Decently and In Order: Hampton Rental Home Pantry

 1 Corinthians 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

 Our pantry serves as storage for food and homeschool stuff!

 Up top we keep light items so I don't break my back: extra bags of chips, bags, globe.

 I am sure you will notice where we love to shop......Trader Joes!

 Airtight containers are perfect for your opened pantry items.

 More snacks!

 The bottom of the pantry has all of the school supplies =)

Special sounds anyone?

 My math basket is getting quite heavy these days!

 Index card holders are great for flashcard uniformity and durability!

Each Filing tote has a full grades curriculum =)

Stay tuned for our kitchen tour coming up next!

Deja Vu ( All our babies look so much alike)

Is it just me or I am the only one who compares each new baby with the older siblings.... sometimes I feel like I keep giving birth to the same baby because they look so much alike...lol! So blessed to have so many sweet boys and girl of course!

Christian Jonathan-Matthew Logan 3/17/06

Noah Jacob Logan 7/19/07

Joshua David Logan 3/1/09

                                                                Rachel Anne Logan 2/10/11

Gideon Micah Logan 2/17/13

                                                       Moses Jeremiah Logan 10/1/14

On the Move Again.....Searching for a New Rental Home with Lots of Kids

So a year is almost up here in our Hampton Rental home! Time just flies by...wish I had a pause button for life! We love our rental home....problem is it is 45 minutes to our new church....with no traffic!

We are separated from our church by bridges and an underwater tunnel! The dreaded tunnel traffic can be a beast! There is no emergency lane in the tunnel and so one little car breakdown will have you sitting in your car with the engine off for 30 minutes!  Then at night after evening services sometimes there is road work ......so it takes us up to 1:15 to get home! To make matters worse my husband mainly works on the other side of the tunnel and we have one car so on Wednesdays he is doing a whole lot of driving! Also our rent is a little higher than what we wanted to pay.....we wanted to pay about $1,000/month. There are plenty of rentals out there for that price but...........we are not qualified to live there. Why are we not qualified you ask? My husband has a 770 credit score, we have deposit $ and an excellent rental history. We are unqualified because of God's blessing of 6 children! Last year when we arrived in Hampton with 5 kids we found a house similar to our home in Missouri and we applied for it and were denied! The reason being not enough square feet per person in the home! We tried to reason with the realtors that we had just sold a house that was 1200sqft in Mo. and we all fit perfectly, our children are all small (under 60 lbs) and we are very organized......they were not hearing it! I was upset because this would mean we have to spend more than necessary on rent each month! They brought out a measuring tape to the next few houses we looked at to measure the bedrooms! I couldn't believe it! The government has way too many regulations! We found a home that "fit" our family and it was $1400 a month.....it has been a blessing to live in such a nice townhome but we really wanted to find a place a little cheaper and  a little closer by to the church!  Chris went and looked at a 4 bedroom alittle closer to church and on the other side of the tunnel for only $1250 which is a good deal so prayerfully everything will work out there if not God is definitely teaching us to wait on Him!
This is copied from a Va government website telling the details of how many people can live in one house and the bedroom square foot required......I think it is ridiculous because you could have 3 sloppy hoarders living together in a 2,000 sqft house and still have health risks and fire concerns.....

How many people can live in a house? 

 The zoning ordinance (Article 2, Part 5) limits how many people can live in a single residence. In general:

• No more than one family, plus two renters, may live in one house.
• Or, no more than four unrelated people may live in one house.

However, the rules define that more than one person can live in a residence:

1. One family, which may consist of one person or two or more persons related by blood or marriage with any number of natural children, foster children, step children or adopted children and with not to exceed two roomers or boarders.

2. Two single parents or guardians with not more than a total of six of their dependent children, including natural children, foster children, step children or adopted children, functioning as a single housekeeping unit.

3. A group of not more than four persons not necessarily related by blood or marriage functioning as a single housekeeping unit.

4. A group residential facility.

5. Any group housekeeping unit which may consist of not more than 10 persons as may be approved by the Board of Zoning Appeals.

6. One person or two persons one of whom shall be elderly and/or disabled, and one or both of whom own the dwelling unit, plus one family, which may consist of one person or two or more persons related by blood or marriage, and with any number of natural children, foster children, step children or adopted children.

7. A bed and breakfast, as may be approved by the Board of Supervisors. 

How much space is required in a home?

The county’s building code says bedrooms must be:

• 70 square feet for one person
• 100 square feet for two people
• 150 square feet for three people
  
  

New Born Days

 Baby Moses is 6 days old already!! I am enjoying snuggling with him all day! Chris has been off of work and is cleaning, homeschooling, taking the kids to the park and looking at rental homes! I am so blessed to have my husband step in and care for all the daily duties so I can recover sooner =). We have had an abundance of delicious food from our church family and lots of visitors! My mom is coming this Saturday! We had a sweet friend from church come and take a few newborn pics of Moses and I just love the one in Chris' hands!

Matthew 10:30

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Home Birth Questions ............Answered.=)

Psalm 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

 If you have ever had a home birth I am sure you have noticed you get a lot of questions or am I alone here....lol?  I am not an expert by any means this was only our second home birth but these are the answers that worked with our family. Please note: Every mom, baby and birth is different so I do not think there is any one definite answer for any question regarding birth.

 Question #1 What if something goes wrong?
A very valid question indeed, if something goes wrong we would go to the hospital or call 911. I believe God has given us enough discernment as mothers that we can sense if something is off like the movement of the baby or if we start to feel sickly. This question can go both ways though; lots of things can go wrong in the hospital too....which is why 1 out of every 3 women in the state of Va end up on the operating table with baby being cut out! I am not against dr.'s or medicine they have their role for emergencies....but I am sorry having a baby is not an emergency for 1 out of 3 women. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and not every labor that doesn't look like the medical text book is  a reason for intervention.

Question #2 Who is going to catch the baby? 

Daddy of course for us! Daddies have nice big baby catching hands as you can see Moses'  whole body is not much bigger than one of Chris' hands....Many mothers catch their own babies though =)

Question #3 What were your other kids doing?

Our children were at my sisters house having a smoothie slumber party with their cousins!

Question #4 What do you do for Pain relief?

During contractions walking around and changing positions is enough pain relief for me. It's really not that bad I have had stomach flu bug cramps that were worse than labor pains. Calcium magnesium is great for afterbirth pains. A sweet friend from church also brought me some afterbirth tincture! Part of pain relief would also be to make sure you are very well nourished with food and supplements to prevent from becoming ill and excessive bleeding.

Question #5 What did you do with the placenta and cord?

We kept our placenta attached for 5 hours in a ziploc bag to get some more nourishment for baby. Chris clamped the cord with a clamp that came with our home birth kit and cut the cord with sterilized scissors. Some mom's choose to leave the cord intact with the placenta until if falls off on its own.

Question #6 Do you take the baby to a pediatrician?

We choose not to since the baby has already been checked over well by an experienced midwife or in our most recent case a very very knowledgeable friend who has all the same tools a dr.'s office would have =) 

Question #7 How do you get a birth certificate/social security card?

You fill out a form and mail it in. If more proof is needed you can take your baby for a dr.'s visit to get verification that you had a baby!

Does anyone else have anymore questions? I would gladly answer them as best I know how =) If you have ever had a homebirth what are some of your favorite questions you get asked?

Unassisted Homebirth Baby: Moses Jeremiah Logan!

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 

 Praise the Lord our little baby Moses is here safe and sound! He is 7 lbs even and 20.5 inches long born at 40 weeks and 5 days =) Our birth adventure started on Monday morning around 8 am when I noticed my water had broken. Thinking back to my last homebirth our midwife Judith came right away after I notified her of my water breaking and coached us through labor for about 5 hours with the help of breast pump, herbal tinctures and fast walking on a schedule she had me in hard labor the same day; despite my past history of having a broken bag of waters for up to 3 days before baby is born! I naively expected the same treatment from the Williamsburg/ EVa Homebirth team....however when I called them one of the midwives (Chrissy) had let me know to hold off on trying to induce with a pump until the 12 hour mark. There was no mention of me being on a hospital like time table of how long I would be "allowed" to labor with my bag of waters broken. She called back around 4pm and asked if I would hold off until the next morning to try and get labor started as they had another mom in active labor....still no mention I was on a time table...so we listened to her advice and didn't try to get any labor started to be considerate of another mom in labor. The next morning my husband called Chrissy back and she then informed him that we had until 8pm that night to be in "active" labor or else consult with a physician! That set me into a panic! My husband asked if they would be coming over to help with labor like our last midwife and I heard her say that they wouldn't do any good here except to stare at me........I immediately went downstairs and started trying to pump with a manual breast pump which was doing nothing for me =(. I then went online to see how much an electric breast pump would cost ....way too much $ so then I looked on craigslist ....still too much $. Thankfully my friend from church Alyssa had a pump she let us borrow =) Also since the midwives were not coming anytime soon to try and help things along with herbs like our last midwife we went on a wild goose hunt for some black and blue cohosh and cotton root bark but could not find any liquid form....by the time we got back home it was after 1pm time was ticking and I was feeling the pressure! The midwives let me know they would be stopping by at 4pm to come up with a plan....They didn't get here until 5 pm...just 3 hours before the cut off time! They checked babies heartbeat and such and said I was not in active labor the baby was still high up and my cervix was still in the early stages not ready for active labor.....they left a little bottle of cotton root extract and were on their way again. My husband started to get the kids ready to go to my sisters....I went on a walk took the the cotton root every 30 minutes and pumped like a mad woman with the impending doom of the midwife team coming back to tell me that I "need"to get some "help" ie...pitocin from the doctors at a hospital  or they will no longer care for me....even though there was no sign of infection, no sign of fetal distress, and plus we already paid them $2,800!!! After much prayer and consultation with some godly midwives who do not have the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind from the Savior we were confident that this was a normal labor for my body and we would have the baby unassisted. The fear the midwives had put into my mind was all too familiar of my terrible hospital birth experiences....we signed termination papers for the midwives so they would be happy they are not liable and go on about their business with helping moms who fit into their hospital like mode of "normal" labors.  My husband did call twice to see if they would refund a portion of the payment but the other midwife (Bridgette) refused claiming they performed their full service. Well around 10 am I started having contractions and about 11:35 baby Moses peacefully made his way into the world with just my husband and I and the Lord of course guiding and protecting us! 

Chris did a great job not passing out at the birth...lol =).  About 15 minutes later we had a very knowledgeable friend (13 kids, unassisted birth champion) stop by with some equipment to weigh, measure, check baby and me out, help clean up and pray with us!

about 5 hours later Chris clamped and cut the cord and we had all our little ones come back home with my sister and nieces.

Praise the Lord for His wonderful gift of Life truly He is the one who calls our children from the womb when they are ready in His timing not mans! 

Galatians 1:15

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,