Ah, the past while there has been hormonal weirdness.  I need to get some amino acids ASAP to see if I can kick my serotonin production into gear.  Insomnia, stress, cranky mommy, and pimples.  :(

All good signs that something is out of whack!  Online health store ordering, here I come!

Well, it is cold here, very, very cold. Officially it is ..hmm, only -36 C this morning, but with the windchill it is -48 C. We aren’t going outside today! NOOOOOSIRREEEEE!!! It IS sunny, but OH SO COLD! Severe wind chill warning on the weather website for the next couple of days .

We are having such a beautiful day that we are ‘spur of the moment’ butchering one of our steers!  Homeschool is on hold in favor of impromptu lessons in cattle anatomy.  ”Look children, the liver!  Wow, look at all those stomachs!  This is the rectum!”  I even took baby out in her fleecey because it is SO NICE and I have to admit, I like seeing how God puts cows together too!

Most children just don’t get educations like this – 1000x better than a field trip or science lab!

Our oldest daughter (7) is really struggling with nosebleeds these past few days.  She is the most likely of our little ones to have a nose bleed, and after having one four days ago, she’s been having repeated bleedings on the same side of her nose.  It just hasn’t had the time to heal up before breaking open again.  She was pretty upset this morning when her nose bled again.

Thanks in advance for the prayer support!

Thank you all so much for your caring prayers and concern!  I am feeling so much better!  My fever actually broke the night after I sent out my prayer request – God hears and answers prayers!  Thank you all ever so much!!

Well, it’s very sad, but it’s true.  I’ve been sick for the past two days with flu-like symptoms.  I have a breast infection so I’ve been cycling between periods of chills and periods of sweating.  I’m pretty weak and am thankful to have Larry here at home to help tend our little ones.  I’ve been trying to rest and nap today and have been successful at catching a few short sleeping periods while the children have been watching videos with their Daddy.

If you feel led to pray, I’d greatly appreciate it.

We have had an amazing amount of snow this past month!  I think it has been at least 3 feet of snow just this past month!  Thankfully we’ve had a few warm days to knock some height off the HUGE piles of snow (you should see them in the city where they’ve graded the roads and pushed the snow up on the sides of the roads.)

Larry has been busy snowblowing and snowblowing.  And chopping wood and chopping wood.  Albertan winters are SO long!

We had our last midwife visit yesterday (Anne was six-weeks old exactly on Wednesday.)  She now weighs 13 lbs. 13 oz. and is doing great.  She is a little bit fussy at night time, but other than that is a very happy baby.  We are all absolutely in love with her, and my oldest STILL asks to change her diapers!  Everything checked out well wit me too, and my midwife’s scale confirmed that I do weigh what I did before I got pregnant!  Yay!  I still need to lose some weight, but I’m glad that I don’t have EXTRA to lose, I’m just back where I started before this pregnancy.  Most importantly, my mood is holding steady (though I can feel a wee bit stir crazy after nursing for 10 hours/day!)

This is one year that the Farmer’s Almanac has been very accurate for our area.  Apparently it was forecasting a very cold, very snowy winter, and that is just what we’ve had.  We’ve had around 3 feet of snow over the past month, it’s really incredible.  Larry had to shovel the snow off of the roof yesterday (well, he got half of it done.)

In other news, Larry set up one of our bookcases in our new kitchen today (one that wasn’t being used – imagine that!) and I’m using the top shelves for puzzles, art supplies, toys with many small pieces etc. that I don’t want to be easily accessible .  I’m loving it already.  *Cackle*

Actually, it isn’t just a ‘mean mom’ thing, I think our puzzles will be easier for me to get to for the children if they are up high, easier to reach up with a baby on your hip than it is to squat down!  I plan to put them into use during school times, a plan I’ve always had but one that never seems to work out.  Here’s hoping!

I was expecting that the novelty of changing our newborns diapers would wear off very quickly, but my 7-year-old still LOVES to change our one-month-old when she has a wet or dirty diaper. Seriously. She ASKS to change diapers! Wow, she is going to be one great mommy! It is exciting to see her mothering skills and longings for a child of her own develop. This is one of the wonderful benefits of having a larger family!