Where do I begin?

Just when you think life is about to calm down - - - LOOK OUT!! I thought with the kids getting back to school that our lives would get back to some type of routine but I couldn't have been more wrong. So where do I begin? Audrey sprained her ankle a few days before school started but they couldn't tell for a few days whether it was sprained or broken. It took a lot of phone calls and a few visits to figure it out and she had to start the school year on crutches (and we're talking her freshman year of High School). It wasn't broke though and the school worked with her on the whole situation of getting around on crutches so it worked out okay. Less than 2 weeks later Jo wrecked on his bike and injured his spleen so again I had to go through the process of waiting on test results to find out how serious it was. Luckily it wasn't ruptured, only bruised but we are still talking weeks of pain and a week out of school. Then just a few weeks later the boys all got the flu. They tested positive for FluA but their doctor didn't do the further testing to find out if it was swine flu or not because it made no difference in the way it would be treated. (This made me wonder about their statistics on swine flu but Oh Well!) They all got Tamiflu and breathing treatments to keep it from setting into their lungs. Four days later they were all feeling fine but of course I had to keep them home for 10 days to spare the rest of the world. Then there was, of course, more drama with Mike's family and Halloween and Thanksgiving thrown in for a little good measure. Sometimes I honestly don't know how I survive but I am still standing, not counting on any calm but still standing. I'm going to try to make the time to post, hoping that it will help me out some. With this crazy life that I live though I'm not counting on anything. Now I'm going to find out how all of your lives have been while I have been wrapped up in my own. Hope everyone has been a little less crazy than me!!

This has been the shortest/longest summer ever

So today is the kids first day back to school and while on one hand it wasn't much of a summer because all it did was rain. On the other hand it was the longest summer ever because all it did was rain. We didn't get to do a whole lot of anything for so many reasons (many of which I will cover in the next few days I'm sure). I was at a point that the first day of school couldn't have come soon enough. I couldn't even think anymore. Having 3 growing boys is absolutely exhausting. I'm so ready to get back to some type of normalcy and one thing I know for sure. Next summer is going to have to be a little more planned out and structured and include at least one GREAT vacation.

Def Leppard's Joe Elliott slams 90's music

This is so, so true. The 90's music had no real lasting quality.

Gingham Baby Blanket

Hayden's Gingham Baby Blanket
Originally uploaded by mandmdickens

I took pictures of all the steps but they somehow got lost in my recent computer problems. I loved making this but it reminded me of why I don't like doing individual squares.

Mom's Mothers Day Afghan

Mom's Mother's Day Afghan
Originally uploaded by mandmdickens

My mom doesn't normally like afghans. She doesn't like the feel of the yarn that people generally use. So for Mother's Day I bought Homespun Yarn and made her an afghan that she would like the feel of. I'm not crazy about crocheting with this yarn because it can be quite unpredictable but this time I didn't have any problems. The end result was a blanket that I'm pretty sure my Mom loved.

#64: Crochet 6 things

A baby blanker for my cousin.

I made Mom a blanket for Mother's Day.

She normally hates afghans because she

doesn't like the feel of the yarn so I got

Homespun Yarn to make it out of. I'm

going to make one for myself this winter.

So now I am up to 3/6 things crocheted.

#31: Taylor Swift Concert

Loved it! I'm ready for a good rock concert now but this was a lot of fun. It was a great first concert for Me and Audrey.

#5: Participate in at least 3 charity walks/events

Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes - May 17th 2009
Originally uploaded by mandmdickens

On May 17th Audrey and I joined a team from our church and community to do the Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes. We had a great time and helped out a great cause. You can go back a few posts and see the video of the boy and his family that sponsered the team we were on.

101 in 1001 General Update

Progress

#5 - Participate in at least 3 charity walks/events - Walk to cure Diabetes. Now at 1/3.
#7 - Pay it Forward- Completed and your just going to have to take my word for it. Bragging about it would lessen it.
#31 - Went to the Taylor Swift Concert on July 18th.
#64- Crochet 6 things - I've completed 2 more blankets. One for my cousin for her baby and one for Mom for Mother's Day. Now at 3/6
#70 - Organize digital photos - Done.

Plans

#28 - We should be going to the beach in September for a wedding. More info. later.

Change in #27 - Audrey would prefer a trip to New York and it is her birthday after all so we are changing this to take Audrey on a trip to New York City for her 16th Birthday.

Back in Business

I'm finally back in business. Why was I out of business? That's simple - because my husband has a temper. He threw the phone and it bounced of the couch and onto my laptop and even though it was closed it cracked the screen. If you've ever seen an LCD screen that is cracked, you know that there is no hope for using it. It took me awhile to get over being mad and break down and get it fixed. I used the desktop for awhile but it made me mad every time I had to set there, so I quit setting there for any longer than it had to take to do what I needed. It is now fixed and up and running. I'm hoping to get back into this world. I have missed my release, I have lots of things I want to talk about. Plus I can't wait to get back to reading what is going on in all of your lives.

For Just One Week

A decent week, all in all. I walked every day during the week but couldn't manage it on the weekend. You can see how great I did on posting (laughing really loudly) but I did better than I had been doing.

For this week: Another exercise goal - I'm changing it up a little this time though. I'm going to set a goal of exercising at least 15 minutes everyday and for 30 minutes on at least 4 days.

For my second goal - I'm going to take the time to pray every morning after I put the first round of kids on the bus. I pray all of the time but the majority of it is done on the run. This week I'm going to take time out for it each morning before anything else.

Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes

I can't imagine having to tell my kids that they could never have a milkshake again, or having to stick their fingers over and over again to test their blood. Some of the things that children with diabetes have to go through will break your heart. There is a young boy at our church that has Juvenile Diabetes and it makes me so thankful for the health of my children.


I'm walking with them on May 17th to support them and the effort to cure Juvenile Diabetes. Here is the link if you want to donate to my account.

101 in 1001 Updates

A few more updates on my 101 in 1001:

#4:Donate Blood - Completed. This weekend for the 5th time I went to try to donate blood. Our church does this on a regular basis (usually every 4 months) and I have been trying for awhile to donate. Saturday I was finally able to give. I found my perfect match, the person that can actually manage my veins and retrieve blood from them. I will be asking for him from now on. Miracle of all miracles- I don't even have a bruise and if you saw the pictures from last time you know that is a big deal. I must say I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to give and our appointment was at the very end of the day because Audrey works the Blood Drives and it's easier to come at the end of the day and just take her home with us. When we got there the woman who organizes the drives was all excited, If she could get 115 units that would put the church at having donated 1000 units since 2004 and she was getting close to that number. My stomach sank, I just had this feeling that if they couldn't get mine she would end up with 114. I was so pleased when they were able to get mine and sure enough on Sunday morning they told us that we got exactly 115 units. If they hadn't been able to get mine, she would have had 114.

#64: Crochet 6 things: Progress made. I have completed 1 crochet project. A baby blanket for our niece who is due soon. I actually finished it awhile ago but haven't been very faithful about posting progress so.....

Protection for our Children

We had an incident yesterday at Little League practice and it has left me with a question that I would love to have answered. Why are our Children not protected?

Our kids are practicing ball, Little League and T-ball had already started and some Minor Leaguers were showing up when a man pulls up right behind us and pulls out a video camera and sets it up. Our first reaction is not good, we've been through this before so immediately all of our defenses are up. He starts by filming the school and the Coal Mines behind it but then he turns his camera onto our kids. One of the Moms asks him "Why are you filming our kids?" We get the standard reply, that he is on public property and can film whatever he wants and that our kids will be blurred out and not recognizable. Then we see the Police drive down the road, then back up again and then he parks in front of the school. One of the Moms goes to talk to the cop but as soon as she leaves we realize, the police are never around here unless something is going on, it is obvious immediately that he is here to protect the guy that is filming. That is exactly what he told the parents that talked to him too. If we don't want our kids to be filmed then we should remove them from the ball field. A few of the Dads go and stand in front of his camera until he moves on and eventually he says that he is not there to support the protesters and that he is actually doing an investigation about them but it doesn't matter either way to me. Why are our children allowed to be hassled, why are their school buses allowed to be blocked, why are they allowed to be filmed while playing on the school playground or the ball field, and why can't our kids just be allowed to be kids? They don't care about Mountain Top Removal, they don't care about what these people are protesting about, they just want to go to school and practice ball. IN PEACE!! Yet the cop was there to protect the guy that was there to film and hassle them. The schools have to have written permission to take our kids pictures or to post them in the school or on the schools website. So how can this guy, all of these guys, just walk up and film them while they are on school property? Just because he is standing on public property? I just can't understand the way this world works. All of these people show up from other states to tell us that how we live is wrong and that we are abusive to our kids because we allow them to live in this environment, they harass the miners as they go to work, they make up things to make us look like we are horrible people, the call us Coal Whores because we can actually afford to stay home and raise our children and the GOVERNMENT pays them to do it. The POLICE protect them. It makes no sense at all to me.

For Just One Week

I'm getting back to this after a few weeks of not having time to even think, let along plan. So for this week I have 2 goals: One is a repeat that you have seen often - I'm going to try to walk everyday for at least 30 minutes. The second goal is going to be to post on here everyday this week. I need to get myself started going again on trying to achieve my 30 days to a new habit goal of walking everyday. I also want to get back to posting on a regular basis. Not because I want to be popular, I have no illusions of being famous, but because it makes me feel better. To be able to release some of the thoughts and feelings running around in this crazy mind of mine is always such a relief. So hopefully this week I can get myself headed in the right direction - FORWARD!!!

More Chaos

Another period of chaos around here. It's funny, I thought as my kids got older that would become less of an issue but that just doesn't seem to be the case. I guess when they were younger I had more control over the germs that they passed back and forth. Now when one of them gets something, it seems that they all do. Although Matt did get pink eye without passing it on to the others, even though they caught his cold. I went 6 days without having a moment to myself and it left me wondering how in the world I survived them all being little.

Matt's sinus infection cleared up but on the morning I had to take him back for the check-up he woke up with pink eye and a cold. So he was home for 5 days because of the pink eye, during that time Jo sprained his ankle and Audrey caught the cold. Then as soon as they got better Drew caught the cold. The week before they all started getting sick was the book fair at the younger kids school and the week after was the beginning of Little League baseball season. Drew had to go to the final day of Major League try-outs sick but he made the team. It seems things are calming down and Spring is trying to take hold, so I have hope.

I have all kinds of updates to give you and lots of things I want to blog about so I'm going to try to start posting more regularly.

All is Good

I took Matt to the doctor Friday and she is pretty sure that it was just a severe sinus infection. She gave him a shot of antibiotics plus a 5 day round of antibiotics and we are giving him Claritin. Everything else was fine and as long as all is good when we go back this Friday the worry is over. He already looks so much better, actually he looked better the next morning after getting the shot. So it seems that I was worried for nothing. It puzzles me that he had a sinus infection that bad and wasn't running a fever but she said that was because it was all impacted in his face.

Now on to other things: I completed my first 30 days to a New Habit. I read my Bible everyday for 30 days and have read it most days since. This week for my For Just One Week I am trying to stick to a morning schedule. I did it today but on the very first day, Monday, it didn't go so well. I didn't get out of bed until 6:30 and that is when my Middle Schoolers should be getting on the bus So...... that was a wash. I am trying to stick to it the rest of the week and I'm thinking I may make it my next 30 days to a New Habit. I put the older kids on the bus at 6:30 and don't have to get the other kids up until 7:40. So I am walking during that time. If I have something to do that day I'm walking 30 minutes and then showering before they get up. If I don't have anywhere to go before that evening I will walk for the full hour(or at least try to-I'm still working up to that again). I did very good this morning - got in a 30 minute walk and shower with 10 minutes to spare before I had to get them up. The kids elementary school is having a Book Fair this week plus I have to take Matt back to the doctor on Friday so the only day I won't have extra walking time is Thursday plus its a tough week to try to do this because I'm already exhausted but that's the point right - to push myself.

Sleep Thinking

I don't dream, at least not often and when I do it's usually not good. This week has brought some weird sleep for me. I'm not dreaming, at least I don't think it is dreams. It's more like I'm thinking the whole time I'm asleep. It is beyond annoying. Everytime I wake up, and that has been a lot, I have something on my mind and I know that I have been "thinking" about it while I'm sleeping. I am worried about a few things but it's not really anymore than I always have to worry about. I am getting extremely tired, extremely. It is like my mind is never resting and I suppose it probably isn't. I've never experienced this before, it has me wondering if I'm normal (nevermind that, I already know the answer to that HaHa). I'm really hoping it's all about one certain thing that I'm worrying about and that it will all be over soon. Mattman, our youngest, hasn't felt good for awhile and is going to the doctor today. It's nothing specific, he just feels bad in general. Not eating well, not sleeping well, he is really pale and he stays so tired. If he sits down for long, he is asleep. It's not something that would normally have me over worried but he's been like this before. When he was about 3 he got like this and we took him to the doctor. They told us that his levels could only mean one thing - that he had leukemia. When we took him back in a week to do the follow up tests, to try to determine exactly what type he had, everything was clear. That was a hard couple of weeks though that included everyone that we knew praying. I just can't imagine having to go through that again or having to deal with something really being bad wrong with him. I know that we could, I just don't want to have to. Who does! I'm hoping it's something simple and that after we figure it out my sleep can go back to normal. I don't like thinking in my sleep!!

Update

I did really good on my For Just One Week last week and I really need to start following that schedule all the time. I didn't set one for this week because I knew it was going to be a crazy week but I already have next weeks lined up in my head. I am up to 28 days of reading my Bible everyday, so 2 more days and I will have completed that. We'll see if it turns into a habit or not. I'm hoping my For Just One Week next week will help me get going on Walking for 30 days.

Many, MANY things

I'm trying, I promise. I have been doing my For Just One Weeks even though I haven't had time to post and I am, if I must say so myself, doing pretty good. One week I did 2 loads of laundry everyday, from start to finish and I had no trouble sticking to that. One week I drank 3 bottles of water everyday and I think I missed one day on that one. Last week I didn't even set one because we had 2 birthdays and I knew the weather would probably be bad and the kids would be home. This week I am sticking to a schedule for cleaning the house everyday. I wrote it up last week and am doing one room or area everyday besides the general cleaning, so far so good. As for the 30 days to a new Habit, as I figured it is a lot harder. Reading my Bible is not as hard and right now I am up to Day 18 (I did have to start over once) but walking is proving impossible although I am not giving up. 4 days in a row is as far as I have been able to get. I'm still hoping that I can get there eventually though.

Now on to other things. An update on my 101 in 1001: I am working on so many of the things I don't know where to start. Reading my Bible was one of them so again I am up to 18 days on that. I'm still working on the walls in the house. And hey I just realized I finished one - I have organized and sorted all of the books in the house (which actually means I got rid of most of them because the kids had outgrown them). I have a concert trip planned for me and Audrey in July with a few friends and I can't wait for that, it will be a first for both of us-how cool. Hey another one I have done - I got my eyebrow/facial wax - not sure if I'm going to do it again though. I love my eyebrows but have I mentioned that I have sensitive skin. And another one (Wow!) I got my new camera. I have crocheted one thing and am working on teaching myself to knit although I'm not quite getting it. I am doing good at learning to make jewelry (will have to post some pictures soon). I have all of the digital pictures on one computer and am working on going through them and organizing them. And of course we are always working on the finance ones. So see I am doing things, even though I'm not being consistent with reporting them. I promise to try harder.

Change is hard

I didn't do excellent on my For Just One Week but I did decent. I missed 3 days of walking, I know horrible but 2 of them were because I fell on the ice here and really wasn't moving much. Even though I am late posting I did start my For Just One Week things for this week and am doing better this week. My goals for this week are to read my Bible everyday and to drink no more than 1 soda a day. The 30 days to a New Habit is going to be harder because I am taking this seriously and every time I miss a day I'm starting over. So although I walked Monday I didn't walk Tuesday so today it starts over. I know that eventually I will get to that 30 days straight and that by then hopefully I will have a new habit. Both of the goals from this week will become 30 day things too but then after that my For Just One Week goals are going to become a little more light-hearted. Not that I may not try to hang on to some of them and make them into habits but I don't want to overload my plate at this point.

I have a plan

I've been thinking about this a lot and I have come up with a plan. I may not always make it through it perfectly but at least it will be progress. It started with a thought about something we had discussed in our Sunday School class, the fact that it takes 30 days to make or break a habit. So that is going to be one of the things that I am doing. Since these are things that I want to change permanently I don't want to take on too many of them at once so I also found something else I'm very interested in. On the blog My Ice Cream Diary she has started a thing she calls For Just One Week. You picked something and do it everyday for just one week. This is how I am going to start out. My first few Just One Weeks will turn into 30 days to a New Habit also. The only way for me to make real changes is going to be through a gradual process. She is posting hers on Saturdays and I may start trying to do that but I'm going to start each new thing on Mondays. So with no further ado my first goal is to..... Walk, at least 30 minutes everyday. Hopefully a lot of days I will walk longer than the 30 minutes but 30 minutes of exercise everyday is better than no exercise everyday. I will let you know how this went next week and this will be my first 30 days to a New Habit goal.

Sometimes..... Life gets in the way.

I've been gone for awhile.... again. I know. Sometimes though life really does get in the way of the things that we love to do. Sometimes it bogs us down and drowns our everyday joy. Sometimes we let it become a burden rather than a pleasure. With 4 kids there are so many things that I have to deal with on a daily basis that it is easy to let myself slide. I love writing and this blog is the best way I have had of doing that for a long time. I had started devoting a little too much time to it and too little time to my family. So I took the holidays off and spent the time with them but now I seem to have lost myself once again in their world. I'm working to find a balance between the two sides of my life and its not easy. I want to be the mother I need to be but I find that if I'm not careful I lose myself in that process and then what kind of a mother am I being. I am not a perfect person, there are so many things about myself that I struggle with, there are so many things that I would like to change and I feel that I have to start working on those sooner rather than later. When I think about all of the things that I need or want to do it often turns into a vicious cycle for me. I can think of so many things that it overwhelms, then I start to get depressed and that leads to me doing even less which of course then adds more things that I need or want to do. I'm going to find a way to change, a way that isn't overwhelming, a way that I can be the person I want to be. I may not post as regularly as I was but I will be posting again and you may want to stick around and see what I come up with. Hopefully it will be good and it will work.