Yarn Baseball

So we had a baseball mitt, something of a bat, but nothing in the line of a ball. My darling children made a ball from yarn and a plastic bag (complete with huge piece of gravel inside! ), but when it hurt my daughter’s knee, I told them I’d make them a ball. The rock idea, as it turns out, wasn’t half bad, but I knew it would need to be well padded. Here is what you’ll need if you want to make your own yarn baseball:

Small rock or stone for center weight

Newspaper to coat the rock (remember rock, paper, scissors? … paper wraps the rock, lol)

Polyfill

Yarn

Yarn needle

Baseball stitching pattern (optional)

Begin by wrapping the stone(s) with newspaper, then cover the newspaper with a layer of polyfill or quilt batting. Wrap snugly with yarn and keep wrapping, turning the ball constantly to keep the shape nice and round until you reach the desired size. To keep the yarn from unwinding, string some of the yarn onto the needle and sew in and out all around the ball to anchor the layers of yarn. Optionally, you can print out a baseball stitching pattern and stitch along that to make it look a little more authentic looking.

The kids love their new ball. It’s a little bouncy (but not overly), it is a good size for playing catch, and it’s soft enough that it won’t cause any injuries to inexperienced ball players. Mission accomplished.

Whooping Cough makes a visit

I’ve always thought that whooping cough was something that people used to get and was something from my grandparents’ and maybe my parents’ generation. You don’t hear much about it in this day and age tho. We had never given it a passing thought … until …

At the beginning of September, our kids had a mild cough that was annoying, but finally went away. Then later in September, we were over at a fellow homeschooler’s home and their daughter had a nasty sounding cough. She had gone to the doctor and was just starting antibiotic treatment that day. We warned the kids not to get too close to her and that was that (or so we thought).

No one knows for sure who gave it to whom as whooping cough starts with seemingly innocent cold symptoms and progresses into mighty scary from there. I do know that according to recent reports, whooping cough cases are on the rise, and not necessarily (as some argue) a result of under-vaccinated populations.

We’re racking out brains to try to remember when symptoms actually started, but as far as we can remember, Eli started coughing around the first of October with a cough that started sounding (as my SIL puts it) like someone with COPD. Next to fall was Geo (who actually has had it the worst), then Ana & finally Nina. I think Eli is in the convalescent stage (never had the whoop), Geo is almost to the end of the paroxysmal stage, Nina is at a lower level of the paroxysmal stage (no whoop), and Ana is in the paroxysmal stage, but only coughs (with whoop) 2 or 3 times a night, then goes right back to sleep. My sleep-deprived brain can’t remember if she woke up at all last night to cough. I almost don’t think she did, but if she did it was mild and only once.

Geo has the terrible coughing, followed by an inability to breath for a few seconds before he starts making a whooping sound as air starts making its way back into his lungs. Poor guy, he looks so scared when he can’t get air. We rush to him, speaking calmly and slowly, trying to help calm him down. We thump him on his back, give him a bucket to spit the phlegm into (sorry, but it happens) and after a minute or two, he is calmed down enough to where he is mostly breathing normally. After one of these attacks, he looks totally exhausted. He had been having 6-8 attacks a night (it’s worse at night which is totally exhausting to the parents who are up with sick kiddos all night), but is now down to 2-3. He says he feels that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, he’s finally able to cough gunk up from his lungs (at first nothing would come up) and he can breath easier in general… so yay for that!

As soon as we started suspecting WC, we started researching the daylights out of it. Turns out that OTC meds and antibiotics don’t do anything to help the symptoms. We had been trying OTC cough meds and homeopathic cough remedies, but when we found that out, we kinda quit using them. The only thing antibiotics do is to make you not contagious to others (after 5 days of taking it). So we started looking for natural ways to treat this nasty, pesky cough.

Thanks to helpful posts like this one and this we developed a quick plan of action. Here is what we finally did/are doing:

N – Nutrition

    We have increased fresh fruit and veggies, and whole grains (minus wheat which can cause increased mucus buildup)

E – Exercise

     This one you have to be careful with WC as too much can trigger an attack, but some exercise is good. Walking, lightly playing outside, we’ve allowed and encouraged (while the weather is so nice).

W – Water

     Ever hour I have the kids drink water to loosen up the phlegm in their lungs.

 

S – Sunshine

     We are getting them out in the sun every day for as long as possible. They don’t go out and sunbathe, but whatever sun they get while playing outside should help.

T – Temperance

     We’ve cut out gluten, flour, sugar, dairy, soy, potatoes, anything from peanuts, most oils…

A – Air

     They get plenty of fresh air when they play outside each day.

R – Rest

     We get them to bed at a decent hour and let them sleep as much as they want in the morning (since they are up multiple times during the night). We also encourage and sometimes require naps during the day (depending on how they did the night before).

T – Trust in God

     Last, but most importantly, we are trusting in God to bring healing to our dear children. He loves them more than we ever could and we call upon his powerful hand to heal these dear ones as no earthly physician can. Many prayers have gone up at all hours for these kiddos.

 

Additionally, here are some things we’ve done:

• Vitamin C – WC has been successfully treated with vitamin C for many years.

     We have been trying to get 1000 mg. of vitamin C into the children every 30 minutes. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, but they are getting much more vitamin C than usual, that’s for sure. We will keep this up for several weeks after their symptoms are gone as any colds they contract in the convalescent stage could lead right back to the whooping till the cilia in their lungs grow back.

• Vitamin D3 – Helps keep you healthy, fights disease 
• Vitamin E
• Colloidal silver – We did research on colloidal silver and bought the kind that will not turn our children blue. We have them breath in while we spray a little into the back of their throats (and hopefully a little gets down into their trachea and makes its way to the lungs) and we give them 1 tsp. to 1 Tbsp. of colloidal silver, usually before meals. My nephew has also tried it in his sister's nebulizer, but only once. If we had a nebulizer, I’d be trying it more often.

     Daniel and I have felt like we were getting something a couple times over the last week or two and have gargled with colloidal silver and that knocked it out each time. It works better than gargling with H2O2, IMO, and doesn’t taste as bad either.

• Turmeric – The kids aren’t fans of the taste so I give it to them in capsules that they can swallow.
• Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) – I put 6 drops in a little grape juice to mask the taste. I give this with the silver and anything else that would kill the probiotics which I give at a later time. Eli was just singing, “Just a spoonful of grape juice makes the GSE go down, the GSE go down, the GSE go down…” :D
• Oil of Oregano (OoO)– I have rubbed this on my little ones’ feet as well as giving it orally, either straight (for Geo who can tolerate it), or with honey for those who can’t. I’ve backed off this one a little because of the taste and because I’m about out of capsules which I could put it in for easier application.
• Olive Leaf Extract – I had some of these left over from something else I was fighting so I add them in sometimes.
• Bio Solutions Frequency Generator a.k.a. “The Zapper Machine” – There is not a setting specifically for Pertussis or Whooping Cough so I have kids run the Bronchitis and Bronchial Pneumonia routines as I don’t want their WC to develop into either. They do this once a day.
• Son Ancon Chi Machine a.k.a. “The Fishy Machine”  - When they or I remember, they lie down on the Chi machine 1-3 times a day for 10 minutes each. This helps oxygenate their blood and increase circulation.
• Probiotics – This is to counteract the bactericide (good ones not excluded) happening in their systems due to the silver/OoO/GSE. We give these after meals.
• Ginger Tea – We give this when they are having a hard time in the night, after a cough attack, to help settle them back down.
• Thyme Tea – I made this for the last 2 nights with great success! I boiled several branches of thyme in water till the water was yellow. I let the water boil off a little so that I could add ice cubes to cool it off and not effect the concentration much. Oh, while still hot, I added enough honey to make it palatable. I can’t tell if the coughs are just naturally starting to get better or if the thyme tea made that much of a difference, but it did seem that Nina’s coughing lessened drastically and quickly after giving her thyme tea after an attack. Also Geo went from 3 a night to 2 last night (only 1 after I went to bed).
• Onion Poultice on Feet – Several people from church mentioned this as a remedy for cough. For the last 3 nights we have put slices of onion inside their socks and put plastic bags over the socks before tucking them in bed. I’m not sure if this has helped or not, but our nephew (who is visiting and hasn’t developed full-blown WC, yet) has been coughing for the last few days, but the last 3 nights that we put onion on his feet, we noticed a decline in the amount of coughing.
• Vicks Vap-o-Rub – We rub this on their chests, necks and backs (also feet if not using onion) each night before they go to bed, also in the middle of the night after an attack.
• Fomentations – I did these a couple of times but didn’t notice much of a change and since it is so laborious and because I didn’t find much on the internet about fomentations used for WC, I have put that one on the back burner.
• Hot/Cold Showers – I suppose this would be pretty similar to fomentations, now that I think about it. I don’t think it hurts to increase blood flow and circulation which H/C showers do.
• Russian Penicillin/Rocket Fuel… – The version I made called for:

1 onion

5 radishes (sub horseradish or cayenne)

5 garlic cloves

juice of 10 lemons (I think I only had 5 or 6)

honey to taste

This one is a very pretty pink and not too strong for kiddy palates.

I’ve also made a version calling for garlic, onions, cayenne, ginger, lemons, honey & water. Potent stuff!

• Quarantine – As soon as my kids started coughing, I told them to cough down into their shirts or into their elbows away from people. My older 2 haven’t been to their piano lesson in 2 weeks, church in 2 weeks or the evangelistic meetings that are going on at our church (which they would dearly love to go to) because things were starting to get a bit worse and we didn’t want to share any germs. When Geo and Nina did go to their piano lesson (about 3 weeks ago), I told them to wash their hands with soap before playing piano and cough into their shirts if needed. After Ana started coughing, for the 2 weeks that we did take them to church, I had her sit in the back of her class, well separate from the other children, “just in case.” Eli (7) has been great about coughing into his shirts, to the point that some of his t-shirts are sadly stretched out in the neck area. That’s fine with me, tho, I’d rather that than someone get sick from their germs. Since we suspected WC, they haven’t been out anywhere. I bet they are getting a little stir-crazy, but it’s what I feel we must do for now, at least for another 2 weeks and until everyone is not coughing in the daytime anymore (at least that would be my preference).

 

These I haven’t actually tried but are on my list:

• Garlic Juice – Press a bunch of cloves and press them through a sieve to extract the juice, give by the 1/2 teaspoonful several times a day.
• Mullein Tea
• Slippery Elm
• Sage Tea, Garlic Tea, Turmeric Tea, Fenugreek tea…
• Hot food baths (followed by cold before drying)
• Tepid bath, cool cloth on head for 10-15 minutes (supposed to bring some of the blood from core [lungs] to skin to warm it up easing congestion)
• Steam treatment in shower and thumping on chest (well, we do run the humidifiers in their rooms at night and thump Geo on the back when he has a coughing fit, but I read about one lady who took her kids into a steamy shower and thumped their backs to get them to cough stuff out of their lungs).

 

I use the School Assistant and the Carbodroid Android apps to remind me what the kids are supposed to be doing next (i.e. taking their vitamin Cs, or drinking water or going outside to get sun…). This helps to keep me on schedule and make sure nothing gets missed.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Grandpa

Carroll Ray D____

2/23/23 - 10/11/11

 

If I were to point to any human person as a hero to me personally, I would have to choose my grandpa. I remember spending summers at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and the fun we used to have. We did plenty of playing in the house, but we also had great fun outside with Grandpa. He had a terrific garden, a barn full of all sorts of “treasures,” and their close proximity to a lake inlet only added to the charm of their house. I remember him taking my brother and I fishing on the lake or exploring one of the small islands in the bay. Sometimes we would go hiking in the woods, other times we’d help him in his garden or help get the firewood stacked in the basement through the small basement window. On summer evenings we would sit on their front porch and Grandpa would play his guitar or saw (Grandma would play her accordion) and we’d sing while watching the sun set over the lake or the lightning play tag with itself. Once when we were visiting, a small tornado came quite close to their house while we stood watching from the barn door. The transformer across the house blew from the force, but because Grandpa was there with us, we weren’t afraid.

Grandpa had such an upbeat personality, loved everyone, and had a great sense of humor. He would often remark at mealtimes, “My stomach’s beginning to think my throat’s been cut” and at the end of the meal he’d comment,“It’s a good thing I ate when I did because now I’m not hungry.” He also claimed he would never retire, only retread.

He was a hard worker and in his later years (after many years as a colporteur), he did a lot with his hands (carpentry, plumbing, etc.). Sometimes his hammer would miss the intended target and he’d smash his thumb or finger. Every time, after the pain had subsided some, he would say something to the effect that he was glad he had a thumb to hit. He tried to find the positive in everything, definitely a “glass is half full” kinda guy.

In the autumn of his life he and Grandma (and my great grandma who was living with them) went to live near my folks. It wasn’t too long after moving there that Great Grandma and then Grandma closed their eyes for the last time (till the resurrection). Not too long after that Grandpa started showing signs of Alzheimer's, becoming more and more forgetful. During one winter ice storm he forgot that Mom had told him to stay inside and went out on the porch to take his little dog potty. He slipped and broke his collar bone. The bone jutted out into his skin and never healed together and he seemed a bit subconscious about it. Unfortunately there was nothing that the docs could do about it in its location. Finally my parents moved him into their house to provide better supervision.

It’s been so hard to seem him slide into decrepit  old age. He was always so strong, but his last few years he’s been getting weaker and more feeble. Recently my parents made the decision to place him in a nursing home so he could be monitored 24/7. Ironically, less than two full days after he was admitted, he fell and broke his hip (or broke his hip and fell, not sure which). He went through surgery for that (replacing the ball part of his femur), but he had some complications after the surgery (aspiration pneumonia, food from feeding tube not assimilating…). He was in much pain and weakening. My mom and sister finally decided that it was time for hospice care. He was kept on morphine most of the time to handle the pain.

This morning around 1:00 a.m., he stopped breathing and fell asleep in Jesus. I’m sad that such a great man is no longer in this world, but I am glad that he’s not in any more pain or discomfort and the next conscious thought that he has will be Jesus coming to wake him up and take us all home. “Grandpa, it’s not ‘good-bye’, it’s ‘see you soon!’”

How to get most of your kids to stay in bed at night.

Not too long ago I was pulling out my hair because my kids wouldn't stay in bed when I tucked them in. They were like super rubber bouncy balls, I'd tuck them in and ... booooiiiinnnnnggggg, they'd bounce right back. All evening long I was listening to "Mooooommmmmmm, Geo came in my room" or "I can't sleep, Eli is bothering me." Multiply that by a hundred or more creative variations of reasons not to stay in bed and you can see why I was starting to get a little stressed.

Out of desperation I went searching on the net and found something I thought might work. It suggested giving your child 3 tickets that they can use for coming to see you, if they want water (and didn't get it before going to bed), they can use one ticket, if they're afraid of the dark, they can use one and come see you, if they just feel like getting up, they can use one more, but then after that, they have no more get-out-of-bed-free coupons. If they get up any more times after that, they don't get any tickets the next night (I was SO hoping my kids didn't just say "so what?").

To sweeten the deal I decided to throw a reward into the mix so I told them that they had 3 tickets to use how they wanted, but IF they didn't use any of their tickets, they would get a sticker on a chart the next morning and when they filled up the whole line (10 stickers) they could have an ice cream cone after lunch, (if they were sick, they would get an ice cream rain check to be used as soon as they were sufficiently well).

Well, that really motivated them! My older 2 said "Mom, this is easy, it's easy to stay in bed." I wondered to myself why, if it was so easy, hadn't they done it before? Anyway, they haven't been down one night since I started it about 20 days ago, we're still working on Eli, he only 1/2 gets the concept that if he even uses one of his tickets, he forfeits his sticker, but he really is getting better.

My evenings are more peaceful, I'm less stressed, much happier; they stay in bed, go to sleep sooner, get more rest. ♥☺ Of course your mileage may vary, but I just had to share what's working for me.

MOTH to the rescue

No, not a flapping-winged fluttery thing, MOTH stands for "Managers of Their Homes" and is a "duh" sort of common sense approach to managing all the little details in a homeschooling-mom-of-more-than-a-couple-kids' life. I have always balked at the idea of a rigid, by-the-clock kind of schedule, but a dear friend of mine suggested I try it for a month or so and just see what it might do for me. Well, I'm always one to try a new challenge so I opened up my friendly Excel, made a bunch of tables and started populating all the little cells. I have a column and so do each of my kids. The schedule starts when we get up in the morning and ends when I go to bed at night. It has actually helped our days to flow much smoother, the kids seem happier knowing what to expect, they are pretty much guaranteed a nice bit of free time in the afternoon, the house stays neater because I have something planned for them one way or the other all day. Either it's meals or chores or school or playing/free time, ... and having something to do keeps them out of trouble and keeps the messes to something like a minimum. I don't have the book, but as soon as I can, I'm going to get my own copy, I've heard great things about it. But till then I'm implementing it as best I can imagine how with a few pointers from my friend. It's going well, really well and now I can truly say I love my strict, line by line, 1/2 hour by 1/2 hour schedule! I'll get a sample of my schedule up asap.

A Frog Story...

Geo just brought me the next installment and since I know you'll all be dying to read it, here it is...

Once a pon a thme ther lived a frog He was so ciwet. He lived in a log. He in vidid his frends to come over to his hose. One day wen his frinds wer playing he sed dos eney of you want to wath a movy Thay sed yes so thay sat down to wach it the video. It was polor express, now the part wen the track went into the warder came up the kids wer scard thay tride to stop it but thay wer happy.

becomes...

     Once upon a time there lived a frog; he was so cute. He lived in a log. He invited his friends to come over to his house.
     One day when his friends were playing he said,"Do any of you want to watch a movie?"
     They said "Yes," so they sat down to watch the video.
     It was Polar Express. Now the part when the track went into the water came up. The kids were scared, they tried to stop it but they were happy.

A Cat Story...

Geo (my second grader) wrote a story and I just had to post it...

Oncea pon a time in the woods ther lived a cat named Chesey[.] She was so small and so cewt. She oftin sed "Mew mew, I sed to her Here cidy cidy cidy, now a snake herd me say Her cidy cidy cidy and the snake was hungrey He sed Mmm cat wood be good to eat The cat herd the sawnd and mewd so long she made the snake deth He codent here at all the cat tot the snake a lesen and you better be good and not to try a lisson and if you her a cat don't eat it.

Grammatically correct translation:

     Once upon a time in the woods, there lived a cat named Chesey. She was so small and so cute. She often said, "Mew mew."
     I said to her, "Here kitty, kitty, kitty."
     Now a snake heard me say "Here kitty kitty kitty," and the snake was hungry.
     He said, "Mmm, cat would be good to eat."
     The cat heard the sound and meowed so long she killed the snake.
     He couldn't hear at all. The cat taught the snake a lesson.

     And [the moral is:] you'd better be good and ... ? ... if you hear a cat, don't eat it!

Full House...

For the last 2 weeks we've had a FULL house; DH's mom, sister and 2 kids, aunt, 2 cousins and 1 friend, and another aunt, uncle and cousin. At highest capacity we had 16 people staying in our house! Yikes. The friend went home last week so now it's just 15 which is still quite a few sardines to squeeze into our modest 3-bedroom. We and our 3 are crammed into our bedroom (older 2 sleeping in the closet, lol), DH's mom, sister and kids are in Geo's room, aunt & uncle are in Gigi's room, other aunt, her two kids and cousin (from other aunt and uncle) on the floor in the living room. It really hasn't been too terrible except that the first week we were almost all hit with a nasty stomach virus. I think our nephew brought it with him because he was sick early Sunday morning (they got here Friday night). Then Monday night Gigi and I both were dealing with it, then DH, etc., and one by one the dominos began to fall. It was not a fun time between not feeling great, laundry mountains every morning to deal with (bleugh!), and having to try to keep the house somewhat moving (washing dishes, feeding people who felt like eating). I really hope to not repeat that any time soon!

Hurricaine Gustav had the majority of our company in a tither because it was heading straight for their island (Grand Cayman), and with Ivan still a recent and terrible memory, they were right to be a little concerned. But thankfully it is just a category 2 (at the moment) and, according to our favorite carribbean hurricaine tracking website, the winds were high, but no storm surge (or very little) and limited damage to buildings and vegetation. They seem to have weathered it well. It still remains to be seen whether or not the relatives will be able to leave Sunday morning as planned or if they'll have to wait for flights to get up and running again.

School starts on Monday. I'm not at all sure I'm ready, but that's the plan for the moment. I registered Geo for 2nd grade and was very pleased indeed to find out that the local education department will let me email his attendance this year instead of driving or mailing it in. YAY!!!

I had quite a bit of success reclaiming images from my SILs messed-up drive. I didn't get nearly all the pics she had had on there, but according to a computer shop she had taken it to, the pictures were not retrievable so I guess I showed them! I used PhotoRec to get as many pictures as it would find for me and now, at least, my SIL has pics of her daughter when she was a brand-new baby (they were lost before), and lots of other pics which were supposedly "gone." I just wish I was able to get more... Oh well, some is better than none!

Next on the docket is to do one last pass of my hard drive (probably with PhotoRec) to make sure I didn't miss anything, then reformat it and begin the rebuilding process. After that I need to retrieve stuff from our backup drive, then work on DHs crashed hard drive (likely a casualty of our network "bug"). Then (or maybe sooner) I'll set up backups to make sure my data doesn't get lost again! People, for your sake and because I wouldn't wish this on anyone, please back up your files!!!

My school progress is slow but sure. I was about to start on Module 5 when my books arrived so now I'm doing the book readings that I missed for Module 3. It's all about grammar and it's an awful lot of stuff for my brain to absorb. I've read through it all, highlighted lots of things and now I'm typing my notes into my handy-dandy KeyNote software. It will be much easier to find things there, if I need to review, than to try to find things in the book! Then I'll be back on to Module 5 (with bits of Mod 4 here and there when I feel like it. It's all about computers and so far has been booorrrrinnng so we'll see). We had a Medical Transcription trivia constest on our last Thursday night chat and I came "this close" to winning against an advanced student so that made me feel pretty good. It was right that she won over me tho, it would not have done for a wet-behind-the-ears newbie to beat her! (But I did come close, lol). With all my computer problems I haven't been able to practice my Colemak keyboard layout lately so for now I'm still only qwerty. Oh well, maybe soon.

A messy day

Every so often I have "one of those days" when messes just abound, like some kind of invisible mess machine gets delivered to my house and I don't know it till I'm in the middle of the myriad of messes. It seemed like the messes today would never end.

Let's see, I had to contend with 5 or 6 (yikes!) "steenkie" diapers, most of them Eli told me about right away so they weren't ground in, I could just dump the contents into the potty, clean him up in the tub and we were off and running again. One time, though, it kind of squished onto him so it was a bigger chore, but the worst one of all was the one he tried to clean up himself. Groan, sometimes independence is a good things, other times, however... anyway, he took his undies off, dunked them into the toilet, managed to get poo all over the toilet seat, the hall floor and even his hands and face (GROSS!). It took me quite awhile to get that mess cleaned up.

Then there was the flower water that got spilled not once, but twice on the family-room end table, Gigi's supper that got dumped on the floor, Geo's juice that got dumped all over the table, his chair and the floor by Gigi, milk dribbled on the floor when Gigi was mixing it (that was this morning, forgot about that one), something, probably applesauce trailing across the kitchen floor, the mess from Eli dropping the potty as he was on his way down the hall to "dumpit."

I'll toss in the crumby dining room floor and the soaking wet bathroom floor for a bonus. I'm sure there are more, but they are all just starting to run together. You ever have one of those days? I can't possibly be the only one... can I? Kinda glad the day is done, I can start tomorrow fresh and hopefully it won't be "one of those days."

Last night...

...was not a very good night. At 3 a.m. I woke up to whimpers and cries coming from Gigi's room. I went in to investigate and she said "my tummy hurts!" I picked her up and shuttled her across the hall to the bathroom in case she needed to empty her stomach in the toilet. She didn't want to and didn't want to, ad infinitum.... but finally she gave in and did. I was hoping and praying that that would be it and she'd be able to go back to sleep, but no sooner had I gotten myself settled in bed and had been comfortable for about 10 minutes than it started up again. I was the one to deal with it since DH had to go to work today and he needed his rest for that. I can always (theortecially) get a nap but he can't. So every 10-15 minutes after getting her and myself settled, I'd hear the whines again and get up to go help her clean up when she was done, give her water to swish out her mouth... It went like this from 3 till when I finally got up around 6:45 (Eli woke up and said he was "stinky" so I had a diaper to change). I got 4-5 hours of sleep last night and I'm really really tired today! My brain is in a fog. I've already established that we're having a nap time this morning, any time now really, I was just making sure that Gigi's stomach could tolerate it first. She seems to be doing fine and might even say she doesn't need a nap, but I know better! She was very willing last night to agree to a nap, that's for sure. I really hope that Eli can be convinced to take a nap too so I can get some sleep. I may go in Geo's room instead of my room as I hear every toss and turn coming from Eli's crib and it negatively affects my sleep.

Too tired for words (no not me)

The other day l'il bub was woken up from his nap by dad because he'd "slept long enough." Then dad and the older two went to run a quick errand and left Eli at home with me. Well, after a few minutes things got REALLY quiet and I went to investigate. I walked into the family room and this is what I found:


Then going around to check the other side of him:

Nothing sweeter than sleeping babies. Cracks me up the position he chose to cat-nap.

Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all you deserving dads out there and most especially to my DH and my dad. The kids made cards for Daddy today and I found a simple little poem for Elliot to repeat after me and pulled it into Audacity to edit out all my prompts. I think it came out cute if fairly unintelligible. The text is as follows:

Daddy, I love you
For all that you do.

I'll kiss you and hug you
'Cause you love me, too.

You feed me and help me
Learn how to pray.

So smile 'cause I love you
On this Father's Day.

I'm baaaaaaccckkk!

Yeah, ok, I've been absent for quite awhile now, about 3 months, and in my defense, wasn't feeling great for most of those months. Why you might ask? Well let me go ahead and spill the beans all over the place.

Very shortly after I stopped blogging in March, dh and I found out that we were expecting baby #4. When I got a positive within seconds, it was almost too much to be believed. Dh and I were still sort of living in the fantasy that my cycle was just being a little crazy this month, it would come. But it didn't and, well, after the initial shock of it all wore off and we had mulled over what bad (in our minds) timing this was to be having another baby, we decided to leave it in God's hands and accept it as a blessing that God's Word says that it is. Now that I'm past the almost constant feeling-like-I-majorly-overate-and-need-to-relieve-my-stomach feeling, I'm actually really looking forward to the rest of the pregnancy and for the next addition of our not-so-little-anymore family.

My baby turned 7, *sniff*

Geo had his 7th birthday today. Even he is feeling the rush of time I think because he kept insisting that he was still 6. I think he's afraid that he'll grow up too fast and have to move out of the house. I tried to reassure him that that wouldn't happen for many years and that for now, this is his house, he lives here with us. When he gets older, he'll get the urge to get out on his own (well, hopefully, lol). But for now, he's still a kid and he doesn't have to worry about any of that. He still didn't seem too impressed and will probably be 6 for a few more days till 7 gets more normal sounding. He did try to use 7 in his defense yesterday, though. He told me that he was old enough to watch Polar Express even thought I was sure it would be too intense for him. He said that it wouldn't be too scary for a 7 year old. LOL So we let him watch it, and you know what? He watched it all and swore up and down that it wasn't scary. Guess he is growing up. We didn't have a big party but we did take a break from school in honor of his day, we did an egg hunt in the front yard (enjoyed the lovely weather, he really picked a good time of year to be born!), ate cake and I gave him a bible cover that I had stayed up late the last two nights wrestling with. Now Gigi says she wants one, but... I don't know. Geo's was a real bear, not sure I want to tackle one again any time soon. I think he had a good day, hope so :) But back to the grindstone again tomorrow!

107 years, one amazing woman

My 107 great-grandma, great-great-gran to my kiddos, passed away yesterday afternoon. She had had a heart attack the night before but it wasn't caught till yesterday morning. Apparently she was somewhat alert and talking till her very last breath, and then very quietly, she was gone. We are all very much at peace with her passing because she was so ready to go and she had lived a long long life. She had lost her eyesight a few years ago and became more and more dependent on my grandpa (her SIL) for assistance (as my grandma has health problems of her own). So I say a fond good-bye to my "grandma" and I know that her very next thought will be the 2nd coming of Jesus, so for her this quiet resting time will seem like the blink of an eye. Rest in peace dear lady.

Mount Washmore Nomore!

I'm finally getting to do some laundry!! It's been, what... a week? More maybe. But DH hooked up a sump pump to the gray water in our septic tank and is running it over to another septic tank that is on our property (was there for a trailer that the previous owners had). This is a very temporary fix, but it's allowing me to get caught up on my laundry and it couldn't have come a moment too soon. Eli was out of pocket dipes and our towels were all dirty. So I'm on my way and very relieved!

I decided that I'm very much a visual person so I found a bunch of clipart to coincide with my Flylady Control Journal and I just check off the images of what I'm supposed to do as I do them, I think that might work better than me just looking at a page full of text (yes I can read, lol).

I slept in this morning because I got to bed a few minutes later than I would have liked and then Eli woke up once and Gigi came in and said she had bad dreams and didn't want to sleep in her bed. She got in our bed, but she was too wiggly and I wasn't getting any sleep so I made a little bed for her on the floor and went back to bed.

I was really hoping that DH would go with Geo to his dentist appointment this morning, I wasn't sure how I'd handle seeing Geo in pain... but Mr. Sleepyhead decided that he'd stayed up so late last night working that he didn't want to wake up that early so I got to go... yipee [sarcastically clapping hands, jumping up and down while rolling eyes].

We didn't tell Geo that there would be shots because that would have sent him thru the roof. He would have stressed over that so much and would have made things much worse. I'm glad we chose this route. When we got in, they put the laughing gas mask over his nose (he chose orange scented) and after several minutes was starting to feel rather giddy. The dentist came in and was real friendly, donned his orange flavored rubber gloves (what they won't think of next!) and put some numbing gel on his gums. Then, while the nitrous mask was blocking his view, he snuck the syringe in and numbed him all up without him even really knowing what was happening. He did say that it was hurting, but he didn't flinch or anything.

So after a minute or so his mouth and cheek started feeling like it was falling off his face and he couldn hardly talk or swallow (it was funny in a sad sort of way). So he and I started conversing in sign language (to a point, he needs a bigger vocab) and the spit vacuum was employed so that took care of those two things. Then he started getting bored so the dental assistant went and got him a Bible Story Book from the waiting room to look at.

Finally the dentist came in and chit-chatted with him a little more. He checked the numbness of Geo's cheek and lips and introduced him to the drill (that whistled and had headlights). Well, as soon as he started drilling, Geo tensed up and said it hurt so they put the nitrous mask on again and gave him some more nummy juice and after a couple minutes tried again.

I could tell that it either hurt or was bothering him because he was tense, but then again, I am too in the same shoes. The doc reamed out a good sized hole (I didn't look too much, rather icky) and then put some medicine soaked cotton inside to kill any infection going on (he said there was drainage, I guess from some kind of infection?). Then he put the filling putty in. It was soft at first but hardened up and after an hour Geo could chew on it. He gave me some more antibiotic for Geo to take for the next 4 days and we were done with this installment.

We'll have to go back in a month or two to get a stainless cap put on. But I was so proud of Geo and I'm so happy that he won't have to worry about a hurting tooth any more! Praise God for that! They asked him if he wanted a sticker and he said he wanted three because he had a baby brother and a sister at home. They thought that was so sweet so gave him 3 little toys and 3 stickers. They really were so nice :) I thank our pastor's wife for referring them.

I have a diaper deal that I'm planning at CVS (as soon as some money that I'm expecting gets here). If all goes as planned, I should be able to get a package of dipes for $3.50 or less (that's with ECBs and coupons driving down the price). Not bad. I've gotten my mom into CVSing too and she's doing the diaper deal as well to help me stock up on some for Eli. I like cloth, it's great and all, but my dear MIL has decided that it's her mission and her passion to see her little grandson in slim and trim 'sposies. I have to say I'm not totally against the idea because my diapers have an odd smell in them that I can't get rid of and I'm tired of it. And the less laundry I have to worry about at the moment, the better. I plan to start potty training in the spring so hopefully this won't be a problem for much longer! So thank you so much Mama D, it's truly sweet of you and really appreciated!

I do feel that I had a productive day today. I got everything on my list done except for cleaning out the van (cleaned sink/counter/stove, swept floor in kitchen, made my bed, cleaned the bathroom counter and toilet, cleared off my dresser and dusted, folded and put away a load of clothes, took some clothes that I weeded out of my shirt drawer and bagged them up, got them out of my room, folded up some blankets from Gigi's makeshift bed and vacuumed our floor, did several loads of laundry, washed/put away dishes...) I have some clothes I need to fold, tho, so I'd better get to that before it's time for me to head to bed.

Where did THAT come from?

We were all doing fine, healthy, happy, (minus a broken arm and toothache pain) when out of no where Eli got a runny, stuffy nose and Geo is dealing with a cough. Can't think that we've been around anyone who was sick. It was so sudden and unexpected. Poor Eli can't breath well at night so he didn't sleep well last night and hence, neither did I. But I did get a lovely nap this afternoon to make up for it :)

Fire?!? No, Thank God!

After I brought a very soggy baby Eli into the bonus room to dry him off after his bath, I noticed a strange smell, but couldn't pinpoint it. Geo distracted me with toothache pain (we can't get him in to the dentist till Wednesday, poor little chickadee!), and when DH came in a little later, he said "what's burning?" I said I didn't know, that I had smelled something funny too but couldn't place it. He checked the stove, nothing there (rice cooking but was ok), then he went back into the bonus room and happened to glance at our space heater plug which had gotten half pulled out of the outlet and the outlet was starting to flair up. He caught it just in time, praise God! It's a scary thought about what a few more minutes could have done. All night, all day, Angels watching over me, my Lord... Whew!

It's potluck tomorrow at church so I made some guacamole out of some 33 cent avocados (can you tell I think that's a good price? LOL) that I had bought from Aldi last week sometime. They were lovely! Hope the guacamole does them justice.

Happy of the day: My friend Wendy came over for a visit, haven't seen her in awhile and it was nice to just stop what I was doing for awhile and chat. Got my house relatively straightened (swept, vacuumed, things put away, lots of clean folded clothes put away, sheets changed...) for Sabbath which is always a nice feeling. Learned a little more about CVS and started getting my plans together for next week's shopping (after getting the Sunday paper & coupon inserts of course, lol). Did a couple more rows on my shawl, knitting's always nice :)

Grr of the day: Seems like the kids were determined to hurt each other today, it was always something. First Gigi hauled off and clocked Geo in the head (accidentally of course) and he made a terrific scene about it too. Then later the 2 olders were playing and Gigi kept running into things and hurting herself (once she hit her head on a doorknob [still can't figure that one out] and other times she hurt her legs running into things in the living room).

I looked high and low for a newspaper recycling drop-off place, they were all over the place where we used to live, but, alas, none around here. I was hoping to score a few coupon booklets.

This morning I tried to get Eli to go back to sleep when he was done nursing (around 6:45 a.m.), but around 7:30 or so, a groggy DH came down and asked if Eli could just get up since he had no intention of sleeping. I said ok, but that always means I can't get as much done (folding clothes with a toddler who wants to "help?" You must be crazy!). Later he wanted to know why I hadn't emptied the dishwasher and I told him I was trying to stay as quiet as possible (knowing he can hear a pin drop in Chicago). He told me it wasn't a big deal, if it was a problem he would say something about it, that it's fine. So that part isn't actually a grr because it's cart blanche to do whatever I think needs doing in the morning. Kinda nice really. Thanks sweetie :)

Blog-a-day challenge

Inspired by the Thing-a-Day challenge, and not feeling like I could actually create a new thing every day of the month but also feeling very bad at my lack of posting for the last eon, I've decided to take on a Blog-a-Day challenge and make myself blog at least once a day for the next month (hopefully I'll develop a good habit and it'll continue).

GRR #1 for the day: my yarn going to my Shetland Triangle shawl (a pretty example pic here) got broken by some little native so I spit-spliced it back together, ... all better :) (at least until GRR #2 happened and another little native or two pulled out my knitting needle out of half of the shawl and causing me to drop a stitch somewhere. Oh where oh where did that stitch go?)

Happy for the day: I learned about using CVS Extra Care Bucks to my advantage. I messed up by buying an extra toothbrush and toothpaste that didn't give me ECBs (because I didn't look at the offer closely enough, I'll keep better notes next time!), but I ended up spending a little over $14 for 12 rolls of TP, 2 tubes of toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes and some maxipads. I used two different CVS coupons that I found which came to $5 off my purchase, I got over $12 in ECBs which I can use toward my future purchases, and I have a gift pack coming in 8-10 weeks which will include 2 boxes of Cheerios, Colgate Total toothpaste, CVS brand pain reliever tabs, Benefiber, Execedrin Migrain sample, a pen and a pill sorter so I think all in all I did pretty good. I can't wait to get next month's sales flyer and start figuring out what goodies I can get next.

Geo went and picked up a free personal pan pizza for the Pizza Hut Book-It program. He read a whole book that wasn't part of school this last month. For February I'm going to have him read a few more books or a bigger book. We got started a little late in January and since it was the first month I tried that, I went a little easier on him.

He is really progressing in piano, he has started playing Away in a Manger and when it get's to the word Manger, he inserts a B flat in the left hand (no one showed him how) to make it sound nicer. He's really got an ear for it.

Eli has started calling me Baba. I say "say MMMMMM" and he goes "mmmmm." Then I go "ahhhhhh" and he says "ahhhhhh" and then I say "Mmmmmmaaaaaaaammmmaaaa" and he says "Mmmmm Baba!" He insists on calling me Baba even though he can make the sounds in Mama. What a funny monkey he is. He is also jumping like a frog, jumps pretty high, both feet off the ground, lands well, amazing.

Gigi is doing great with her cast. We have her bath routine downpat. I wash her hair in the sink (she lies on the counter and leans her head back into the sink). This way her cast is in no danger of getting wet. Then when her hair is dried off, I move her to the bath, wash her body while she keeps her arm raised so the cast doesn't get wet. I use a bucket to pour water over the soapy parts and quick as a flash, she's done and getting out again. This is not to say that I really look forward to the day that cast is taken off! But all in all she's doing very well. Hasn't slowed her down one bit. She has also start tinkering on the piano. She's learned how to play Jesus Loves Me on the black notes, and twinkle twinkle on the white notes. So it won't be long before she's rivaling Geo. She wants to learn how to read SO bad so she can get a free pizza too. I told her that I'd enroll her next year when she's in Kindergarten and she's excited about that.

Ouch!

Our poor l'il girl broke her left arm (she's a lefty) yesterday. Geo decided it would be fun to try to rig up a teeter totter of sorts out of a 2x4 and a rope that he got caught up in a tree. In the process of trying to get on this very tottery seesaw, Gigi fell and tried to break her fall with her arm and the fall ended up breaking her arm. I hear the scream, looked out the window and took off for the door where I saw her running to the house. I could tell her arm just didn't look right (that was a sick feeling let me tell you!). I had her sit on the couch and rest her arm on a pillow, then I grabbed a bag of peas and rested it next to the arm. I called DH who was out shopping with his uncle (his uncle is visiting and doesn't have a way to get around) and he left everything immediately and came home. I had to try to keep the brothers away from her so they wouldn't bother or injure her. She was crying but not as bad as she had a couple of nights before when she suffered from a migraine (when it rains it pours). That was something else! But this time she was wanting Mommy so I sat with her and tried to comfort her. When DH got home, we tried to get things together for her trip to the ER (finding her SS #, gathering some snacks, water...). I made a splint out of cereal box cardboard and a kitchen towel (rolled it around her arm and secured with tape) to keep her arm as still as possible. DH took her to the ER and they waited for about 2 hours before being seen. A PA confirmed our suspicions that it was broken and ordered x-rays, then they splinted her arm with a temporary-sock-material-encased-fiberglass-2-piece-splint that they wrapped around her arm and taped up. It allows for swelling since the sides are open, but mostly keeps her arm stationary. She also has a little sling to hold the splint in. She was such a trouper, DH commented after they got home (around 9:30 pm, the fall happened at around 4:45 pm) that she was very brave and she said "Yes I am!" But today she said she was ready for her broken arm to fly out of her and she didn't want it any more and dissolved in tears when I told her it might be awhile before it's better. Poor little girl! That was this evening. All day tho she acted like everything was perfectly normal. I kept having to tell her not to do normal kid things (she wanted to ride her bike, kept running and fighting for supremacy on the chair in the kitchen that big brother had brought in to reach the sink, that sort of thing). And bathing her was a major challenge. I will be really glad when we get past these next few weeks and she's out of her hopefully pink cast (which she won't get till Monday).

Here's a pic of her x-ray:












My dad the doc said that it looked pretty good (bones being lined up rather than separated) and it probably wouldn't need setting per se, just mobilization (a cast) and time. The breaks occurred near, but thankfully didn't involve the growth plate.