Quick Update

Things are crazy here.

I had surgery on Thursday, and it ended up being far more painful and horrible than I imagined. I made a serious mistake in judgment not to have any help lined up. AND, I don't think the doctor actually got the stones [it still hurts like heck and it shouldn't hurt at this point if he was successful]. So, it looks like it was all in vain.

I'm trying to be thankful and consider it "an opportunity to offer up" on behalf of several special people who are in need of prayers right now, and I'm mostly succeeding at it. Also feeling a wee bit sorry for myself though. LOL!

Otherwise things are great. The 5 surviving chickens are thriving in their now dog-proof house. [My husband re-enforced the whole thing with MDF! No dog alive is chewing through THAT! LOL!]

The kids are doing well and we've enjoyed a week of DH being off on 'vacation'. Aside from me having surgery, we also managed to go to Fernbank science museum on Tuesday [which was a blast, I'll post pics later maybe] and then we went to see "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie" on Wednesday and that was SUPER fun - highly recommended!

All in all a good week, pain and vomiting aside. ;)

Please Watch This Video

http://hiddentreasuresthet21journey.blogspot.com/

This video is about children with Down Syndrome. It is amazing, beautiful, and has me sitting here in tears. Please watch this video - whether you know someone with Down Syndrome or not. We live in a world where people who are "different" are not valued [I work in Childbirth Education and continue to be appalled and devastated at what happens to many unborn babies who are diagnosed with Down Syndrome - it is evil].

Please, watch this wonderful video, have your children watch it - you won't regret it, I *promise*.

R.I.P. "Yellow"

"Rainbow", "Francesca", and "Yellow"


"Yellow" and "Francesca"

Well, what started as a very exciting day for the chickens ended in tragedy. :(

Today was the first day we let the chickens out of their cage and into the "big world". We started by carefully securing both dogs inside the house, and then we took the chickens outside. We let them roam around the backyard for a while, and we then put them in their chicken house and locked it up tight to keep the dogs out.

All was well - they seemed bright and interested and happy to be out and about in the big world. We left them in the chicken house all afternoon with the intention of bringing them back in before dark when it would dip below freezing. [I know they would probably be fine, but we just wanted to be extra careful].

So, at 5:30pm I went out to get the chickens, only to discover that one of our dogs [I feel certain it had to be the lab/husky mix, I don't think the collie has the strength for this] had actually *chewed through* the wooden wall on the back side of the chicken house enough to make a 6 inch by 6 inch hole - enough for a chicken to come through, but not enough for a big dog to get in.

Immediately I realized that "Yellow", my 2yo's black and white "Dominique" hen was missing - the other 5 hens were all running up to me excited to see me, but she was no where to be found. I quickly got the 5 surviving chickens back into the house [into the dog crate where they are staying], and sent the children upstairs.

One quick survey of the back yard and I found "Yellow's" poor dead body. One of the dogs - I couldn't say which one, but probably Tyr, our lab mix - had gotten her, I guess when she strayed out of the hole they made. The dog did not chew her up or anything, just appeared to have broken her neck. She was still perfect and beautiful, just dead.

I didn't know what to do with her, but I didn't want the kids to see her and be mad at the dog [who is, after all, just doing what retrievers have been trained to do from the beginning of their breed]. So, I put her poor little body in a trash bag and put her out in the big trash can.

I felt really sad and tried hard not to cry because I didn't want to upset the kids. I know I am supposed to be "tough" about these birds and not let their untimely deaths bother me, but she really was a sweet little hen and I feel very sad that she is gone.

Monkey4 hasn't realized that her chicken is gone - we just said she "got out" [this was before I found her dead]. Monkey1 realized what happened and was devastated, but I didn't feel like I needed to tell the little ones - is that bad?

I guess Monkey4 can have my little hen.

And now we have to figure out what to do about having chickens [who really, REALLY can't stay in the house much longer, they are getting too big] and dogs who are motivated enough to eat through wood to get to them. :( How do we keep them both safe and healthy?

Here are the chickens [we thought safe and sound :( ] in their chicken house:



Here they are eating out of Monkey1 and Monkey2's hands:





Here is "Buttercup" in Monkey1's jacket:



Chicken Tragedy aside, I went for a second opinion today with a Urologist I liked much better than that other one, and I am scheduled for "Lithotripsy" this Thursday to get rid of kidney stones [which have now formed in both my kidneys]. I have to be put to sleep to do it, but it is less invasive than the other thing the other doctor wanted to do, so I feel better about it.

Contentment

Life is strange, it really is.

Things are going so extremely well for me right now. I cannot believe I am the same person who just last October was in the middle of my life completely disintegrating... how can this be the same life?

My husband is doing *amazingly* well. Well enough that I almost feel compelled to call it a Miraculous Healing. Lithium has truly been a *miracle* drug for him. It has made him into a happy, energetic, stable, fun man. The man he almost was when we married, but the man I haven't seen even a shadow of in 6 years. It is like having him at his absolute best all the time and I absolutely adore him. [To both our credit, I have adored him always, during BOTH the bad and the good!]

I enjoy every moment with him now and our life together has become a new thing - something so completely different [and better] than we ever dreamed.

Watching my children play in the snow - just breathing in such a simple joy... it led me to this introspection about how very wonderful my life is. I feel so privileged to be the mother of these five amazing kids, all so different, so unique, but utterly, utterly captivating.

There is no blessing on Earth I would crave more than what I have in this moment.

I thank God for this. I truly do, I Praise Him with all my being. After all the years of sadness and suffering - I feel like we are walking into a period of extreme Grace.

I look around me right now and I am just so *happy*.

In this moment, my life is perfect.

I know it most likely will not stay this way, but for this moment, I am absolutely content.

I feel acutely aware of the Blessings of the Lord.

And I feel completely ready to follow the Will of God because I know that no matter what He leads me through, He holds me in the palm of His hand.

God is so Good.

MORE SNOW!!!!!

What a fun day we have had!

We got MORE snow today - 2-3 inches before it started melting...which is a veritable blizzard by GA standards! :)

We had so much fun playing in the snow! I haven't seen this much snow in years. My husband swears it snowed this much one time back when Monkey1 was a baby, but I don't remember it.

The kids got to have a snowball fight [well, mainly daddy was the target] and then we built a snowman. Well... more like a snow dwarf really, but cool none the less!

Here are my cold little snow bunnies:

Here is Monkey1:


And here is Monkey2. This is what happens when you live in a house with 4 girls and you lose the macho black hat your mom got you to match your Harley jacket. You get stuck with a pink substitute. LOL! But, The Boy is so "secure in his manhood" after growing up surrounded by all these women that it didn't even ruffle his feathers. ;)



And here is our sweet Monkey3 holding a snowball that she made that was almost as big as her cute little head!



Here is the Indomitable Monkey4 - she had the best time in the snow!



Here is the MonkeyDaddy with Baby Monkey - today was her first foray into snow - she was very serious about the whole thing.



Here is the snowball fight:



All the kids wanted a snowman, but somehow it ended up being Monkey1 and I that actually built it [something about snow making their hands cold... LOL!].



Here is our little Snow Man [Snow Dwarf] who was dubbed "Sam the Snowman". [apparently he also had to borrow his sister's pink hat!]



Here are all the kids with the MonkeyDaddy and our little neighbor and Sam the Snowman.



And here is Monkey1 with our creation:



You know, everyone ought to get to play in the snow like this every ten years or so. [This is why I live in Georgia!]

Hope y'all are all having a great weekend!

Birthdays and Chickens and Snowfall ... OH MY!

So, for a general update...

Here is a picture of Baby Monkey opening her first birthday present ever:



And here is Monkey4 and Baby Monkey celebrating:



We will have an actual birthday party with cake for the Baby Monkey this weekend...so stay tuned for those pics. :)

The chickens are doing great! They are already growing - it is amazing how fast they grow! We are enjoying watching them. They each seem to have their own little personality, it is really fun to watch. I am also reading about chickens incessantly right now [my current obsession I guess], so that's fun too!

Here is a picture from yesterday of how big they are now:



Here is Monkey2 holding Padme. She's the one that was picking on the other one. I like her though - she's really spunky and braver than the other chickens. She will come right out of the cage to me when I open it up to feed them. [Chickens are pretty smart too, they have already figured out that I am the "Food Lady" and they all like me pretty well as a result LOL!]



Here are Monkey3 and Monkey1 cuddling their chickens while they watch TV. Who knew hens like educational television?!



And the strangest thing of all this week - we got snow last night! We haven't gotten any real snow in a few years [and yeah, you Yankees go ahead and laugh at me. I know what we got doesn't even qualify as "real" snow, but it was enough to delight all the children in our great state. LOL!]

Here is the 2yo laughing at the white fluffy stuff falling from the sky. She was absolutely amazed:



Here is The Boy playing in the snow. They had a blast running around in it and trying to catch it on their tongues:



Here is Monkey1 with an *actual snowball*. She was thrilled: :)



Unfortunately, it lasted less than 12 hours on the ground and most of it had melted by this morning. Well, that's my kind of snow really. I wish it had lasted about 12 more hours and THEN gone away - just enough time to play with it and then get back to life.

You may notice since I'm writing my blog instead of sitting at the hospital that I am NOT having surgery this morning. I canceled it. I really didn't feel comfortable with the surgeon I was seeing, AND, it being the anniversary of my "near death" this week at the hands of medical incompetence... not a good week to have surgery.

I found a different urologist who is supposed to be "the best in GA" and I have an appt with him on Monday to get a second opinion.

I am in pain pretty much all the time - it just varies from "regular" pain to "writhing on the floor pain". I'm ready to get *something* done on this. It is making it very, very difficult to be a mother.

I hope that one way or another things will resolve soon and this new doctor can discover the underlying cause of this torture.

In the meantime, a friend sent me something this morning via email that said:

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about learning to dance in the rain."

Boy, ain't that the truth?!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Monkey!!!!!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest baby girl - We Love You SO MUCH!!!!! You bring us tremendous joy!

One Year Ago Today....

I was lying in a hospital bed after having an Eclamptic Seizure in the hospital the night before - lying there totally out of it, nobody knew if I would live or not, if my baby would live or not. The odds were very much against us.

My husband was sitting by my side feeling helpless while I was induced for 44 hours [the Mag Sulfate kept me from making progress until they turned it down]. Things were about to get worse before they got better when my baby crashed horribly in the last hour of labor.

I remember so clearly realizing that I was probably going to die, that the medical staff at Northside hospital [who had *caused* this to happen with the absolutely horrific "medical" care they didn't give] was probably going to kill me, that my children would be without a mother, that my baby was probably going to die with me [because the medical staff I had foolishly entrusted our care to was FAR too incompetent to get her out in time if I did die], that my husband would be raising our children alone...

I remember spending that night with my poor, foggy, brain damaged mind - I could do nothing but pray. I prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy all night long. I couldn't sleep ... I just prayed and prayed. I prayed for God's Will to be done. I prayed for my poor children. I prayed for my husband. I prayed for my sweet baby who might never take her first breath.

Whew.

I've been really dwelling on this for the last week, coming up on this 'Annivesary'. I've been having trouble sleeping again and thinking and dreaming about it obsessively.... all the old anger at the doctors and incompetent medical staff coming back [since what happened might have been totally prevented by anything even remotely similar to decent medical care]. Reliving the fear for my baby and my own life.

And reliving the fear in the aftermath that my brain damage would never get better - not knowing if I'd ever be able to read again, or drive, or speak like a normal person... if I would require 24 hour care that would drain our family finances beyond bearing... if I would ever be able to mother our children adequately again by myself...

And also I feel grateful for how well it all turned out in the end - for the absolute Miracles that God performed for us. Most of my brain damage is gone 1 year post partum, and my baby girl [who did almost die and crashed horribly at the end of the labor] is doing just *fabulous* and is a complete joy to my life!

I hope this will get easier as the years go by. I guess it must or people would go insane, but I have been really surprised at the intensity of my emotion this week - really shocked at how upset I *still* feel about all that happened.

A small evil part of me still wants to fire bomb Northside hospital. [Don't worry - I'd call in the threat first so they could get everyone out and no one would be harmed... even the rotten, worthless, evil people that pass for medical staff at their hideous "birth center".]

But... I won't of course. :) Just in case you were worried.

Instead I will live my revenge by enjoying this miraculous life that God has so generously provided and by enjoying *thoroughly* this little baby girl - The Girl Who Lived. :)

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!

We Have Chickens!!!

So, today was the day! We drove out to get some chickens from a man and a woman who had posted an ad on the "Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin" for the state of GA.

We had spent the last couple of months researching chickens, getting our chicken house ready, building laying boxes, and deciding what kind of chickens we wanted. We knew we would only be getting hens [much to my son's dissappointment] because we live in a subdivision and can't have a Rooster crowing at all hours. We want our neighbors NOT to dislike us or the chickens. :)

The children spent a good deal of time researching and reading about different breeds and they each had a particular breed they wanted. This man and woman had almost all the ones we were looking for, though they ran out of the one my son wanted, so he had to make a second choice. [We may go back for the "Black Australorps" though when they have some more chicks of that breed in a couple of months - that's what my son wanted and they are really pretty, gentle chickens].

We thought we were just stopping by to buy a few chickens, but it turned out to be the *coolest* field trip ever, meeting the nicest folks you can imagine!

The man and woman we bought them from have a whole farm, about 45 minutes from us. They have a lake with tons of geese and ducks. They have probably 100 different chickens. They had 300 guineas, which I had never seen in real life before - they moved in these really fast little herds! They also show cats and had a bunch of cats and they had two lab/great pyrenese mix dogs that were the sweetest things!

They spent an hour and a half showing the kids [and us] all their different chickens and coops and how they take care of them and all their ducks, geese, incubators... it was really cool! And they had a bunch of 11 week old baby chicks and the kids got to pick which ones they wanted. They also sent us home with a dozen eggs the kids got to watch them collect from the various chicken coops!

It was REALLY fun - way more than we would have thought! We will definitely be keeping in touch with them and buy our future chickens there [and if any of you GA people want to know where to get good chickens, I can send you their info!]

So, we left with six chickens - one for each of the kids and one for me. My husband is excited about the chickens too, but did not feel he needed a "personal" chicken of his own. LOL!

The chickens are still babies really - they have all their feathers now and you can see what they will look more or less like when they are adults, but they are still so small. They are going to live in our house in a large spare dog crate for the next week or two and then they should be big enough to go live outside in the chicken house/yard area [we are building them their own fenced yard area].

The chickens are really sweet and let the kids hold them - and the kids ALL did a great job holding them gently and just loved their chicken! [even the 2yo was gentle - wow!] These chickens will start laying around 6 months of age, so sometime around April or May we will start getting our own eggs from them!

Here are a couple of random shots of them, and then shots of each child with their chicken:






Here is Monkey4 [2yo] with her chicken, who is a "Dominique". She is a black and white chicken, who Monkey4 has named "Yellow". LOL!


Here is the Baby Monkey ignoring her chicken, a "New Hampshire Red". She is a very gentle and sweet chicken, who Monkey1 has named "Sissy" on the Baby Monkey's behalf since Sissy was protecting my chicken from the more aggressive chicken. It was amazing to watch actually, and Monkey1 thought this chicken was acting like a "big sister" to the picked on chicken, thus the name "Sissy". Baby Monkey didn't find the chickens that interesting at all, which I thought was a little surprising.


Here is Monkey3 [4yo] with her chicken, a pure bred "Araucanas". These chickens lay different colored eggs [they are nicknamed "Easter Egg Chickens"] and Monkey3 thought that was a very cool trait! Their eggs range from blue to green to pinkish/brown. Monkey3 named her chicken "Rainbow" [for obvious reasons :) ].


Here is Monkey2 [6yo] aka "The Boy" with his chicken. She is a "Golden Laced Wyandotte" While she was not his first choice of breed, he really likes her. She is a "show chicken" and he can raise her to show at the Fair and stuff [though I don't think he's old enough]. You can't tell it yet, but they had other grown hens like her there and they are *gorgeous*! He named his chicken "Padme AmiBUACKa" [after Padme Amidala in Star Wars of course LOL!]. However, Padme has proven to be our "bully chicken". All the others are calm and sweet and she keeps pecking and picking on my little chicken [who is also the runt, a "Partridge Rock" pictured below in Monkey1's arms]. I am a little worried that Padme might be a boy [it is still a little hard to discern the boys from the girls at 11 weeks]. The people who sold her to us said they would gladly exchange her for a girl if she turned out to be a boy. But supposedly you see the aggressive behavior like this more from Roosters than from Hens, so we will see...


This is my chicken in Monkey1's arms, and her name became "Francesca" today. She kept getting picked on and didn't look too good so I was a little worried about whether she would make it after we got home, and I said a prayer to St. Francis and she *immediately* perked up, so of course Monkey1 said we should name her "Francesca" after St. Francis. So we did. :) I also separated her from Padme by dividing the crate they were in with a divider. That seemed to make all the difference and I really hope she lives!


And here is Monkey1 with her sweet little chicken, a "Buff Orpington". These are supposed to be extremely gentle chickens, and so far she definitely lives up to it. Monkey1 named her "Buttercup" because she's a pretty gold color.

So... so far so good! We are all really excited about the chickens. The children are keeping track of our expenses as a homeschool project and they plan to sell any extra eggs we get. If this goes well for the next few months, I may add some more hens in the summer and build up an actual little flock of layers so the kids can have a little side business of sorts.

Either way, it has been a fascinating learning experience for us!


And, last but not least, Baby Monkey found buying chickens and taking care of them to be absolutely exhausting. She fell asleep in her high chair tonight during dinner! It was both cute and pathetic all at the same time.

Oh Yeah... THIS is why I homeschool!

We had a rough week homeschooling last week.

My oldest child despises math. She's good at math, but she hates it. And it has been an ongoing battle full of much whining and melodrama. It drives me crazy [I hate melodrama...and I have way too much of it in my life!]. So, by last Friday I was ready to enroll her in the closest public school [which isn't a good one ;) ] and be done with it!

This week went much better. We laid down some strict guidelines about math and bad attitudes and it worked with Monkey1. She did MUCH better this week.

And, Monkey2 has been really fun to homeschool [he has a very positive attitude about school which makes him so fun to teach period]. But this week he is really *really* getting reading. It is so neat - watching him finally actually reading sentences!!! And he's so excited about it and I am so excited about it.. it was just really neat.

Then I have a feeling Monkey3 may end up being my prodigy child because she's already really "getting" letter sounds and trying to read herself. She's just 4 and she lives in a house full of late readers... I'm not sure what to do with her! I think I'll start "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" with her soon and see how it goes.

Even Monkey4, the 2yo, sits at the table and "does her work" [coloring books, puzzles, art work, etc]. And she gets really offended if I don't set up work for her to do too!

So, all in all it was a rewarding week of homeschooling and it made me glad again to be homeschooling.

Then today, we went for a "park day" with some other homeschoolers from our church and it ended up being about 8 families at this GREAT new park they just built near us. It was so fun.

And as I was watching the kids play [and with 8 Catholic homeschool families, it was a bunch of kids], I was really amazed at just how NICE the kids are. Everybody played together nicely. Nobody was mean to anyone else. Nobody fought over anything. Nobody was disrespectful of the adults or other children. The big kids watched out for the little ones and helped them when they needed help.

It was just really cool to watch. And really impressive when you think about it. I have always said that homeschooled kids are just *NICE* kids - and they really are.

It is a whole different dynamic than what you get with a bunch of school kids. The school kids we are friends with are great kids, I love them, but when you put a bunch of school kids together there are inevitably some bad kids in the bunch and you end up at some point with the whole "Lord of the Flies" thing going on. I *never* see that with homeschooled kids.

And THAT is the real reason I'm homeschooling. It was good to have such a reminder - whether my daughter EVER does math without complaining, she IS growing up to be a really extraordinary, kind person. All of my kids are - they are growing up to be outstanding adults who WILL make a positive difference in the world. And that's what it is all about in the end for me.


Here is Monkey1 at the playground, looking beautiful as always!


Monkey4 and Monkey2 had fun playing on the slides together. Monkey4 is absolutely *fearless* and without any hesitation will do *anything* an older sibling does... whether she's far too young to be doing it or not. This is kind of scary some times! See what I mean below:




Here is Monkey2 - he had fun climbing this thing [they all did] until he ran off to play "war" with the other boys who were there!


Here are Monkey2,3, and 4 climbing together.


I need to teach these girls to swing themselves - they LOVE the swings, but I get so tired of pushing them [with the baby in the backpack the whole time of course!]


And here is my strong little Monkey3 showing off her usual strength and dexterity!



Incidentally, last weekend I made up a "pros and cons" list of my three schooling options - Homeschool, Catholic school, and Public school. It was very revealing to read my list of pros and cons for Homeschooling. The list of pros was tremendous - a whole page actually.

And with that I realized that I really DO value homeschooling and I do think it has been by far the best choice for my children. But on the cons side, I had 3 things:

1. I hate how hard it is to keep the house even basically sanitary when you have 5 children living here 24/7. I mean, it really does drive me up a wall and make me kind of depressed because I feel like I am constantly digging in sand and I can never get out of my hole!

2. I feel a bit burned out and over whelmed. [No kidding after the year we had last year huh?!] But I realized that this is because I have completely failed to care for *myself*. I put 110% into my husband and kids and I never take care of me. I never take breaks, get downtime, or just have time to really decompress. So, I decided I need to change that and start giving myself breaks and downtime a couple of times each month.

3. I hate that I can't go to a doctor's appointment without dragging 5 kids along behind me or hiring a sitter. It would be *so* convenient to have them in school when I need to do stuff like that. But, hopefully, my husband's new position is going to include a lot of telecommuting, so maybe we can work it so I can actually go to the doctor by myself.

So, that's my assessment of the "cons" of homeschooling. The "pros" far outweigh them!

I thank God for this opportunity I have to homeschool!

Promotions, Kidney Stones, and Surgery

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Things have been nutty busy around here.

My husband got a promotion at work to a much better job that he will really enjoy - and he no longer has to take "on call" duty, which is awesome. So congratulations to him! I hope he really has fun with the new job!

That's it for the good news though. I've been struggling with kidney stones mightily for the last 3 weeks. After WAY too much radiation [a CT scan, an X-ray, and an "IVP" procedure], it has been determined that I have two kidney stones in my left kidney [which I knew - and these are particularly painful, more so than the ones I've had in the past] and they are partially obstructing my kidney and aren't passing on their own.

I am going to have to have surgery next week to remove them. They are low in my pelvis so the "sound wave" treatment thing won't work well enough most likely, so we are just going to do the surgery. It is outpatient, but I do have to be put under General Anesthesia to do it, so I don't like that part. It doesn't sound too bad otherwise, as far as surgeries go. LOL!

Anyway, hopefully I will be back soon and thinking of fun or interesting things to share in this blog, but not right now... ;)

I would appreciate any prayers you might be willing to offer for a successful surgery and safe recovery, and also for my kids. They are pretty freaked out about me going in to surgery [the last time their mama went into the hospital she was gone for 3 weeks and almost died and came home all brain damaged...] Also, the Baby Monkey could use some prayers because she's still nursing and I think I won't be able to nurse her after the surgery for some amount of time...I have to research that more though!

More on Tim Hawkins

So, DH and I ordered the Tim Hawkins DVD "Full Range of Motion" and watched it last night. [It is only $20 and we figured at the very worst we were supporting another homeschooling family :) ].

It was REALLY funny. It started off a bit slow - in the first few minutes we were kind of looking at each other like "Hmmm...is this going to get any funnier?" But it DID! Halfway through the DVD we were laughing so hard we were literally having trouble catching our breath. By the end we were rolling on the floor LOL!

My favorite line from the whole DVD:

"Gun it! We'll make more!"

Now you just have to buy it yourself so you can see why this made us laugh so hard we had tears running down our faces.

So, if you would like a nice date night with your spouse and you'd like to watch a DVD that won't cause you to have to go to Confession afterwards, go buy this DVD. Then pop some popcorn and snuggle up on the couch for a laugh fest.