Great news!

For the past week I have felt off, as if some great, yet subtle, change was taking place. I don't feel like my hemoglobin is down or that I am having difficulty in uptake of minerals or other nutrients. Yet something is changing.
Friday I sat down and looked at cycle length and figured I would be getting my period soon.
Yesterday morning I had the chance to stop at Dollar General and pick up a few cheap pee stick hcg tests. I had the chance to use one because I still had not started my period. Well...

Looking forward to September in our house.

The reasons we teach at home.

On the Eve of a new school year, I am busy with all the many thoughts and ideas that go along with schooling children in the home. I do feel a need to put the reasons for "homeschooling" out there again, for any of those who question, wonder, and otherwise believe we are crazy.
Here is a basic list, by no means inclusive:

1. My husband and I believe our Maker has called us to teach our children in the home.
2. We want our children to learn our beliefs in their schooling, not the agenda of the greater schooling community.
3. Our children have enough bad habits. They do not need to pick any more up or pass any on to the children out there.
4. How many school shootings have you seen in the news in the past few years? Granted, we most likely won't have them in Glennallen, Alaska, but anger is everywhere...

These are our main reasons. Calling, Beliefs, Habits and Safety.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Go in Peace,
Sasha Jean

The beginning of a new school year...

2013-2014. What will this school year hold? Will my light-dyslexic child learn to read all the way? Will we fly high in Science? What will be our stumbling block? Coming soon we will be fully into our school year. Since we teach at home, our school vacations (or holidays) are limited. We take off time for sickness, new babies, trips, and a short break around special days.

This past school year was disastrous!!! I don't know if we learned anything! The winter here was atrocious at -40° to -50° Fahrenheit. Our little one we were to welcome in late December died a few short days before his due date. My ability to concentrate on anything but my own grieving was diminished. Looking back, we learned a lot, just not from books.

This school year, we have to play catch up. This summer was intense with working on the land. We learned about plants, animals, bears, and how to sort everything. So, again, this school year is all about the catch up. I have found some great websites about all sorts of free stuff.

http://allinonehomeschool.com/ This site gives free curriculum for Preschool (Kindergarten in the UK) through 8th grade.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ Absolutely fantastic site for free (copyright free) books. I absolutely love finding the classics that are not in print any more!

http://librivox.org/ and http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks These have many free audio books. With 5 children who love to hear a book read aloud, my voice doesn't hold up long!

And http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/ One of my favorite places for free stuff on the web. They require an email sign up, have most of everything free to download and have very minimal advertising for their ebooks and such that are very well-priced, especially for teaching-at-home families.

We begin schooling September 3, the day after Labor Day. I plan to take it easy my last weekend of freedom from school planning!

Yours truly,
Sasha Jean

1 week old.

Miss Tavia is 1 week old today, and what a week. I am sure all of you moms (and dads) remember how fast the first week went. Seems like a whirlwind looking back a few short days to all the end-of-pregnancy woes, the waiting, and then the final relief of birth. Whew! where has time gone! And I am looking at my other children and thinking " I did this several times in the past 9 years?"

I weighed Tavia today. She has lost 7 ounces, making her 5 pounds, 1 ounce. (2300 grams for all the metric system people.) She started at 2500 grams. Patsy told me that she looks like she has grown, but she seems like she is the same to me. I am going to measure her length: she has grown 1/2 inch, making her 18-1/2 inches. Still itsy bitsy. I am glad that she is not as itsy bitsy as Taleah was.

I weighed myself yesterday! I will not tell you beginning or ending weight, but I lost about 12 pounds since birth, most of it baby and fluids. My edema is all gone and most of the aches have disappeared.

We are getting into our nursing groove. I am glad it is not my first time! I would hate to be without my La Leche League lady. I feel helpless when asked for nursing help. I just know what works for me, and I have never been engorged. I talked with my sisters who have nursed, and both said they haven't had that problem either.

I am going to be changing the name of the blog, because, as you read, I am not dealing with Pregnancy anymore! My husband suggested I use this blog to write Tavia info down and as an info journal for different things we stumble upon. We will see, but anyhow, I think I will change the name by this weekend. The address will stay the same.

Signing off...

Birth! YEA!!!!!!!!!!

We have a girl!! A tie maker. Tavia Elizabeth Carlile.

We are now a 3 boy, 3 girl family.

Tavia weighs 5# 8oz and measures 18".

She was born at 5:25 am AST at home in Trafalgar, Dominica, WI.

Our first homebirth, 2nd VBA2C. Woohoo! It is done!

Regression Agression!

1/26/10
7:20pm
It is funny how easy it is to lose ground if you do not have Pitocin pushing you to dilate. Every time I lie down, I regress. Every time I am up, I progress, but the contractions are so very hard now, that I am so exhausted. Add to that my sleep cycle being upside down, and you get a crazy day!
Bonnie and Marie, 2 of Travis' schoolmates, stopped by today with pizza, cookies, and chocolate. I really enjoyed visiting with them. Hopefully I am able to see them again soon with a baby in arms.

I just had a very hard contraction- the back labor is still there. I don't know what is in the magic of calling out, "Oh, Mommy." that helps me. It seems to help me relax to point that I can bear the rest of the contraction without crying or screaming. Wish this baby would turn completely. I found out that Oil of Ojas, a local oil here, is lovely for soothing my back labor. The clove oil in it numbs wherever I rub it. Too bad I cannot use it internally!!
Update later...

Finally, labor? Yep!

1/26/10
12:?? a.m.
Here I am, very little water pressure, no hot water, with very hard contractions every 2 minutes. Very frustrating! This will be the last time I fill the pool. I am using the cold, low pressure line to get water in and the electric hot water kettle to heat the pool. It is frustrating, but necessary. The contractions are so hard that all I can do is breathe through them. Much different than the past months, much different from the past weeks.

I used some water from the barrel. Hope it will not cause infection! I carried several buckets and water pitchers full of room-temp water from one bathroom to the other, through the kitchen, stopping every 2 minutes to stand and lean and breathe.
Soon I will be able to get in. It won't be as deep as I like, nor as warm, but it will provide some relief- all I can hope for.
Even as I think and type these words, I stop every so often to lean, breathe, and try to keep from screaming! I need that bath. Well, back to the hot water kettle...

6:13am
The past few hours have been very productive! I took a bath which felt like hours, but in reality was maybe 45 minutes. I slept between contractions which were about 3 minutes apart. I decided to get out since I did not want to drown. I then laid down beside my husband and passed out for the few minutes between each contraction- not very long I tell you. I woke a bit before 6am and used the restroom. I noticed some extra in the receptacle. I then checked dilation and was VERY surprised to find myself fully effaced and dilated to about 7cm! For the past weeks I have puttered so slooooowly, that to find myself gone from 4cm-ish to 7cm and fully effaced while "sleeping" took me by surprise.
I will update later, preferably after baby is born...

11:46am
Baby is not born yet. I took a much needed nap and I don't remember anything except a few hard contractions that woke me throughout. I woke after about 1.5 hours of restless sleep feeling a bit refreshed. Let's get this moving again. I think the water broke before I laid down for my nap, not sure, but anyway we are within hours of birth...