Saturday, April 30, 2011

April in Review

How in tarnation did that happen, how is April over? I must've been sucked into some black hole, because all I can remember of this month is stress, and me being a slacker and wanting to be a hermit.

1. Read the Bible. Yeah no, I'm not caught up at all, but at least I'm progressing forward, I finished Judges, Ruth, and I'm about 2/3 done with 1st Samuel....I should've started 1 Chronicles today. Doh.

2. Go back to Choir. Haven't done much of that either. I did sing with them one Sunday when I popped in and sight sang. Without the kids. But I was unprepared for any of the Holy Week songs...so I thought, turns out they did stuff I knew, but I was too stressed out fighting Chris in church Every Time we go. We went to the Fam's church one week, and he started playing in the hall so loud even sitting in the congregation I could hear him. One day I let him stay in the nursery, and he made me sorry when it was time to go. It's just such a hard fight to take him alone, I can't do it. Let alone leave him alone to go sit with the choir. So, a massive fail on this one.

3. Join a Gym - Well, I didn't make it to a single yoga class this month. Again, taking Chris and Sam out alone in the evenings has just not been worth the battle. Plus there have actually been a couple of Wednesdays that we've had Eric around at dinnertime. He may leave shortly thereafter, but it's worth giving up the exercise just to have a family dinner together. On the positive side, I did actually make it into the gym this month, and walked every so briskly on the treadmill. Realized later though that I did it in my crappy shoes that didn't realize until later that metal had been poking me in the back of the heel. Those shoes are in the trash now. But I've got my eyes on a pretty pair of MBTs as soon as we can afford it...whenever that is, we were downtown over Spring Break, and I tried them on, it was like literally walking on clouds.

4. Take a Photography Class. Well, I haven't made a whole lot of progress here either. I'm shooting a bit more in manual, but it's hard to do with the boys on the move. They don't let me sit still much to mess around with the camera. So unless they give me a head start, most of my manual photos are of inanimate objects.



Easter Eggs :) Gotta love that. The boys and I had a great time making these.



Or Flowers. I loved this one because it was after a rainstorm, one of many we'd been slammed with this month. And although the tulips were bobbing in the wind and rain, and had been closed, they were starting to open up, just there wasn't enough sunshine. I think we maybe had 3 happy tulip days this month.



I did take a little time one day to catch this shot, and experimented a smidgeon with editing in picasa. I need more practice. I should say, I need to take the time to practice.



Sometimes I get lucky, and I get a good pic of a boy or two. I've started another challenge, a weekly one, called 'Right Now', where Willette sends out a blog saying go take a picture of whatever you're doing right now. I didn't have much time the first time, but this picture of Chris and I trying to take a nap, turned out just right to me. And in manual, and me holding the camera at arm's length...and neither one of us thinking real naps were going to happen, but they did. :)



And then again, sometimes I can get really lucky, and get the boys moving, and have a good picture. I entered this one into The Pioneer Woman's Brothers contest, it was the only one I took during that week for that contest and didn't go digging around. I'd like to be able to take the assignment, and go do it.

5. Get the Boys Healthy. Ay, there's the rub isn't it. I think I've spent a good half this month worrying about the health of the boys, or taking them to some appointment or other. Sam is generally the easier to report upon first. But he's been a bit more stressing this month. He's teething, I'm fairly certain his 2 year molars are coming in, which has led him to getting Sassy this month, like learning to tell me "Hush Up", or hitting me, and when I put him in Time Out he tells me "I no in Time Out", or my favorite was the other day he locked me out of the car. On the up side, we inadvertantly learned he is no longer allergic to tomatoes, and that he loves peanut butter, and doesn't seem to have problems with it, still quite allergic to strawberries though. He had a swallow study last week, which he didn't really pass. He deeply penetrated consistently on nectar thick liquids, and fairly deep on honey thick, no change there really, which isn't bad, but it's not good either. At least we're following up, or there are plans to follow up with the feeding team.
Chris on the other hand, he has been going to Therapy weekly, with either Mr. Doug at the Autism clinic at Riley, or Miss Lisa his Play Therapist. I'm beginning to really value both of them, and though the only improvement I have seen is that Chris is less obnoxious in the car (well, he wasn't today, but he has been in general for the month of April) I think most of it is that I haven't done all the suggestions that Doug gave me. If I do maybe I won't have any more awful days like today. Chris was picking fights, he hits first and gets mad when the other kids hit back. It's become a frequent problem in Soccer. But today, he started a fight in soccer so we left early and he turned around and pushed Sam when we got home. And he lost it, and when he does that repeatedly, he doesn't listen, and I have to scream and scream to get his attention, and it makes me lose it. Neither one of us has been our best lately. He was observed by the School autism specialist this past week, who said he's really smart, but a sensory mess with his hands in his mouth all the time. I've thought he could be diagnosed as a Hot Mess some days, right along with me, a pair of pretty nothins. They saw him on a good day, so they didn't see him lose it entirely, even so we're setting up a meeting with his principle for next month. He's had a sinus infection, that we fought for the first two weeks of April with penecillin, but after a week off the green boogies came back, so we started him on Omnicef this week. And we met with his surgeon this month, he looks good, and the surgery for his MACE is set for May 23rd. So things are beginning to move forward, and just in time. It seems that God and the kids know exactly how much Mommy can take, and they stop just short of too much.

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