Christmas Eve Traditions Unchanged

Christmas Eve traditions in the house held strong even though the kids were given the option to allow for change this year.

Yesterday was a busy day as I prepped the Christmas Day meal so little cooking prep would be needed as today is also Sunday. This prep drove the kids crazy as the smells floating throughout the house made them very hungry for the roast lamb yesterday. Yesterday I made the pumpkin and apple pies, cut half the bread into small squares, seasoned the squared and slowly browned and dried the bread crumbs and cubed squares in the oven for stuffing today. The homemade stuffing is to allow for me to eat even a small portion of stuffing.

The leg of lamb has been sitting in the fridge marinating over night again with a gluten flour mix of spices over night ready to be slowly roasted today. The potatoes and vegetable mix again also pre-cut, mixed together, tossed with oil and spices, covered with foil and sitting in the fridge and waiting to be tossed in the oven once we get home from church today.

Then last night we watched Christmas Story a Finish based story of St Nickolas, an orphaned child who becomes the towns child, then eventually finds a permanent home and how these change each others lives and in the process St Nicholas decides to leave surprise gifts to those who have helped him at on point in this life.

After the movie the kids acted out the story of Christ's birth and the circumstances leading up to his birth as they read from Luke Chapter 2 them Mark Chapter 2. This was my highlight of the evening.

Then after this and talking about this the kids knowing we have been blessed with a secret Santa as a family we gave them the option of opening their Secret Santa gifts to each other or rest of the gifts sitting on the floor. They all shouted "our secret Santa gifts!" They just had to know the reaction of their brother or sister over what was in the gifts on the floor.

The funniest was when Frank got to Ellie's gifts to him. By this point she just could not hold back her excitement any longer. To see how she would react he tossed one of his gifts to Corbyn to open. Right away she snagged that gift and ran it Daddy telling Corbyn "that is NOT yours, that is Daddy look at the tag!" and gave it to her Daddy, "get it right and read the tags!" The next time he did that she was more than excited to help open the gift, "Look Daddy, see it is a lion, it is so cool and will be fun to paint!" LOL this was before it was even unwrapped. By his third gift he did not even pass it on as her reaction was so extreme as she was about to explode. She was laughing, giggling, jumping, screaming, shouting, "Look Daddy...it says I got your back, I got your back, I got your back!" By this point Celidah said "there she finally exploded. I was wondering how long she could hold that inside."

Getting the kids to bed last night was a challenge as they knew more was to come in the morning. They have come used to the Christmas breakfast table and the stockings. This is their favorite part of Christmas morning. The stockings have a few small gifts, snacks, and breakfast items. The table it filled with fruits then set for easy eating allowing for no cooking for breakfast.

With the house set up and the kids sleeping we are off to bed and ready for Christmas to begin.

Motivation to learn to Read…

Well Zach has found a real reason to learn to read. LOL not just read, but really read and become a good reader at that. He has decided that his younger sister just can’t be reading better and faster than he can. Talk about the inhumanity of her being able to sound out words faster than he can. So not fair that he is trying to sound out a word and she comes up behind him, looks at the word, thinks, and then blurts it out before he has a chance.

Oh goodness, want to hear two children argue? Have Chantelle come into the middle of Zachariah’s reading time and blurt out his words before he can.

“Ellie!! That was MY WORD!! Let me find my words for myself!” He shouts to her.

All dignified she simply states to him, “well you were not finding your word fast enough.”

“But, it is my homework and MY reading. I have to find and read my words.”

“Well then find them and read them faster.” She retorts back, stomping away because he has just slammed the book shut in her face.

A few minutes later I have either Zach or Ellie snuggled up to me reading a book alone away from their brother or sister, happily reading to me. Throughout the process I gently remind both kids to stop, slow down, sound out words, and think about what they are reading. Once the book is finished we talk about what they just read. Within just a few minutes the other child has joined me and the process begins again without arguing and me alone with one child.

However, I do not see reading being much of a struggle for Zach to much longer this school year as he has a real desire to catch up with his brothers and sisters and begin to read the “real books” as he calls them. He wants to read the Harry Potter, Warriors, and other books we have on the shelves or are getting from the library. 

ATEC Christmas Party

Today was the Christmas party for Frank’s new unit here in MD, and what an experience it was. First off due to an appointment that ran late I had time to change my shirt to a more Christmas-y color, and then due to the weight I have lost I no longer have any slacks that fit anymore.

Several things I learned today, do NOT wear jeans around here. The skirts I wear to church are to causal, I do have to break down and get slacks again, I will want to get or make myself a black dress for the more formal events. Depending on the dress it can be less formal, or more depending on the accessories with the dress.

The other thing I discovered is we are low ranking here. Talk about weird, going from a higher ranking NCO level to suddenly being one of the lower ranking soldier levels. I never thought I would be in a room with a General, let alone two Generals. They were mingling with everyone. I have never seen so many high ranking offers in one room and all were very friendly as well.

I had the opportunity to meet many of the people Frank is working with or will be working with. This duty assignment has the potential to provide him with some really good opportunities. 

Pulled out the microscopes we were given...

Ok so I LOVE science and have helped my kids to love science too. These microscopes used to belong to Frank's aunt a genetic scientist with UC Davis. I am SO excited to have these as part of my science collection now and can't wait till we have a chance to actually use them.

Playing with my new camera

Here are some cute pictures taken while Frank and I were playing with the new camera

Choir and band concerts

So far the younger kids have had their choir and band concerts. The first one was with the elementary school. Corbyn was the only one performing this time. He participated in the choir and seemed to have a lot of fun doing so. The kids did a great job singing. The 4^th graders for band and orchestra were definitely beginners but moving along. The 5^th graders had moved on to some challenging music for them.

The following week we attended the band concerts with the middle school where Jade participates and plays the flute. She is progressing nicely and getting more confident with her flute playing. In the 6^th grade band there were 75 students, in the concert band (7^th and 8^th graders) they had 110 students playing. The middle school really pushes and challenges the kids with the music they are learning to play.

Our next concert coming up will be Celidah’s orchestra concert. We are looking forward to seeing the differences between the elementary, middle, and high schools music programs here.

In our house music practice gets quite interesting at times with all the kids learning to play something. Zach and Ellie are working on the piano until they get a bit bigger and Ellie is also working with the xylophone. Jairon will  start with the clarinet as soon as we get a pad for the one missing pad, until then he is working with the piano for now. Corbyn has been learning to play his dad’s bassoon. Then we have Jade with the flute, and Celidah’s main focus this year is her violin.

However, our newest instrument collection piece is the cello we now have. Frank has been practicing on his bassoon as well as learning to play the cello and Jade is so excited we have a cello in the house. This has been her favorite instrument since she was in the 2^nd grade. Well she is working on teaching herself how to play the cello using YouTube videos. This child really wants to learn the cello as well.

The kids are getting better with focusing on their instrument sound when all kids are working on something. However, with each child at a different level we get some rather interesting sounds right now in the house. Yet, this is fun to watch the kids learning to play and so excited about progressing.

My follow GI apt..

Well today I saw the GI for my issues and the dr had several concerns. The biggest ones are the continued abdominal pain I am having, the nausea issues even with the 8mgs of Zofran, low food intake tolerance, and the unexplained weight loss. While in some ways I am so glad to be losing weight, this really is not the best way to go about.

The biggest concern though was the severity of the ketosis acidosis and the fact that the cause was never determined. Apparently my ketosis issues were more severe than I was originally led to believe. Yes, I knew when I was placed in the hospital in AZ in Oct it was bad and I was not doing well. However, what I did not know is just how close I really was to complete organ failure. According to the dr today had I not been admitted when I was I would have gone into organ failure for sure…

In order to help figure out what is going on I have an abdominal and pelvic ct-scan on Thursday. Then early in Jan I will be having both the endoscopy and colonoscopy redone. When they were done in AZ there were no biopsies done, just a look. I am also being tested for Celiac disease and other things. I forget the whole list. Once these tests are done if the dr is not liking the results or answers then I will have to have motility testing done. (Oh joy…) She also listed off anther list of tests that can be done to help discover the cause of my issues.

However, ultimately the main thing that may have to be done is I may have to go back on gluten for at least a month to help determine what exactly is going on. This is what I am most dreading at this point as gluten puts me in so much pain. Honestly eating solids period are not something I look forward to.

For now though I am to limit the solid food intake and focus mostly on clear liquids. However due to the ketosis issue I am to keep drinking protein shakes at least once a day, (prefer at least 16 ounces) to make sure my body is getting sufficient protein to try and prevent this from happening again. I am also to stop taking the naproxen for now and limit other pain meds. This is going to be frustrating for me as I take the naproxen to reduce joint inflammation.

Thursday I see the endocrine specialist and hopefully will have a better idea of what blood sugar levels are the “safest” for me.  Hopefully this dr too will give me ideas on how to prevent a future ketosis attack. This is essential as due to the severity of my attack in Oct, I have been told the next time will not be a nice short week stay in the hospital, but will come with major complications and consequences.