Week 3 (or is it 4?) In Quarantine

This week hasn't been too different than last week or the week before that but we're all still enjoying the time at home! Have I mentioned how much I love sleeping in every day and not having to go anywhere!? 

 Last week the kids washed rocks. This week they've been painting rocks! 



I'm so thankful that we've had such beautiful weather the last few weeks! We spend tons of time outside every day that's nice out! I know all the outdoor time is great for the kids and great for me too. Being outdoors helps my mood and outlook so much! 

I found L painting rocks in this position haha! Cracks me up how she can sit like this! She had hip dysplasia as a baby and has hyper mobility (like a lot of hip babies) so she is super flexible! 

Right before we went in for the evening we found L painting rocks again with paint everywhere! Look at all that black paint on her leg! Her expression is so funny here.. kinda like she knows she's been caught ha! 

The older girls did more chalk designs yesterday! This took like 5 brand new pieces of chalk and then they ran out and couldn't finish it..

I cleaned out part of the garage yesterday and then needed to sit down and rest. L decided she needed to rest too. Cracks me up! She wanted her little pool float behind her back and her feet up on this container ha! 

The little girls had a blast rubbing their hands in dirt yesterday.. 

they said it made their hands really soft ha! 

Can you spy C in the tree? 

The little boy across the street comes over almost every day to play with C and the girls. C loves having another boy to hang out with and our neighbor is an only child so I know he loves having other kids to play with. He is the ONLY person we have been around for weeks.. otherwise both his family and our family stays home so I feel like it's fine for him to come over and play. I'm sure all the fresh air and sunshine help kill germs too! Today the boys were up in the tree and doing something with cardboard boxes. They always have so much! J and the boys have been videoing each other a lot lately and dying to start a YouTube channel. I feel like we definitely need a great editing program (free if possible!) before they start posting all this stuff on YouTube. If anyone knows of anything please let me know! 

I found J sitting in the little kids' wagon this evening. I thought it was cute. :) 

I tried to make a face mask from an old pair of leggings a few days ago. Big fail! But L loves to wear it around the house sometimes. :) 

L has been thriving at home as I know many kids with SPD are. Being home with no changes in her routine, having her daddy and siblings home 24/7 seems to really be a great thing for her! 



She learned to take off and put on a shirt within the last week! I honestly can't remember how old the other kids were when they started doing this but it seems like L learned a bit later than they did. She came downstairs one day last week fully dressed.. I couldn't believe it! This was the first time she ever put a shirt on by herself. :) Nevermind the crazy hair and mixed matched clothing. 

I've also had her start working on preschool books several days a week. I think this is really helping her fine motor skills and helping her control her pencil better. This is the book she's working on above. This book is so cute and full of stickers and different activities! Looks like Amazon has several books in the same series as well.. and there is even a little Bible book.

I'm just amazed by the improvement she's shown in just the last week. These two drawings are both of rainbows (and the sky and people) and she drew them just a week apart. She seems to have much better control on her pencil in just this short amount of time. 

Last weekend. 

And today! Look at the difference! 

My feelings may change but right now I'm feeling more and more confident in my decision to homeschool her from kindergarten on. She's thriving with all her siblings at home 24/7 and already shown improvement with the little bit of preschool work I've been doing with her. Things are never predictable with L so all this may change but right now I'm just really excited with the huge steps she's taken since we've been in quarantine! 

She's gone down to almost no meltdowns and improved so much in skill since we've all just been staying home together. I know all the change in routine that we normally have is really hard on her. While I'm excited that she's doing so well right now I am a little concerned about how she'll adjust when everything goes back to normal. 

Besides all the outdoor time I've also gone through two huge totes of old mail and papers and have shredded bags and bags full of stuff! We thought R might enjoy playing in the shredded papers but she just jumped right back out ha! I had to hold her still for a quick pic. 

We heard today that they will start clearing lots on our side of the street where we're building! So exciting!! My husband recently bought some tools and wants to start making furniture. I decided I will have to have a built in shelf, similar to this one from Pinterest, in our family room upstairs. We plan to put a couch and TV up there but it will also be our homeschool room so a shelf like this will be amazing to tuck away bins of books and papers! 

I'm linking up with Hello Monday again today! 

Friday Random

 How I announced my pregnancy on Facebook last week. I love how both kids have their hands in their pockets. :)

First purchase for our new baby. We didn't know these existed (or maybe they didn't exist) when we had our other two. I hope this thing actually works because I think it will come in handy.

 J is convinced the new baby is a girl. It's so funny when we browse the baby stuff when we're out. J goes towards all the girl stuff...

 While C goes straight to all the baby boy stuff.

I have been SO nauseated for weeks now. I had a prescription for Zofran that was really working great until it ran out and I can't renew it until for a few more weeks. A different prescription for nausea put me right to sleep (even half a pill!) and didn't help with nausea at all. A few friends recommended Sea Bands and they are actually working! I'm amazed. They're working very well.

 They're working so well that I can enjoy food again! I loved the Asian salad from Chik-Fil-A earlier this week. So yummy!!

 Poor C has been pretty sick the past couple of days. Yesterday was really bad. He didn't want to play, didn't want to eat and actually wanted to be covered in blankets. Definitely not the norm for this one. Today he seems a little better but I think we'll still go in to the doctor this afternoon.

J has been going to VBS every evening this week. She loves it! Here she is last night with a card and hat she made. It is SO hard to get a decent picture of her. She is always bouncing around and acting silly.

This is the inside of her card. I asked if this was our family and she said "No, that's Jesus and His friends." How sweet. :)



We've had a pretty good week except for poor little C being sick the past couple of days.

feeling better

This week is FINALLY getting better. It has been the worst week. Of course (most of you know) I had a miscarriage over the weekend.. that wasn't fun, but to top it off I spent the next 2 days in bed with the worst migraines ever and no prescription meds available. Ugh. I tried EVERYTHING.. essential oils, hot showers, hot baths, ice packs, heat packs, tons of water, nasal spray, allergy meds, caffeine, massage, chiropractor... you name it. I was thisclose to going to the ER, Monday night, when thankfully something worked and the migraine went away for several hours. I was able to get a good night's sleep only to start over with another migraine Tuesday morning. Thankfully I was able to get a prescription filled and I felt much better yesterday.



Despite all the bad stuff I will say that I really, really appreciate all the wonderful support and prayers we have gotten from everyone. It has been amazing! I was hesitant to announce the pregnancy right away but we ended up telling a few friends and family almost as soon as we found out. Then, after the early miscarriage word got out.. pretty much because we needed help from church friends when I ended up in the ER. I don't regret letting people know what is going on. The love and support has been amazing. I can't imagine going through it alone. Unfortunately, so many others have gone through the same thing and know what we're going through.



I realize I have blogged and tweeted about this a lot... I think talking/writing about it helps me process things a little better. I realize I'm not the first woman in the world to have a miscarriage. I also realize that it was very early. I know many people have gone through much, much worse. But this wasn't easy for me. This was something I had hoped I'd never experience. Thankfully I'm feeling a lot better, emotionally and physically, after several rough days.



Thank you all for sweet comments and prayers. They have meant a lot and I really appreciate it. <3 p="">

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well, we all know I had a sad weekend with an early miscarriage and feeling like crap.. emotionally and physically. I ended up in the ER for a few hours Saturday night with very heavy bleeding.



Anyway, I'm ready to move on. Yes, it's sad but I'm thankful it was early and also thankful that I was as mentally prepared as I could be. I felt something was off and was not really surprised.



Friday we sat around the house quite a bit then went to my mom's for the evening. I went with my sister to get a haircut, brow wax and pick out a hair color. As I mentioned before I'm less than thrilled with the hair color. I was going for a pretty, lighter shade of blonde NOT the reddish strawberry blonde that I ended up with. It doesn't suit me one bit. Ugh. Anyone know how soon you can re-dye your hair? I'm anxious to try a different shade.



Saturday we sat around the house all day until I had to go up to the ER. Sunday we stayed home and had a very lazy day.



So, it wasn't the most pleasant of weekends but bearable. The weather has been pretty chilly and rainy the last few days which seems appropriate.



I've decided to give up the buy/sell/trade site that I put way too much energy in for the past 10 months or so. It was fun but I'm ready to focus on blogging again. I think the benefits of blogging far out way the non-benefits of keeping a buy/sell/trade site organized. ;)



I also want to really focus on my new camera and learn a lot more about photography. I've waited a long time for my new camera and I need to put it to good use!



Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

not a good day

So, last week (Tues. March 12) I found out I was pregnant with a faint line on a HPT. We were SO excited. Fast forward to Tuesday, March 19. I had my first OB appointment. They could not see much except *maybe* the tiniest little sac on the sonogram. My HGT levels were so so and my urine test was, again, positive, but still very faint. They assured me I was just very, very early but I felt something was "off". I came home and tested again.. hoping to see a darker line with my HPT. Nope, no dark line... just another faint little line a week after my first BFP. Anyway, so I've had a bad feeling for a few days now.



I woke up today and realized I was miscarrying. I thought I would handle it well but not so much. It's been a rough day of terrible cramps, bleeding and lots of tears. Ugh.



To top it off and add a little humor to an already rotten day. I went out for a hair cut and eyebrow wax to cheer myself up a little. The haircut... especially the bangs... was just not exactly what I had in mind. The eyebrow wax was lousy. My sister helped me choose a pretty blonde, L'Oreal, hair color and helped me color my hair. Oh my! I thought I was getting a pretty golden blonde color. Um, not so much... it's more of a reddish strawberry blonde which does NOT suit me.



Gee.. what a day. :(

catching up

We've had lots going on lately... don't we always?



I finally finished painting our entry way and the kids' hallway. We decided on a light grayish color but it actually looks light blueish gray on the walls. It's really pretty and we're happy with it. I was going to paint the hallway, entry, living, dining and kitchen all the same color but I think I've changed my mind. Our main living areas are all open to each other but even so I think different colors will work in different rooms and kind of define each area as a separate space rather than using one color for everything which would kind of define everything as one huge room. Make sense? So now I need to pick out another color or two for the kitchen and dining and possibly another color for 3 walls of the living room.



We had gorgeous weather Monday. I think I overdid it by cleaning off our filthy back porch, cleaning out our filthy garage AND painting Monday evening. I got a terrible migraine that night and it pretty much lasted until yesterday (Wed.) evening. Luckily my mom is awesome and she REALLY helped out Tuesday and yesterday. I decided to get a shot for migraines (no idea what the name of shot was) yesterday afternoon and it didn't even work! I was SO annoyed. I'm feeling okay now (keeping my fingers crossed that it lasts!)



J is loving school! She did not do well in the Spanish immersion class so we pulled her out a few weeks ago. She's in a regular 4 year old class now, two days a week. We call it "school" or "preschool" but it's technically Mother's Day Out. I'm hoping we can get C in a class this fall. I think C would actually do great in the Spanish immersion class just because of his personality but he'd also love a regular 3 year old class.



I think I've successfully switched my blog from a "no-reply" blogger to a "reply" blogger. Could one of you kind readers let me know for sure? Thanks! :)

organization and my ADD mind

I admit it I am SO ADD. I'm not just saying that. I really am. Read a book on ADD (not ADHD) and it describes me to a T.



Anyway, I'm a mix of want to be super duper organized and so scattered brained that I can't focus for more than 3 minutes so you can imagine this house is organized chaos. Literally. Things like closet and cabinets and drawers and dressers and the garage are semi organized. But then at any given moment there's clutter scattered about the floor, couch, bar, kitchen you name it.



So... I've made a few decisions recently. 1) I am no longer going to sell kids clothes and shoes or hardly anything really via buy/sell/trade sites or Craigslist. Reason: You never get what you want for your stuff and people want you to meet them 20 minutes away. It's ridiculous! And I'm tired of it. Also my ADD mind just can't handle an on going stash of unorganized "for sale" items sitting around that you have to constantly go through. You have to dig out a $5 pair of shoes to sell to someone you have to meet 15 miles away. You get the idea. I want to sell kids clothes and shoes (and most everything else) only at JBF, Kid To Kid or garage sales. Otherwise it goes to Goodwill. Decision 2) The kids have some new ground rules, which are: shoes go in their shoe closet as soon as we walk in the door. And only one pair of socks per kid per day. C would go through 9 pairs of socks on a daily basis.. and he has.. if we let him. And absolutely NO toys in the kitchen or dining room. EVER. Or I will put the toys in "jail" for a week. I just can't handle toys EVERYWHERE. Decision 3) The kids are helping to pick up their things every day now. Unfortunately this wasn't really a rule before but I've been enforcing the past few days and they're doing great. I just wish there was a way to get rid of my kids huge collection of stuffed animals but I guess even I'm too soft hearted for that. CareBears are sentimental, C's frog is just too cute, J has a special bond with her five hundred dolls and bears... you get the idea...



What little things do you do to keep life simpler and more organized?

{Belated} Weekend Wrap-Up

Saturday morning the kids and I ran a few errands. I found this cute bedding set {bedspread and pillow shams only} for J at Home Goods. After using a couple gift cards I only paid $11 for it! Great deal! And it's really cute. :) 

Saturday evening we went to J's favorite.. Panda Express... for dinner! Or as the kids call it: Panda Bear. Yummy! 

Sunday morning hubby and I volunteered in J's four year old class at church. Always fun! 

C had a hair cut Sunday afternoon. He walked right over when they called him back and handled it like a champ. So cute!! :)



Sunday evening I started painting our house. Long overdue! We've lived here a year already. I'm just about finished with the entry way and still have the hallway, living room and dining room to paint with this color. We chose Thin Ice from Lowes. Love it! All of our main rooms are open to each other so we went with one shade for all the rooms. Although I think I'm going to go with something a bit darker for two of the kitchen walls to set the kitchen apart a bit.



Erin at Sunny Side Up has a great post on organizing photos for your computer. She is one of my favorite bloggers. Her organization tips are the best! I'm not quite sure why I haven't organized my photos before but I'm organizing them now the same way that Erin does. Such a great idea and life is SO much easier with everything put away neatly in little folders. So much easier!



One of my next organization projects will be creating a home binder. I've wanted to do this for awhile now. Do you have one? How is your's organized? Which categories do you have? I'd love some tips on this!



Hope everyone is having a great week!! :)

Biggest Loser Challenge, new camera love & Weekend Wrap-Up

Biggest Loser Challenge, Week 7. 



Not a lot to write about on this. I think I'm down to 173/172.. so I've lost a few pounds since I started the challenge. I did slip up big time around Valentine's but I'm doing better today. I need to keep it up!

I'm loving this new camera! Too bad I have no clue how to use the thing! I did watch a few YouTube tutorials and need to watch a lot more. I'm honestly clueless! I think these tutorials will also be really helpful. 

I did manage to take one pic that I'm happy with. I love how this one turned out. 

Saturday we picked up this cute bed for J. The kids are in separate bedrooms again and J really needed a nice bed frame. We still need to paint and decorate her room. 

We skipped church on Sunday and went to my in-laws in Dallas for lunch and the afternoon. J drew this cute frog in the car. I thought it was pretty good! 

 Hope everyone had a great weekend!

random musings

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Ugh!!! I've had migraines SIX FREAKIN' DAYS IN A ROW THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!! ONE OR TWO OR THREE A DAY!!!! Grrrrrr.



Okay, got that out!



I am going crazy! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I'm supposed to get a shot that will make me sleep for a few hours and then I should feel as good as new. (I better!) It's supposed to last a lot longer than prescription meds that wear off after several hours. Annnd, the doctor's talking about sending me home with stuff so I can give MYSELF shots. Ew!!! Of course any chronic migraine sufferer knows that we will do just about anything to feel better.. so I WILL do it but it sounds terrible! There's also a surgery that I'm thinking about looking into. I'm not sure about all the details but it involves deadening nerves or something. I heard about it on the news yesterday.



Other than the migraine crap things are relatively normal around here. Nothing new. I skipped the Biggest Loser post this week. Nothing new really.. I'm still in the 170s but I'm thinking my weight is creeping down slowly but surely. I can't wait to hit 169! I set really small goals for myself. ;)



The weather around here has been absolutely gorgeous this week! I have so many posts I need to get up but of course this migraine stuff throws a kink in all of my plans. I can only be on the computer for a short amount of time.



I hope everyone's having a much better week than I am!

Friday Random

Look what I got in the mail last week! I both love and kinda don't like it. I love EC planners.. I love the inside! But I'm not thrilled with the colors I chose for this cover. I probably should have gone with the coral background and white chevron stripes, instead of gray. You can barely read the gray font at the bottom that says "family" but under that there's an even darker gray font with our names and that's really hard to see. I absolutely LOVED my cover last year so I'm a little disappointed that I don't really love this one. 

This is my planner from 2012, isn't it pretty?

 I'm happy simply ecstatic to report that I've had ZERO migraines since beginning a gluten free diet 3 weeks ago tomorrow. This is huge for me! I can't remember the last time I was migraine free for THREE weeks. I have 4 prescription migraine pills sitting in a bottle, untouched for weeks. It's so nice to NOT be frantic about running out of pills. So nice! I feel wonderful! I'm also avoiding ALL cheese and ALL cheese products, most sweets, most junk foods, most processed foods, most food coloring and I've cut way back on dairy. If anyone who is reading this is a chronic migraine sufferer: You should definitely try eliminating some of these things from your diet to see if it could help you too.





J is loving her new school! She's already picking up a few Spanish words and understanding quite a bit. It's amazing how little kids can really pick up a language quickly. We're trying to speak more at home also. My dumb gringa accent irritates me no end but I know I have to keep talking, talking, talking in Spanish so I can get better. C is also learning a little bit. The kids tell us "buenas noches" and "te amo" every night. It's cute to hear them speak in Spanish. I was teaching the kids "por favor" the other day (which is one of my most gringa-est words!) and J was like "Mama, you don't speak very good Spanish. But daddy speaks very good Spanish." Gee thanks. I know it's true, but still.... I'm all the more determined to conquer this language!





I can't believe we've lived in our "new" house for almost a year now! And we still haven't painted one room! Ha! I'm going to get going on that pretty soon.. hopefully this month. I'm trying to decide on a color for the main living areas. The entry, living room, dining room and kitchen are all open to each other so I need to find a color that I love so much I'm willing to have it in 4 rooms. I'm torn between a light gray, light taupe or light blue/green/grayish color that my mom has in her house and I LOVE. I'm also anxious to get started on painting the kids play room and decorating it. Play rooms can be so cute and fun! That room will definitely be light gray so if/when we need to switch it into a kid's bedroom or nursery it will be ready to go without having to repaint.





Hope everyone had a lovely week and have a wonderful weekend!!

blog stuff

Sorry about the mess my blog has been lately. I'm trying to set it up just the way I like. Yes, I do have a mock blog where I can ticker away but I've been playing around on this blog. I think I'm set now... at least for awhile. I love a new look and love changing things up!



If you're a reader who wants to do a blog button exchange please let me know! I'll be happy to display your button for as long as you'll display mine.



Please, please, please take a moment to "like" me on Facebook! Comment and I will follow back.



I'm teaching myself a bit about creating blog backgrounds and will hopefully have some freebies up soon! I have a LOT to learn but it's fun for me.



Hope everyone's having a great weekend!!