7QT: Post Christmas Fatigue Edition

--1--

Sunday, Christmas Eve, was Piglet's fifth birthday.  It was also a day of a lot of church, and we always struggle to know how to balance the needs of the Christmas Eve preparations against the needs of my son to celebrate his birthday in style.  We ended up somewhere in the middle, which was fine for this year.  We went to church in the morning (which was extra long due to the extra service in the a.m.), then came home and let Piglet open his birthday presents.  Boo had a hard time understanding why none of it was for him, and there were some tears and some hard feelings.  I never know how to navigate that territory as Boo's understanding of these things is still limited.  Birdie could care less, frankly, as long as she is allowed to walk around uninhibited.  We went out to dinner for Piglet's birthday, as we could not agree on a fasting-friendly birthday meal (Piglet wanted salmon, my husband was adamant about it not being a fish day...le sigh).  There is a neighborhood place we like that has vegan and non-vegan food options, so it worked out fine.  Piglet picked out vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods for dessert, and I think he had a good time.  Then it was off to church again for the evening Christmas eve service of Compline.

 

--2--

We celebrated Christmas on Monday, Russian Orthodox style, as is our custom now.  The day was fine, which is about all I'll say.  When one has three high needs children five and under, there are bound to be tears, fighting, general chaos, and lack of warm fuzzy feelings. I miss the Christmases of my growing up years (and in truth, the Christmases of my adult years at my parents' house), but probably it felt the same way to my parents when we were little too.  

--3--

The boys got some new Thomas trains to add to their growing collection, and Boo has been playing with trains almost non-stop this week.  We also did an earnest three-days of no-pants for Boo's potty training, and it went pretty well, all considered.  I think we are still in the stage where we are training, rather than him, but at least he will go #1 in the potty if we put him on in regular intervals.  Still working on #2.  I am very tired today, so I think we might take a little break--I just don't have the mental or emotional energy for a lot of battles today.  (Which is probably just as well, as I just discovered that we must have missed a lactaid pill in the last 24 hours as Boo has diarrhea again).

 --4--

The other big hit gift this year was dress up clothes from Melissa and Doug.  Piglet got a police costume for his birthday, and both boys received medical costumes and super hero capes for Christmas.  They've been playing with those quite a bit as well.  It is fun to see their imagination at work, even if Piglet can be pretty bossy about it.

--5--

Wednesday was my husband's namesday, which we celebrated with a nice meal and chocolate cheesecake for dessert (it is the 12 days of Christmas, so good desserts every day!!).  The box of Christmas gifts from my parents came that day as well, so we had another round of present-opening on Wednesday evening.  

--6--

Yesterday was hard.  I made the mistake of going to MOPS in the morning, and realized once I was there that it was a bad idea for me to be around people. I left early to go home and curl up on my couch with a book and some quiet while my babysitter did battle with my two younger children.  Piglet's godfather came down to have dinner with us and spend the evening, and by then, it was a welcome distraction.  Piglet was thrilled to see his godfather, and we were happy to catch up with him and spend some time.  

--7--

Tonight we are going to see The Black Watch at the Kimmel Center.  It is supposed to be an evening of traditional Celtic, Scottish, and English music, with bagpipes and the whole nine yards.  We are actually going out to dinner before hand (what a rarity!) and will meet up with some friends at the concert. 

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

Another Year Gone

It is another year gone, and six years since Philip died.  The baby who came after him turned five this week, and I'll admit to more than a little brittleness this week.  It isn't like I have Philip on my mind all the time, or even that I've consciously thought about how this week was six years ago (although I did have a few moments of remembering several days ago), but today I feel that hurt place in me all over again--the place that just never comes back together quite right.  So I'm feeling fragile and edgy today (helped in part by some seriously crazy hormones) and just trying to get through.

Forgive me for any offenses this day (and indeed everyday), as everything in my brain is a jumble of tears and hurt.

World Spectacular

"Spectacular, spectacular...

No words in the vernacular

Can't describe this great event

You'll be dumb with wonderment

Returns are fixed at ten percent

You must agree, that's excellent

And on top of your fee

You'll be involved artistically..." ~ Moulin Rouge

I love that film!  I admit, it has a few parts that you just have to laugh at the absolute absurdity, but I love the singing, dancing, and general story line.  Plus Ewan McGregor is just so stinkin' talented!  

Today I have a bit of a card parade for you--I've mentioned a few times that I'm working my way through my designer series paper (dsp) stacks, making cards for the troops.  (Sorry, Martie--my box is still coming!!)  I thought it might be fun to show the cards I made by dsp rather than all in one go the way I did several weeks ago.  Today's parade features World Spectacular, with a few cards from the retired Big Top Birthday (because they were similarly themed packs).  Some are original, some are tweaks of other things I've seen on the interwebs, some are just flat out CASEs (Copy and Share Everything).  I made multiples of almost every card here in order to use up the pack--I have a few scraps left that I'm still trying to work out what to do with (recycle? make a few more cards?)--the scraps are mostly in the 1"x4" size range, so probably won't do much more with them anyway.  But I hate to waste them!!

 I love, love this card--so simple, so clean, so easy!!  It was a perfect way to use up scraps.

Full panel cards are so efficient--12 cards per two sheets of the design in a full pack.

 This design makes 16 out of two full sheets--that was a lot of little balloons to cut out!!

Two of the sheets had faux adverts you could cut out and use as embellishments or focal points--I cut up as much as I could and made these cards with them (I made some in duplicate)

 Another easy card x 12--the little faux ribbon ends were easy with a square punch!

Another card from the faux adverts pages.

 I admit, I had a hard time figuring out what to put with this design, but I think the butterflies/sentiment ended up working out well.

CASEd the catalog.

 (I know I posted this one a while back, but it still came from the same pack, so...)  CASEd from Kim Van Diepen.

And from Big Top Birthday:

 These three hardly have any stamping on them!  I just used the dp as the focal point and stamped the sentiments from Up Up and Away.

This is one of my favorites from this lot--it turned out way better than expected, and the scrap of dp I thought would go to waste ended up being the perfect thing!

These are 5.25x5.25, so big cards, but I just thought the images were too perfect to try and trim down to standard A2 size, so I made it work.  I just stamped the sentiment down in the corner.

7QT: Bad Blogger Edition

I'll make a disclaimer at the top and just say these are probably the most disjointed takes I've ever written, in part because it took me, no joke, 5 hours to write them.  Apologies for the non-linear thinking.

-1-

I know I usually post once a week for the Quick Takes, but I've dropped the ball on even that the last few. Piglet was home from school, our routines were all kinds of messed up, and now we are in the run up to our own Christmas, so I don't have much to say beyond the fact that we are all a bit tired and I for one am ready to have some holidays.  December always feels so long to me now that we don't travel for Western Christmas and, because the various vagaries and oddities of being on the Old Calendar, it never feels very festive around here until early January.  I didn't grow up on the Julian calendar, and being so out of step with the wider culture at Christmas has gotten more difficult for me as I get older.

-2-

I'm feeling a bit blue these days, and hoping it passes soon.  At least I've gotten lots of stamping in to pass the time.  I'm hoping to post some photos soon--the weather is gray today (should have taken photos yesterday when it was sunny--drat!) so I'll have to wait for brighter skies to photograph my flurry of activity. See #7.

-3-

We started potty training Boo yesterday; it wasn't a complete success, but neither a complete disaster.  I'm a little calmer about the whole thing this time around, in part because I know that it is a slow slog to win the war (and it is a war, as anyone who has survived to tell the tale will say), and it helps that it is not summer, we don't have a tight deadline of preschool starting, and I'm not eight months pregnant (as I was when we were training Piglet).  All makes for an easier time of it.  But ask me again next week--I may not be so sanguine.

-4-

For those who participate in the linky every Friday, please keep Jen Fulwiler in your prayers--she is dealing with a pretty scary situation right now (double pulmonary embolism with an advanced pregnancy and five kids at home) and I can't imagine how she is feeling. 

-5-

After I finish these, I'm off to put away clean laundry and put a load in--Birdie has been getting up four times per night the last few weeks and drinking an incredible amount, so that has made for wet pjs and wet sheets on a fairly regular basis.  She's never slept through the night, but I'm hoping whatever is causing the extra frequent wake-ups will end soon because it is just so exhausting and demoralizing.  In fact, I'm finishing these much later in the day, so the laundry is put away, the new load is now in the dryer, and I'll have to fold it this evening. 

-6-

I have a lot of food allergies, and one of the more weird ones is chicken (and poultry more generally).  I can tolerate eggs now, but the meat/broth is just right out.  I developed the allergy after Piglet was born, and after five years of no chicken, I'm starting to miss it I'm craving it in a big way.  So imagine my delight when I finally stumbled across a wonderful fake chicken last week.  We've tried many substitutes, and most have been less than satisfactory (something one wouldn't even eat in the depths of Great Lent), but Gardein makes a lovely chick'n tender with a lovely asian sauce on the side that seriously fakes me out.  I almost thought I might have a reaction to the fake stuff, it tasted so real to me!  I made a vegan chick'n pot pie last night and it was so yummy.  I've also made some good stirfrys.  Unfortunately, the Gardein chick'n breast subsitutes are a little lacking, but that's okay--the tenders are so good it doesn't matter!! I'm scrolling chicken recipes now to see what else I can make after the fast is over on Monday! 

-7-

The sun came out this afternoon for about 30 minutes, and I was able to take a few photos (it pays to get sidetracked while blogging, I guess!).  I wanted to post this card the instant I made it the other night, I love it so much.  I'm so pleased with how it came out.  I'm working my way through the Fan Fair dp pack at the moment, and this was one of the cards I made from the sheets that had pieces you could cut out.  The map is cut out, as is the central panel with the blue flower.  I also stamped the Eiffel Tower and cut that out.  The rest is just bits and pieces.  I made two of these cards.  (See the pool party button?  It is new!!  From Sale-A-Bration--you can get a whole pack of those buttons and ribbon too for free with a $50 purchase!)

 

Hallie Lord is hosting today since Jen is so sick, so you can go see her for more Quick Takes!

7QT: St. Nicholas and the Plague

--1--

We have the plague at our house.  Not the bubonic type, but the respiratory nastiness that everyone seems to be passing around lately.  Unfortunately, with two kids with airway malacias, that means serious stuff for us.  Birdie spiked a fever on Sunday and passed a bad night with respiratory distress, vomiting, horrid coughing and extreme lethargy.  Monday was worse, and I took her and Piglet (who was also home sick and coughing his head off) to the doctor on Monday afternoon.  The doctor decided Piglet was weathering the plague okay without extra intervention (which was my feeling too, but it never hurts to check for secondary pneumonia since we were already concerned about Birdie), but that Birdie needed antibiotics since her lungs were crackling and her fever was pretty high.  Boo has the plague as well, but as with any sickness that makes the rounds, he has the least severe form.  That kid has a seriously sturdy constitution.

--2--

I had barely gotten Birdie's first dose of antibiotics into her when she started in with febrile seizures.  I was okay with that, since she has a history of them, but then she became unresponsive, making a horrible choking noise and her lips turned blue.  At that point, I panicked a little.  Do not pass go, do not collect $100.  I called my husband to come home immediately so I could take her to the ER.  By the time he got home, she had pinked up and seemed okay again, but her vomiting had increased, combined with the blue lips episode and we decided that it was best to go to the ER and have her checked out.

--3--

I arrived at CHOP around 7:15, and the place was an absolute zoo.  I groaned inwardly, thinking we were going to be there all night, and probably get admitted on top of it all.  As it turns out, if you are little, in respiratory distress, and have had febrile seizures with a cyanotic episode, you get bumped to the front of the line.  It took a little time to get triaged, but once they got her symptoms and history, we didn't wait long.  Her O2 sats were good considering her breathing rate was in the low 70s, and everything else looked okay.  We finally got her fever down a bit, and they did a chest x-ray to see how bad her lungs looked (not very, as it turned out).  The resident gave me the option of an overnight stay for observation, but by the time she mentioned it, it was 10:00 p.m., Birdie was looking significantly better and her hydration levels were still okay, and I felt that it would be best for all of us to be home in our own beds.  So we arrived home by 11:00 p.m., not bad considering the zoo at the hospital.  The night passed without further incident.

--4--

A funny aside.  My husband must have repeated my assessment of the waiting room (I said it was a mess) in Piglet's earshot, so on Tuesday when I picked him up from school, he asked me if the doctors had picked up all the mess that everyone had left behind.  I was confused at first, but then realized what he meant.  "That's not exactly what that means." I told him.  But I had to smile at the mental image of ER doctors picking up rubbish in the waiting room!

--5--

Vintage stockings!  (via etsy)  Our first year to have our own stockings!

Tuesday was the eve of St. Nicholas (for those confused, we are Orthodox Christians on the Julian or Old-style calendar, which lags the Western calendar by 13 days).  I put up our Christmas decorations and properly decked the halls this year!  I'm very pleased with how things turned out, although I didn't love spending the first day of a decorated house admonishing the children to stop fussing with stuff.  

The little tree in my second floor office, away from curious fingers.  I put up garland on the built-in bookcases in the living room and hung ornaments on that so that it looks festive, but far away from little hands.

--6--

Presents from St. Nicholas, plus chocolate coins for their shoes.

Wednesday was St. Nicholas Day, so my husband took Piglet to church (Boo had a doctor's appointment in the a.m. that I could not move), and my babysitter stayed home with Birdie, who was sounding worse and was still fevered.  We had a nice day--the kids opened the presents from St. Nicholas before breakfast (mostly vintage Little People stuff), enjoyed the chocolate coins in their shoes, and were generally overexcited about the whole thing all day long.  I baked a vegan blueberry crumb cake for dessert, and we had a nice festal fish meal of salmon tacos.  

--7--

Birdie passed a bad night on Wednesday.  She literally coughed all night long, was running a 102-103 fever, couldn't keep anything down (including tylenol or motrin), breathing in the 70s from 1:00 a.m., and generally making me worried.  At about 5:00 a.m., I decided that she probably needed to be in the hospital for oxygen and fluids, when my husband suggested trying steroids in the nebulizer--we'd given her all the other meds we could think of to try and help.  That calmed her cough enough so we could get motrin in her, and she slept for a few hours.  Her respiration rate dropped into the mid-30s while sleeping, and when she got up, it was in the 60s, which isn't great, but at least isn't crisis-worthy.  She was still fevered, struggling to breathe, and coughing a ton, with some vomiting, so our wonderful pediatrician saw her again yesterday, prescribed a different antibiotic, plus oral steroids, both of which have helped a lot.  She passed a much better night last night, has been keeping fluids down, and while she clearly doesn't feel well, looks a bit better today.  I'm sure I'll be staying home with her this weekend, but at least I don't feel like we are balanced on the knife-edge of crisis any longer.  Sometimes when she is sick like that, but not quite sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, it is so hard for me.  The constant care, the medication schedule, the sleepless nights really get me, because I'm holding my breath, waiting for her to fall over the edge and need professional intervention.  Sometimes I find myself longing for hospitalization, just so someone professional can be in charge for a while. But right now, she is doing better, and hopefully will continue to improve.  

Go see Jen and Co. for more quick takes!

7QT: Cold Water Edition

--1--

I can't believe it is Friday already--this week has just flown by.  It's not even that I was so busy--honestly, I can't really remember what I did all week except sort of sleep walk through it.  Maybe that is why I don't remember!

--2--

The big news of note is that our tankless water heater went kaput on Wednesday.  The igniter stopped working, which means we have no hot water.  Which means our water for showering, dish washing, and everything else is about 40 degrees.  Eek!!  And the technician can't get here until Monday (what is up with THAT??)  I begged, I pleaded, I tried telling her I had three little kids, but to no avail.  I spent yesterday boiling water on the stove for dish washing and my husband and I both took bracing sponge baths while we prayed that Birdie would not start vomiting.  (She has vomited a little this week, but it was minor and did not require a full bath to clean up).  This morning, my hair was beyond dirty, and I just couldn't see waiting until Tuesday or later to wash it (since the technician may or may not be able to install the part on Monday!), so I girded my loins (so to speak) and washed my hair in bracingly cold water.  That will wake you up in the morning!!  Who needs coffee?  

--3--

Being without hot water reminded me of my Moscow days, when the government shuts off the hot water to the city starting in May, and sometimes doesn't turn it back on until October 1st.  (The hot water is used to heat the buildings in the winter, and they have to drain the buildings every spring/summer).  Sometimes the hot water is off for a few weeks, but I remember one year that Nizhni Novgorod was without hot water all summer.  So you boil your wash water, and try not to fill the tub more than a few inches at a time.  Few Russian bathrooms are set up for showers anyway.  The hot water (and the heat) comes back on October 1st regardless of the weather.  I didn't mind the cold water so much in September when it tends to be warmer, but I do remember minding it a little in May, as it can still be quite chilly in May in Moscow!!  

--4--

You can see the banya in the second picture.  The top picture is the yard and outhouse, the bottom picture is the entry way to the house where we stayed.

But nothing compares to a cold banya in Krygzystan in summer.  Before we had children, I did a three week Habitat build in Barskoon, on the edge of Lake Isak-Kyl, near the Chinese border.  We had no running water, unreliable electricity, no modern power tools, just hammers, shovels, manual planers, hand saws, and the like. We made bricks by hand using mud, straw, and a metal form.  

Working with old school tools.

Horses are more common than cars in that part of the world.  (Sheep too!)  It was fantastic.  But then there was the clean up at the end of the day--we had the banya to use for washing our clothes and ourselves, and the first ones back from the job site had bracing cold water to wash in.  I never wanted to wait the several hours it took to heat the water enough for a hot steam because we got so incredibly muddy and dirty at the job site.  (Mud to the brows was not an exaggeration).  And even though it was July, the temps were in the 70s, which is pleasant for sitting, but with cold water for washing, wow, cold!!  

More pictures of the yard/house where we stayed.  This is typical for the area.

--5--

And yes, I know I'm complaining about first world problems.  A broken water heater isn't really that big of a deal--we have a sound roof over our heads, the heater is still working, we have food to eat, and safe places to sleep.  We have more than we need, and have been provided for most abundantly.  And I am grateful.  I'm also grateful for one-day shipping from Amazon.com and $10 hot pots and cheap large thermoses.  Yes, I do have a tea kettle that I can boil water on the stove, but hot pots are a lot faster, and when you are boiling water all day long for dish washing and other washing, speed is handy.  

--6--

And now for something completely different.

--7--

And my card for today:

This is tweaked from someone else's design, but I really loved the texture and the super quick and dirty watercoloring.  Took about 3 minutes to color.  I'm still working on cards for From Our Hearts--I'm using up a lot of designer series paper!!  I've used up all the retired stuff I had hanging around, plus have made my way through my neglected Twitterpated pack, plus most of the Orchard Harvest pack from the current holiday catalog.  I've got some scraps to use up, but then on to Comfort Cafe and Fan Fair!!  I'm enjoying the challenge of using up a pack of dsp at a time and keeping the designs simple but interesting.  I also made teacher gifts yesterday--I decorated our kraft boxes and made gift card holders with the petite pockets die (love it!) using Comfort Cafe--who says Christmas gifts have to look Christmas-y?  I love that paper, and it looks so nice as gift packaging!

Alright, enough nonsense for today--go see Jen and Co. for more Quick Takes!

7QT: Wham Bam Edition

 --1--

These are going to be super fast, as I seem to be having a lot of days lately where I either have nothing to do or 10,000 things to do.  Today is a 10,000 things day.  For starters, I have to make a brunch casserole for our Philly Inker's gathering tomorrow, I have to finish prepping my shoebox swap, I have to get myself to the dermatologist this morning to follow up about the spot on my hip (it is benign), and also start tackling teacher gifts.  Monday is even worse, so I won't bore you with the details.

--2--

This week also found me in the position of having to be in two places at the same time with two different kids for two different medical appointments IN THE SAME DEPARTMENT.  Their scheduler, not mine.  The idiot I talked to on the phone (nearly in tears with frustration at this impossible situation) could not understand why I couldn't work this out.  I tried to explain, Piglet is having surgery with your department at this time, and Boo is scheduled for an office visit at this time.  I have a sitter at home for Birdie, and my husband works all the time, and just isn't available.  THERE ISN'T ANYONE ELSE!!  Finally, I just gave up trying to talk sense to her and hung up.  The doctor called me a few days later to talk through Piglet's procedure and I explained the problem, and bless her, she said she could squeeze Boo in on a later day without us having to go to the back of the line and wait another three months for an appointment.

--3--

Wednesday found me almost in tears again as I realized that Birdie had physical therapy at 8:00, my sitter was off for the day, Piglet had to be to school before 8:45, and my husband (who normally brings Piglet to school) had left for Washington DC early that morning to sit second chair at the Chaffin Supreme Court hearing.  Usually in this sort of situation our neighbor (whose daughter goes to school with Piglet) will bring him, but I neglected to set it up beforehand because my brain was elsewhere.  After some frantic e-mailing and phone calls, I did get in touch and they were gracious enough to take Piglet to school and save me another stress ball of a day.

--4--

Piglet had his bronchoscopy and endoscopy/sigmoidoscopy on Tuesday morning and everything went very well.  He was dopey and out of it the rest of the day, but he bounced out of bed on Wednesday morning and went to school.  He has seemed fine ever since.  Nothing earth-shattering was discovered, except to confirm the tracheomalacia that we suspected.  He is on the same medicine as Birdie for the condition, and now we are trying to find an efficacious dose.  We are still waiting on the results of the biopsies and cultures, which may reveal more about what is going on with him.

--5--

Mostly I just want my kids to stop being sick all.the.time.  Piglet and Birdie are prone to respiratory infection because of the underlying airway malacias, and it is just so hard for them to clear any infection.  Boo is pretty hardy, but his behavior issues trump everything lately and just make me so tired.

--6--

And I want to stop being sick myself.  My husband and I have been passing a nasty respiratory virus back and forth for over a month now, and I'm so over it. Enough already.  I think we've been punished enough.

--7--

I decided this year not to yield to my Scrooge McDuck husband on Christmas decorations (he doesn't want to see them until January 2nd at the earliest) and am going to decorate sometime this coming week.  We can't put a tree up because of the children and the layout of our house, but I ordered some nice garlands to hang from our big built in bookcases in the living room and will hang the ornaments from that.  I think it will look very festive.

(some Christmas cards I made this year)

--Bonus--

 

I am in the market for a Star Trek style replicator, to use on myself.  Does anyone have one for sale?  All offers considered.

Go see Jen for more Quick takes!