Nursing and More

Before I had Cassia I made the decision to only give her breast milk. There had been reports of tainted baby formula that led to infant deaths. I just could not even bring myself to consider using formula. So I have been loaned a very nice Medela Electric pump. I am going to nurse and pump.

I took lil miss Cassia to the Health Dept. on Thursday. She was 11# 5oz, and 22 in long! My goodness she has grown! She is 7 weeks old now!! She has a sweet personality and loves being talked to. She is a good baby. She does well sleeping for the most part. I have to make sure she is up by 6 pm and keep her up from that point on so she will sleep the night.

Samuel has been having to see Drs and Dentists lately. I took him to see his Dr because he had what appeared to be a hernia. After being examined it was determined that he had lost weight fast and it made his belly button stick out more. I am glad of that! He also went to the dentist who referred him to an orthodontist. He gets his braces on MONDAY! I was shocked how fast they were moving on that! He will have pretty teeth when finished!

The rest of my crew is doing good. Next weekend, JJ turns 22! Yikes!!! We will be going to his place for a birthday dinner!

2 All Nighters = the red eye

Cassia just has had her days and nights mixed up. I am so tired. I finally took her to bed with me last night just so I could get the 2.5 hours I got. I feel like a zombie today...lol

Cassia is nearly 7 weeks! She is a chunkie thing. Doing her very best to "talk" to me. I love it! She is so precious. We are all totally in love with this baby!

I decided to try to bake our sweets rather than buy them. It seems everyone likes the idea. I have been trying to make peanut butter fudge and it has not done right yet. No complaints though, they eat the chewy peanut butter goo. I will hopefully made it right soon.
Last night I made chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. They came out very good. Next we will bake a cake when the cookies are almost gone. I want to bake every other day. Or maybe every third day.

We have been having cool weather, which I am happy to see so that the light bill will go down. With the weather changing we must get ready to put the wood heater in. I have to get the boxes that I have had stored in that room out. So I have been cleaning out yet again. I need to just throw the junk away. Some things I am free cycling and the rest if I plan to keep I am packing up to put in building. Hopefully by the end of the day I will have the room cleaned out.

Lets get started!

FWD:

The gummy train!
Dye Free of course!

Cassia's First Real Bath

First real tub bath! She screamed entired time. I just knew she would love it

I was so wrong! She was not happy until she was out, dried, and dressed!

Hopefully next time she will enjoy it more....lol!

Honey Wagon??

What do you think of when you read the title? A wagon load of honey? Or something along those lines? What I am about to tell you is definitely far from that!

Recently, we have had some issues with our plumbing. the toilet was constantly backing up and being sluggish. We also have had an occasional septic odor in the bathroom. NOT good! So I called the one who handles repairs and they called a company who pumps out septic tanks. It has never been pumped out so it was past due!
When the truck arrived, the 2 men listened to all my complaints and said sounded like it definitely needed to be pumped out. The located the tank dug it up and then went to get the truck to pull it closer to pump it out.
So, he is backing it up when all of a sudden I see this picture on the back of the truck tank, it is a covered wagon being pulled by a team of horses Beside it are the words Honey Wagon! I began laughing and said how in this world did you all come up with that name?! One of the men said that is what the Amish community call the septic trucks! I thought I would roll! Never would I ever call THAT a Honey Wagon! Nothing in that smells sweet at all!

Our problems as far as plumbing were taken care of. However today we have had some strong winds and rain. We found several leaks in the bathroom we did not know we had! Yikes!

Praying For Husband Head To Toe

Praying For Your Husband Head to Toe Head Father, I ask that You would continually renew my husband’s mind, resulting in a transformed life. Help him bring every thought to Christ and make it obedient to You. Give him a greater understanding of Your Word. Help him to think on things that are pure and right and worthy of praise.” (Psalm 119:15, Rom 12:2, 2 Cor.10:5) Eyes Lord, keep open my husband’s eyes to spiritual truths that You have for him. Help him to see things as You see them. Please guard his eyes from things that make his heart wander away from you and me. (Psalm 119:18, Psalm 119:37) Ears Father, help my husband to hear Your voice clearly. Give him wisdom to recognize your voice with certainty. Protect him from listening to those who aren’t seeking or walking with You. Guard him from negativity of what others say, and help him discern between good and evil. Thank you for giving him the ability to determine what is of You and what is not. (Is 30:21, 1 Kings 3:9, 1 John 4:1) Mouth Jesus, help my husband to speak the truth in love. Your desire is for him to be quick to listen and slow to speak – so I pray that you would make that his desire too. Give him courage to lovingly confront when necessary. Let the words he speaks be Yours, not his own. Help him speak words that bring grace and truth to the hearers. Thank you that You want to help him grow in his ability and desire to communicate with you and others. (Psalm 19:14, 119:13, 41:3; Eph 4:15, 4:29; James 1:19) Heart Lord, instill in my husband’s heart a desire to seek passionately after You. Teach him to guard his heart with diligence and wisdom. Help him deal with anything in his heart that is not pleasing to You or that separates him from You. Create in him a pure heart, O Lord. Thank you that You are enabling him to lead our family with integrity and honor. (Psalm 78:72, 119:10-11; Prov 4:23; 1 Thes 3:13) Hands Lord, I pray everything my husband does would be done with his whole heart, serving You rather than man. Seeking to please You alone. I pray You will increase his skills and his abilities so that he might bring honor and glory to you – and feel like a good provider for our family. Thank You for blessing everything he puts his hands to. (Psalm 24:3-4, Col 3:23) Feet Jesus, I pray my husband would love Your Words and walk in Your ways. Help him walk in a manner that is worthy of You, bearing fruit in every good work. I pray You’d show him how to creatively share your truth with our kids as he does life with them each day. Father, when he walks through the valley of the shadow of doubt and difficulties, I pray he would fear no evil because He knows that you are with him. Thank you for loving and leading Him. (Deut 6:7, 8:6, Col 1:10, Psalm 23:4)

A New Day

As I wrote yesterday, Cassia was up most of the day. She went to bed at 11p.m. and slept until 3:30a.m. went right back to bed and was up again at 7, not too bad. She stayed awake for about an hour or so and is again napping. I am hoping that today she rests more so that I can get the dishes caught up.

Tent Revival is still going on and the family just left to go to the morning service of that. I chose not to go I have Bella Grace this morning. I am just not in the swing of things yet to handle Carl, her and Cassia. Not with me nursing. I can most likely watch from home as they live stream it on ustream.

The weather has turned cooler. Especially the nights. Our light bill should drop quit a bit now. Soon it will be time to gather wood and fire up the wood stove. I am very thankful we have that wood stove. It is far cheaper than oil or propane.

I am going to get off this laptop and begin some laundry. I can see Cassia wiggling on the bed. My me time has about ended! :)

It's been busy here

I know I have not written like I normally do. Cassia is keeping me very busy as you would imagine! Today was a very high maintenance day for her. She was up most of the day. I could only get her to sleep if I held her. She is asleep right now, but for how long is anyones guess! Hopefully for the night! I am so tired.

My house looks horrible! I have got to clean it out! I have far too much junk! It's not even funny. I have got to begin cleaning it all out! I mean it! So tonight I am planning on listing things on free cycle! Just to get rid of it! If all goes well I can rid my home and buildings of junk stored for years!

Oh my Cassia is stirring around! Gotta go!

Rebecca and Cassia Look alike!

                                                     Rebecca Just a couple weeks old

Cassia

FWD:

Cassia Rose 4 weeks old

Cassia is 4 weeks!

I cannot believe she is already 4 weeks old! It just does not seem like that much time has gone by already!

She is growing fast! Not sure of her weight, but think it is in the 10lb range. She really likes to nurse! she is such a pretty baby and makes me think of Rebecca a lot. I need to look at the baby pics and compare! 

If she has not mixed her days and nights mixed up she usually sleeps from 11pm to around 5am! Most days she naps well, but some days are high maintenance days and we sit and nurse all day long. We had one of those days yesterday.

I was so blessed to get a huge wardrobe of clothes for her that were her nieces clothes....lol Now I just need a place to hang them all!

Coming Unglued!

I cannot tell you how many times I have said this about myself. However, today I really did! My glue finally turned loose from my surgery....lol It has been 3 weeks and 4 days since I had my c-section to deliver sweet Cassia Rose into this ole' world. I feel good and am pleased with my weight loss, tho at a standstill now.
I have slight tenderness left from the surgery that really does not bother me. I still have to figure my time and work fast while Cassia is asleep. We are getting into it slowly. :)

Cassia is growing by leaps and bounds. I have no clue of her weight right now, but I do know she is getting pudgy now. She is such a sweet baby, and a pro at nursing! Her cord dropped off Friday, I am so glad of that! Her lil' belly is rounded out like a lil froggy! she looks great!

Carl really does not seem to be suffering from the baby being here. He has handled it nicely. I try to encourage him. He is such a good big brother!