Ramblings Of Recently....

I'm officially old. And I'm trying to be ok with it.

Ever since Christmas I've had lots of muscle/joint pain. But it was manageable and not such a big deal. Just a nuisance really.

Until today, which started last night, then there was big unmanageable not-able-to-smile-at-all PAIN in my shoulder. And nothing to do about it. Nothing worked. So I sat and tried not to cry.

Dinner was approaching and there was no way I would be able to cook. So I gave the kids instructions and set them to work. But, oh no! We were missing the main ingredient. How?? Because we never run out of that. But I guess at some point you do run out of it. (Not everything can be like lentils, ya know.)

So I gave up. I was hurting too much to think about it and trying really hard not to cry. Somebody said something about cereal and I was good with that. But then, my sweet eldest baby girl took initiative and came up with her own idea. And she went to the store. And she bought me some flowers. And she cooked it. (not the flowers) And she cleaned it up!

I was sooo blessed.

After a while everything was getting better. The pain was subsiding. I was able to smile. And move. And not growl at anybody who even looked like they were thinking about touching me.
Big relief.

I'm guessing I'll have a better night tonight. I have a doctor appt next Monday, if I live that long. Internet searching makes me think I have rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. I hope not.
That sounds so old.

I hope I'm able to drive tomorrow for piano. If not at least by Wednesday. If I miss Awana that would truly be a tragedy....for everyone who has to live with me.

~Anyhoo. On to funner stuff. We have a reward system called the marble jar. When kids are caught being sweet, helpful, or kind they put one marble in the jar. When the jar is full we have a big treat. This time it was skating. At the real skating rink.

We kinda went all out. Honey spent some time adjusting skates and switching out wheels. We even made a trip to the store for a couple of new pairs.

They've only been once before and they had a blast. It really is a fun family outing. And people are generally nice and don't run over you. They have these little walker/skater type things made out of pvc pipe with wheels on the bottom for little kids.

Mally and Zboy had never been before. This was their first time. Mally was pretty much glued to her skater the whole time and moved at a snail's pace all the way around over and over again. Zboy on the other hand, was aggressive with the whole thing and would have no part of the skater. He was skating on his own and loved every lap.

Race time! My boys love anything competitive. Even ZBoy wanted to race. Last time we went Jes won the race in his age group. This time he asked, "Since I always win (always?) should I give everyone a head start?" HA!! My boy's a bit over confident, and I was thinking a loss might do him some good. But he won. And I was happy for him. Just gotta work on some humility issues.....

~I'm so excited about VBS this summer! I'm thinking and thinking. I'll get to do it twice this year. First at Immanuel, then at our church. Sweet!!

~It looks like our "fine nine" will have surgery at the end of the month to remove adenoids and tonsils. His adenoids present a 75% blockage and on a scale of 1 - 4 his tonsils got a 3. Hopefully this will solve many of his issues. Oh his momma is sad for him! I cry if I think about it too much. So instead I'm thinking of all the fun things we can buy do for him when he comes home. His siblings are in on it too and Jes was eyeballing some applesauce at the store and asking if we could get it for his brother.

~4 kids in piano lessons now. So far so good. We take school work to do while we wait on everybody's turn and I just sit and make sure everybody works. Meg is still home and holds down the fort and keeps the littles happy.

~Remember our family newspaper from a couple of years ago? It's been resurrected by LB! Mostly it's a fun place for the kids to publish their writing and gives them a good reason to write.
We pulled out all the old ones last week to give LB an idea on the format. It was so much fun to read back over the family happenings and see the pix. Baby Mayf learned to walk, Jes rode a 2 wheeler, new puppy, .... lots of family history. If you want to be on the mailing list, let me know!

And to my homeschool friends, this is a really fun writing assignment and a great way to keep extended family up-to-date.

~Ok, I guess that's it. Off to heat up my rice bag and take my not-nearly-as-bad-as-it-was shoulder to bed.