Tuesday, August 28, 2012

First Day of School and update on the invalids

Yesterday was our very first day of school.  Our plan for this year was to have Rob teach Ben exclusively and I teach the other two.  We mapped out a basic schedule for ourselves, trying to stay within the boundaries of our normal "Rob at work" time frame.  Here's what we came up with:

Pre-7am--Any kids who wake up early do what we call basic chores:  make bed, brush teeth, comb hair, get dressed.  Then they start straightening their rooms.
7am--Somebody comes and wakes up Mom, who gets ready and makes breakfast
8am--Eat breakfast and read morning devos together after Dad comes downstairs.
8:30am--Ben starts school with Dad at dining room table, Anna starts school with Mom in living room, Matt gets independent work from Mom and works in his room
10am--Recess.  Ben and Anna should be finished by this point and Matt has already begun working with Mom
10:15:  Matt and Mom continuing working until finished
11am--Dad starts lunch
Noon-Lunch
After lunch--Downtime with Dad,
1:30-Dad leaves for work, rest of us putter around or run errands, then bedtimes start at 8pm.

And here is how it went:

Pre-7am--Children woke up at various times and played in their rooms
7:30am--Mom woke up and realized what time it was.  Found children in various places w/o any basic chores done.  Dad got up to supervise chores while Mom cooked breakfast.
8am--Children came down to eat breakfast, family devos
8:30:  This part actually went as planned, PTL!!
10:15:  Entire family left to take Dad to chiropractor and do a teensy bit of shopping at Pick 'n Save
10:45:  Mom and Matt get back to school
Rest of day as planned, except Rob didn't leave for work.

Today went a little more according to plan, just insert "Spur-of-the-moment trip to farmer's market" for "chiro appt", the kids actually did their chores and woke us up, and that's how it went.  Overall the plan is working very well.  We simply do not do well with a highly structured schedule (like MOTH).  I think it's going to work out well!

UPDATE ON THE INJURED:

Anna saw the orthopedic doctor last Friday and her arm has straightened.  She won't need a hard cast, so that's a praise!  We have xrays again this coming Friday to see how she is healing.  She is doing even better adjusting to using just one arm and has become independent in all areas except for dressing and bathing.  Nothing thrilled me more than when she met me at the door yesterday and said, "Mommy, while you were gone I went potty and I can wipe myself!"

Rob is still off work.  At this point he thinks he's about 50% recovered from his fall. He is trying to take walks as much as his body will let him to help with the healing.  He still can't lift much, but his mobility is greatly improved.  He has been able to drive a bit as well.  It only hurts him to get in and out of vehicles, but once he is in he's fine.  It will definitely strain our finances having him out of work, but we are trusting in the Lord to take care of us.  I think our family needed him home to deal with some heart issues that just needed Rob's special care. 

Sunday, August 19, 2012

One of Those Weeks

Life has been going along with some ups and downs since convention, but this week was a definite down.  I have been struggling with more sensory and pain issues during church, mostly going away but twice now I have had three-day flare-ups after attending the evening service.  And I've been very weak.  It almost feels like I was regressing! 

And then we figured something out this week--the pizza place next door is making all of us sick.  Rob's throat closes up when the wind blows the wrong way and I get real tired.  And we have noticed the kids having a few symptoms here and there.  So we are keeping the windows closed while PJ's is open and that has helped us tremendously.  Unfortunately we didn't figure that out until after our anniversary on Tuesday, so that day was not a whole lot of fun for either of us.  Finances are extremely tight now anyway so we didn't have any plans that we had to cancel thankfully.

And then on Thursday Anna and the boys were messing around on the top bunk of the bunk bed and Anna fell off and broke her arm.  I wasn't sure at first if she was really hurt or if she was over-dramatizing things so I had her get on my bed and lay down for a bit.  When she put pressure on her wrist and buckled down with pain, I knew something was seriously wrong.  I found a friend to meet us at the er to take the boys and we were off.  Thankfully the boys were still there when the ER doc arrived so they told her what happened (and Mommy found the kids had been jumping off the bed prior to the accident.)  Anna had xrays that confirmed she had indeed broken her arm.  Right now she has a partial cast on her arm.  She will have xrays done on Friday to see if she needs a full cast.  She's doing pretty well adapting to using her left hand and only needs minimal help from me.

And then yesterday Rob was carrying laundry to the basement when he slipped on a lid sitting on the stairs and fell down part of the stairs.  So he and I headed off to the ER after supper to see what was going on with his back.  Our neighbors came over to watch the kids and even put Anna to bed before we got home.  We opted to do Urgent Care vs. the ER and THAT was a BIG mistake.  We were there for over an hour before we even SAW the only doctor working in Urgent care.  She had two proceedures to perform before seeing Rob.  Had we gone to the ER there would have been more than one doc working, but at least we saw someone.  His xrays turned out fine and he was given heavy pain meds.  He slept well last night (and is still sleeping) and we are planning to see his regular doc and the chiropractor tomorrow.