Catch Up and A Little Thing Called the Garage

Can you believe that my boys are not small anymore?  Monkey is 9 years old and in 3rd grade, Too is 5 years old and in kindergarten.  I officially no longer have babies or preschoolers.  While I mourn the loss of little kids (and I LOVED being the mom of littles), I do embrace this new season of life.  They are big enough to things for themselves, they can express themselves (and have strong opinions!), and they are at the same school with the same hours. 

This means I can take care of myself.  I started seeing a functional doctor who has had Lyme herself.  She is amazing and truly understand all the ins and outs of the disease.  I had come a long way but always felt a little bit remained, she is helping me with that and in the 3 months I've been seeing her I've come as far as I did in years of traditional Lyme therapies.  She thinks that Lyme is gone, but I still have some lingering co-infections that we're working on.

I'm feeling well enough to volunteer more than I want to at my church, help out at the kids school, and for the most part be a normal mom.  I take them to basketball practice, signup for snacks for their games and function like a normal human to the outside eye. My brain is clear (most of the time) but what is not seen is the low level of constant pain in my hips and my insanely early bedtime!  I'm willing to live with that if it gives me the quality of life I have been enjoying.

I'm sitting at the computer trying to figure out what to do for NYE with the boys.  We'll celebrate East Coast time because none of us will make it to midnight current time!  We have a tradition where we put activities in balloons, write the time on the outside and pop the balloons to see what we will do at the set time.  It helps the boys with their time-telling skills and provides some fun and excitement for them.

At the same time, my husband and I always have a word for the year.  In 2010 the word was Grace and in 2011 I wanted the word to be Contentment (it ended up being turmoil and joy).  2012 was Intent and 2013 was Rest.   Last year it was "finish" -- as in finish all the projects we have going in the house.  We haven't finished them all, but it was a good goal.  This year, our word is GARAGE.  In the last 5 years I've lost two grandparents, my mom and my stepdad.  AS such, our garage is full of things we've brought home after clearing out the houses.  2017 will be the year I will get it all unpacked and assimilated into the house.

I hope to re-joing the blogosphere -- I miss connecting with you all.  Most of all, I wish each and everyone of you a fantastic New Years!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Semi-Permanent Rinse & Repeat

I don't know how to even start this post.  Like everything in my brain lately, I know what I want to say but not quite sure how to say it.  As such, I've thought many times about just closing up my blog & moving on, but then I'll think of something worthwhile to post ... only to struggle to put the words to paper.

I've always been able to write easily -- what sometimes can't come out of my mouth just flows out of my fingers and this blog has certainly helped me work through so many of the issues that accompany Lyme Disease and parenting with a chronic illness.  I'm not quite ready to give that up yet!  But while my good days are more than my bad days, but I do still have more than my fair share of bad days.  On those good days, I want to live to the fullest and enjoy every second of my little ones.  On those bad days, I usually want to spend the day in bed without a computer.  In between is the so very little interrupted time I have that I'm either sleeping or talking to my husband.  So ... I'm not sure where this leaves me.

Everyone one of my internet friends has been so inspirational to me.  I hope to continue to see you around, even if only every once in a while.  Until the next time, god bless you all.

New Year's Eve Ideas for little kids

I'm not much for going out these days.  It just takes too much of a toll on my body.  Not to mention that my kids are really small (ages 2 and 6), so we're usually in bed WAY before the midnight bell rings.  So, I've put together some ideas that we can do this year, together, as a family.

1.  Make our own noisemakers & party hats.  I saw this on many websites and as much as Monkey loves art projects, I knew it would be a hit.  While daddy is at work we'll make 4 of each & get ready to party the night away!

2.  Fondue.  It's special and I think the kids will really get a kick out of it.  We'll do a basic cheese fondue with lots of fun things do dip in (including gluten-free bread from my new breadmaker, cubes of ham, & veggies galore).  The kids will love it!

3.  Sparkling Cider.  To let the kids have a taste of celebration we'll toast with sparkling cider.

4.  Vasilopita (New Year's Cake).  It's a Greek tradition to serve Vasilopita at midnight on New Year's Eve. This special cake is baked with a coin or charm hidden inside. Whoever receives the piece of cake with the coin will have good fortune throughout the year.

5.  Celebrate in Another Country.  Of course, my kids (nor me!) will ever make it to midnight, so we'll have our celebration at Brazil time!

***CHEERS!***

A Day in the Life of a Multi-Tasking Mom

Today will sound like an ordinary day to anyone with kids.  Especially if those kids' school is more than 10 miles from home.  But it's so ordinary that I think it's pretty comical, so I wanted to share.

6:30 am -- Alarm goes off despite my "wake fest" from 2:30 - 3:30 and even though I'd rather go back to sleep, I know it's my only chance for a shower today, so up I go.

6:45 am -- Body Lathered, face washed but hair's not wet yet, when the hot water quit.  A quick yell to hubby confirms that the hot water heater is out ... again.  Dry off & get dressed, thankful that my hair isn't full of suds.

7:00 am -- wake up the kids, cook breakfast & begin the "let's get ready to school rush"

8:00 am -- out the door

8:30 am -- drop 5-yr old off at school & head to church for a meeting

9:00 am -- arrive just in time for meeting -- walk in to the room just a little late b/c I stopped to fill my cup with coffee and put 2-yr old in childcare.

11:45 am -- exit from meeting, grab 2-yr old, another cup of coffee & jump in van to go fetch 5-yr old from kindergarten.

12:05 pm -- drop 2-yr old off at grandma's for lunch & naptime -  quickly jump back in the car.

12:30 pm -- 5-yr old gets out of kindergarten.  Drive back home.

1:00 pm -- arrive home, fix lunch, spend some quality 1-on-1 time with 5-yr old. (something that doesn't happen very often!!!)  He wanted to make "rockamole" (guacamole) and had the whole recipe in his head -- chop an onion, mash an avocado, add some tomato (picante sauce).  We ate that for lunch and enjoyed some mother-son time.

1:30 pm -- one hour to rest!  Woo Hoo!

2:30 pm -- rush out the door to drive back to school for basketball.  (For full-day kinder kids this starts right after school, but since he's half-day we made a trip back).

3:00 pm -- Basketball!  Monkey's school has this neat program where the high school athletes come down & teach the younger students a sport.  Over the course of the year, he'll go to 10 different sports clinics with the high school varsity athletes & coaches.  I stay & watch a little bit.

3:30 pm -- grandma calls that 2-yr old is awake from his nap, hop in the car to go get him.

4:00 pm -- arrive at grandma's, grab 2-yr old & get back in the van to go get 5-yr old.

4:30 pm -- arrive just in time to see the clinic wrap up and take a few pictures.  We all pile back in the van & go home.

5:00 pm -- walk in the door with the kids whining "I'm hungry!!!!"  Quickly assess the food situation & decide to make eggs for dinner (Meatless Monday & all).  Am cooking said eggs when hubby gets home.

5:30 pm -- Dinner is cooked just as hubby walks in the door -- I hand off to him & climb in bed!  Usually we eat together; it's a pretty stringent rule I have, but I'm just too tired to eat tonight!

In my opinion, every mom is a super mom.

All in all, I spend 4 hours and 90 miles in the car.  What did you do today?

Summer's Over Already?

I'm not really sure where the time has gone, but Monkey started Kindergarten on Monday - wow!

Roo was not very happy about it, to say the least!

But we did get away the week before school started for an unplugged vacation in the mountains!

We went fishing:

Luckily, this big one didn't get away!

 We played puzzles, pine cone golf, and climbed rocks

Found a local playground

Ate lots of meals outside:

And just generally got dirty!

Now we're trying to settle in, get into a back-to-school routine, and recover from our fun!  (I spent most of this week in bed.  Monkey has loved school.  Roo is learning to play without his brother).  Looks promising!

Slap in the Face

Yesterday I was in line at Costco.  When I pulled into the parking lot it was so easy to get a parking spot that I thought, wow, 1:00 is the perfect time to come here!  I quickly did my shopping since I was without the kids, then I saw the lines.  CRAZY!  Where did all these people come from?  Did they come in while I was shopping because they surely weren't in the parking lot.  Maybe they all came in one car.  Anyway, I got in line & waited & waited & waited .....

Suddenly someone tapped my shoulder and asked if she could go in front of me because she only had one item.  As if!  How dare she?  I only had about 15 items in my cart; it's not like I was buying for a whole restaurant.  She could wait her turn like everyone else!  I responded that I was in a hurry b/c I needed to go get my kids but that she could go if she was quick.  (The whole put-out martyr routine).  But go ahead!  (argh).  (are you sending the need for an attitude check here?)

She quickly jumped ahead of me and proceeded to unload my cart onto the conveyor!  Then she offered me a pack of tortillas that she was buying: they come in 3 packs, they freeze really well, it takes her family forever to eat through all 3 packs.  She was so nice it completely popped the hot air out of my attitude balloon.  I tell you, I walked out of there completely blessed by this lady who dared to cut in front of me.  I was clearly the one with the problem, and even in my bad attitude could be blessed by the graciousness of someone.  Driving home I noticed I was less agitated by the construction & traffic.  I hummed along to the radio as I unpacked my groceries.  My whole day was completely transformed.

I feel like I need these spiritual awakenings more often than I get them b/c I seem to be walking around with a bad attitude most of the time.  It's amazing how one little thing can really turn around my whole day.  I may actual start praying for them :)

Endless Summer

Where oh where has the summer gone?  I had all these great plans that I wanted to share with you throughout the summer, but we've been so busy doing the actual plans that I haven't time to share them with you.  In the grand scheme of things, I think this is a good thing.  It means I'm feeling well enough to do, well, just about anything.  It also means that I'm in a lot more pain and go to bed much earlier/sleep later -- which drastically cuts into my computer time.

But alas, I do have some fun stuff to share with you!  Just as school was ending Monkey wanted to go kite flying, so we did.  It was such a fun, relaxing evening that we decided it would become our Sunday activity.  I'd pack a picnic, we'd fly kites & eat a picnic on Sundays.  We've been doing that most Sundays -- until I got bit by a yellow jacket trying to eat a piece of chicken!  So for the last couple Sundays we've been picnicking at the pool instead.  I think the kids are just as happy swimming as they are kite flying!

Monkey flying the kite

Hubby handing kite to Roo

Roo promptly letting go!