Lest I Forget

Jenny is still at the hospital, safe and sound. So, I, Tony, the husband, will have to give all of you J. Reosti blog followers who are in suspense the initial report on Peter Louis Reosti, the newest Reosti. We're 95% solid on Peter. Charles is option, though. But Louis is rock solid in the middle. He was born 5:52pm EST, 7lbs 11ozs, 19.5ins long. The smallest of our 7 babies. No complications as of yet. I am sure Jenny will post all the details when she gets home. But for now, here are a few pics:   Pete all cleaned up. Mom resting very happily. The rest of the gang saying hello.

Tomorrow morning at seven o'clock, I will walk into the hospital to be induced. To say that I am nervous is an understatement. Your prayers are most welcome. I have never been induced before, and the only stories I have heard about induction include such phrases as "labor twice as painful" and "only to end up in a c-section". But the doctors have me fearful of a stillbirth given my age. Here I am a few days ago. Do I look ready? Tomorrow is the feast day of St. Maximillian Kolbe and I have been saying a novena to him for a safe delivery. I love how devoted he was to Mary Our Mother. I am praying that she will be with me tomorrow too.

is a tomato sandwich. Fresh picked tomatoes right out of the garden, sliced nice and thick, a little salt and pepper, and a healthy dollop of mayo on each slice of this homemade bread . I made this bread yesterday for the first time and Tony declared it my best ever. It is that good. The only changes I made were to use vegan butter and I only used one tablespoon of yeast. Believe me, it rose beautifully. I am sorry there are no pictures. My sandwich did not last that long. I made the dough before leaving for my non-stress test. The baby is not stressed, just head up. The dough got a nice two-hour rise thanks to some other babies who were stressed, so I had to wait. I prayed for those mamas and their babies. Last night was the weekly outdoor concert on Ft. Eustis. I made some peanut butter cookies to take with us to share and we met some friends over there. Minus the bugs, it was a lovely evening. On the way home, the moon rose to greet us and guide us home. It was ever so big, red...

Well now. I went in for a growth scan for this little baby this morning. Somehow, between the non-stress test on Monday and this morning, he decided being head down was no good. He is breech. AGAIN! Maybe the other kids did this too and I just didn't know (sometimes technology is not all it's cracked up to be) that they were little gymnasts. At the same time, technology has brought me much comfort throughout this pregnancy. I can see him moving. I can listen to his heartbeat (two times a week at this point) and know that he is happily hanging out in my belly. I also know that he is growing quite like he should. He is now over 7 pounds and plumping up nicely. He also has a head of hair already. Emotionally, I am going in circles too. I am soooo ready to meet this little baby and I am so tired of not being able to reach things like the kitchen sink (I have to turn sideways to do the dishes) or the laundry soap, which I wasted a goodly portion of  yesterday when I dropped the bo...

No. I am not in labor. I am talking about the day that inevitably comes when you are no longer "cute" pregnant. I am big and round and only one shirt still covers my belly and meets my pants. I was lamenting to a friend last night about my clothing woes and she brought me over a bag of longer t-shirts to get me through these last couple of weeks! Now that is a good friend indeed. By the size of my belly, I am guessing that this guy will be another big baby. Most of my kids have been over 8 1/2 pounds. **in the middle of writing this post, another equally good friend brought me more clothes!!** maybe I shouldn't complain so much. 36 weeks, 4 days Today, Jack asked me for about the hundredth time when I would take him to the Living Museum to see the Titanic film. I realized that I better do it now. So we ate lunch and went to the show. Afterwards, we walked over to the live animal show and he and Anna got to touch a snake and see a screech owl up close. As many times ...

The hot, lazy days of summer have descended upon us once again. The kids were going a little stir-crazy last week, so we decided to pull out the old inflatable pool. Can I just say "Ewwww!" It was a moldy, rolled up mess. After a unanimous vote, it was tossed in the trash and Tony set off to the store for a new model. Attempting to keep as much grass and dirt out of the pool as possible, and also to be able to keep a close eye on Therese, the decision was made to set up the pool on the deck. No one uses the table anyway, since the bugs hone in on you the second you go outside with anything resembling food. So the table was rolled to the shed, the pool inflated, and a tent was set up to keep the direct sun off little people. We were recently gifted with not one but two boxes of baby clothes! We are so blessed. The kids really didn't get all excited about cute baby outfits like I did. They only wished me to hurry up so that they could turn the boxes into other thi...

 I need to find some buttons and the sweater for the new baby will be done!  I made a 6-12 months size according to the pattern, but I used smaller needles since they made my swatch closer to the called for gauge. The color of the yarn is called copper. The first picture is more accurate in that respect, though I wanted to get a close-up of the cables and the i-cord bind off. The bind off made an especially nice finished edge. I am still reading Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. So far, I really am enjoying it. Today I got some very good news, which I needed after the bad news of yesterday. An ultrasound revealed that the placenta has moved far enough away from the cervix that I no longer need to worry about a c-section! Praise God! The bad news? We discovered a chronic leak in the wall of our house that has rotted the wood almost completely away. The repair will be costly. The insulting news? Somehow, the doctors failed to notice that I was now ...

First of all, I am feeling old because Olivia, who is not my oldest child, turned 17 on Friday! How can that be? It seems like yesterday she was this fiesty little toddler, who taught me that I had much to learn about parenting. Her reply when I asked her why she colored on the walls when she was only supposed to color on paper? "It's wall paper. " Her solution to not wanting bangs? Cut them off at the scalp. Now she stands much taller than her mother, getting ready to begin her senior year of high school. I am proud of the young lady she has become. So. I was feeling like I had this no-dairy cooking down to a science. Then I tried to make some desserts recently. Complete failures. One of them I suspect was a misprint in the cookbook. There is no way that 2 cups of liquid ingredients and 2 1/4 cups dry ingredients is going to produce a thick dough that can be rolled out and sliced into bar cookies. Then I tried to make a dairy-free key lime pie for Olivia's birthday...

Last week, right before a long four-day weekend, I had an ultrasound to determine the position of the placenta, since it looked suspiciously close to the cervix at my 20 week scan. After not so patiently waiting the whole weekend, I got a call this morning. It is close. Four millimeters close. Too close. There will be more ultrasounds, one at 32 weeks and again at 36 weeks, to monitor how things are progressing. The hope is that as the uterus expands, it will pull the placenta back. If not, then we are looking at a C-section. My first after six normal, uncomplicated deliveries. So I am asking for prayers that things will improve enough that I can avoid surgery. And if that is not the case, then please pray that I will be brave. I am a wimp about these kind of things. No medication for a natural delivery? No problemo. Put a big needle in my back and then slice open my skin? Egads! I will also let you know that I have had this sense of urgency to get things ready early this tim...

I realized on this Mother's Day that I have not taken any pictures of me while pregnant. Doesn't this seem like the perfect day to remedy the situation? I got out the camera and someone else thought they needed to dress for the occasion!  I love, love, love how this candid moment captured her better than any of the pictures I took for her 1st Communion shots.  Photo by his sister Anna  I had Tony try to take some pics, but unbeknowst to us, chaos was in full swing indoors and about to make an appearance outdoors as well.  See what I mean?  Once we regained control (somewhat), I had Olivia take her turn behind the camera. These were totally unplanned. I think they are sweet. Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's who happen to stop in today!

Let's see if I can give you the statistics here: If you go by the month I am due, I should be having a girl. All the girls so far are summer babies. If you go by how easy or difficult the newborn has been, I should be having a boy. They have been fussy, then happy. Therese was very happy and easy-going. If you look at birth order, I should be having a boy. There is Sophie, and then after that, it has been a girl followed by a boy every time. A mother just has that feeling sometimes that lets her know before science ever can. If you go by that "feeling", I should be having a boy. Tony has a boy's name picked out that I do not care for in the slightest. I have a lovely girl's name picked out. Given all that information, it should come as no surprise that this little baby is...... A BOY!

As most of you know, my last two children have dairy and soy protein intolerance. Little did I know that once you have a child with such an intolerance, subsequent children have a very high likelihood of also being intolerant. I really, really want to breastfeed this new baby. So, I have made the decision to go dairy-free before the baby is born. I am 18 weeks right now and my goal is to be completely dairy-free by 20 weeks. I want to be good at not eating dairy long before those sleepless nights arrive and I am in a fog. So I have been tweaking recipes, searching for new recipes and searching for dairy substitutes that are not yucky. This morning, I made Dutch Apple Bread. The recipe is filled with dairy. So I started making changes as I added ingredients to the bowl. It turned out delicious! Everyone agreed. Here is the dairy-free version: Dutch Apple Bread 1/4 cup coconut oil 1/4 cup applesauce 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla Cream together these ingredients, then ...

Outside my window... Finally! The sun! I was beginning to think I would never see your glorious rays shining on my face ever again. It has been so, so dreary, gloomy, damp, and all around depressing. Therese and I have been singing, "Rain, rain, go away" for days. I am thinking... all those around me that are in dire need of prayer and comfort. So many, it seems, are in the midst of some very hard trials. My heart has been as gray as the skies lately. I walk around offering up all the little things for those who have such big burdens, that their yoke may be lightened. I am thankful for.... ...kids who say funny things that make me smile. ...my family ...a warm cup of coffee with coconut milk creamer to start my day. From the lesson plans... I counted how many weeks we have yet to complete. Umm...at our current pace, we will not finish up until the end of June. In an attempt to move that date up a bit, we are trying to do more each day. Amazi...

I was awoken last night, or this morning, depending on how you look at it, at 4:30 am by some random noise. Tossing and turning, sleep was proving elusive, so I turned on the little lamp on my bedside table and picked up "The Story of a Soul". I am embarrassed to admit that I have been reading this for a year now and I am still not done. It is not that I don't find it interesting. On the contrary, I feel that I must digest what St. Therese has to say in small bits, so to better understand and remember. What a joy for me to come upon this passage last night: "The following morning, September 8, an outpouring of peace flooded my soul, that " peace which surpasseth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7), and in this peace I pronounced my sacred vows." You see, way back when I was pregnant with our little Therese, before we knew she was a girl, Tony and I were on a walk when the name Mary Therese filled my heart. Tony was not as in love with the name as I, but I ...

As I wait for Olivia to return from DC after joining in the March for Life today, I thought I'd take a moment to write some thoughts down. First of all, I am so proud of my teenage daughters who fully embrace their faith and are as horrified at the idea of abortion as I am. It literally leaves a sick feeling in my stomach and an ache in my heart when I think about all those babies. Both of my older girls have attended the March for Life several times. One day, I hope to have the chance to be there too. Sophie did not go this year, but she had a good excuse. She is out of the country. A little over a week ago, we loaded up in the van and drove her to the airport to start the adventure of a lifetime. She will be studying in Austria this semester. It is still so odd to think about how far away she really is. I was grateful for the distraction of keeping up with three little ones in an international airport to keep me from completely losing it. It was still more than heart-rending to...

OK, then. I just finished making tortillas for the 3rd time. They are getting better, but I have one hurdle that I cannot seem to leap. I cannot for the life of me make them round. Can anyone tell me how to roll out round pieces of dough? I can't make a round pie crust, either. I just liked how this picture turned out. I had set the camera down and that is what I saw in the viewfinder. Speaking of round, I am beginning to take on that shape, so I started looking through my stash of maternity things. Seriously...old...clothing. My oldest is 17 years old after all. So I went on eBay to hunt for some bargains. I did fairly well, I think. I got 12 items for a total of $45 and that included shipping. The seller did have a warped sense of humor....she sent them in a box that once contained a case of beer! Sigh.