I overdid it

I guess I overdid it last weekend and Monday.  On Monday and early Tuesday I was in a lot of pain.  I went to the Doctor Tuesday morning and he thought I may have pulled an internal stitch or two.  He told me to stay off my feet and do very little until next Tuesday.  It is a setback, but a small one.  I have tried very hard to follow Doctor's orders.  The hardest part has been asking for others to take care of me.  I really appreciate my family's help.

I am hoping to get back to a more regular school schedule next week.  It has been two full weeks of extra worksheets, reading, Hopefully by two weeks we will be good.  (Just before the Holidays!)  I am not stressing about that so much, because we started school a little early and had stayed on track pretty well this year.

Hope that you all have a great weekend!

Recovering

Slowly, slowly I am recovering!  Last Friday I went in for a total abdominal hysterectomy.   The doctor did the routine hysterectomy and discovered a mass behind my left tube.  It was wrapped  around  my large intestine.  He successfully removed the mass also.  He was unable to remove my appendix, due to the mass removal taking an extra amount of time. I was sent home on Saturday and slept and slept.  I was very sore for days.  The pain medication makes me dizzy for a little while after I take it, so I have to watch that.   Today, (Sunday) I am starting to decrease the medication a little and hopefully will be able to continue to keep decreasing a little each day. 

I have had 3 c-sections and knew that the recovery would be similar, but I must say that I am more sore than I remember being with the c-sections. (I am sleeping though!)  I am also older now and this surgery did take a little extra time than had been anticipated.  All in all, God watched over me and I had a great surgeon! I am doing well and improving each day.  I am also blessed that the pathology report came back that there was no cancer.  I am so blessed.

My parents are wonderful!  They have been so helpful to me and my husband these past couple of weeks!  The kids have so enjoyed having them here.  I really appreciate their help!

Yesterday, Matt took my dad, Samuel and Emily to Wilmington to tour the USS North Carolina.
He has wanted to do this for quite a while now.  The weather was perfect and I was taken care of here, so off they went.  They had a fabulous time.  Samuel loved it.  It was a great memory making day for them. 

I stayed home  (of course)  with SarahAnne, my mom and sister.  We enjoyed a quiet and relaxing day.  I've had a lot of those lately, during this recovery.   I have read two books,  watched a lot of HGTV and food network, cleaned out my coupon organizer, taken naps, and had long talks with my family.

I hope to get back to blogging again later in the week.  May you all have a blessed week!

Prepared and Waiting

Book basket--filled!

A workbox for each -- with worksheets, puzzles, fun things-- filled!

School work for the week-- completed.

Chores caught up on!

Errands finished.

Grandparents on their way!

I have preparations completed  and now I wait.  I am scheduled for Friday afternoon for my hysterectomy.  I am ready to get this surgery over.  I know the recovery will be tough, so I'm ready to get it going.  

We completed our school work early this week and caught up on filling our notebooks.  We sorted some things and tied up some loose ends.  It has been a light week.  We finished Brazil and South America.  After my recuperation, we will head off to Norway.  Emily will continue her studies and is pretty much on track.  She may even complete her Latin study a little early!

I filled one box with a variety of things for Samuel and SarahAnne to do while I rest next week.  They also have a book basket filled with books for reading and Awanas to study.   The weather should be cooler, for some outdoor physical education and nature study. They will play a variety of boardgames with my parents who will be here.  So I think homeschool will continue next week, even without the regular teacher! 

I am so thankful for my family.  My husband is so supportive.  My parents and sister are traveling down from Ohio to stay with the kids and help out when I come home.  They are all so great.  I am blessed with a great family.  The kids are so excited to see them, that it overshadows the concern of the surgery to them.  That is a good thing.

I may not be posting for a little while, but I hope not to be away too long.   Until then, I would appreciate a little prayer.  Thanks.

Autumn Blesssings

This is my favorite time of year.  I sometimes stress about getting everything "picture perfect".  I want to have pumpkins and mums on my front porch.  I want to have candles lit all over my house and lots of fall deserts.  I want pretty autumn place mats on my table with a nice centerpiece.  I don't have all of these things, I do have a couple and that will have to do this year. 
God is already decorating our world for us and He allows us to view it.  He has given us a world with the most beautiful seasons.  Where we live now, the seasons are not as evident as we are used to, but we have a yard full of trees (several oaks).  We have lots of nuts and pinecones and squirrels.  It is a nice fall nature study!

                 

I love the smells of fall. 

 The pumpkin, caramel, apple, and cinnamon. 

I love the smell of  warm soup and baking bread.  

 Hay and crisp leaves, rain. 

 These things are so comforting.  

I love the sounds of fall. 

 Crunchy leaves when your walking,

wind blowing through the trees with leaves falling down

and laughter of children jumping in a leaf pile.

God gives us a multitude of blessings with each season.  I believe the ones in autumn are just an overflowing bounty.  We should always have a thankful heart, but this time of year, I seem drawn more to thankfulness with the holidays coming.   May we all be thankful for God's many blessings.

OVERWHELMED

Do you ever feel overwhelmed?  Overwhelmed by all you have to do?  Overwhelmed by homeschooling?  Keeping house?  Church?  Activities?  Extended family?  Finances?  Medical concerns?

There are times, we all feel overwhelmed. I certainly do!  I try to live up to the housekeeping standards of others or the homeschooling or the BLOGGING!  I have to remind myself, that my situation (life) is different than the other persons.  God gave me these abilities and there are some things that I am really good at and somethings not so good. 

It seems sometimes that I really need an extra clone of myself to get through the day!  Things tend to go undone on those days.  And that frustrates me.  It makes me feel like I'm a failure.  It  upsets me that my kids didn't do their chores better.  Or that my kitchen needs painted and I don't have time.  So I end up catching a glimpse of Martha Stewart, Paula Deene, or an HGTV show and that makes me feel worse.

This week in our Bible reading for MFW,  we read Matthew 6:25-34.  It was meant to be.  God put that reading there on that day for me to read!  He tells us not to worry about things.  God will take care of us.
Here are the last 2 verses which sums it all up:

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given

to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry

about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33-34

I hope to remind myself of this and give more of my thoughts to Jesus.  I want to seek Him more and not worry.  I know I will still worry some, but I hope to do better!  

Anticipating......

Well, I  had hoped to be getting lots of things accomplished this week.  We are doing ok, but not doing double in anything.  Maybe tomorrow.  Do you ever have days when you just can't seem to get motivated beyond what you have to do?  I am having one of those days.  I hate feeling like this.  I have been researching a little on post-hysterectomy recovery and it is getting a me a little down, I really need to get it in gear and accomplish some things before next week. 

We are enjoying the cooler temperatures this week!  (Finally!)  On Monday we had cheesy potato soup and buttered rolls.  Just perfect for fall. 
The acorns keep falling and hitting my roof.  At first, I thought there was something ON my roof.  We have a lot of trees on our yard and quite a few are oaks. 

The kids and I went out yesterday and picked up a big basket full of pinecones from our yard.  We probably could have picked up 2-3 more, but that was enough.  Maybe we will use them in a Christmas craft.  We will see.

I am hoping that tomorrow will be better.  I need to make a list  and prepare some things for the kids to do the week after my surgery.  My parents are coming to visit and will stay for a few days, so I'm not counting on school for a few days.  I just don't want to get weeks behind, when we have gotten off to such a good start this year.  I am counting on getting in some reading for all of us!  Some read alouds and  some books for individual reading!  I know that that will be something they can continue on their own!  Any ideas?  Any book suggestions?

Preparing and counting down.....

This coming week I will spend preparing.  We will be doubling up on some subjects and trying to get ahead on some house chores.  Why?  Because I am scheduled to have a total hysterectomy on Oct. 15th.  There are a couple of reasons why this should be done.  I have had this recommendation from more than one doctor.  I have put it off for a while already.  I am not looking forward to it, but feel like it must be done.  I hope I will feel better.  I really have no idea how long recovery will take.  I ask for your prayers
that things will go well.

This weekend, we took some time to get a few things done, do some leaf raking/sweeping, and cooking ahead.  We did take some time out to watch a little football too!

We are at week 10 this week!  Wow.  It is hard to believe we are that far already.  Eight weeks till Thanksgiving and 12 weeks till Christmas! SarahAnne and I have worked on few little crafts.  I have also searched the Internet for new Christmas ideas.  I love looking at Christmas things.  I love all the ideas.  We are planning to make candles this year.  (I'll let you know how that goes.) We planned to do it last year, but we had just moved in our house on October 31st, so we decided not to be so ambitious. 

I pray that you all have a good week.  Enjoy all of autumn's bounty of blessings. 

"Making Your Home a Havan" Fall Challenge

This morning while blog hopping I ran across a blog,  Women Living Well .  Courtney is having a fall challenge.  I just love fall and decided to hop aboard!  Just thought I'd pass it along to you.   So enjoy those pumpkin scented candles and apple cider and beautiful crisp mornings!  Happy Fall to you!

Friday wrap-up

Here it is Friday and I've finally gotten around to blogging.  It has been a pretty usual week around here, except that we have had so much RAIN. (We really needed rain, but not so much at once.)  School has gone pretty well.  My son and daughter are doing so good at multiplication and spelling this week that I have been less concerned about getting everything else finished.  Those are the focus this school year. 

We have started our study of Brazil and we are all enjoying studying all the different animals, fruits and spices of the rain forest.  The kids are really getting into the geography game, also.  This weekend I hope to do some fall baking and talk more about spices.

We made some Kool-aid Playdough.  I've had the recipe for a few months and finally decided to get it out and make some.  It was so easy.  It only took around 10 minutes, total!  It turned out really nice and the kids played for 2 hours after we made it, so it was definitely worth it!

Kool-aid Playdough

1/4 cup salt

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tbsp cream of tartar

1 envelope Kool-aid

1 cup water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1.  Mix flour, salt, tartar, Kool-aid and water in medium saucepan.  Stir in oil.

2.  Mix over medium heat 3-5 minutes until mixture forms a ball in center of pan.

3.  Remove from pan.  It will be hot, knead until soft.

4.  Store in a Ziploc bag or airtight container.

It is suppose to smell like the flavor, ours must have been old.  There was hardly any smell.  We also added some food coloring to ours, before kneading.

We may make some more this weekend, but first I need to buy some cream of tartar.  We used it all in the last batch.  Quick and easy.   Hope you and your little ones enjoy!