April Comes to an End

My husband, Dwayne, celebrated his birthday.  I bought tickets for us to see Andrew Peterson in concert.  We got a sitter and went out to dinner before the show, but before I left the house, I snuck one of my oldest daughter's colorings off the wall, so I could try and get Andrew Peterson's autograph for her. Peterson wrote a series called The Wingfeather Saga, excellent books, that our daughter has read many times over. Norah was thrilled when I showed her the autograph the next morning.

Now that it is spring and the weather permits it, we fixed our front steps.  A few pieces of slate had come loose over the harsh winter and were causing serious safety concerns.  We're not masons, but we're homeowners on a budget, so that makes us masons, basically.  After watching a few You Tube videos and visiting Home Depot, we worked together to remove all the old mortar, which was easy enough because it was crumbling to bits anyway, and then we set the old pieces back in place with new mortar.  Now it all needs to dry - thus the bucket, level, and milk crate to keep the mailman and other visitors from stepping on anything until it is set.

We are finishing up our second year of Classical Conversations. We were studying American history this cycle, so my oldest daughter wrote an essay, dressed up, and presented an oral report on Sacagawea. Here's a photo of her with the rest of her class.  You can read a little more about our homeschool at myeclectichomeschool.com, though I am not really blogging there that often either as I have been so busy of late.  

Dwayne and I have started a 30 day cleanse.  We have shakes for breakfast and lunch, snacks throughout the day, and then we eat a healthy dinner.  My reasons for doing this cleanse include digestive issues and the need for more energy to sustain my activity levels.  Of course, I will probably lose a bunch of body fat this month and that will be great, but that's not my main, motivating goal.  

April has been a full, busy, and at times, difficult, month.  See the previous two posts. Luckily, we are visiting our family in a few days and we should some new adventures to post about soon.   

April Continued

Our youngest daughter Adele turned three this month.  On birthdays, we always buy cupcakes from the bakery, one for each of us.  And we always give the girls one small gift for every year, so she got three gifts: a mermaid, a seahorse, and a set of play dough toys. Here's a video of us singing her Happy Birthday.  Prepare your hearts. She's a cutie.  

Dwayne and I also celebrated 14 years of marriage.  We hired a sitter, went out for dinner, and then went to the book store and browsed the isles without any kids.  It was magical.

April: So Far, Not So Good

I've had a virus for almost a week now- fever, congestion, post nasal drip, soar throat, cough, sneezing, you name it. I have no appetite, not even for coffee.  

That's how bad it is.  

My youngest daughters have fevers and coughs now, too.  The doctor tested for strep, but we're not that lucky.  It's viral. So we just get to suffer.

I also woke up this morning with a stomach bug. I won't go into details, but apparently, you can be sick in several different ways at the same time. 

Only two fifths of our family made it to church on Easter, my oldest daughter and my husband, three casts between the two of them.  

Notice all the durable medical equipment in the photo. We didn't place it there. That's just where it was when we snapped the photo.  

Needless to say, we are in the midst of a difficult season.   

Our dear friends from church, the Mccandless family-Tim, Robin, Katie and Matt, and Jean Semeraro, insisted on coming to visit even though we are so ill.  I have lost all confidence in the human immune system, so I wondered at their confidence. They brought dinner: roasted lamb, vegetables, ham, twice baked potatoes, homemade pies.  

My kids missed the egg hunt at church, so we had a makeshift egg hunt in the yard. Katie and Matt McCandless hid the eggs and then they proceeded to help the kids find them.  I bundled up to go outside and watch and wonder at how unobservant my kids are while coughing into my elbow.  

I take what joy I am given in life.  

We took a group photo before our guests went home.  I look like I am wearing a wet mop on my head and I was holding my breath the whole time so as not to breathe on Jean.

But I'm so thankful for our friends.  I cherish this photo.  My eyes are stinging with happy tears as I look at it.

I should probably take some more antihistamine.

Norah's memorizing this for a few events coming up. I had never read it or if I had, I never thought about the words. Now I get choked up at least once before it's over. To have been there...

The original sentence was about a boy who broke his leg, but Norah changed it. Good one, Norah.

March 2015

I've been too busy to blog much, but here's a quick collage of photos and events from March.  It has come and gone like a lion.

On one particularly warm day early this month, we did get to play outside for a few hours in the puddles and streams the melting snow made. The girls built snow castles in the driveway.  

Our homeschool is intensifying during this season, especially our work in Essentials, the English grammar and writing program for Classical Conversations.  We are striving along and all the girls are making steady progress.

I am still teaching group fitness classes part time throughout the week.  Though it would certainly be easier not to work in addition to my other responsibilities, I like earning money and the exercise is proving to be a stress reliever.

My husband is still recovering from having foot surgery at the end of April. But, not to be outdone, our oldest daughter Norah tripped while playing with a group of kids, caught herself on both her hands, and fractured both her arms near the wrists this month!  She and my husband make quite a pair- she with two casts, he with a boot on his foot.  The picture below shows them on the couch relaxing together.

Aside from doing her handwriting, our daughter was still able to do most of her schoolwork.  Below is a picture of her certificate for completing Math U See's Delta, taken a few days ago. Now on to the next book.

Like the song says, we have had a little help from our friends. Below is a photo of the McCandlesses shoveling snow for us on one particularly busy Saturday when it snowed again.  They were also the ones I called when I was stranded at the hospital with my daughter in the early morning hours.

I took our two little girls to get desperately needed hair cuts a few days ago. While there, I got my hair chopped off, something I have been considering for a while.  I love it.

Here's a silly selfie my husband and I took after the kids were in bed one evening.  He's had a very busy time at work and he is working on his master's degree at night, so we are stealing moments together as often as we can.

We got to celebrate our middle child's birthday this month.  She turned six.

On her birthday, we had her favorite meal, spaghetti, and then we had cupcakes and opened presents.

The next day, we had a small party for her at an indoor water park. This birthday party is something she and her sister have been dreaming of doing for a long time.

Because I was soaking wet, keeping a constant eye on our two year old, I didn't take many photos. But here's a photo my friend Kim took of my oldest daughter and her daughter Sophie in the lazy river.  Note:  Notice my daughter now has a shorter, water proof cast. She's healing quickly.

Here's a sweet photo of our Avril and her cake as we sang "Happy Birthday" at the party. 

That's a brief overview of the month of March.  It's been busy and even really difficult at times, but nevertheless, we know that we have so much to be thankful for.

How to Keep Track of Medication

We've been dealing with so many health issues lately.

Tooth aches, fevers, surgeries, injuries- all within the month!

I've needed to track medication doses, but I found that writing information on sticky notes wasn't working well enough.

The paper would get wet or soiled somehow.

It could be swept off the counter and get lost.

Or it was too hard to read because the print was too small.

So I came up with a nicer way of tracking our medication doses.

I put a piece of simple, black lined paper inside a long, narrow frame.

I write on the glass with a dry erase marker.

I can lay the frame flat on the counter or table and it works like any other list, only this list is easier to read, it's heavy enough to stay put, and it's more waterproof.

Better still, I can even sit the frame upright so that the list can be seen from across the room.

This was especially convenient when my husband had to lie flat in bed after his recent foot surgery.  I would write his doses on this frame and from his position in bed, he could see whenever it was drawing near the time for him to have another dose.

And, of course, this is reusable.

When we aren't tracking medication for something, the frame can be stored easily in the medicine cabinet until it's needed again.