Mom Insurance and kind of a menu

You know how Aflac pays for expenses if you are injured? Like lawn care, housekeeping and such if you can't do that yourself? I think there should totally be mom insurance to provide help with the laundry and dishes when mom's are sick. I'm trying to at least do a little bit so it doesn't overrun our house, but switching laundry from the washer to the dryer and loading the dishwasher is like running a marathon and I need a nap between loads. Of course if someone did come to clean my house, I'd have to clean it first so they didn't think I'm a total slob. Maybe it could just provide someone to entertain my kids so I could just lay in bed, moan about how crappy I feel and watch "Downton Abbey" over and over again. (it's a period drama that was on PBS and I'm obsessed with it. Don't judge.)But the endless amount of cartoons on Netflix seems to be working for now and as long as I throw food at them occasionally they're happy. Kidding of course. I don't throw food AT them. Just in their general vicinity.

Speaking of food, my menu for this week is this: whatever you can pull out of the fridge, pantry, and/or freezer and microwave. Thankfully I have a few things I've made and then frozen, so we wont be surviving on just cereal and frozen pizza.

Normally, I would proof read my posts but today I'm throwing caution to the wind and just hitting "publish". So just consider this an example on why you shouldn't blog while on cough medicine.

Good day.

Saturday Shorts

• If you didn't happen to see my mom's comment, Gracie's head is normal. A nurse entered in the wrong information at her appointment and caused some panic! Her head did grow 2 inches in two months, which is slightly more than normal. Her neurologist scheduled a CT scan at her next appointment with him in a few weeks. 
• The black plague has invaded our home. It began with Riley and now everyone has it. We're all coughing, blowing our noses, and just very irritable in general. We've watched Toy Story (1,2, and 3) a gajillion times. Our house smells like Lysol and Vick's VapoRub. I cannot wait for us to all get better!
• Grace didn't escape the plague, but returned to her cheerful self last night. Along with spit bubbles, she's now a professional at blowing snot bubbles. That girl's gonna go far! She also spun around in her bed last night and now has her head in the opposite direction from how I laid her down. She's brilliant I tell you.
•   Bonus of having a nasty virus at our house? We now own this:

Ellie lives in and humidifies (is that a word?) the girl's room. If one of us has the energy to shower today, we'll also be the proud owners of a frog humidifier per the request of Riley. (This thing is CUTE, super quiet and works really well. I highly recommend them!)

That's all for now. I have noses to wipe, medicine to give, and beds to make on the couch. Hopefully a nap to take. See you all on the flip (and hopefully healthier) side!

Book Review: Who is My Shelter?

I was so excited when I saw that this book would be available through BookSneeze. I love Neta Jackson and devoured the first three books in this series. Who is My Shelter?  did not disappoint.  The story picked up where it had left off and did a wonderful job tying up loose ends and bringing up new plots for new books.

One of the things I love most about Mrs. Jackson’s books is that her characters are Christian, but far from perfect. She does a great job showing how a normal human being can struggle in their daily walk with God. Gabby Fairbanks is one of my favorite fictional characters. Early in the series she would aggravate me for not standing up for herself, but as the series progresses, she grows as a person and begins look out for her best interests. She struggles with wanting to solve problems herself instead of trusting that God will work it out, which is an issue I think many women can relate to. The plots are not predictable and really draw you into the lives of the characters.  The only issue I had with the book was the introduction of a young man named Will Nissan and the development of his story. It seemed a little far-fetched to me and I don’t see things playing out that way in real life.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book!

Mega-mega-mega Mind

We noticed a while ago that Grace has a big head and I gave her the nickname "Megamind".

The resemblence is uncanny.

I have a huge forehead (or fivehead as my sister used to call it) so we just assumed that she took after me. This is also can be a physical trait of someone with hydrocephalus, so in the back of our minds, we knew it could be because of that. 

Today at her well baby checkup, we got a bit of a shock.  A "normal" baby's head grows approximately 1/2 an inch per month. Gracie's appears to have grown nearly 9 times faster - a total of 9 inches in two months. She's acting like her normal, happy self and not showing any signs of shunt malfunction, but we have a call in to our neurosurgeon and he is reviewing the measurements. 

This could be a strange growth spurt (she only grew one inch lengthwise and gained four pounds), but it could also be much more. She's been such a miracle so far, I can't bear the thought of difficulties now. 

Would you please pray for our little Megamind? I'll post as soon as I know more.

Sweet Six Months

I can't believe she's six months old already. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital, but it also feels like she's been with us forever. Grace is turning into such a happy baby. She's a lot more vocal than my other two were at this age. She loves to coo, babble and hum {according to the "experts" that means she's advanced verbally. :-)} 

Riley and Gracie

Brenna and Gracie

Physically, Grace is starting to fall a bit behind.  She is not rolling over or sitting by herself. We believe this is because of her impaired vision. Most babies start to roll over so they can reach for and play with toys. Since she can't see the toys well, she really has no incentive to work for them. She still doesn't want to use her left hand and likes to keep it tucked into a fist. We still work with a physical therapist once a week and have our own "exercises" we do daily.

My super cute pirate with her girly patch.

After seeming to move backwards this week (we have to increase the time we patch her eye because they seem to be getting worse, the physical therapist mentioned the possibility of adding an occupational therapist in a few months, etc.) I was ready to throw myself a pity party. She kicked my party to the curb by sitting up in her Bumbo seat with no additional support. (A pretty big step with her head control) It seems every time I start to get upset about what she can't do, she shows me that there's so much more she can do.

Her pal Minnie

So what can she do? She can blow the best spit bubbles. She can down bananas and apples like nobody's business. She can instantly recognize when her big brother is near. She can have a favorite song at such a young age ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat" always calms her down.)

Eating carrots. :)

Most importantly, she reminds me everyday that miracles happen. And that the sweetest thing that you'll ever see, in the whole wide world, is a happy girl. :)

Candid Camera

This was suppose to just be a cute video of Grace trying peas for the first time (she didn't care for them). My darling 2 1/2 year old, Brenna, turns it into so much more about 40 seconds in. Listen for her laughing.



Classy Brenna. Really classy. :-)

Project Simplify: The Closet

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After:

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After:

Over the past two years, I've whittled my wardrobe down to my unofficial SAHM wardrobe of jeans/yoga pants and solid colored v-necks. I didn't think I'd have anything extra to purge, but I still managed to get rid of two bags! It's nice to be able to actually walk into my walk-in closet now!

I'm linking this to Project:Simplify at Simplemom.net!