by Sarah | Nov 12, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Random
Since I failed to take out my camera this week, I won’t be doing a Weekly Winners or Scavenger Hunt Sunday post this week. Instead I went into the October Prompts from the NaBloPoMo site to find a prompt to inspire me today. I found this one:
If your life flashed before your eyes, what are 5 moments you know would be included?
My immediate response was the births of my three kids and my wedding, taking me up to four moments in the matter of a heartbeat. What else would there be? What one moment stuck out to me in the realm of the birth of my children and the marriage to my wonderhubs?
Would it be the last dance I shared with my Grampa? The one at my brother’s wedding? Would it be the last heart to heart talk I had with my grandma on her front porch the year before she passed away? What about our family trips to Disney World? Our weekends at the campground? The summer that it rained every day the entire summer? Of course I could remember the days spent at the hunting lodge with my dad, uncle and cousins.
Or would it be a place that we all gathered? Where so many of my family could be found?
A 4th of July celebration at our cottage in Ontario. Where all of the family (both sides) had gathered to join the bonfire. Watch the fireworks.
I think that is the last memory that would flash for me.
Every one of the moments would be deep, profound and special. Surrounded by family. Love. Excitement and wonder.
by Sarah | Nov 9, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Kennedy, All About Molly, All of Us, Photography
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In the morning when you rise
I bless the sun, I bless the skies
I bless your lips, I bless your eyes
My blessing goes with you
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In the nighttime when you sleep
Oh I bless you while a watch I keep
As you lie in slumber deep
My blessing goes with you
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This is my prayer for you
There for you, ever true
Each, every day for you
In everything you do
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And when you come to me
And hold me close to you
I bless you
And you bless me, too
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When your weary heart is tired
If the world would leave you uninspired
When nothing more of love’s desired
My blessing goes with you
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When the storms of life are strong
When you’re wounded, when you don’t belong
When you no longer hear my song
My blessing goes with you
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This is my prayer for you
There for you, ever true
Each, every day for you
In everything you do
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And when you come to me
And hold me close to you
I bless you
And you bless me, too
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I bless you
And you bless me, too
~Celtic Woman – The Blessing
by Sarah | Nov 6, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Kennedy, All About Molly, All of Us
[flickr id=”6270891807″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]Today Angel ran up to me giddy with excitement. “Mommy! Mommy! I lost my tooth!!”
It’s the last of a first. The last child to lose her first tooth (Riley lost hers last year at this time – almost the exact same tooth).
My baby girl is growing up. She’s giving me a new stream of last of the firsts.
She’s still so little. Some days it’s easy to pretend she’s still my baby girl.
But every day I must face a little more that all my baby days are gone. I’ve just got big kids now.
All grown up and growing up faster every day.
A teenager. Two girls in elementary school.
I still don’t know how that happened.
by Sarah | Oct 6, 2011 | All About Kennedy, Cystic Fibrosis, Special Needs
[flickr id=”6217579492″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]It was inevitable when we sent her out into the great big world of public interaction and the germ festival that is school. We knew that the possibility of increased occasions of illness were going to happen.
I guess we didn’t expect it to happen this fast.
Six weeks in and as of tomorrow we’ll be at 7 days absent. It’s about a 20% absence rate.
But this recent bout of illness this week has us baffled. There’s only a low-grade fever. No respiratory issues. A loss of appetite. Although who can blame her when the second she eats more than a small amount of food it all comes back up later?
And what comes up? Well, you don’t want a physical description. Let’s just say it’s cause for concern.
So tomorrow is the first sick visit of the year to the pulmonologist. We’re at an increased amount of “shaking” (percussion vest) per day because it seems there is an excess of mucous happening somewhere. Just not in her lungs. That we can tell.
Let’s hope it’s nothing serious. And that nothing serious comes as we get closer and closer to cold & flu season.
Were crossing our fingers for no hospital visit this year.
by Sarah | Oct 5, 2011 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Home, All About Kennedy, All About Marriage, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Crap
[flickr id=”5293689107″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]Cross Country season is drawing to a close. The final (County-wide) meet is in less than a week. Coming up there is nothing but PTO meetings, Parent/Teacher Conferences and life in general.
This also means that the teen will be home before 4PM every day.
I always thought once the girls were both in school I’d go back to work. Nothing so dramatic as full-time day jobs (and definitely NOT banking again ~gag~). I figured I would return to waitressing. With the teen old enough to babysit in short spurts, I’d be able to get a job at a real restaurant with real tips since I could now actually get into work before 6PM. Maybe we could get a (slightly) steadier increased income. Maybe we could leave SSI and its unreliable, and ever decreasing, amounts behind. Become self-sufficient again. Maybe even one day live the dream of giving up Child Support (or actually putting that in savings).
Now that day is here.
Yet we hesitate.
Last year Angel ended up in the hospital for the first time ever. It was five days where our only focus was her and making sure we saw the other two kids. Last year she wasn’t even in school. Only exposed to those hundred of viruses on the periphery.
It could happen again at any time.
We are six weeks into the school year and Angel has already missed five days due to illness. That’s one week out of six. Most of them in the past three weeks.
So now we toss up in the air whether I would even be able to maintain a job or if I’d constantly have to take off for illness or hospital stays or whatever.
I know, we can’t live life hanging by that ‘what if she gets sick’ thread…but it is a fact and a factor in everything. Having to weigh the consequences of not just being away from home several evenings a week – versus the likelihood that I will have to call in at least a couple of times, maybe more.
The thought of working again only scares me peripherally. I actually like the thought of having adult interaction, even if it is only as server to customer. I worked in banking for about eight years. It sort of ripped out my soul and stomped on it and I never wanted to work again after it. But I did, and I found a job at Bob Evans (the only place that would hire me w/ the hours I could work). The tips weren’t horrendous, but they weren’t top of the line. BUT. But…I loved my job. Even when I didn’ t like my new manager, and the employee turnover brought in some people that weren’t my favorites…I loved what I did. It was fun. It was interactive. It made me happy.
There are positives, many of them, to me going back to work…
But there are so many balls up in the air I’m afraid tossing in one more would be too much. Plus, I’d really hate to get a job I love, maybe even start earning enough to lose SSI…only to lose that job because of things well beyond my control.
We can’t live in the what-if’s…
But we can’t ignore them either.
by Sarah | Aug 19, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Learning, All About Molly
[flickr id=”6060662240″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]It has begun. The 6AM mornings. The scrambling for the bus. The wondering if we put on warm enough clothes.
School.
It’s heaven.
Except for the 6AM mornings.
Wonderful.
Except that KG is only half day (not long enough).
Great.
Except the girls are strung up tight and killing each other and us.
But we’ll adjust.
Since I failed to take out my camera this week, I won’t be doing a Weekly Winners or Scavenger Hunt Sunday post this week. Instead I went into the October Prompts from the NaBloPoMo site to find a prompt to inspire me today. I found this one: