5 weeks. I have an abdominal separation, hence the obvious bump. I have kept up on eating well and am losing at a safe rate right now. Honestly the pic makes it look more obvious, I think it was holding up the camera. I really don't look THAT huge lol.
All my dreads are out now. I finished last night. Pure torture! Yay for healthy hair though, that I did not have to cut.
I had to stay home from church so I am trying to get the house sparkly before Brian gets back. Just wanted to post that while I had a chance.

Brian is a good man. :P He talked me down last night, we went over why I would all of a sudden want to do a major change to our home school. He asked if I felt overwhelmed(no).We figured out together that I feel under equipped in some ways. I am going to tweak a bit more and we will keep chugging away. The kids are all doing well. I was being reactive to some stuff I read on the Well Trained Mind site. Silly of me really.
Pippi has been wearing leotards over her diaper lately lol. It is the only way to keep her from getting completely naked and peeing on the floor all the time! She is a feisty little darling.
Jubilee is mellowing out finally and is a fun girly girl. She loves anything pink or sparkly. She wants to be a princess.
Griffon lost his first tooth yesterday. He started reading words! He loves Legend of Zelda.
Logan has a bossy streak. We are working on it. He is a really funny boy, with a very dry sense of humor.
Gavin is a sunbeam. Always grinning. He is kind- hearted and sensitive. He cries when he is upset, or if he thinks he disappointed someone. He loves the Lord and wants to be a Pastor.
Christian is methodical and artistic(weird combo). He gets very excited by things and his volume increases exponentially when he is happy/excited. He is sweet.
Trinity is discovering that she likes people and wants to look nice. Not overly made up, but she is taking care to style her hair now, or match her jewelery to her outfit. She has a biting wit and I have to remind her not to take it too far sometimes. She is smart and has her life mapped out. Our discussions about the twists and turns life can take make her more determined to make it work right lol.
Today I want to go to the library, clean the chicken cage, fold and put away 3 loads of laundry, and make a yummy meat dinner since Trinity is at the state youth convention. I need to get my head on straight and plan the rest of the years schoolwork. If it is planned and the photocopies are made I think I will do much better.

I am doing something really odd for me. I don't know why exactly, other than I am always trying to evaluate where we are, but I am looking at doing k-12 for the kids next year. Free curriculum and accountability sound like good things. Government program, secular worldview sound like bad things. I am really conflicted. For now I have only requested the booklet, and scoured the web looking for other testimonies. I really love our curriculum though, and think I would want to try to do both. Hmm...alot to consider.

As shown at this joyful blog there need to be some more mom of many birth stats ;0 . On that note, here we go.
Trinity Lace born 8 April 1998
8lbs2ozs, 21 3/4 in
42wks2ds
18hr labor , stadol, forceps,4th degree episiotomy, 200+stitches and 2 collapsed lungs

Christian Matthew born 28 March 1999
7lbs7ozs 21 1/2 in
37wks
3day induction, no pain meds, 7 stitches

Gavin Conner born 21 June 2000
6lbs14ozs 21 in
34wks6ds
18hr labor, pitocin, mag sulfate, epidural 7 stitches. NICU at birth

Logan Xavier born 5 July 2002
7lbs 19 in
36 wks 4 ds
14 hr labor, hypnobirthing,2 stitches

Griffon Drake born 9 October 2004
8lbs8ozs, 21 3/4 in
40wks(on his due date)
2 hr labor, homebirth, born in the caul

Jubilee Faith born 25 January 2007
7lbs6ozs 21 1/2in
38wks
50minutelabor, midwife was here for 9 minutes,dad missed the birth.

Epiphany Grace born 2 May
8lbs 21 1/2 in
39 wks
3 hr labor in the middle of the night. The kids slept through the birth and were thrilled to wake up to a new sister!
I can't wait to see how the next one will go. If I could have it go my way(lol) it would be November 1st, 9 lb baby(I love big babies!!!) and a 2 hr labor. Those fast and furious ones are brutal but fun lol.

5 weeks today. I am emotional, have to use the restroom all too frequently, and am hungry yet sick. Yay for symptoms!!! It makes it easier to think of this as a healthy pregnancy when I feel like something is going on.
I lost a couple pounds this week. ANother yay! I always lose in the first three months and gain it back with a vengeance later. I am hoping to try not to gain nearly as much this go round. We shall see. I had a bowl of rice and beans for lunch and 2 pancakes for breakfast. I am about to eat some fruit. I haven't planned dinner yet because we aren't even halfway done with schoolwork for the day. Griffon is stretching his first assignment out for 2 hours...grrr. I gave the kids a lecture about how homeschooling does not equal slacking and I expect more from them. They seem to have registered that I am serious.Hopefully.

Some of our hiking pictures from yesterday. It was really nice. I love that it is an activity that we all can not get enough of. We originally wanted to go to Red Bud park but they changed their hours! That is a really cool set of trails with caves. We stopped at Mohawk just to alleviate the let down, and I am so glad we did. We even found a (dead) armadillo.
My headache is gone, thankfullness!!! I had my first bout of STRONG nausea last night and really didn't think I would get to the bathroom fast enough. I ordered some blueberry drops off etsy that will hopefully be here soon. I know Motherhood has preggie drops but I really do not like that store. Yay for Etsy!

I have a killer headache.
We went hiking at Mohawk Park today. It was amazing, I wish we could have left earlier in the day, but we had such a good time for the little while we were there. We are finishing the indoor grow room that will occupy 1/4 of my bedroom! Vanilla beans and saffron will be our first attempts.Very excited.
We got the replacement chickens in the mail today. Only 8 are still alive :( . I don't know who is at fault, Murray McMurray for shipping before President's Day, or the Post Office for leaving them in a cold office overnight, but we lost 12. They didn't die easy either, which makes me ill. The ones that survived seem to be doing well though.
I don't know how to comment to a comment, so I guess I will answer here, but we never did get the riding donkey. I think we are going to put the pony/second riding animal idea on the shelf for a bit. We are getting really close to paying off the debt...I keep trying to realize it is just delayed gratification, not no gratification.
I will have to come back tomorrow to finish, can't see straight. :(

Okay...I just nursed Pip to sleep and the older 6 are watching tv together. We spent the day going through and pulling down spring/summer clothes. I found 8 sleeper gowns that are gender neutral and put them in my dresser.I am ridiculous, I am. 4 weeks and I got out baby clothes and maternity clothes. Mainly because I got all the storage down and with it down I figured I should go through it lol, but still.
The back of the Great White Van(12 passenger Chevy in youth group white) is crammed with stuff to donate. I hate clutter. I so love that people gift me with hand me downs, but I don't have that many kids! :P So the thrift store will get a good pile of stuff.
We have lost 15 chickens this go round. All the bantams died. Murray McMurray has been wonderful to work with and are reshipping all we lost plus they are filling out the order to 25 with free straight run chicks!I am so glad, the kids were really disappointed that all their special ones died. The remaining chicks look so sweet, but there are so many of them!
The weather took a turn towards beautiful. We drove down to the campground and played on the beach for a bit earlier. Pip ran right into the cold water. Jubilee just ran in circles. It was so nice to be outdoors, and not in the backyard for awhile.
Being as it is tax return time Brian has been nice and busy at work. We needed it after all the work he missed from the snow. We live off his money, my VA disability(my seizure disorder came about from a head injury when I was in the Army.) , and what little bit of homesteading we scratch out. This year we are trying to grow some indoor herbs and sell at the farmer's market. Specifically Vanilla Beans and Saffron. Oh, I got some purple basil I think will do well too. I am so ready for a great year of produce! I am really excited to get our piglets too, I want to call in March, but think we will have to wait until April. I will probably call in March. I have the woman's number in my phone as Kim Piglady. ;)
I wrote to Ruth(my midwife) on facebook and asked her to hold me a spot. She was excited and said she adores our family, which made me feel good. I won't go see her until 4 or 5 months(she says 12 weeks, but I usually just wait a bit longer) but I think there is going to be a baby boom and wanted her to include me in her slots. I am so freakin excited!
I got Large Family Logistics for my birthday and it is as good as everyone said. I obviously don't agree with everything, but it is still chock full of useful ideas and thoughts.
Aubrey, I so wish I lived around you. There don't seem to be many likeminded people here. There are Quiverfull families but they would never associate with heavily tattooed freaks like Brian and I. There are tattoo friends, but they eschew children lol. Our church is wonderful but oddly not as conservative as we are biblically and way more conservative politically. I wish I could gather up the handful of interesting people I have "met" on the net and collect them in a commune!
I am thinking of taking pictures to track this pregnancy, but I hate taking pics of myself. Plus, I am not thin to begin with. So consider yourselves warned...I will probably post icky pics but I will not show my belly until it looks bigger :P

There are so many joyous emotions running through me right now. Baby number 8 is due October 28thish! I am so, so happy.

Brian went to work today. It took him 3 hours to get there. Foolish boy! I feel for him, he spent too much time and even some money because the snow chains snapped and he had to buy a new set of bolt cutters to fix them to get to work where he will do no piercings because no sane people are out and about.
We had snow ice cream last night...so good. 8 cups snow, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. I mean good as in actually enjoyable, not just good because this is fun. Although it was that too. Today we made it again, only we added our apple cider to it and had apple shakes. Very tasty. We sipped that as we listened to Mrs.Piggle Wiggle on CD in front of the fireplace. The kids are really enjoying that story. Afterwards we started watching the tv version of it on the computer but we all agreed it was rubbish and turned it off after 4 minutes. If one wished to make a tv version of a beloved book then one ought take care to match certain details...just my opinion of course.
I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake and her olive bread. Both were fantastic. Brian even ate the cake, and he is not a sweets person.
We made the trek to town yesterday. There were very few people out, and the ones who were all had camo or carharts on lol. Yes, we live amongst ranchers. At Walmart it was almost eerie. The shelves were more bare than not. There was no meat at all, no eggs. Bread was down to a few bags, and milk was fast running out. Thankfully we only went for milk and we like rice milk lol. I didn't want their nasty hormone laced milk anyhow, though I do feel for the families who needed or wanted some and could not get any. We really only went to gauge the roads and to get out of the house. I love being in a car with Brian. We have always enjoyed road trips, even little ones.
Pip is being such a silly girl lately. Every time she sees a camera she scrunches her face up in a rather menacing little grin. If I want to get a good smile I have to show her the scary face picture, then quickly catch her proud smile. When I read to her she turns backwards and walks into my lap to plunk down for her story. Jubilee loves that she gets to climb on my back while Pip is in my lap. It makes it harder to read but my baby girls love it.
Griffon is building a "big fire" in the fire place right now. And he tells me this as if I will be proud and happy. (He is throwing paper airplanes in an existing fire, not actually building a fire).
I have a ton of pics on the camera I need to upload. I will add here when I do of course.