Three Bunnies and an Adventure

A little background first.  I made a birthday gift for my niece. Three knitted bunnies.  However, in Kerri fashion, I was late.  The boys were quite fond of them and kept taking parts of the bunnies away, and it would take me forever to find them.  Once done, it was past her birthday.  I figured since I was already late, why not keep them a wee bit longer and have a little fun.  So we took her bunnies with us on a few adventures :-)

Three Bunnies go to the Park, Part 1:

After it was decided that we would go to the park, the bunnies begged us to come along.  Hmmm, well, even though they are bunnies, and knitted ones at that, we thought that there safety was important.  Nothing like having to send them off to Emma all smooshed up!  Not having any better of an idea, we just decided to buckle them in.

They look a bit concerned here I think.  We do have an extra large van.  I think they were a bit intimidated.

Hey guys, it will be ok, you'll see.  Are you all comfortable and ready for fun at the park?

The first thing they wanted to do was go down the slide.  That's a tall order for small bunnies.  I think once they got over their intimidation of the van they were ready for anything!  I am sure they broke all the 'unspoken slide rules', but they had fun doing it. 

Make sure you stop yourselves before you reach the end!  You can tell they were going down fast by looking at their ears.  They are flapping behind them.  Dare devils they are.

When they went to go for another slide ride I found them goofing off at the top of the platform!  You're going to fall and kill yourselves!!!  Oh, silly, silly bunnies.  They have a lot to learn.  All I can say is, Emma, you have your work cut out for you.  Be very careful if you ever take them to the park.  :-)

Come back in a few days to find out what else the bunnies were up to at the park.

Tired

Phew!  I feel drained.  Surprised?  Ha, ha!! This past week was supposed to be our purge (aka spring cleaning) week. Even with the children all being sick I was able to get the boys' room done, the girls have most of their rooms done, I have most of the family room done, started a bit in my bedroom and tackled a bit of the laundry room.  I'm going between the laundry room and bedroom depending on if the baby is sleeping or not.  I was able to thoroughly wash our big blue couch and two blue cushioned chairs.  They needed it, BAD!  Let's just say the "no food on couches" will be firmly instituted and followed!  I didn't get to everything that needed to be done, but I am just happy, that despite the many small trials, I've accomplished so much.
   I've been sick on and off, but not with the horrid illness that everyone else had.  Mine is due to allergies getting out of control.  Because it is more of a constitutional illness than an acute, homeopathy is working, then my allergies take hold again.  I am thankful for the reprieve, but at this point I need to do a bit more drastic measures.  I could go off to get an antibiotic.  Number one, I don't want to, and two, I'm not sure if I need one.  My allergies have produced this cough, that I've had for a month now.  Thankfully it's not painful, or severe.  But it's there, and it's not a dry cough, which is what I am a bit concerned about.  A month of a goupy cough and I know I am risking bronchitis or pneumonia.  Not exactly something I want to battle with.  So I've pondered my options.  I know I could call the homeopathic doctor to get the "right" remedy to set me straight for a while.  But that costs a good deal of money.  If I had pneumonia, I'd be calling, but I don't....so I need to do something here at home.  So here is what I came up with:

1.  I've researched and compiled a list of about 16 remedies (homeopathic) to try.  The classic way would be to take one remedy and see if that helps.  I would need to take it for at least a day.  That means a possible 16 days to figure out if I got the right one.  So I am making my own combination remedy by putting 5 remedies into one bottle.  I'm hoping to find the right remedy a lot quicker than two weeks.

2.  I plan on juice feasting (I think I mentioned this before) for a full 3 to 4 days, with lots of water in between.

3.  Start taking 1/4 of a probiotic capsule each day.

4.  Make a whole bunch of my Immuni-T(made with the Immuni-T tea, garlic, lemon juice, honey and elderberries) and drinking that in between the juicing.  I'll add a bit of vitamin C powder and echinacea drops to it as well.

5.  By day 4 or 5 start adding in bone broths.

6.  Day 5 or 6 start to add coconut oil and raw egg yolk to my broth.

7.  From there add whole veggies, then meat and rice or wheat free pasta.

8.  Each evening take a detox bath.

I'm a bit worried how the baby will react.  But at this point I feel I am between a rock and a hard place.  Taking antibiotics will only further weaken my body, and possibly cause things like thrush for the baby.  The juicing will help to strengthen my body to fight this illness off on it's own, BUT I risk toxins being released into my milk and on into the baby.  It seems either way the baby looses.  Poor guy :-(  But I'm hoping that by maintaining my calorie requirements, and drinking lots of water in between and the baths, that it may help to minimize the impact for Aubrey.  Something needs to be done though.  I've just been much too tired, foggy mentally, and having to go through a box of kleenex weekly.  Not fun.

In other news our four boy baby goats went to their new home today.  They are going to a great couple, with 20 acres.  They will be well cared for and loved on.  I really enjoyed talking to the wife.  I don't think I would had ever pictured myself hanging outside chatting with a women about chicken illnesses!  Too funny.  So all of this means we HAVE to milk each morning now!  Actually I plan on milking the goats three times a day (for Honey at least as she had all her babies taken from her).  Then after a week or two go to two times a day.  I will see where that takes us.  In the mornings, when we have milked, we have gotten close to 3 quarts.  Not bad.  The only 'problem' is how fast it goes!  I'm going to have to write, "Don't touch" on the milk I plan on using for recipes :-)

We've had a few problems with our chicks this time around.  First we had a sick chicken that died in only hours from when we found out it was sick!  Thankfully we treated the whole crew and no other chicks died.  Then we lost two, they wondered into the dog area....chomp!  And now we have turned into some chicken recovery place with two chicks that have a broken leg and another one that has a broken wing.  The broken legs happened from the goats stepping on the chicks.  The broken arm was from the dog.  The girls just took off the splint to one of the chicks broken leg.  It has healed, although a bit out of place.  But the chick can walk on it and do all of it's chickeny things.  So we have hope for the other wounded ones as well.  Although I'm not sure about the broken wing one.  Isabella was able to wrap the broken wing to it's body to immobilize it.  Smart girl!  I was talking to that lady today about it and we both agreed that not to many people would have tried to 'salvage' the chicks.  They would have been culled.  Ah, not these peeps!  Our peeps are cherished by the girls and we go through great lengths to save any chick who is in peril.

The oldest two girls had their Portfolio Night for their art class last night.  It was a lot of fun.  It was a pot luck dinner between the art class and another class.  I told Jonah we were going to a party, and ALL day he kept asking about the party!  Oh too funny.  He was quite obsessed about it.  When we got there he was like, "Where's the party?"  Ha, ha.  Speaking of funny.  I soooooooo wish I had a video camera to have caught this, but it would have been impossible since it was just one of those totally unexpected things.  We were going through Walmart after church, picking up a few things.  Jonah was in the seat in the cart.  Coming towards us, but behind Jonah, were his Sunday school teachers.  I was about to say, "Hey, Jonah, look who's here."  But he happened to turn around and saw them himself.  His eyes went WIDE with wonder, confusion and I'm not sure what else, and he exclaims, "HEEEEYYYYY, what are you guys doin' here?!?!!?"  As if his Sunday school teachers only live in the classroom.  I think I almost cried I was laughing so hard!  Oh, the look on his face! 

Well dinner is here.  Long, long day so we got some take out.  I'm beat!  Oh, do pray that I will get over this illness.  Not only will I be trying to recover next week, but it's also testing week for the three oldest girls.  Not their favorite time of year :-)  I've got to maintain a quiet area for them.  That kind of stresses me out.  Moira, in particular, has to have quiet to work.  She gets very stressed out with tests.  Although last year she did much better, and it was Flannery who was freaking out.  I'm a bit nervous to see how it goes this time.

Moira update

Well, she's home now!  Moira has amazing timing....that's all I've got to say. Oh, you want me to say more?  Well it appears that Moira will be, oh so very soon, initiated into womanhood.  Hey, like I said, you can't beat the timing.  So they were in the ER, with lots and lots of very sick people (I'm guessing everyone there has what we've had.....yucky stuff to be sure) so it took a while longer for them to get her into the back.  They were going to do an ultrasound, but figured that if anything showed up they would have to do a CT scan anyways, so they decided to skip the US and go for the CT scan at the get go.  They saw a couple of small foreign bodies, that they are assuming are scar tissue.  And the biggie was a small amount of fluid....in her uterus.  For all you ladies out there, maybe you can chime in on this, but for me (and for the guys this will be tmi!!!) I flo first *then* get cramps hours later.  I know my one daughter cramps first and hours later starts her flo.  So I know that is normal, but just seems odd.  Anyways we are awaiting the 'official' initiation rights :-)  I guess the docs say it could be one to three days!  Oh, why oh why couldn't this all be so much more simple.  I really hate waiting.  I really don't want to wait a few days to see if she starts or not.  Not that I have any other option!  It's only 8 am but I need a nap.  Night all!

Prayers needed again....

Yes, again.  I am sure you must think I am kidding.  Oh, how I wish I was!!  And you know who they are for, don't you?  Yes, Moira.  No.....I'm NOT kidding.  Jeremiah and Moira headed to the ER just about 30 minutes ago.  I am really, really hoping that this is just the sickness that everyone else has been coming down with.  After all at least 7 of the 9 of us have been or are currently ill.  Poor Flannery had it the worst.  Body aches BAD, really, really bad headache, fever and a bit of a sore throat.  Jed came down with it.  While he was napping, Flannery told me it felt like her legs were broken.  Wow, that's some body aches!  I thought she was being a bit dramatic.  However, Jed woke from his nap and the first thing he says is, "Mommy, my legs are broken."  Oh, my, I guess Flannery wasn't being dramatic.  So, I know this illness brings some really bad pain with it.  However all that said, this is what's been going on with Moira.  Around lunch time (unknown to me) her abdomen started hurting.  Granted Jonah has been complaining of his tummy hurting (Flannery and Saoirse also had painful tummies).  The pain has been getting worse since this afternoon.  She just told us an hour or so ago about the pain, telling me it hurts REALLY bad.  Here's the bad news.  It hurts across her whole abdomen, around to her back and down her leg (sciatica).  It's the sciatica pain that has us very concerned.  The abscess that she had last month was giving her abdominal pain, around to the back, and down her leg (sciatica).  Due to where the abscess was located, it was pressing on her sciatic nerve.  Now, maybe, just maybe, this is a weak area in her body and so the illness is settling in there first?  Oh, one can only  hope.  But to be safe, we decided that a trip to the ER was necessary. 

Please, please pray for Moira's peace.  Although she is in a lot of pain, I think she is more fearful than anything.  She was completely upset about having to go to the hospital (although at the same time she wanted to go due to how much pain she was in).  I sat and prayed with her.  I know she would really covet your prayers during this time.  Please also pray for Jeremiah.  He actually was in bed early due to coming down with this illness.  So pray that I was able to give him the right remedy so that he's not horribly ill while at the hospital.  If he gets really sick, they may send him home, meaning I'll have to stay with Moira (if she needs to stay).  Right now I'm getting ahead of myself, but at the same time these are possibilities that I need to be sorting out. 

I'll let you all know what happens.  :-(

We've got the sickies

So strep did come through as I mentioned.  But now we either have two kiddos who started to have it and I didn't get it taken care of all the way, OR they have something else going on.  Lovely :-)  A lot of great stuff has been happening around here, and the illnesses reflect that.  We never have good gains in our family without sickness following within hours.  I have a lot of plans for this week, and I can only pray that this sickness leaves quickly. So far I was able to find the proper remedy for the others so they were feeling fine within hours.  I'm having a harder time finding the right one for Flannery and Saoirse who are the current sick ones.  I just need to have the time to sit and read over my resources. 

I was able to get the boys' room done this past weekend.  Now only 8 rooms left to go!!!  Thankfully I've already done a decluttering a couple of years ago.  So this time around is proving much easier.  It just seems that when ever the baby goes to sleep it's meal time around here and I am spending that free time cooking!  But I am determined!  So this week is purge week and next week the oldest three girls have their year end testing.  After that we will be starting our new homemade 'curriculum'.  We'll only have another three weeks of speech therapy as well, which will help us to get on the ball.  I'm looking forward to it.  Come next year, speech will be only five minutes away!!!  Woo Hoo!! 

funny how that works

So yesterday was a 'Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day'.  Yes, it was.  Very unpleasant.  Thank goodness I had enough sense to NOT come here and start typing.  And its not that any one thing happened.  It was an accumulation of sorts.  Lots to do with finances, sickness, and attitudes (mine included!).  I awoke this morning feeling better, but still unsettled.  I read my email.  Funny thing was that there was a message that I saw a few days ago that I really didn't feel like reading.  It is from a woman who sends out encouraging emails.  I've always enjoyed them, but for some reason didn't read it when it came in.  Imagine my surprise when I finally read it a few minutes ago and it happened to speak directly to my situation.  Funny how that happens :-)  I'm not all better, but I might be if I really meditate on her words, which will take me to His Word.  I'm just thankful for that small glimmer of light.  Yesterday I was in a very big, black hole.  I hate that place!!! 

Moira continues to do well, and it looks as if Isabella may be on the up and up.  The first remedy we tried did not seem to work.  It was after hours when she started to feel worse, so I took it upon myself to look up a remedy.  Not sure if I have the right one, but there seems to be a turn in the right direction.  Not as much pain or swelling.  I'm supposed to keep her on this remedy for a bit to see how she does and call back if no improvement.  So far no one else has a sore throat, but that may change in a few days if they picked it up from Isabella.  The baby did wake up with a goopy eye.  He seems to be doing ok otherwise.  I really need to take a picture of him.  He seems to have had a growth spurt or something.  He looks huge!!!  He was really fussy last night due to me eating dairy for my Mother's Day dinner, so I was trying to calm him down by rocking him in the rocking chair.  His head was up on my shoulder, and he was stretching himself out and had his feet in my lap!!  For some reason he seems to have grown by a few inches over night. 

I'm thankful for a day off of speech, which was unexpected.  I have a ton of stuff to do, and all the normal everyday stuff already takes up all my time.  The girls and I sat down the other day to go through a plan for change.  Everyone is getting tired of 'cleaning all day'.  Granted some of that is because they are being lazy and not just doing the work when it is time to do it.  But lately the rooms have been getting exceedingly messy within a short amount of time.  I've had the girls clean up and an hour later you wouldn't even know!  So we figured out how many outfits everyone should have, decided on moving some things around to make it easier for cleaning, etc.  I plan on moving most of the books out of the family room from one of the book shelves.  For some reason the boys seem to really love pulling the books off this one book shelf.  I plan on bagging up a LOT of stuff to put upstairs to get it out of our way.  I hate, hate, hate the clutter.  It am starting to feel that I don't live in a house, but a storage facility.  And because I dont' have a lot of time, as all the regular daily duties (with sick or hurting children) are taking up all my time, so I will just be shoving things into bags.  That means at some point we will have to go through the bags to sort things out to see if we still want to keep any of it, but I'm ok with that.  I need this stuff out of here!  I'd take before and after pictures, but the before pictures would be too embarrassing.

Off to go put dinner together, hoping to make it an easier evening.  That just means as I am about to start to bag things up the baby will be waking up.  Then when it gets to be evening, and I am thankful that I started dinner this morning, I will think about jumping on top of this mess, only to find out I'm exhausted.  That's how it's been this past month.  I can't get ahead.  Very annoying.  Someday, someday.

OY

Ah, life just seems to be throwing us one curve ball after another.  Although I am completely and totally HAPPY they are small curve balls :-)  Moira is doing fine.  She goes in Wednesday to get her cast on.  She hasn't taken any pain reliever today and seems totally fine!  That's good. 

We had a wonderful Mother's Day, spent with Jeremiah's mom.  We went out to dinner.  Isabella started feeling yucky a bit earlier and it appears that she has contracted the dreaded strep throat.  She is on a remedy right now and we will see how that helps her.  Yes, homeopathy can take care of strep throat :-) 

So the other day I started to download the pictures that were on my camera from the weekend.  I think there were 162 of them if I remember.  However, half way through Jonah was standing close by, tripped on a toy and reached out to catch himself.  He knocked my camera to the floor.  The camera in general is fine, but the USB connection was broken on the camera side.  So it looks like the cheap fix will be to buy a card reader (for ten bucks) as apposed to having the USB connection fixed ($250).  As Jeremiah was searching for a solution he came across the new Canon 70D camera.  Um, let's just say I'm jealous, and trying not to be covetous :-)  It is about the same price as my camera, but with a lot more going for it, like a flip out LCD display AND video recording capability!!!  Drool.  Hee, hee.  So it looks like no pictures to be put up for a while, until we can get a card reader. 

We have a busy few weeks.  The normal stuff like speech and art classes, and Bible study.  Plus the girls' portfolio night, cast put on, meet up with the new speech therapy team and a couple of other things.  I need to take a deep breath.  I wrote it all down, lest I forget.  Hopefully the calender doesn't get lost!   Then I'd be in trouble.  Must be off.  Jonah came up to me diaperless saying he has poo-poos :-0

Again???

So here's another quiz for you all.  Don't scroll down to see the answer until you've made a guess first.....no cheating!

What is this a picture of?:

The above is a part of below:

That my friends is a picture of a broken wrist.  Does anyone want to start guessing whose wrist?  Go ahead, guess......

















It's Moira's!!!!!!  Yes, MOIRA'S!!!!!  We have made a few possible conclusions to all of this.  Moira has either missed visiting ER's, she was hoping to visit all the different hospitals in the area to get a souviner from each gift shop, OR she is trying to match her Build-A-Bear (She got that while she was in the hosptial for her appendectomy.  The bear has it's arm in a sling, a cast on his leg and comes a crutch.).  Either way, we think she needs to stop visiting hospitals :-)

So what happened?  Well were hanging out with our church's small group at a local park.  The kids and some of the adults decided to play a game, similar to Marco Polo, just out of water.  One of the adults jumped back, trying to keep out of the reach of the person who was "It", and knocked Moira over, who happened to be standing behind them.  She fell back and tried to break her fall with her left hand.  Which resulted in the above break.  I didn't see the actual fall, but did see Jeremiah and the other person 'tending' to Moira who was lying on the ground.  I thought, "oh, no, Moira got hurt, poor thing."  Then I saw that she had her left hand on her tummy, and my first thought was, "OH, NO!  Something happened to her abdomen!"  I quickly tried to think if we had somehow not given her enough time to heal.....Then I heard Moira crying out, "OWWWW, my wrist, my wrist!!!"  So my next thought was, "Oh, Lord, why her?"  We examined, ever so tenderly, her wrist, and while doing so (all of a minute or two) her wrist started to swell right before our eyes.  But I knew with the way she was crying that it was either broken, or popped out of joint.  So we loaded everyone in the van and took her to the closest ER.  Jeremiah stayed with her and I took the rest of the crew home.  It's only a 25 minute drive, but we did make a 15 minute stop at Walmart for a snack and to nurse a very fussy baby.  Not 30 seconds from walking in the door Jeremiah was calling to say it was x-rayed and they were waiting for it to be put in a splint. About 25 minutes later he called to say come get them!!  Wow!  So I headed back out to pick them up.  Thankfully by that time the Advil we had given to her just moments after the accident, had kicked in. So she was a happy camper. 

Well the baby is not happy, so off I must go.