A House Full of Sickness

So, sickness has been running through my house for a little over a week. Little L had a runny nose and a cough. Baby A had a stuffy nose and a cough. Husband had a sore throat. D and I were the only ones feeling good, until I got a sore throat...

Husband went to the doctor and has strep throat. Little L has an ear infection in one ear and a croup like cough. Baby A has a double ear infection.

All three of them are on prescriptions and starting to feel better. I hope everyone gets a good night's sleep tonight!!!

Little L turns 2!

Last Sunday, my middle child turned 2!  She chose to have a Car themed party.  So, I went to brainstorming and Pinterest to find ideas.  We had a race car cake from Pinterest.

I made apple cars (from Pinterest) and celery trucks (created myself).

The drinks were motor oil (grape kool aid), antifreeze (lemon-lime kool aid), leaded and unleaded gas (iced tea).

We had different activities too.  I made roads (Pinterest), and a drive in theater (Pinterest), and the kids colored wooden cars.

Everyone had a great time and Little L felt so special.  The girls were so excited (okay, D was excited and Little L didn't know why to be excited) and anticipated the event all day long.  They both helped make the cake and Little L kept eating the tomato and grape wheels off the cars and trucks.  :)  What a great way to celebrate my Little L!

Love is a Choice

Last night, my husband and I had the privilege of listening to Lori Palatnik.  She is a speaker who writes and record for Aish.com.  Lori also instigated and ran all of the JWRP (Jewish Women Renaissance Project) trips to Israel.  The JWRP is a trip for women from all over the world to experience Israel on a Women only trip.  This trip took me to Israel in 2010, right after I found out that I was pregnant with Little L.

She is an energetic, enthusiastic, fun, knowledgeable woman who travels the world for speaking engagements.  Lori is a frum woman who is married to a Rabbi.  If you want to learn more, aish.com has articles and podcasts from her that are truly inspirational.

Last night, she came to my shul to talk about tips for a great marriage.  I took a bunch of notes, but a few things really stuck out to me.  She asked the group of men and women, who is an extrovert married to an introvert?  Then she said that we are drawn to our opposite because they complete you.  When G-d splits our soul and sends us out into the world, he doesn't split it straight down the middle, but rather it is a wavy split like a puzzle.  When we find the right person, their piece fits perfectly to us.

When we are looking for a spouse, we are not looking for the perfect person.  Rather, we are looking for the perfect person for us.  Also, love is a choice.  We choose to love our spouse, our children, our friends.  We know when we are pregnant that we will love that child because we are choosing to love the child.  To stay in "love" you have to work at it. 

I heard this talk, or a version of it, when I was in Israel and the parent of one child.  Now, almost three years later, I am the mother of three children and have been married for almost 11 years.  It is nice to get the reminder that love is a choice and that we grow from how we handle our spouses flaws.  So, I choose love.

Shabbos Party

This past Shabbat there was a bar mitzvah at the Shul.  As our family was getting ready to walk home (in the rain), several girls asked if they could come play at our house.  Since my kids are 4 1/2, 23 months, and 2 months, Shabbat play dates are a special treat.  So, as we were walking home, I counted 5 additional girls (ages ranging from 7-12) were walking with us.

What a great rainy day treat!!!  When we got home, husband pulled out a ton of towels for the girls to use to dry off.  The girls played board games, My Little Pony, bean bag games, house, and more.  D was so excited to help set up for the Shabbos Party (an afternoon snack) and Shalos Shidish (Third Meal).  Everyone was so polite and played with everyone nicely.  There were no comments of "you are too young for this" or "I don't want to play with you".

There were times when Little L may have taken a piece to a puzzle and walked away with it, but they knew she was too young to know differently.  The rain didn't stop, so the girls stayed at our house until havdallah (ending Shabbat).  Several parents came to pick up their kids and I drove two girls home.  My girls were still talking about their special Shabbat treat this morning as I packed them up for school.  We belong to such an amazing community!

Getting More Time in My Day....

Husband and I have planned to menu plan for months, yet we never made it a priority.  Until now.  For the last three weeks, we have planned out our meals for the entire week.  I sit down on Sunday and write out our schedule for the week.  Using this, we then plan our menu.  I look at crock pot meals, cooking from things I have frozen, and utilizing leftovers.  This week, we cooked full meals on Monday and Tuesday.  We used Monday's leftovers for lunches on Tuesday and are eating Tuesday's leftovers for dinner tonight.  By planning a leftover night, we have less waste.  Menu planning on its own has not given me a ton more time.  It has given me less stress when I get home from work and less last minute trips to the grocery store.

The other thing that has given me more time is preparing meals the night before.  So, on Sunday night, Husband created the casserole we were eating on Monday night.  When I got home, I added shredded cheese and threw it in the oven.  Done!!!  On Monday night, we put all of the dry ingredients into the crock pot, mixed the wet ingredients and placed them in the fridge.  Monday morning, we added the wet stuff to the dry ingredients and pushed Low. 

By preparing the meals the night before, when my little ones are in bed, I am giving them time before dinner.  Instead of them asking me to play with them and me saying, "I am making dinner", I get to say, "Sure."  We are also freeing up time and energy to try new things.  This week I made two additional snacks, where I usually don't get to that until Sunday.  On Monday, I made homemade granola.  It took less than 30 minutes, including cook time.  Tuesday night, I made homemade soft pretzels.  Everyone loved them and I will be making more tonight.  Before menu planning, I wouldn't think to cook or bake after dinner.  Now, I am looking for recipes to try out. 

The stress of finding something for dinner is gone.  Since we keep Kosher, we cannot drive through a fast food restaurant to grab dinner, and we are eating healthier.  It does require more planning on our part and a stash of quick foods to make!

Shabbat of Peace

After the last two weeks of sickness, we needed a good Shabbat. And that is exactly what we had!!! Even though Baby A was not feeling good, this Shabbat was great!!! It started with a delicious homemade Shabbat dinner made by the Middle School Cooking club.

They hooked us up with everything from challah to wine to grape juice to kugel to chicken to dessert! The entire meal was wonderful and it was so nice to come home on Friday and not have to worry about dinner.

Baby A did not do well with his antibiotic and threw up most of it. So I was worried that it would be a long night. Instead, he slept for 8 hours!!! Before he got sick, he was sleeping 6 hours, but has not done that in a couple of weeks. I woke up several times worried about my sleeping little man, but he was just a tired little guy.

This morning, we had a playdate with D's best friend, her little sister, and their mommy. We played with baby dolls, worked on puzzles, and created play dough masterpieces. After a yummy family lunch, everyone took a great nap.

When we woke up, some neighbors picked up D and took her to their house to play. Little L and I took horsy rides and piggy back rides to the next level of fun! It was so nice to spend some quality time with my middle child.

After Havdallah, Baby A and I went to a student's Bar Mitzvah party. It was nice to see so many students and their parents and fellow teachers.

It really was a Shabbat of peace. I am hoping that this feeling will carry us through this next week.

A House Full

So, I realize that I haven't posted in a while, but when it rains it pours!  I am living with a house full of sickies!  Last week I took D to the doctor and was told she had a really bad ear infection.  Little L has a cold.  Baby A has a cold and an ear infection!  Husband is sick as well.  So, that leaves me as the healthy one!  With very little sleep at night due to the children being sick and not sleeping through the night, I will not be healthy for long!  Oy!!!  We need to have everyone healthy here!!  I hope that this weekend is a chance for all of the children and the husband to get rested and get healthy again!

Gam Zula Tova (This too is good!)

This morning at 7:35, as I was about to get into my car to leave for work and running late, I got a call from my husband. 
Husband said, "What time do you have to be at work?" 
I say, "I am supposed to be there at 8, but I am running late."
"No, what time do you HAVE to be there."
"I have a class at 8:35, why?"
"I have the car keys in my pocket...."

So, my husband had accidentally taken the car keys to both cars leaving me stranded at home.  I immediately started making phone calls to try to get a ride into school.  I was finally able to find the older sister of a student (who belongs to my Shul, whose mom went to Israel with me) to pick me up. 

I walked into the building and headed to our security desk to ask for a key to get into my classroom.  The guard asked to hold my car keys until I returned the classroom key.  So, I left my driver's license instead, after having to explain why I didn't have car keys.

My class is starting to gather around the door to my room, waiting for me.  And that is how my longest day at work started.  Tuesdays are my long days at work with me teaching from 8:35-4:10 with one "break" at 9:40.  Today was not a day to run late.  Today was not a day to come to work with out a car, since I meet the family at dance class.  Today was not the day to add more stress and anxiety. 

So, I didn't.

After I knew I had a ride, I let it go.  I knew I would be at work and that my day would continue.  Maybe, I just needed to realize that this might be good also.  Maybe there was a reason this happened.  I try to do this often like when I am stuck in traffic.  Instead of getting annoyed, I try to think that there are worse things than being stuck in traffic.

Lessons from today's misadventures include: letting go of the things I can't control, remembering that we are all human and make mistakes (didn't even get frustrated with Husband-Yay me!), learning that Husband will be teaching our teenagers to drive (I prayed a lot on the drive in), and that even this is good.

Doctor, Doctor Give Me The News

First of all, I downloaded the blogger app ages ago and have yet to use it. I knew it would be good when I did not have a computer around, for in the moment blogging. Tonight I am using it because it is easy to use while feeding the baby.

Today I went to the doctor for my six week post op visit. I have been going weekly because I was healing slowly, but this was supposed to be my last visit. This was supposed to tell me that I can go back to work and life as I once knew it.

That wasn't entirely the case. The long and short of it is that I can go back to life as I know it, but I am still not completely healed. I was given another array of medications and told that things are looking better.

Instead of going back in a week, as I have been doing, I go back in two weeks. Let's hope the news is good news then!

Healing, Inside and Out

Baby Boy started school (daycare) yesterday.  He is officially 6 weeks old!  The girls were excited that he was going to school with him and D wanted to take him for show and tell.  I decided not to go back to work yesterday and to take one more day to heal.  With three children, I don't always allow myself time to rest.  All three of my children were C-Sections (another blog post maybe to explain why), and I healed differently each time.  After D was born, both of us were in my office after just three short weeks.  She stayed in my office until she was three months old.  Little L and I went back to work when she was six weeks old, and she stayed in my office until she was three months old.

This is the first time that I went to work and the baby went somewhere else.  It feels....weird!  Baby Boy is my little buddy and other than one time, everywhere I went, he went.  I needed yesterday to rest and work on healing, inside and out. 

Inside: I had to be okay emotionally with the baby not coming to work with me and to start daycare so young.  Inside, I had to mentally prepare to go back to teaching, standing on my feet all day, and being "on". Inside: I had to forgive myself for not getting everything done that I had intended.  These weren't huge projects like refinishing cabinets, but just little things I had hoped to do.

Outside: I had to make sure that the physical pain was gone or minimal.  Outside: I had to be able to stand/walk for long periods of time.  Outside: I had to make sure that my incision was closed or at least closing.  This one, I did not fully accomplish.

Since my two week post operation visit to my OBGYN, I have been going weekly.  There are two places on my incision that have not closed completely.  They cause a lot of discomfort and we have no idea why it is taking me so long to heal.  I went to my Endocrinologist to see if the Gestational Diabetes was causing me to be a slow healer, and they don't think that is the cause.  There is an infection and a rash as well on the incision.  These are the reasons I took an extra day at home by myself.

I started back to work today, on what I consider a slower day.  I am feeling okay, but definitely not back to my old self.  Maybe this week's doctor visit will be the week that I am told that I am healed.  Maybe.