TGIF

TGIF - Thank Goodness it's Friday

As homeschoolers, this doesn't always apply. Some weeks I dread Friday. Why? because it means our busy weekend is about to start. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all the things we do on the weekends but sometimes it gets so hectic it is hard to keep up. There is gymnastics, and grocery shopping (because it is MUCH easier to do with one child versus 3or 4) then family birthday parties (at least once a month), friend birthday parties, Errands to run for hubby, grass to mow, etc. Not to mention every other weekend is an "End of unit" for Erik and I, which means tests, homework due dates, and finishing up other assignments. Then of course there is planning for the following week of school for the kids. After all is said and done, we are oftentimes looking forward to the break that is Monday.

This weekend is not that busy, thankfully. We have gymnastics, and Erik and I have just started a new school term so we have lots of reading to do, but otherwise just the around the house things to be done. Today we are hoping to go swimming at the YMCA and I'm hoping to be able to read a bit for school while we are there.

I would have liked to be able to do some of my shopping today, but alas, I haven't got my coupons together. I really gotta get on top of that. Does anyone out there have a trick for staying on top of them? I print any time I see a good deal, but they end up staying on the printer until I absolutely HAVE to take care of it lol It's terrible.

Well, there you go, another one of my random posts.... hm... where did I put my tea?...

Faith's Salisbury Steak - It's what's for dinner :)

OK, so I got a really good deal on some cube steak on "hot price" mark down at Bi-lo the other day, and was planning on making salisbury steak the way I had once before. From what I remembered, I pan-fried them and smothered them in canned or jarred gravy, maybe even a dry mix gravy ( I know, shame on me). Well, they were good enough when I made them, but I didnt have any gravy, mix or otherwise, and I thought they were lacking anyway.

So, here I go shooting from the hip again with my recipes :) This time I'm writing it down though LOL
Here goes:

Preheat oven to 350.
Ingredients:
5 or 6 cube steaks (I used a family pack) pounded thin.
seasoned salt
black pepper
flour
Cream of chicken soup
cream of celery soup
1 can of water
1 packet dry Lipton onion mushroom soup mix

Season steaks with seasoned salt and pepper. Put flour in shallow plate or pan. Press cube steak into flour to coat evenly. Fry steaks in hot oil until golden brown on both sides --3-5 minutes per side. Then place in baking dish (I sprayed mine with PAM to help with cleaning)

Mix can soups, dry soup, and water until smooth. Pour over meat and put in preheated oven for 1 hour or so.

Serve with mahed potatoes and a vegetable, and some crusty rolls would be yummy too!

ENJOY :)

update

Yesterday my baby Nathaniel had his tonsils out. I was completely stressed out. He came through OK with no problems, except that he didn't want to wake up from the anesthesia :) That's my boy. Knows how to sleep that is for sure. He is eating alot of mashed potatoes so far, but not really enjoying the popsicles. On the way home yesterday we got a milk shake for him, and he enjoyed that. This morning his throat and jaw are swollen but not drastically. I had the alarm set last night for 1230 and 430 to give him his pain medicine. I don't want to give him the chance to come off of it until later this afternoon. I wanted to get him eating before I do. It's gonna be an interesting couple of weeks.

Tomorrow we go for our follow up appt with Dr Knowles, Garret's neurologist. I'm not overly concerned with this, as I figure if there were anything terrible they would have called us before now. We recently have been given a diagnosis of PDD, Pervasive Developmental Disorder. This is on top of the anxiety disorder and the sensory disruption. Basically it is all rolled into one. Theoretically I suppose they could have found something on the MRI that is indicative or treatable and is related to this. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

I have spent today putting together our lesson plans for this coming school year. Our new year will be starting the first week of April. I have done things much easier this year (as far as planning goes) but I also think it is more inclusive than the hodge-podge we used this year. I'll post my choices later.

Time to go make some dinner. Any idea how hard it is to creatively feed a child who can't swallow anything harder than mashed potatoes???

long time no see

Well, it sure has been a while since I was on here. Sorry about that. Life gets in the way sometimes. Sometimes I simply have nothing to say, but usually life is to blame.

Every now and then I feel like I need to reconnect. This really doesn't make much sense to me, seeing as I am connected to just about everyone I know via facebook, text messaging, email, etc. But there are times when I feel like this digital age is not enough. I want to connect to PEOPLE, not words on a computer screen. I want to be able to actually hang out with friends and play REAL games, like Sorry and Sagarian and Password. Maybe even play Farkle with REAL DICE. (yes, it actually exists... Santa put one in my husbands Christmas stocking this year :D) I've never been much for the bar scene. I prefer to have people over. Have some drinks, have some snacks, watch a movie or something. The problem with this is everyone is SO BUSY. Everyone has so many things to do it is simply ridiculous. Between baseball games and work and school and doctors and shopping and family obligations it simply never ends. People these days just don't slow down enough to relax.

I'm not innocent here. I, too, have lots going on and it makes it difficult to do as much as I would like.

I guess for now I will simply have to make do with chatting on yahoo or keeping up with friends on facebook. Maybe once it is warmer people will be more apt to get out and about for purely social reasons.

Could this be Christmas?

Everyone has been talking all season long about how it just didn't feel like Christmas. "I just can't get into the spirit!" some said. Others said they just weren't in the mood. Still others felt like there was too much grief and sadness to be joyful this year. Everyone I spoke with seemed to be having a more difficult time this year. Not necessarily money, either, it was more persisitently the "spirit" of things.

Well, I have to admit, I wasn't any different. I was ready to call the whole thing off. Heck, I wasn't alone, even my own mother was ready to call it quits. Like "The Year Without A Santa Claus" we were just gonna stay in bed and ignore the season. But alas, we have many kids in our families and as much as we just didn't feel like doing it, we couldn't let our babies down.

So, here in our neck of the woods we planned the Salmon family Christmas gathering. We did things differently this year. We drew names so that if you wanted a gift you had to give a gift. That went pretty well, but coming to the decision wasn't easy. Lots of arguing and tears which I had not seen much of in years, and well, I guess I'm just not cut out for that anymore. But like I said, we got through that part at Thanksgiving, and the Christmas party time was drawing near. I bought our tree finally on Thursday and Mom helped me get it in the stand and set up before Erik came home. Decorations would have to wait. I came down with a nasty cough on Thursday night, and was feeling pretty out of it on Friday. Then Saturday morning came and I was too sick to take Aleah to gymnastics. So I stayed home and rested and then my Mom and the kids and I decorated the tree. We also tried very unsuccessfully to decorate the gingerbread house that my dad had bought for the kids. Then she and I went shopping for the party that evening. We went ahead and got a few little stocking stuffers and what we needed for Christmas Day dinner as well as New year's dinner.

Sunday I awoke with what I can only call a sinus migraine. I felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to the side of my head and jaw. I took about a 30 minute much hotter than normally tolerable shower and lots of ibuprophen and sudaphed. Finally it subsided a bit, which was good because guests were to arrive by noon, and I had not even cleaned house yet! (although, I must admit, Erik has been wonderful helping out with keeping things tidy) I didn't get to make the cookies for the decorating station or anything! Oh well, Jenny offered to bring a tray of cookies from Sam's and that will just have to do.

The party went off without much of a hitch. There was plenty of food for everyone and all seemed to have a good time. My nephew had an upset stomach, and of course the fates decided it was time to create chaos right in the middle of the opening of the gifts. Well, we got that cleaned up and everything else went well. Then just a while before everyone was due to leave, he got ill again, and Lori (his mom, 4 or 5 mos pregnant) is trying to clean him up and had an anxiety attack. So that was pretty crazy! But overall, everyone was happy. No one complained "he got more than me!" or hey, I wanted one of those!" Everyone was content with what they received and I was quite glad. Needless to say by the time everyone left I was wiped out, but hope was relatively restored that Christmas could be not only conquered but perhaps even enjoyed!

Monday came, and I was feeling lousy. Just couldnt shake this cough. Tuesday came and not much change. I could get a hold of it for about 2-3 hours out of the day with a certain combination of medicines, but the same combo didnt work every time. Well, Wednesday came and trashed me out again, as the song goes, but this time I couldnt beat it. I literally thought I would die! This was it, I was not gonna get better. Well, Erik came home and took me to the ER (cuz the only walk-in clinic in town was "closed unti further notice" hmmm.. can we say SCANDAL?) Well, after 6and a half hours we finally had a diagnosis. Pneumonia. Yep. Sure was. I couldnt believe it! And the doctor's prognosis for the next few days was not good. Stay in bed. You are not gonna feel up to doing more than opening a few presents and then going back to bed. I was devastated! I had family coming for Christmas dinner. I hadn't wrapped a single gift! I still had stocking stuffers to get! How was it all gonna get done??? I thought we were going to have to somehow trick the kids into thinking that Christmas wasn't until Saturday or something!

Well, lo and behold, after a really good dose of narcotic at the ER on Wednesday, and IV antibiotics, I was feeling MUCH better come Thursday. Erik refused to go to work because he didn't trust leaving me alone for that long. Which was probably good cuz I was only able to be upright for a little bit at a time. He took the kids Christmas shopping and while he was out it was all I could do to wrap their presents. I felt really bad when I realized they each had only 4 presents each, plus 1 from Santa. Now, granted, these were mostly gifts that they had asked for specifically, but usually I overdo it tremendously. But this year I only used my babysitting money for Christmas presents, determined not to overspend and not have money for bills and such. Then I felt much worse when I was filling the kids' stockings and they were so light they could still hang on the stocking hooks. But what could I do? It was Christmas eve and all our extra money had gone to my medicine ($140 worth) and I was certainly in no condition to try to go out to the store anyway. So I decided it would just have to do. We would make the most of it, one way or another. I was grateful that I was at least able to wrap all the gifts and I didn't have to leave that to Erik.

Christmas morning came and after very little sleep Erik and I were quite grouchy. He greeted me with "not merry Christmas" and I said, no, Merry Christmas, we have to do the best we can for the kids. And so we did. The kids enjoyed their presents and had a grand time. No one seemed to notice how sparse the presents were, and were just as thrilled with the smaller gifts from us as they were with the BIG gifts from a very doting Aunt Chris up in Michigan (thanks Chris -the kids always LOVE what you get them) I had made the comment earlier that it is kind of a sad state of affairs when Santa is outdone by an aunt, but that was how it was this year, and I was actually quite grateful because Santa could not have fulfilled that wish all by his lonesome!

The next hurdle was Christmas dinner. We haven't had Christmas dinner here on Christmas day in years, and I was certainly NOT feeling as well as I was yesterday. Well, Mom and Dad came down and my dear sweet husband and the two of them got the turkey going and peeled potatoes and cleaned house all while I was napping on the couch! I was so touched by how much they accomplished in just under 2 hours. I felt much better after my nap and a shower and was able to finish up the Turkey, make the potatoes and finish getting everything else together by the time my Sister and her family arrived. Of course, by the time dinner was served, I was wiped and couldn't eat more than about 3 bites, but I was able to sit at the table and enjoy some good conversation and a relaxed time with my family.

After everyone had gone and around bedtime for the kids they were all sitting around the table having their bedtime snack (cereal, seems to be becoming a tradition with them) and they start up a conversation:

Aleah: "Wasn't this the best Christmas ever??"

Both boys agreed.

Garret: "Know what the best part was for me?"

Aleah responded but I don't know what she said.

Garret: "Opening the Rainbow in my room!" (this was his Santa present, Santa was very proud right about now :P)

Later Aleah made mention about their being LOTS OF THINGS in their stockings! Which I was just amazed at. My mother said it best. More isn't better. More is just More.

This has made me truly appreciate and marvel at how well kids can tolerate things that we think are just devastating. So what if it wasn't the "perfect" Christmas in my eyes. My children loved every minute of it and are tucked soundly in their nice warm beds as we speak, dreaming of all the fun they will have with their new toys tomorrow. It was one of the most meager Christmases I can remember, but I will never forget it. We did it all on our own, with help from Family of course, and it truly was a Christmas to remember.

Now I have a week of company to look forward to, and I've decided I am not going to stress! I have opened my home to these relatives because it is the best option, even if I am not Martha Stewart OR the Flylady, and they are simply happy to be visiting family!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone's holidays are as blessed as ours was!

Erik made this Rebus puzzle "Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!

If we make it through December......

Ok, so, it's been absolutely nuts here lately. Family issues aside (who doesn't have those?), it seems everything is just falling apart here.

Our cars are both having multi-hundred dollar issues, and we are lucky to have a hundred after everything is paid for the month. Erik works an hour away which means that if I need a vehicle, I have to take him to work at way too early in the morning. This is not new to me. We went over a year without a second vehicle, so it's not that big of a deal. Just mainly another straw, if you know what I mean. LOL

I just made an appointment for a consultation with a surgeon to see if Nathaniel needs his tonsils taken out. Again, I know this isn't a HUGE deal; kids get their tonsils out all the time, right? it's just that it will be my first experience with something MAJOR with my kids. I'm not overly surprised by it, though. I mean, he's the one that has always had some sort of illnes, it seems. He's allergic to most everything (which reminds me I have to call the doc about the medicine they gave him last night), he has chronic bronchitis, we usually go through about 2 rounds of breathing treatments per winter, he's already had MONO, has very sensitive skin, and has had more bizarre rashes in his 8 years then i have had in my life LOL. So even though I kind of expected this at some point, I'm still not feeling very brave about my baby having surgery.

Aleah has to have speech therapy. Again, not really a big deal, but one more thing to throw the schedule off. And with not having a vehicle, it really stinks.

Garret starts his "play therapy" on Thursday. However, the first appointment, I have to be there by myself. Great. This means that Erik will have to take a half day off. which means he doesn't get paid for a half day.

I go to school online, and needless to say, I'm a bit behind. With everything that has gone on this last couple of weeks (not to mention Thanksgiving) I've just not had the time or attention span to truly devote to my studies. The kids and I are focusing on more "unit study" type schooling right now, simply because it is all I have time for. We read lots of books and do crafts and hands on things that we can do on the spur of the moment. They are learning plenty, but I can't say they are learning "traditionally". But I must say I am glad that we do homeschool, otherwise, these next couple of weeks/months would be REALLY bad. I don't have to worry about juggling the kids' appointments with their "school days" AND our transportation issues.

Well, I guess I just needed to vent a bit :) I really am glad that we are able to do all these things that need to be done and that it will not take away from our family time together. As long as we have each other, we will be just fine. Reminds me of an old song... If we make it through December..........

a great site for young children and children with special needs

A friend of mine and her husband developed this site for their son. Check it out.