Friday, January 16, 2009

Ahhh.... Latte


Anyone who knows me even a little knows that I love my candy coffee. In my special mug. One that I bought before I was married and used twice every day of my life until Mercy dropped it and broke the handle off. That was a sad day.

But I found another mug. I actually found two, just in case little fingers break on. (I'm setting myself up for success, you know.) 'Cause it's just not worth getting upset over stuff even if it is the mug out of which you have drank (drunk?) approximately 10,500 cups of coffee.

Ahem.

Since I have been on my attempt to lose weight this year, I have *GASP* cut out my coffee, since there is so much sugar in it. But it has sure messed with my morning schedule. I just love my computer and coffee time to wake myself up. So today, I made myself a Latte (imagine your favorite coffeehouse...) for just pennies!

1/2 mug of coffee
1/2 mug of hot milk
generous swig of chocolate syrup (sugar free)

Tastes just like a warm mocha frappucino! Yummy on a cold day like today!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Mercy Medical Appointments for January

I am back, and (sort of) recovered from our very long trip to Cinci on Tuesday. I had to be driving at 5 in the morning, and I didn't get home until after 7:30. That is a VERY long day for this homeschool mama who doesn't have to move very fast in the mornings. Forget wondering how I do "it" with 9 children, I don't know how anyone gets their children on the bus by 6:30 in the morning.

Anyway- we were off on time. I take an older child each time to help me with Mercy in the car, etc. So this time it was Emma. She thought it was way cool to be getting up at 4:40 in the morning. I wasn't so thrilled since I had woken up to feed Bethany at 3:30 and not gotten to sleep again.

We had some pretty bad weather on the way up, and things were pretty slow. So I arrived to our first appointment a little late. But it didn't matter since the eye doctor had us wait almost two hours anyway. Luckily, since they are a children's hospital, the waiting rooms are really fun.

All was well with the Contact Lense Guy. We have found a lense which works well. It is staying in her eye, and seems comfortable. So he was pleased and said we should start patching her other eye as much as possible. This forces the brain to use the bad eye. Yesterday she was able to wear it for several hours. The hope is that maybe she will not need glasses forever. We'll see.

Then we had another hearing test. These are repeated every two months or so, to follow her development in the left ear. This one in specific was to be a baseline before putting a tube in her ear next week to see if that alleviated any blockage enough to improve her hearing. They were able to do a test she had not been able to do before (since she is getting older) which indicated that her hearing loss is not merely a blockage (the hemangioma blocking the ear canal), but that the hearing loss is permanent damage to the nerve. This is not really surprising as the hemangioma wraps around the nerve. So on the bad side, she will only have partial hearing in the left ear, but on the good side, we found it out before sedating her unnecessarily next week for a tube which would not make a difference.

Since she hears fully on the right side, her speech is developing as expected, so this will in no way pose any problems except maybe we will have to be sure we are not talking to her on the left side. No big deal, really, in the big scheme of things. It is too early to be able to tell if a hearing aid would help, and she currently doesn't have enough of her ear to even wear one anyway, so that will have to be explored when she is older, and the plastic surgeries are done to restore her ear.

The hemangioma doctor was really pleased with the way the hemangioma looked. We saw one who had not seen her for three months (not our primary doctor), and he felt that the hemangioma was smaller. (You were right, Oma and Papa Pete!) He said to try to reduce the prednisone from 0.8 ml. a day to 0.7 ml a day. The surgeries to start repairing her face are thought to start sometime in the spring, and they would like for her to be off the prednisone before that starts. He did say that we will probably see some growth again as we wean off the prednisone, but that will go back down again usually. I have so enjoyed the past few months of not having it grow. I will be so glad to have the whole thing done sometime in the future.

Since the ear tube surgery was canceled, we don't have to go to Cinci again until next month when we will go on Monday afternoon for a hearing test, (I think we need to schedule an eye appointment too to see how the patching is helping her...) then on Tuesday for an MRI, and to see the hemangioma and ENT doctors again.

So that is where we stand as of January on the Mercy front! Have a great day!

For some reason...

My e-mail won't work... I can receive e-mails but not send any out... so for those of you who are expecting an e-mail from me... I can't get it to you. I'm not mad or anything... just have some computer glitch. Sorry! Feel free to call if you need an answer right away...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

They Work!




Remember when I told you all about my new "curtains" I made to help insulate our windows after we woke up from a particularly cold night and it was 58* inside? Well, They Work! Last night it was only about 18*, but inside the house was only down to 62*! Since we keep our house set at 66* at night (and 68* during the day) we only lost 4 degrees last night! Half the loss of the last 18* night.

And our water pipes didn't freeze either. Another nice bonus!

And head over to Rocks in My Dryer for other Works for Me Wednesday posts!

Loving Those Tomatoes

I see many families living in chaos. They want to have a better family, a more organized home, and a more peaceful life. They just don’t know how to do it. Over the next several weeks I will be giving tips to help you gain control of your family (whether large or small) so your days are more peaceful, and so that in a few decades we don’t wish we had done things differently. Read more here....

Monday, January 12, 2009

Ways to cut down on laundry...



Want to know my tip this week for Help for Growing Families?

Cut down on the laundry. Let them sleep in the clothes for the next day.

Drives my husband crazy, and I cannot see HOW they sleep in jeans or whatever, but if it works for them, it works for me.

They don't always do this, but if they want to, I'm more than happy to let them. As long as the clothes are clean. It takes a ton of stress off me in the mornings... and you know that if the mornings go well you are set for the day, right?

I do draw the line at them wearing the clothes all day, overnight, and again the next day. Not that anyone ever tries that around here. Oh no.

We are going to Cincinnati for Mercy's appointments tomorrow, and have to be driving at 5 a.m. Emma is going with us. Both Emma and Mercy are in their clothes, all ready to be woken up and just stuck in the car.

So if you see my children, and they look a little rumpled... now you know why. Either they slept in their clothes, or they stuck their neatly folded laundry in a heap in their drawers. We'll not go there today, will we?! Some things are just more important than laundry.

Be kind. I DO have 9 children, you know!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

It's all about ME!

Conversation today:

Nate was whining for Josiah to get out his Papo Knight so he could play with them.

Nate: JOE! I want to play with them!

Joe: I don't want them out. We need to do chores and get ready for church.

Nate: But I want them!

Me: Nathan, they are Josiah's knights. He can do whatever he wants with them.

Nate: But I want to do what I want...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ain't that the truth...