Less than a week until Christmas

 And just like that, we are almost at the end of December. Wow.

Isaac is improving but is still sick. Like, the tail end of being sick. Kevin is still a bit off. I am mostly fine. But as usual, it has taken a long time for everyone to be healthy.

In the middle of illness and busyness, I have continued to slowly work on decluttering and organizing. These very nice cups and saucers have been hanging out in our cupboards for 25 years or so. We don't use them, so I packed them carefully in a box, with lots of tissue paper, and put them in the basement for now. We don't have lots of cupboard space so I don't want these unused cups taking space in the kitchen.

Someday our children will move out and we will want to help them so we can give them mugs and pull out our cups, or something.

So yes, a little organizing and decluttering still happening.

We are still down a car as it is taking awhile for Kevin's car to be fixed. We are still waiting on a part. It is SUCH a blessing to have multiple cars. It is weird to think how it is normal for families to have multiple cars in this day and age. 150 years ago, there were no cars. Then there were cars, but only for rich people. And then if you were middle class maybe you could afford one car.

And now we have six cars among the whole family, as Naomi and Lydia each have a car, and Isaac and Miriam have a car each, and Kevin and I each have a car.

Amazing.

Also we have four bathrooms. Crazy stuff. So blessed

Sickness

 At the very beginning of the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, there is a dramatic scene wherein the narrator talks about how Sauron and the One Ring took over Middle Earth, almost, until an army came up against them and managed to temporarily take Sauron out of action.

The sentence that comes to mind is "One by one, they fell to the power of the Ring."

We are falling, one by one, to the power of a cold.

Which is totally normal. This is life with a big family. We get sick, and it takes its sweet time working through the whole family.

Unfortunately, we can't cast the cold into the depths of Mount Doom and destroy it. We have to be PATIENT.

When I realized we had a respiratory illness flowing through the house, I prayed fervently that I wouldn't have breathing problems. When I start having asthma issues, it is often a multi week affair that ends in steroids and I really hate the whole thing.

By God's grace, I have no breathing problems! Hooray!

However, two days ago, I had a massive nosebleed that lasted more than two hours. Not sure if it had anything to do with being sick. Maybe it is just dry air. Anyway, it was kind of scary and I didn't feel great yesterday. Thankfully so far yesterday and today I have been fine, and I have been using some nasal spray and other things to get my nose happier.

Almost all the kids have been ill, with Isaac the sickest. I did test him and me for COVID and the tests were negative, so this isn't COVID, praise God!

Isaac had finals last week and he was healthy through them and then after his finals, he got pretty sick. He is a miserable puppy. Not like dangerously sick, but not feeling well at all. I remember after finals I would often be incredibly tired and sometimes I would get sick too. My body and mind were pushing really hard and then when I could relax, I was incredibly exhausted. So maybe that is it?

Anyway, it has been a kinda miserable season of illness but it isn't dangerous, just annoying.

Oh, we also have been down to one car most of the week. Kevin's car has a crack in its fuel line and the auto place we took it to is waiting on a part. Of course, two of the kids have cars of their own, but they have been using them most of the time.

It is fine. I stayed home all week and it was actually nice seeing as I wasn't feeling well and also was looking after sick kids.

Rose with the finished puzzle. She has a remarkable eye for finding the location of puzzle pieces.

I have also been a low key decluttering frenzy, organizing and throwing things out because here comes Christmas and three birthdays, with all the presents that come with it!

December

 

Kevin kindly bought me a lamp to illuminate my puzzle table. I have been working on this puzzle for awhile and am almost done. It is kind of puzzles within puzzles; a picture of a whole bunch of paintings. So much fun.

I am in the middle of a decluttering frenzy. This happens once or twice a year. This picture shows a whole bunch of our office supplies, which I spread out and then organized neatly. I threw stuff out too, of course. I really like having a neat and tidy house, but have also accepted that our house will never be really tidy with seven children roaming around. However, there is a great advantage in working on stuff and organizing it and throwing out trash and broken items. The most important thing is knowing where stuff is so we can find it when we need it.

Kevin kindly bought me a treadmill! Walking is my favorite form of exercise, and this treadmill allows me to read books or watch movies while I am exercising.  I have exercised faithfully for a couple of weeks. I haven't lost any weight, but I feel more energetic. So yeah for that!

Unfortunately, I am sick with some cold now. I tested for COVID and it was negative so hooray for that! My greatest concern is asthma. Sometimes my lungs get mad and I am a mess. I really am praying that doesn't happen this time.

Oh, I went to the doctor and my latest A1c (blood sugar test) is 6.2, same as 6 months ago. So no better or worse.

Random Photo Dump

 I had not downloaded pictures off my phone in months and just did. So here are a few random pics.

Sarah's birthday

Thanksgiving

We got snow. Silly cat hung out and stared at us instead of going into heated houses on the porch.

Moonbeam is fat.

A while ago. Rose is a daughter after my own heart. Reading while on the swing.

Kevin's birthday

Rose's fake computer

Exercising and Losing Weight

 

This is a not very good picture of me taken in a mirror, with a surprising mess in the background.

But hey, I don't take pictures of myself often so here it is.

Anyway.

I have slowly been gaining weight over the last few years and I don't like it. It obviously isn't healthy to keep gaining weight and gaining weight and gaining weight. Also, I am diabetic which is another reason to not be happy with getting heavier.

Last week I was thinking about this. The thing is, I hate being hungry. Like, really. Eating less is stressful. I have never had to go on a real diet in my entire life because I used to be effortlessly thin.

Then I thought, well, I could at least start exercising regularly. That would be good, right!

Then I thought, WHEN? I have a busy life.  Except that I often get up pretty late. So I decided I would start getting up at 8 a.m. (which is not THAT early) and exercise.  I have done so the last 6 days. I already feel more energetic which is impressive.

Regarding losing weight, nada so far. I am about the same. But I will focus on the exercise part before tackling the eating part.

Speaking of eating, I have been having lower blood sugars the last few days, and I can feel it. That is not a happy feeling. Now I am not on insulin so I am not in danger of going REALLY low, but it isn't comfortable when I drop to the mid 70s. I feel shaky and weird.

Anyway. I am paying attention to how I feel. It may be I have been running rather high for awhile, and am lower because of exercise and my body is confused. I have an appointment this week and will see what my latest A1c is. I hope not above 6.5; if so, I will be seriously annoyed with myself. for eating carelessly. Or maybe I need to add some other meds.

We will see!

Sarah

 Our seventh child turned 14 this month. Wow.

She is taller than Daniel, age 12.

She is taller than Mom, age 55! I am 5 ft 8+ inches tall and none of the older girls are taller than me. But when you throw the genetic dice enough, eventually you get a very tall daughter! I think it is fun that she is 5 ft. 10 inches tall though hope for her sake she doesn't get a lot taller. Because buying clothes is harder when you are super tall.

She is probably about done growing.

I took her to the doctor for a teen checkup and she is very light for her height and age, and actually lost a little weight last year. That isn't very good though I have had other children who were overly thin. However, after discussions, we realized Sarah just isn't eating a lot. She is the kind of person who eats a lot when she likes the food, but doesn't feel like eating when the food isn't wonderful. We discussed this and agreed she needs to start eating more. Joseph is the same way and is slowly crawling higher on the weight scale, which is a good thing. 

I was thin in my youth as well, but I always ate. I like eating. The idea of just not eating when the food is boring isn't the way I operate :-).

But yes, she is working on eating more.

She is very creative. She made this little plushie on her head with no help from me. Nada. I am very incompetent with sewing and she and a couple of the other girls are AMAZING!

I am very thankful for every one of the children. Sarah was a 'triple rainbow' baby, which means she was born after three miscarriages. I thought she would be our little caboose and then God blessed us with Daniel and then Rose!

One of the funny things around here is that because Angela and Sarah are over three years apart, I have long lumped the six older ones together and the three younger ones together, and for years I called the three younger ones "the little ones."

Now Sarah is taller than me so that doesn't work :-).

So now they are "the younger ones".

Thanksgiving is this week and I am excited and grateful for many things.

Kevin and Monkeys

 

Kevin turned 54 in the last week. I turned 55 a few weeks ago. I am just a little more than a year older than he is

I love him so much. He is very smart, and hard working, and we have a lot in common, and he loves Jesus, and me, and our kids.

Please note the jade plant behind Kevin. Usually it lives in our sun room but we have been hosting a cat who has a bad ear infection. Twice a day I get to snatch her and pour drops in her ears. She doesn't like it, but she is improving.

So the plant is indoors. Now the plant is interesting because it is alive. I kill plants.  Like, I am so bad with plants. I am great with kids, but not great with plants. So every living plant in the house is thanks to Kevin. He does a good job.

So yeah, great husband and father and editor and grower of jade plants.

Why did I mention monkeys? Why, because about a week ago, more than 40 monkeys escaped their enclosure in Yemassee, South Carolina. MORE THAN FORTY!

Crazy stuff! They have managed to capture most of them but apparently there are still 13 on the lam.

It just makes me feel kind of, I don't know, happy, to think of monkeys leaping on trees and fences and generally causing chaos, so long as no one gets hurt, of course. It is funny. So far, the captured monkeys have all been well. Now realistically, the sooner they are captured the better, but there is this certain joy in thinking about them carrying on and leading their caretakers a merry dance.