The Move

So this last month or so has been crazy.  We finished the inside of the house we were building and so that meant a lot of last little details and decisions.  We moved a bunch of the stuff down a few weeks before we moved in.  It took a lot of time to clean the house and I am still cleaning things that I found I missed or they got dusty again.  I still need to mop my floors again but waiting till I have unpacked all the boxes that are needing to still be unpacked.  I have been able to do a few boxes each day in between running errands, and other mother things.  I thought that the kids would adjust well to a new house but that came with switching buses at school and that threw Addy into anxiety attacks.  She went from going to the second bus pickup at school to the first and for some reason that made her panic that she would miss the bus.  Yesterday was her first day on the new bus and she did okay I think.  The thing with her anxiety and sensory processing disorder is that when she is worried about something she continues to talk about it nonstop till after it happens.  So it has been a long week of trying to talk to her about not worrying about it and that mommy would talk to the teacher at school and we would get her where she needed to be each day.  Syd was fine with it as her best friends live next door to us and so they ride the same bus now which they are all excited about.  

I love living in a neighborhood that I can let me kids run over to the neighbors to say hi to and play outside and not have to worry about cars coming around the corner too fast or really too many cars coming around much at all.  We live in a neighborhood that is just starting to get built in and a lot of lots still for sale.  There is only 4 homes up and a few that will get started or are just getting started right now.  Brys is in love that there is tons of dirt to play in...well right now it is mud since it has been raining and snowing the last few days.  I am getting used to living in a small town, trying to get settled, and learning how to start a fire in our wood stove the best way.  It is how we heat the house for the most part we do have cove heating too so we do not freeze if the fire does go out in the middle of the night but then I get up early and start a fire in the morning to take the chill off.  I am still trying to be okay with leaving with the fire going which I am told is completely safe.  

We have been trying to do some fun things still and I have found that playdough is really fun for the kids.  They think it is fun to roll it out and cut different shapes using my cookie cutters.  We also made the goal to start doing family home evening again weekly.  Last night we had it for the first time in a long time which was very interesting on how to get the kids to sit still and listen.  I tried to do a short lesson and then a treat and thanks to pinterest I was able to find a lesson that had a story with pictures to go with it.  Already trying to plan next weeks lesson too.  I think we will do a lesson on Easter.

Here is a recipe that everyone seems to like that I got out of one of my food magazines that I get.  

Parmesan Pork Chops
4 boneless port chops
2 T of oil (I use coconut oil)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Juice of one lemon (I use about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice that I have in the fridge)
1 clove of garlic grated or chopped very fine
***preheat oven to 400 and line baking sheet with foil.  season the pork chops with salt and pepper.  heat the 1 T oil in frying pan and add the pork chops.  sear till golden brown on both sides.  transfer to the baking sheet.  combine the other ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle on top of the pork chops.  bake until cooked through.  then serve with favorite sides.

sorry I have been gone

So I have been busy with Christmas, IEP for my daughter, and then the fun winter sicknesses that are going around, and building a house.

I had all these plans to do with the kids over Christmas break.  I was going to be the fun mom and do crafts with them and everything.  That all changed when my daughter came home from school on Monday saying she didn't feel good.  Now this is my oldest who has a low immune system along with all of her other health issues and special needs.  I thought okay I sent you to school with a cold and she will be fine.  I got her home from the bus stop and took her temperature....nope not a normal cold she had a 103 degree temp.  So I hurried and called the doctor and told them that I was pretty sure it was a sinus infection going into pneumonia (which is also normal for her) and if I could bring her in the next day.  There was only one appointment left and it was with a doctor I did not know but I was desperate so I took it.  I told the 6 year old that she would have to miss the half day of school before the Christmas break because we had to take her sister in to the doctor.  The doctor checked her out but since she had no tummy aches he sent us on our way with a zpack.  I started her on it right away but she was not getting better.  So Christmas Eve ended up in us doing our tradition of watching Home Alone and having homemade pizza and then some books.  We also video chatted with my parents who are on an LDS mission so that the kids could hear my dad read the book he always reads to them on Christmas Eve....Twas the Night Before a Cajun Christmas complete with accent.  The kids went to bed early.  In my mind I was like okay we still have a 1 1/2 weeks left of break and we will do something fun.  We also were expected to get a big snow storm on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.  I thought okay after opening presents the kids can go out and play in the snow.  Plans change again.  The kids woke up kind of late on Christmas morning or later than they have in the past....7:15am to open presents.  They opened them and then my oldest laid on the couch most of the day.  By the afternoon the 6 year old had a raging fever so I called the next morning and took her into the doctor.  The doctor tested her for the flu.....yep it was positive....so change of plans again.  No going to see Grandma in Idaho and do Christmas with her that weekend since she was still contagious.  Then the next week was so cold outside here in Wyoming the kids couldn't go outside to play and they still had the fun cold that went along with the flu.  My 3 year old and I got a horrible cold and felt like crap and laid around for about 2 to 3 days.  We managed to make snowflakes out of coffee filters that we now have enough of for the next 10 years.  The kids had fun doing that activity but with us all sick that was the only project I got to do with the kids besides doing gingerbread houses the week before school got out.  Oh well next year right?  I will have it all planned and hope no one gets sick.

On New Years Eve the kids had fun watching Encino Man and eating fun foods.  The highlight of the night was going to set off fireworks into the air which are legal here.  The kids had fun watching them but we hurried and did them since it was about 5 degrees that night.  Then they went back to school.

Also in December I had a meeting with all kinds of people for 2 hours to get my oldest her IEP at school.  She did not want one but now that she is getting extra help I think she is enjoying it and enjoys going to OT and playing on the Wii there.  She also qualified for speech, OT, reading help, math help, and then psychologist once a week too.  

We are also building a house and it is coming along nicely.  They just sheetrocked and textured the walls and the shelving for the closets and mudroom are going in this week.  So we are still looking at about 6 weeks or so but we are getting excited to get into the new place and to be on the flat.  My husband's car is not working correctly well the 4 wheel drive isn't and we have put in about $800 into this car with everything.  It looks like we will be doing manual locking hubs next year but can't afford it this year so we will wait and park the car for the rest of the time we are up on the mountain unless the road thaws out sooner.  So we are grateful for having my parents truck up here to drive when needed and he will probably take my car to work most days.  

Just when I thought okay we are done with sickness my 6 year old pukes all over my new car.  She has the tummy bug that is now going around.  I was up with her for over 3 hours last night trying to get her to calm down and relax and try to sleep it off.  It was worse than having a newborn who wakes up every few hours.  She is finally keeping fluids down with I am excited about. 

I am also all of a sudden into crocheting again.  I love to crochet around baby blankets, burp rags, and wash clothes but I just finished my first ever pattern and challenge.  I finished a hat and loved it that I signed up to do a mystery afghan.  My kids decided they want homemade gifts from me next year for Christmas so I am trying to start them now.  My oldest will get this first afghan if I can figure it out.

I am hoping to do some fun activities with the kids and will try to blog about them and I will get a recipe loaded here in the next day or so.  Stay tuned.

What a week and an Easy Recipe

Have you ever felt like you failed as a mom?  Well I had one of those moments this weekend.  My oldest, Addy has Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) which is asthma of the esophagus.  If she gets something that she is allergic to it makes the throat act up (simple way the doctor explained it to me) so it can cause her to not be able to breath, cough, and other things that we have not experienced yet.  Well we went to the big city on Saturday and we had to bargain with her to behave at all the places we needed to stop that if she did we would stop and get her a milkshake which is one of her favorite treats.  So we stopped at Mcdonald’s since it was close to where we were.  Almost immediately of finishing the shake she started to cough and said her throat itched really bad inside.  Okay common signs of an attack.  I got scared since we just moved here and her doctor here has told me that he has heard of it but not way familiar with it.  So after a very hard night on Saturday of her coughing most of the night and me not getting very much sleep due to this we decided on Sunday to give her a Benadryl to see if we could counteract the reaction.  Still bad Sunday night but she wanted to go to school on Monday so we gave her some meds and sent her on her way.  I called the doctor in Utah to ask him what he thought we should do.  He told me to double her meds for 10 days and to start breathing treatments on her at least 3 times a day and if she was not better by day 8 to call him and we would need an oral steroid.  I feel horrible like I should have known but she has never reacted to a shake before.  So we started to research it.  We think we narrowed it down to one of the food dyes that they added or carmel coloring since she also had a rootbeer that day (another thing she has never reacted to) but we are wondering if too much of something made her react.  She is finally starting to sound better and we have been trying to keep up on all her meds.  Such a mommy fail moment and I still feel guilty about it. 

 

On a happy note we celebrated my youngest birthday on Saturday.  He turned 3 years old and he loved getting spoiled and keeps telling me that until his cake is gone it is still his birthday.  I told my husband that he needed to start to eat more of the cake fast.  We are starting to potty train again and I am not enjoying it.  First my baby is growing up and second he is so smart and he knows but he will do it and then tell me that he needs to be changed.  Oh so frustrating.

 

My 6 ½ year old has had a tramatic week too and so have I.  She had to get  a molar pulled the other day and I am not pleased with the new dentist.  I will be looking for a new one very quickly.  He sent me out of the room to get her tooth pulled since she started to cry and asked me for a hug while it was being done.  He said that he doesn’t put up with screaming or crying because it scares other patients.  Really?  I think she is going to cry and scream as you numb her up and then pull a tooth that is not ready to come out yet but is infected.  I was in tears when he sent me out of the room and not happy when he would not let me back to see her or be there for her. 

 

Okay so enough of my stressful week.  Here is another recipe for you to enjoy.

 

Crockpot sloppy joes

1 pound of hamburger meat

½ med onion diced

1 small green pepper seeded and diced (I leave this part out so my kids will eat it)

¾ cup ketchup

¼ cup regular bbq sauce

¼ teaspoon of garlic powder

¼ to ½ cup of brown sugar (depends on how sweet you want it)

1 teaspoon of mustard

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

**brown meat, onion, and green pepper.  Add to crockpot and then add all the other ingredients.  Stir and cook on low for 3 hours.  Serve on hamburger rolls and enjoy.

Another post and a recipe

Another post…..So last night after taking an hour or so to get my girls to bed I thought I hope they learn a lesson about goofing off for an hour when they were supposed to be in bed.  Well up here in small town Wyoming the bus comes way too early in my opinion….7:10am.  So my girls have to get up at 6am to get ready to go.  I even drive them down the hill to the bus stop and wait till the bus comes….so a nice mom I think.  Well sure enough as I woke the girls up this morning I got moans and growls on how tired they were and how the sun was still asleep and so they should be too.  I also figured that since we were coming off of a long weekend where I let them stay up late, have sleepovers out on the couch, and sleep in as long as they wanted it would be hard to get up too.  I think that it was snowing this morning and also was only 15 degrees might have had something to do with not wanting to get out of bed too.  Well I went and got in the shower and got ready like I do every morning and my girls were to get dressed while watching tv.  I kept telling them to move and get ready or they would run out of time.  Sure enough no time for breakfast and my 6 year old was not happy with me especially when I gave her some string cheese, a juice box, and a piece of toast.  She told me that she should be able to stay home and have me drive her to school after she had eaten her cold cereal.  I had to laugh and try to hide that I was laughing around her.  I finally got them on the bus and then came home where I would have loved to cuddle in a warm blanket and watch tv too but decided some cleaning needed to get done.  So now that my kitchen is clean (I still have to empty the dishwasher and fill it again) but the counters are cleaned off and things are put back where they go.  I think long weekends even take a toll on moms.  There are days after the long weekend that I feel like I can just not catch up, wonder if the kids had fun, if I did enough activities with them, and etc.  Well enough of me going on about everything….I thought that I would share a new favorite recipe that my family likes.  This is what is for dinner tonight because it is easy and we have some Thanksgiving sweet potatoes to use up too and I think this might be good with it.

Country Fried Hamburger Steaks

1 large egg

½ cup milk

¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon season salt

½ teaspoon of pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 pound ground beef

Gravy

3 T seasoned flour

3 T oil

1 cup milk

(I normally double the gravy)

***In a shallow dish beat together egg and ½ cup milk and set aside.  In another shallow pan mix together ¾ cup flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Shape ground beef into three equal sized oval “steaks”and flatten into ¼ inch thickness.  Add each steak one at a time to egg mixture, coating both sides well.  Then add each steak to the seasoned flour making sure to coat both sides well.  Heat oil over medium heat in skillet large enough to hold all the steaks.  Cook until till done and golden on both sides.  Remove steaks and keep them warm….to make gravy drain all but 3 T. oil (I normally don’t have too much oil in the pan when I fry them so I have to add a little oil most of the time) add flour and stir into oil until a paste like texture is reached.  Then add the milk and stir till thickness is reached ( I sometimes have to add a little extra flour) then taste the gravy and pour over steaks.

It is an easy recipe and normally stuff I have on hand.  I normally make this a few times a month since it is easy and I normally don’t have to go to the grocery store for anything for it.  I normally will serve with mashed potatoes and a veggie.  Hope you have a good day and stay warm.  Still snowing here and we have already gotten 4 inches (what they said we would get) and it is still snowing.  It has warmed up to 23 degrees though and it is supposed to be in the high 30s today but I don’t think we are going to reach it.

Okay so here we go.  I tried to blog in the past and just was never good at it due to time issues.  I used to work and I have 3 kids that are 10, 6, and almost 3.  We just moved to a small town in Wyoming and I am trying to get used to being a stay at home mom again.  It has been a challenge some days and other days nice to be home.  My oldest daughter, is 10 ½ she was diagnosed at age 3 with Sensory Processing Disorder and then diagnosed with Eosinophilic esophagitis or asthma of the esophagus.  We will talk about that later.  Then she was diagnosed this last year with anxiety but mostly towards foods and new foods that she has not tried or hasn’t eaten in a while and ADD.  Some days are huge struggles for us and other days are great.  My 6 year old was just diagnosed with Selective Mutism…..okay don’t worry I had never heard of it either.  I was told when we lived in Utah that she was just extremely shy.  Well her great teacher up here called me the second week of school concerned with her.  She said she is too talkative to her friends and classmates but won’t talk to an adult and that she is failing all of her placement tests due to this.  She said that she had studied selective mutism when she was in school and thought that she might have it.  I looked it up and yep she had all of the symptoms of it.  I then called the school psychologist who evaluated her and said that she did have it but would work with her.  She is starting to talk to adults that she is not comfortable around but it is really hard on her.  It is an anxiety disorder and she has a panic attack or anxiety attack when she has to talk to adults.  Then I have my almost 3 year old little boy.  He is all boy…into trucks, trains, dirt, and anything that moves except bugs.  He is smart and I have a hard time entertaining him some days.  My husband works at a bank as an HR rep and is getting his masters online.  I stay at home and try to do some fun things with the kids and for myself.  We are also building a house which is stressful at times but fun to see the progress and picking out colors and all that stuff is fun. 

 

I decided to start to write a blog after I saw the movie Mom’s Night Out.  I just feel like some other moms need ideas too with recipes, crafts to do with kids or yourself, and then a place to vent about the day or what has worked that day.  I hope you enjoy it and I hope to write in it at least weekly if not more.