Or or oar or ore?

[Ok, so the title of this post has nothing to do with what it is about. It's just a question the kids came up with at lunch today while we were talking about the difference between "ore" and "oar".]

On with the post...

I am dragging my reluctant fingers to the keyboard to do something other than check Facebook or Pinterest. I am self-diagnosing myself with ADD. I just can't keep my brain focused. I'm sure it has nothing to do with raising and homeschooling seven kids, I'm just....well, here's a picture....wait.....let me tell you about Sarah's birthday......in a minute. I want to show you a picture....no wait, let me tell you how this past week the stomach bug went through our home. Ug. Yes, it was yuck and I'm just recovering.....ok here's the picture: (That's just a glimpse of how my brain has been functioning lately. Annoying, right? And if you can translate my unfocusedness into housecleaning, you might be able to imagine what my house looks like. Everything is either 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 of the way clean, with an emphasis on 1/4.)

This year I was going to write a To Do List at the beginning of each month for all the things I wanted to accomplish that month. January's list was pretty successful. Over a week ago I sat down to write my To Do List for February and this is how far I got because I got distracted. Needless to say, you can't go very far on a To Do List if you can't even To Do writing the list!

OK, back to the stomach bug. Wendy started it on Monday and she had it for two days. Usually if sickness goes around our house, more than one kid will get sick. But she was the only one, which led me to wonder if she had appendicitis or something because she was complaining about her lower abdomen hurting before the puking started. Then I got paranoid about the undercooked hot dogs we ate on Sunday, and I was afraid she had Listeriosis, and that I would have it too, and it would kill my fetus. (Listeria can do that.) But then Emily and Bradley both got sick on Wednesday evening, followed by Sarah and Rachel on Thursday evening. (I will admit I secretly rejoiced when the two kids who did not eat hot dogs (Emily and Rachel) threw up and I was able to throw my Listeria paranoia out the window. I think George had the illness in the form of a liquid diaper, and Jason seemed to miraculously get by unscathed. We think it might have to due to him eating so much fruit to keep is immune system going. Thankfully the bug seemed to be a sort of 24-48 hour thing depending upon how long the child wanted to milk it for some TV time. My husband and I both had something funky going on too, but no throwing up, thank goodness. We were just both very tired and I had a very bad crampy feeling in my upper abdomen ALL week! At first I thought it was just growing pains of my expanding belly, but by day five I thought it might be something else. I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me as having "The Bug". I totally thought I had gallbladder issues, but I started feeling great as of Saturday afternoon. 

The good news is my doctor was not busy the day I went in. I told him he was torturing me by having me wait until the 28th to find out if I am having a boy or girl. So he said, "Do you want to find out today?" Without hesitation I said, "Of course!!!" So he led me down the hall for a complimentary "Social Ultrasound." But I'm going to keep you in suspense for now because I feel like I cheated by getting a sneak peek. I get my official anatomy scan on the 28th to make sure she has a heart, brain, etc. Did I say 'she'? I meant 'he'. Now I've got you confused. At least we know he/she has at least one hand:

A few fun things have happened since I last posted. Here they are in pictures:

Rachel's Birthday on January 22

 

Can you guess how old she is?  She's either 4.....

....or 44. (Emily decorated the cake.)

She got a Spongebob Barbie from us.

Sarah's Turned 8!

I guess there is no theme to the birthday cakes this year.  This year I have ADD, not OCD.

Sarah got baptized on Groundhog's Day.

Daddy baptized her.

A group shot.

The next day I put my free labor to work and we painted a section of our fence in desperate need of paint.

The next day I painted our bedroom. I don't have a good picture yet. The color is called "Moondance". I thought it was a light blue, but it's actually a light grey. I'm not 100% happy with the color, but it's better than the pink we had for the past 3 years when we traded rooms with the girls.

That's all for now. Dentist appointments tomorrow. The kids are looking forward to theirs. I'm not looking forward to mine.

And since you have been so patient to get this far in my post, I'll let you in on a little secret.....It's a Girl!