Wisdom from my walk

well….the xray of my foot showed arthritis and a bone spur – so chances are the frequent pain I get in the toe that also has gout is indeed the bone spur not always gout flare ups which is good to know.  The arthritis part really scares me!   Now I make an appointment w/ a podiatrist and hope treatment is easy! and doesnt involve surgery, fun times.   Not sure why my body hates me so…..

I have never been so in shock in my life. on my way to work I passed a car accident, I prayed I could turn my childrens eyes away but only could persuade Caleb not to look. it had only just happened, moments before we got to that spot where we needed to turn off the highway. from the look of it one passenger was halfway in the vehicle it seemed and the other was thrown from the vehicle or was at least out of the vehicle on the ground. i was immediately taken to tears and have had trouble calming down my nerves. Caleb kept saying he hoped it wasnt anyone we knew and that maybe they werent wearing their seatbelts. I could only think of the peoples families and praying that they are safe. My heart is so broken right now for the scene I saw and I am grateful to be alive safe and even glad I was running late to get to work, else who knows what may have happened…..

EDITED: I sat here from the office, heard the helicopter coming, looked on the news page and watched the live traffic cam as the helicopter landed on the highway. I just want to know how the victims are…..I’m guessing at least one is alive enough to need a medical transport via helicopter. praying there were no kids in the vehicle….I feel so blessed to have gotten here safely, just moments before this accident and the shutdown of the highway. I just wish my kids could have been spared from what they saw.

I dont know if he just forgot or got busy or what…but if I have one more reason to worry about why I could ever get in trouble for not being a good mom, I am going to lose it.  Seems like you can get put in jail for just about anything these days that people think is neglectful.   Speaking of which Bo is beating up Zeke I better intervene before someone blames me for his bite marks….I admit the poor kid probably is suffering from the burn marks but when does it become child abuse or neglect?  I just think our parents would have been jailed for the things they did when we were kids, I mean tons of things I’ve seen or heard growing up from my family or others and I just cant imagine.  I mean the whole latch key child thing they talked about when I was growing up, nowadays you’d probably get arrested if your kid walked home alone or rode the MTA bus for 30 minutes to get home from shool each day (let alone standing alone at the public transportation bus stop alone w/ strange people…)  everyday I do things and wonder when will be my turn to in the headlines for being a bad mom…..

speaking of which…how can you not be set up to fail after you go to the doctor and she tells you to stay off your feet for 2 days!!  yeah right.  After my punctured foot injury I got better then a few days my other foot started to hurt and is swollen on the top.  I dont remember hurting it and it’s been swollen and it hurts horribly to walk on that foot.  So I finally gave in and went to the doctor today, she is not sure what is wrong and I have to go get an xray at some point today when I can find a sitter.   but she wants me to do ice and rest it for 2 days and take naproxen for a week and if it’s not better(and the xray is normal) then I’ll go to the podiatrist.    so who knows what the deal is but it’s been about 3weeks since I could walk without pain for some reason or another and that makes doing things w/ the kids hard.  but….it’s probably my own fault for still doing things like going to kings island or the museum on a injured foot.

today we’re going to stay home and relax I suppose…which is good since we are out of gas in the van and money!! 😉

Well I suppose it’s time to potty train when theres a negative bank balance and you are a day before running out of diapers!   Luckily it’s a rainy day so we can stay home and inside, so I’m setting the timer and Zeke’s in underwear!  he should be fine w/ this since he’s been pooping and peeing in the potty for months now we just never finalized it by going to underwear.  Pray it goes well and that we dont have to buy diapers except for bedtime usage!!

Countdown to pay day on Friday….blah!   I hate living paycheck to paycheck!

I thought I had blogged already again since my last post, but I guess making up blog posts in my brain and not having time to get them into the laptop dont really count! the question will be if I can remember what I wanted to blog about.   So I guess the best thing to do is for me to backtrack to Thursday since I last posted on Wednesday!  we had some pretty bad storms Wed. evening but I had plans to go out to a small “party” and we left in the midst of a horrible storm which downed a tree onto our next door neighbors car!   (said tree would be our property had we signed the paperwork weeks ago for that land as we intended to, praise God it’s not our mess to deal w/!)  Thursday evening nearby friends, one of which who drove w/ me to the party, were without power.   We had power and were grateful.  Bo kept waking all night afraid though so we barely slept, at one point when we woke up we realized the power was out.   I had plans to work Thurs. at church but their server was down so I took the boys for breakfast (trying to keep the fridge food cold since the power was out) then we went to the museum w/ friends.  We returned to a powered home which is such an amazing thing we take for granted so often!

Thursday evening we met Dean’s mom who had Caleb and our niece at Kings Island to have some fun before we all came home exhausted!!  Yesterday Caleb had an 8 am doctors appt for a rash he has had on his feet for years that was getting really bad so we all went to that together.   (at least the boys and my niece who had spent the night!)  After getting Caleb sorted out I asked the doctor to check Zeke’s ear since he’s had some more signs that he’s bothered by them this last week and sure enough the poor kid has double ear infections!   I am soo glad I asked the dr to check.   He has another ENT appointment scheduled at which they’ll schedule him to get both his ear tubes replaced since they are both out of place and have been frequently infected w/in the last year, and more so in the last few months.

Then we headed home to eat a quick breakfast before I hosted my first official meeting as leader of the moms ministry at church.  it was just a potential leaders meeting and we had lots of kids and no sitter so lesson learned, next time we will meet but have childcare! :-)  I was amazed at what I heard and am glad to be able to be a part of these womens lives and am looking forward to the big things on the horizon for this group.

That afternoon we went to the pool and then home in time for dinner before Caleb, Dean and Bo headed to baseball.   During dinner Zeke fell asleep in his high chair because he didnt get a nap and he slept all the way til this morning!!  We had a friend and my BIL and SIL over til late last night and we played games.  After they left I fell ill and was up most of the night being sick.  I stayed in bed all day while Dean took the boys to the pool and later the park.  He’s such a good daddy!  i got up for good after dinner and headed to the store to get a new bathing suit but didnt find anything I felt comfortable buying considering the prices!   I felt horrible while I was out and I am confident I have been fevered all day.

Tomorrow we’re serving at church some then we are going to another niece’s graduation party after which we have no plans, but I’d like to get some swimming in myself!  that is if I’m feeling better!

Dean and a friend are playing a game right now and I’m baking some cookies to take to the party tomorrow.  I feel like going to bed but I’m afraid I”ll be up all night since I slept most of the day! praying this is just a normal for me type sickness so no one else gets it!! 🙂

so it’s been a busy few days and lots to talk about, I hope to have some pics up by Monday of the last week.   until then…enjoy the summer!

If you know me at all you probably know I come from a long line of worriers.  It’s genetic or sometimes I say a curse!  I have gotten a lot better at it, but unfortunately not enough that I have already passed it on to my kids.   Yesterday during a tornado siren the boys hid out in the basement and Caleb predicted Dean’s death because his work has too many windows and that he was going to die in the tornado.   Dean’s cell phone is dead so we couldnt call him since he was in a training class, afterward he found out about it and was told everyone not in the training class was taken to a secure place in the building , they apparently forgot about the people in his class!  The boys were scheduled to have doctors appointments at 4:15 but we didnt go, I could barely get the boys out of the basement and couldnt imagine making them drive in the mess of weather so I cancelled.  Dean got home safely and we made it through the night w/out much excitement.  I was awoken early again this morning by torrential rains and strong winds.  Luckily the kids slept through the siren, apparently they go off here if there’s a tornado warning(or watch) and a severe thunderstorm warning.   it’s been dark and storming all morning and Caleb is in a little better mood about it, but he’s definitely inherited his uncle’s fear of storms.    I dont like them much myself and I do worry mostly about the big trees surrounding our home and the chance of them falling and I cant wait for these storms to pass.  I’m suppose to work at 1 today , hoping it clears by then so I convince the kids out of the basement, they are down there so they dont hear the thunder.  big scaredy cats I’m raising, no really, they did that themselves.    I could use a little sunshine today though!

we all know someone who we get excited to think about coming to a potluck or party with because they make that one great appetizer or dessert?  In Baltimore I was sort of the dessert diva, although our friend Ellison Anne was far better at it then I!   For some reason I havent been able to find that “niche” yet here.   Last week there was a party and they hinted at a prize for best dessert and I was so excited.  Sadly I didnt know how fierce the competition was, and got blown out of the water by some chocolate covered cherries that looked like mice, and it was somewhat unfair as some of the desserts were store bought!!   but I went all out, turning what we now call my “german chocolate” cookies into mini muffins.  I lined my mini muffin pan and filled each up w/ some cookie batter then put some chocolate chunks in the middle on top.   (the dough itself includes oats, chocolate chips of varying sorts, coconut, and sometimes nuts)   My initial reason for using the mini muffin pan was it makes 2 dozen at a time and clean up is minimal due to the muffin liners.   I took those to the party and as stated above didnt win the “best dessert” prize, I was kind of bummed about it!   I also made some to accompany the meals I made for two families in our moms group who recently had babies.  Today I received a thank you card and in it she asked if the desserts were home made, to think someone thought they were good enough to be store bought!!

I received an email w/in the last week sometime requesting I make my “snickers” cookies to a get together I’m attending tomorrow night. (peanut butter cookies w/ mini snickers bars inside)  I take pride in being asked to bring something and something I am good at making.

The downside to being good at baking cookies, I have a cookie dough problem.  the problem is I eat too much of it!! Even now my belly is bloated from over indulging in cookie dough and mini snickers bars!

But it’s nice to not only be invited but be asked to bring something, I’d definitely rather that than being told not to which could mean they didnt like what I brought last time!!  🙂

a side note to our recent cookie baking adventures, we’ve started substituting flour w/ whole wheat flour.   Originally we did completely away w/ the white flour but then read up and Dean found you should do half and half(kind of like you can do w/ splenda in some baking recipes to lower sugar intake).   It makes the “german chocolate” cookies taste even more delicious.  I’m not sure if it’s just me or not but it makes the “snickers” one definitely taste different, not bad, but different.    Dean of course loves it and even mentioned he likes the taste the whole wheat flour adds, he keeps saying it’s heartier.  I guess maybe that’s my problem, cookies that are heartier means you’ll get full quicker and wont eat as many….that ruins my whole addiction problem, or makes it worse if I still over eat!!

off to finish up baking for the day….