It took having a 4th child for me to even consider putting up a picture that included me. However, I thought this one was pretty good of all us, and it shows how truly rich we are! This was taken at the hospital on Mother’s Day.

At long last, I am trying to put a few more photos of our delightful new baby girl, Charis. This photo was taken in her new crib, with bedding made lovingly by Grandmommy (who also took the picture). Thanks to Mark’s mom (aka Grandmommy), we have some really cute shots that I hope to add over the next few days. I hope you enjoy seeing them.

On another related note, Charis was baptized this past Sunday. Our friend, Doug Serven, RUF minister at OU, came to preach and perform the baptism. We also had several other friends from the Norman PCA church present. It was a real encouragement to us to have them with us. Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Aunt Tricia and the cousins rounded out the crowd, along with those from our own congregation. It was a joyous occassion, and we are thankful to be able to welcome our own little one to the covenant family of God.

Last Wednesday, the doctor approved me to drive again. So, on Saturday, I ventured out alone for the first time since Charis’s arrival. Since driving to OKC takes 35 minutes, I opted to go only as far as the new Wal-Mart store in Mustang, a town about 18 miles nw of us. It was nice to have a little time to walk around and look at things without any children along.

The thing that made me want to blog was the differences I have been noticing lately in prices at different Wal-mart stores. The ones I shop at are generally between 10 and 20 miles from each other, but the difference in prices can be pretty amazing. Here’s an example: A couple of weeks ago, Mark bought a large can of baby formula at the Wal-mart closest to us. It cost $22. A week later when we had to go to the pediatrician’s office, we stopped by the Wal-mart 10 miles closer to the city. I bought the formula there and paid only $18 for it. On my little outing to the new Wal-mart, about 5 miles closer to the city, the formula was priced at $19. I’ve been told several people that Wal-mart’s prices vary from store to store based on the competition in the area the store is in. This makes sense, but I was really amazed at the spread on one particular product.

One final note: when I was a teenager, I remember going to the grocery store with my mom. We would run into people she knew, and she would stop to talk. I would be standing there, listening to the conversation. It would almost always include content about the price of potatoes or lettuce or some other grocery item. I would think to myself, “Is there nothing more important to talk about than the price of groceries?” Now, 20 years later, I am talking about the same things in cyberspace. I have become my mother!

My mother, who has professed faith in Christ as long as I can remember but was not a regular church attender, has been faithfully attending church (in the church I grew up in) for the past several months. I called her today to wish her well on her 77th birthday, and she reported to me that she was baptized yesterday. I praise God for this news.

Most of you already know that Mark is back. But I just thought I would add my plug for my husband’s new blog. When we met, we worked for Coral Ridge Ministries, and much of our work centered on political and cultural issues as they related to Christendom. So, it is sort of a nice trip back in time for me to read his thoughts on things other than theology.

As most of you know, we welcomed our 4th child into the world on May 8. Her name is Charis Ellyn Horne. She weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz., and she was 19.25 inches long. She is beautiful in my most objective opinion. We are thankful to God for her safe arrival.

To my chagrin, Charis was delivered by emergency c-section. The stormy Oklahoma weather may have had something to do with the doctor’s decision to do a c-section. First, I had an epidural that went awry. After it was removed and the anasthesiologist was deciding what to do for my pain, Charis’s heartbeat dropped dramatically. Unfortunately, my doctor had left the building, and, when the hospital attempted to contact her, she could not be found. It seems, because of the tornado, the cell phone and pager towers were not working. So the on-call doctor decided to do the c-section. It seemed like the decision was made as soon as she realized I was having a VBAC delivery. I told her this would be my third VBAC, but it made little difference. She had made up her mind. I was wheeled to the emergency room and Mark was not allowed in. They gave me general anasthesia, a first for me. It was all pretty scarey. Fortunately, the end result is really quite wonderful. Though I have surgery from which to recover, I have a lovely and sweet little baby who has really been quite easy to care for in her first week of life at home.

Mark’s mom, Grandmommy as we call her at our house, was here for 10 days, and that made things go much more smoothly. We haven’t even missed a ball game for the boys thanks to her help! A few friends have brought in meals, and yesterday another friend came over and vaccuumed the house and mopped my kitchen floor–now that is friendship!

One other note about my hospital stay–on the night after Charis’s delivery, we had tornados once again in Central Oklahoma. This time, the sirens went off in the neighborhood where my hospital was. So all of the women with their newborns and the hospital staff were led to an inner hallway to wait out our fate. Fortunately, the tornado passed by us, though there was damage as close as 5 minutes away from the hospital. Earlier that same evening Mark, his mom, and our 3 other children went to the basement of the baptist church across the street from us for shelter from the same storm. Our town, thankfully, also was passed by. However, the children did find getting out of bed to go to the tornado shelter exciting and they also were treated to a puppet show by the baptists while they waited for the danger to pass. This little story will add a bit of interest to Charis’s baby book!

We are thankful to be home and to have everyone home safely after Charis’s birth and after all the nasty weather we have had in Oklahoma this May. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me during this pregnancy. I (we) still need your prayers, but up to this point, things have gone well and God has blessed us. Praise Him with us for these blessings!

I am interested in finding out more about ADHD. I have read some articles on the web, and they all seem to say the same thing. I am looking for some good resources that won’t require me to search endlessly on-line with my excruciatingly slow dial-up modem. (Cable is not available in our little chunk of America’s heartland.) In the past, I always assumed it was a bunch of educational gobbledy-gook. I am not so sure now. If you have thoughts or know of good resources on the subject, please feel free to share them with me here.

The title for today’s entry seems appropriate since lately I only have been blogging about what is happening in my day-to-day existence. But since I have had little time for much else than that existence, it is really the only thing for me to blog about.

On the home/baby preparation front, I finally found a bed for Evangeline today. The other day I saw a new mattress and box springs at a little mattress store in a nearby town. It was out on the porch of the store as an “only one left display model.” It was a good deal, and Mark and I decided that it was worth it for something Evangeline will likely use until she is off to college. So, I stopped today to pick it up. Upon talking with the salesman, he said he had a used twin bed frame in the back if I wanted to see it. I agreed to go look, and when we walked in, I ruled out the one he was trying to sell me because he had a used off-white twin headboard and footboard in the room with a price tag of $12.50. So I bought that along with the accompanying rails. They delivered the frame and mattress set this evening, and Mark and I put it together for Evangeline. She is pleased. Ideally, I want to paint the head and footboards a true white, but for now, I am going to leave it as is with a little bit of touch up where it is scuffed. I am soooo tired of painting, and I am about out of energy for these extra chores. So the painting of the bed will wait until after the baby is a few months old.

I can’t stop with just the bed though. I also put a coat of polyurethane on the chest of drawers for the baby. All I have to do to it now is replace the hardware after I am finished cleaning it up. Probably tomorrow.

Finally, a t-ball/pitching machine game update. Mark and Evangeline took Nevin to his t-ball game tonight. Once again, the Minco team beat their opponents (the NewCastle Racers) with an impressive margin (Mark wasn’t sure of the score, he just knew our boys won by a lot). I took Calvin to his pitching machine game tonight. They lost, but it was a close game with a score of 6 – 5. The best part was Calvin scored tonight after hitting a pretty nice single. He hit another single, but he didn’t score because the team struck out before he made it beyond second base. He was really excited, as this is the first game he has had even one hit.

Had an ob appointment today. Things are progressing towards delivery. I was thankful for the news.

Nevin had a t-ball game tonight. After a loss last Thursday, his team was back in good form tonight. They won by a large margin. Before eating his sandwhich in the van on the way to the game, Nevin thanked God for it and included a request for help to “pay attention during the game.” For anyone who has been to a t-ball game, you can understand this request.

Calvin had a pitching machine game tonight, too. They had their first win of the season, and everyone was really happy.

Evangeline had a conversation with me tonight that made me ask the question, “When is the best time to explain sex/where babies come from to children?” She was sitting on my lap while I sang her lullaby before bed. Her tummy was laying on my tummy, and she felt the baby kick. She got a puzzled look on her face. I said, “Did you feel that?”
She said, “Yes.”
I said, “What do you think that was?”
She said, “The baby.”
I said, “Yes. Isn’t that funny?”
She agreed. Then she put her hand on the right side of my tummy and said, “I think her head is over here.”
I said, “I think her head’s a little lower and in the middle.”
She said, “I think she better move, or she’ll fall out.”
Not knowing what to make of this statement, I just said, “Hmmmm.” Then I put Evangeline to bed.

I have to confess something. I am starting to get a little anxious about life after the birth of our 4th child. Don’t get me wrong. I am looking forward to meeting this little girl. I love babies, and I know I will welcome this child with lots of love. But I have gotten pretty used to being the mother of 3 small children without having an infant to care for. My 3 have reached the ages where they can do many things independently. They can play for hours at a time while I work on some project or just clean the house. Since they were born in a stairstep fashion, I was really busy with them for about 5 years solid, but the last 2 years have been relatively easy. So now, as I think of adding an infant to the mix, I guess my selfishness is rearing its ugly head. I am not having good thoughts about all of the personal time I will ultimately need to give up in order to care for this little one. I want to cherish her because I am as certain as I can be that this is the last baby we will have. I know it will be easier in many ways since none of the others are wearing diapers or even training pants anymore. They are all capable of helping me at some level, which will certainly be different than when the others were born. So, if you think of it, pray for me as I adjust to having a baby in my life again.