Our Simple Life

Wednesday

Yesterday afternoon I bent over to pick something up and my head (specifically my forehead and sinuses) throbbed really bad. Last night we went out to eat at Roadhouse Grill and again I leaned down and I had really sharp pain, worse than in the afternoon. I went to bed early last night and today I'm doing lousy (physically). Everything must be compacted and I wish it'd just let loose and come out!

This morning I did school with them even with how I was feeling. M had cursive practice (sentences), a money counting worksheet, a page of choosing the right pronoun for the sentence, alphabetized her spelling words, and a subtraction worksheet (she learned how to borrow today, and did really well!). J matched letters A-F with their cooresponding sound words (Aa apple, Bb bell, Cc cat, Dd dog, Ee egg and Ff fox) and glued them together on construction paper. He also listened to the Hooked on Phonics tape and used flashcards with me. He seems to really enjoy it and is catching on quickly. I will probably add a few more letters beyond F in a couple of days.

Stephen got off from work early today because it rained this morning and will be home momentarily. I will probably take a nap this afternoon. :)

I finished Light on Snow. It was really good! I picked up another of Shreve's books called A Wedding in December at the library a few days ago and will start it soon.

Our Sunday

Light on Snow and taking it easy

A few days ago I bought a book called Light On Snow by Anita Shreve. Over a year ago I read another one of her books called The Pilot's Wife and it was a good read so I'm hoping I enjoy this one as well. I'm on page 60 now and so far it's good. She has a way of writing where it's somewhat suspenseful but not scary at all (which is good because I don't do scary!)

This morning when I woke up my ears were aching and throat was a little sore. I took some Dayquil and it helped a lot. I didn't exercise at all yesterday (that will be my off day for the week) and so far today I've walked one mile. I just don't have much energy for some reason. I hope I'm not getting what M and J have.

J is doing much better. Last night he slept 12 hours without any coughing. : ) Today he has been more energetic but he has such bags under his eyes! You'd think he had very little sleep last night. Maybe it's the steroids. I don't know.

Stephen has to work tomorrow, again. It's good that he's getting so much overtime now (financially, I mean) but I miss him being home.

I was in the kitchen a lot this morning. I made banana muffins, banana nut bread and peanut butter cookies. I filtered 4 gallons of water too. Washed the dishes in the sink and emptied the dishwasher. Did I mention I also did laundry?

Can all of that count as exercise (especially since I didn't eat any of the stuff I made)? ;)

Maybe I'll feel up to riding the bike tomorrow.

J has croup

Yesterday J really seemed fine. He didn't have a cough and his energy level was up from the day before. But then last night he went to bed at 7:00 and a little while later he was barking (not continuously but here and there). At 11:00 when Stephen and I went up to bed I checked on him and he sounded like he was wheezing and not getting much air in. I covered him with his blanket and he moved around a little. As soon as he started moving he started coughing. It sounded so bad so I got him up and gave him a breathing treatment of Pulmicort and Albuterol. He was retracting his chest some and I was still so scared from the last time that I called 911. They came and said his chest sounded clear but his pulse-ox was at 95 (they say that's "normal" but J's healthy pulse-ox is always 99 so I was NOT comfortable with a 95). I decided to take him to the hospital in my car rather than the ambulance since he didn't need oxygen.

At the hospital the waiting room was full and J had gotten to be feeling much better after the Albuterol and the cold air outside so we went home because I couldn't see waiting 4-5 hours (at least) if he was o.k. enough to wait to see a doctor today. We came home and he waatched a little t.v. and had another treatment of Pulmicort and calmed down some enough to go back to bed. I didn't hear from him until 6:55 so I thank the Lord for that rest and His protection.

Our little boy is sick

J rarely gets sick but when he does sometimes he has breathing problems. The last time that happened was last Thanksgiving (as in, 2006). He had a cold about 6 months ago with no problem but it was a mild cold. Yesterday he felt lousy and his nose ran all day. By last night he was exhausted and said his throat was hurting. Early this morning my husband said he heard J doing some "croupy" coughing. We'll need to do a couple of breathing treatments today as a preventive measure. I don't think we'll need to go to the doctor unless I see a difference in his breathing (if it becomes labored). I know if I take him in they'll prescribe him with an oral steroid which I want to avoid unless absolutely necessary. The Pulmicort used in the nebulizer is WAY smaller of a dose than the oral stuff. A doctor once told me that it was better to do Pulmicort every day for a year than take the oral steroid for 5 days. So we're watching him carefully today.

Going to bed early

Yesterday afternoon both M and J were complaining of sore throats and J's nose ran all day. Last night M was looking and acting like she could go to bed at 7:00 when J did but the 7 yr old in her won out and she stayed up until 7:50 when I got done laying J down. When she was about to get in bed, she looked at me and kind of rolled her eyes and said "I can't go to bed at 7-something." and then collapsed into bed. I assured her that by the time she fell asleep it would be 8-something. ;)

J just got up and he said his throat is still hurting. I was originally planning to take them to the zoo today because the temperature is up so much outside but I'll have to see how they both feel. We have a membership so we could always leave if it's too much.

Random thoughts

Today it is cold. With the windchill, it is around 13 degrees. I will be happy when it warms up enough for the kids to go outside and play. I have to really monitor their electronic use when the weather is non-compliant. J especially would play games in front of a screen all day if I didn't interfere. We have a gameboy color (not an Advance); lots of computer games for learning; and an Atari system (I know, ancient, but our kids are young enough to still think the games are fun!)

I love observing M & J when they're outside. They find sticks and rocks and will come up with all sorts of things to pretend. For the last few weeks, M has had all our sand buckets full of dirt she sifts and mixes and stirs them and pretends each bucket is a different type of food. I'm glad M hasn't gotten too old for that stuff. I mean, she's only seven (almost eight) but nowadays it doesn't seem unusual for kids to grow up too fast. She also plays with her Barbies and Littlest Petshop as well as her stuffed animals sometimes. J drives his cars and trucks, plays with his Buzz Lightyear and likes books and puzzles.

Onto another topic.....I did 30 more minutes of exercise yesterday after posting the 23 I did in the morning. I need to keep this momentum going! I feel so much more energetic when I workout each day. Good news: I drank 2 1/2 bottles of water yesterday. That is an accomplishment for me but not too hard to do when I exercise as much as I did. I'm thinking that today I would like to walk a few miles and then ride the stationary bike for as long as I can (probably 15-20 minutes).  I may even do Fit Kids with J (and M if she's interested) this afternoon.

I am currently reading On Her Own by Wanda Brunstetter. It is about an Amish woman who is a widow and has four boys (one of which is a newborn). She owns a harness shop but is unable to work in it until she recovers from having her baby so she hires an Amish man to help her and it appears that they will end up together by the end of the book. I love reading about Amish life. I don't agree with some of their religious beliefs but their lifestyle is very simple and VERY appealing to me! I've read several of her other books and have thoroughly enjoyeed them except for the predictablity of them. I've also read Beverly Lewis but I'm not too crazy for her books. There is a somewhat negative tone in her books which is too bad because she has written a ton of them.

Today we're going to the library. I think we'll go this morning before lunch and then *hopefully* J will take a nap around 1:00. He got up 10 minutes after me (5:40) so he's going to be awfully tired come this evening if he doesn't nap.

Staying home

Today we're not going anywhere and there are many things I need to accomplish here at home.

1. Finish photo albums (almost done!!)

2. Make cookies.

3. Fold/ put away white load of laundry; dry/ fold/put away light load; wash/dry/fold/put away dark load; wash/dry/fold/put away bedding.

4. Vacuum upstairs & downstairs (maybe even the stairs if I have time).

5. Exercise for 60 minutes- 30 min in the morning & 30 in the afternoon or evening.

6. Crochet more on J's blanket.

7. Organize lower kitchen cabinet.

Allowance

M gets $5 a week as her allowance. We link it with chores and it makes it nice that she doesn't ask for us to buy her extra things because she knows that if she wants something she has to use her money. Now, that doesn't mean that she can choose whatever she wants to buy-we still have to approve it first.

Before September when she'd get her $5 we had her save $2.50 in her monthly spending bank (to be used on the last Saturday of the month), $2 in her long-term savings bank (to be used for a larger purchase saved over time), and then she'd have $.50 to spend each week. This worked pretty well. She wasn't buying dolar store junk each week or begging for a $10 item because she knew she could get it at the end of the month.

In September she started saving all of her allowance so she can buy birthday and Christmas presents (In our family there are four birthdays from the end of Nov. through December). For Christmas she is making extended family and friends ornaments. Another reason we had/are having her save all of her allowance is so that on Christmas it will have been a long time since she got anything new.

O.k., so after two and half months of no spending, M is surprisingly MORE content and LESS materialistic than before even though she's getting less. It seems like her play has gotten more imaginative as well. I'm sure my attitude about "stuff" has made a big difference and my including her in donating our excess to the women's and children's shelter has helped too. I think the biggest factor in her newfound gratefulness is the no money thing, though. 

So, come January, rather than going back to giving her some to spend each week, we're going to keep the no spending thing in place and let her save for something large (like admission to the Georgia aquarium). I love that she is changing how she feels about "stuff" right along with me! 

Home Movies

Today I worked on transferring our home videos to VHS tapes. Once I'm done I'll begin transferring those to DVD and we'll be up to date. I will then need to keep doing that every time we fill a 8 mm tape and not wait because thins is very time consuming to do catch-up!

I also need to finish organizing out photographs. I've already labeled all the negatives and CDs. I still need to put old photos where they go in the albums and put in order the newer photos into the current albums. And again, each time I bring a new pack home I need to immediately file them.

It will feel really good to finish all of this.

Christmas presents

I already know basically what we're getting the children for Christmas. A few weeks ago I started shopping because it's easier financially to spend a little each weekend than all at once in December. I hope to be done near the beginning of December.

M(our seven yr old daughter) is getting a rock polisher (she's always had a thing for collecting pebbles, rocks, and stones and this year mentioned she'd like a polisher); Season 1 of the Brady Bunch on DVD (It has 27 episodes! I got it at Target for $19.99!); a remote control car (identical to the one that J is also getting except a different color), and a gold cross necklace. I am still debating about what to get as the last one or two gifts. I don't want to buy anything that will be cast aside quickly after receiving.

J (our almost four yr old son) is getting the remote control car I mentioned above; a Buzz Lightyear; two new 24 piece puzzles, and an addition to his wooden train set (I'm thinking about maybe a roundhouse or a tunnel of some sort). Again, the last one or two things are still undecided.

Together their getting a new pogo stick that has a large base which makes it eaisier to stay on.

J's birthday is Christmas Eve but normally we celebrate it the weekend before. This year the Saturday before is only two days before so we're doing it on the previous one which is the fifteenth. For his birthday gifts from us he's getting a soccer goal (LOVES soccer but he's never used a goal ) and a Hot Wheels tractor trailer "car carrier". (So cute! I may even have to play with that one a little ;)

Simplifying

We have too much stuff. I've been busy going through things and evaluating what we really need and have used in the recent past vs. the "stuff". Most of it I bought because it was a good deal, and some I had intentions of using but didn't put enough thought into beforehand. Also, there are a good amount of toys and play things which are overlooked all the time which need to go. Things we don't need I've either donated to a thrift store whose proceeds go to a women's and children's shelter or to our library. It's been a long process but I'm getting it done and it feels great!

I went through our computer games and found about ten that don't get used on any regular basis or they are similiar to others we have. I took them to the library we go to weekly and donated them so the library can check them out to others (they're all educational). I also took several videos to the library that they can checkout.

My homeschool cabinet in the living room got a good going-through last week, let me tell you! I donated probably 50 workbooks and teacher lesson plan books to the library (to sell at their booksale). I didn't get rid of these because they're not great resources or because I didn't like them. I let them go because they don't fit my teaching style and they've just sat there and collected dust and will continue to do so no matter our children's ages.

I emptied our files in the file cabinets this morning and chucked anything that wasn't necessary to keep. Old medical directories and healthplan BOOKS! I'll take those to be recycled in a few days. It also reminded me to get the old phonebooks out to be recycled. Other things I threw away were all the printouts from sick visits for the kids and misc. medical paperwork I don't even know why I ever kept. LOL

The other day M (our 7 yr old daughter) asked me if I'd show her what was in my two Rubbermaid "keepsake" containers while J (our almost 4 yr old son) was napping. So on Wednesday we spent an hour going through them together. I used the time to really look at the stuff I was keeping and decide if I really needed things in those containers. I kept anything that belonged to someone else (my great grandmother's apron, my great grandfather's zippo, etc.) as well as things like my baby book and quilt. I went from two containers to one, I am happy to say! Some things were things others might enjoy so I'll donate them to the thrift store but a lot of it was thrown away.

M and J were styling my husband's and my hair the other night and he mentioned the excess of hairclips, headbands and the other hair accessories. I totally agreed! I didn't even realize how much we had until he said something, though. It's crazy how we get used to things and they don't strike us as being too much after a while. Anyway, yesterday morning I asked M to go through the 3 baskets of hair accessories and choose out the ones she wears on a regular basis and get rid of any she didn't. She's getting very good at letting things go. I was really proud of her that she didn't argue with me about how she needed all of them. She also did the same with her Barbies. She had eleven to begin with and now has six. :) They were ones that she never plays with and we both think six is plenty, don't you? 

Yesterday I went through their blocks. They have tiny-size Legos in a case which I kept and the next size up Legos which I also left alone in their original container. In addition to those, they also have some preschool size blocks which I down-sized into a smaller container (I donated what didn't fit). Last but not least they have those connecting pattern blocks which I halved into another small-size container and again donated the excess.

I feel on top of it at this point. The only area that stands out to me that we have an abundance is children's books and we'll tackle that next, but there's no rush as we do have two small bookshelves neatly holding them (one in their room and one in ours). It's not that having a LOT of books is a bad thing, but in our case, we visit the library once a week and check out around ten books per child so they're reading new books all the time and don't enjoy many from our home library. I'll be very selective, though, about which ones we do donate to the library and have M and J as my little consultants.