Birthdays, Sickness and Homeschooling

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays... our family has many during February! Sophia just turned the big ONE and then three days later, Daddy turned 34. In the same week are Valentine's Day, Uncle T.'s birthday and great grandfather's birthday! All of my owl-themed plans turned out pretty good I think. If I ever make the time, I'll try to get some pictures up.

We're continuing our winter sickness trend. Sick for about 2 weeks, healthy for a few days, sick again now. Blah. I'm SO looking forward to spring!

Hannah has nearly wrapped up preschool. At first, I was going to wait to begin teaching kindergarten this fall as most kids her age. But if I do, she'll basically have nothing to learn between now and August/September. That would be boring for all of us. So I think we're going to get started in the next month and then if anything comes up, it'll be easy to take a break. We can go even more at a relaxed pace. That's one of the beauties of homeschooling.

My Benjamin has been sooooo cuddly. When he's not feeling well, he basically walks around saying "hold me" all day. It's kind of tough because Sophia expects to be held the most, since she's the baby. And I couldn't physically be a big "baby-wearer" anyway because I tend to have back issues. Up, down, up, down, all day during sickness. But even with that, though I may need a break here and there, I wouldn't change it for anything...

James has begun a mild prescription for what they've diagnosed as RA. We're also getting ready to make some dietary changes to try and help that as well. By God's grace, we'll make some ground. And where we don't, we'll trust in the Lord for strength and perseverance.

Until next time....

 

Take care,

Terra

Health Issues and a 1st Birthday

Every December I look forward to January thinking things will slow down. Then every January I remember how busy January can get. Ha.

Soooo... we were actually healthy for about 3 weeks or so. That was nice. Today Sophia ended up on steroids for her second round of croup this winter. Two weeks ago, she had her first ear infection. Both have been kind of strange. The only symptoms she had with the ear infection were crankiness and sleeplessness. No snot, fever or anything else. We caught the croup early so hopefully it'll run it's course smoothly.

James has really been struggling with his hands/wrists. Right now, the doc and rheumatologist are thinking he has rheumatoid arthritis. That's a hard pill to swallow. We're hoping for some answers and looking for the best means of treatment.  James has found much comfort in Psalm 73:2: "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

We have a few fun things coming up soon. Sophia's 1st birthday is just weeks away. I can't believe she's already so old! We're going to celebrate with an owl themed party. Since James' birthday is just 3 days after, we'll have a joint party. James' parents will be here to celebrate with us and considering his mom is an amazing cook, we'll all eat well for sure. We haven't seen them since we went to Disney last summer so it should be a great time.

The other two kiddos are doing well. Hannah is growing old so fast. She's such a little mommy, in every way. Benjamin is every bit of two. Each day bounces between the extremes of sweet cuddles and situations requiring discipline. But so far, he's my only son and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Until next time...

Take care,

Terra 

Sickness and Christmas

Once you go for a while without writing, it's a bit overwhelming trying to decide how to summarize such a great chunk of time.  Sooooo.... here's my best try!
The thing that first sticks out is that we've had a LOT of colds over the last few months.  Very reminiscent of two winters ago when we literally had someone sick in the house from September to April.  We seem to have something for about 2 1/2 weeks, healthy for half a week or so and then the next thing for another 2 1/2 weeks and so forth.  Right now, we're going on a few days of health so I'm hoping the next thing is not right around the corner.  I have a habit of being sick at Christmas.  Poor Sophia had double pink eye, the croup and was on the verge of cutting her first teeth all at the same time!  Fortunately, one of those teeth finally popped through and all the other nastiness is gone as well.

Speaking of teeth, she's our earliest teether at 10 months.  Yep.  Hannah was 17mo, 15days and Benjamin cut his first on his 1yr birthday.  An average kid is 6-9 months.  We're an odd bunch. :)

Otherwise, life has progressed fairly normally.  James' job continues to go well.  Homeschooling has been a blessing most days.  I won't lie, I have my days, but what parent doesn't?

The hairbow business picked up a tad just before Christmas.  Then I decided to make the kids' gifts.  That was fun but quite a bit more time consuming than I'd planned.  I made an owl doll for Sophia and chef apron/hat sets for the older two.  Then some cute bean bags.

I've always been a BIG Christmas card/newsletter sender.  Well, time simply got away from me this year and I just didn't get to it.  Yep.  I'm a slacker.  I loved all the cards I got from others but barely got out a handful myself. (A personal note to my friends, I hope you don't mind!)

There's my big update.  I hope all is well for everyone!

Take Care,
Terra