Carpet Cleaning, Sickness

Friday night and Saturday, I worked on cleaning the carpets in the main room. I did half at a time, and it took about 1 1/2 hours for each half. I also cleaned the chair that was looking pretty gross. Everything looks and feels a lot better now. It's a pretty intense job. By the time I cleaned and rinsed everything, I went over every section about 12 times.

I sewed a ghillie suit for James during the afternoon. It ended up taking a ton of time and being really frustrating, but he's happy with the result. At that point, I was mentally exhausted and wanted nothing to do with people, but I had a fun time playing 7 Wonders with some teacher friends.

Sunday morning, Lewis threw up, so James stayed home with him and Samantha. After my evening class, Samantha threw up. Thankfully, no one has thrown up since then. Joseph, Kenny, and Katie have missed some days of school for scratchy throats, and I had a headache for a few days, but it was nothing serious. We masked up to go get our flu shots on Tuesday, and everyone did really well. Only Samantha cried, and it was just for a second.

James and I switched our date to last night (movie at home and Snickers ice cream bars) so the kids can go to the carnival today. Well, except for Kenny and me. We will stay home and get dinner ready. Kenny still has a cough and has stayed home all week, but I'm hoping he'll be back on Monday. Everyone else is completely fine. I'm still really looking forward to when the kids can get their Covid shots. I hear Halloween. Lewis won't be eligible till February when he turns 5, and who knows about 3-year-olds. The pandemic has dragged on long enough. I'm SO ready for this headache to be over.

Comicon, Hunt, Heads Visit

It's been a really busy week. Friday, we went to Comicon and back. The older 3 did great, but the younger 2 were harder to handle and got tired and bored more quickly. I slept very poorly the night before, so it made my day more difficult than it should have been. However, we had a great time, took lots of pictures, and even met up with Uncle Joseph.

Saturday, James got up early to go hunting with his friend Devin. They both shot pronghorns by afternoon and gutted them. They did the butchering at Devin's house with a short break to take both of the girls to Homecoming. It was Katie's 6th year and Samantha's 1st.

Monday, we worked on processing the meat, mostly trimming the silver skin and dividing it into more manageable pieces. I made a batch of jerky. We even had time for a lunch date to get Chinese with the little kids.

Tuesday night, the Heads arrived. James cooked up some of the pronghorn, and it's SO GOOD! I worked with Rex all day on Wednesday and half of today. Though the job wasn't especially hard (taking vitals and checking people in for disability exams), I'm still behind on things at home. I'd made dinner for last night the day before, but I'm definitely not making anything today. I'm way too tired. I'm definitely not ready to go work outside my home, even for short periods of time.

Katie had her baptism interview last night and was exceptionally silly. She will get baptized on December 4th.

This weekend, we should be able to to get some small projects done. I don't want to do much of anything or go anywhere!

Reflux, Normal Life

Since the beginning of September, I've been dealing with a lot of acid reflux. I've probably mentioned before that it's a been a plague on my life since childhood, and I'm pretty sure Kenny has inherited that from me. (Poor kid.) I don't know why it suddenly got worse, but it got to a point where my throat was so sore and dry, it was almost unbearable. I took the maximum dosage of a couple of different medications until I felt better (OTC stuff I've taken before), and I'm down to 1 a day for nighttime, which I hope I can quit in a few weeks. I've also made some changes to my eating (more fruits, veggies, etc. and not eating after dinner) so I can wake up feeling good and not with a scratchy throat. Despite the fact that the world is ending, I still need to manage this annoying health condition. Taking care of the reflux will also help me be healthier overall, which is something I've struggled with during the pandemic. Honestly, I still blame myself a lot for not doing a better job, but I'm doing the best I can, and that looks different at different points in my life.

Things have gone much better this week with all of the kids. Lewis and Samantha haven't destroyed anything (knock on wood) and are doing better at sitting still during story time at the library. Katie has eaten all of her meals and hasn't complained about her bed being poison. (I did have to stick my face in the shower water once so she'd take one, but I'm willing to do a small thing like that as long as I don't have to do it every time.) I've even had a little time to read. We're going to Comicon in Salt Lake tomorrow! I hope it seems like a short drive after the very long days we spent on the way to and back from NC.

Toilet, Days Off and Off Days

James and I went to see a movie last Saturday. I don't remember the last time we went to a movie theater! I helped the boys put a new Lego table in their room, one that's not made of old pesticide barrels and scrap wood.

Thanks to Lewis, we had to take up the toilet for our Labor Day holiday. It was about as annoying as expected. The little wooden hammer he flushed was really stuck, and it took a lot of snaking, praying, and help from Kenny to finally grab the thing through the bottom of the toilet. We then reinstalled it without any problems, and I scrubbed the bathroom with disinfectant. On the bright side, it was nice and clean for a day. ;) We didn't do much for the rest of the day and got some Chinese for dinner as a reward for making it through such a yucky task.

The kids didn't have school on Tuesday, so we hung out and actually had a pretty good day. I'd been really worried about Katie on Monday. She wouldn't eat much, claiming her hands were poison, and had a big meltdown when it was time to go to bed because she thought her pillow and blanket were poisoned. I assured her that they were not and led her through some deep breathing exercises to help her calm down. Anxiety is no fun as an adult, but it's even worse when your child has to go through it. She was much calmer the next day, and I realized that getting enough sleep and food are essential for her, even if it takes some mild bribery. She has eaten mostly normally since Tuesday but sometimes washes her hands more than I think is necessary and eats finger foods with a fork. (Not a huge deal, but it's a little weird.) For the past two nights, James and I have assured her that there's no poison on her pillow. He dramatically vacuumed off her pillow before bed to "suck out the poison" and I had to lick it to prove it was okay last night. She laughed and settled down pretty quickly for both nights. I know kids go through stages where they're more nervous about germs, and I'm sure the pandemic while being in school hasn't helped.

Since Tuesday night (and yoga!), I've been feeling much better about my parenting skills. It's hard for me to stay calm sometimes when it feels like my younger 3 deliberately push my buttons, but I'm trying, and it's made a big difference. I've realized more and more over time that my older 2 are just easy kids who gave me unrealistic expectations for the others.

Now that we've been in school for 2 weeks, I feel that I've gotten used to the new schedule. Lewis and Samantha are still trouble when left alone, but they're doing a lot better than last year. I wish Samantha had more interest in potty training, but I know that will come with time. Lewis is doing really well with his online preschool, so I'm glad for that too.

Fixed, Samantha's 3rd Birthday, Routine, New Hobby?

Nash came Saturday night for a few hours and fixed my washing machine. I'm so excited! Going to the laundromat is both inconvenient and expensive. We cooked some steak for him as a thank you. He left right as people showed up for DnD, so it worked out.

We celebrated Samantha's birthday on Sunday because I really wanted some cake. I made a white cake with strawberry ermine frosting, and it turned out really yummy. She was really excited about opening her presents. Now that she's officially 3 (as of Tuesday), I got out the little potty in hopes that she'd want to use it. So far, she only used it once and then decided she didn't want to. Oh well. I'm not really in a rush. I'm hoping that she will be trained by Christmas, and that's still a few months away.

Now that school has been in session for a week, I think I'm getting used to getting up early. So far, there have only been a few small meltdowns and one toy flushed down the toilet. (I think I resolved it with a snake, but I'm not completely sure. Time will tell.) Lewis has been doing really well with his preschool on the computer, and he eventually calmed down for story time at the library yesterday. I'm hoping to go every week with Samantha and him and that he'll learned to follow directions from someone other than me. He struggles sometimes.

I've started fixing up our bikes. I replaced 2 innertubes, removed some broken brakes, and possibly fixed the back brakes on another bike. I don't know if this is a hobby that will stick, but I feel pretty good about what I've done so far. It's been frustrating to figure things out so far, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. We found a little bike for Lewis at D.I. My goal is to teach him to ride next summer, but we could start sooner if we wanted to.

I'm excited for Labor Day weekend. I have a few projects to do that involve deep cleaning and organization. :)