Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sick Children

Sickness is making its rounds here at the shoe. For many families, colds and respiratory illnesses are not a big deal. But when you have children with asthma, a simple cold can turn into something life threatening. I have had to be watchful and alert for signs of breathing troubles. My trusty stethoscope has been my companion.

The children that I had hoped would not get this bug have gotten it. Sarah, who is my worst with asthma, has needed breathing treatments for many days. When this was no longer holding her, we called the doctor, who felt comfortable, because of her history and my assessment skills, to call in prescriptions to the pharmacy for her. She is doing so much better on the new medication.
Christopher, with his low muscle tone, has a hard time clearing his airway, when he gets sick. So far, he is doing well. He has had a fever and cough, but has not wheezed.
Trinity, my littlest shoe dweller, was very sick last night. For a while, I wondered if we would need to have her seen, which would mean taking her to the ER since it is a weekend. She had a fever of 103.6, and she was wheezing. Her little heart was racing, so I was hesitant to give her a breathing treatment with medication that would speed her heart up even more. So, I started with dealing with the fever. I gave her Tylenol and a tepid bath. This brought her temp down to 101. After that, her heart rate slowed down to normal, and she was able to breath better, her wheezing was gone. I am still watching her today for any signs of getting worse.

I am reminded again of how blessed I am. When my children are sick, I can call the doctor, he can call something to the pharmacy for them, or see them, if need be. I can go to the store and by tylenol. I have a nebulizer and can give them breathing treatments.
So many mothers around the world have to sit helplessly by, while their little ones suffer and die. Often the illnesses that take their children are ones that can be treated. Tylenol would be a luxury for them. Even the comfort of water to drink and to cool their feverish little bodies would be a precious thing.
Even though I am tempted to complain because my children are sick, I am choosing to praise the Lord for all He has blessed me with.
Which reminds me, it is time for another round of Tylenol.

Yet I will rejoice

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no foods, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
Habakkuk 3:17-18

I have been convicted by this verse recently. How many times have I complained when the bank account was empty, or I was out of the ingredients to make certain recipes? I tend to be the "glass is half empty" type of person, when I should be "my cup is running over" because of all the blessings the Lord has given me.

The verses in Habakkuk listed the things that would have, at that time, indicated wealth. Figs, grapes, olives, sheep, cattle. These things meant provision for one's family. Yet the prophet was saying that even in the absense of all the outward trappings of prosperity, he would praise the Lord, he would be joyful.

We live in a nation that is prosperous, even during the recession, we have plenty compared to other nations. When I watch the evening news and see how the people in Haiti are living I am humbled. They have none of the things that even the poorer people here in the US would have. Even fresh water would be a luxury for them. Yet we are a nation of ingratitude and complaining.

I am going to make it a point to rejoice in the Lord, and be joyful in God my Saviour, for all the blessings he has so graciously given me. Even during the times when I don't feel especially blessed, my heart's desire is to still praise Him.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Water is So Precious

We tend to never think about mundane things like water, until we don't have any. We got up yesterday to very low water pressure. On fact, it was just a trickle. Before noon we had no water at all.
One of the downsides of owning your own home is the concern and expense of fixing things when they break. Our pump is not especially old, we think we replaced it about 5years ago. That isn't very long, in my opinion, especially for something as costly as a pump. The warranty was only for one year though. We have replaced the switch a few times in the years we have lived here.
Gene stopped at the hardware store on his way home and bought a switch, hoping this would do the trick. It was not the problem. We began pricing new pumps and realized if we had to buy a new one, we would not have any money for gas for Gene for work until the next paycheck, two weeks away.

We were really praying hard at this point. We need water, but Gene also needs to go to work every day.
Gene decided to pull the pump out of the well and have a look at it, to see if there were any pinched or broken wires. He rounded up the workforce: Bethany (almost 16yo), Sarah (almost 14yo), Aaron 11yo, Seth 9yo, and Jesse 7yo. They pulled and pulled until the pump was out. They they helped get it into the garage. Right away Gene saw the problem. The piece that connects the pump to the hose was broken.
He took another trip to the hardware stop and bought a metal metal connector this time. The old one was plastic.
Our water problem was fixed. Praise God!! I am thankful for a husband who can fix the more complicated things that can go wrong.

Some interesting tidbits: Gene hates plumbing with a passion. He would rather do anything else than plumbing.
What does a family of 11 do when they have no water? We brought in buckets of snow to melt for flushing toilets:) We ate sandwiches and Goldfish off napkins for supper and had no complaints from anyone. We used diaper wipes for hands and faces.
The children were happy with their break from dishwashing and laundry for a day. Rejoice and praise the Lord in all things:)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I am Having Technical Difficulties

I have been trying to add pics and cannot seem to get them to show up. I go through all the steps. The site says my pics have been added and I can click "done" to continue my post. But no pic. I have added pics in previous posts, so I don't know what the trouble is.

I have some wonderful pics I would like to share. I am still working on figuring out what the problem is. I would be happy for pointers.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Mom and Dad on a Diet

Gene and I decided this is the year for us to lose weight. We are both middle age, and we fear it is now or never. Our desire for weight loss is not just to look better, but to improve our health and energy levels. Face it, having a large family can take a lot of energy. We need to keep up with a lot of little bodies. We also want to be setting a better example for our children.
We are not morbidly obese, but we both have more fluff than we should. I have high blood pressure and Gene had high cholesterol. I have a strong family history of type 2 Diabetes. I know if I do not do something now, I will end up with it. Add to family history the fact that many of my children were over 8lbs, 4 were over 9lbs, and my largest was 10lbs 8oz!

In the past, Gene and I have not had a lot of success with diets. We never found one we felt we could stick with, until now.
We are on the "No *S* Diet" The "S" stands for sugar, snacks and seconds. We can eat these things on days that start with "S". The obvious ones: Saturday and Sunday, but also on "special" days, such as holidays and birthday.
We have been on this diet for 2wks. Funny thing is, we are finding we are not craving sweets like we always did. We have a peace about knowing we can have them on weekends, but so far, we have not had the desire to go overboard on our off days. It feels good to not crave sugar all the time.

I never liked to eat breakfast, I always felt like my blood sugar was crashing half way through the morning if I ate breakfast. I decided to make homemade granola, and have discovered I feel good on it. I eat less than 1 cup each morning and it holds me until lunch. Gene also likes it.

Not all has been easy. I am still nursing Trinity a good bit, so I found I was getting very hungry by bedtime. I had to make the decision to eat something before bedtime. I eat plain Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of granola on the nights I feel hungry.

One of my big pet peeves about food is many things we thought were healthy contain high fructose corn syrup. Even some yogurts contain it! Many salad dressings contain it, too. We are trying to avoid these products.

Gene has not told me if he has lost any weight yet.
I have lost about 6 lbs.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Another Update on Josh

We saw the contact lens specialist on Tuesday. He was pleased with how well Josh is doing with his new lens. He warned me that Josh will be prone to allergies this summer. No surprise to me, since many of my kids have seasonal allergies. I asked him if we should use Claritin. He looked at me as though I had taken leave of my senses. No Claritin, or any allergy meds. We are to use the rewetting drops only, to wash away any allergens and moisten the lens.
The lens specialist then went on to say that we should not use any meds, even prescribed by our family doctor, unless we contact him or our pediatric ophthalmologist first. And, absolutely no steroids.

These meds can all raise the pressure inside Josh's already compromised eye.
Last winter Josh had pneumonia. We took him to the doctor the day I had a prenatal appt. Our family doctor asked me if we "do" steroids for Josh. I was so sick, I did not even think that I vaguely remembered steroids were a no-no for Josh. I went in to the hospital to be induced later that day. Praise God for keeping Josh's little eye safe!

I contacted our family doctor on Tuesday to request this info to be placed in Josh's records, so this will not happen again.

Josh has not experienced any redness since we got his new custom made lens....until last night. When I put his drops in at bedtime I noticed his eye was very red. I'm not sure how it can go from looking perfectly fine earlier in the day to being red, but it did.
I took the lens out and called both doctors this morning. The lens specialist's office said to put it in for a couple hours later today. The pediatric ophth said to leave it out for 24hrs and let him know how it looks. With Josh's history, I think I will err on the side of caution, even though his eye does look less red today.

Both doctor's offices asked if Josh is experiencing pain with his red eye. I know that is a standard question, but Josh never complains, or admits to pain in his eye. His eye has been through so much, and has so much scar tissue, I am certain his perception of pain is decreased. He has only complained of pain one time, and that was scarey, since it caused me to wonder if it was eye pressure related, rather than irritation.

I am trying to remain optomistic, look at this as a tiny bump in the road and not a complete wash. It is hard, since this is the same pattern we were having with his old Silsoft lenses.
Little boys are not supposed to have cataracts, glaucoma and decreased perception of pain. But this is Josh's life, for whatever reason, this is what God has ordained for Josh, before any of his days ever began.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Snow Day!

What does a snow day look like at our house?
We had about 4inches of snow last night. The children got up excited and eager to go outside to play. The local public school district was on a two hour delay.
The children ate a quick breakfast and rushed outside. They needed to rush, since one can never tell how long the snow will last! Although, since it is January I doubt it will go away to quickly. They trampled the snow in our backyard, shoveled half our driveway, tried out the snow scooter.
They came in cold and wet, ready for hot chocolate. I'm not sure which makes more mess, the wet mittens or the cocoa packets.
After that, we settled down with the school books. They did the basics this morning: reading, grammar, spelling, math.
We took a break for lunch and clutter patrol. After that, they ventured down the road to the Amish farm for real sledding. One of the side benefits of homeschooling is the children can go sledding when the hill is empty. No need to worry about bigger children being rough with little ones.

They are back in again, ears and cheeks rosey red in spite of warm hats and scarves. Wet mittens drying and more cups of hot chocolate brewing. More little puddles of melted snow to wet my socks as I walk into my kitchen.

After Trinity is down for her nap we will do history and science, using The Prairie Primer. Our school day and snow day will the be complete.

Some Firsts for the Shoe

You may have been wondering where I've been. I know it has been a while since I've blogged. I apologize, life can be busy here in the shoe.

Since I last blogged, my little blessing, Trinity Blessing, had her 1st birthday. I am always so amazed at how quickly this 1st year passes. What a joy it is to see all the little things Trinity has accomplished. Well, little for us, but huge for her.
Many of our children were walking by their 1st birthday, not Trinity. However, she is now walking, at 13mos, still crawling and holding on to furniture a lot, but taking more and more independent steps. She always acts so surprised when she realizes she is in the middle of the floor and not holding on to anything.

Another 1st for us: We had an artificial Christmas tree! Well, sort of a 1st. When Gene and I got married, his mom gave us a fake tree. It was a pathetic thing! We put it up that 1st Christmas, decorated it, looked at each other and said, "that is the Ugliest tree I have ever seen". We took it down and went out to buy a real tree. Since then, we have always had a real tree. Someone gave us an artificial tree last fall. We decided to give it a try. Gene didn't mind it. I did not enjoy it. I'm not certain if my lack of enjoyment was due to the tree, or the location. We decided to put the tree in our diningroom, another 1st. We are debating if we will give the artificial tree another try next Christmas.
For now, the tree is packed away, and back in the garage. And we are back to the business of homeschooling.