Injured Lydia

At the very end of our skating party on Thursday, Sarah wandered off into a restricted area (barred off by a rope) and Lydia went after her.  When Lydia shooed Sarah out, and tried to come out herself, one skate was caught on the rope and Lydia fell awkwardly on her right arm.  She said it felt "numb" when she got up and it took her awhile to get up.  Uh oh.

But honestly, I was pretty mellow about it.  Our kids have fallen many times and usually are fine after a few hours.  We came home and Lydia put ice on her arm and took it easily for the rest of the day.  I knew we might need to visit the doctor, but she was doing Ok so long as she didn't move it much, so there didn't seem much urgency.

  Yesterday morning, I checked Lydia at 8 a.m. and she said her arm didn't feel any better.  Uh oh.  It was hurting a lot when she moved it in certain ways.  Ok, off to the doctor we went.  The doc ordered x-rays.  Good news is that the elbow is definitely Ok.  Bad news was that there is a ton of swelling near her wrist and lower arm, to the point that there might even be a fracture in there without the x-rays revealing it.

  So for now, we are essentially continuing the same treatment.  Ibuprofin to reduce swelling.  Arm splint now, to keep the area immobilized.  Sling.  Ice.  On Tuesday, Lydia has an appointment with an orthopedic doctor at our local children's hospital.   By then, the swelling should be way down and she'll probably get more x-rays to make sure there isn't a break.

 For now, I'm thinking bad sprain, most likely.  Bad sprains CAN be bad.  I had a sprained ankle once that required a cast for 2 weeks. 

  It is, OF COURSE, her right arm.  I'm trying to figure out how to do school next week with her arm not really available.  It isn't urgent and we've only got 'til Tuesday before we'll have further information.  She may just do a lot of reading.  She can type with her left hand, but that's painfully slow.

  The other exciting truth is that with Lydia out of commission, many chores need done by Kevin, me, or Naomi.  It makes me appreciate all that our big girls do as they both do a LOT.  I keep finding things that Lydia usually does...oh right, someone has to do those things!

  I printed out a new chore chart with "Injured Lydia Edition" emblazoned in red at the top.

  Prayers are appreciated that she heals quickly and fast, and that we are wise in managing this injury.  I am thankful that our kids have "good bones" and have not had many injuries.

Random Pics from This Week

  This is a shot from yesterday evening as we got the little ones ready for bed.  Daniel still gets a bottle of formula at night, and it is a blissful time for him.  Sarah drinks her "white milk" as she calls it -- cow's milk.  You may or may not be able to tell that Sarah's eyes are a little crossed. She wears her glasses ALMOST all the time but when she doesn't, they tend to cross.  I'm so thankful for doctors and glasses!

 

 

Honestly, this blew me away. Angela wrote this.  She is not a fluent reader nor has she had much training in writing yet.  Translated, this says, "Can I have something from my bag."  The bag in question is her "candy bag".  I was so impressed that she wrote this as best she could, without any prompting from me.

 

 

We went to a homeschool skating event this afternoon.  There is one each month during the school year.  Kids loved it.  It is hard to take pictures because of lighting difficulties so this pic is the best I have and just shows the changing of the footwear.

 

 

Angela learned how to skate today.  Last year she was a creeper around the edges, but today she did great!

Baby Steps

Part of my reason for posting this pictures it that honestly, the kid is SO CUTE!

Right before I snapped the pic, he was bent over the book, carefully turning the pages.  No, we are not raising a genius and he definitely has no clue the little squiggles are letters, but it was an adorable sight.

The "Baby Steps" title has to do with little accomplishments that add up to make my life easier.  For example, I can put Daniel on the couch and...he doesn't fall off anymore.  He has figured out how to get down from the couch, AND he knows that falling on his head hurts, so I don't worry about him falling off the couch.

That does make life easier, it really does! So does his ability to drink out of a sippy cup, eat food with his hands, use a spoon (a little) and climb stairs fairly safely. 

On the debit side, he has learned to climb ladders, but NOT safely.  He is getting into more things now.  He can and will fall into the tub if I let him.  So all is not easier, but there are little accomplishments that keep him a bit safer.

And I am grateful.

Isn't he cute?

Living With Messy People

When I say messy, I mean literally messy.  We are all emotionally messy in one way or another and we have to live with that, but that's the subject of another post.

I am not a neat freak but I am fairly organized and tidy.  And like many people, I have idiosyncrasies.  One is that I REALLY like having a clean floor.

Now with 10 people in the house, many of them young, the floors get messy fast. We've got Lincoln Logs and marble toys and a big dollhouse and Tinker Toys (2 sets!) and boxes of miscellaneous toys. The building toys aren't all out, all the time, but STILL, the young ones seem to specialize in cheerfully dumping the building toy of the day on the floor.  Either that, or worse -- they cart a few Lincoln Logs into every room of the house and abandon them so that we have pieces spewed everywhere.

So much of the day, the floors have something on them. But every night, we have a mass cleanup of the main living areas.  So when the kids are in bed, the floors are mostly clean.  I get a real emotional high from mostly gleaming, CLEAR floors.  (The bedrooms are usually not amazing, except ours.  Our bedroom floor is usually clear.)

I'm reading a book on ADHD/ADD right now. I don't think anyone in our family is ADD/ADHD, but just getting into the mind of an ADHD/ADD person is truly fascinating.  I realize its a broad spectrum disorder and I'm not trying to label anyone, it is just that some ADD/ADHD people are quite messy. They like piles, they struggle to stay on task, etc.  I guess that's part of the definition (the struggling to stay on task thing.)

I also follow the blog of Nony (short for aNONYmous) :

http://www.aslobcomesclean.com/

This lady is funny and smart and creative and her blog is great.

She is WAY different from me.  I am not particularly creative, and I'm an organized engineering type.

Nony has written several ebooks and I've bought 2 of them. They aren't really for people "like me" but I still got something from them.

Maybe the biggest thing I got is...not everyone THINKS like me.

I mean, I knew that.  But it helps to get behind the eyes of this loving, sweet, hilarious mom whose house used to be close to Hoarders bad and who still struggles mightily to keep things in order.  She has more than one post where she writes what is rushing through her brain at 100 miles per hour.  It is very funny stuff but just...different.

So, not all our kids THINK like me either.  We've got at least one confirmed messy person.  We have more than one pack rat.

I get exasperated, I admit it.  Especially with the floor thing.  We have clutter on almost every surface on the house, especially the high surfaces where we can put something up away from grasping baby hands.

But the floors!  WHY would anyone want a messy floor?  How can anyone tolerate a messy floor?  How can anyone stand to step over piles day in and day out and not clean them up?

Answer...the kids don't think exactly like I do.  Light bulb moment, Laraba, light bulb moment!

It really just does not bother them like it bothers me.  And you know, some people would walk through our house and cringe at all the stuff on surfaces.  Usually the stuff is one layer deep (no piles), there is clutter.  I don't really like it, but I can handle it. I can overlook it. But piles on the floor drive me nuts.

I am doing better with being patient with other people though maybe the hardest people to be patient with are those in my house, since I have to live with them and their mess.

And I think everyone does need to learn to be orderly.  Messy floors really aren't great in the long run, and I'm working on training our children to clean things up, to put things away, to GET RID OF THINGS when they are broken or useless or there are just too many things.

But I hope I'm more understanding these days.

One last little tidbit...Kevin tells me his floor was a mess when he was growing up.  He is a tidy, engineering person too but apparently not when he was a child.  So it is something that many people "grow into" over time.

Butterfly House

Our 4th child, Joseph, loves hands on science experiments.  The last couple of weeks, we raised butterflies.

Caterpillars, thinking about becoming chrysalli (chrysalises? )

 

Hanging chrysalises

 

They've hatched!  We fed them mandarin orange slices.  There is a story THERE.  Sarah was outraged when I took some slices to the caterpillars, and indignantly strode off with the glass bowl holding the rest of them. Which she then dropped. And the bowl smashed.  Into a million pieces.  Sigh.

 

 

Releasing them...

Random Pictures

Time is a premium, so here are a few fun pictures.

Mower extraordinaire!!

There are smears on this picture because the front door isn't clean. Sorry!  Kevin is working with Isaac as Isaac learns to fire a BB gun. We are going to teach our kids to use guns, and use them SAFELY.

Lydia, Miriam, and Angela worked on an Atelier Arts project together in our sun room/art room.

He is cute.

A Ball, and a Bat, and Some Sunny Days

  The game of the week has been baseball, or some facsimile thereof.  Kevin and the 6 older kids had a rousing game of baseball, with some alternate rules, a few days ago.  It was Kevin against all the children, though he commandeered some people for his team when necessary.  The final score was 4-4, a tie.  Ties are allowed when you can make your own rules.

  Since then, the children have spent significant time outside playing games or just learning to toss a ball back and forth and catch it.  We have mitts, we have bats, we have kids, we have sunny days.  It is charming.  Kevin is taking this week off from work so he is helping them with their mechanics.  In particular, he is teaching them how to throw and catch balls to minimize how often someone is clunked in the head.  Yes, a few people have been clunked in the head with a ball, but so far with no significant injury.

  Of course, many people in our culture have their kids signed up for REAL baseball or softball, with teams and practices and coaches.  We've decided against organized sports for our children.  We have SO many children, and we find life stretching as it is.  To add lots of practices and games to our schedule would just about send us around the bend.  And the kids are having tons of fun with pick up games of baseball, in our yard, with our equipment, with their dad.  This works better for us.