I've been having a hard time with my breathing thing. I feel like I've been trying to read more and take out as many nonessential things from my life, but I keep holding my breath and reacting to slightly stressful situations with bigger responses than I should. It's so frustrating because it's a problem I'm causing and I have no idea how to fix it. Then this week my tingling hands are back and it wakes me up at night and then I find that I'm holding my breath and that combination keeps me up for hours. So this week has been hard. Today is fast Sunday because of conference next week. I fasted about this issue and I've been trying to brainstorm any possible ideas that can help me. Over the last two days the scripture came to my mind "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." I looked up the reference last night and thought it would be a good thing to keep in mind as I try to work on this. Then today Rachel and I watched the Women's Conference broadcast because we couldn't last night. They had a video on there with a woman who was talking about her trials with not having kids and things not working out how she thought they would and she shared Phillipians 4:13 and said how much comfort it gave her. I felt so loved and watched over when I heard that. I don't remember ever paying particular attention to that verse in the past. But I know the Spirit whispered it to me yesterday in preparation for watching this broadcast. I know that the Lord is aware of me and wanted to comfort me even though this trial is probably not over. What a blessing that is to know I'm loved and important enough to let me know in such a special way.
My hands have been tingling again. They were doing so much better. There was just a slight tingling, but not enough to wake me up. But I talked to a friend who had a similar thing and she said hers was some kind of nutritional imbalance. And since I've been changing our diets with less meat and more grains and beans I was a little worried that something new was causing the issue. So I went to see her doctor. But he didn't think it was anything like that. He thought my ribs were out of alignment and the muscle tension is pinching the nerves. It sounded kind of like my SI rotation thing so I let him adjust my ribs even though I really hate chiropractic adjustments. He said I'd need to come back at least 4-5 times to get my ribs to stay in the correct alignment, but after going once it made my tingling come back a lot. So I don't know if he was right and I should have stuck with it to fix it or if it caused more problems. I didn't go back. I'm trying to decide if I want to go talk to my home teacher who is a chiropractor and get his opinion or just wait and see if it gets better. It's so frustrating. I think I'm going to try to swim at least once a week though. My back seems to be weak and that is good for it.
I took Seth to an allergy specialist this week. They did the skin test on his back. He responded to pretty much all weeds, trees and grasses and animals. Thankfully, though, he doesn't have any food allergies. They prescribed an extra nasal spray to help dry out his sinuses. Hopefully that will really help his hearing.
I met with Seth's teacher. Seth is below grade level in reading. We talked about things we can do to help him. He's not confident in his ability to read and doesn't like to try hard things. So it's been really hard to get him to practice. He's liking his class this year and has been a little more interested. I bought him a set of really easy Ninja Turtle books and that has motivated him quite a bit. And I've hired Rachel as his tutor. She is going to work with him 30 minutes a day on sight words and homework and other practice. She bought some candy to help motivate him. I think it's going to be good for both of them.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Sunday, September 20, 2015
September 20, 2015
School is going well. We're in the routine of drop offs and pick ups. The kids are liking their classes. Ruby is loving preschool. Danny has done especially well with the transfer to the new school. A lot of guys he knew moved over and he's a pretty outgoing guy at school. Rachel has found some good friends and says she has a huge group of friends she eats lunch with and a few closer friends in that group. Seth and Aaron are doing great in their classes.
We got a dog again. It was a Shih Tzu. He was a nice little dog. I was so happy he didn't shed. I was ready to commit to this dog and the kids just adored him, especially Ruby and Aaron. A couple days after we got him, I thought Seth got a cold. It was such a strong reaction it didn't even occur to me that it was allergies. But about 2 weeks later I was talking to him after school and realized he couldn't hear me well. He was 5 feet away and if I talked in a calm voice, he couldn't hear me, while Aaron could hear it across the room. So we took him to the pediatrician. She did a blood allergy test and confirmed he has dog and cat allergies and lots of other allergies. She put him on a lot of medicines and we go see an allergy specialist this week. His ears are getting a little better, but he still has a hard time hearing. We sold the dog.
We went to San Diego for Kristal's wedding last weekend. We decided to get up early on Thursday morning and go to Legoland while we were down there. Seth and Ruby have really been getting into legos so everyone wanted them to be able to go. Unfortunately San Diego was having a heat wave that weekend. We got out of the car and it was immediately hot and humid. We all sweat all day. But we didn't have to wait in line for anything so that pretty much made up for it. We also got tickets to go to the Aquarium next to Legoland. We had a great day. That night we went to the house my parents' rented. It was really nice, but had no air conditioner. :( We had Kristal's bridal shower that night.
Friday we went to the beach for most of the day. The water and air were so warm. That made it really fun.
Saturday Danny, Rachel, Dustin and Sheila watched all the little kids on the temple grounds while we went to the sealing. Then we took pictures. Then we went home and swam in the pool before going back to the reception. She had it at Mission Bay right by the water and there was a taco truck and churro cart. It was a fun party. That night and inside the temple were the only not-hot times the whole weekend. We went to sacrament meeting the next morning and their AC was broken too. We were all ready to go back to Las Vegas and air conditioning by the end of the weekend.
Aaron has still been having a hard time. His tantrums aren't so bad, but now he quits everything and blows it up just to make it worse. Like if he doesn't play well at basketball with Danny, he quits and says he's horrible and he's never going to play again, etc. Or I've been really working on eating healthier and Aaron isn't adjusting well to that. So at dinner, he'll be so rude about my cooking or he just won't take a lunch or eat breakfast some days. One day he had a tantrum over Saturday jobs. He'd been crying in his room for a while. And then after a little bit, Rachel came and told me she saw Aaron google how to easily kill yourself. He apologized a ton, but it was still scary. So I went to see Valerie. She said a quote that explains him so well lately: "He who cares the least, has the most power". Aaron's been using that in so many ways. Valerie had a lot of helpful things to say. She talked about him having age appropriate behavior and if he doesn't then he loses the things he cares about. That's helped. She thinks his main issue is that he has too high of expectations of himself and things around him. She suggested he see a therapist she works with who works with kids. We saw him this week. His name is Jeremy. He is going to be awesome. He talked about most of the times we act out it's because we don't feel good enough. He said Satan is picking on Aaron because he's a threat to him. And Aaron needs to go into warrior mode instead of being on the defensive. He gave him a list of things to do every day for the acronym Man Power. M-minister or serve, A-action and accountability, N-no tantrums!, P-prayer 2 times a day, W-write a letter to God, R-read scriptures or friend. We're going to keep seeing him weekly for a while and see how it goes.
I've been working on following the Word of Wisdom still. I've cut down on meat a ton. We have it maybe once a week, and that's mostly because I still have a bunch in my freezer. We're doing a lot more grains and beans and nuts. I try to add more vegetables to all my dinners. I thought a lot about milk, yogurt, cheese and eggs. We all really enjoy those. I prayed about it and decided that we'll try not to just eat those to eat them, but use them to enhance fruits and vegetables. Cheese makes so many things taste better, but I won't buy cheese sticks or make cheese nachos. I buy plain yogurt already, but we'll try to eat it mostly with fruit or granola or in smoothies. The kids miss a lot of the processed snack foods we used to have. I buy trail mix or nuts for snacks and I try to make whole grain muffins or breads to use for snacks too. I feel healthier and happier with my body eating this way. The kids are mostly adjusting pretty well. Aaron is trying to hold out, but he's doing better.
We got a dog again. It was a Shih Tzu. He was a nice little dog. I was so happy he didn't shed. I was ready to commit to this dog and the kids just adored him, especially Ruby and Aaron. A couple days after we got him, I thought Seth got a cold. It was such a strong reaction it didn't even occur to me that it was allergies. But about 2 weeks later I was talking to him after school and realized he couldn't hear me well. He was 5 feet away and if I talked in a calm voice, he couldn't hear me, while Aaron could hear it across the room. So we took him to the pediatrician. She did a blood allergy test and confirmed he has dog and cat allergies and lots of other allergies. She put him on a lot of medicines and we go see an allergy specialist this week. His ears are getting a little better, but he still has a hard time hearing. We sold the dog.
We went to San Diego for Kristal's wedding last weekend. We decided to get up early on Thursday morning and go to Legoland while we were down there. Seth and Ruby have really been getting into legos so everyone wanted them to be able to go. Unfortunately San Diego was having a heat wave that weekend. We got out of the car and it was immediately hot and humid. We all sweat all day. But we didn't have to wait in line for anything so that pretty much made up for it. We also got tickets to go to the Aquarium next to Legoland. We had a great day. That night we went to the house my parents' rented. It was really nice, but had no air conditioner. :( We had Kristal's bridal shower that night.
Friday we went to the beach for most of the day. The water and air were so warm. That made it really fun.
Saturday Danny, Rachel, Dustin and Sheila watched all the little kids on the temple grounds while we went to the sealing. Then we took pictures. Then we went home and swam in the pool before going back to the reception. She had it at Mission Bay right by the water and there was a taco truck and churro cart. It was a fun party. That night and inside the temple were the only not-hot times the whole weekend. We went to sacrament meeting the next morning and their AC was broken too. We were all ready to go back to Las Vegas and air conditioning by the end of the weekend.
Aaron has still been having a hard time. His tantrums aren't so bad, but now he quits everything and blows it up just to make it worse. Like if he doesn't play well at basketball with Danny, he quits and says he's horrible and he's never going to play again, etc. Or I've been really working on eating healthier and Aaron isn't adjusting well to that. So at dinner, he'll be so rude about my cooking or he just won't take a lunch or eat breakfast some days. One day he had a tantrum over Saturday jobs. He'd been crying in his room for a while. And then after a little bit, Rachel came and told me she saw Aaron google how to easily kill yourself. He apologized a ton, but it was still scary. So I went to see Valerie. She said a quote that explains him so well lately: "He who cares the least, has the most power". Aaron's been using that in so many ways. Valerie had a lot of helpful things to say. She talked about him having age appropriate behavior and if he doesn't then he loses the things he cares about. That's helped. She thinks his main issue is that he has too high of expectations of himself and things around him. She suggested he see a therapist she works with who works with kids. We saw him this week. His name is Jeremy. He is going to be awesome. He talked about most of the times we act out it's because we don't feel good enough. He said Satan is picking on Aaron because he's a threat to him. And Aaron needs to go into warrior mode instead of being on the defensive. He gave him a list of things to do every day for the acronym Man Power. M-minister or serve, A-action and accountability, N-no tantrums!, P-prayer 2 times a day, W-write a letter to God, R-read scriptures or friend. We're going to keep seeing him weekly for a while and see how it goes.
I've been working on following the Word of Wisdom still. I've cut down on meat a ton. We have it maybe once a week, and that's mostly because I still have a bunch in my freezer. We're doing a lot more grains and beans and nuts. I try to add more vegetables to all my dinners. I thought a lot about milk, yogurt, cheese and eggs. We all really enjoy those. I prayed about it and decided that we'll try not to just eat those to eat them, but use them to enhance fruits and vegetables. Cheese makes so many things taste better, but I won't buy cheese sticks or make cheese nachos. I buy plain yogurt already, but we'll try to eat it mostly with fruit or granola or in smoothies. The kids miss a lot of the processed snack foods we used to have. I buy trail mix or nuts for snacks and I try to make whole grain muffins or breads to use for snacks too. I feel healthier and happier with my body eating this way. The kids are mostly adjusting pretty well. Aaron is trying to hold out, but he's doing better.
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