Update.

Back to the doctor today and I am still officially sick.  They are calling in the next antibiotic in the arsenal for me to begin tomorrow.  I hope and pray this one works. 

Still. :-P

I am still not feeling all that good.  The main part of it is feeling weak.  Still I am trying to cope with it.  If I am going to feel bad all of the time and if my house is not going to be condemned, then I am going to have to do things to take care of the house despite feeling bad.  So yesterday I made myself a list of things I was going to do despite feeling bad ... kind of a Just Do It list.  I was pretty easy on myself and some of the things were added after I had done them, just to pad it out a little.  :-)

So here is my Sunday afternoon list.
1.  Cook the chicken that has been in the fridge for several days.  (This involved touching the chicken and everything.  Yuck.)
2.  List some things on Ebay.
3.  Unload and then load dishwasher.
4.  Play a board game with the kids.
5.  Take a nap.
6.  Put all of aluminum cans in 1 bag.  My mom had sent them over here in a bunch of little bags.  I had the kids do this because when I bend down to pick things up, I nearly pass out.  Everything goes black.  Fun.
7.  Make a cinnamon roll cake.  Hey, another Pinterest success.  Really I just wanted something sweet and this is one of the things that went on the list after it was done.
8.  Make cornbread (to go with the chicken).
9.  Watch TV.
10. Check Facebook.  Message my son in Mississippi to pay his bill at the business office and remind him to check his mail daily for packages, cards and donuts. 
11.  Art journal.

All in all, a very productive day for someone who feels like she should be in the hospital.  It will have to do because that's what I did. 

A couple I forgot.

A huge caterpillar like thing we saw yesterreday at my daughter's piano lesson.

Our version of the grumpy cat.  She always looks kind of annoyed.

A different kind of awesome.

That's how my friend who is a real artist with exhibits and everything described my "art".  I said I'm not an artist and her work is awesome and there is no comparison and she said that my work was a different kind of awesome.   Working on my art journals has helped me during this stressful, not- feeling-well couple of months.

Random things I have taken pictures of with my new tablet.

Corn growing up through the beans which is kind of a good example of why oats get contaminated with wheat when they share a field and why we gluten free types have to buy certified gluten free oats raised in fields that are not alternated with wheat crops.

My note to myself at the beginning of this month.  The month is not over and the jury is still out.  I am in the deep end, but I am still swimming.

No collection of pictures around here is complete without a picture of Freckles Marie and her funny, funny face.

A picture of a margarita sundae at Tumbleweed on a Mom's night out.  I'm not sure why they call it that because all it is is ice cream and chocolate sauce in what I believe is a martini glass. 

My first set of letters from a recent game up UpWords with Mom.

Day off.

I had my day off yesterday.  I am still not feeling 100%.  I don't even think I'm operating at half my usual strength.  I had to sit down in Michael's Crafts yesterday.  I sat on a ladder in the yarn aisle while waiting for my daughter to finish yarn shopping.  It led to an interesting conversation with another customer who was surprised to see me sitting there.  Hey, you gotta do what you got to do and when an infection has been ravaging you for 6 weeks or so, you sits.  Lately I've had a hard time with things that normally don't even phase me in the tiniest bit, visiting my friend in the hospital, grocery shopping, washing the dishes - yesterday cleaning the bathroom made me feel kind of faint, but hey, I've got to keep functioning.    I didn't go volunteer yesterday because I am weaker than I was last week and I didn't think I could do the stairs and all the walking and standing.   I will finish my fourth antibiotic on Sunday and I guess we'll go from there, though my feeling is that this one is not working as well.  I'd appreciate any prayers or even warm fuzzy thoughts.

This is how my daughter is. 

Despite my issues the kids are thriving and going right along with their school schedules.  As usual, Friday is a big day for them due to some procrastination, but hopefully it won't be too awfully bad today.  We'll see, I guess.

Not so much.

I'm sure that my long time blog readers could have predicted this, but we didn't leave our newly turned over leaves turned over for long.  We were our lazy selves today, mostly and not a lot of school work got done, along with very little housework and no exercise.  My daughter did babysit.  I went to the grocery.  My husband did kitchen duty.  The kids did the bare minimum of school work.  I did try very persistently to get some medical transcription done but there was not much work.  Today was my followup for my urinary tract infection and I the bad news is I still have an infection.  I am on my fourth antibiotic now.  I am still running a fever.  To be honest, I had mixed feelings about the news.  On one hand, I was disappointed that I'm not better yet.  On the other hand, since I still feel like crap, if it wasn't still an infection we were going to have start doing more lab work and scans and try and figure out what in the world is making me feel so bad.  So it's good and bad at the same time.  :-/

Tomorrow I am training on a different aspect of my job so I can do editing for speech recognition computer generated reports.  Its not the best time in my life to do training because I don't feel good, but I've got to do something. 

Kind of turning over a new leaf.

I don't know what came over us all this morning, but I have gotten out of bed with a resolve to accomplish as much as possible today and the kids seem to have too.  For me, I think that it is because it is my last day of antibiotics and I feel okay so far today.  I have to go in tomorrow and get another culture done to see if the infection has cleared, and I felt absolutely horrible yesterday, so we'll see I guess, if this crisis has passed.   So anyway, I have set an alarm on my tablet and each time it goes off, once per hour, I am getting up and moving around and exercising.  I need to build my strength back up.  Also, the kids got up out of bed and immediately started doing their cleaning and dishwashing chores and with the dishwasher, washer and dryer humming in the background, they have started their school work.  Nice.

Also today, we are preparing to send a box to the oldest in Mississippi.  His 21st birthday is this week so we are going to try and get a package to him by then.  We have a few things we made him, a shirt he left here when he went back to school, a birthday card in it so far and we will fill the rest up with snacks.  He's gluten free and dairy free, so snacking is kind of difficult sometimes.  :-P.  I had some gluten free doughnuts shipped to him from Amazon but they won't be there until next week.  He said that he thinks his friends are planning something so he's kind of glad the doughnuts will come later so he can stretch out the celebration and maybe minimize the weight gain .. LoL. 

Fun, Fun, Fun.

We had a great day yesterday.  One of our homeschool group members has recently moved to a neighboring state, about a 2 hour drive away and we went up to her house yesterday.  She fed us 2 meals, lunch and dinner and in between we played games and visited and just had a wonderful time!  We played UpWords, Telestrations, basketball, football, ping pong, Yu-Gi-Oh - some of these were the kids and some were the moms.  :-)  We also brought our art journals and sketchbooks and shared them.  It was a great day.  I'd like to be able to afford to do that pretty frequently but it's a pretty expensive drive, unfortunately.

Maybe we can plan it for every other month or something?

Quiet!

That's the message that I got when I got back from the dentist.  Be quiet because the baby is sleeping.  I don't know what kind of morning they have had because I was sleeping in, then getting ready for the dentist and then going to the dentist.  Now half the day is gone and I'm banished into the bedroom with the dogs, trying to be quiet.  If I go in the other room without the dogs, Freckles scratches on the door and barks for me, which is not conducive to quietness.  :-) 

So what else have we been up to?  I have been resting and taking it easy, trying to get over this urinary tract infection that has plagued me and seriously weakened me for the last month.  Last night for the first time in a long time, my body indicated that it felt like moving a bit and it was tired of resting so I did a little activity last night.  I'm still not back to normal but maybe that is a hopeful sign.  Last night I also watched Les Miserables.  I'm probably showing my lack of culture but here goes.  I knew it was a musical, but I did not realize that the whole entire thing was sung.  It seems kind of crazy to me.  I wonder if it is a love it or hate it kind of thing or if everyone else just pretends to like it, but I don't like it.  It's weird.  Nonetheless, I watched the whole thing and now I can check that off my list.  Seen it.  Heard it.  Don't care to again, thanks.    I tend to be that way about a lot of things that other people love.  Gone with the Wind - Meh.  Wizard of Oz - Yuck.  That witch starred in every nightmare I had as a child.  So probably, it's just me.

At the dentist today I had a strange, not pleasant experience.  Some of the water they were shooting into my mouth went up my nose and I had to really try hard to breathe and not to panic.  Every breath was delayed by the movement of that fluid, up and down in my nasal passages.  I couldn't get it out even thought the dentist let me sit up and snort and cough and various other things to try and get it out so I had to endure it.  It felt like drowning.  However, I did not drown and thankfully then dentist and his assistant were efficient and quick.  I am sure glad that is over.  :-P

Now to see if I have the strength to do my volunteer shift tonight.  Boy has this infection taking the oomph out of me. 
 

Growing up.

My youngest just came and told me that, after what happened last Friday (getting his school work done very late) he has grounded himself from my tablet this week.  I guess grounding yourself is a sign of growing up?

Unrelated to that, this is a fun video.
Bohemian Gravity.

I guess I am.

I guess I am hanging in there.  I got to see all my homeschool buddies yesterday.  We had 4H.  The kids had a great drawing lesson taught by a real artist in our group and then an ASL - American Sign Language lesson, which was really great too.  Afterwards we went to Taco Bell.  I had looked up Taco Bell's menu on line and despite how easy it is to make tacos that are gluten free, they don't even try, so I found the one meal we could order there which was a Cantina Bowl, which was absolutely disgusting.  Both of us picked a few bites of the meat out of it and then threw it away.  If you order this, ask for the slimy green dressing to be on the side, that way you can decide if you like it before drowning your food in it.   Hey, at least the company was good.  When I came home, I had to cook because my daughter and I were both hungry and she doesn't do the gluten free sandwiches like my son does when he is home so she is more dependent on my cooking.  So at 9:00 p.m. last night, despite spending a couple of hours at a restaurant, I had to cook.  Not fun.

Weird lazy weekend.

On Saturday we had taken mom up to see the assisted living facility.  She says sometimes that she wants to live in one and sometimes she doesn't.  I understand.  It's difficult.  So Saturday she said that she didn't and Sunday she said that she might.  We'll see I guess.  What I really want is for mom to be okay and to be able to remember things and able to take care of herself.  What I really know that I can't do is invite mom to live with us.   So that leaves us with these 2 choices, stay home alone as she is (which she says she doesn't like) or move to the assisted living facility (which she says she doesn't want to do).  It feels like we are between a rock and a hard place. 

I still have not been feeling well and so I took it pretty easy this weekend.  I'm not sure why all of the other members of my family felt the need to not do anything ... but anyway.  The kids have been trying to bend the rules regarding screen time on Sundays and I have been letting them, but yesterday was the last day.  It was a beautiful day outside and they spent the whole day watching TV while I took a much needed nap.   Now officially they won't need any screen time on Sundays for about 2 months, having gotten it all done yesterday.  If only they could get that far ahead on their school work.  :-P

The fourth one.

Okay, after 2 days of the antibiotics I was on, it was switched again.  This is the fourth antibiotic that I have had ordered for me, though only the third one I have taken, due to a missed phone call.  I really hope that I feel much better soon and stay feeling better.  I felt pretty good on Thursday and was able to volunteer, but then on Friday, I felt worse again.  So who knows?  At this moment, I feel okay so I'm just going to go with it and try and get some work done.  I have been working through this whole illness, but due to feeling so bad and needing to frequently lie down, I have not been as productive as usual.  So now I need to get busy, but we are low on work today so I guess I'll have to see how it goes.  We are having some really pleasant cool weather today and the air smells like fall, though the trees are still green.  I really enjoy fall.  I hope I get my health back to enjoy it.  Health is one of things you really miss when it goes away. :-P 

Feeling better. Thank goodness.

I have been on my antibiotics for several days now and I feel so much better.  Thank goodness.  I still don't feel 100% but  I was able to volunteer tonight and I really enjoyed it.  I was also able to get some housework done before I went, which is the first time in a long time I have felt like doing any of that.  :-)   I don't like it, but it's nice to be able to do it without feeling like I'm going to pass out.  School seems to be going better this week too.  The kids don't seem to be leaving too much until Friday, but pacing themselves a little bit better.  We're settling into our rhythm for this school year I guess.

Anyway, that's it.  I don't have any profound thoughts today.  I'm too tired. 

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure how I feel about the assisted living facility thingy.  It seems like a nice place.  Actually, I might like living there myself.  No responsibilities.  Housekeeping.  Laundry.  Three meals a day.  I just don't know if my mom will adjust well to it.  That's the question.  If she is happy, I will be happy.  I guess.  I will still be losing the home I grew up in and we won't be able to have Christmas at her house and everything, but honestly, last Christmas was sad there anyway  Alzheimer's disease is brutal, there's no question about that.  So although what I really want is for mom to be well, she's not and my brother and I need to try and find the best option otherwise.  It really wasn't that bad going up there.  The people were nice and all of our questions were answered the way we would want them to be answered.  We can take her out whenever we want, she can have guests whenever she wants, etc.  My brother is going to take her up there Saturday and see what she thinks about it.  Also, the lady said that mom could stay temporarily without a contract and see how that goes.  It's difficult to know what to do.  I guess we'll just muddle through.

Finally.

I finally got back into the doctor today and here's the story of why I have been feeling so, so bad.  I went to the doctor mid August and was found to have a urinary tract infection.   It was a very busy time, right around the state fair.  At some point, the doctor's office called me and I called them back and left a message, but then I forgot about it and they never called me back to my knowledge.  So anyway, the message was that they had done a culture and whatever the bacteria was, was resistant to the antibiotic that they gave me and so they called me in another one.  I had no idea about any of this,  and so I've been trying to carry on.  I've been very busy, but I have not felt well at all.  At this point, my standing/working tolerance is about 5 minutes because I am very weak.  So I went in today and the NP said that I still had an infection and asked about finishing my second prescription and that's when this story came out.  I didn't feel well enough to wait around for an hour at the pharmacy for my prescription, so I came home and my husband has gone back to get it for me.   I am hopeful that I will feel better tomorrow because my brother and I have an appointment at the assisted living facility.  :-(

I really want to lie down, but the phone would probably get me up.  I probably will have to wait until my husband gets back to get any rest, so he can field the phone calls.   One of the kids won't even answer the phone and the other one is questionable.  :-P

Monday. :-(

I'm trying to work.  I'm trying to blog.  I'm trying to hang in there.  Sometimes though it is just stressful.  My brother and I are trying to work out/decide whether or not my mom's needs are pointing us towards an assisted living facility.  It is very sad and the weight of trying to make a decision is weighing on me very, very heavily.  Also I am sick and I need to make a doctor's appointment, but I'm trying to get the preoperative history and physicals typed at my job this Monday morning while simultaneously trying to arrange to visit my friend in the hospital tonight and trying to field 1000 phone calls (okay 3, but they all lasted at least 20 minutes) about my mom.

Calgon?

It's not even noon.

The kids aren't even up, much less doing school.  You'd think the phone would wake them, but it doesn't.

Sigh.


UPDATE:  It's afternoon.  The phone hasn't given me as much of a break as I'd like but the kids have gotten up and started school.  I am out of work and seriously considering trying to get a nap in  before going to the hospital tonight.   I wrote a note on my calendar in the notes section that said "Try not to go completely insane."  and I was going to take a picture of it with my new tablet and post it, but as usual, the darn thing baffles me and I can't figure out how. 

Blah.

Friday.

It's Friday and consequently, there is some schoolwork around here that needs to be done.  Yes, they are up to their old tricks again, waiting until Friday on as much of the work as they can, but I think I do see a glimmer of improvement.  I think maybe it's not as bad as last year and the consequences are in place, they believe in them, they are motivated to get it done by bedtime on Friday.  That's something I guess.  We've got a craft night at church tonight and we are going to Mod Podge and make flower bouquets and I am looking forward to it.  I hope we have a good turnout and everyone has a nice time.   I made no-bake cookies with gluten free oats in them so my daughter and I will have a snack.  She has joined me, at least temporarily in my gluten free journey.  She says it makes her feel better so she will probably keep it up. 

So, I'll try and post pictures of the crafts we make tonight.  :-) 

Reading around the web this morning.

Freely Educate has a bunch of great resources pinned to Pinterest here.  

This article for homeschooling moms is awesome.

 And this one is fun too.

Not breaking our stride.

All of us, except my oldest in Mississippi who took a much needed day off (according to him) went ahead and worked yesterday.  My job offers holiday bonuses and my husband's job pays triple time, so we couldn't turn that down, so I talked to the kids about it and they had no problem with going ahead and working.   School seems to be going well.  We took a nice long break and now everyone is fine with getting back to work.  I love that they are having to do chores again, how bad is that?  If you remember from last year, we have a chore chart and the later they get up, the more chores they have to do.  It's supposed to serve as an inspiration to get up, but it doesn't work all that well and they get up at about the same time - maybe a little earlier - look at the chart and know they have to clean.  It's great.  I do try to wake them up about once an hour, telling them to get up and reminding them of the consequences of not getting up, but it doesn't work all that well.  For them. (Muah-ha-ha!)  

Anyway, the new routine seems to be falling into place.  We have had to make some minor adjustments to the school schedule and clarify a few expectations as we have gone on (now starting our second week).  Oldest son reports that this semester is difficult.  He's got Spanish, algebra and music theory, (he's minoring in music) which he describes as trying to do algebra without knowing the basic numerals or having any background in math whatsoever.  I believe that he can do it though.  Interestingly, he's also playing the piano in music theory class.  I had no idea he'd do that.  If I had, I would have put him in piano lessons with his sister all summer.  I think that would have helped a lot as she is learning the notes, learning to sight read and becoming familiar with the keyboard. 

And here on the home front, no one is complaining about algebra II or geometry or the workload we have assigned so we may need to ramp it up a bit, LoL.  We'll see, I guess.  With my daughter, she only has a few things to finish up and with my son, his main thing is his dysgraphia/dyslexia so we are focusing on writing, spelling and literacy. 

Zoey.

As for new routines, I decided that since the weather is nice, I would take my coffee outside and get a little quiet time/nature time in the mornings and a little visit with the cats, Zoey and Zelda..  This, unfortunately did not work because of the darn new puppy.  She is the MOST hyper dog I have ever seen and she wanted to bite my hands and feet, which did not make for a peaceful meditative time.   Sigh.   

Not a lot.

We did not do much of anything today and it was GREAT. Really.  We went to church, came home, took a nap, watched some Mythbusters and just goofed off.  All day.  Did I mention, it was great?  Best of all, the phone did not even ring one time.  I love it when that happens.  :-)  I painted some backgrounds for some art journal pages and did some cooking, trying my hand at a no-tomato spaghetti sauce.  The jury is still out.  I haven't actually eaten any of it.  I made dirty rice and we ate that.  Tomorrow, I may try and make some lasagna.  I'm not sure.  Little tastes of the sauce have not been very promising.  Maybe after it sits in the fridge overnight and the flavors mingle a bit more?  I don't know if I mentioned, but I have been trying to go "nightshade free" which means no tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes or peppers.  I can tell it makes a difference in my joint pains, so I am going to stick with it for the most part.  I think that it is something that you can just cut down on, unlike gluten, which causes a huge reaction with just the tiniest bit.  I can eat a little bit of potato, for example, there is potato flour in the gluten free baking mix that I buy, but I don't need to eat a lot.  That's way easier than going gluten free was. 

Anyway, that's it for today.  Tomorrow, even though it is labor day, I'll be working and probably the kids will do school.  We'll see.