Sick

It's hit our household.

We've all been sick.

It started on Saturday with Ella. She had a fever. Not too high, but a fever that made her somewhat lethargic. She had nothing, aside from that fever, Saturday, Sunday and all day Monday. Then, Monday night she threw up. Tuesday she was mostly better.

Monday night, Dustin and Mac started feeling crummy and slightly feverish. Tuesday Dustin felt awful and Mac, to compliment his fever, threw up. Just before he threw up, Dustin and I heard Mac yell out, "HERE IT COMES!!" (He despises throwing up.) Dustin and I laughed at his announcement.

Rohan was showing no signs, except some chest congestion, which has been my story since about Friday.

Wednesday, Mac continued with his fever. Dustin stayed home again, still feverish. Rohan started showing fever signs, while I simply continued to have a lot of chest congestion. Ella returned to school.

Today, Dustin is feeling better and back at work. Mac and Rohan are feverishly languishing in the living room, and I STILL have chest congestion but only that. (for which I am grateful)

For as much as I dislike sickness in my house, this has been a relatively fun one. Dustin was home with ALL of us on Tuesday, albeit sick, but he was home. Ella went to school Wednesday, so with the exception of her we were all home together yesterday too. That is a treat for me, even if we are sick.

We all have been laying around like slugs the whole week. I've only been dressed for a couple of hours at a time when I was forced to go out and buy things like Saltine crackers, Sprite and children's Ibuprofen. It's been an adventure in hibernation and healing, watching non-stop movies and reading books.

I hate being sick, but I love my little family's togetherness.



P.S. I keep having people ask me if it's Swine Flu (insert bloodcurdling scream and scary music) and I'll just say for the record... I don't know and I don't care. I think Swine Flu (insert bloodcurdling scream and scary music) is purely propaganda. I think it's a scare tactic. For heaven sake's people... it's just the flu!

I just heard on the radio the other day that our Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning president has declared a National Emergency because the Swine Flu (insert bloodcurdling scream and scary music) deaths have now totaled 1000.

1000? Are you kidding? I've been researching a little and everything I've read states that the flu kills about 36,000 people per year. EVERY YEAR! And now our president has declared a National Emergency because 1000 people have died?

Healthcare propaganda, is what I think it is. A bunch of B.S. with a creepy name...

Tuesday Special

Here I sit, fresh out of the shower at 3:06 on a Tuesday afternoon. This particular Tuesday is a special Tuesday, though. Why is it special? No, not because I finally showered at 2:40 pm. No, not because I am dressed in real clothes for the first time since Sunday...

It's my honey-pie's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dustin, my love!!!

This man 'o' mine rocks my world. His ever-present, but varied in formation, facial hair is scruffy and rough, and I love it. He knows I love his ruggedness. And ruggedness is not just limited to his ruggedly-handsome looks.

He dresses rugged... no matter how I try to sharpen his style, he is who he is. I've stopped trying and just dress him as ruggedly-sharp as I can! (I do all his clothes shopping, so I can do this, you know.)

His walk is rugged. He tromps through this world with his heavy boots. Many who know him can identify him simply by hearing his footsteps.

His attitude is rugged. He bucks authority like a bull in a rodeo. He says what he thinks, often with a consequences-be-damned attitude.

And speaking of being damned... his language is often rugged.

But... like a rugged mountain peak, he too is not immune to the powers of erosion. The passing of time, and being wedded to someone not quite so rugged, has softened some of his rougher points. His language is softer, his impatience less sharp.

And, like any rugged mountain, he has his spots of softness as well... his moss-covered north side, if you will. He has always been, since I met him, tender and gentle with me, his wife. He adores me, and I him. He is as sweet a dad as I've ever seen with his beautiful children. Sometimes that rugged, rough side comes out in his father-role, but when it's tucked away, he's soft and tender with his little ones. He is friendly to others and makes people feel good being around him. He loves to serve and help people. (but not if his wife volunteers him for it without prior consultation!) Soft as a tree's mossy north face.

Happy Birthday to my mate, my partner in life, my love, my husband.

I love you, my rugged and soft man!

Dinner Is Not Cooked

It's 5:34 pm right now. Dustin is working late tonight... late-ish. I haven't cooked dinner and I'm blogging instead!

The truth of the matter is that I'm in pain right now and I can't easily stand up from this chair I sat in a few minutes ago. I have been having issues with the ligaments in my abdomen... I've read that it's the ones that hold up my uterus. Anyway, whatever they are, they have a tendency to get irritated and it feels like a severe side-ache... you know when you're running and you get a side-ache? It feels like that. And when it is bad, like it is at this moment, I have to sit still 'til it goes away because moving doubles me over.

Soo... that's my really good excuse for not having dinner cooked or even started at 5:34pm.

We went for a lovely visit over the weekend to Logan, UT... our former place of residence. We visited with our friends Jennie and Jared and Justin and Amy. We had a Halloween party of sorts, but mostly just visited and played.

Then the next day we went and visited with my lifelong friend, Beth and her family. Our kids got along swimmingly and were very sad to leave their friends that they see far too little of. They are still talking about "Eric" and how cute and funny he is. It was a good day and we were all sad to leave. Hopefully it won't be so long before we see all the friends we saw this weekend again.

I've been in sewing mode. Halloween is my favorite time of year to sew. I love to make my children costumes and watch them light up as they come to fruition.

Rohan is going to be a "mommy" this year. (Mummy, but he always says it like mommy, which confuses all the people who ask him what he's going to be for Halloween!) I am having so much fun making up his costume. It's rather tedious the way I'm doing it, but it's turning out great! I'm excited and so is he!

Mac will be a Grim Reaper and Ella, a little devil. They are all loving it and can't wait for the real deal.

I love Halloween and have so many fond memories of my mom helping us get all dressed up. She loved it too and always went "all out".

So, it's now 5:50 and my ligaments or whatever hurts is not hurting so much now, so I think I'll go make dinner!

Pontifications on Cereal

This is the 401st post on this little blog. Can you believe I had 401 things to say! Wow.

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I am a cereal junkie. I love cereal. Yesterday I ate it for breakfast AND lunch. Very healthy choice, I must say.

I, unfortunately have also passed this love on to my children. I say unfortunately, but it's not entirely unfortunate. Just think if they didn't like cereal! I'd have to make them a real breakfast every morning. *gasp!* I struggle with making a real dinner at night. That would be problematic.

I will tell you what is unfortunate about this situation. Cereal is not the cheapest thing to eat for breakfast. Eggs would likely be cheaper. Oatmeal, definitely cheaper. I've thought I should define things a little bit regarding the cereal. I've thought I should tell the kids I will buy ___________ number of boxes per week and if they eat it all, then they don't get more until the next week. Good idea, huh? But the flaw in that plan is this: when the cereal runs out, there's one grown-up cereal junkie who has the power to run her little butt to the store and buy some more. And that is exactly what she does.

Post Cranberry Almond Crunch is my favorite, usually. I'm a big fan of Bran Flakes and Frosted Mini Wheats as well. Rice Chex, and Kix hit the spot. And with all of my pregnancies, Cheerios were my lifeline in the first trimester when sickness reigned and nothing sounded good.

Rohan lives for Life. Mac loves Special K. Ella will eat whatever suits her fancy that day, but she seems to ask for Frosted Mini Wheats the most.

I think we're winning Dustin over to the dark side. Together he and I will rule the cereal universe with our children. Although... Dustin loves Grape Nuts and they make his breath smell like dog food. If he eats them too much, I might have to destroy him. But, lucky for me (and him!), bwwaahahahaha, I'm the one who does the shopping!

The Saturday Morning Miracle

Just thought I'd share the coolest sound in the whole world with you. Well, the coolest sound in my whole world, anyway.

It happened last Saturday morning. I had stayed up too late the night before. You see, Dustin usually goes to karate on Saturday mornings from 7:00am to 9:00am. Last Saturday was no exception. He went. I vaguely remember kissing him goodbye, as I was still sleeping at 6:45.

Around our house, the typical Saturday morning goes something like this: D goes to karate and about 20 minutes later my kids wake up. Rohan wakes up first... or Ella, but mostly Rohan... and he wants me to get him a bowl of cereal. The little stinker! Doesn't he know that I want to sleep in on a Saturday!! At least a tiny bit! Please!!!? Anyway, then follows the rest of the kids and I try to pretend I'm still sleeping until I hear them fighting or something and I have to yell at them to be nice or get their little fannies spanked or go to time-out or some other really mean threat. Did you know that pretending to be sleeping and yelling at your kids are not congruent? They don't fit very well. It's usually around that time that I get up out of bed and act like a human being for the day.

So, that's the norm. But last Saturday, as I told you, Dustin left for karate and I went back to sleep. The next thing I heard was Rohan saying he wanted cereal. Groaning, I started to try to put him off, but realized he was not in my room, nor was he talking to his mother. It was then that I heard the most beautiful thing an up-to-late-wanting-to-sleep-in mommy could hear; my ears were caressed by the melodious sound of Dustin's deep voice telling Rohan to go pee while he got him some cereal. Dustin was, in fact, not at karate but was home and getting Rohan his beloved bowl of Life cereal while I lay in my bed.


HEAVEN!


I drifted in and out of sleep for the next hour or so. Those few times I woke, I heard something even more wonderful... Dustin telling the kids to "leave Mom alone... she's sleeping!"


RAPTURE!


I thought that life could not be sweeter, but let me tell you about my husband... He is sweetness with a thick coating of muscle and grit. As I came more fully awake, my senses keyed into the noises around the house... the activity that was occurring. I still heard my dashing husband asking my darling children to leave me alone and let me sleep (I let him continue with that for a while, event though I was fully awake by then), but I heard something even better. As I listened, I realized that Dustin was ordering the kids around telling them, "We are cleaning this house and we are cleaning it well!"...with nary a whine from the children!


ECSTASY!!!


Shortly after, I revealed myself to be amongst the living. I cleaned my room while Dustin continued to boss the kids. They worked from 7:30am until almost noon. No fights were had, minimal whining was heard... it was one of those little miracles on a Saturday morning that ended with a sparkly clean house.


And there was much rejoicing.

I'm Having a Problem with Titles

So, I have some things to say, but I am suddenly at a loss how to title my posts. In the past, my titles would come out before I even started the post. They were self-titled-posts. They knew their names.

Now I stare at the title box like I used to stare at my empty blog post box. I can't name them all "__________Fill in the Blank", now can I?

Maybe my blogging is healing. First I forgot what to say in the big white box. Now I just can't think of what to say in the little white box. Progress is good.

But that's not really why I came here to this computer chair today.

I have some things to say.

Since my last post I've been feeling much better. I think I did just need a good cleansing cry, as many of you suggested. The catalyst was vague. I can't even remember it now, if I ever could. But now, it's just gone. I felt better the next day. And the next, and so on.

Just thought I'd share that since I keep leaving my blog on such a sour note.

☺

Second thing on the random list.

Columbus Day. What the heck? I was thinking, yesterday, as Ella brought her ultra-cute Columbusy art project home, 'Why the heck do we celebrate this day? Why do banks and post-offices close for this day?'

I don't know. But I do know that I had all these thoughts and then read my friend Larrie's post and almost fell out of my chair laughing. Maybe the funnyness was so great because of my mood and my previous thoughts. And maybe your position in your computer chair won't be compromised like mine nearly was as I read her post, but I think you should read it all the same... because Larrie is awesome.

________________ (fill in the blank...)

Two weeks.

Two weeks since my last blog post.


Today I've been crying. Deep, bottom-of-my-toes kind of crying. Maybe it's the hormones raging through my body. Maybe it's the seasons changing. Maybe it's the crushing weight of being a responsible adult. The reason behind the tears is vague. Unclear. Hard to define.

As I cried I thought of four-thousand and twenty-two things I wanted to express all over my blog. Philosophical questions to be asked, cryptic poems to write, anguish to smash all over my computer screen. But once I sat down at my computer, the finger-brain connection would not allow me to type anything. All the deep-seeded emotional trash that went flying through the motion-picture projector of my mind scurried away and re-buried itself in the recesses. Well, likely some of it was actually expunged from my body with all that crying. Maybe it just left in such a hurry that I can't even remember it now. I don't know. Maybe this baby in my body sucks ALL the memory from me. All of it. Could be.

Well, whatever.

Screw you, Emotional Trash! If you don't want to work things out via a blogging-release, you can just stay there in time-out until you're ready to be nice.

On a completely unrelated and random note, I have been reading a series of fantasy books lately. When the main character triggers his gift (he's a wizard and didn't know it) he suddenly has a few peculiar eating habits, including a sudden aversion to meat.

In the last couple weeks, I have had a fairly strong aversion to meat. Maybe I'm a wizard and didn't realize it. But I suppose in my case I would be a sorceress, seeing how I'm female and all...

Or, maybe I'm just pregnant.

Lucky the Squirrel Lives and Other Happenings

So today we were leaving our house and I was a little slower than the kids to get out the door. As I walked out to the car I hear Mac yelling, "Mom! Mom!!! Come over here! I think it's Lucky!"

I walk around the car into our neighbor's yard and there sits a squirrel on the ground. Now, if you haven't noticed, squirrels don't exactly have a lot of identifying characteristics. In other words... all squirrels look pretty much the same. This could be Lucky the Squirrel whom we lovingly raised from squirrel infanthood, or it could just be a squirrel, right? If you ask Rohan, all squirrels are Lucky. He always tells me so.

I've gotten a little off track here.

So, I see the squirrel and Mac tells me again that he thinks it's Lucky. "Could be," I tell him. I start talking to the squirrel, saying things in a dorky, former-mother-of-a-squirrel type voice. The squirrel sits there some more. This squirrel is not sitting up on it's haunches like you see squirrels do. It's on all fours like it's ready to bolt and I'm thinking to myself, 'No way this is Lucky. He's totally going to run away like all the squirrels do.'

Not the case.

I walk closer talking in my dorky, mama-squirrel voice. He sits there, totally still.

I get closer. He moves a little, but it's toward me, not away from me. 'Maybe so...' I think to myself.

Soon I am standing close enough that I could bend down and touch him. My foot is, perhaps, ten inches from his nose. I can see that he has an old wound on his head. (probably some mean squirrel teased him about his big, fat, peach-skinned mama and Lucky reacted. What would you do if you were in his shoes?)

I am so close to him, I could reach down and pick him up if I wanted. I am quite certain now that he is, indeed, Lucky the Squirrel, former squirrel baby of Clancy and family. Here's my fear. I have flip-flops and a short-sleeve shirt on. I remember those claws. I remember how my arms, neck and collar-bones were a mass of scratches last November. And, he's bigger now. Stronger. Not only that, but this is no longer the squirrel I fed puppy formula to. No longer is he the squirrel I kept in clean bedding and who's little poohs and pees I kept all cleaned up. He is now a squirrel of the wild. He could have diseases. Not rabies, mind. Squirrels don't really get rabies. (another fact I picked up in my squirrel-mommy weeks.) But he could have other things. And he liked to bite.

So... I tell my kids that I think it is, indeed, Lucky and that we really need to get in the car now and leave him alone. Mac was disappointed, but I reminded him of those claws and he, remembering all the screams of fear when Lucky would leap from my shoulders onto any child passing too close to me, saw the wisdom of a visual reunion rather than a physical one.

We got in the car and backed out of the driveway. In my excitement, I couldn't help but call Dustin to tell him what just transpired. And as we started to drive away, I looked back and saw Lucky, still in the same position on my neighbors grass. I think he was as shocked to see his former family as we were to see him.

But, he lives. We raised a squirrel successfully and released him back into the "wilds" of our neighborhood to be a pest. But a pest that lived because of our love.

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So, that was Part A. Here follows Part B; Other Happenings.

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There seems to be some confusion for some of my blog readers. I am pregnant. Yes, it's true. I did "announce it", sort of. I did a blog post back on September 2 and mostly I talked about trivial nothings, but I threw it in there at the end. I'm not a big "ANNOUNCE" kind of girl. I didn't want a whole post devoted to my announcement, so I acted rather nonchalant about it and I guess some people missed it. So, just for the record...

I'M PREGNANT!!!!

Was that rude? I hope not. I just want to make things clear.

So, that being said... I finally went to my first doctor appointment today. Well, technically I went to a "midwife appointment" but that's so much more weird to say. It just doesn't flow like "Doctor Appointment", does it? Here's the lowdown because I don't plan on talking about this alot. Don't ask me why. It's just one of those things I'm going to keep to myself, mostly.

I was sick. Some. Not bad. Only threw up once, but I felt yucky from about 6 weeks until about 12 weeks. Now I feel fantastic. Except I get very, very tired a lot, but that's easy to fix. I just go to sleep! It's amazing. Last night I went to bed at 8:40 p.m!! Did you know sleep is amazing?

I am 16 weeks this Friday. I am due mid-March. My next appointment will be at 20 weeks meaning I'll have an ultra-sound, but don't get your hopes up because we don't find out the sex of the baby until the baby is born. Sorry. It's really funny how angry people get when you tell them this. My sister-in-law is one of them. My friend, Rebby, is another. My children aren't very happy about this choice either.

Two months after this baby is born, Rohan will turn five and Ella will turn eight. Four months after it's born, Mac will turn ten. Yeah... kinda like starting over. I know. I'm nervous, but it was the right time now. Not two years ago. Not one year ago. Not even at the beginning of this year. Now. (well, 16 weeks ago, really)

I don't do epidurals when I give birth. It's a personal choice and I like it that way. Please don't call me crazy for doing so like most people in the world like to do. If you think I'm crazy, that's fine. Just don't tell me so. I don't tell people they're crazy for getting epidurals. Let's all be respectful of people's choices. Birth is amazing no matter the circumstances surrounding it.

So... there's the 4-1-1. Did I answer all questions?

I went to see my midwife today for the first time. I heard the heartbeat and it was music to my ears.

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That's about all there is to report. Dipping continues. Landlording sucks rocks. My dad is doing great. Dustin is awesome. Mac is getting better and better with school. He ROCKED the home-schooling HOUSE today! Done before noon and smiling the whole time (almost!). Thanks to Maria for talking about some incentives for good behavior. He's doing great! I'm doing great!

It's 10:11 p.m. and I have a splitting headache and my neck is pinched and my shoulders are burning, not to mention the burning-computer-screen eyes. I'm thinking that how I'm feeling right now was the filter for my writing up above... that semi-grouchy tone that was coming through. Sorry about that.

Love to you all.

Nighty-night!

First Week

This is completely a "for my own records" post, just so I can have it recorded. Therefore, it is, potentially, rather boring. Sorry.


I mentioned that we are keeping Mac at home this year for school. The Idaho Virtual Academy "powered by K12" is our method of choice. In my ideal world, I would be choosing all his curriculum and planning it all myself. But, alas, I know my own limits and that is way more than I feel capable of at this point in my life. And that's o.k. K-12 it is!

We got all our "materials" a week ago today. (At the end of the day, so we didn't use them, we just got them out and looked at them.) We officially "started" on Monday. Monday didn't go so well. If you don't recall, look at my post that day and it will give you an idea of my Monday. That post wasn't entirely about my son or homeschooling, but those two things were the catalyst for a lot of dormant emotions and, to put it nicely, I lost it.

Tuesday wasn't easy, but I was in a better place.

Wednesday was quite good with a few, minor rough spots.

Thursday was good too... I think. I'm starting to blur a little on the details...

Today was long, but should have been short. We didn't have that much to do, but Mac likes to drag his feet and dilly-dally. It makes me crazy-insane, but somehow I've managed (aside from Monday) to keep my head and stay cool. (Go me!) This day had a lot of potential for being totally awful... maybe like Monday... but I chose to be chill and not react (...much. Does slamming my fist on the table and raising my voice count as a reaction? Probably, but I apologized right after and we carried on.)

Thus far he hates Math the most (not so shocking) and he likes Art the best. (not so shocking)

So far, I am pleased with the program. I am pleased that I can just go online and see what we're doing for the day and I don't have to plan. If you recall, planning is not one of my greatest strengths. I think it's good for Mac to be home. Truly. I am happy to see him interact with his little brother.

At this point, I'm happy that Ella has chosen to go to school as well. She loves school (although she loves it a little less since she's the only one who has to get up in the mornings at 7:00 a.m.) and I love watching her do her cute homework. I think I would be totally overwhelmed if they were both home this year. Mac and Ella are often the best of friends, but more often it seems, they antagonize each other and therefore harry their mother endlessly. This transition, I believe, has been infinitely smoother because Mac and Ella are not battling each other or vying for my attention all day. Rohan, in his easy-going manner, is happy to play Legos or sit on my lap while I do things with Mac. Bless that child. And bless Ella for choosing to go to school this year. And bless Mac for his strong will and his consistent, if begrudged efforts. And, if I may be so bold... bless me, too. For something.

So, there's the log for my first week in our new adventure. Pretzel dipping continues as does apartment management (or not... PLEASE let us get a new renter!!!). Also continues the mantaining of a household (to some degree anyway), and continues what would seem the easiest part of my life right now despite the limits it's putting on my wardrobe: baby-growing.

Then and Now

I used to want to write all the time.
Now I all I seem to want to do is sleep.

I used to spend a lot of time on the computer blogging.
Now I spend a lot of time on the computer looking at lesson plans for my son.

I used to feel like I had a fair amount of free time.
Now I feel like there's not enough time in the day to do it all.

I used to get sick of dipping pretzels before I even started.
Now I get sick of pretzels before I'm even started. Umm... wait a second...

I used to not mind dipping so much once I got started.
I guess two things haven't changed.

9:50 p.m. used to feel like the night was just beginning.
Now I can't wait to go to bed 50 minutes ago.



I'm just going to package some pretzels and then I'm going to get my Zzzz's. Night night.