4 weeks 5 days.

I feel great! Morning sickness has not hit me full force, though today I got full at dinner and I got 'rid' of half my meal the way it came in, lol. That's cool because I can now have a good motivation not to over eat. I feel peceful and serene, even blissful. It's been a GREAT week for all of us here at home since we found out about the new baby, thank be to God!

#5

Yes, this week we found out that I am preggers with our 5th baby!!! We are so happy and Praising God for this new blessing. As our family grows with love I experience more and more joy and peace in our lives! When we decided to give to God our family and let Him be the true Lord of it it was one of the most liberating things we've ever done! We are free to enjoy our children knowing God will provide for the babies He creates with us, in me and for us to love are raise. My husband and I are free to give ourselves wholly and fully to eachother! No need to be "careful", we just become one, fully immersed in the moment of our love, whenever we want ;). The freedom of not worrying about all the things we used to when we thought we had to control our reproduction is like taking a 1000lb gorilla off our marriage. When we are free in Christ by truly making Him LORD of ALL, we are free indeed!!! Praise you Jesus!

20 Questions and living free

The only thing about living a free and unique life is having to explain yourself to people. In my unschooling,Christian life I've had to answer a legion of questions and objections from people. Most are well meaning and concerned, specially since they are ignorant to the different reason why I chose to live the way I do. They have not done the extensive praying and searching and researching that led me to certain conclusions. Some people however object just for the sake of contradicting me, or so it seems. Their arguments are ridiculous and idiotic. They just spew out what comes to mind with out first thinking through what they are saying. I try to answer them but it's like throwing pearls to swine, or like arguing with a barking dog about why he needs to stop barking. It's pointless really. Either way, there are times when I am eager to explain to those who truly are interested in learning more about my life. But many times I am just not in the mood to answer inquisitions. How can I sum up in a 30 minute conversation a life time of experience? I just can't. Most of the time people just go "Mm hmm, OK" which to me sounds like "I am just as confused as ever about your choices, but I decided to leave you alone...for now." And when they do that I am ever so grateful that they show some mercy :).
I find so much comfort in my on-line groups be it from yahoo or facebook, ect. It's a huge relief to communicate with people who just "get it". I don't have to explain to them why I believe that I would have to be insane to send my kids to school, or why my dream is to birth at home, or why I believe that God is the one who needs to be Lord of the size of our family and not us. I can just be, be myself, be free and all my fellow freedom pioneers celebrate with me the joys of that freedom, no questions asked.

Gazelle

Yesterday I got a Gazelle glider from freecycle. It is in great condition so I cannot wait to use it! That is if my monkeys can get off it for more than 5 second. I used to own one several years ago but I sold it thinking we were moving out of state. Ever since then I wanted to get one again because it is so easy to use and non-impact on my joints. Now God provided another one for free!
The kids love to swing on it and have spent the entire day fighting over taking turns at it. I should have figured that would happen, LOL.
In other news I need to clean my floors, oh joy. My mop is old and crusty and I don't feel like going to the store to get one (there is some sort of race going on in town and I do NOT feel like dealing with the tourist crowds). So I decided that I would scrub the flood by hand, on my knees just like Cinderella, hee hee. It needed to be done anyways. Those edges around the counters and stove drive me nuts because I can see the floor scum accumulating there and the mom does not reach those. Our hard floor space is not very large, just the linoleum in the kitchen and tile bathrooms.

I found the coolest website the other day. It's called gentlechristianmothers.com .
It's just a bunch of women who share the same beliefs as I do regarding child rearing. It's so awesome because I've been looking for the longest time for a place where I can find support from women who love the Lord and their kids as much as I do. I've found similar places but either the women did not truly believe in peaceful parenting, or they followed a New Age type of philosophy that just doesn't jive with my faith. I'm waiting for the moderators to apoove my aplication so that I can participate in the message boards. I can' wait.

No After All

So I didn't do the chore/job thing after all. Mostly because I haven't had time to set the whole thing up, and also because I have been able to keep the house clean with no problems. Now that we have furniture in the front room the mess gets spread out making it much simpler to keep it in check, and the house looks good! Though we still need to paint and clean the carpet.
And my kiddos are SO good at helping me with out me needing to pay them for it. I haven't scrapped the idea all together, but it is on hold for now.
Christmas is coming so we are dealing with that now. I like seeing the kids' joy at recieving toys and such, but I have to say I'm not too keen on the holidays. I'm no scrooge, I promise. I'm all for people getting into it if they want to. I just find it too plastic and superficial not to mention it is extremily commercial.
I saw a movie where a couple would go on vacation to some tropical destination during the holidays instead of celebrating them. If we didn't have kids we probably would do that too. Or better yet, we would go on a mission trip to truly celebrate the joy and love of Christ with others. I rather use my money for that than to tithe it to the Black Friday gods.
In fact, it is something that I would consider doing with the kids someday, once they get bigger.

Working Chores

I've decided to implement chore charts once again. The main reason is that I need help around the house. I still don't believe in making their life miserable for my convenience, so I will motivate them with good ol' cash. The more I thought about how to do this the more I realised that it can also be a lesson for them in working and earning wages. In past chore charts I also did a money earning model, but I think I will make this one more like a job than just chores.
I will make a sign listing all the "jobs" available, how much each will pay, and by when they need to be done (dead line).
They will have a choice of jobs, meaning I will not assign them specific chores, instead they will chose what they want to work on themselves.
They also will get to chose if they want to work at all or not. If not, that will fine. Just like in the rest of the world, if they work they will earn money, if they don't work they will not. Simple as that.
I will make "time cards" where they will log in the chore they did, and if it was done properly and on time. They will recieve their wages only if the job was done as required, no half effort will be payed for.
Then every 2 weeks they will turn their time cards in and receive their wages, then they are free to spend their money as they wish.
There will also be a "direct deposit" option they can chose which is that instead of me just handing over the cash to them I will be the "Bank" and keep it for them. If they chose to save their money in the Bank they will also earn interest. The longer they keep their money in the Bank the more interest they will earn.
There are some details about this program that I still need to take care of, but I think this is a good way to combine both our belief in freedom of choice, and showing our children that hard work, wise choices and faith in God yield prosperity.