4:14am: my hubby kisses me goodbye as he heads out to work. I tell him that I love him and that he can drive the suburban today because the kids and I can just stay home. (his bug doesn't do well coming up our road, and the suburban is much better on his back AND since we don't need to go anywhere, I felt like I should be a sweet wife and offer.) he said, "awesome! great! thanks babe!" and walked into the kitchen to get his stuff. I roll over in bed, listening to him and remember that my purse is in the car. I stumble out of our room and into the kitchen (total zombie style with eyes shut and hair crazy) and ask him (while he is walking out with 2 full trash bags) to hand me my purse bc my meds are in it. I am believing that the Lord is healing me of my trigeminal neuralgia, but I still would hate to not have access to my meds just yet. I kiss him again as I am sure he is digging my morning breath and he leaves. He is a hard working man, that Billy D. I love him so.
4:18am I see a snickers bar on the counter that says to share with Drama Mama (which.. hello? is clearly me).. so I open it up and take a bite and then end up eating the whole thing while hopping back in bed. I wash it down with some tepid Gatorade that was on my nightstand.. breakfast of champions. I look at my phone and see that I replied a text to the wrong person last night and they responded after I fell asleep. does anyone else ever do that? I feel like this is a daily thing. so glad that it was just a random text about our evening and not anything important/personal. geez..
4:20 while I am on my phone, I check the weather, look at instagram, check on my sisters adoption site, and then read a blog and am encouraged by some scripture that I read. I look up different verses and passages and praying that God would use this season of my life to bring glory to His name. so often, I think about myself.. of what I'm going through and how I am ready for it to be over.. but for whatever reason, the healing hasn't come. God is still working and I want to be used by him. I think about the blood work that I had done on sunday after church and wonder if I will hear any results today. my TSH (thyroid functioning level) has been crazy. I think they like it to be between a 0-1, and last week it was an 83! I had thyroid cancer and 2 surgeries the end of last year and I have been on a synthetic hormone since then and I take it everyday like clock work. My levels were off earlier this year bc I was taking an iron supplement for anemia and the iron and synthroid were cancelling each other out, so my body wasn't getting either of them. My dr had said that he has never seen a functioning patient with a hemoglobin/iron saturation as low as mine and that I needed to have some iron infusions ASAP or that I may not make it. Bill also talked to another dr and he said that iron infusions are so dangerous and that if I did follow through with it, that it could kill me. (talk about a stressful situation!) we prayed and prayed and talked to a 3rd party hematologist/oncologist and did some research and felt a peace about having the iron infusions done. I had my first one and it was rough, they started the iv in my hand and after a couple of minutes, it felt like my hand was being crushed and all of the bones were breaking. I asked the nurse about it and she said that iron is made in your bone marrow and when your body has been depleated for so long and then all of a sudden you are introduced to iron, your bones absorb it as fast as they can just like a sponge soaking it all in. apparently the bones were working overtime trying to grab every last drop of iron from the iv and it was so painful. the procedure lasted several hours, then they sent me home to rest. after a few days, I came back for my second round of iron and I was blessed with the same sweet nurse. she put the iv in my arm this time and the procedure was amazing this time. no crushing bones.. no pain. praise the Lord! However, those infusions make me so sleepy. I feel like I could sleep for days after them.
after a week or so, I went back to my dr to check my levels, and was so bummed that my iron was still low. he told me that he is pretty confident that I am losing blood somewhere internally faster than my body can replenish it. I made an appt with an obgyn to rule out anything girly and everything was perfect. my dr scheduled me to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the same time to check me out and both of those tests came back perfect. The gastro dr said that there was still one more test that he wanted to do. colonoscopies just test the large intestine and the endoscopy just checks your esophagus and stomach, but there is a new test called a PillCam that you swallow and it takes 7-8 pictures a second for 8 hours as it travels down your small intestine. I had this test done and after a week or so, I heard back from the dr that he saw several places on my small intestine that look like I could be losing blood. He called me in to chat about it and after he looks again at my images, he tells me that they aren't active (bleeding at the moment) and that he isn't 100% confident that this is where I am bleeding internally or where I am losing blood. to say that I was bummed would be an understatement.. I was hoping and believing that we finally had some answers, but God isn't revealing all of that to us just yet, so we are still waiting and still seeing drs.. but I am trying to be patient and trust in His sovereign plan for my life.
in the meantime, I developed a nerve disease called trigeminal neuralgia. random. no joke. most painful thing of my life. was in the ER 3 times in a week for it because no one knew what was happening. the right side of my face by my cheek, ear, jaw, teeth was in excruciating pain. ice would help temporarily but the pain would come right back. all day and all night I would use head bands to tie ice packs to my face and I would just cry and cry and cry. finally one of the er drs mentioned it to me and I saw a specialist who knew exactly what I was going through. I had an mri w/contrast to pinpoint the exact thing that is causing it. thankfully he has put me on some meds that have pretty much eliminated the pain! he tried something a few weeks ago and it was awful. the side effects were terrible, so we just decided to stay on the meds that I started with and they are working so well. I have been feeling great. now I just wait until I see a cardiology specialist that can help me decide if a pace maker is my best bet (which I have been told by 5 drs it is), and that appt is later this month.
6:32am I cannot believe that I stayed up and typed up this whole health chart. oh well.. now I have it documented for myself :) I think im gonna try and sneak in some more sleep before the kiddos wake up.
8:15am I tossed and turned and was never able to go back to sleep. I hear jos and levi coming up the stairs. Adalyn is next. they immediately walk into the kitchen and start making themselves bowls of cereal. I hear Adalyn whining about something when she walks into my room and cries, "Josiah isn't letting me get 2 kinds of cereal! yesterday I had cheerios and lucky charms but he wont let me do it today." drama drama:) I walk into the kitchen and help pour the milk and get everybody's bowl situated. I pull out the meat from the fridge to start prepping for the crock pot for supper.
8:33 ella kate and miley walk upstairs for breakfast. they were down in their new room making signs that say, "no boys allowed" and "boys can not touch this!" We switched the rooms around yesterday. so the old boys room is now the girls new room and vice versa. they seem to love it! I need to switch their closets around at some point so that might be something that we tackle today. we don't have cable but the kids are allowed to watch cartoons on Netflix in the mornings and today they are arguing over who gets to pick the show. levi thinks its his turn and he wants to watch Justin Time, but Josiah has put on Justice League... levi and Adalyn have both already cried today and it isn't even 9am. maybe they didn't sleep as well as I had hoped in their new rooms. I grab me some frosted shredded mini wheats and lay back down. ain't nobody got time for that!
8:40am the house phone rings and levi answers it.. then he accidentally hangs up on them. caller id said it was my dr, so I call them back and they say my blood results have come back in and the dr needs to see me in the morning. I make an appt for 11 tomorrow. Adalyn comes and lays down with me and asks if she can scratch my back... umm, yes please! she scratches and practices her counting. she makes it all of the way to 100 and asks to start over. this is a learning lesson and I don't want to discourage a teachable moment, so I give her one of my arms to scratch to give that one spot on my back a break! ha! levi comes in bed and is begging me to let him go and wake titus up. I keep telling him no, but he is pleading his case by telling me how much he misses him.
9:37 I don't smell anything yet, so I walk into the kitchen and see that I never turned the crock pot on. thank you Jesus for letting me realize this now instead of at 5! I clean up the crumbs of cereal that the kids missed and fluff the pillows on the couches. all of the kids are playing in their rooms downstairs.
9:50 I go and make my bed when my mom calls. I talk to her for a few minutes when levi comes back up to me and asks if he can wake up the baby now. I tell him that he can.. he smiles and shouts, "YES!!" and jumps down the stairs.
10:15 I hop in the shower to wash my hair.
10:22 my friend whitney texts me and tells me that she is gonna swing by in a few. levi hurts his finger. I kiss it and make it better and start fixing everyone's hair. I change titus' diaper and get him some breakfast to eat at the table.
10:40 I start blowdrying my hair and titus comes in my room and sits in my lap while I do it. the other kids are brushing their teeth in my bathroom.
11:05 whitney walks into my room and we hang for a bit. she brings her little boy eli with her and he and titus play. the bigger kids show off their "new rooms" to her and then show us the American Ninja Warrior set up that they made on their back porch with all of the broken bunk bed pieces. its super cute and majorly creative, if I do say so myself:) they are working up a sweat out there, so she and I come back upstairs with the babies and let them play with the train set while we chat. I forget that I didn't grab a loaf of bread out of the freezer for sandwiches today, so I grab one on my way back upstairs. its hot and muggy out, so I just put it outside on our porch to help the thawing process along. ill have some hungry kids in a few minutes!
12:45 whitney and eli leave and I sweep off the front porch while my kids are hugging and waving and hollering their goodbyes. jos and Adalyn help me make all of the sandwiches. Adalyn cant remember if she had her sweet drink for breakfast or not and she is trying to convince me to let her have some lemonade. we let our kids usually only have one "sweet drink" per day, (lemonade, juice, Gatorade is usually all that we would have here..) and after they have that, they can only have water. I know, I know.. mean parents. I get the kids situated with their sandwiches, chips and apple slices (except for himmy.. he always wants a banana) and I start making me a baked potato for my lunch. I look back at the kids and see ella kate squirting caramel drizzle over everyone's plates.. sneaky girl. everyone made a happy plate, though! the kids thought that ella kate's plan was the best thing ever!
1:04 I finally sit down and eat my potato as everyone else has been excused.. but Adalyn and titus stay and help me eat it. i send them downstairs to play and I wipe off the table and sweep the floor. there is sticky jelly and caramel on the floor that I mop up with a paper towel.
1:27 the playing soon turns into crying, so I take a load of clothes downstairs to wash. the kids have brought Ninja Warrior into their rooms and the little boys are getting hurt. I take titus into his room and change his poopy diaper. I rock him in his chair when he shouts for ella kate to come and bring him his cup. rotton boy:) that baby LOVES ella kate! he asks me to sing "abcdefg" and "jesus children". I sing those to him and I also sing "sunshine" then I kiss him and lay him down. he looks at the cars and animals in his bed and asks me, "who make a mess?" then he smiles and says, "titus make a mess!"
1:30 I walk into the boys room where all of the kids are and ask them why its a disaster. they dont come out of their rooms in the morning until 8:15 and until their beds are made and toys are picked up. so I knew that it was already clean and now it looks like a tornado hit.
1:32 I walk upstairs to my room to update this post
1:45 all of the kids come up and tell me that the room is clean. I get them each started on some school and make levi lay down on my bed. his little body is tired and I cant handle the tears today. the big girls ask if they can take their school work down to their room and jos and Adalyn stay upstairs and do theirs with me. (when it is too hot to play outside, and I wont let my kids play on electronics or watch tv all day... school is the next best thing!) we always have school workbooks ready to do. the kids love it and I love that they have some quiet and alone time.
2:25 levi kept telling me that he wasn't "berry tired", but now he has been snoring on my bed for a few minutes. I check their school work while Adalyn plays barbies beside me and the big kids are playing quietly in the girls room. I actually hear the radio playing so I pray it doesn't wake up titus. I forgot that I had my straightener plugged in and I need to straighten my freshly washed hair (it only gets washed twice a week! haha!) while I am straightening my hair, Adalyn runs into my bathroom and bends over and says, "did I wipe myself good, momma?" I kid you not... my life is nuts!
3:00 I switch over the laundry and decide to paint my toes. I have little shadows who can hear the nail polish box from a mile away, so they sneak in and we all get pedicures. jos complains about not having anything to do.. its always someone's job to say that! his boredom disappears when we spot a fox out of the bedroom window:)
3:40 daddy is home!! and he brought me a frosted lemonade from work which gives him brownie points! the nails are drying and the kids put on a 3 little pigs video to watch til naptime is over. daddy curls up on the couch with miley and takes a little nap. ek, jos and Adalyn are snuggled up on the other couch and I finish up some more laundry.
4:00 I wake up levi from his nap and snuggle him for a few minutes on my bed. he is super sleepy still, so he just wants to lay there while I go downstairs to get titus up. I grab ty's stack of laundry to put away when I get into his room. he is laying in his bed sucking his thumb and twirling his hair when I walk in. he greets me with a "hey momma! I no go night night." I pick him up and we hear levi coming down the stairs so we hide behind the bedroom door. he sees us and we end up scaring each other:) I walk by the bathroom and see that someone left a prize in the potty, so I go ahead and flush that down since my kids apparently don't know how to do it. titus is still super snuggly and doesn't want me to put him down, so I hold him and hold levi's hand and we walk back upstairs to see everyone else.
4:25 we walk into the kitchen and levi helps me stir the meat in the crockpot. titus still doesn't know that daddy is home, so I walk over to the couch with him so he can see him sleeping. titus goes over and kisses him and daddy opens his eyes and says, "happy birthday!" (he and titus always play this game and titus LOVES it!) he giggles and bill holds him while I get more of the supper ready. ek asks if she can help me cook. Adalyn and levi are also helping me. we make some brown rice and the kids help me open the corn and get that in a pot. the girls are helping me stir while levi is helping me unload the dishwasher.
5:00ish I start making plates and the kids get their cups ready. Adalyn brings the utensils to the table and ek helps me bring the plates of food. Josiah asks if he can say the blessing. we all sit to eat and talk about our day. daddy had a good day at work and the kids were talking about all they did. (although it has pretty much been a boring day) its just always fun to sit and eat together and laugh and talk... even if our days were boring.
5:25 everyone is done and had seconds and some had thirds before I got to eat my plate, but such is the life of a mom:) and now we are cleaning it up! miley starts washing the dirty crockpot, Adalyn wipes off the table and the floor and ek is helping me put the scraps of food onto a plate for the raccoons:) everyone chips in and it gets clean fast.
5:33 we all (as a family) sit at the table and play the game, PieFace. we went through 3-4 rounds of all of the kids having a turn and they all got the whipcream on their face and loved it. I love to hear them just laugh and laugh. we clean up from that and I start making a bath. the kids are running around the house like wild Indians and then I spy sweet Adalyn under the table mopping up the splattered whipcream off of the floor(unprompted) and I give her a special treat (a cow tail candy) for going above and beyond. jos goes and gets the pajamas for the boys and brings them up and ella kate gets them for the girls.
5:50 levi is on the potty shouting for someone to wipe him:) he tried to wipe himself.. but it got everywhere.. gag! he is the first in the tub and after I change titus' poopy diaper, he goes in with him. they come out, then the girls gradually come in and I help wash hair and when they are out, poor Josiah gets in. he sometimes takes showers but tonight he wanted to "soak in the tub". :) not really something that I would want to soak in.. gross!
6:29 everyone is in jammies, bill is in the shower and the kids are having a dance party to Justin timberlake's new song. they just cant get enough and they love it! im contemplating making cookies for a surprise dessert but I am so pooped that I am leaning more towards an early bedtime. we shall see!
7:30 the dance party turned into hide and seek which turned into drama... so its bedtime!! we brush teeth and say prayers and everyone gets tucked in tight. I tell them they can read in their beds until 8:00.
8:15 I go and check on all of the kid and they are all OUT except for himmy. I guess his nap gave him a little pep tonight. I kiss him and fix his covers and he tells me that he loves me and I am the berry best mom ever! he tells me to tell daddy that he loves him too. I put more laundry in the dryer while I am down there and come back upstairs and get ready for bed myself. bill is working on the schedule for work and I look at the bed, bath and beyond flyer that came in the mail. its not looking too exciting tonight, so I will probably end this here.
our day in the life wasn't as busy as it could be, but im sure I will want to remember what a slow and boring summer day was:) I am so thankful for my sweet family and so thankful for this life! what a sweet one it is!
Posts
