Therapy

Since we’ve ruled out a laryngeal cleft, Lala’s primary care physician has recommended swallow therapy. Now that she is nearly four, perhaps she can be taught to swallow.

Our local school district offers such therapy – for free! – and is currently looking for children to add to their program. Lucky me, I knew exactly who to call to get more information. Hopefully on Monday we can start the process to get the therapy. I’m quite sure there will be tons of paperwork, but maybe it will distract me from fights over juice boxes and why we don’t take drinks from any else’s cup.

Home Improvement

When I first bought my house, I had a punch list of things to do approximately two pages long. In fact, someone asked me why I would buy a house with such a list… why not just find a house with all those things already done. After having looked at about 100 houses and having viewed other since then, I’m pretty sure that my dream house either does not exist in this area or is just too far out of my price range. Either way, here I am.

The punch list is not only extensive, but it’s also expensive. And time consuming. Thus the reason that it’s only about a third crossed off. One major project this summer was to re-do the bathroom. All I can say about the old bathroom is purple toilet. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? To say a bit of money, I did not have the contractor put up the wall-paper or paint. Paint is definitely in my skill set. And wall-paper can’t be that hard. I’m a teacher. I’m good with glue. Also, the wall-paper is white. Simple.

Cue six months later and I still haven’t finished the bathroom. What can I say? The school year started and I got busy. Toss in two small children and the idea of wall-paper sounds really scary. But I’ve slowly been working on it.  I started with scraping off the ‘texture’ off the wall.

The previous owners looooooved textured walls. Every wall in in the house was hosed down with those little dry wall nubbuals. Except the kitchen, thank heavens. Anyways, I heard all these horror stories from people who had attempted to de-texturized their walls. One person even said, I would probably have to re-drywall all the walls. Scary! Then I tried scraping it with a scraper-type tool. Came right off. *Sigh of relief” A little scraping and a lot of sanding and vacuuming and I was ready to go. By the way, I scraped in December. And then did nothing for another two months. I am not speedy.

I did experiment with a paint color in November, but I’m still undecided. Everyone who has come to house is required to give an opinion. Only one person voiced my concerns – why did I go with a green, if the accent tiles are deep blue? We’ve been friends since 1984, so I think she’s pretty honest. I’ll let you look at the photos and decide for yourself.

Yesterday, I had some free time and I decided that I would put up that wall-paper. It’s the paintable bead board wall paper that everyone was talking about last year. As soon as I saw it I knew that was a project within my skill set. Saws scare me (My kids aren’t old enough to dial 911). This wall-paper requires paste, which means it requires a child-free zone to cut, paste and book. Also, if you only have one bathroom, you need a time frame in which children will not be using it, because they WILL need to use the bathroom when you are in middle of putting up a sheet. Also, the paste directions are vague and require math unless you have enough time to do an entire large room. It takes a few minutes to thicken up – like instant oatmeal. Also, having a small paintbrush handy to paste those edges that might have missed, is a good idea.

As you can see the dominating color in the room is white. It’s a super small bathroom (I’ve seen half baths larger), so a few concessions had to be made to get that airy feel. First is the white on white – the floors are white with a hint of sand and light blue. The bath tile is while with small blue accent tile and of course, the white toilet. After five years of purple toilet, I would kiss it… you know… if it wasn’t a toilet. Oh, the sink is also white. There is no counter, because after trying to jerry-rig one for a couple years, I know it will just make the room feel claustrophobic.

You can see the wall color in the photo on the left, but I think it’s truer in the photo on the right. You can also see the blue accent tiles. Is it a good combination? Maybe I should go with a dove grey?

I’m trying to stay with warm tones, because it’s always cold here and there is not heat in the bathroom. I don’t, however, really want to try to discover a good browny/tan color. It took eight testers and a year to find the right shade for the living room.

What do you think?

If I couldn’t fail…

I would:

1. Complete in the Iron Man Triathlon. No need to win… just be there and complete it.
2. Write a book proposal
3. Ok, maybe this should be number 2… come up with an idea for a book
4. write more freelance inquiries
5. Dance
6. remodel the kitchen, myself
7. work from home
8. design a new landscaping plan
9. start my own business
10. own a farm

What would you do? And why aren’t you?

Wordless Wednesday

11 Things

In my slow continuation of the Reverb10 prompts – supposedly completed during the month of December 2010, but probably continued throughout the year for me…

What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

1. More responsibilities at work.  Every day is just another mad dash to finish projects. I feel crazed all the time with little time to really evaluate what I’m doing – are my students learning? Is the remediation working? Honestly, I just can’t take the time to really examine it… there is always another meeting to get to, another set of papers to grade, more data to enter into a spread sheet, another parent to call – I’m really spread thin and it’s wearing. I need to say “No” more – even if no one else is willing to step up and do it. Perhaps if I stop saying “yes”, someone else will step up and I won’t feel guilty.
2. More pain. 2010 was not a healthy year for me – and I’m still paying for the sudden onset of middle age (!??!). Hopefully, by making healthier choices this year, some of those health issues will be resolved or at least less intrusive in life. It seems like at certain points, choices that I have made caused these problems to increase. Making different choices may decrease these problems or even make them go away completely.
3. Disorganization. Organization makes life so much better, doesn’t it? It’s not just that things are easier to get done, but my anxiety level is conversely related to amount clear floor space. Strange, but true.
4. Laundry! President’s Day Weekend, I washed six loads of laundry. Six! There has to be a way to keep it from getting out of control like that. That weekend I started by getting rid of tons of the Cuddler’s clothes. The kid could go three weeks without running out of clean outfits! What two year old needs that many pieces of clothing? And without that many clothes, the laundry level will drop at least some. I mean, the kid is always half naked anyways!
5. Laziness/Procrastination – I know that everyone has days when they just need a break, but I also know that I can take advantage of that thought a little too much. No one needs to ignore their responsibilities for extended periods of time. (see number 4)
6. Lack of Focus – What is the focus of my life? What is the focus of yours? Do you even think about it? In the midst of toddlerhood, it’s hard to remember what is important when getting everything done. Heck! I’m writing this in February! My focus needs to be more than just survival on a daily basis.
7. Loneliness – I spend my days either with toddlers or with high school students. Not exactly material for heart to hearts, if you know what I mean. I need to make an effort to make some more friends.
8. Lack of patience – I think it’s been mentioned a few times that I’m very busy. To be honest, when I get bored when I’m not busy. On the other hand, just because I’m busy and may have forgotten something or need something right away, does not mean that it’s an emergency for everyone else. And any parent who tells you they don’t need more patience is either medicated or lying.
9. Lack of Budget/Waste – In this economy, everyone needs to be more prudent with finances.
10. Illness – See number 2. I’m sick of being sick!
11. Self-recrimination – really, is there anything more useless? What a type suck!

Free Books and Writing

Since discovering the Kindle app for my phone, I’ve been a bit addicted to it. I am, however, a consummate miser. Which means I stalk the free downloadable books like, well, like me stalking down the last cookie in the house.

There are tons of free/cheap stuff blogs that all seem to have some way discover free books that are actually good. I also check the top 100 free books list on amazon. Last night I downloaded Life From Scratch by Melissa Ford. (which is no longer free, sadly) The protagonist is a blogger, who believes she is a “food blogger” (similar the Julie of The Julie/Julia Project), and the wins a big blogger award because all the readers like reading about her life… along with the cooking. I haven’t finished yet, so I don’t have to worry about giving away the ending to you.

This book inspires me to write more and write better. Not just the part where the blog idea becomes a book idea, and the author sells a book, seemingly by magic, but also the part where what the author publishes really connects with other people. I’ve been keeping diaries for nearly 40 years now. I’ve been writing some form of a blog/online journal since 1998. And while, journals and diaries are good writing exercises, they’re just too narcissistic – or at least, in my case they are. Really, the teacher in me should cringe at the typos, bad grammar and entire paragraphs that don’t make sense. It’s easy to loose that need to write something really good when you’re real name isn’t attached to it. Heck, a lot of my friends don’t even know I publish a blog. (I do wish to point out that most of those friends feel that blogging is weird and creepy, so why bother talking about it, right? I have told them… they just don’t remember or care.) Some days it’s just too much to write and really think about, but is that my best excuse? Crap, why bother to write at all?

I know I’m always on some sort of self-improvement kick, but improving my writing can co-exist with everything else. After all, I am writing about eating healthier, raising wonderful kids, keeping a clean house, exercising more and all that jazz. I might as well attempt to write about in an effective and entertaining manner.

What inspires you? Why do you blog? Are you still blogging for the reasons you started?

Reading your answers and thinking about mine is better than sitting around wondering what happened to all the play-do.

Nothing

Since returning home on Wednesday, it’s been a bit of whirlwind. Work is very, very busy and we have guests this weekend. I haven’t really had the time to sit down and really think about what to write regarding the test.

I guess I would have to say that my main emotion is annoyance. We went through that whole process – hours of driving, hours of sitting around and waiting… all for nothing. The doctor was able to confirm that Lala is aspirating thin liquids (including her saliva), but did we really need to spend what will probably be in the tens of thousands of dollars? Were we too quick to jump on the Laryngeal cleft bandwagon?

Even more important, where do we go from here? Is there anywhere to go? It’s not like this is a huge problem for Lala. She’s healthy and growing and on target developmentally. Why do we need to fix this?

Laryngoscope

As I write this, Lala is under anesthesia (thank the lord for spell check) getting all checked out.

The procedure should only take about 15 minutes – but the prep and recovery will bump that total to five hours. That does not include the hours without food for the both of us. I’d go grab something, but I’m too afraid that I’ll miss something.

She did great right up to point where we were separated – in fact, she got a little bored with the waiting.

Hopefully, the doctor will find that it’s simply a stage one cleft – easily fixed and we’ll be on the road in a couple of hours. That’s what I’m keeping foremost in my mind.

 

And… it’s over! Well, she’s still in recovery waking up, but it’s done. He found nothing.

Pizza Night

Friday night is pizza night around here. We all look forward to it as the signal that the weekend is here.  Because the weekend means, ‘mommy won’t wake me up.’
Lately, Lala has become very grumpy in the morning. The first time I woke her up and she told me “Go go the cuddler!”, I laughed. The 20th time, it wasn’t so funny. When I was late to a meeting at work that I called, it wasn’t so funny.
Although Lala goes goes to bed around 7.30pm, she doesn’t actually fall asleep sometimes until 9.30pm, playing in bed. We have a routine – but it doesn’t make her tired or relax enough to go to sleep. If she wasn’t 3, I’d be thinking about sticking her on the treadmill to wear her out…
What kind of a bedtime routine do you have? Do your kids go to sleep at right away?

Better Bread

I believe I may have complained mentioned that I live in a rather humid area. Actually, it’s more like damp.  Damp and cold. Fighting moss and mildew are constant battles.

And I swear, this is the reason I have a hard time making bread. At least, that is all I can come up with. Despite the success of others in the area, it’s what I’m sticking with.

The other day, however, Country Blossom posted yet another photo of yummy-looking, beautiful, perfect bread loaves. I dug into her archives to find the recipe and try it out. Amish White Bread – it has a 5 star rating with over 2,000 reviews. I would say that is has been tested many, many times.

My results were fantastic! The bread was light and slightly sweet. It was not squishy or moldable, like commercial white breads. And best of all, it rose rather high in less than 8 hours, without the aid of a bread maker. That is key! Bread itself isn’t that hard to make, but can take a while with all the rising, punching down and rising again. If I can combine bread making with laundry and writing, while naps are being taken on the weekend, I can do it easily. When it takes all day and in the evening, well… the hassle just isn’t worth it.

It is definitely going to be added to my weekly routine of bread making!

There is also a recipe for homemade noodles that I would like to try one of these days.

Wordless Wednesday

Diaper Wars

I need help!

The cuddler is constantly taking his diaper off – like, every time he pees, I hear a little voice say “I poopy!”. Now my house is around 1200 sq. feet, yet, I cannot run fast enough after those two magic words to catch him before he has whipped off that diaper. I’ve tried the old “put the diaper on backwards”, “put the footy pj’s on backwards”, and “let him run around naked” bids, only to end up with bodily fluids/solids on the floor.

Before you think it, his body may be ready for potty training, but his brain is not. He has pee’d on the toilet, but only because he wanted to… he does not make the connection between the have-to-pee and peeing on the toilet. One is something that just happens. The other is a fun party time.

Has anyone ever actually used Duct tape? I assumed it was just a joke, but I’m quickly reaching the poop breaking point.

Drop Some Love

Once again the Love Drop team is attempting to make the difference in the lives of one family, and change the world along the way.

Let’s introduce Ethan and Alex. Both are autistic – I think every foster/adoptive is intimately familiar with the process of finding support, interventions and materials to help our children with their needs. This family is no different. They want their children to have the opportunity to grow and shine in the best possible way. They have been approved to receive a service dog, but the cost is nearly insurmountable. It’s a mind boggling amount of money to raise, especially while caring for three children! Our goal is to raise $13,000 so we can get them a highly trained service dog. And if possible, two iPads so they can speak again (they can't even say "I love you" to their mom -- these iPads allow them to get their voice back).

There are so many ways you can step in and help! Even $1.00 will help!

Last month the Love Drop Team raised over $2,500 and boxes after boxes of goods and items to help Jill and her family get through a hard time in their lives (homelessness & financial worries). We did this in 1 month. All 400+ people came together and gave a few bucks each to impact one family's life. If you participated in this, THANK YOU. The final presentation can be seen here. (It's pretty cool!)

Here are 3 ways you can help:
Join the team - This is the best way to help out, and all it takes is $1.00.
Join our blogger network - Blog about our Love Drops each month like I am :) It's easy, it's rewarding, and it REALLY helps spread the word (which in turn helps our families). Love Drop will give you all the content you need.
Give a gift or provide a service - Gift cards (iTunes would be great!), two iPads (so we can help the boys speak again!), and anything else you think could help out.

Preparation

During a conversation with my supervisor yesterday, it sounded like he was preparing me to be laid off in June. I suppose that some would be optimistic and say that that is 6 months away and a lot can happen… but I think it’s better to be prepared. And start saving. It is somewhat ironic that just last week I was saying that I would not like to attempt to sell my house and move, and this week, it’s looking more like that will happen. Can you hear the Universe snickering?

I would love to be able to stay home and write freelance, because it’s a nice dream. To all the moms who pull down the bucks while their kids are home – Kudos! Big time! I’m not sure I would be able to do it. Honestly, some days I’m still trying to figure out how to get everyone fed and all the dishes done, without going crazy. Work? While I’m free to surf the net or watch endless episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter? (Don’t judge… you know you’re watching Real Housewives!) I dunno if I can do it.

What would you do prepare for a lay off?

Wordless Wednesday