Back to school!

We officially started back to school on Monday September 8. It has been going well, but I'm not finding as much time to get caught up on my blog! I have several things to get blogged about. Unfortunately, I don't have time just yet. The kids had auditions for the Christmas play last week. Joshua got one of the main parts and Joseph got a speaking part too. Since this is Christalin's first year, she will be in the choir. All four kids are going to be in the adult "Christmas Madrigal" play we're putting on this Christmas. I will be in this one as well. I tried to talk Mike in to being a juggler, but he has so much on his plate right now, he decided not to. It will be fun to have all the kids and I in a play together. I haven't been in a play with the kids since "Cheaper by the Dozen" when Josiah was 8. I'm looking forward to it! It will be a renaissance play with jugglers, singers, kings and queens and a "boars head" dinner to boot! Our extra time has now been gobbled up with play practices! The kids are also in the worship team, of which Mike and I help co-lead. Then of course there is Scouts. We dropped karate right now, since Josiah and Christalin are not feeling that well. They need as much rest as they can get. Hopefully we will re-join karate after the new year. So, life is busy! Enjoy every moment!

I lost my temper in public last night!

We went to our country fair yesterday. Since the kids have Cystic Fibrosis, they get tired very quickly. A day at the fair is a long twelve hour affair, so we always bring their wheelchairs.

We had stopped in one of the buildings to eat our dinner. I was going around the corner to put something in the trash, and my son was following behind me in the wheelchair. This lady who works at the fair laid into my son telling him he shouldn't be playing on a wheelchair when he didn't need it! I was standing right behind her when she said it and I stepped in front of my son and her and said, "Excuse me, you have no right to tell my son whether he should or should not be in a wheelchair."

She stomped off yelling, "It is my duty by the State of Washington to report incidents like this!" She then went off into the restroom.

I was standing there with my mouth open and my insides starting to boil. I shook my head and was going back to the rest of my family when she comes out of the bathroom and yells at me, "You should be thankful that I am here and I said something!"

Ok, mama bear mode came to the top. I went to her and said, "Excuse me, but it is none of your business whether my son needs a wheelchair or not."

She said, "I work with handicapped children, and he is obviously not handicapped!"

I lost it. I said, "How dare you tell me that my child shouldn't be in a wheelchair. All diseases are not visible to the eye! My children are dying from Cystic Fibrosis. Don't you tell me that just because their limbs are not deformed that they don't need a wheel chair! Who is your supervisor? I would like to speak to them!"

She said, "I don't have a supervisor. I'm out of here."

At this point, I walked away. I was soooo hot! Furious! How dare she? DD had to use the restroom, so she and I took a long walk to another restroom far away.

In the meantime, my dh tracked down the ladies supervisor and had a word with her. The supervisor agreed that it was inappropriate behavior. She would make sure she got "sensitivity" training.


Some people!
Grrrrr.....

A funny thing happened the other day...

When we rowed (a term from the curriculum we use- Five in a Row. It means we studied this book.) Albert, I had the kids each make an egg out of model magic. They colored it to match the eggs in the nest on the back cover. We had found a real nest and put the four eggs in along with a broken Robin's egg. We set them on the table on the porch with our Nature stuff. (We have a collection of molded deer tracks, feathers, shells, etc. that we display on the porch.)

Anyway, I went out on the porch one morning and I found one of the eggs on the ground. Curious, I went to the nest and only found the real broken Robin's egg left! It took about two weeks to find all four eggs. Each of the eggs had bite marks in them. I found them in various places all over the yard. They were so realistic, the raccoon thought they were real!! The raccoon must have left the eggs when he gave up trying to eat them! Too funny. All the eggs are back in the nest complete with the teeth holes. The raccoon hasn't tried to eat them again!

Happy Birthday Mikee!

 
We have a family tradition of going to daddy's work on his birthday and bringing icecream and cake for everyone. It started years ago when he would have to work from 10-7. Then we've just continued the tradition. We usually try and buy a balloon too. It's a fun time for the kids and they get to see where their dad works, and Mike gets to show off his family!

National Invisible Illness Awareness Week....

One of my FIAR friends told me that this week is National Invisible Illness Awareness Week. So to honor it, I have been asked to talk about my invisible illness. What is an Invisible Illness? Well it is any illness that you cannot detect by just looking at a person. I have four, possibly five invisible illnesses. I have Fibromyalgia, Multiple Heredity Exotosis, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Mushroom Workers Lung and possibly Sleep Apnea. Wow! That's a whole shopping list! Please? May I have some more? - Not!

I deal with pain every day. I take 800 milligrams of ibuprofen throughout the day. That sometimes takes the edge off. Some days are better than others. I haven't really figured out why. Sometimes if I work especially hard, or I am lacking sleep, I'll run into a "crash". Basically I am so tired and sore it is hard to get out of bed. Here is the definition of Fybromyalgia: A common syndrome of chronic widespread soft-tissue pain accompanied by weakness, fatigue, and sleep disturbances; the cause is unknown.

I try to avoid crashes, but getting enough sleep is a problem for me. My dh thinks I have Sleep Apnea. He says I tend to stop breathing all through the night. When I wake up in the morning, I never feel refreshed. I am always exhausted. I have even scheduled a nap time in the afternoon to try and make it through the day. Here is the definition of Sleep Apnea: Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep. People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times.

Besides not sleeping well, I will sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with the contents of my stomach coming out my nose! (Sorry, too much information, I know.) That actually happened last night. Not a pleasant thing to wake up to, that's for sure. That is thanks to GERD. I went on WEB.MD and here are the symptoms they list:
* A burning feeling in the chest just behind the breastbone that occurs after eating and lasts a few minutes to several hours.
* Chest pain, especially after bending over, lying down, or eating.
* Burning in the throat -- or hot, sour, acidic, or salty-tasting fluid at the back of the throat.
* Difficulty swallowing.
* Feeling of food "sticking" in the middle of the chest or throat.
I pop Tums all the time.

The Multiple Heredity Exotosis (MHE) is a bone disease. Basically I have extra bones everywhere. They usually don't affect me too bad, unless they get bumped. Then they are excruciating. I do have one in my hip that is giving me troubles. That is part of the reason I pop ibuprofen all day long. The muscle in my left leg at the hip is attached to a bone growth. If I move a certain way the muscle flips over the bone and it is very painful. It hurts to lean down and pick anything off the ground, or do gardening or stuff like that. I did see the doctor regarding this, but they told me that once they take the bone out they will not be able to reattach the muscle, so I would lose the lift of my leg. I'm not quite ready for that.

The Mushroom Worker's Lung treats itself as asthma. It is kind of like coal miners lung. I got this very rare disease when I worked for a mushroom farm as their accountant years ago. Now I'm on medicines for the rest of my life, and I can't go near mushroom farms and I can't be around unwashed mushrooms. If I hadn't been diagnosed twenty years ago when I worked at the farm, I wouldn't be here today. The doctor told me I had to quit my job immediately as the mushroom spores were eating away at my lungs and killing me. So I quit my job, and have been dealing with the lung disease ever since.

So, that is my shopping basket of stuff. I don't usually talk about it. I don't really want to be a whiner. The Lord is gracious and He sustains me no matter what my body is doing!