Lots to Do

Some things that I am learning around here:

1. You can get bacteria in your gums through a loose tooth.  Leading to an infection and the need for antibiotics.
2. Not many people except our insurance
3. Living in the middle of nowhere means lots of driving to appointments meaning long hours in cars.
4. Living with family means stress beyond belief in times followed by appreciation and the both of them can come so after each other making me feel less sane.
5. Sometimes you just need to talk to get over what ever is bothering you no matter how big or small
6. We all need forgiveness and most importantly we all need to forgive even more.  Unforgiveness can lead you to a bitter heart, heartache, depression, anger, and so many other negative things.  It also does not help, protect, or advance you in any way.  So forgive some one today!!

There are many other things that I'm learning but for the moment that's enough.  I finally got Pumpkin an eye doctor appointment a lot sooner than April!! Yeay!!  In fact it's on Monday!  Phew as soon as I made the appointment I felt a huge weight just lift off of my shoulders.  Mr A is the one with the loose teeth that got some bacteria up in them and came down with an infection.  I took him to the ER and they gave him some antibiotics.  Once the antibiotics were gone though and his gums cleared up...it came back.  I don't know if he got more bacteria up there or if it just looked gone but it is definitely back.  I wonder if it's how he brushes his teeth...anyways it's a new thing for me to watch out for.  Both of his front teeth have been loose for awhile now and they don't seem willing to fall out (yes I wiggled them around and tried to help them out.  They loosened more but are still holding on).  So tomorrow he has a dentist appointment and they will hopefully help us out.

Monkey is doing well.  He is having a little bit of trouble with selfishness and stubbornness.  I am hoping to help him work it out.  He is the middle child enough said right?  I have been letting him join in more with school.  Last week we did letters with clay and paper.  He had so much fun he did two letters and then wanted to do some more.  I made him some colored rice for his birthday and he loves it.  I made him a purple, green, blue, and yellow bucket with little scoops in each one I plan on having him 'write' letters in them or just make lines either way is fun practice for him.  I told you I would tell you how his party went and let me tell you it was great.  Not many people were able to come because of the weather but the ones that did come had a fun time.  We were unable to make the foam swords due to money ehhm.  So we improvised and made cardboard swords reinforced with tape and cardboard shields that we colored and added foam decorations to.  We used twine to make little arm holds for them.  My parents got a swing set as a combined birthday present for all the boys and they have been loving it.  It's their first swing set ever so it's a big deal.   We had Trader Joe's food and I made their boxed cake into cupcakes with a homemade cream cheese frosting yum!  If you haven't tried Trader Joe's you are missing out.  I am now in love with their potato vegetable snacks, crackers, and their cheese puffs mmmm.  I will definitely be shopping their more often.  I love that they do not have any dyes in their food. My friend that I have been talking about has a special diet for her family and I am thinking about joining her.  With Hubby's illness and the ADHD here we could use a stricter diet.  It'll be hard while living here but I think we can incorporate it in a little.

Hubby has a doctor's appointment tomorrow to check on his sleep apnea and then either take the machine or adjust it's settings.  I definitely do not think they will be taking it but they probably will be adjusting it some.  So that's two appointments tomorrow in separate cities. I really think that we need to see if someone can take one of us or we will miss an appointment.  Hubby has been 'detoxing' off of his meds this week and needs to go back to see his doctor and get new ones but we are hoping to find a more natural doctor because he doesn't seem to be taking well to all the chemicals.  Well here's to hoping we finally find the right one!

Homeschooling is my favorite part of my life!  This week we made bird houses I can't wait to get my camera this weekend so I can take pictures and show you guys how well they turned out!  I found them at a blog I read.  When I post my pictures I will link back to her blog so you guys can see how cute hers are.  We had a whole day of playing board games, playing with Tinker Toys, puzzles, and coloring. We even had Pumpkin playing with us.  One day we just had recess all day.  Yes I believe that it is a class lol.  The boys were playing so well together outside and it's not a normal occurrences without the usual 'I'm bored', 'he's being mean', 'he won't share', and the myriad other things they try to come in for so I left them out there playing until lunch time and when they woke up from their naps they were back out there.  We are going to be doing some car schooling this week to make all our appointments so I think we will be doing a lot of reading.

I hope that your all doing well this week and I will let you know how our appointments go :)

Count your Blessings

Last night we ended up sleeping on the floor in the living room on a small mattress it wasn't to terrible.  We woke up at 6am to get ready to leave for Bri and Bren's doctors appointments.  We left by 6:40am and made the drive to the doctors getting there at 7:52am.  We waited for them to open at 8am and then went in to sign in.  We waited in the childrens waiting room and missed being called  several times and had to have our chart put back up several times when Bri decided he had better go sit right next to them to hear us being called (they were saying the wrong name they were calling Brian but when he went up there they said it wasn't him turned out they wanted Brennen then several times later we somehow missed them again and then they called our full name and Brian went and they said 'oh we are going to put your chart back up so what really happened with the names I do not know).  The doctor put Bri on the meds he was taking before since they seemed to help he just changed the dosage around.  He told us that Bren has a lazy eye not a crossed eye so it will be fixable with therapy.  He doesn't want to do glasses because he says it's hard for the kids to keep them on and it slows recovery because the eye doesn't have to work as much when they are on so he's sending him to a specialist for therapy and I will get excersizes to do with him at home.  So yeay thats all good news I am so ready to start doing them now!!!  However it's going to be a few weeks before we hear from the specialist so patience (which I am not good at especially with help right around the corner!).

 After the doctors we went to Target where they sent hubbys perscriptions and we waited around for them to be done.  We bought some fiber bars to snack on because we were all hungry and when we got in the car and were happily snacking away I decided to read the box and discovered that they had barley in them so I had to quickly take it away from Aidan who is very allergic to it he was very sad but vomit is not something I enjoy cleaning up!  We then headed off again this time headed toward Aidans choir performance at an elderly care home. 

On the way we swung by Borders and checked around.  I found a book I want to buy what was the title?  I can't remember!   I was about a perscibing a natural cure to common illnesses.  I looked through and found some really relevant stuff in it and so I'm going to check and see how much it is on Amazon when I actually get money again lol.

 After borders we went to Mcdonalds and used my gift card to get us all lunch and then on to the choir performance.

 We arrived still very early and luckily because this place was huge!  It had so many buildings and no one knew where the concert was.  We ended up going to several of them and asking because the main building had no idea.  We found it at a little after 1pm so we had to wait until 1:30pm to get in.  So we sat in the car with the kids.  Can I just say that an entire day in a car with children and a second day at that is just a struggle on everyones part!  I was so happy to leave hubby there with the other two while Aidan and I ran in to his concert.  It wasn't a long concert only 20 minutes.  By the time we got back to the car Bri was a little frazzled lol but I must say a lot better then he has been on some other days.  I regretted not having a camera at the concert as  I watched other mothers snapping pictures and Aidan looked so good in his white button down shirt and black slacks he really did a good job. 

The second time I regretted not having a camera was on the way home.  I was looking out the window when what did I see....a bald eagle!!!!  We just finished a few weeks ago doing a lapbook about bald eagles and we googled them found a page tracking them and listened to their calls it was awesome!!!  It was sitting in a tree in a pasture with cows milling below.  Aidan was also excited (although who was more excited I can't tell, It's close!)  I believe that was my first sighting yeay!  Darn camera!

 After we got home Bri checked out the camper and found out that it was the extension cord that melted and not the camper cord so yeay and easy fix.  We will need a higher power cord and we are going to have to put in a new plug closer to the camper but I'm counting my blessings today and feeling wonderful!

I also must say that I have a wonderful friend and talked with her today and I feel so blessed to have met her!  I am going over to visit with her on Friday and I can't wait :)

So today was a much better day and I am once again hopeful and I can't wait to get started on therapy for Bren! 

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Roses and Horses

A rose from our garden

Ahhh the sunshine was so nice yesterday.  I began with a sweater on as my mother and I began hacking into the roses, we want them to be shorter and less bushy so we have been trimming them a lot, and a little into it the sun warmed me up so well I was down to my t-shirt.  Note to self-do not wear t-shirts to trim rose bushes ouch.  We found some interesting things in the rose bushes.  Mixed with two of them was an old dead tree.  We trimmed the bushes back and then worked the rotting tree out and staked the bushes up they look so much better now!  I checked on my sis's compost and found lots of worms gross and yet yeay!  This however is where I  got upset.  I broke my camera!  I was stirring up the compost to see what was in there and the stick barely tapped my camera sceen and it cracked!  I am so upset.  I am so careful with my camera it is really small yet I keep it in a big cushioned hard carrying case and I only take it out for a few pictures and put it right back but yesterday I was thinking that I really should take more pictures to put on my blog so that I can show you more than tell you what is going on and what I am seeing.  So here I am in big time regret at my thinking.  I have decided that my next camera is going to have to have a back that can close.  my mothers has a screen but you can twist the back and it closes.  That is what I am going to have to go with as this is my second ruined camera.  Wait what?  You might be asking.  Well this is why I was so careful with my camera you see I was at a parade and set my purse next to and kind of under my chair and yet somehow someone managed to step on the screen.  I was very upset and yet had no one to blame but myself for putting my purse on the ground (that was probably disgusting to boot!) so I pouted and got this camera that is now broken too.  So no more pictures for a little while this is where I yet again insert my plea for tax time to come soon as everything is breaking around me lol.               

                                                   A nasty critter by a rose bush

                                                                                                       This is a picture of Baylee

Big Al our new horse was lying down a lot yesterday which I hear is not normal for them so we have been asking around.  We have gotten a list of possible things that could be wrong with him and no assurance that its probablu nothing so we will have to have him checked out.  So the list is that he could be grinding his teeth so much that they are no longer able to chew his food properly so he needs to have them filed down, he could have worms, he could have a blockage of some sort, and he could be stiff.  So lots of fun stuff right?  Our other horse, Bailee, is doing fine her winter coat is nice and thick she looks so fluffy.  Big Al is looking better on that end he finally has a winter coat coming in.  He is still really thin though so my mother got him some horse thickener.  They are telling us that quarter horses are really hard to keep the weight on especially in the winter.  So he now gets three flakes of hay a day, grains with vegetable oil and the thickener.  Hopefully that helps him gain weight and we will be trying the wormer on him also.  The goats are doing fine also.  The baby goat got in Bailee's way (he was trying to eat her hay) and she rolled him with her head and kicked at him he limped for a minute but then seemed fine after that.  She has been getting an attitude since we got Big Al but I think that it's getting better now that he has been here for a little bit.  The chickens are loving the bugs that have been creeping out the past few days with the sunshine.  They are put away at night and then during the day they freely roam about the yard which is usually fine unless they get on the porch and poop all over it then we shoo them away and have to deal with a mess.  I wonder if there is a way to keep them off of it with out hurting them or leaving them locked up I might have to google that one later.

                                                               Momma Goat

Some of our Chickens

I think I have found a spot for my garden I just need to get all the supplies now and get it going soon.

Today hubby and I had a mandatory appointment to go to and we had to pick my sister up at the airport as she just got home from Seattle so we did not get to go into the doctors we are hoping that my mother will let us use her car to go tomorrow.  Bri needs to go in and get his medicines changed around and Bren needs his eyes checked.  We need to make the all the boys an appointment of some sort within the next few days.  Aidan needs to see a dentist for his new teeth that are coming in (his adult teeth) and he also needs to be seen by an eye doctor.  Bren needs to see someone for his eye and get shots (oh joy right).  Oen actually doesn't need anything that I can remember suddenly although I would like to get the boys all tested for food allergies since they seem to have reactions to different things.  I hear that they don't like to test them all that much unless it's severe but I don't know what constituets severe for them.  Oen breaks out in body hives, Aidan vomits, and Bren breaks out in rashes here and there.  So to me they are enough that I would like to keep them away from the foods as much as possible.  I know that for Aidan it's barley he gets sick within a very short time, Oen I'm not so sure he had a mixed fruit and he really broke out but I can't figure out which one he was allergic to, Bren is more like everything seems to give him a rash mostly on his face so we will see.

And thats all for today we didn't do that much yesterday was really the best day since we also cleaned up the yard had a sword fight with the foam swords and my brothers used their sticks and homemade wooden sheilds against each other.  They also got out their bows and arrows for a little target practice.  Bri shot some B-ball and Bren tried it was quite comical.  Such a nice day.  Well I hope your doing well have a good night and a great day tomorrow :)