Things to be grateful for...

Even though a pipe under my floor is broken and preventing us from using our kitchen drain...we can still wash dishes. It takes more time, and we all need to be even more careful about ensuring all food scraps are scraped into the garbage, we can still flush the dirty dish water down the hall bathroom toilet, and we're managing. The world is only running slower, but has not be forced to come to a complete stand still here in our home.

Breakfast still happens! ...our daily bread...

I have a wonderful husband who knows what I ACTUALLY like. That red mug was my one and only truly needed and desired thing I received under our tree this year. (He also got me fragrance free tallow and goat milk soaps for my stocking). While there were other well meaning gifts, I can't use any of them, and now have to find them new homes. Yes, I know this makes me sound ungrateful, but I can't lie, and feel it's a disservice to pretend to like things. Anyhow, being allergic and sensitive to perfumes and much of modern day chemicals (which I've been avoiding for many years now), some presents aren't really gifts I can enjoy; as I can't even touch them. However, I don't have to pretend I like  the set of oversized "red" coffee mugs, because I  genuinely like and will use them daily for as long as they will last.... Say I just noticed, this dime store plate in my picture, a present I received before heading off to college so many years ago. Most of my dishes don't even match, nor are any longer part of a complete set, but with six kids, and future military moves sometime in our future, I think it's foolish to get anything beyond what we need for our daily, regular meals. So I'm grateful for my beautiful red coffee mugs, and the cheap plate that hasn't broken (even if I've long grown out of love with it's style).

And while trying to figure out how to fix our pipes, and by whom, and with what money....and often feeling like we ought to just flee our home to escape the endless barrage of shocking repairs...we're grateful it's only pipes and water, and not some terrorist group trying to destroy our very lives. When you think about your worries, realize they pale in comparison to those of those being persecuted in so many parts of our world today.

Drain pain update

Pipe is broken. At the very least the laundry room floor will need to be excavated... Maybe more. The drain guy that came this morning, while he waved the consultation fee, didn't feel he could do anything to fix it, and referred us on to a contractor friend. So at the moment, no dishwasher, no laundry, and washing dishes in our plastic tubs to avoid water going down the drain. I'm praying it won't rain, because our outside drain could cause the house to flood.

I wonder if I should call our homeowner insurance? Guessing this wouldn't be covered.  

Drain Pain

Oh the joys of home ownership! Even though we had our laundry room drain snaked just a few short months ago, over the past month it had began to back up again. Our go-to plumber has never been able to give us an explanation as to why this drain always spews out garbage disposal waste from the kitchen drain above, and always classified them as separate issues. While this might be true in some extent, when this drain is backing up, the water is always coming from the kitchen line.

With the emergency fund depleted from the "urgent" bathroom redo, our hope rested on the right tool, a rented power snake auger from the (not so nearby) big box hardware store, and we sought to remedy the clog ourselves over the weekend. Unfortunately, despite funneling the twisting coil into our drain for several hours, we were unsuccessful in clearing the line. Inadvertently, things got a little worse when the auger drill bit disconnected from the line and became trapped in our pipe. Our blind attempts at retrieving the bit failed, though we were able to bring up several broken bits from much smaller (probably manual) snake lines that had broken in our pipe some time (before us) in the past. In addition, most ominously, we hit on what seemed to be a deep amount of what we think is marine clay. This entire area sits atop marine clay, which expands and contracts as the ground becomes saturated or dries. Not Biblically inspired, our founding father's selected a swamp upon which to build their capital city, and of course the surrounding area is much the same consistency.

While the auger rental cost us a little under $100, our DYI efforts aren't going to fix this, and neither is our go-to plumber. Tomorrow a drain specialist is set to come scope the drain with a camera and I hope it's not as bad as I suspect.

Incidentally, today we met with a lawyer to see where we stand with the surprise invoice the bathroom contractor sent several weeks after the "final invoice" was sent, and my "paid in full" check was cashed. They claim they screwed up the invoice (the original appeared accurate and was as expected and the second was very questionable) and are claiming we now owe them over $1,300 more. Not surprisingly, they've recently run afoul with Angie's List and this once A rated business has all of a sudden been stripped of their search engine and advertising privileges. While I've yet to place any feedback from our transaction, my guess is I'm not the only one who is currently having issues with this company. It's rather unfortunate too, because we have so much more work to be done in our home and I had hoped this would be our go-to company for some of the other things we need to have done in our home, but that notion is gone. I just pray this can be settled justly.

Oral Surgery Update

Today we had a successful visit with the oral surgeon. While parking was still a PITA, everything else went smoothly. The Combeam CT showed that my son's supernumerary tooth was free and clear of the permanent tooth, and the subsequent extraction was relatively quick and easy. Since we got up a lot earlier than usual, so we're all smoked.

The bathroom is almost done, but I discovered a major problem with the function of the tub faucet that was installed. While the tub "looks" ever so inviting, I can only draw a cold water bath right now. It's only a problem because our water is heated in an unconventional way that makes the average single valve fixture dysfunctional in our home. The on-demand water heating requires separate controls for the temperature and volumes. So I've been back on the hunt for a fixture that is both compatible with the rough in valve (which thankfully is a universal model) and our current trim finish. Of course finding this ridiculously expensive fixture locally wasn't happening. While it was still expensive, the supposedly correct faucet type was available online for a little less and should arrive tomorrow. Till then, it's showers in the old blue bath.

Helicopter parenting; unsustainable

How Baby Boomers Ruined Parenting Forever... interesting...

Would love to hear your thoughts.

The sandy beach bathroom

We used to call this our pink bathroom, but now it's the sandy beach bathroom in honor of the tile name. After another long day the workers pulled out with just a few odds and ends that will be attended to sometime later this week. By tomorrow everything will be dry enough that we'll be able to let the kids take a bath in the new tub. Since we've been showering them in the "blue" bathroom we've established a routine which will have to be altered once again.

Being Veteran's Day, my husband accompanied us to our regular speech and occupational therapy appointments. Watching the kids allowed me to attend my eldest son's therapy sessions that I might glean from whatever methods his therapists employed. On the whole I'd say I was surprised at the way his posture changed during his sessions. While he's generally cooperative, he seems much more prone to fidgeting during speech. Nothing was beyond his capability, but he seemed bored by the speech activities. You could clearly tell from his body language how engaged in the subject he was. Finally towards the end of speech he began to sit forward more and lean into the subject matter. I noticed a lot was accomplished in a shorter amount of time, than say at home, when he was being engaged with some activity of some sort mixed in with the speech tasks. For example he got to spin the spinner to select the questions. Given the sensory motion of the spinner it seemed to satisfy this need to move something while sitting still.

Occupational therapy is all about moving, and I was surprised to see the amount of movement he craved unleashed upon the giant "cloud" pads, and the bolster swing. Lately, he has been rather sluggish, but this past week he has begun to move again. One morning he woke up early and got a jump start on his chore (emptying the dishwasher). This afternoon he asked his father if he could earn money raking the leaves out of the gutter in front of the house. He pulled the blower out of the shed all on his own, and proceeded to bag almost four bags worth of leaves, until it became too dark outside for my comfort. Later he presented his father with an invoice for the work he'd done along with the request for the pay he was due. So his level of initiative seems to be flowing at the moment after a long spell of ebbing.

Fall colors

Looking our my window this afternoon, the clouds rolled in and the sky dimmed to a steal-blue haze, which seemed to perfectly offset the transitioning trees in the foreground. Growing up I never knew what beauty fall colors could bring. My picture book impression was that of ugly orange, yellow, and browns leaves cut from construction paper. Leaves don't change in Southern California, and I think they are truly missing out. That place is no longer my home. Anywhere that is barren of trees could never feel like home to me now.

Even though leaves falling bring about a whole new round of allergens, which make my eyes itch and nose stuffy, I have come to dearly love this time of year for the sake of the brilliant colors it brings. Fire red, blazing orange, and golden hues of yellow and brown mixed with the last vestiges of withering green just light my heart aglow.

Someone very perceptive and wise once pointed out that tree trunks and branches aren't brown, but gray. Indeed this is true! When decorated with the color pallet of autumn gray looks so good. It makes perfect sense. I can't help but feel awe and inspiration when I look out the window and imagine these shades somehow serving as accents in my own humble abode, which is nothing close to magazine décor.

I blog because I like talking to myself...

yeah that's it ;)

Na, I just need to share my excitement with someone... or nobody at all. I do miss the old days of blogger...before facebook ruined us all.

Bathroom update: Looks like all the tile is up and tomorrow they will begin grouting. We're all so eager to try out our new bathtub. I haven't had a bath in so long. The sooner I can stop using our "blue" bath shower the more relieved I'll be. As the last vestige of 1966 era tile work in the home, I'm constantly afraid the children will yank a towel rack off the "blue" bath wall as well. They just can't seem to not grab onto those things. This evening one of them was caught using the towel rack as a grab bar to climb onto the trash can in order to turn on the light. Usually we have these neat little light switch extenders on the switch so they can reach, but not in the "blue" bath, which they usually don't use. I don't think it's irrational to fear they could cause more irreparable damage to the integrity of the current tile finish, and destroy another bathroom in the house. As you can guess we're not installing anything that could be yanked off the wall into the new bathroom. Even the toilet paper holder is going to be freestanding. Anyone who moves in after we're done here can install anything they like (provided they buy the place).

Oral Surgery Update: With just a week to go before our next appointment with the Oral surgeon, my cold feet were beginning to freeze. After some research I learned that it's not always necessary to pull fused teeth. While a rare occurrence, in cleft affected individuals it can be much more common. There were a few research articles, mainly case studies, describing the successful sectioning and modification of a central incisor which has a supernumerary (extra) tooth fused to it. At our first consultation our Surgeon had stated his plan for a possible fusion would be complete extraction to follow up with an implant in a few years, the logistics for which would probably be a nightmare given our the possibility we won't even be living here in a few years. After explaining all this to my son (minus the logistical complications of course), he indicated he didn't want his whole tooth pulled and would rather keep his real tooth than have to have a fake one later. So over the last few days I've been tearing apart my bags trying to find the doctor's business card so I could contact him about our concerns ahead of time.

Serendipitously, a phone call this evening from the Oral Surgeon has brought us great relief. He wanted us to arrive earlier than scheduled so they can do a Com Beam CT scan to determine the exact status of teeth in question. This timely call was heaven sent, allowing me to express my son's wishes and getting a better understanding of all our feared unknowns. I can't explain how much better I feel about this up coming appointment.

Close election elation

Having done my civic duty, expecting to have very little impact on the results of our local election, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how close the senate election was in our state. Staying up, perhaps a little too late, waiting to see how the race would be called, I experienced the disappointment in seeing my candidate's shocking lead of a few percentage points dissipate to trailing by a few thousand votes. As of yet the race has been deemed too close to call, and results have yet to be officiated. A recount is likely. While my voting experience via paper ballot went off without a hitch, other's have reported experiences with voter machines that would not allow them to select the republican candidate, instead switching their vote selection to the incumbent democrat. However, this turns out, the surprise showing for my party has been electrifying.


Finally, the mental image I've held of my master bathroom is coming to fruition, with tiling of the bathtub surround underway. It's likely tile work will require another three days, with bathroom completion probably delayed until early next week.

Week 2 bathroom re-do

I feel like we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All of the walls are back up, and I think they "might" begin tile work tomorrow.

Instead of a soap dish we're getting a large box alcove thing, high enough so the little people in our house won't be quite so tempted to climb it. I suppose that even if they did, it's part of the wall, so I don't think they could tear it down.

I let the little folks take a peak this evening after the workers had gone home, so they might see what all has been done. They sure are eager to try out the new bathtub. I'm looking forward to getting all the bathroom stuff out of my room and back into its closet.

This is Halloween

Being day five of bathroom renovation, our day started dark and early that we might be dressed and appropriate when the workers arrived. Today they installed an ventilation fan, a new feature we've had in mind for a very long time. While that seemed to take up a lot of their time, they put up more green board, still leaving the surround boards for next week I suppose. Meanwhile, our vanity and shower curtain rod arrived. We've decided to forgo the usual towel racks (which would inevitably get pulled off the wall no doubt) in favor of a double rod shower curtain rod, that we plan to use as our towel rack. It also appears the pipes for the shower and bath fixtures have been re-worked with a new valve installed which will be compatible with the fixtures. Work will resume Monday, and I'm looking forward to not waking up to the sound of an alarm tomorrow.

My dear husband has had very little sleep this week, as he worked extra long hours and completed two term papers for the classes he's taking this year. I suspect he'll be hibernating this weekend to make up for his sleep deficit.

We decided to try a different trick or treating route this year veering into the neighborhood that boarders our own since we're just one street over. This other route has more sidewalks, and the houses seem closer together. Our neighborhood is parceled off into slightly larger lots and many of the properties are not easy to access when trick or treating, though many of the residents make an effort to sit at the edge of their driveways to make things easier for trick or treaters. This evening felt quit chilly, and our neighborhood wasn't as animated as usual at night fall. However, just one street over, and it was clear where all the activity was. Once there I finally began to see all the Elsa's I'd expected to see, and a few Ironmans as well.

Before long our Ironman was so tired and cranky, neither wanting to walk nor ride in the stroller, he had to be coaxed every so slowly back around several blocks towards home. Turning down our ghostly street, it was clear most of our senior, childless households had turned in for the night. Much to our surprise the large bowl of candy we'd left out at the end of our driveway, lit with jack-o-lanterns, was still filled with candy. I don't think any of it was taken. Good thing we bought the chocolate variety we all like, then! Originally, I was to stay home and pass out candy, my assumption that not much traffic would pass our way, causing my compulsion to skip staying home worked out. I'm glad we all went out together this year. I surely didn't miss much by not staying home.

Not the right finish

The bathroom is finally departing the demolition stage, though currently, most of the parts and pieces are still in boxes in my garage. Upon examining all the things the contractor has purchased I noticed the drain assembly for the tub has chrome finish, which isn't exactly in line with all the oil-rubbed bronze I've selected for everything else. After researching the options extensively, I've learned there aren't any oil-rubbed bronze options available in store. I'm going to have to let this one go for a little bit. It may be possible to swap out just the caps and drain cover later...if the parts are compatible with a kit available online.

Why am I changing the finish colors? Last year, after our kitchen sink faucet began to leak, we replaced it with a dark bronze fixture, which complemented our vintage 1966 original to the house cabinet hardware, and always looks good. I'm never bothered by unsightly water spots, finger prints, or obvious smudge marks as experienced with our former chrome model. I like the dark contrast of the fixtures, especially given I'm going with a very light (earthy) tile.

The timeline that was given aims to have work completed within 10 business days. So far it's been four days and I'd say 10 sounds about right given how time intensive this all seems to be. My three-year-old sure misses his bathroom, and everyday asks if they're done yet. He is regressing some in the toilet training department, which seems to be in part to his ingrained impulse to only use "my" bathroom. It never occurred to me that he would throw a fit at having to use the "blue" bathroom instead. Today, after the workers had cleaned up and departed, I took him in to show him the progress so he could see just how much more needs to be done. At least he can see a bathtub. They still need to install the green board around the tub, so I doubt we'll get to see tile work before next week.

I was saving for...

Each of the kids has a savings account with the goal to put aside money for their future needs. Recently there was an article about a father of 8 who would not save for college because he felt it was the child's responsibility to find a way to pay for it and that to do so would stifle their development. I do not disagree with him, however, I would still like to save money to help towards college.

Up to right now I'd never touched any of the money we've saved for the kids. Soon I will be making a withdrawal from one child's account to pay for braces as this is an immediate need. Additionally, Since a certain child's refusal to adhere to the no-climbing rule, has caused the necessity of a multi-thousand dollar contract job, I've had to pull funds from said child's account. In keeping with our old testament lessons if you break it you need to make it right. So this child's savings (which is technically her parent's money until she's of age) is going towards paying a portion the bathroom remodel bill). My hope is we'll still have time to recover her savings before she's college age.

Hey Dude, Hang loose!

While driving to speech and OT today we passed a Toyota Prius with a vanity plate that read, "BYK4LYF" or something like that. Yes, literally I passed him as I might pass anyone going a bit slower than myself. There was nothing aggressive about my actions at all and as I'm oft to do I gave wide berth in doing so. Still, this middle aged fellow was making a very unexpected single middle salute against the side of his window as we came within viewing distance. At the time, my thought was "what a nice guy! Perhaps he has a thing against large vans polluting the environment or something." I wondered if he was just carelessly resting his arm held up by his longest digit or if this was seriously some sort of gesture of contempt that I would endeavor to drive into the lane next to him. Perhaps I was blocking out his sun.

Anyway, while there were far more frustrating things today, this guy is just a strange blip on my radar. It only occurred to me much later I might have flashed him the hang loose sign... well, perhaps that's not something he would have recognized anyhow. I suppose I probably did the best thing, and that would be continue driving without paying much attention to the disgruntled man. I'm certain he'd like my husband's car, given half the time there's a bike strapped to the top ;)

No turning back now

The demolition has begun. By the end of the day the bathtub was also gone and all the drywall (or whatever walling was used back when this house was built) was gone. Much to our delight the studs and remaining structure look good (at least to our untrained eye). We didn't see any signs of water seepage or damage what-so-ever.

Though the day was not without a bit of drama. When the workers initially began work they mentioned that they thought we needed to completely removed the radiator piping for the demolition. The contract guy hadn't mentioned our radiator lines being a problem, so this threw me for a spinning loop. After talking to a representative from our oil provider, who also services boilers, we learned that removing and replacing radiator lines is no small task and one they wouldn't likely be able to get to for several weeks. It wouldn't be cheap either. So I told the contractor that touching those pipes was pretty much a no-go. Thankfully, the worker figured out a way to remove the tile on the wall without disturbing the pipes. What a cloud of doom that had been. I couldn't help but feel like such an idiot for not being better prepared. It was such a relief to get back to worrying about what paint color we should select for the wall.

I'm not sure how far they'll get tomorrow, but the original floor is still here, so I imagine there's more demolition to come. We weren't home when they finished today as our long awaited appointment to see the Oral Surgeon was this afternoon.

Should you ever need to get to Bethesda Naval Medical Center, please note that there's virtually no parking for oversized vehicles. Our family vehicle wouldn't clear most of the parking garage spaces, and so eventually my husband had to drop our son and me off at the front door and search for a spot in the NEX parking lot.

While we were ontime for our appointment we wound up waiting perhaps an hour before being seen, and by this point in time much of the staff had gone home, and nobody was available to run the 3-dimensional x-ray that would have been needed to determine the exact nature of the teeth my son has in cleft affected region of his gum line. Perhaps we'd like to schedule another appointment for another time?

Since at that moment we were being seen by a 4th year resident, not the doctor we were suppose to be seeing, I requested that he at least come in, look at the x-rays I had (taken by our awesome dentist) and give me an opinion, as we've already wasted spent two months waiting for the chance to consult with an oral surgeon.

To be perfectly honest, if I were willing and capable of paying 100% out of pocket, we could have consulted with a civilian Oral Surgeon months ago. I was kind of mad at myself for not being more prepared to just go elsewhere. I've got a few names, but no clear path to utilizing our insurance to cover this. When our orthodontist wrote up the consultation request, I contacted the Cleft Team and asked them for a referral. To which the response was, "who said they (The Bethesda Cleft Team's Oral Surgery) couldn't see you?" Then, the cleft team coordinator promised to bring our case up at their next team day meeting. After which I heard nothing for several weeks. Actions, or in this case, inactions speak louder than words.

So in the mean time I ask our dentist to take a look and see if he could pull the "extra tooth." He'd already pulled a tooth from this exact same spot, perhaps all we needed was another simple extraction and the third tooth could descend?  However, his x-ray couldn't guarantee that these teeth weren't fused together, which can happen in cleft cases. So we tried again to get a consultation. After my husband made the call, scanned and sent the consult request, they scrounged up an appointment a month later.

So, after all this waiting, first the couple of months, and then today in the office, to hear "oh perhaps another time" was just a touch aggravating. However, I'm quite proud of myself for not having to drop the "I'm a nurse card" and was able to negotiate some sort of plan out of the doctor today. I suppose I probably come off as over-invested mom, since I didn't use all of the proper terminology, but had essentially verbalized comprehension of the possible scenarios before the surgeon stated them in his terms. Thus, he got right to business in formulating a plan. Either there are two separate teeth and he will extract one, or they are fuses and the whole "deformed" tooth would be removed.  While I'm not sure of the soundness of this plan, and if there might still be a better solution (save if the teeth are fused, could they perhaps shave it or something), at least we have made some forward progress, and have a date (in less than a month thanks to a cancelation). In the mean time I can research this further.

The thing that was most insulting was the whole time we were waiting to be seen, the staff could be heard making jovial idle chit chat in the hall ways. They didn't seem to be very busy at all. Had someone been tracking us from the beginning, they could have been running that x-ray while we waited. Of course nobody was attending to my son's case at all until they'd all gone home. By time we were done consulting with the doctor, the whole place was deserted, building lights out. My impression of the department is it didn't seem very efficient. If I think about it much more I'll be too nervous to allow them to work on him. What if they're this idle and inefficient when my kid is under sedation and his airway could become compromised? Do I trust them with his life? Seriously, while rare, children do sometimes die while undergoing routine procedures all too often because someone was being complacent and neglected to attend to the basic oxygenation needs of the patient... Joan River's being our most recent tragic example. Oy... I'm not feeling very reassured now am I?

Braces: soon it will be two in metal

and we will be so broke!

This week has ben B U S Y. Apart from our regularly full schedule, we had a bunch of additional appointments and Dad had to go out of town for a few days. I signed a contract to have our damaged bathroom fixed and spent a copious amount of time reading reviews on various bathroom accoutrements. I think I've looked at nearly everything in the bathroom sections online and in store at both Lowes and Home Depot. All the kids (except the baby) saw the dentist for the bi-annual dental check up and cleaning. Yes, all in the same day, because our dentist is 1. either crazy    and/or   2. really sweet and understanding. I pick number two.

The following day we had back to back orthodontist appointments for the oldest two children. The eldest is currently in full metal gear, receiving full treatment. While his sister has just finished being evaluated for the necessity of a stage one orthodontic treatment plan. She has quite a few baby teeth in the upper jaw that don't seem to be coming out as quickly as they should. Though the first four permanent teeth are in on the top front, the canines and bicuspids (I think that's it) are so large and crammed in that they aren't descending as they ought, and so they aren't doing a very good job pushing the baby teeth out like they normally would. Meanwhile, one of the front permanent is showing signs of wear from the poor alignment. Everyone is in agreement that we need to start work on her teeth now. So very soon we will have two in braces. The kids have been strongly encouraged to consider becoming orthodontist when they grown up, as it seems to be a very promising and lucrative career.

Our week of the mouth isn't quite over, as Monday the oldest will see the oral surgeon to assess the maloccluded tooth/teeth in the cleft affected region of this gum line. Our dentist couldn't be sure if the x-ray was depicting one giant tooth, or two individual teeth trying to descend into the same spot at the same time.  This appointment will be all the way up in Bethesda and I suppose we should count ourselves lucky we've only waited two months for it.

Go ahead and ask me about bathtubs! Our current, 1966 pink bathtub is cast iron and likely weights a whopping 300-400 lbs. They're going to take a sledge hammer and break it apart before removing it. Many still hold the classic cast iron as the pinnacle of timeless quality, but nobody wants to lug one up a flight of stairs, so we're going with a inexpensive metal cast-iron -want-a-be tub that is hardly half the weight, and I pray equally as nice. My hope is that a white enameled tub will remain undated and timeless. I also picked out the nicest, cheap, porcelain tile I could find at Home Depot, and decided it won't be necessary to tile the entire bathroom wall as it currently stands. We'll save at least $400 by only installing tile floor and bath surround. Pray there aren't any surprises waiting for us behind those walls. The contractor didn't think we had anything to worry about, but you never know. It might take as much as two weeks to complete. I sure hope it goes faster.

It was my husband's turn to bring home the St. Joseph statue from his Covenant Keeper's meeting last week. I wonder if that's a sign for me to drop in a prayerful request to the Holy Family household protector. Sure seems like a good idea, don't it!

Oh the dread of holiday gift procuring

It never gets any easier and inevitably every year I'm overwhelmed by the prospect of having to somehow procure gifts for so many folks. Sometimes I bulk completely and pair back the list in true Grinch fashion. Sometimes I cave and buy insignificant trifles for folks who would probably prefer not have such drivel. However, it's been a some many years since I resorted to loading up a credit card, going into debt over Christmas, and so I'm not about to start that now either.

Last year I read someone's blog mentioning a family tradition of only receiving three gifts per child in accordance to the three gifts the Baby Jesus received from the Magi. How could I keep myself within these confines and still be able to sneak in those dreaded gifts of pajamas, socks, and underpants?  Still we've decided that this year, from the parents at least, each child will only receive three gifts. This should make our family tradition of coming up with hints all the easier as I will default to a new rule for hints which will require the use of the words gold, frankincense, and mire.

How will I plan and implement this gift procuring procedure? So far I've given notice of the changes and requested a highly prioritized Christmas wish list.

We will continue with the drawing of names for the sibling exchange, to be on Thanksgiving. In addition we'll also celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas, with a little something in the shoes on December 6.

Front lines

If you work in the ER you rarely know exactly what's coming through those doors. While indeed it's your job to be ready for almost anything, sometimes you're still going to be taken by surprise. My time working as an ER nurse was considerably short when contrasted to those who do this work as a life long career. Still I think that most ER docs and nurses in the country would be caught off guard when facing something like... oh the first case of Ebola in the country to ever just walk into some random ER. That hospital in Dallas didn't know what hit them. Sure they might have thought to listen the hoof prints and think zebra (Ebola) instead of horses (flu), but how where they to know the first ever case had just walked through their doors. I really do pity them. We can all look back at it with 20/20, hind sight vision, but I don't think we have the right to blame them for not being more prepared. Whatever happened after the positive lab result might well be a different story. However, seeing how the two nurses currently infected were said to have been in contact with the patient very early on, before they knew what they were dealing with.... I'll withhold criticism.

I've worked in a few different ER's and whenever I happen to be in one I can't help but continue to be curious about the efficiency of the particular department. Not all ER's are equal. I consider myself to have been very fortunate to have received extensive training by an ER nurse educator who worked hard to ensure the entire staff received continuous updates and ongoing training. When I moved away from this ER I was utterly shocked at how vastly different the second place I worked for was from the first. They were like night and day in the level of ability to handle higher levels of acuity. With the first ER they also knew their limitations and ensured that patients we weren't equipped for were bypassed for our facility or transferred STAT. Our pediatrics wasn't as high caliber as the children's hospital up the road, so if the kid looked too sick to us, nobody hesitated to call Children's. However, if someone was having a heart attack or stroke, we had them covered.

Of the four different Military Treatment Facility ER's I've been to, only one garnered my respect for how it was ran. The ER at Fort Hood had a Emergency Doctor's training program affiliated with the nearby Trauma facility, Scott and White (where I had applied, but they only wanted me if I'd go fulltime and I could only do PRN at that point with my firstborn on the way), so those doctors always struck me as up to date and "with it." Still other MTF's we've been to, patients had to wait hours before they were even triaged. Almost all MTF's assign a medic to do triage while in the civilian world one of the charge nurses does the initial assessment within a certain time frame, because to do otherwise leaves a potentially critical patient at risk and the hospital liable.

From a practical standpoint I wonder, given it's cold and flu season, a time when lots of folks usually come to the ER with fevers and vomiting, how is a nurse to know, immediately, that the person who has just entered her ER has Ebola and not just another case of the flu? Sure at first we could point to recent travel outside the country (and even more specifically Africa) as a big red flag. I take a little sliver of comfort that our local Pediatrician's staff, and our neighborhood ER (not a Military Treatment Facility) screens for travel outside of the country and have for quite a long time (because they've always been on the look out for Tuberculosis). Yet, even these questions aren't the first things a patient is asked, and one can well imagine the number of transmissions that can occur when a vomiting person presents to a crowded ER waiting room. The check-in clerk usually sits behind a glass window, will have passed a clipboard and admitting paperwork back and forth, and the germs begin to flow from one bustling clerk to the next long before a medical person has began asking question.

When I read the first Ebola case sat in the ER for several hours before they began to suspect Ebola I have a hard time criticizing this given most folks have to sit in the ER for a few hours before all the test results become available and the diagnosis is confirmed.

Another thing that's weighing on my mind is the assertion that medical personal are or should be willingly self sacrificing, like it's part of their job description to get sick and die. Before I had children it was easier to envision myself being the person willing to rush in and be that hero. More so now than ever, I realize I can't go back to work in this sort of environment, because I have so young ones who are utterly dependent upon me. In addition, having a child on the autism spectrum extends my commitment to my children even longer. Always in the back of my mind I worry about what will happen when I'm no longer around to care for my eldest. For the immediate and foreseeable future, should something happen to me, it's been made painfully clear that nobody is willing to step in and fill my shoes. I can't be so selfish as to sacrifice myself, because I'm not here for me, I'm here for them; my children, here and now. I must live for them, or nobody will care for them. With a back up plan like this I absolutely bristle, my nerves on end, when I hear folks take for granted the possible ultimate sacrifice a nurse might make when they go into that line of work. In fact, belittling the sacrifice a soldier makes because "it's what s/he's paid to do" also irritates me.

Just some thoughts I had to get off my chest. 
  

Can you see it?

My husband took a trip to NY this past weekend to reconnect with longtime friends from college. (I envy his strong connections, I truly do...alas, I have no such buddies in my life...not like those). Anyhow, I stayed home with most of the kids and he took the eldest along for some "man" time. Admittedly, there were a few moments when I was a bit jealous that I didn't get to go.

One of the pictures my husband took was the front of a pub in Cold Springs, NY. At the time he didn't notice anything in particular. Being somewhat notorious for taking random pictures, perhaps he thought the name was interesting. Having occasionally (back in our cable days) watched Ghost Hunters, I noticed something in this picture right away. Can you see it?

 

Yes, there's a rather large orb, which may or may not be that big of a deal, but I noticed more. So I transferred this from my husband's cell phone onto the computer and showed it to him. At this point he saw the same thing I did without me pointing it out. I'm curious how many others will notice it too.



Virus documentary

This video didn't focus on Ebola per say as much as the title suggested. However, it was eye opening and offers a good deal of perspective into the history if various viruses that have made the jump and caused outbreaks of disease in the human population.

Inside a BSL-4, the proper level of protection

A commenter recommended this video which goes into great detail about the requirements for protecting laboratory testing locations against the various levels of pathogens. Ebola is a categorized in the most severe level, BSL-4.

Training changes because...

the mission could change. Who can't help but watch the world developments in the Ebola epidemic closely. I'm certain I'm not the only military spouse out there with a healthy respect for infectious diseases with high fatality rates. When the orders came out for 3,000 personal to deploy to Africa to simply help with relief and infrastructure it was impossible not to feel absolutely panic stricken. While a promise of no boots on the ground was being reiterated across the media (against an enemy you could at least lob a weapon at), we were suppose to rejoice that our military loved ones were being activated to combat a villain with no known weakness nor cure? There are no words of reassurance that can comfort a family preparing for that kind of deployment. There but for the Grace of God go I, my family has not been presented with this particular mission. From our post we can only sympathize with those who have been chosen.

Earlier today frustration set in while bogged down reading comments regarding this deployment. Notably, most commenters do not feel this sort of mission is wise nor serves to protect our nation's best interest. Many even speculate that sending so many of our men and women could actually endanger more lives, which was my first inclination as well. Still, I'm trying to give the mission the benefit of the doubt. However, It's quite a struggle to come to terms with this decision. Even though it's been reiterated that every precaution will be taken it still seems inherently risky to military men, women, their families, and their communities. The only statement that rings true was how little margin for error we have when it comes to fighting Ebola. Still, a number of commenters relentlessly defended the necessity of this mercy mission (thought many were quick to resort to name calling and belittling the intelligence of anyone who disagreed, which is too often the case with comment threads).

One very persistent defender of the deployment kept insisting that our military wasn't going to be put into direct contact with Ebola. However, surely she could have seen this news reports, that mentioned how some personal are being trained to be care providers for those infected with Ebola. The report seems to contradict, the October 7th, press conference from the DOD still denies soldiers will serve as healthcare providers. Still they admit that they're still evaluating the needs of the situation, and seem to leave this issue open to future changes. Would this commenter be so ardent if the mission changes and they do start using our military personal to treat Ebola victims?

Q: Could you tell us how the decision was made to not have U.S. military medical personnel treat Ebola patients directly, and do you have any concerns about manning these Ebola Treatment Units? On the ground, there's been calls from Doctors Without Borders that more people are needed, not necessarily more facilities, although both are needed, so if you could answer one of those.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: I'm not so sure about how the decision was made, but the bottom line is that's the position right now of the leadership. It's the international community's role right now, and that's where everybody is encouraging people to come forward to do that and -- and that's where -- where we stand until we move, you know, to some future thing that they'll -- they'll continue to relook the decision and continue to adapt to what's required on the ground.

A couple weeks ago, while listening to a representative from the World Health Organization, on the News hour (PBS radio) I couldn't dispute her assessment that the U.S. offer of 3,000 for construction wasn't going to solve the real problem at hand; a lack of medical personal to actively care for the Ebola patients. Had our leadership come right out and stated they plan to send medical personal to care for the afflicted, would as many be as supportive as they are now. Since then the orders have changed to increase the number of troops, including medical personal (as every Army unit has a doctor or Physician's Assistant attached to it) as well as specially trained laboratory personal who will be handling specimens to test for Ebola. Now the number stands at 4,000, who will "stay as long as we're needed, but not longer than we're needed," according to Gen. Rodriguez.

Sometimes protective gear isn't enough. To be constantly on guard from making contact with bodily fluids, when caring for someone is challenging. It's not hard for me to imagine how the nursing assistant in Spain made accidental contact and contracted Ebola. Even the most thought out plans, procedures, and protocols can go awry or suffer failures. Medical mistakes happen all the time. Gowns, gloves, mask, and protective gear can fail and might not be effective. At one point in my career I was assigned to fit test my fellow nurses for mask to protect them from Tuberculosis (T.B.). Even with three incremental sizes, not everyone could be fitted properly with a mask that would protect them should they have encountered a patient with T.B. Anyone who couldn't get a tight fit with one of the three available masks had to request a specialized respirator hood instead. If none of the available mask available fit properly (which was testing using a aerosol saccharin test), a good number of nurses can be left no options for accessible adequate protective gear. In my case, the hospital had the respirator masks, but there were kept locked away, available only upon request and a special trip to the basement. Of course contagious patient usually arrived before one knew what's ailing them precluding total eradication of risk for the frontline responder.  Naturally, whatever resources are available will be utilized even if they aren't going to work 100% of the time. Perhaps they've improved he gear since then. Let's hope!

Germs find ways. They adapt and evolve. Despite the gross speculation of some, Viruses don't discriminate. Instead they are opportunistic especially when it comes to populations who traditionally have weakened or underdeveloped immune systems (the young, elderly, or folks with co-morbidities).

Some folks are better equipped then others to survive a viral onslaught.  You can see this in stories about both Ebola and the Enterovirus D68 epidemic. Most children will only get cold like symptoms, while others are going into respiratory distress or developing mysterious paralysis. Still, a third of the afflicted children were completely healthy before contracting ED68. Reading about the abandoned and shunned children of Ebola victims it's a testament to how resilient some individuals will be despite the worst of conditions. It's a pity for everyone to shun the survivors, because it's likely they could offer us clues as to how to beat this. Quite the opposite of spurn, they should be hoped for.

Oct. 12, 2014 Update... So a healthcare worker in Texas has contracted Ebola from treating the first case, the man who came over from Liberia and later died. Of course the CDC is stating there was some sort of breach in protocol. However, I have a hard time believing that any of the doctors and nurses carelessly disregarded the protocols for personal protection. They know that their lives depend upon that safety equipment.  Interestingly, according to one commenter claiming to currently work in Emergency Medicine, the level of protective gear isn't adequate. I'd like to research this accusation further, but apparently, Ebola requires very expensive BSL-4 level suits to protect healthcare personal from transmitting the virus. The commenter claims that media pictures indicated these personal were only wearing BSL-3 (Mask, gown, gloves, and shield) and it's not enough. If that's all the hospital issued to these doctors and nurses, than it's not their fault there was a breach.

Work is my medicine...

progress is my vice.

Projects sitting on the back burner grate my nerves. Stagnation has a way of impeding my humor. Someone once told me there's never any reason to be bored because you could always find things you should be doing. If you are bored then there's bound to be something you're ignoring. Don't just sit there, go get your work done.

While there really are times when I do need to just sit down and rest, today it was time to get some chores knocked out.

Progress in the kitchen had stalled out, with the same set of doors sitting in the shed for the past three weeks waiting for the final top still unapplied. Finally, I had a chance to remedy the delay. As I employed the paint brushes, my husband got to work mounting the wine wrack, which has also been sitting uninstalled for a couple months. Alas, one of the dreaded conundrums in the kitchen has been overcome. This wrack fills the gap left by the cabinet that was removed to make room for the new refrigerator. After being unable to find something that would fit the dimensions we had our wrack made by Unique Display Cases, an etsy shop, based in NY. He sent it to us ready for finish which allowed me to match to our cabinets.

I don't do frivilous anymore

One of the areas we've been striving to find ways to make improvements is professional development for my husband's career. As the army size is shrinking (even though the tempo isn't) things feel a lot more competitive. These are hard times to be starting a new career, so our aim is to stay more than qualified for his current track. Currently, he's taking two certification courses to compliment his advanced degree and expand his world knowledge base. This adds an extra 6 hours a week to his already full time work schedule, but it's a sacrifice worth making.

This evening he was noting that had he been thinking perhaps we should have made plans to attend the military ball his top boss is hosting, because folks who attend get noticed. We don't seem to do "getting noticed" very well. Quite to the contrary I'm more apt to take the "try not to get noticed" route these days. I have a hard time viewing a ball as anything other than an outlandish event for frivolous merrymaking. It's been almost nine years since I've attended on, and nearly as long since we've actually been invited to boot!

The chief issue is procuring child care accommodations. With our ever full schedule and line of fiscal priorities, hiring a sitter is at the bottom of a very long to-do list. Since I can't even get a sitting for pressing emergencies (Yah, I've had to drag all 6 kids to the ER more than once) because I simply don't have anyone readily on tap. A child care professional (who is comfortable dealing with special needs teenagers) seems like an absolute luxury we could never afford... not to mention find. It feels like such a tremendous imposition so I rarely ask anyone to watch our kids. So to waste such a request on something like a military ball just seems out of the question. Besides, If I were to have a evening get away, a ball is hardly the first placed I'd think to go... well cause I don't really think along those lines anymore.

If attendance is required for career advancement, that does seem a trifle more important. Indeed, it used to be, back when the "Corp has" days, that a no show at a formal event was absolutely non starter, as your appearance was a well understood necessity to the successful promotion of ones military career. Over the years though, these things have become less important, and often space limitations dictated that not everyone could attend anyhow. Given the uptick in competiveness, perhaps we're harkening back to the bygone days of old. In that case, given we've missed the ball (don't they know it's the big track meet weekend!) Mia Culpa!

Oh Come ON!

Rant: Neighbors dogs think my yard is their yard, and have demonstrated how pathetic the wire fence between the yards is...

Rave: except that my dogs (past and present) were always contained by the same fence. Grant it, our current dog is quite little. Our former, Saint of a dog, Laddie, never once tried to scale or jump that fence. Man was he a wonderful dog! He wouldn't even jump the baby gates in the house. A boundary was a boundary and he was so obedient. I miss that dog! Neighbors who don't even know our names still stop us to ask what happened to our beautiful collie. Everyone knew him and clearly we're not the only ones who miss seeing that long snout trotting though the neighborhood. Man, was he awesome! He could walk right past any barking dog and hardly wiggle a whisker. As long as the gate was actually closed he never took off. Occasionally, someone would invite him to take himself for a walk by leaving the gate wide open, and he would oblige the unintended privileges. I suppose it's a testament to his character that we never received any complaints from his (very infrequent) explorations.  I surely suspect God broke the mold after he made that one. Sadly, time takes us all, and after a very rapid decline in health, Laddie went back to God.

Rant: I'm not too sure of the neighbor dogs who seem to pop over quite often, especially when we're outside. I've been restricting our outdoor time because I feel we need to be on guard of these invasion. So essentially, I don't want anyone going outside without me...which is really pressing on my nerves having to take the time to go stand guard to make sure the neighbor dog isn't jumping into our yard and chasing our dog or my kids. It makes me a bit terse as well as tense.

Rave: The house behind us finally closed and the new owners moved in. They also have a large dog, however, they built a large privacy fence. It's so private back there now, I can't even see their dog. I'm hoping the adage, Good fences make good neighbors, is true!

Rant: Of course I'd love to construct a privacy fence to the sides of my yard too! Unfortunately, we've got a line of pressing home repair projects ensuring we're not going to be getting to a fence (aside from perhaps installing new wire) anytime soon.

Rave: So on that note... I'm trying to focus on the positives and the successes we've had with the home. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed by the tasks that lay ahead I look around at those we used to see undone, now complete and behind us. Thank God for small victories!

How do you define emergency fund worthy events?

The dishwasher (that was never very good at actually cleaning the dishes) isn't dispensing water. A few years back there was a recall on this particular model and GE sent us an offer of either $100 towards the purchase of a new GE dishwasher (not very impressive) or free replacement of the heat coil found to be prone to catching fire. Hoping the dishwasher would outlast our stay in the house, we elected to have it retrofitted with the new coil and press forward. However, given our previous research into the mater we had absolutely no intensions on spending another dime on the (not very) old G.E.  So we decided that perhaps, with it's current malfunction, it was time to buy a new dishwasher, especially since everyone seem to be having a sale last weekend, allowing us to find a suitable clearance model at a manageable price (plus military discount). Perhaps we wouldn't have to dip into the emergency fund.

This morning a stairwell full of water along with an overflowing utility sink sunk the hopes of our emergency fund remaining untouched this month. Our go-to plumber is prompt, efficient, popular, and not cheap (but none of them are). Despite our best efforts to discourage the use of the sink for disposing food waste (the disposal just isn't cutting it), our line downstairs was clogged with a lot of kitchen waste. Thankfully, the sewer plumbing wasn't affected (you'd think with a household such as our we'd have that sort of problem often). While the plumber's tab left my husband biting his knuckle, we suspect our kitchen expenditures might not yet be over. Perhaps we also need a new garbage disposal too, because the underlying problem (too much food waste down the drain) wasn't one of the issues we dared ask the plumber to fix today. Snaking the line was expensive enough.

Though the thought crossed my mind that perhaps we should purchase one of those heavy duty snaking machines and learn to do these things ourselves... We've had that drain snaked about four times since moving into this house (about once a year at this rate) and it seems it's just par for the course, an annual maintenance requirement.

What constitutes an emergency? The dishwasher just went out without much warning, (though we'd already decided we'd replace it if the need arrived), so that could be an anticipated expense. The drain needing to be snaked is also somewhat predictable too. I suppose something will sneak in there one of these days, then I'll know the answer.

Science Delta Year

Week one I was trying to introduce the concept of an atom, which drew a lot of blank looks. When week two rolled around and I was explaining elements, still more vacant expressions. I need visuals, but how do you show an atom and microscopic molecules to your kids? So tonight I'm up looking for videos.
What is an Atom, is short but feels long because it's kind of boring.
Atoms, Bill Nye's presentation is much more interesting though full of many distracting antics. Yeah, that ought to do it.

Early North America discoverers

As we began American history this year, we circle back to our Barbarian Viking history (close to where we left off with the middle ages last year) to recap a point on our history timeline;

The Vikings, sailors, and warriors from Scandinavia began invading and settling many parts of Europe in the 9th century. Around 1000 A.D. the Viking, Leif Eriksson, reached the shores of North America. -CCM Beta year

While our Classical Catholic Memory lesson for this week introduces the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492, we're reminded of the earlier encounters the Vikings had with "Vinland" almost 500 years earlier, in our history book (not affiliated with CCM), From Sea to Shining Sea: The story of America. By the end of the first chapter we learned that the sailors of the Santa Maria (Pinta, and Nina) prayed the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) each evening, which happens to be our Latin memory work for the next few weeks.

I just screened the film, Vikings; Journey to the New World, for my visual learners. This documentary covers the materials from our lessons almost exactly and will provide additional review.

For writing we've elected to continue with International Excellence in Writing at home using the U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons, Volume 1, which matched up very nicely this week with two source text on Christopher Columbus.

Finally, this week after leaving speech therapy feeling rather frustrated (again) with what feels to me like a lack of progress, and also learning that one of the Occupational Therapist (we waited all summer for a slot to see) is leaving next week, it's time for a change. It's nearly settled, and we've booked appointments with a new therapy center not far away from the first. This new center just underwent an expansion and has twice the number of therapist on staff than our original center. Still a bit nervous, I decided to take our assessments copies in person so I could see this place for myself. Everything about this place is so much bigger! Multiple OT rooms, with swings big enough for even my teenager (who still loves to swing), and a rock climbing wall! And they have aged group therapy sessions, something our previous speech therapist (who moved away this summer) wanted to organize for my oldest son, but could never get authorized. Not only do they have room for us, but they can get both kids in at almost the same time for both speech and OT on the same day! Currently, we're going to speech on Tuesday morning and OT on Wednesday, and it's taking up a lot of our school time. Being able to knock out all the sessions in one morning will solve our Wednesday morning time crunch and cut down travel expense. The waiting room is very large and has a kid sized table for my to preschoolers work at. For the past few weeks I've been using our wait time to work on coloring and preliminary handwriting skills, but it's been less than ideal with no decent place to sit, and often an over crowded noisy waiting area. Still I'm nervous because we'll have a whole new set of people to get to know and I always worry about how my oldest will take to the changes. I pray this is a good move to make and that I'm doing the right thing.

Another marvelous thing happened this week. The opening of Jeff Todd Way will easily cut at least 10 or 15 minutes off my travel time on speech and OT day. Richmond highway is always so crazy and often crowded, and now I can avoid it almost completely. After visiting the new therapy center yesterday, we decided to take the new road home and it was a magnificent wide open road through trees (no development what-so-ever) and was like a time warp. The kids couldn't believe how quickly we were able to get home. Lining the new road is a very wide walking and bike trail. Fantastic!

One more step

This weekend the butcher block counters were cut for three of the spaces in our kitchen. It would be neat, yet perhaps too complicated, to do the rest of the counters with this, but I'm brainstorming how to complete the sink side. We also finished the last two cabinet doors for this first phase of the resurfacing of our kitchen. This wall still needs the trim and a rack mounted before it will be complete. I do look forward to being able to push the fridge completely out of the way (it's about 12 inches away from the wall right now). Slowly, and surely, it's coming along. This week I get to polish my new counter everyday with mineral oil to prepare it for use. After that it will be once a week for a month, then once a month for the duration of it's lifetime. From what I've read all I need to do is keep it well oiled with mineral oil and it should be my idea of low maintenance and nearly indestructible. Lovely and cheaper than granite or any of the other fake stone stuff. Sounds good to me.

One tooth, two teeth, three teeth...Ah Ha, Ha, Ha!

Think back to your childhood, when you used to watch Sesame Street, when The Count came on to reveal the number of the day. It's with this jovial and almost sinister voice I think with when I consider all the teeth my son has in his left numerary bicuspid area, directly beneath the area of his now repaired cleft lip. Today the orthodontist asked me if I had gotten that tooth pulled as he'd asked before we began treatment. To which my response was, "we sure did," the memory of my son sucking on a blood soaked piece of gauze for half a day fresh in my mind.

Well, the tooth growing in it's place doesn't look right. In my mind I was responding "well of course it doesn't" before I verbally stated, "these seem to be tooth fragments." Some questions arose about his past x-rays, as this office doesn't appear to have all the ones I presented to them on file (eye roll please!) If they had they would have known this was not a normal tooth currently erupting and a larger, more fully formed tooth is lodged up in the upper jaw. At this revelation our (Tricare appointed) orthodontist stated we needed an oral surgeon, as he was "just a lowly orthodontist," and this was beyond his expertise. The thought of trying to get authorization for this through Tricare sent my head into a tizzy that's for sure. Since I'm not alone in this journey and I called upon a friend who has been there and very recently done that, and she eagerly agreed to help me walk through this one. She's got connections who are in the know...and I ain't ashamed to ask for her advice.

And I thought my day was going to be challenging because it seems time to get Number 2 evaluated for orthodontic care and I had planned on beginning the paperwork for that during our appointment...which I did. Never time to get comfortable, as once you've mastered some little trial in life, along comes another hurdle to recon with. Despite all that I felt like I've accomplished a lot today, fresh and ready to take it on!

Up to today I was thinking that the smartest thing to do would be to have both children see the same orthodontist (booking appointments at the same time seems all to convenient). However, perhaps I should seek out a few different opinions for my second child because according to her regular dentist (and though she is not cleft affected) her teeth crowding and overbite are much more severe then her big brother. He always makes such a big deal about how amazingly (messed up) her teeth are, but thinks our cleft affected child isn't all that bad...ironically. That worries me some.

Silence is golden

During our inaugural occupational therapy appointment day, when our waiting time was going to exceed 60 minutes, anticipation ensured that I'd come prepared with books, pencils, and crayons for my restless little ones. An hour to kill is more time than I care to waste, so having just procured workbooks for the preschooler and kindergartener, it seemed prudent to make the most of our time.


The preparations were paying off until another mother with little ones in tow joined the room and activated a hand held mind numbing device for her progeny. The percussive sounds overriding my storytelling voice as I was in the middle of reading my children Who Took the Farmer's Hat?  Irritation riddled internally, so it was all I could do to maintain my focus, hugging my three little ones a little closer so that perhaps my voice might have a bit of a head start reaching their auditory processing system first, as if my extra effort to overcome the noisy distraction.

It was nearly impossible not to suspect that awful technological contraptions for whatever brought her there that day, however, knowing all too well that even children devoid of constant media entertainment can have deficits too. Eyes downcast, I strained to keep my judgmental thoughts to myself.

In walked another busy mom and more young children and you might very well imagine the cacophony that ensued as nine children crammed into this small waiting room played. Add a few therapist discussing how the sessions went all at the same time and you'll understand one of the things I find most unpleasant about our weekly appointments to speech and (just started) occupational therapy. My ideal background noise for a therapeutic environment sounds like a orchestra, violin concerto, or perhaps a piano piece that isn't full of bravado or too much staccato.

Anyhow, one of the other unfortunate things I overheard yesterday was the bemoaning of how difficult have so many (three and four...) children is, all the while minding my own business with five of my six children playing rather (and unusually) peacefully. No way was I jumping into that conversation, which I wasn't invited to anyway ;) 

If only I had the gift of instant insight perhaps I could have written this post, Does Size Matter? I wholeheartedly concur with Kate's synopsis. Perhaps if the other moms ask my opinion on the subject in the future I could say something to the effect: Whether you have one, three, four, six, or 19 being a mom is a hard job. However, we don't have to surrender and let it defeat us. Own it. Take on the challenge. Acknowledge and improve your areas weaknesses. Never stop learning. Don't loose sight of the big picture. The goal is to springboard them into adulthood in a way so they will take those big leaps and land on their feet... perhaps crash once in a while, but teach them to do so in a fashion so they can get back up again and keep going. "Feet first, never head first" is what I say often whenever we're at a playground. Though my stubborn lot don't always heed my admonishments. And in those moments, I dub them over to their other mother, Mary, or their Guardian Angel.

Breastfeeding Awareness Week

 In honor of Breastfeeding Awareness Week, I thought I'd share this picture from our trip last May to St. Augustine, FL. Outside the Cathedral there's a statue dedicated to Father Pedro Camps who led the Minorcan colony to the place that would be known as America's oldest city.  While there I knew nothing about these early colonist, but was struck by the lowest sitting figure in the statue, the mother and child, having so obviously just finished nursing.

Many hands make light work

Last month they asked if they could help me paint the kitchen. That wasn't going to happen, but today we found something they could paint all by themselves. It was both helpful and fun as well as an excellent motor skills developmental activity.

Well Connected Mind...we'd like to be

From one of my many special needs mailing list, many months ago I heard about Connections: The Brain Development Seminar and had a deep desire to attend in hopes I might learn something to help me unlock my children's potential. Movement to spur development seemed completely logical, but not necessarily intuitive to me. Initially, I had a date for Late August (dry erased marked) on my calendar, but when we realized our swimmers weren't going to be A meet competitors this summer (much to my relief because those long Saturday meets look exhausting) I realized I could indeed attend this seminar much sooner. To do so would give us an entire month to devote to whatever I would learn.

At long last, yesterday was a long and somewhat overwhelming day, where I tried to take in as much as my brain could absorb. While attending as "just a mom" there was another attendee who was an occupational therapist, and her enthusiasm for the materials covered helped to validate for me the legitimacy of the recommendations.

There is a lot of information given and much of it I will need to review again later to really process it all. These sorts of studies have a way of clarifying my own deficits. However, the primary activity discussed, the crawl, once the definition clarified (turned out "crawling" wasn't what I thought it was), I realized none of my children ever mastered. In fact I don't think I'd ever seen any of my children do the crawl in the manner in which the Connections program strives for. A couple of my babies certainly dragged themselves along the floor using just their arms, but then skipped to pulling up and "creeping" (what one likely thinks of when they hear the word crawling) being on hands and knees. Crawling, as defined by Connections is locomotion on the stomach using the arms and legs and is rather complicated and difficult to do.

Having been instructed to "not" instruct the kids, I asked each of my children to crawl down the hallway this evening. Most of them only thought to use their hands and arms, and only the three and one year old used their legs in some fashion, the three year old having the closest version (but not quite perfect) to the ideal Connections crawl. The one year old, didn't really follow my command, but endeavored to alternate between creeping and crawling when he saw his siblings sliding about on the floor. He hasn't crawled in months, but thought this was great fun. Hopefully, as his siblings discover the most efficient way to crawl (and they do need to figure it out themselves for the synaptic connections to form correctly) the youngest one will develop these skills as well.

Presumptive Teacher

 Swim practice is now over for the summer. Now we can go to the pool to just have fun and nobody will have to sit along the sidelines watching and waiting. Yeah!

We heard there's a scholarship being offered for one lucky kid to join the winter team. I really, really, really want my oldest son to continue swimming year round because it has been so good for him. It burns energy, isn't heavily dependent upon accurately processed instructions (get in and swim...like they can hear anything with their heads under the water anyway), and he really needs something like this in his life. However, the cost for either of the two teams in our neck of the woods seemed staggeringly out of budget. So I pushed him to write an essay, and as usual had to give a LOT of guidance to help him organize his thoughts. If he wins the scholarship then there will be more swimming this year. However, if he doesn't, then we'll be free (yeah that's a way to look at it) to just swim at our leisure.

This morning, I got it into my feeble mind to make French toast. Having been notified that we had run out of eggs, a new path had to be devised. "No problem, get me the apple sauce," but then the negative notification sounded again. Racking my brain, my first thought was to use a banana to make a batter for my fried toast (so that I could soak up all the lovely sausage grease in my iron skillet). Alas, the bananas are still so green the peels won't even come away from the fruit, which was also still quite hard. Finally, I determined to utilize the last portion of our homemade grape jam to render my toast batter with. Mixing the jelly with some almond milk, pinch of salt, and a few sprinkles of cinnamon, this whole grain toast caramelized quite nicely, and tasted delicious.

After reading the children another chapter from Marilee Haynes' book, A.K.A. Genius, I noticed something peculiar on my dry erase board, which I did not write. It seems I have a deputy teacher dishing out assignments to her siblings. Home School is a way of life... even during the summer it seems.

While I had purchased A.K.A. Genius for my eldest son (in a vain attempt to lure him away from Diary of a Wimpy Kid) it turns out my daughter has been far more interested in reading this book. Not to be defeated, I endeavored to make it a family read aloud book, in hopes that my son might yet still fain a hint of interest. Indeed, he will politely listen, but has not found this story captivating enough as to cause him to want to read ahead on his own. I suppose I'll have to get the sequel for his sister, who is into this, hook, line, and sinker.

Van Spider

Capturing a picture of a spider web is a challenge I've not quite mastered yet. For the past several weeks a fresh web has appeared every morning strung between the side mirror and the driver side door. These webs hold up very well and have survived speeds of up to 55mph. Usually, it's a child who ultimately causes the destruction of the web.

Today was the final day of swim practice for my children. Now we can proceed with the lazy days of summer...sort of. We still plan to go swimming, but in a recreational fashion. Perhaps we'll sign up for one more round of lessons with our new favorite swim teacher during the first week of August.

What is happening in Mosul is too disturbing to discuss. I simply haven't any words for it. The best I can say is it's tragic and heartbreaking with a hefty dose of sick pit of the stomach feeling.

Lately I've been pondering my state with little ones and how much longer it will be this way. As my baby is rapidly roaring into toddlerhood, I have this notion that perhaps I should start clearing out the stash of baby things we're no longer using. For a fact, at the very least I can say I won't be needing them for the next eleven months. While we've done nothing artificially, it just seems like we're fading away from this phase of life, at least for a while.

Never before have I had such a feeling of uncertainty about how our future will look as there had always been some sort of up and coming mile-stone we were assured of reaching before us as an Army family. While, we'd like to remain as such, little seeds of uncertainty do take root when force reductions loom ahead. It makes you stop and contemplate what else the future might hold and leaves me with many a troubled moments when I try to decipher what else we would do.

I'm slowly, but surely getting some painting done in the kitchen. There is so much painting that I feel needs to be done. Some days I do wish we could just list and sell, but I've noticed that even this late in the selling season, new houses are still popping up on the market and it seems many are sitting for quite a long time causing me to doubt. Still, there's no point in letting the doubt paralyze, and so I'm working to squelch that fear and press forward in doing my best to fix up this place we call home.

See he fresh coat of paint on he wall, (Oat straw) and the cabinets having been resurfaced with the rustoleum kit, which I think looks very much like paint, and indeed it chips off very easily, so I'm not all that impressed with it so far. Too late now.

Oral cleft orthodontic implications

My eldest son was born with an incomplete, unilateral cleft lip with no initial appearance of palate involvement. However, as teeth began to erupt it was clear his gum line was somewhat disturbed by the cleft defect as well.

Honestly, aside from the initial two lip repair surgeries (one at 2 months and another to fix the botched first surgery at 2 years) the cleft has been the least of our concerns when it comes to our firstborn. While having a cleft made him a shoe in for speech therapy services, his needs weren't particularly articulation intensive. Rather his needs were more complex with deficits in comprehension and language formation. My inclination for quite a long time was that he had an Auditory Processing Disorder, however, it was much easier to diagnose him with PDD NOS (now considered to be part of the Autism Spectrum) then it was to have someone confirm my suspicion of APD. Either way, the therapy options available to us were pretty much the same, speech therapy.

Unlike other cleft affected children my son hasn't had to contend with multiple complicated surgeries. Even before his initial repair he had little trouble breastfeeding and thus has never had any ear infections (also a rare feat in the cleft affected world). Perhaps most importantly, nobody ever notices he was born with a cleft and I've never heard him once say anything about it. Most days, we never even think about it.

However, now that he's in the orthodontic phase the couple of malocluded teeth are requiring some strange and uncomfortable orthodontic applications. A month before braces were placed he had to have one tooth removed, which he tolerated very well. Then to move the largest malocluded tooth, they had to put it under traction of sorts and add "turbos" (sort of like tooth stilts) to prevent him from closing his mouth into a tight bite and leave clearance for the turning tooth. The turbos change the way he's used to resting his jaws and (as I can only imagine) make one uncomfortable with a constant strange sensation of a pencil always stuck between your teeth. Finally the day for the turbos to be removed came and we were all much happier for it.

Unfortunately, today they decided that they needed to place turbos again when they discovered that this second tooth (previously unable to decent as it was being blocked by the first malocluded tooth) is also twisted 90 degrees from who it should be oriented. Thus, he's back to having the dreaded turbos and that weird mouth sensation again. While he's lucky to have a full mouth of teeth (many cleft affected folks are missing quite a few) to work with, days like today are annoying reminders of his birth defect.

On the way home a show on Ave Maria Radio was talking about the concept of offering up your suffering for the sake of others. So I tried to explain to my son that perhaps he could devote his discomfort to the good of others. I don't think he quite grasped the concept, but he is being a trooper so far. I pray they can take those turbos off next time, as they really are quite awful, making eating more difficult than it need be.

Mass of the Brown Scapular of Mt. Carmel

While we rode out the thunderstorm with nary a disturbance, the club pool power outage resulted in the cancelation of swim team practice this morning. Though I had contemplated skipping practice, the cancelation made the decision all the easier that indeed we would go to Mass this morning. Usually, we're a once-a-week attendance family, doing the bare minimum. However, were it not for my noisy rambunctious tots I would like to go more often. Since special invitations had been printed and distributed last Sunday, inviting everyone to the be inducted into the Scapular Devotion, I hoped that my crew wouldn't be too disruptive during the daily Mass (which usually doesn't draw the noisy types).

The morning departure went off without a hitch and we arrived to the church properly dressed, veiled, and even managed to snag a few of our garden roses on the way out for Mary. Perhaps I should have sat in the cry room, but opted not to since we usually don't. When the church isn't nearly as full as a standard Sunday Mass, an uncontrollable gigging toddler seems so much louder and more disruptive than usual. Aside from strapping the three year old to my back, and the one year old to my front, baring a combined total weight of 56+ pounds to my 130lb frame, most of the tricks up my sleeves were spent. Feeling quite distracted in the mind, I acquiesced when two of the children up and decided they needed to go potty (fieldtrip as I've termed it) during the Consecration (typical of them), as if those bells somehow trigger some sort of Pavlovian signal. The rational in my mind was since I'd been unable to really spiritually participate and had actually began to feel very frustrated, while some Grace would do my soul some good, going to communion in a less than desirable state could be equally as bad, so I'd go ahead and make sure nobody was going to have an accident in the pew and skip communion.

However, if I ever need reminding that this too shall pass, I need only look at my 13 year old, who now sits quietly in church, and recall that he once required all I could muster to endure Mass. One day, all the toddlers will be teenagers, and then later adults, and perhaps I'll be more like the sweet elders who were so kind as to pay me a complement for my lovely children and praised my mothering. It was especially endearing since I can all too easily begin to feel less than stellar falling prey to the thoughts of self-inflicted judgementalism. Often I worry a great deal about what others might be thinking, fearing that it's not good.

As a reward (without calling it such) we stopped into one of our favorite little shops, the Variety store, which is jammed packed with all sorts of things, that we might pick up some (cheap) water shoes for one of the girls who has outgrown her current pair. As further reinforcement for such a good morning (except the three year old) I let them pick something from the candy isle, which isn't something we always do. While I was temped to withhold a treat from said three year old, I suspect he wouldn't have the ability to connect his behavior in church with the lack of reward, as he lives so very much in the present.

Upon arriving home, just barely past 10am, and I was stunned at just how much we'd accomplished in such a short amount of time. The day was so young and we'd already had such a good start, which in and of itself was grace enough.