We are back in the grind of our school year. My oldest daughter is in 5th grade, my stepdaughter is in 1st grade, and my husband is back to work at a local elementary school, but this year I'm not heading back to school. It's the first time I haven't had my own classroom in 7 years.

I loved being a teacher. I enjoyed my years teaching kindergarten, first, and second grades. It was odd for me this year not stocking up on the school supplies and other new items for my classroom. I always loved the first day of school and meeting my class of fresh new faces. I loved heading out to the playground and seeing my students from the previous years and how they had grown. I enjoyed creating lessons and watching children learn, but this year I'm the teacher of my own children.

I gave up the job I loved to do the very important job of mothering two little guys and two older girls. It is scary giving up a job (especially during the time of state budget cuts), but each day I wake up and I thank God that I am able to be home. Each day I'm looking for one thing that I am thankful I was able to do that day. On the first day of the school year I was thankful that I was able to take my 5th grader to school. It was my first time ever being able to take her to school on the first day! Another day I was thankful that I was able to watch my 2 year old son entertain himself with a box for almost an hour! 

Many days it will be the simple things that I am thankful for being able to see because I am home. I love being able to see my infant smile. Other times it may be the BIG events like seeing my youngest roll over for the first time or crawl for the first time. Then, there are days, like yesterday, when both of my little guys were wrecks. They cried and whined and my day seemed SOOO LONG. But yes I was thankful that I was the one comforting their cries. Someday I will go back to the classroom, but until then I am going to treasure each day I have at home.

Yesterday I was watching the local evening news and I heard that a 15 year old had been shot. This saddens me a great deal.  Where were the parents? Why wasn't the child in school? The list of questions as to how this could happen could go on and on. The fact is a 15 year old should not be participating in such acts of violence. It shouldn't even be in our vocabularies that 15 year olds and younger children are participating in horrific acts of violence. Yet in our city we often hear of youngsters getting shot and/or participating themselves in criminal activities.

I know times have changed, but should we accept all changes? I'm not that old and I know when I was in junior high and high school I was way too busy to even be hanging out on the streets in early afternoons. Now it seems as if too many children are left alone and they are making poor decisions.  We as parents need to guide our children into more positive outlets.

For those of you reading this, you obviously care about your children because you are participating in Raising Bakersfield. How do we help the wayward children who do not have the parental support that our children have? Can we stop the violence that is affecting the youth of Bakersfield?

Yesterday I was watching the local evening news and I heard that a 15 year old had been shot. This saddens me a great deal.  Where were the parents? Why wasn't the child in school? The list of questions as to how this could happen could go on and on. The fact is a 15 year old should not be participating in such acts of violence. It shouldn't even be in our vocabularies that 15 year olds and younger children are participating in horrific acts of violence. Yet in our city we often hear of youngsters getting shot and/or participating themselves in criminal activities.

I know times have changed, but should we accept all changes? I'm not that old and I know when I was in junior high and high school I was way too busy to even be hanging out on the streets in early afternoons. Now it seems as if too many children are left alone and they are making poor decisions.  We as parents need to guide our children into more positive outlets.

For those of you reading this, you obviously care about your children because you are participating in Raising Bakersfield. How do we help the wayward children who do not have the parental support that our children have? Can we stop the violence that is affecting the youth of Bakersfield?

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Before our little one (Luke) was born, I worried about how our almost 2 year old (Carson) would react. Would he be insanely jealous? Would he be able to share Mommy? Would he try to hurt the baby? How long would it take him to adjust to having a baby in the house? I also felt that I would be letting him down. He was such a Mommy's boy and I worried about not being able to give him the attention he deserves. Well, a month into being a big brother and he is doing just fine!

Carson is a great big brother. He loves his little brother. He gives him about a hundred kisses a day and when Luke cries, Carson is the first to take off running. Of course Carson has to constantly be supervised around Luke. It is out of love that Carson wants to share his snacks, toys, and drinks with Luke. He doesn't understand that Luke can't eat pretzels yet and he can't catch a ball.

Carson is still Mommy's boy and I love him even more now that I see him as a big brother. Each time he holds out his arms and says, "Hold you." to Luke it melts my heart. It is special to see that growing relationship between two very small little boys. Luke is already amazed by Carson and Carson is equally amazed by Luke. I look forward to the years ahead as these two little guys have each other as best buddies.

This past weekend was our first trip with our four children. For days before the trip, I was dreading packing. I have never liked to pack, but the thought of packing for not only myself, but for the four little ones seemed like such a large task. Then, there were the nightmares of how we were going to fit all of our stuff into the car. This was only going to be a weekend getaway, but I knew it would be a lot of work for Mom and Dad.

We tried to be organized. I made a list and the two girls who are old enough to help, chose their clothes the night before we left. I packed them up into one small suitcase. Then, I gave them a small bag for items to keep them busy. I told them that whatever books, toys, etc.. they wanted to bring had to fit in that bag. There were no complaints! Two were packed, just two more kids to go!

The morning of the trip, I packed for my two little boys. They shared a tiny suitcase and I threw in a lot of extras for them. I knew there would be spit up, leaky diapers, etc.. Then we needed to extra-large bags for the diapers, bottles, sippy cups, wipees, special snacks, sleeping pad for the baby, and toys.

My husband had the daunting task of fitting all of our stuff into our SUV. We are thankful to have an SUV with a third row, so we can all ride together, but now our trunk is teeny. He was able to fit our suitcases in the trunk. We still had two boogie boards, two large bags, and an enormous double stroller to pack. We were able to squeeze everything in and my husband tied the double stroller onto the top of our SUV. Five hours after waking, we were able to leave!

We go to the central coast quite often. The trip usually takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We knew we'd have to be patient with our newborn, so we weren't expecting to break any records, but our 2 hours and 15 minutes turned into over three hours! We had to stop about 30 minutes into our trip because we heard banging on top of our car. Visions of our new double stroller flying down the freeway were not good, so my husband stopped and checked the ties. All was okay, but the stop woke our 22 month old. Now we were stuck with him wanting to hear the Wiggles CD over and over and over...

Thirty more minutes down the road, our newborn woke up. Of course he woke up on the stretch of Highway 46 where there is NOTHING and nowhere to stop. We tried to soothe him and finally we were able to stop at the rest stop. I fed him and the older ones went for a walk with Dad. An hour later, we were at our destination and ready to celebrate 4th of July! We had a great weekend. Then, came Sunday and the task of packing, loading, and driving home with 4 kids and A LOT of traffic!

This time, both my husband and I were dreading the ride, but it wasn't that bad. We had to make 3 stops, it took us about 4 hours, and I was cramped in a back seat with the baby and the 22 month old, but we DID IT! We had made our first trip with 4 kids on a busy holiday weekend. Granted we were tired, but we're looking forward to our next vacation! Our next one will be for ten days. How are we going to pack?

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For six years, I was a single parent. When my daughter was 11 months old, my first husband and I separated and I didn't remarry until she was 7 years old. Single parenting had its challenges and I knew that someday I wanted to remarry, but I became accustomed to our life and I think I managed pretty well. Luckily, I met a wonderful man who adopted my daughter and we've been happily married for three years. This past week, he went out of town for a conference and parenting alone was so much harder than I remembered it to be!

Maybe it is was more difficult because now instead of one daughter, I have a daughter and two sons! One son is only 2 1/2 weeks old. For several days prior to my husband leaving, I thought "How am I going to do this?" Then, the day came and he was gone. The first day and night were okay. Luckily, my little guy is still a good sleeper. Then, the next day my little one decided to cry for an hour at a time during the morning, afternoon, and at night. It was hard, but we made it through the day. The following day, he cried again. By then, I was frazzled. When my husband called that evening, I was anything but nice. I didn't want to hear about the nice dinners he was having or the details from the conference. I was thinking, "How could you be having fun, when I am here with a screaming baby?" He got the hint because his next phone call was much sweeter and when he got home he was extra willing to help!

When my husband finally arrived home, we had made it through the four days he was gone. The house was in decent shape and all the children were happy. Of course our little guy hasn't had any crying fits since Daddy has been home. Maybe he missed his Daddy as much as I missed him. The vacation from Daddy reminded me how hard single parenting can be. It can be done, but I am so thankful to have a partner to parent with and my kids are thankful for their Daddy too!

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Our "overdue" baby arrived June 12, 2008 at 8:12 am. He was six days "overdue." For awhile I thought he would never come, but all day on the 11th I felt different. All of us moms know about our intuition. I told my husband that I think he's coming soon. I stayed up past midnight, then I finally decided to go to sleep. Sure enough an hour after having fallen asleep, my water broke.

This was my third time going into labor, so both my husband and I were fairly calm. We made the 2:00 am phone call to my parents who graciously came over to stay with our two kids. Then, we headed to the hospital. We settled into the hospital room and the doctor examined me and told me the baby would be here within a few hours. I was just beginning to feel light pain when I received my epidural. I commented to my husband, "Wow! This is going to be the easiest labor ever!" Then things changed...

Our "overdue" baby was still sleeping. He wasn't moving at all. This is not normal during contractions. I was given medicine to increase the contractions and to wake the baby. Still no movement. Much to my dismay, the doctor suggested a c-section to get the baby out quickly. I'd never had a c-section and didn't even consider having one with my third child, but I wasn't going to argue with the doctor. I wanted to do what was best for the baby, but the thought of the recovery and not being able to hold my 20 month old brought me to tears. Needless to say, I had a c-section and our baby was delivered quickly. He had a few breathing problems, but after a few hours in the NICU, he was fine. Our "overdue" baby is now known as our "sleepy" baby. He sleeps so well!

The recovery from the c-section gets better each day. I am able to care for the baby. He is so precious I am enjoying every minute of being with him. I miss holding my 20 month old, but he can now sit on my lap and he is such a big helper with his little brother. I've had plenty of rest and I think I needed that. The c-section has forced me to slow down a little. Again, things didn't go as planned, but everything has worked out fine.

Overdue. It's never a good word. We have to pay fees for overdue books, videos, bills, etc... We don't like overdue apologies. We lose friends when our phone calls and visits become long overdue. With pregnancy, the word overdue is just as bad.

I shouldn't be complaining about this overdue baby I have inside of me. I've been fortunate to have a healthy pregnancy. I'm also fortunate enough to have two healthy children. The first was born 5 weeks early and the second was born 2 weeks early. That is why this overdue baby is driving me crazy!

I knew he was going to be born early because my other two had come early. We've had the room ready, the bags packed, the cupboards stocked, and our hearts ready for a month now. My husband took the first 3 weeks of June off, so he could be home with the baby. With this baby we were going to be READY! It's our third baby and we were going to be pros, but life doesn't always cooperate! Now we're going to be lucky if my husband is home a week. Our cupboards need to be restocked and I'll be lucky if the clothes I packed in my hospital bag still fit! One thing hasn't changed, our hearts are still ready to meet our new little boy. When God is willing, we'll be thrilled to welcome this overdue baby to the world!