The Dan Man

It’s the week before Thanksgiving. At our house that means that Alan’s entire family is doing their Christmas shopping. They will be completely finished before the rest of us even start. I just wanted to pass that info on. Maybe it will help motivate other Christmas slackers, like myself.

I asked Daniel today, “What do you want for Christmas, sweetie?”

“Um…handcuffs..”

“Handcuffs?”

“Yup. And a balloon!”

“Oh, good,” I mused to myself, “I can do all of this boy’s shopping at Dollar Tree and be done just like that…”

“And a car!”

Yes!

“with a remote”

“Oh, you want a remote control car? I’m sure we could do that. Okay.”

“No, a car that you can ride on, actually.”

Whomp whomp whomp. Oh.

He wants a Power Wheel. We were so close.

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I’m having trouble talking Alan into going along with that one. But, Alan, it’s Christmas…

So I’m making a note of this moment, I’m writing it down. Let the record show that I, April, am going to order at least one Christmas present today. I’m doing it! Joshua’s bringing me my hot pad, for my angry old hip, and I’m going to lay here and shop from home.

This has been a big and exciting week for us:

#1. Daniel had his preschool observation day. We got to go and sit in on a class, and if all went well, they told us he could start in January.

Well, someone get this boy a cookie. He was so mellow and sweet and well behaved. They told me he could start right away. She said, “He has done so well here. He’s so good and so mellow. It’s like he’s been here all year. He can start right away, if you’d like.”

Whoot! Go, Dan, go!

#2. I passed glucose tests 2 and 3. One was a three month sugar level test. Passed that. One was a fasting level test. Passed it too. No diabetes. Roll Tide!!

#3. I have my rheumatology appointment scheduled, but it may not even be a rheumatology related issue, so the doctor finally also ordered a new MRI.

#4. Alan’s list of possible jobs is in for us to choose from, and it looked good to me. We will probably be going right back to where we moved here from.

#5. This week is Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!

So thankful for these guys!

The healthy eating thing went so well last week, but I’ve made several big goofs this weekend, mostly involving Oreo cookies. I’m still trying to improve my diet, though, for the benefit of the whole family.

Would you believe that I did not get fog brain a single time this week? Amazing. It didn’t help the joint pain, though. That just keeps getting worse and worse. That’s why I’m looking forward to talking to more doctors about it. If we can figure out what is causing it, then I feel like I could more accurately do something about it.

I’m off to start this shopping! Happy Thanksgiving!!

The post “Handcuffs, A Balloon, and A Car” Let the shopping begin! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

the beauty of sleep

Christmas vacation was exactly what I think I needed. It was so refreshing to spend time with our families. I was horribly selfish. I slept late every single morning. No, really. One day, I actually slept until 1:00pm. No kidding! I did almost no work at all. None. I sat on sofas, opened presents galore, drank copious amounts of flavored coffee and let other people chase J.D. around.

You can’t pour sweet tea from a broken pitcher, and this Momma pitcher just needed to stop for a few repairs.

At one point, on Christmas Day, Alan and I were sitting in Alan’s grandparents’ living room with all of the adults. I’m not sure you know how unusual this is for parents of ‘littles’:  Alan and I were sitting, together, in a room with adults!

Please don’t ever think I do all the work around here. Alan and I are equal partners in this venture, and we were equally in need of a vacation!

Everyone there seemed to realize this was odd for us. I think they were just teasing us.

“Look at ya’ll just sitting here! Who is watching your children?”

Alan and I looked at each other. “J.D. is asleep, and the kids are outside,” we sighed a blissful sigh of relief, “so this is our chance to relax a little.”

“Where is Daniel?”

“Pretty sure he’s outside with his brothers. He’s fine.”

“You aren’t worried about what they’re doing?”

One by one, each of my three oldest boys mosied into the living room, as this conversation took place.

“Nah. They are fine.” We’d been following J.D. around diligently, of course, and now that he was sleeping, this was our time to chill.

I guess this is why people think of Alan and me as laid back. No, we don’t police our children every second of the blessed day. We feel like we’ve taught them enough basics of safety to play without causing any great disaster, and EVERYONE has to rest sometime!! You can’t watch four boys every second of the day. That isn’t possible. We watch the babies and check on the others. Alan and I were both raised that way, and you know what? I think we turned out pretty well. We both graduated PUBLIC high school without ever drinking a drop of alchohol, seeing a drug…oh wait, Alan saw one but never used any, and I never even saw any.

I remember having this conversation with my friend B.J. in 10th grade history class:

Me: We have gangs? (Our high school was 1400 students strong, 9-12 grade, and this was not a wealthy school.)

BJ: OH, yeah, April, I’m on the basketball team. You don’t even want to know about all the drugs and gangs we have at this school.

Me: Huh. I had no idea.

But you can’t worry yourself and your children to death about these things. You just have to do the best you can do and trust God with the rest.

The funny thing is that most of our great disasters have happened with us right there, watching it happen. When Joshua broke his arm, Alan and I were right outside with him. How could we know that he’d suddenly decide to jump off the pick-up truck?He’d done that dozens of times without breaking his arm.

This is life.

It’s exhausting and delightful, if you let it be. This year I decided, “I’m going have a FUN Christmas.” I did. I think I had just as much fun as the children even! Okay, I will admit, by the end of it, Alan and I were starting to snip at each other. Why does that happen?

Because we are ALL sinners, and sometimes it is SO HARD to be good!

Well, you know I can’t make a January 2nd blog post without mentioning my New Year’s Goals, and this year I have TWO, okay three.

1. Study Jesus.

Last year I was supposed to “read the Bible through in a year”.  I only made it through the Old Testament.

This year I am going to read the New Testament, focusing on studying the words of Jesus.  I’m not just reading this year. This year I’m studying each individual chapter.

After I do my studying, I pray and write down my objectives for that day, or that week. I have a lot more clarity of mind once I have read my Bible and prayed! If only I could squeeze this in every single morning. That is always my aim, but life is life, and so sometimes that is hard.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33

More on this in my next post!

2. Make a budget. We haven’t had one in years. 

There are lots of other little goals, floating around in my head, but if I spread my focus out too much, I get overwhelmed, and then I accomplish nothing at all.

3. I want God to use our family to bless others.

“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”  Matthew 9:35-38

Let me tell you the result of my lazy Christmas vacation!

For the first time since I do not even remember when, I cannot feel that pinch in my right shoulder and my right hip. I haven’t used pain cream or advil in weeks! Plus, my finger nails look almost completely normal!

Living a lazy life is a bad idea, but living a stressful-never sleeping life is awfully hard on the body. Oh, to find the balance. They say that the first year of home schooling is the hardest, and I jumped right into the middle of it, rather than easing in, one kiddo at a time, sooo I have HIGH hopes for this year.

I have decided: This year I am appreciating my very Disney-movie-like life. I am thanking God for his blessings. I feel like I am re-grouping and preparing to return to “battle”, aka home schooling J, C, D, and JD. (Never think the babies don’t count. Little ones require a TON of attention.)

 Look at my mom’s beautiful hair. I hope I can age this gracefully!

I’m taking more time to plan for family fun and rest too. These boys need that just as much as I do. I may even plan some fun family mini-vacations for us, in advance!

Happy New Year!! 

The post This Year appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I’m a little different than some parents, because I TRULY enjoy these opportunities to be out, even with my children in tow.  I love people! I miss people!

We’ve all read a whole lot of internet articles of parents complaining about things people say to them and their children in public!

  They complain about comments like this:

“You sure do have your hands full.”

“Are they all boys? Four boys!?”

“You need one more. Girl.”

Well, you know what, I have definitely heard all of those comments more than once just this week. However, I love it! What they are saying is true!!!

-I DO have my hands full, and I appreciate the acknowledgement of that! 🙂 What’s wrong with a little empathy?

-All boys! I know!! I am in awe of this novelty too.

-What’s that you say? One more? Girl? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. JD is only one year old, after all.

None of these comments have been said with any ill intent.

I really feel like most of us are just people trying to relate to each other. You see someone out doing something neat, and you want to comment on it. I think it’s great. I need the encouragement and social interaction!!  I’m a home school hermit  mom! As long as you don’t ask me what I weigh, we are good, and I will tell you whatever you need to know. 😉

And you know what helps the most in keeping peace with the public!!??  Saying “Sorry!!” “Excuse me,” and “Thank you. I’m so sorry.” Let’s face it, when you apologize for the inconvenience that you cause, or just for getting in the way, people feel better.

We began our trip by spending a night at the hotel airport. Did you know that we now are REQUIRED to get two rooms (unless there are suites–which there weren’t) because we exceed the maximum occupancy of a regular two-queen-bed hotel room?

Alan was a genius. He got a bellhop for me, to handle the luggage, while he found a parking space and brought up JD. The bellhop at the hotel piled our suitcases onto his cart, filling it to the top.  It was cold and windy in San Francisco. I was so thankful to not have to help with all that luggage, “Thank you. I’m so sorry.”

He smiled, “That’s okay. I have four kids too!”  I think he appreciated a little empathy too! Then he said, “Here let me take a few of those bags too. I can hang them on these hooks.”

People are nicer to you when you give them a few “sorry’s” along the way.

The next morning we went to breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I don’t remember if I had to apologize or not, but the staff was extra nice. They kept bringing the boys rubber duckies and tiny beanie babies. I guess they wanted to be SURE that JD kept quiet. hehehe  My favorite part was when the waiter said, “Do the parents need coffee?”

“Yes, the parents do!!” was our enthusiastic response.

They had tons of delicious breakfast options, to include a buffet. What did my children order?

“Cereal.”

“Cereal.”

“I just want cereal.”

Thankfully, they only charged us for cereal, and not for whole meals.

Breakfast was a huge success. Of course, that’s also because Alan sat by JD.

Thank you, Alan!!! I know ‘thank yous’ go a long way too. Alan has been my hero this Christmas. It has felt like such a break from the daily grind.

We rode the hotel shuttle to the airport, and as we arrived and made our way along the curb, past all the crowds, I was saying plenty of “I’m sorry’s” and “Excuse me’s” as our 7 suitcases and 7 carry-ons probably bumped into people along the way. “Thank you. Excuse me. Oops. I’m so sorry. Thank you. Oh, thanks. Excuse me. Excuse me. Merry Christmas!”

Then I passed by this mom, wearing her baby in an Ergo and pushing a double stroller. We gave each other a fist bump and carried on. 

Yep. I felt special. 🙂

Then we got to the check-in line.

“Non-stops on the right, connections on the left.”

Yep. We had non-stop tickets. The line on the left was a mile long. The one on the right, not so much.

Alan checked the bags, and we proceeded on through security.

I prayed for a safe, stress free trip, and let me tell you, God delivered. The security people let us through the short line that the staff goes through. We didn’t ask for any special treatment. The security lady just said, “Ah, it’s going to be too hard on the kids. Go ahead this way.”

Whoot! Thank you, Daniel, and JD for being little!!

We had time to eat before we boarded. Everything went as smoothly as things could possibly go. Alan even sat by John David on the flight, so you will not believe what I did on the airplane…

I READ A BOOK. (Thank you, Aunt Amy, for sending me that wonderful reading material!)

I know!!! I couldn’t believe it either. I sat between Caleb and Daniel. My job was pretty easy.

Huge thank you to Alan for sitting by the baby!!   His version of this trip might sound a little different… I hear that the baby wet his carseat (which he flew in on the plane–huge lifesaver)….twice.

I’m not even going to let the fact that the airline lost one of our bags bother me. 

We are having a wonderful Christmas so far!! We do miss you, Aunt Amy!!

The first half of our Christmas vacation is done. Now onto Phase Two: My family! Can’t wait to see ya’ll!!

Merry Christmas!!!

The post Thank you. Merry Christmas. Excuse Me. I’m sorry. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

My friend Mary is stepping in today to weigh in on this hot trend: the Elf on the Shelf. We don’t have one at our house–mostly because we don’t want the extra work. Is that a good enough reason? 😉 No ill will meant towards the Elf per say, as Mary said, “For those of you who do the whole elf thing, you keep making elf magic. ”

Some of us will happily sit this one out.

Let’s hear from my friend and fellow military spouse, Mary Moore. She and I served our time together in the Family Support Group leadership trenches back when Joshua and Caleb were babies.  Thanks for sharing with us today, Mary!!

Also funny: The Elf on the Shelf creators read this article and complained, so the original website for this article removed it to make them happy. 

*************

“It’s true. I loathe Elf on the Shelf, but before you give me the speech about how my kids are being disserviced by not participating in this “tradition”, hear me out. Here are the top 5 reasons why I loathe Elf on the Shelf:

(5) I loathe you because right off I’m going to have to buy 3 of you. A boy elf for my son and then 2 girl elves for my daughters because if I only buy one girl elf there will be tears over each not having her own. At $30 a pop, I’m now well on my way to being broke this holiday season.

“Sorry sweet little beings of mine, Mommy can’t buy you that really awesome $50 toy you wanted because she just bought herself extra work (times 3) every Christmas season for the next ten years.”

(4) I loathe you because now that I’ve brought you home, I’m going to have to name you. No, Bob or Sue won’t work for you. I’ll have to come up with some elaborate Christmas-y name that sounds like you were named by Santa himself. I had enough trouble naming my three kids and now you want one too? Everyone is naming you cute little names like Clara or Snowbell but to be honest I just want to give you a four letter name that would surely distract from the Christmas season.

“Mommy, why can’t we tell the neighbor our Elf’s name?”

“Because, honey, Mommy will go to jail if you do.”

(3) I loathe you because not only do I have to bake cookies, buy presents, wrap presents, send out Christmas cards, attend school concerts, decorate the house, and make our travel plans (etc, etc, etc) but now I have to throw you into the mix too? I’d rather use hot sauce as contact lens solution!

“Little Timmy said his Elf made elaborate, over the top cookies last night while he was asleep. Couldn’t our Elf do that, Mom?”

“Just dump the Tabasco right here on my cornea.”

(2) I loathe you because Elf on the Shelf has now become Elf on the toilet, Elf hanging upside down on the Christmas tree, Elf baking cookies and leaving the flour and sprinkles on every surface in the kitchen, and just plain overachieving Elf! You’ve left your shelf and I just don’t see how you have time for all this mischief when you’re flying to the North Pole every night. Plus, I’m not creative enough to think of any place other than a shelf to put you.

“Mommy, why does our Elf never move?”

“Seriously? His right hand moved a quarter of an inch when I was pretending to dust the shelf. What more do you want from me?”

(1) The top reason why I loathe you is because even if I could remember to move you and come up with big, elaborate messes for the kids to find in the morning, I will still have to compete with the mom who has achieved all “150 cute and easy Elf on the shelf ideas” in the first 10 days of the season. The kicker is not only do I have to come up with creative ideas for the kids, now I have to entertain my husband because there’s a whole “racy and after hours” version of you going around. How am I supposed to convince my husband/kids to be good, if you are running amuck and not getting punished?

“Hey baby, I saw the Elf and Barbie were…”

“NO, just no.”

If you feel the same as I do, I’ve come up with a companion to Elf on the Shelf. Her name is Maid on Parade and she’s perfect for people who think the Elf should stay on the shelf. In theory, she makes sure that everything is cleaned up and your Elf makes it back to his shelf every night. In reality, you put them on a shelf and never have to move them again! Why has this not been done? It’s brilliant and it might just be enough to make me buy an Elf or 3. Who am I kidding? There is nothing that would make me want to experience Christmas time with an Elf that is on (or especially off) his shelf!

Do you participate in Elf on the Shelf? Do you feel like it’s time consuming and a waste of time? Or are you one of those overachieving Elf lovers? Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way!

P.S. I promise I’m not some crabby old lady who hates all things that make little kids happy. Sometimes I just need someone to throw Christmas cookies at me and tell me I’m pretty.”

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My friend Mary is an outstanding HH6, fitness enthusiast, teacher, and mother to three beautiful children.  She’s also a lot of fun.

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Let me tell you a story about the time we had our own real life nightmare before Christmas.

There are times when things just don’t go the way that you had hoped.  Embarking on a looong car trip with four children is a foolish brave thing to do.

It all began around 10pm the night before we left.  I walked into Dan’s room to get something, and I noticed he had a very wet sounding snore.  “Oh no,” I thought.

Around 12 am, Dan woke up crying and barking a little (the croup cough sounds like a seal’s bark).

We gave him some cold & cough medicine, and he went back to sleep.

2am he woke up crying and barking, but at this point he couldn’t stop barking.

He wasn’t getting in any regular breaths between the barks.  It was horrible and scary.  We had never had a child get croup like this.

I have always read and been told that steam helps when a child is having breathing difficulties, so we went to the bathroom, closed the door, and turned on the hot shower.

It helped right away, but each time we would turn off the water, and the steam would begin to disappear, the croup would begin to return.

We knew Daniel would have to go the emergency room.

Croup is not something adults have to worry about having.  This is a condition that happens to some small children when they are sick with a virus…..or in Dan’s case strep throat….

For more info on croup, you can click on this link: WebMD croup article (By the way, two years later, Dan was diagnosed with asthma because this still happens every time he gets sick. Was it asthma all along? I don’t know. I can’t tell the difference in the sound of the bark.)

Either way, when your kid can’t get a breath in between coughs, you gotta rush that baby to the hospital. Call an ambulance.

The ER people gave Dan a dose of steroid and sent him home, where he quickly went back to sleep and seemed to be just fine.

Having not slept much, we were a little later leaving than planned.  Here are the highlights of our trip:

-We got one block from our house when our car DVD player quit working.

Drat.

-detour to Target to buy new one—got lucky–it was on sale!

– left Target to immediately get stuck in a slow moving traffic jam on I-95 South, of course.

-By the time traffic was moving again, it was 1pm, and we were all ready for lunch.  We all went inside to BK, fed the baby, changed his diaper, changed Dan’s pull-up, and then began to realize that Daniel was looking…droopy.  He finally just sat down at the table and started crying.

-We loaded all the kids back into the car, gave Dan some Tylenol, and hit the road.

-2 hours later….Dan starts crying and doesn’t stop.

-I crawled into the back seat and touched him.  Whoa!  The boy was on fire!  By this point, I’m ready to throw in the towel.

“Alan, that’s it.  This boy is really, really sick.  Let’s just turn around and go home.  This is just not working out.”

Alan….thinking a little less emotionally than I was and more logically (another thing I love about Alan–he should so run for President)….said, “I’m going to take him to a hospital.”

–Alan pulled off the interstate and looked around for ‘H’ signs.

–This hospital was in a small town I’d never heard of, and it was wonderful.  Very Southern!

“What’s the matter, Sweetie?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.  My goodness, you are beautiful.  What a beautiful child”  (referring to Dan)

“He’s gonna get real mad at me when I do this, but we gotta make him feel better.”

(102.5 fever, even after the Tylenol, They swabbed both nostrils to test for flu and his throat, to test for strep throat).

“Do you have other children?  I can tell that you do; it’s real obvious.  You’re so good at this.”

to Dan:  “Your mama sure does love you, you’re lucky to have such a good momma.  You know that?”

…Yes, I was getting the big head.  ; )

My favorite line:

(from the doctor)  “I can’t believe the ER last night did not do a strep test on him.  That is not right.”

The nurse said, “Yeah, they were just doing the bare minimum for this poor baby!”

That’s right, Doc.  Maybe when I get back I will put in a complaint.

I LOVE THE SOUTH!!!!

They gave him a dose of steroid, ibuprofen, antibiotic, and zofran—because–

Did I mention right before Alan pulled off the interstate that Daniel threw up all over me?

I bet we smelled really nice.

Naturally, I had a change of clothes for Daniel, but not so much for me.  We bought some Lysol and sprayed down my pants…

Thankfully, that was our last trip complication.  We reached our destination at 4:30am.  We woke up a few hours later and headed to Granny’s funeral.

Granny’s funeral went really well, and I’m so thankful that we made it.  I saw family I had not seen in years, and that was a blessing.

I got to see Granny one last time, and that was good closure.  This was the good, peaceful kind of funeral.  It was her time, and she was ready.  That makes such a difference.  Funerals are a great reminder of our past, our present, and our future.

We only get one life to live on Earth.  I hope I can live mine as well as Granny did.

*****

A few photos to share of last week’s Santa visit:

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