Ethan Funny

Yesterday Jim’s mom was over for dinner. We put Ethan in between her chair and mine. He kept banging on the wood of the chair, even after several requests to stop. I asked him to leave the table. He did so, but had a tantrum. At that point I excused him to his room. On the way through the living room he bumped his booster seat with his foot. He stopped, picked it up and yelled at the top of his lungs “AND NOW I’LL THROW MY BOOSTER SEAT!”  And then he followed through. We were shocked, but laughing hysterically (but trying oh so much to be quiet about it) because he was so adamant!

The Past

I was getting out summer clothes from their tucked-away place in our closet when I found a box full of journals. Oh, ok, DIARIES. Yes, I have kept a diary since I was in 5th grade. Many went into the trash, but I still have some. I dug them out and sat down and was transported to The Past.

It was a mess.

The earliest one was from 1992, which was pre-knowledge-of-my-addiction. And pre-recovery.

I was a mess. Completely clueless, although there was a very interesting entry December of 93 where I had an inkling that there might have been an addiction issue . But then I just went to bed. I clearly wasn’t willing to deal with it yet. (I didn’t admit it fully until July 94)The diaries were full of my back and forth, off and on, ups and downs with Jim. I have to say, it was very weird to read them from the perspective of being married to this man for almost 15 good years.

Hey! This weekend marks two anniversaries: 10 years ago we moved into our current home and 15 years ago Jim asked me to marry him (the 2nd and final time). I’m extremely grateful that the person I was back in 1992 went through all that recovery and became the woman I am today. Because I cannot imagine trying to exist while still being that person. I didn’t like her very much. And no way would she have been able to marry Jim and make said marriage work.

Recovery Rocks!

7 Quick Takes Friday

It’s the 28th of May. How in the WORLD did THAT HAPPEN??

1. Today was Achievement Day at Overbrook School for the Blind. Ethan got a certificate for strides in eating better. As always, I am in awe at how amazing that school is. We are so very blessed to have Ethan attend there.

2. Jim has been working insane amounts of hours for the past two weeks.  He leaves normal time and gets home around 10:30 at night, gets up and does the same thing. Thank goodness it’s a three day weekend!

3. A lot of things are going on with our church right now. May I remind you that I HATE change? More on this at a later date when things are more firm.

4. Ethan’s visit to Hershey this past Tuesday resulted in a request for 2 weeks of “day treatment”, whereby he is there from 8:30-4:30 M-F, working all day on his chewing. The letter of medical necessity went out today from the pediatrician’s office. I’m really hoping that they just approve it without any need for arguing on my part, but I don’t know that I have any faith that it may actually come true.

5. We have a new rule in our home for Catie. If she doesn’t obey–THE FIRST TIME–and we have to tell her something a second time, she spends an hour in her room for each infraction. We’ll see if it helps. See #4′s last sentence for my positiveness that it will work.

6. The engineer approved our drawings, so they are now at the township zoning guy’s, to see if he approves them. Our contractor is hoping to break ground by the end of next week. We were supposed to start this in early April, so I’m not really holding my breath!

7. In honor of Memorial Day, here is a video.

Learning Style

I am not an auditory learner. You can talk to me all you want, but if I can see or do it, it’s not going to stick. Hence the inadvisability of giving me oral directions to a place. I will remember maybe step 1 and 2. After that, fuggetaboutit.

Verizon was here this morning installing FIOS TV (we already had phone and internet). The guy just explained the remote. I will spend the rest of the afternoon figuring out the menus and everything on my own because it was all just said to me.

Hershey Funny

Ethan was at the Hershey feeding clinic yesterday, showing Dr. Williams what he had done in the past five weeks (baby chewing, but that’s it). Dr. Williams tried to have him chew some pancake pieces. Ethan would put them in his mouth and promptly swallow them whole.

Dr. Williams “Buddy, don’t swallow them whole.”

Ethan “Can I swallow them half?”

Monday Hither and Yon

Today my plan…PLAN….was to go grocery shopping and do a load of laundry and switch clothes around from winter to summer.

Plan. That would be the important word, because it can and will change quickly.

Reality: Finishing up grocery list and cutting up coupons, I hear steps on our side porch. People always think the doorbell works (it doesn’t), so I have developed a sixth sense about that doorway. Hello Todd, our contractor. I completely forgot he was coming to find the pins in the corners of our yard to take pictures for the dumbo who is in charge of approving the plans for the addition. I take off my sandals, roll up my jean legs and go out in the very damp and freshly cut grass to look for the pins with him. No can find. Into the house to call hubby. Where are they? Oh, that close to the fence? Gotcha. Back outside and look again. There they are! Leave contractor to go back inside, get ready and actually go grocery shopping.

Back home a little more than a hour later. Todd is still here? Hi Todd! What’s up? He’s just making phone calls. I call my MIL and will be going over there immediately to take HER grocery shopping. Go down our rather steep driveway only to see Todd running for my van. Yes, Todd? Do I know how to get to Broomall?  Why yes, I do. Do you need a map? You do? Ok, let me back up said steep driveway and get it for you. There, you see, there’s Broomall and I’ll talk to you later, ok?

Pick up MIL, take her to store #1, back to her home to drop off perishables, take her to store #2. Rush back to her place where Todd is waiting. He’s going to quote her on some work. He’s such a nice guy!

Head home. No laundry, no switching clothes.

Plans Shmans.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.  We have hit the countdown! Now that we are under a month, it’s 16 days left of Bennett, Laura and Catie school and 20 left of Ethan’s. Then a week of pure non-fun-ness when they are all home every day getting on each other’s nerves, and then Ethan starts summer school three days per week. Some day I will not dread summer vacation, please tell me, please?

2. Next Tuesday is the 2nd trip to Hershey Feeding Clinic, where I expect to hear we’ll be coming back for two weeks in August. Ethan isn’t fighting eating, but he still isn’t good at it.

3. Our love seat is being delivered tonight and the couch is being taken. (sorry for the passive tense there!) We’re getting them recovered. We REALLY hope we like the new look–it’s rather hard to take a bolt of fabric from a store and picture it on a couch, you know?

4. I thought I was pretty good at looking at labels. Because of my insulin resistance, I’ve been reading labels for a long time now. But a few weeks ago I turned over our bread (Great Value Whole Wheat) to look at the ingredients. #2? High Fructose Corn Syrup. I put it back and picked up another brand. And another and another and another. I’m not exaggerating when I say I looked at easily a half dozen whole wheat breads until I found one that didn’t have HFCS as an ingredient. Stroehman Family Grains is our new bread. Next to go is our pre-chocolated milk. Oh, stop it! We were trying to get Laura to drink milk instead of PediaSure and this was the one thing she would drink. It never occurred to me to check for HFCS. If you are wondering at this sudden interest in getting rid of it, check out Pragmatic Compendium’s funny and informative posts about it (#6 on her list). Oh, and I just checked. Stroehman’s whole wheat bread may be HFCS free, but not their hot dog rolls. It’s the #3 ingredient.

5. In my travels today, I’m getting bloodwork done for thyroid levels. I was on 50 mcg on Levoxyl for YEARS. And then, for whatever reason, it just started to climb. And climb. Today will test whether I can stay on 100 or need to go to 125 mcg.

6. The house next door still hasn’t sold. The grass hasn’t been cut yet. It’s incredibly long and looks very disreputable. I’m sure there’s all sorts of bad things in it–mice, voles, snakes, ticks, fleas….and I’m just as sure that my kitties will love to lounge in it.

7. We’re going tomorrow to the first annual Rainbow Spring Fest at the kids’ elementary school. I’m thinking it’s sort of like a small carnival. The kids are very excited and even I will admit to looking forward to it. I love getting out as a family, especially in a place that we feel comfortable in and I can relax a little about Ethan.

Have a great weekend!

Dilled Shrimp with Angel Hair

This was YUMMY! Both Jim and I really enjoyed it (Bennett was willing to try a shrimp but was not enthused!). This was from the Kraft Food and Family (I think that’s the name) magazine that used to be free and now costs money so I don’t get it.

Dilled Shrimp with Angel Hair

6 oz uncooked angel hair pasta

6 green onions, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp butter (I used olive oil)

1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used precooked)

3 Tbls lemon juice

4 oz reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed

1/2 cup fat free half and half (I used 1% milk)

2 Tbls snipped fresh dill (I used dry and eyeballed it)

1/2 tsp salt

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray (I used a regular pan with olive oil and it worked fine), saute onions and garlic in butter for 1 minute. Stir in shrimp and lemon juice; cook 4-5 minutes longer or until shrimp turn pink. Remove and keep warm.

In the same skillet, cook and stir cream cheese and half-and-half until blended (I needed to use a whisk). Stir in dill and salt. Return shrimp mixture to the pan; heat through. Drain pasta, toss with shrimp mixture.

369 calories, 9 fat (6 saturated), 40 carbs, 2 fiber.

This tasted very creamy and very fattening, for all that it isn’t. Both Jim and I loved it.

Worship Week 3

Three Sundays ago was my normal “I lead worship once/month” time. Last week my husband had what we think was a case of food poisoning, so I was up again. Today he was paying the price for overwork and exhaustion and yet again I was up. I’ve never led worship three weeks in a row, especially including no notice two of them! Technically speaking, there were a few glitches–botched chords or lost places. Vocally things were fine. Today my normal team members were out, so it was just me and the piano. I can’t believe I’m actually musically at a place where I can do this. I think I’m even a little proud of myself–it’s been a long time coming, spiritually, musically and leadership-quality-wise. Even just general comfort level!

All that said, I REALLY hope Jim is up to it next week!

YouTube Makes Me Happy

I got this from sixyearmed. I thoroughly enjoy her blog, although she’s by no means a daily poster. She’s a doctor: a young, thoughtful, caring pediatrician who is trying to marry her faith with what she sees around her. It seems to be an uphill battle. Good for her!