Better get busy!

I know it's been a while - again - and I know I keep saying it, but I'm really trying to make an effort to schedule my blogging in.  There are SO MANY things I would love to share other than just on facebook, so many things I think could be helpful to others if only I could get them put in writing.

Many of my friends warn me that maybe I need to slow down a little bit and take a step back from some of the things I'm doing.  I know it would be crazy to bite off any more right now!  

My appointments for Baby are currently bi-weekly.  Can't believe Tuesday will put me at 20 weeks!!  19 more to go!!  It's no fun having gestational diabetes, pricking my finger 4 times a day (when I remember to do it!), taking pills 2 times per day, and closely monitoring my food (most of the time!! lol!!)  I'm having my A1C tested again on Monday.  My 2 hours post-meal blood sugars are coming back fine, but my fasting is still too high.  Doc said I may end up on insulin injections before the end of my pregnancy.  Because of the diabetes, I was also told that I will not be going to my due date, which is April 1.  If I don't go on my own before, I'm going to be induced during my 39th week.  That means March 25th or later.  Beau is really hoping for earlier.  She wants to share her birthday with her little "sister" on March 24.  (Or so she says - we're not finding out what we're having :) )  The concern of going to my due date is having too big of a baby.  Hopefully he/she isn't too big!!  And hopefully my VBAC goes without a hitch!  Monday afternoon my hubby and I are going in for my next ultrasound.  Can't wait to see the little stinker who's been kicking me :)

Homeschooling has been a little bit trying lately.  Scrappy has very interest in his spelling words, yet he loves trying to read to me.  Last weekend he read book 9 of Cat and Rat to me - such a proud Mommy moment!!  I try explaining that the more spelling words he learns, the more he's going to be able to read.  I don't spend much time focusing on sight words - I'd rather he knows how to spell them out.  We've also been working on basic addition and starting on subtraction.  He does really well with his shapes, colors, and number.  Sometimes, though, it's just hard to get him to focus because he is too busy wanting to do other things.  I try to get at least 20 minutes, if not an hour, of reading in most days.  I signed him up for the Book It! program through Pizza Hut.  We set a goal of 480 minutes per month, or 8 hours.  I've been working on a lot of hands-on learning stuff with him.  Last week we made butter from heavy cream.  It was a learning experience for both of us.

Got our heavy cream, jar, and lid.

Filling the jar about half full.

Making sure we have the right amount.

Put the lid on and shake, shake, shake!!

Our first attempt was with cold cream which, of course, resulted in - WHIPPED CREAM.  After shaking for 20 minutes, we realized we weren't getting any butter, so Google to the rescue! Missed one important step - the cream had to be brought to room temperature :)  Our next batch turned out better, although it still wasn't quite right, but was really good on bread with our goulash at supper time! 

We have a whole bunch of other fun projects we're planning on.  We're using the book Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World for our current lessons. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the public library??)  I got about a dozen books about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Colonial times, along with some other 'fun reading' books.  We try to get to the library about once a week, and this week we got the closest we ever have to the book limit.  We have 45 of a possible 50 books checked out!  To try to keep track of them, I try to return any we've read any time my husband or I will be going by the library.  I'm glad they have a drop box because they aren't open Friday or Saturday and only open a couple hours on Sunday.  I'm going to try to post more of these as we go!!

Of course, every week I still have my TOPS meetings.  And I LOVE my TOPS group :)  A few of my friends there are a little bit concerned about my lack of weight gain with this pregnancy.  Lack of weight gain?  I should say, with my weight LOSS.  At almost 20 weeks, I am down about 13 pounds right now.  My doctors aren't concerned since we have frequent ultrasounds.  I wouldn't be too sad if it keeps up either!  I'm less than 10 pounds from my lowest TOPS weight so far.  I'm going to try really hard to keep it off this time!  We have group walks scheduled 2x per week.  I try to get to them.  I hope to make it to more of them and hoping we get the stroller fixed.  One of the tires won't hold air, but I can't find the leak.  Hopefully hubby can fix it soon!

Every other week I'm busy with Girl Scouts still.  I'm a little disappointed with a few of the girls I have because it doesn't seem like they all want to be there and they don't want to put in the effort.  At the level I teach, the girls are responsible for completing their own badges.  They can do as many of as few badges as they want.

Then there's my business.  When I'm not doing one of the above (or even when I am), I'm usually working on something or another for work.  I'm really loving working for myself - REALLY for myself and not doing direct sales and only getting paid a fraction.  Plus at craft shows/vendor fairs, people want the instant gratification of getting their items immediately and I'm able to take custom orders so people get exactly what they want.  So far so good - I'm just hoping over the next couple shows I do that business takes off a little bit more.  I'm still working on building up my inventory a bit and feeling people out for what they are looking for and what is going to sell well.

Scrappy just finished these projects a few minutes ago.

I think it's time we do a bit of reading now.  Mama's gotta get some meal planning done too....

Oh My! Monday

Today has not gotten off to a very good start :(  I have a list of things I would like to get accomplished, but so far, not so good.  About the only thing I've gotten done is Scrappy's treatments, but he's not being very cooperative about it.  We're supposed to go sign up for taekwondo today, but the way he's misbehaving, I told my husband that we may not.  We have to run to the bank and pick up Scrappy's MAC delivery before we do anything fun.  

Since today is Monday, Scrappy gets his new spelling list.  I really hope he catches on to this week's list as quickly as his did last week's.  He would walk around singing his spelling words and how to spell them - no, off, on, the, at.  I don't remember offhand what this week's list is. But he did get 100% on his spelling test!!

We took a little field trip over the weekend also.  About a week after our hometown electronics recycling day, our big old 32" TV died.  It's been sitting in the driveway since then.  I had seen an ad on TV saying that Refest was going on in Austin and they were offering electronics recycling for only $5!  Admission to Refest was free, and there would be stuff for the kids to do.

Of course, I didn't take my camera and couldn't find my phone (which had fallen to the bottom of my purse.  It is impossible to find anything in a CF Mama's purse since it's a walking pharmacy plus!)  Daddy managed to snap a few though!  The kids each got their pictures taken with their "environmental pledges."  These are supposed to be coming via email.  Scrappy said he's going to use less water.  Beau said she's going to walk more, use less water, and turn off the lights when she's not using them (which we've already had to call her out on! haha!)  We all got to hold a fox snake, even though we missed the snake and owl show since we were still waiting for the recycling line to move.  We did make if for part of the turtle show, which was pretty cool.  There was a baby turtle less than 24 hours old, a couple snappers, and a tortoise.  

I was a little bit disappointed by the "solar powered carnival" that was advertised - the rides consisted of 2 bounce houses and the refreshments available were only popcorn and lemonade.  Really glad we only bought $5 in tickets!  That got both kids into one bounce house and bought 2 popcorn and 2 lemonades.  We did buy some really good apple brats from one of the vendors though.

After a couple hours we headed home.  Hubby went to help a friend with a car project.  I had a sinus headache and pretty much napped the rest of the day away. 

Yesterday the kids started Sunday School again and Beau and I started Girl Scouts.  I am not looking too forward to this year because there is already a ton of drama taking place.  I really hope it doesn't continue because I honestly don't have the patience for it.  I don't need the drama in my life.  I'm seriously considering transferring my daughter to another troop if it continues.  I guess we'll see what happens...

Feeling good!

First time in over a year that I've had a gym workout!  Since management changed at Anytime Fitness, I decided to give them another chance and renewed my membership.  They also gave me 3 free months because of all the crap the previous manager put me through.  I renewed it almost 2 weeks ago, but of course, I ended up hurting my back the next day.  Last Friday I was feeling pretty ambitious and told myself that I was either going to the gym or going for a bike ride.  I should have chosen the gym!!

I don't know how, but I managed to convince my husband to go with me and the kids.  I thought maybe we should ride to the grocery store, but he said let's just go to the gas station - baby step since I have only ridden bike once or twice in the last 10 years.  Plus I had Scrappy riding in the bike trailer behind me.  I wish someone would have reminded me that I live on TOP of a hill - I admit I had to stop a few times on the way there and on the way home.  My tops of my knees hurt the whole time we were riding, and my butt hurt for a few days afterwards.  But that's ok - I got quality time with my family while getting a good workout!!

Tonight I forced myself to go to the gym.  Yes, the word is FORCED because I just had to do it.  I think about it and think about it.  No more thinking - just DO it.  (Yeah, Nike, right?? lol!)  It wasn't as hard to get back into it as I had thought.  I wish I would have paid a little more attention when I went to sign up because I didn't notice there were new machines and I'm not familiar with all of them.  I'm sure with a little time I can figure them out.  I tried doing a few 'torso rotations' since it works the abs and back, but I could feel some pulling in my lower back and hip area, so I kept that at a minimum.  The elliptical is my cardio machine of choice - it's a lot easier on the knees.  I wish it had a pause feature though.  I was almost 15 minutes into my workout when I dropped my towel - I stopped to pick it up, and the machine had shut down.  I think some of them do have that feature, but not the one I happened to be on.  So I started it up again, programmed a set time of 30 more minutes, and off I went.  I checked my heart rate on the handles every few minutes to keep it in the 'cardio' range.  I was around 154-157 most of the time, which is at the top end of the cardio range for my specifics, but it's ok with me.

I don't think I'm going to be hitting the gym tomorrow because we have one-day camp for Girl Scouts.  I'm one of the camp counselors.  I'm hoping to get some hiking in to make up for the gym.  It shouldn't be too bad.  I just hope my efforts pay off on the scale this week.

I'm also done with school for a whole 2 weeks.  Just in time for canning season.  Beau and I both start school Sept 4, and Scrappy starts preschool on Sept 13.  It's going to be here before we know it!!

Here's a cute pic of Beau riding horse at camp :)

Separation Anxiety

Today I took Beau to her first sleep-away camp.  She has stayed overnight with family members for a few days at a time, but never with anyone who wasn't family.  Today she left for a 4-day horse camp for Girl Scouts.  I have been worried because as far as we knew, none of the other girls from our troop would be going.  She has been worried about making new friends.  I told her I didn't think she'd have much trouble and maybe she'll even make a few friends who would want to become pen pals!

After getting her registered, Beau and I went to drop off her stuff in her cabin and drop off some money at the 'trading post' (camp store).  When she walked into her cabin, the first girl she saw just happened to be one from our troop!  So now she actually KNOWS someone there.  Not that the two of them get along particularly well - as a matter of fact, this particular girl grinds on my every nerve - but maybe they'll become friends at camp.  We went to the trading post and Beau picked out a couple patches for her Junior vest - one is for First Time Camp Out (for GS), another is Camp Like a Girl, and the third is for attending that particular camp.

By the time I left, she was doing pretty good.  She had changed into her swimming suit and was heading off to the pool with the other girls from her cabin.  I left a letter with her camp counselor to be delivered tonight if she has separation anxiety, or tomorrow if not.  She was also supposed to be getting a care package tonight that Daddy sent in for - it's a t-shirt, jump rope, cinch sack, journal, and a few other things.  I'm hoping she does well.  She already told me she wants to go to the 13 day horse camp next year.  I told her we need to see how she does this year first.

I must admit, I'm excited to hear all about her time at camp and look forward to getting her camera developed when she gets back!!  I'll have to post some pictures :)

First touches of fall

We started canning this week already.  I went to the cabin after TOPS to help Opa with a batch of salsa.  Well, I helped the best I could.

I woke up with a little bit of back pain.  Back pain isn't all that odd for me since my car accident in 1999, and it's not uncommon for me to knock it out of whack.  Well, that seems to be what I did because by the time we were done with lunch, I would almost black out from the pain.  I didn't dare go in to the doctor until after hubby got off work because I wouldn't be able to wrangle both kids while talking to the doc.  I hung out at the cabin, sitting on the stool to stir the salsa and chopping veggies at the table.  We got 34 jars done!  On Monday, Opa is going to help me with my first batch of applesauce for the year.

When hubby got off work, I followed him home so we could drop off the truck before we went to the hospital.  By that time our only option was the ER since Urgent Care was already closed.  We were only there about half an hour, which is almost unheard of!  The doc diagnosed me as having "chronic back pain" since it's an ongoing issue.  He sent some meds out for me to get at the pharmacy, which seem to be helping.  Prednisone and 800 mg ibuprofen for the swelling and the pain, flexeril for the muscle spasms that about knock me out.  And of course the horrible recommendation of bed rest.  I have WAAAYYYY too much to do to be on bed rest!!

Beau had gone to spend the night at my uncle's house last night, so I had to run up and get her this morning.  Tonight she had to pack for the next few days because she's leaving tomorrow for Girl Scout camp.  She'll be gone for 4 days and 3 nights and it going to be 2 hours away.  None of the other girls from our troop are going to this one as far as we know.  It will be a good opportunity for her to meet new friends.  I just hope she doesn't get scared....

My Crazy-Busy Life

I really don't know what I would ever do if I wasn't so busy all the time.  Have I mentioned lately that in addition to all my normal hecticness, I've added "Girl Scout Troop Leader" to my many credentials and time commitments?  If I'm going to be taking my daughter there and back anyway, and I wanna spend more time with her, why not?  I'm a Cadette leader and tomorrow she is taking the huge step of bridging from being a Brownie to a Junior! Yay Beau!!  I will definitely have to post some pictures!!  I know she's not under me yet, but we still get to go to all the events together, and have a lot of fun doing it!!  After tomorrow's ceremony (which our Troop Leader so sweetly convinced me to develop/write/orchestrate) we have our end of year trip on May 20, and maybe we'll plan a summer activity.  We'd really like to do some camping, which will serve dual purpose because my girls can earn badges doing that.

I'm almost done with school for this semester.  With all the chaos of my Scrappy losing insurance, and the endless meetings we've been going through, and the endless stacks of paperwork (not to mention how horribly far behind I've gotten with my housework!!!) I had to drop a couple classes, so I won't graduate until fall now.  I have one more class this semester and that will be the end of May, which isn't so bad.  It's only 3 days.

Then there's my business.  It's slowing down a little bit again - which is a HUGE frustration.  I'm hoping to come up with enough money to be able to do the fair this year, which would help me to get a lot more leads.  I'm looking for the chance to attend any events coming up soon to help get my name out again too!!!

And the walk.  This will be my family's 4th year participating in the walk.  Great Strides for Cystic Fibrosis, that is.  It used to be a 10k, but now is a 5k.  You can learn more about why we walk by visiting www.cff.org/great_strides/  We only have 1 week until the Walk - May 5th.  Unfortunately I'm a little out of practice and need to get my butt moving again... I've kinda been slacking on the workouts, but I haven't been feeling so wonderful - not to mention the S.T.R.E.S.S.!!!!!

Hopefully the stress will lessen soon... we got Scrappy's TEFRA application turned in with all the paperwork.  Too bad the life insurance company is still fighting us.  I need to call the information desk at the hospital again to see what the status is from them.  I told my hubby I think we need a lawyer.  I'm going to call and make an appointment with Legal Aid on Monday.

Here's a picture of my cutie with his bear.  He thought the bear needed to wear some big-boy underpants too :)

Have you ever seen a bear, wearing underwear, down by the bay? lol!