|
Today has been a pretty full day. My kids awoke me to gf blueberry waffles (hardly toasted...but a lovely gesture nonetheless) and a very small bowl of mint choco chip ice cream. Next were the parade of Mother's Day cards as I ate (very creative, thoughtful little cards too!) and a special Mother's Day song that my 10 year old made up. It was very sweet and a nice tune. Next, were my daily chores of laundry and dishes, and making meals. That's okay...I really didn't think I'd get out of it. As I read TOS, my 10 yr old came out and sat down on the couch with my 3 yr old. She took out an 'I Spy' book and started to read it and pointed to the objects that my 3 yr old was supposed to find. My 3 yr old is VERY good at it, as it is her favorite book to look at with me. My 10 yr old read the lines with ease and my heart filled with joy for her over her ability to do that. Just two years ago she could barely read at all. Using Abeka last year helped a great deal. Though she isn't an advanced reader, she is at grade level now and reads willingly in her spare time. I couldn't help it, I had to take more pics of this scene...was too cute and I wanted picture memories! They then started to blow their cheeks up with air and 'pop' them with each other's hands. I sat back and giggled right along with them. They were having a blast! After this, my girls all gathered together and decided that they were going to play hide-n-go-seek while I made dinner in the kitchen. I couldn't believe how long that game actually lasted in this little house! I mean...how many places can ya hide here?!! They decided to take full advantage of every square foot too...using the garage, the laundry area, all the closets, the bathroom, the furnace closet (there's a HUGE space in there that's not used..though I dare not venture in there with the wolf spiders that I have seen crawl through our house before), along with the curtains in the front room. Quite hilarious as they claimed rights to their 'secret hiding places'. I was begged numerous times to tell where others were hidden. I'd just shrug and continue making the casserole I was working on. Once dinner was done though, all were eager to end their searching and dig into their meal. All in all, it was a good Mother's Day for me. I love being a mom. |
My hubby departed for work at 2:30 as usual and the girls proceeded to their rooms to play, due to rain outside. Me...I sat and read a little in my TOS magazine in between chores. (btw..I now have some websites to check out) 
|
Today I got the cutest video and pics of an adorable fish! I'll try and post a pic or two with this...don't know how to post the video. I'm not THAT computer literate to figure that out yet. Give me time though. Anywhoooo....I was down at Children's Hospital with my youngest. (long story...of sleep deprivation since late Thurs. night and a crying child). As we were leaving, my youngest wished to see the 'fishies', which is a huge fish tank with exotic fish in it. So, we stop by and adore all the colors of the underwater world. There was a beautiful royal blue starfish, like none I've ever seen. It didn't have the usual rough outer skin that I'm used to seeing on starfish. This was smooth...almost like a salamander's skin. It's legs were exceptionally long as well. On from there was an Angel Fish, like on the cartoon Nemo...with the 'scar' on his face. Only this one had no scar. I couldn't help it. I reached into my big bag o' goodies that I had brought with me to pass the time(coloring book, crayons, magazines to read, extra clothes for the lil one, and my camera was still in there from co-op Thurs). I pulled out my camera and started to take pics of the clown fish doing his thing. I think the flash startled him, so I had to turn it off. However, my camera is really wierd/cheap and whenever I disable the flash, it also disables the picture stabilizer. So, the non-flash pics are all 'fuzzy'. I then decided that maybe a video of him would take better. So, I put it on video mode and started to shoot my funny friend in the tank. He kept rub-a-dub-dubbin and didn't stop...except for once. I thought he had finished and was gonna dash away. Nope..he went a whole two inches from the anemone and seemed to change his mind...he couldn't make it without his lil anemone loofah. Back to rubbin away on the anemone! ha ha! Too cute! So, if I figured out how to post video on here you can see the funny lil clown fish gettin' cozy with the anemone. Until then, I'll just post some still photos on here.
|
|
I was in my email earlier today when all of a sudden, I look down to my contact list and notice one of my old college friends is online! Now this doesn't sound all that unusual, but I haven't spoken to her in well over a year! We never seem to catch each other. She has called a couple times and vice versa, but no connect. She has been extremely busy finishing up her Physician's Assistant schooling. This woman has done a lot of different jobs. She has been a bouncer (yes, she's strong), a beach lifeguard (INCREDIBLE swimmer!), a cosmetologist (used to cut my hubby's hair when we were in college!)...and a number of other things. She finally settled down with the Physician's Assistant career and just graduated! So happy for her! She initially had gone to Word of LIfe Bible Institute, which is where her and my hubby first met. They became very good friends! They were in the Collegians choir together. And Oh...she has the most beautiful singing voice! (I love to sing, but I love listening to her more. God surely gave the girl a voice for song!) Anywhoo...after leaving WOLBI, a lot of their class went down to Liberty on scholarships. This is where I was introduced to her, by my hubby. We instantly hit it off. She is such a great friend! While at school though, she kept talking about how God was going to lead her to the perfect guy for her and let her start a family. She always talked about having a BIG family. I never met anyone to that point in my life that wanted kids as badly as she did. However, she never met that man while we were at school. Moving back home, we both lost touch. We heard from one another off and on over the years. I lost her old address during a move of ours and had to track her down once more. Upon reaching her family, I found out that she had gotten married! Again, so happy for her! I called her and we talked for some time. She expressed once again her desire to have kids, but due to physical problems she was unable and unsure if she ever would. She was quite down about it, but said she got plenty of joy out of having neices and nephews to love, along with her hubby. She was content to be in God's will. Upon reaching her today in my email chat though, I found that God has blessed her with a son...finally! He was born five months ago and is beautiful! I couldn't help but cry tears of joy! No, she couldn't see me blubbering over the good news, but I don't care. It was just so awesome to hear that my dear friend finally has a child after so much waiting...15 years!! (no, she hasn't been married that long but I've known about her desire for children that long) I'm so happy!!! What a wonderful day it has been!!! Here is a pic of my friend Tara and her new son, Hunter.
|
We made it to church today!! Yippee! We had a wonderful time..all of us. The older three girls were in 'childrens service', the youngest in the 3&4 yr old class, and us in regular service. The girls loved their service and asked to return. The youngest enjoyed her's as well, from what I could tell. We have plans to return next week, barring nothing happens with his work overtime, school, or our van. The hubby starts a new class in school today, so I don't forsee any exams this soon.  Keep the prayers comin! It's helping! |
|
Today has been a relaxed day. I did a little bit of cleaning, but nothing major. The house is still a mess...I don't expect miracles in one day! ha ha! The girls are outside playing. Last I checked, they were climbing their friend's tree. They were having so much fun; I didn't have the heart to end it. I did, however, give them a warning that I didn't have a vehicle to run them to the hospital if they fell and broke something! Me, I've been having a little self-made 'quiet time' with God. Like I stated in my prior post, I don't read my Bible much, except for during my girls' school time. I also receive daily devotionals in my email from Alpha Omege called 'Daily Focus' for homeschool moms. Other than those, I don't get into my Bible much at all. So, I thought I'd start out with a 'little' something today. I know this is going to sound a little wierd to some of you, but this was suggested to me once by a youth leader at camp. I used to do this while I was in high school/college. Music and God have always been intertwined in my life and a big part of it, no matter how far I have strayed from Him. Christian music in particular. It has always spoken to me in one way or another. Now most of my Christian music is put up...somewhere...on cassettes (yes, ANCIENT!). Yes, I listen to more modern Christian music and have some on CD's, but I am always led back to the songs/singers I grew up with like the ones here on my blog. So, today I chose my blog music for my 'quiet time'. This 'quiet time' basically just entails me listening to the lyrics of the song(s). I listened and thought about what God was saying through the words of these artists/ Christians regarding my life. I did a bit of soul-searching you might say. I know that I have a lot to change, though I will always be saved. Today was just a first step, in my baby steps back to my walk with God. I know it didn't involve reading my Bible or breaking out a Strong's concordonance, but it was meaninful nonetheless. Tonight, or maybe tomorrow, I will break out my Bible in a quiet place and read....something...whatever I feel led to read. Or perhaps God will give me a specific verse to read...who knows. I'm just happy to have gotten something today. |
|
On brighter news than all my spiritual and medical whinings....we went to the park! It was a lot of fun. The girls got to run around and had quite a blast. While my older girls played on the larger playground area, I took my 3 yr old to the baby swings. She actually raced me over there. This was shocking, since she usually has a fear of the swings . This time, she wanted to swing. So I obliged my little one and put her in one. She asked me to push her...high. Huh?!! Was I hearing her right? I repeated the question back to her and she said it again...louder. Alrighty then! I pushed! She smiled a huge smile and then broke out into song. ha ha! Yep, it was like right out of a musical. She started singing our bedtime song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". She sang it quite loudly too, while the other tots and mommas looked on. I started to chuckle, while she kept singing it and singing it over and over again. She even added a little 'flare' in there each time, holding her arms out high. It was hilarious! She was actually getting ALL the words right too! Man, I was a proud momma at that point, of my lil singing star! How cute! Man...where's my video camera when I need it? ha ha! |
|
Today I've been making multiple phone calls to help work out some of our 'medical' issues. A lot of it is regarding my eldest two daughters' medical condition of Growth Hormone Deficiency. This, to put it shortly, means they cannot grow without help since they do not produce enough of their own growth hormone. They take nightly injections (given by myself) of synthetic growth hormone so they can grow normally like other children. I too, along with my twin, had this problem as a child. So we have found that this disorder is in fact genetic in my family, which is rare. It controls many other things besides just linear growth, but that is the main concern as a child patient with this condition. Earlier this year, starting in November, we started having problems with our specialty pharmacy that delivers the girls' medication to our home. We went back and forth with phone calls from them promising to deliver their meds and that they were having issues with our insurance company, but they promised it would be worked out shortly. After two long months of my daughters going without their medication, we were turned to a different pharmacy. Ugh. This other pharmacy then provided our girls with another month and a half of medication at no expense, pending our insurance would pick it up as they are supposed to. Medicaid (our secondary) usually picks up the copay since it can get VERY expensive. Well, our insurance will not bill Medicaid for the copay, so we are left trying to find out where to get the money for that. We have contacted several different places for help and are presently awaiting to hear back from them. However, so far my eldest two have gone without their meds for a month now and are starting to show the signs....increased fatigue,lack of concentration, weight gain, easily overheated,etc. We just had their latest endo appt on Wednesday and their growth has already dipped again from the 3 total months this year without their medication. I am so worried. Our doc says they have another month before it can become a serious problem that they will have trouble bouncing back from, as far as their height is concerned. This also delays puberty as well. Hopefully, we will hear back within the next week on help for payments. Otherwise, our only option is to switch to a much older, less used medication. If so, I am hoping it's efficacy is the same as what they are presently on. I will also have to undergo training to mix the solutions properly, as it is in jars instead of the vial/pen device they use now. On other medical issues...I too am still Growth Hormone Deficient. Since having it as a child, I had to be retested as an adult to see if I am in fact still GHD. I flopped the test big time and still am ghd. Since having that testing though, I have had a difficult time finding endos that treat Adult GHD, are caring, or have adequate knowledge on it. I thought I had found that doc last year. He prescribed my gh but for only 3 months. I have been off it over a year now, due to not getting back to his office til this week and lack of money for meds. During this time fatigue has overcome me on a grand scale...almost as bad as before I was diagnosed as an adult in 2002, at age 27. I had taken my eldest two to see my old pediatric endo for ghd concerns, and he mentioned that I could have it as an adult too, since I had it as a child. He had me tested and then put on gh. At that time, I was sleeping 16 hrs a day, losing my memory (having to write even just one item down on paper to go to the store so I wouldn't forget), lost concentration, gaining weight, no stamina for even climbing our stairs. It was terrible. All that reversed once I went on gh again...I slept normal hours, lost weight, slowly regained memory, could concentrate again, and could play with my kids! I was so happy! All this year and a little of last summer though, fatigue has been attacking me since not having my gh. I am 'functional' with 10 hours of sleep, but usually require a nap by mid-afternoon. I hate it. If I am not able to nap a little (which often happens), I feel lethargic the rest of the evening, almost like I've been drugged. I also haven't had the energy to play with my girls that much. I take them to the park, but I don't run around much, else I get very winded and overheated. 'Mental fog' has also been a HUGE problem, as I can't seem to concentrate or gather my thoughts together like I used to...just like before. Well, I saw my own endo this week, as well. It went badly. He basically refused to put me back on my gh. I was stunned, as most 'normal' adults produce their own gh well into their senior years. It controls weight, metabolism, heart muscle function, cholesterol, other hormones throughout the body,etc. (http://www.magicfoundation.org/www/docs/105) He said adults dont need it, the way he sees it, though my test results showed just the opposite. I was mad and hurt at the same time. So, I am in a search of a new doc. I have really lost faith in docs in the last couple of years over all this. Also in insurance companies...who sometimes refuse to pay for gh for both AGHD patients and kids due to its over-prescribing by docs to athletes and older people seeking an anti-aging miracle. Please pray that I find a knoweldgeable and caring doc for my treatment and also our insurance/copayment mess gets worked out for our girls' treatment ....soon. |
|
It seems the problems lately have just been piling one on top of the other. These sort of things always seem to happen during the times that the hubby and I have considered or have tried returning to church as a family. In my own humble opinion, I think it is a spiritual attack. But who am I to know? I'm not exactly what you would term a 'faithful Christian'. As a matter of fact, I would be considered in a lot of circles as 'backslidden' or whatever term you wish to give it. I was saved at the age of 15 at church camp, though I grew up in church from a much younger age...around 4 or 5. However, upon accepting Christ as my saviour, I never received any kind of discipleship. I was just told to start reading my Bible and pray. I started to do this as best I could to my understanding of what a Christian ought to do. I still floundered badly, being in a public high school, non-Christian home, and around non-Christian friends much of the time. Upon entering college, I was struggling in my walk and not getting much out of my Bible readings. Yes, I read my Bible but never got any 'deep personal messages' out of the verses that I hear so many Christians talk/write about, even on these blogs. Though I was at a Christian college, not everyone there was a Christian, which I knew was just as typical as at the churches I had attended. I met my husband there, also a Christian. We both had devotions together in the beginning of our relationship, but we both quickly succumed to typical 'college life'. Since that time, we have both struggled in our faith. I attended church for six years without him during the first part of our marriage. He had no desire to attend anywhere but I felt the urge to be wtih fellow Christians. The church I chose seemed good at the time, yet my hubby didn't agree with their doctrine. I attended; however, it wasn't that friendly to 'single moms', which is what they treated me as since I attended with just my children and not my husband. I endured it for a time but couldn't handle it any longer and discontinued attending. Since then, I have brought up returning to church off and on to my husband...hoping that it would spark something in his heart. He still wasn't ready, but I was willing to wait. I didn't nag because I knew it would just be counterproductive. Last summer, my husband approached me about looking for a church to attend as a family. I was elated! I grew up Grace Brethren and he grew up Baptist...so there wasn't much of a difference in beliefs in our opinion. So, he was open to visiting a couple of the local Grace Brethren churches. We have visited two since summer (only a couple of times), yet it never worked out. His eagerness to return to church seemed to be squelched for a little while. Yet, in the last couple of weeks he has restated his interest yet again. But things seem to keep happening now...our van problems, and the last two weeks he has had not only overtime til the middle of the night on Sunday morning, but also exams for his schooling. Having to work a full-time job, his only school time is when he gets home...at night. I have been so disappointed lately, not only by our inability to attend as a family for one reason or another, but by all the 'stuff' that keeps popping up in our life to make it harder. Whenever we start to come together as a family, that's when Satan starts to attack us the hardest...with everything from car troubles to family medical issues. I don't consider myself a strong Christian by any stretch of the imagination. I would still consider myself a 'baby Christian', which is sad. Yes, I have 'head knowledge', but not a lot of persoal faith. Like I said, I was never discipled and never got a lot out of my Bible readings. So...over the years, my Bible time has slowly disappeared out of both frustration and lack of desire. My life has surely shown it too. I desperately want to right it, but don't really know where to begin, but to start back at church and be around fellow Christians. (in this aspect, co-op has been a blessing to me) I want this not only for myself, but for my girls. At their age, I knew all my books of the Bible, the stories about Jesus, verses out the yin yang...all of this by heart and with joy..knowing about God/Jesus. My girls do not. They know only a little here and there. Yes, it falls squarely on my husband and I's shoulders for this failure. This school year is the first time they have ALL actually had Bible time with me, during our school time in the Prairie Primer. It has been my Bible time as well. I have gotten to discuss many things during these Bible studies and even salvation...which my eldest two decided to accept Christ as their saviour! I desperately want to be a better example for them and know that I currently am a terrible one due to the lack of my own Christian walk. So, please, pray that all of this starts to work out, that we can get back in a church as a family, and that we don't keep getting bombarded with stuff. Also, that I find my way in my own walk with God so that I can lead my girls properly in theirs. |
|
Today we went to co-op again, as we try to do every Thursday. I arrived only about 15 minutes late, though not technically since they've allowed from 9:30-10:00 for arrival/play time for the kids before getting started. So, my girls played for a bit before they actually began. I had gotten up early to make gluten free cupcakes for my girls, since the co-op's cooking class was making cupcakes...then eating them. My girls helped to make cupcakes with the 'regular' mix, just like the rest. However, when it came time to ice and eat, they did this with our gf ones. It was a very enjoyable time. The kids also made airplanes out of styrofoam egg cartons. They enjoyed test-flying them in the gymnasium. Afterwards, there were a couple of games of dodgeball for phys. ed. Oh! I also cannot forget the stones that they painted in art! What fun! So many colors that the kids mixed together and designs they came up with. I again had a good time chatting off and on with the ladies and enjoying their company. They are such a great bunch of women. I'm thankful to have met them. |
|
My sunburn, that is. After slathering my daughter and self with aloe vera last night, I went to bed. I woke up none too happy. Yes, it helped with the 'pain'. However, since I put it on my face it irritated my overly sensitive skin. UGH!!!! I now have a worse acne breakout than I was experiencing BEFORE the aloe. Nice. Plus, I look like Rudolph's long lost cousin...minus the fuzzy antlers. My arms only hurt a little, except when I took my shower...OUCH! This is the strangest sunburn I have had though. My skin is a solid coating of red where it is burnt (which is typical), but there are red raised 'welts' on top of that. The red skin underneath has lightened considerably overnight, but the welts remain and they are painful. Looks almost like I got splattered with hot grease and got burned that way. Wierd. My daughter has a typical little sunburn on her arms which also lightened a lot by this morning. Luckily, she didn't have any of the 'welts' that I have. She wanted to go outside today, but I felt it would be best if she stayed inside to heal some, as well as myself.
|