Some June updates

And now to June...

I graduated from a very small private school called Catherine Academy, located near the middle of Wilcox County. I have a lot of good memories from there and a lot of not so good ones, but that's probably pretty much how high school memories go for most people. What probably doesn't happen so often is that your school closes. That's what my school did. I graduated in 2000 and they only stayed open one more year with their last graduating class being 2001. My graduating class only had 9 people in it. I know... NINE. We were the odd class out though. Most of the other classes had between 15 and 20+ people in them. Well, we kind of all went our separate ways (as often happens) after graduation. We never stopped and had a reunion when our 10 year time came around. So, when I heard that a huge reunion was in the works, I was pretty happy about it. Since the school had been around for a long time before it closed, there were many people who had attended either their whole school career or for different periods of time. Some of the big families who went there and had children who went there decided to plan a big reunion for everyone who had ever been associated with CA. The reunion was the first weekend in June in Thomasville. It was really nice too. The committee did a very good job with organization. It was really nice to see old friends and teachers and stuff. I am very glad that I went. Pics to follow :)

The results of slacking off :)

I'm going to try to do a little more updating. My last post was kind of an "overall" update, so I'm going to try to go month by month a little.

In May, Dylan's class took a trip to the state capitol (Montgomery). After enlisting my mom and dad to help with the girls, I was able to go with him on the trip. It was nice because I haven't really been able to do a lot with him and school. I had really only been able to make treats for his class parties and stuff. So I was pretty happy that I got to share this field trip with him. I remember when I went on a Montgomery field trip in 4th grade. We visited the capitol building (of course), the First White House of the Confederacy, the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the Planetarium, and the museum of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Oh, we also visited the Governor's Mansion. Dylan's group didn't get to do all that. In fact, they only visited the Planetarium, did a "ride by" of the Governor's Mansion, toured the Capitol, and then went to the Civil Rights Museum. Personally, I would have exchanged the Civil Rights Museum for one of the others, but I wasn't in charge of the trip. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took on the trip.

 

I'm a slacker

I wish I was the kind of person who really kept up with these things. There will be times that I do really well with it and update it maybe a couple of times a week or something, but then periods like this last oh... 5 1/2 months... happen. When I looked back at my last entry, I said a quick prayer of thanks because Dylan is no longer in that mood. Every now and again (which is few and far between) he will do or say something that goes along those lines, but he's a lot better now. His biggest adjustment now has been 5th grade. Things are definitely different this year. He requested his teacher this year and he likes her, but she is nothing like any of his other teachers. His work load is bigger (of course) and there's a lot more that he is required to keep up with at home. We had some issues the first few weeks. He had two projects/assignments that he was very nearly late turning in, and he had not even told me that one of them was supposed to be turned in. I try to stay on top of what he has to do for school so I can remind him when he needs to be working on something. After that, I had to schedule a meeting with her because I knew we needed to get a jump on whatever was causing his absentmindedness. After living with both of my brothers for as long as I did, I recognize the signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Dylan definitely has it, but until this point, we haven't really had any problems. His grades have not been affected, and it's really only manifested itself when he has to do any writing. Well, once he started having problems, I knew that we needed to get a plan of action in place. I know I will more than likely need to have him officially tested and probably even set up on medication before middle school, but we are trying to do everything that is possible before we go that route. I got him a homework planner that he has to write in every day. He then has to take it to his teacher for her to make sure he's written everything down. After he comes home and does all his homework, I have to go over the planner and sign it after I've checked over everything. That has been working pretty nicely so far. I think he's only had one day where he forgot to give it to her to sign. THEN he started his PACE program again. So, on Tuesdays at 8:15, he gets taken over to another school where he takes part in his PACE activities until around 1:30ish when he is brought back to his school. So, he misses almost an entire day of school, but he still has to complete all the classwork and homework that is issued for that day. This hasn't been a problem in the past, but now he has a lot more reading activities in his classwork and he's not able to keep up with it. A couple of weeks ago, we were up late almost every night working on homework and those reading activities because he had fallen so far behind on them. So, now our routine will be that he brings home his reading activities on Mondays and Tuesdays so he can try to get caught up on what he is missing, that way he'll be able to turn them in on time every Friday. I can say that it has been pretty stressful for me. I did not have this problem when I was in school. I may have had teensy portions of ADD or ADHD, but it was never something that messed up my schoolwork. Having had two brothers deal with it equipped me to notice the signs before things started to get worse, so I am glad that we are working on it. I am really glad that his teacher is as helpful as she is. 

Bella and Eowyn are doing great. I am really enjoying being a SAHM with them. I am trying (TRYING) to establish some sort of routine for our family. The bigger our family gets, the harder it is to keep track of what needs to be done every day. I picked up some great pointers from the FlyLady's website about routines. It's still a work in progress, but I believe that I will eventually get it put together.

Things are great on the church home-front. We love our church family at First Baptist Church of Theodore. I joined the choir a couple of weeks ago and the kids really enjoy their activities. They both have Sunday school classes. Dylan has Bible Drill on Sundays at 5 and then they both do children's choir at 6, while the evening service is taking place. It's definitely been a blessing to have that outlet every week.

Work is another story. We are still dealing with issues on that front and it's so hard to see how anything is going to work out. We really feel like something needs to happen soon because it's just getting way to stressful to deal with. It's also a money issue. I've very much enjoyed being able to stay home, and I really want to continue to do so, but I don't know how easy it will be for me to continue doing it unless something changes. I hate being vague. I would really love to say everything that I am thinking right now and, in theory, I should be able to do that. However, because there are too many people that don't know how to take things in context, I have to be all mysterious. What I'd really like is for everyone to keep us in your prayers about this kind of stuff. We also put our house on the market a little over a month ago. We've had no nibbles at all. We really need to sell the house because we have outgrown it and we have way too much stuff for this house. However, we don't know where we'd go if we sold it and we don't really have much leeway in terms of price range. There's a lot of stress there too, so prayers are appreciated all the way around. 

Uncharted territory

Oh, how I love the path of parenthood!

Ha.Ha.Ha.

I am actually being truthful, even if there is a slight edge of sarcasm dripping all over those words. :)

As I'm sure you know, D is approaching an age that requires two digits to write down - the big 1-0. Every now and then I'm like, "OMG... I really have an almost-10-year-old kid?!" It really just doesn't seem like he should be that old yet. He's also becoming a moody/obnoxious adolescent. I am NOT looking forward to the attitude. He has too much of me in him there. But, he's also been a little bit of an attention magnet lately. I'm kind of hoping that maybe some of y'all will have a little insight to share here. I don't exactly know how to handle it.

He hasn't been doing it for a long time (really, maybe a couple of weeks at most). He'll get into a mood and if something goes wrong he'll be all, "I hate my life" or "I wish I was dead because it's better in heaven than it is here" or something like that. I have tried to explain to him that he doesn't have it so bad at all, but I do actually understand that it doesn't really work when I say that. He's at the age where it's all about him all the time and he really has a very hard time seeing outside that circle. I know that's how kids his age are, but it doesn't stop me from trying to explain that he's in pretty decent shape compared to a lot of unfortunate kids in the world. It just bothers me that he gets like that. I don't 100% remember how I was at that age. I'm sure I was a bit of a drama queen at times, but I cannot remember ever saying that I'd rather be dead because it's better in heaven. Maybe my mom can help me out there and let me know how awful I was. :)

I know that part of it is the attention seeking that he's after. He's the oldest kid. He's old enough to do a lot of stuff for himself now and I don't have to do every little thing for him like I used to do. I am at home all day with the girls and I do have to do just about every little thing for them. Even at the end of the day when hubby gets home, I still can't stop and spend as much time with D as I really need to. My time with him has gotten cut short over the years as we've added to the family. He sometimes feels like he doesn't get any time with me now because of E's birth. I know I need to make the effort, but it's hard when you have to take care of everything all the time. Hubby does tend to be out of town with work a lot, which leaves me to take care of everything else at home. 

I guess I'm just trying to find out if anyone can tell me anything about this particular age and the moods and things he's been saying. I don't know if I should be worried about anything or if this is just a phase that he's going through. Part of me feels like it's just a phase, but then there's that tiny part that realizes that there have been many news stories of kids killing themselves or something. I just don't want to be someone who misses a sign somewhere. He has given no indication that anything is wrong. I talk to him every day after school to find out how his day was. He is usually happy. He is only ever unhappy when he's had a not so great day at school either because he was talking too much or he got in trouble. I don't feel like I've missed any signs. We have talks every now and then and I try to keep the communication open and not just discipline related. I want him to know and feel like he can come to me if he has a problem. 

I may be over-thinking all of it. I do have a tendency to do that. But really, can you blame me? With the way our society has been over the last 5 years, I have to be on my toes about this kind of thing. The more I think over and over about it, the more I feel like it's just a phase. I'm going to do my very best to be extra attentive to him and try to make sure he knows that I have not forgotten about him.

If anyone has any tips or advice, I welcome it! Thanks!

babies and big girls

B is a big girl. She'll even tell you that herself. I was playing with E the other day and getting her to stand some and put weight on her legs and calling her a big girl. B says "She not big girl. I'm big girl." I just had to laugh. Later that same day, I was again playing with the baby and B did something (I cannot remember what) that made me tell her to move, but I accidentally called her by her brother's name. Well, apparently, once you have more than 2 kids that can happen! So, she says, "I'm not bubba. I'm B." She did actually say her name though. She's too funny. But she is also a big girl. She's done so well with potty training since we started that I decided to just let her be 'all panties all the time' now. She used to wear pull ups at night mainly because I didn't want to be woken up in the middle of the night if she'd had an accident. And she would certainly do that. So, we're making sure she's gone to the bathroom right before bed and that she's put up the cups at least an hour before bed. She's been perfectly fine all week long. I'm sure that if she ever got of schedule at all, we'd be in for an accident, but as long as we stick to the way we normally do things here, she'll be fine.

E is growing so quickly too... She's still a baby, but before I know it, she'll be toddling around and getting into everything. She turned 5 months old today. It doesn't seem like it's been 5 months since I had a baby. She is doing well with her eating. She eats that dried cereal like a champ. Of course, I have to mix homemade applesauce or pears in it first. B never ate that stuff. I tried and tried with her, but she just would not eat it. I got her to take it from a bottle a few times, but she couldn't stand the consistency. I ended up having to get the jarred cereal for her. That is a bit more expensive, so I'm very glad that E is taking to this kind. 

I have been reading the blog of a woman who just lost her baby. She started the blog while she was pregnant because her baby girl was sick. She had a kidney disease and the doctors had basically told her that the chances of her baby girl living after birth were slim to none. They, of course, still prayed that God would heal their baby, but had to go through the motions and preparations that come with death. They have 2 older children too. I have often thought and prayed for this family. I am incredibly heartbroken that the doctors were right and this precious life was only here for 5 hours. But I am happy because I know that she is with God now and her body is made perfect. I cannot even begin to imagine what her mother is feeling. All throughout the blog, she is very honest about her emotions throughout everything. They knew early on that their baby was sick and have had to deal with congratulations from strangers about the impending arrival while they are planning her funeral service because it was highly unlikely that she'd survive after she was born. I just can't fathom how you deal with that. I know that this mother has extreme faith. Her words inspired me because she was so raw and honest with her human faults and weaknesses, but she still realized Who was in control of it all. I pray that if I ever have to go through something like that, that I will be able to humble myself enough to allow God to work His glory through my pain. 

I would sit and just cry when I read her posts and when I came across other posts by people about this kind of thing. There is an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep that has photographers who donate their time to provide free portraits for families who have lost their babies after birth. I will admit that at first, I didn't really understand why anyone would want a picture of that. However, after having 3 kids myself... I get it. You spend 9 months or so carrying this miracle inside you, praying that everything will be okay when he/she finally appears and all you want to do is hold them and kiss them and cuddle them. Babies are just so incredibly precious. They are entirely dependent on you and it's so powerful to know that God has entrusted you with this tiny person. Well, what if this tiny person was not going to be able to stay with you after birth? The part of me that wants to close everyone off is the part of me that doesn't like the idea of having those kinds of pictures. I wouldn't want to re-live the pain of losing my baby. However, now I know that I would rather have these precious pictures to remind me that my baby is made whole again and that he/she was a blessing even in the short time that we had him/her. 

I just had these random thoughts going on tonight. Please remember the above mentioned family in your prayers. Though they knew it would happen this way, it doesn't diminish the pain that they feel in her loss. God will work His glory in their pain. His power is made perfect in our weakness. They just need some extra love and support right now.

Spring is in the air

It's amazing how quickly the time passes. I looked and saw that it had been almost 2 whole months since I last posted anything and was rather surprised. I knew it had been a little while, but not 2 months! 

Anyway, things are finally settling down from the holiday season and we're getting into a groove with me home now. The money is a little tighter than I'd like it to be, and we may have to do some more cuts to make it stretch a little more. We're also trying to save for a big family thing this year, because B is old enough to enjoy it and we want to do it before D gets too old to enjoy it. We're not really worried about E yet. Hubby also wants to do something for our anniversary this year since it will be our 5th wedding anniversary. I don't really want to do anything, except maybe have both sets of parents keep the kids for the weekend and let us just be by ourselves. Sleep would be a nice gift. :)

B is a potty trained princess now! I still haven't quite gotten brave enough to let her go to bed at night with just panties on (I make her wear a night-time pull up), but she is a pro in Dora undies during the day time. She can wipe herself (except for when she's done #2) but she can't get the paper herself yet. Baby steps though. She's been great. She even handles a 2 hour car ride or a trip to the store without having an accident. 

I haven't been quite as crafty as I thought I might be, but that's mainly because being crafty costs money that I don't have right now. I did make an Easter wreath for my door this year.

I am very happy with it. I actually did it the way that you are technically "supposed" to do them - using a wire work wreath form. It definitely looks more even than the others I've done. I'd love to make one for football season this year, but we'll see how that works out.

I don't know if I've said it or not, but I started selling Avon to see if that could help bring in some money, but it really hasn't done anything spectacular (not that I expected it to do that). In all reality, I am not cut out to sell a product to someone. I was not gifted with the ability to put myself out there. I've always been a more "behind the scenes" kind of person when it comes to a job. The position I left at work was a good one for me because I didn't have to deal with too many people face to face. When I had to deal with banks and sites on different issues, I just emailed. It was great. I WAS gifted with wonderful articulation when it comes to writing and emailing, so I was always able to get my point across without too many episodes of miscommunication. I really wish there was something I could do at home (maybe from my computer) that I could maybe invest an hour or two per day and just make a little side money (oh, and it would have to be legit). The problem with it is that I wouldn't always know when those two hours would work out AND I don't know many job opportunities there are that would fit my circumstances. When I sat down and started thinking about how I'd make money with Avon, I realized that it is darn near impossible for me to have a thriving business with it. Yeah, I might be able to make a little extra $30-$50 every now and then, but that's about it. I don't know enough people and as I mentioned before, I'm not cut out to be the kind of person who goes out and pushes a product. If I wanted to have Avon replace the job I left, I'd have to sell over $1400 worth of product EVERY TWO WEEKS to come close to what I made - which wasn't all that much, so don't think it's a lot. According to Avon, the average customer spends about $25 per order. I don't know who their average customer is, but my average customers only spend about $15 per order. But, to give the benefit of the doubt, if I wanted to sell that much stuff, I'd have to have around 55-60 customers - again, EVERY TWO WEEKS. Of course, I never expected this to be a replacement job. After all, if this was going to be a replacement job, I would have to be willing to pour 40+ hours a week into it and I'd probably have to have the girls in daycare because there's not way I can pour 40+ hours a week into a job and be able to be a SAHM too. So, I'm a little irked with them for it. I've had some regular customers though, so as long as it's not actually costing me money, I'll continue to sell it. If it gets to the point where I'm coming out of my own money every campaign, then I'll have to re-evaluate.

Speaking of work... I have a prayer request. I can't go into a lot of detail about it because this is a public blog and I don't know how many people who work with my hubby might see it. Just know that I covet your prayers for him right now. He's dealing with a lot of stress and frustration and I don't know how to help. I am trying to be there for him as much as I can and I support him 100%. We're trying to seek God's guidance but it's not as clear as we'd hope. 

Switching gears again...

I made cupcakes for D's class party on Valentine's Day. Now that I'm a SAHM, I can try to be a better school parent. Hey, it's a thought, right? Anyway, going with the theme of love and pink and chocolate, I made strawberry cupcakes with homemade chocolate buttercream icing. Sounds yummy, but I was actually not as pleased with them. The cupcakes were fine, but I didn't really like the icing. I need to hunt up another recipe to see if they'd taste any different.

  
D's class party went well. He racked up on the candy, of course. I was able to talk to his teacher about upcoming things. They are planning a trip to the state capitol in May, so I'll be headed there too. 

Right after Valentine's Day was Mardi Gras week for the kids here. I don't really understand the big deal with Mardi Gras. To me it seems like just an excuse for people to party and get inebriated with various drinks and/or other things. Oh, and to spend ungodly amounts of money to wear a formal dress or tux that you have to have cleaned the very next day because of how gross it got at a ball. Now, to be fair, not all the societies have that reputation (thank goodness!). Hubby and I went to the Juno Ball last year and I felt it was very respectable - at least, it was while we were there. Anyway, so this year for Mardi Gras, the school system decided to be out all week instead of the normal 3 days. Hubby was out of town for work, so we took the opportunity to head up to my parents' house to visit and be of some assistance with my grandmothers. We had a great time. D was able to do his "How to be a Pirate in 7 days or less" book with GranGran and he managed to convince GranDad to start building him a fort/tree house thing. 

Wow, this post is getting long. :) Well, that really about catches everything up anyway. There's not a lot of other stuff going on right now.  Oh wait, yeah there is... We've been visiting the First Baptist Church in our area for almost a year now. We haven't been going every single Sunday and Wednesday, but we've been a lot. The people there are really nice and we really like the pastor. After much thought and prayer about it, I decided to move my membership there. We'd visited other churches in the area too, but I had not moved my letter from FBCF yet. So, this will be my first church move as a Christian. Before Sunday, I had been a member of FBCF ever since I became a Christian 17 years ago. I was the only one to move my letter, but that's mainly because hubby is Catholic and I don't know exactly how that works on that end. I've never asked him to convert to being Southern Baptist for me because I know that he understands and believes in the same basic Christian principles that I do. Because of that, I don't care how he chooses to worship. Now, he has gone to church with me every time I've gone and he's even gone by himself on occasion. He says he enjoys going to that church with me and I'm okay with that. If you're a Christian, I don't really see how it matters where you choose to worship and if you've been one "denomination" and you start going to another, why does that make you change? I don't know. I would not ask him to join the church with me unless he wanted to do so and in my opinion, even if he did join it, it wouldn't make him any less of a Catholic.

I digress.... I joined the church on Sunday and I look forward to having my family there, growing in God. I'm also hoping to join the choir because I do so love to sing! :) 

Okay, that actually does it for now. Maybe I can manage to post a little more often than every 2 months. 

Potty training

As mentioned in an earlier post, we had decided to take the leap and really focus on getting B potty trained this week. She had been exhibiting signs of readiness before E was born, but we couldn't focus on it due to E's impending arrival. Studies say that whenever a big change is coming, you shouldn't attempt to potty train a toddler because it will be too much for them to handle. Toddlers don't have all the same resources to cope with stressful things as adults do, and with the addition of a new sibling, it would have been too much for her. She had to adjust to having a baby in the house who cries and needs near-constant attention. She's also had to adjust to losing some of the time and attention that she got from us. She has done remarkably well. She hasn't shown any kind of jealousy towards E. She has kind of regressed in her eating (she wants us to feed her again) but she only does that when she's almost done eating or when she's sleepy. So anyway, since she has been doing so well with everything (which I'm sure is part of her easy-going temperament that she gets from her dad), we started major potty training this week, after getting home from taking D to school every morning.


On Monday, after we got home and ate breakfast, I put her cotton training pants on her, moved her potty in the kitchen, and we pretty much stayed in there all day. The kitchen/breakfast area is right by the living room, where E's swing is, so that's why we did it in there. I couldn't stay in the bathroom all day when I have E to take care of as well. I also didn't want to run the risk of her having an accident on my carpet. I already don't like it, but I didn't really feel like cleaning pee... B had 3 accidents on Monday before she made it to the potty. I was expecting accidents, so I didn't get upset with her or anything. I just calmly went to her and explained it all each time so she'd understand what she needed to do. 

On Tuesday, I think she only had one or two accidents and ended up using the potty 3 times. No number 2 yet, just number 1, but I'm okay with that.


On Wednesday, after we started, she had no accidents. I decided to start putting pull-ups on her instead of the cotton pants because she was beginning to understand the sensation of having to pee and wasn't going in her pants anymore. 

On Thursday, she was still doing great during the day. We haven't broached the subject of night-time yet, and at this point she is still doing number 2 in her diaper, but she's doing great.


Friday (today) has been a good day too. She's doing great with remembering to go potty. She actually did a number 2 in her potty today too! Of course, she didn't quite finish there... She finished in her pull up later, but hey - it's a start! 

We'll probably use this weekend to work on her staying dry at night (which she already does pretty well with by herself) and I feel like she'll be able to start wearing her big girl panties next week. I'm so excited about that! I'm just so glad that she's done so well and hasn't fought about it at all! God has blessed me with such an easy going child! Of course, we'll see how miss E does when she gets older ;) I have a feeling she'll be a little more like me :P haha... 


That's all for now - oh wait! I totally have more craft projects that I'm going to work on soon and I'll post pictures! And, I am planning to make cupcakes for D's class on Valentines' day with super neat different colored cupcakes!! 

Okay, that's it, I promise :)