no room for self-pity. I truly appreciate her sense of humor. I think she is rather amazing. :)

I am sure that these sweet ladies really appreciate the prayers.If you get the opportunity, please stop by their blogs and let them know that you are praying for them. Blessings!

Tackle it Tuesday: Sorting and Organizing for Consignment Sale
My pastor's wife is hosting an amazing consignment sale at the end of September through the beginning of October. I am so excited to be able to (hopefully) get a little money for some of the things that we don't need/use, that we have. The payout for each item is 66-75%! I still need to pare down a bit on my infant girl clothes. I am just planning and organizing , now. This year, there will be a handy dandy computerized system, so all I have to do is select the price, and appropriately tag each item. I am really excited, and I am hoping to snag a few great deals at the consignment sale, myself. For more Tackles, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Making Cooking Easier
With the many demands of a busy homeschooling mother, it can be very helpful to find quicker ways to make a delicious, healthy supper. Two methods that I am very interested in are: Once a Month Cooking and utilizing a crockpot. I have enjoyed making meals in the crockpot before, but I will have to wait on making those, since my crock pot died a few months ago. If you have any recommendations for a reasonably priced and efficient slow cooker, I would love to hear what you use. One thing that has been a huge help to me, is the fact that I brown my beef and cook my chicken, usually on Mondays. I freeze the meat in meal- sized portions. This can literally shave thirty-forty minutes off of my meal preparation, per night. Once a month cooking sounds very intriguing to me. I found some helpful tips in a couple of books that I checked out from the library on Once a Month Cooking. One idea was that if cooking for the whole month is intimidating, perhaps, you can just double each recipe that you make for a week. Then you can have one week on, one week off. Another idea is to make three batches of ten different meals. Rotate them properly and you can have supper for a month. Another idea is to have a cooking time with a friend. Perhaps you can make the beef meals, and she can make the chicken meals. You then give each other fifteen meals. That way, you can have a variety of food, yet you were able to use up your abundance of chicken, etc.. I think the most plausible plan for me, at this point in my life, would be to double a recipe. If you have tried once a month cooking, I would love to hear about your adventures. What other ways have you found to speed up your dinner preparation time?

Graphic courtesy of AllPosters.

Learning about Geography, through Literature
One of my heartfelt desires is to raise my children to have missionary hearts. I want them to learn about other cultures and other people. One of the most pleasant ways, that I have found to teach my children about geography, is through reading books about various people and places. After we read a book, we look up where that character lived, or where he traveled to. This works particularly well when reading missionary biographies.We try to learn about the country where the missionary was from, and where he went. There are so many fun fictional books for little ones, which mention various countries.I utilize a few different sources for my reading lists, including Five in a Row, the Sonlight Kindergarten reading list, and the Homeschoolshare reading list.Sonlight has an online reading list for each grade. I only own a few of those books, but I am happy to glean what I can from the library. Another resource, which I am interested in using in my homeschool, is Galloping the Globe. Currently, we are learning about China. We recently received a prayer bracelet from the Voice of the Martyrs. The bracelet is a reminder to pray for the saved and unsaved in China. I checked out a few general books about China's culture. We also started reading a book about Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China. A classic fiction book to use during a study of China might be The Story of Ping.What a fun occasion for making a fun Chinese meal, with your little ones. Truly, the opportunities for learning geography through literature are endless. You can utilize the Five in a Row books, Sonlight materials, etc., but I also think you can do a lot just with the book lists, a map, and a little imagination. Five in a Row has story disks which represent each book that you have read. Your child(ren) simply puts the disk on a map, on the country where the book took place. I use some 3M flags to mark with my children where various people live(ed). For example, I use green flags to locate where someone in history lived, red to locate where relatives live, and blue to show where missionaries that we are praying for live.I would love to hear what ways you have found to make geography learning more fun with your children.
Graphic courtesy of Art.com.

Tackle it Tuesday: Tackling my son's closet
My son had a plethora of clothes all discombobulated in his closet. He occasionally pulls an outfit down, and they all get mixed together. It had gotten so bad, that I rarely picked him out an outfit from his closet. I just didn't want to deal with that chaos. First, while we were watching a family movie, I grabbed all of his clothes out of the closet. There were quite a few in there, considering that my son is young boy, only 3 years old. I sorted the clothing into the correct sizes, and then made piles to keep and to give away.
As you can see, I used nearly every available hanging area to organize my son's clothes.
Now, everything is in order in his closet. I am happy to report that I now look forward to picking him out an outfit from this formerly chaotic mess. Whew! This organizational stuff is getting addictive. Doing at least one weekly tackle really helps me. I am happy to report that my kitchen cabinets are still organized (for the time being). For more tackles, visit Five Minutes for Mom.
Now to plan my next tackle. There is a shoe situation, here, which has really gotten out of hand.Blessings!

Anastasia Enjoying Eating

Wow....what manners!

Free Trial of Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime includes some wonderful benefits for members. With Amazon Prime, you can get free, 2-day shipping for an entire month. This is an amazing benefit, and what a wonderful time to stock up on a variety of books! Just cancel sometime, throughout the first month, and you won't be charged the annual fee. For more information, visit this website.

Motherhood: An Amazing Job
I love this list that Nancy Campbell wrote, regarding a mother's work. Too many times, the world looks upon the home as a useless place. The world attacks the hearth and home so vigorously, because of the importance of this realm. The home is a beautiful place of raising up the next generation for Christ. The hand that rocks the cradle, most definitely rules the world! I pray that God will enlarge our vision of the sublime call of motherhood.

Roles of Homemakers: (by Nancy Campbell, found in The Power of Motherhood.) (This is just part of the list.)
Accountant
Arbitrator
Art Appreciator
Arrow Polisher
Ambassador for the King of Kings
Builder- you are building a godly generation
Bookkeeper
Bulk Buyer
Counselor
Career Consultant
Chauffeur
Creative Designer
Coach
Cheer Leader
Cultivator of "olive plants" (what a lovely way to describe it!)
Dietitian
Disciplinarian
Director of Home Affairs
Encourager
Entrepreneur
Entertainer
Educator
Gardener
Hostess
Hygenist
Historian
Hairdresser
Interior Decorator
Investigator
Intercessor (I love this one!)
Janitor
Judge
Lapidary (Polisher of precious stones)
Librarian
Launderer
Mentor
Master Story Teller
Movie Critic
Nurse
Nutritionist
Nurturer
Nation Changer
Professional Chef
Professional Baker
Professional Cleaner
Pediatrician
Photographer
Protector
Repairer of the Breach
Recreation Director
Switchboard Operator
Speech Therapist
Sculptor
Security Guard
Seamstress
Shepherd
Teacher
Time Management Expert
Visionary

Vision Forum Sale : Jonathan Park Goes to the Zoo

The amazing new edition to the Jonathan Park series, Jonathan Park goes to the Zoo, is now available ! It contains 4 cds, for only $25! This cd set is a Creationist guide to 100 zoo animals. What a blessing and breath of fresh air, as opposed to the evolutionary signs and guides, at the zoo. It is so critical that we raise up our children to really understand science from a biblical point of view. Otherwise, our children will often succomb to what the world states to be true regarding the origin of the world. This set would make a delightful supplement to any creation science curriculum! It could serve as a stand alone science lesson for younger children. Listening to this cd set, would be so enjoyable on a road trip! There is a variety of samples of animal sounds, here.This set truly looks like an enjoyable way to teach one's children about creation. Blessings!

Tackle it Tuesday: Organizing Kitchen Cabinets
This week, I decided to tackle organizing my very messy, kitchen cabinets. They were so messy that I simply loathed dealing with them. I pulled everything out of them and wiped down all of the sticky shelves.
Ahh....much better..... I had a ton of tea boxes in that cabinet; a ton, I tell you! Now, our multitude of tea boxes have their own shelf. Before I threw some old tea out, we had 31 boxes! I guess we would have been millionaires a long time ago, if we had not purchased so much tea!
The cabinet above my sink was holding a lot of stuff that I no longer needed. I threw out the stuff that could not be used, and tidied up a bit.
Yea! Now, nothing falls on me from this cabinet, anymore.
Here are some of the boxes of tea that we had on hand. If you have this much tea, you must be my bosom friend.
For more Tackle it Tuesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a few back to school giveaways. Check out their website to enter. Doesn't this look very handy for organizing?

Menu Plan Monday August 4th-8th

Monday- Beef Stew and Cucumber Salad

Tuesday- Spaghetti

Wednesday- Off- Sister-in-law cooking

Thursday- Breakfast (Biscuits, Hashbrown Casserole, Eggs)

Friday- Homemade Thin-Crust Pizza

One delicious snack that we have been enjoying this week, is Nutella on graham crackers.Sometimes, we add whipped cream; it would be scrumptious with marshmallow cream. Last week was the first time that I have sampled Nutella, and I am fully addicted. It is a creamy, chocolate mixed with hazelnuts, need I say more? Oh, let me tell you, it is so delicious!

For more menu plans, visit Laura.

My Hubby is too Sweet......
He built me this amazing laptop. He built me my last one, and even though it was still working well, he gave me an upgrade. He is too thoughtful! Ahh...the perks of being married to a computer technician!

It even has a handy dandy thumbprint reader, so that only I may access this top-secret blogging machine. LOL :)