THURSDAY

THIS day is going well. Arielle and Nolan and I got all the reading done that we missed on Monday - Wednesday, as well as today’s reading finished. Jared woke up feeling nauseated but seems to be feeling better this afternoon. He also got school done. Josiah got everything done before I had to take him to work. Jamin decided not to go to practice/training today and is still plugging away at work. I decided to skip homeschool park day because Zander is on day 3 of toilet training and I don’t want to set him up for failure. I can’t believe how incredibly easy this training is going…no accidents at all yesterday or today. I am a firm believer in waiting until a CHILD is ready to train because then it is so easy and Mom doesn’t have to remember to check every 2 hours…but since Zander turned 4 on 8 Feb, he really tested the “wait till their ready” theory. {g} I have NOT a CLUE why he’s in Arielle’s trash can – but there he was.

Nolan and I zipped Josiah to work and took the opportunity to eat Nolan’s first meal (maybe my second?) at Chick-fil- A. We loved watching Josiah work….”Will that be all maam?”, “Can I help you maam?” Ah, he’s a jewel – nah not a jewel a rugged piece of granite! Nolan and I went to a local grocery store to get the ingredients for our healthy drink for the shower. We still made it to speech 10 minutes early.

Speech went WONDERFUL for Nolan today. Miss Natalie says that he self-corrected and even said en-VE – lope…..three syllables with a “V” sound…way to go Nolan. We stopped to pick up balloons for the shower after speech. We were on our way to get the cake when I got a call that Stacia was crying.

I came home. She was asleep. I did a quick clean up…I love the cleaning apron that Mike got me for Christmas. All that is left to do on the house is to sweep and mop the kitchen. I’ll pick up the cake after I get Josiah from work…in about 30 minutes. I’d hoped for a nap but that will come later…..maybe.

Stacia did not do well last night…very fussy with the shots. For some reason Zander was also up and crying. This busy, busy day is going so well I even have time to journal some of it before 10 p.m. {vbg}

"Christmas" in the mail

Woohoo - "A Woman After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George arrived today from PBS. It's in NEW condition. This makes me realize that I'll NEVER be able to swap my non-fiction, self-help type books. I suppose there must be some drawback to reading with a pen. {G} I'll have to be content with swapping children's books, non-fiction that evoked no response in me and fiction. {G}

QUICK PRAYER REQUESTS

Jared woke up not feeling well. He is quarantined in his room. I wonder if I'm the only mom who insists on that. I've learned over the years that it helps to control the virus. I'm not heartless...when he is done with school {G}, I'll pull the TV out and put it in his room so he can watch some movies or Hogan's Heroes. There seems to be some sort of system here with a child getting ill for each birthday event. I think he is worried about missing the paint ball bash on Saturday....but this didn't last long for Josiah or Nolan. Poor Jamin is going to start wearing a gas mask - they share a room.


Stacia is running a fever and cranky, cranky, cranky....makes me wonder why we didn't delay shots for another couple of years.....

Healthy Drink...

Bingo! Adrienne emailed me the directions for the healthy drink that is popular in our homeschool support group. I'll be sure to save it, compare and combine it with the recipes that Renee sent and I'll be good to go. We'll have unhealthy cake but it should be balanced out by the healthy nuts and drink...right?



Famous Support Group Healthy drink:
Get seltzer water, peach/mango or peach/orange frozen concentrate and add frozen peaches. It is refreshing and good for you and it looks pretty too.

TAXI DRIVER

Some days are just like this….even if you only have one child…I’m sure.

We got some school done. The older three finished. The two that depend on me got about 75% done. We’ve really struggled this week – and I’m not sure why.

I dropped Josiah off at work. I had to run some errands on the base. I had to pick up some more thyroid meds and pay for Saturday’s birthday paint-ball bash. I met Mike for lunch. I dropped by the peds clinic, hoping to make Stacia’s 4 month well-baby appt…YES, SHE IS SIX MONTHS OLD! GRRRRR…..They still don’t have any appointments but I’ll call at 0700 on Friday and maybe they can get her in a month from now. Then, horrors, they realized that if she was 2 appointments behind then her shots would be behind. Not a problem. We delay shots. I did think that 6 months was a good time to start. I denied several shots and agreed to three. The tech recognized Stacia’s last name as “the chaplains” last name and told me how much she enjoys Mike’s weekly "Word from your chaplain". She said they made her cry every day.

While leaving the Peds clinic I got a call from a friend who I had told about the Feingold diet. She was excited to report that she’d seen marked changes in her son after two days. We used this diet for about 1 ½ years when Jamin was 4. We are gathering all the info to begin it again with Zander. I raced home…had 5 more min to talk with her on the phone…then drove Jamin to FOOTBALL PRACTICE! Can you believe it? What’s up with football practice in FEBRUARY when the first game isn’t until the end of AUGUST???? Jamin isn’t sure if he will join the team next year, but coach thought the training would be good…so off we went. It turns out that the “practice” is only one hour a day…but its five days a week. Not sure what Jamin will decide to do. This is amazing….9 months out of the year devoted to football. Wow. I came home and began dinner. I ran to pick up Jamin. Next stop was the mall to pick up Josiah from work. Then home. Finished dinner, talked with a friend on the phone, served dinner, cleaned up, family worship and now it’s time to end this day.

My calendar for tomorrow looks horrendous….lots and lots of conflicts. My friend asked me how she could help and I couldn’t even figure out what I needed. Driving Josiah to work and Jamin to practice is a kink in my schedule…..Josiah could drive himself but I need the car to get Jamin where he needs to be…it’s too far to ride a bike and we don’t have buses out this way. I need the car to take Nolan to speech anyway…and pick up cake and balloons for the shower….THAT will be fun! I’ll just keep thinking about being able to rest and relax with a houseful of ladies celebrating the addition of a new blessing to a friend’s family…and I’ll get through the rest of the day the best I can.

Potty Training update

It was not a fluke! He got up this a.m. and "made bubbles" again. He's quite proud of himself. He was wet when he woke up...but he's getting it.

I was sure you'd want to know.

WELL!!! WHAT do YOU know???

Zander loves his new cloth “pull-ups”. I am convinced that the disposable ones keep an unobservant child from realizing when he is wet. All morning he would start to go and say, “oh no” and then we’d run to the toilet. He’d sit. Nothing. We’d repeat.

Around lunch time I was thinking “Well at LEAST he now knows what we mean by wet and he doesn’t like it.”

He was in the room and said again, “oh no”. I rushed him to my toilet. I had a bit of a time convincing him to go to my bathroom. I finally told him I’d be right outside the door putting on my makeup. He was content to sit. Soon, I HEARD the most welcome noise I’ve heard in months. I didn’t want to rush in and stop the flow – know what I mean? I waited. Then I peeked around the corner. He was staring at himself and said “WELL!! What do YOU know?” :::snort::: I made the appropriate celebratory noises…o.k. I was excitedly screaming and applauding his accomplishment. Josiah came in and gave him a “high 5”. He told Cy, “I did that in the toilet”. I continued putting on make-up and he proceeded to go back into the bathroom and create a potty training dance. Yep, a dance for EVERY occasion seems to be his motto.

Later today I had to run out for a bit. When I got back home, Zander met me at the door and said, “MOM – I made BUBBLES in the toilet!!!”

I think we are well on our way now. In fact, if he keeps this up, I think he’ll be trained within the week. I went to put a diaper on him at bed time and he really wanted to wear a pull-up. I still have some of the disposable left and put one of those on him. I suspect by the time I’ve used the last of these diapers and pull-ups he’ll be trained.

Yippee…doing my own potty training dance! {vbg}