Where I’ve Really Been
So, I committed myself to writing for 31 days about living on less. And I did it! And it was totally exhausting! I’m not used to blogging that frequently or sticking with the same topic for a whole month. I pre-scheduled most of the posts, so I wasn’t actually blogging every day. Here’s where I really was. I was celebrating my beloved’s birthday!
I made him a sugar-free, gluten-free cake out of the Trim Healthy Mama book. And made homemade ice cream, sweetened with maple syrup. My husband and I thought it was good, but the kids were not impressed. They loved the ice cream, though! (The napkins are mismatched since they’re left over from lots of different birthdays.)
I enjoyed some beautiful October days with my family. We went to the lake a couple of times and had a picnic. But there were too many spiders for my liking. The kids became fascinated with spiders, and we did enjoy learning more about them and their habits. I had another photo that I wanted to share here, of a wolf spider mother with her babies all over her back, and the egg sac dragging behind her. And she was HUGE! But I didn’t share it in case there are some arachnophobics reading this!
My husband took everyone to the park to play one Sunday afternoon. I stayed home while he enjoyed some daddy time with them. It was so wonderful and peaceful here at home until the phone rang and my husband told me that our oldest daughter thought she had broken her wrist (the other one this time!). They came right home to drop the other children off, and then he took her to the emergency room.
Thankfully, it wasn’t broken, it was just badly bruised. But now we have the huge ER bill to pay. She was so traumatized with her last broken wrist (requiring general anesthesia and surgery), that she kind of overreacted and she was just sure it was broken, so that’s why we took her. Next time we’ll try waiting for a bit and applying some ice first before rushing to the hospital!
And then we celebrated my sweet youngest daughter’s birthday. Months ahead of time, I picked up the Hello Kitty-themed party supplies. I hadn’t given any thought to the cake. I figured I’d probably just make cupcakes or a round cake…something simple. But then for some reason I started wondering if you could make a Hello Kitty cake without a special cake pan. And of course there was a tutorial out there somewhere!
So, the night before the party I whipped up this cake. I ended up in the kitchen long after everyone else had gone to bed. All we had to decorate with was some black licorice, so I cut those in the shape of eyes, nose, and whiskers. It wasn’t perfect, but it sure impressed my kids! They thought it was amazing. And that’s really what counts, right?
Here I am with my little birthday girl. We dressed to match the decor. The only thing that bugs me is the red walls behind us. Someday I’m going to paint those! I really like neutral walls so they don’t clash with things like table decorations, and these walls are always clashing with something! I probably won’t get around to it until the kids are grown, since I just don’t have the energy for a big project like that. Just thinking about it makes me tired!
I realized we were needing a bit more structure, so I printed off these “daily routine” charts (can’t remember where I found them). I added the chores on the top lines and then the bottom section includes school work. I just took the chores from the chore packs and added them to these lists. This gives us some accountability and helps me to see who has done their chores. I slipped them into plastic page protectors, and then we use dry erase markers to mark off what’s been done. If there’s something they’re looking forward to (like getting on the computer), they need to have everything checked off of these lists first. Everyone seems to like it a lot, and it’s very helpful to me. And the plan is to have a treat on the weeks when everyone gets their sheets totally checked off (which is doable!).
Of course, what happens every time we gain some new organization or routine? We get sick. Without fail! So, of course we got sick a couple of weeks ago, which threw everything off. The strange thing is that I and my youngest are the ones who got it first. I almost never get it! And it was a terrible virus for me. It didn’t seem to affect my children as much. I was absolutely miserable for about a week! And that was with taking all the herbs and things I usually take. My husband said he thought I had just let myself get too run-down and weakened my immune system.
As I was beginning to feel a bit better, my arm started hurting. And then the pain increased until it was almost more than I could bear! I resorted to Ibuprophen, looking for some pain relief, but even that didn’t help. It hurt my arm to move it at all, and then it even hurt when I didn’t move it! I couldn’t even sleep at night. From the information I read online, it sounds like maybe I had shoulder bursitis, brought on by the way I was sleeping propped up on tons of pillows (so I could breathe, since my head was so congested).
After almost a week of treating it with gentle massage and essential oils and just letting it rest, it’s finally starting to feel better. I still can’t completely raise my arm over my head, but I’m doing some gentle physical therapy exercises (found online) to restore complete range-of-motion.
And now, after such a wearying month, I’m totally worn out! I feel like I could sleep for about a month. I might just disappear for a little while…
P.S. Today is the last day of this sale, in case you’re interested!
Yes I enjoyed the series very much! I looked forward to reading a post daily!Wow the Hello Kitty cake turned out really good! Hope you get to feeling better! Christina
Thank you so much, Christina!
The Lord bless you and provide for your every need!
Thank you, Laura!
Your daughter looks like you, the curly haired one. Loved the Hello Kitty party stuff. I am soooo not that creative. One time I tried to make my sons a Lego cake, what a mess. Life has a way changing our plans doesn't it?! I tell God I have plans but He can change them if He needs to. He does that a lot to me. Your series was wonderful!!!
It's funny, we do resemble each other, but when I was her age, I looked nothing like that! I had blonde, straighter hair. When I was looking at these pictures I was amazed how similar we look! I have a failed lego cake in my past, too! 🙂
Yes, we've got to hold our plans with an open hand. Thank you so much about the series–that's very kind of you!