Robin's Nest

February traditionally has started our birthdays for the year, however Madison changed that by arriving in January. So now there is at least one birthday every month for our family. I am starting this post on the eve of the first of February. The youngest and I went for a walk earlier, just around our yard and now we are about to watch a Barbie video and color a "velvet poster".  I will have to get the house in order as tomorrow is physical therapy for DH. For now I will play with the youngest and hope tonight will be the night she sleeps without issue. Well 50 minutes later and my patience has been tested beyond my capacity for this day. Little miss is in the mood to poke fun at people until they get mad. She means no harm but rather it is a ploy for attention. I thought if I gave her my undivided attention it might help. But alas this is just her routine when she is tired. She is up within five minutes of me getting up and that can be anytime after lying down lately. Every

Can you believe it is the end of January?! I myself. cannot. The calendar doesn't lie I guess. As I try to figure out where the days went I am at a loss. Perhaps February will be more productive on the sewing side. I do know we will continue to brainstorm the situation for my aunt. My biggest hurdle is the family. Leaving the kiddos for a month may sound inviting but only in the imagination would it be possible. The dogs would tear the house apart worse than they already do and I can only imagine what I would return to. So enough musing about that. I am looking forward to warmer weather so that the dogs can be outside more. Having the fence finished would be ideal but that is months away. In the meantime I have designed a large doghouse on paper, that I am pretty sure I can build.  In my mind, I feel I can leave them outdoors when I leave the house if they have shelter. Maybe my mind has betrayed me but I also think I will not feel guilty. Yes, I have been called delusional! Most o

Lily was up at midnight ready for the day. 😕   I was not ready to be up again. She was good, but I was tired. After about half an hour I let her know I had to go back to bed. Surprisingly she was okay with that.  About 0400 the dogs needed outside so up I get again and little miss was asleep on the couch. Yay! Once the dogs are done I can go back to bed! Today is babysitting and home health so I could not sleep in very long but it did feel nice to be lazy and sleep until 0550. After home health leaves we are getting back into our school routine. It is so tempting to say back to public school with you all! But I know for now home is best and I really do enjoy our time together.  A few sanity saving breaks help. Today we will go to town after our "essentials" are covered so that they can pick out a beanie baby and I can visit with friends. One look at the news casts and you might prefer to crawl in a hole and pull a blanket over your head. So we won't watch the news today.

  It was a much anticipated day at our house. Surgery day... It happens way too often for way too many occupants! Today was the youngest for her eyes. It started out early with a bit of excitement. But that quickly drained the closer we got to the hospital.  Then when we arrived into pre-op. It was gone! I felt bad for her it was taking so long to get on with it, but we were dealing with a military hospital not a civilian one. Time and money are not treated the same. Care given is excellent! There just isn't the same urgency as their counterparts. This is not a bad thing! Just a hard thing when you are little and nervous. All in all we were only away from home for about 7 hours. And one of us got a nap! Here is a hint... It wasn't me. At least the roads were better this morning and by the time we left the hospital the weather was beautiful. We came home and tried real hard to follow the doctors orders to be still... okay I tried real hard. The moon was still in the sky as we he

  When they told me she would need another covid-19 test I cringed. Secretly I had hoped it would be like the first one and not a q-tip up the nose test. But alas it was the q-tip test. Lily was brave, definitely braver than I would have been! It was over too fast for me to take a picture. We thanked the technician, because that is what polite people do. They thank those that inflict pain. Then we headed to Opthalmology to drop records from the last eye surgery. All the way she kept saying "that hurt", but she didn't cry. She did say, "I should have known when she gave me two stickers before she did the test that it was going to hurt". This week continues to be a wash when it comes to formal school work. Too many things pulling us too many directions.  It is the morning of surgery... We are in pre op and the tears are flowing. It should go quickly, we hope🤗 See you soon!

  It was my plan to keep up on birthday greetings and sympathy cards and things like that this year. Other plans included keeping up on devotions and helping the kids explore fun things related to learning and school. Fail. Fail. Fail. I am not the optimist that Thomas Edison was... I don't look at it as 10,000 ways how not to teach a kid multiplication. Well the weather today is a bit overwhelming, lots of new snow. Enough snow for me to cancel and reschedule Peyton's dental appointment. It is a good day to take care of phone calls. It is also a good day to be frustrated when placed on a 20 minute hold only to be hung up on!😡 Of course I cancel the appointment and the eye center calls and says records are ready to be picked up! So I must brave the icy roads anyway. My nerves are not made of steel. I need to fix my turn signals on the grey van or remove the bumper from the pumpkin van.  Tomorrow is Covid-19 test for the youngest so she can have her eye surgery on Thursday. I a

As I struggle again today to keep those new goals going I realize goals may fall into the resolution category of "failure". Alas, at least it is the last week of January and not the first! Today we attempted a "science" video. In so doing this I have found that my kids do not engage with a video unless, you add game and prove it, to the scenario. Surely they absorbed something...  Tomorrow is language arts and art. The messy but fun part of the week. I split things one "essential" subject each day. Just for this week and last week because of scheduled appointments and surgeries.  Today was the only day this week that there wasn't an appointment scheduled. So that left room for a run for groceries, to pick up meds, and run to Dollar Tree to grab some "art" supplies. I hope I don't regret the new glitter paint. Peyton has a dental appointment tomorrow. That should be fun... not. A game of tag is fun A kiss from a girl dog is fun Running ins

Yesterday was a challenging day, technology wise. Nothing seemed to work. No computers, no cell phones and worst of all no internet for the televisions! Yes it was a sad day for all the kiddos. This meant we must play with our other toys, games and oh dear, interact with other humans!  Today is back online for the most part, still no cell service. It has also taken since 0430 to get this computer back up. Still cannot get into my email. It made me change the password and I did get the little circle spinning... so there is progress. I am sure there isn't anything urgent in there so eventually it should all be back up and running. Now onto the important events like cleaning closets and sorting crafting supplies. After removing all the little storage tubs from the guest room closet I started sorting things by purpose. That process took a couple of hours and left me with 3 empty tubs. YAY! It also left room on the shelf for something else. Okay maybe not her. But she would like to play

Today we celebrated Maddie's first birthday! Definitely a small gathering compared to her older sister's first birthday!  It was fun even if it was just two babies and 3 other kiddos (2 of those were mine). Six years ago there were close to 100 party guests for a one year old. I would have to say that apple rolled away from the tree when it comes to introvert versus extrovert on the party scale! Both babies turned one so there was a "photo shoot" set up for the guest of honor and her guest! A good time was had by all. Even the three big kids enjoyed watching the babies get their pictures made. The babies were not as keen on the idea but hey when they grow up they will appreciate it I am sure. Well I am exhausted. I have had about 30 minutes of "alone" time. It has helped. Now maybe I can go through emails and snail mail and get caught up. Also, I plan to turn in early! Really I do...

When I was young I was very much an introvert. In some ways I still am. Over the years I tried to be an extrovert and to a degree, succeeded. When it comes to how I "recharge" at the end of a day, I am an introvert. I really need that quiet "alone" time. Leaving the workforce has shown me that although I have ability to be an extrovert, deep down it is just an act. If given a choice to join a crowd or sit quietly at home, I'll chose the latter.  Even when I feel lonely, I'm quite okay with being alone in that. It gives me time to think, pray and just recharge. There really isn't other word or substitute for it. If that time isn't obtained I cannot be at my best or be what others may need. Lately, there is no alone time. I know there won't be for a long time. I will have littles, who really aren't anywhere near little any more, needing whatever time or hugs or attention I can muster. I pray for patience when mine wears thin, wisdom to bite my

Ever turn a sink tap on and walk away for a minute? How about an hour and a half? Yes, I did. Which? Both... today, just now I walked into my bedroom and heard a "weird" noise as I walked to the bathroom I realized I had turned on the water at one pm and it is almost two thirty... The whole day has been this way... no wait, the whole week. Earlier I put clothing in the washer, no wait I took it to the washer and opened the hamper and the washer lids. After turning on the water in the bathroom I went to the washer to switch clothes to the dryer... that's when I realized I never finished that first task. Same with the coffee this morning, sweeping the floors, getting a kid to the dentist, you name it today and I have not completed it.  This is why I stopped to make a blog post. I figured if finished a short post about the memory problems today they might go away. Now I know they are related to the chaos that is my life this week. That chaos is a bit worse than normal but I

   Good morning blog... I had a post ready yesterday. Ready in my mind mostly but some of it was on paper. Then a phone call interrupted my thoughts and my shopping. It was from a number I recognized. As I answered I knew it could be any number of people at that number. Really in my heart I knew who it was. I also knew why she was calling. My heart sank a bit as she began to speak. Her twin sister had finally died. Just last night it happened she said. She went on to tell me how she was not allowed to see her before it happened. They both live in the facility that I used to love working at. The twin had started down the dementia road before moving to our facility. She was far enough down it that she probably could have gone straight to long term care. However, when I went to assess her, I found that she could still do most of her ADL's and she walked and talked sensibly. By golly that was more than some of our current residents could do! The dementia was apparent but not overwhelmi

  Some days I have had it up to my ears and then some. Those days it is hard to find a few minutes of peace and quiet. I have a dear friend that regularly takes the grandchildren for the weekend. On those adventures I usually receive a text message stating the "Peace and Quiet have packed their bags and are leaving for the weekend". It makes me chuckle, until I realize that peace and quiet left here years ago and rarely drop in, even to just say "hi". I am sure I am not the only person who feels that way, but there are days it feels that way. Parenting a special needs kiddo can wear. you. out. There is no other way to put it that makes it any better. Yesterday it was to the breaking point. Nothing I did was done correctly, just ask #10. I decided for my own sanity and perhaps her safety (no judging) I should take a drive... a long drive. During that ride of course I felt guilty. Why? Not sure I think it is a mom thing. Feelings of inadequacy, lack of patience, lack

Goals versus resolutions... turns out both require work and a memory! This year I decided that "goals" would be my code word for the changes to my behavior that I really wanted to see happen.  One of my goals was to be more patient with the "learning" around here. I fail every day at this! However, I can start over the next morning and one of these times it will not be a fail! Another goal was to keep the kitchen counters clear of clutter. There is a song from the '70's I think the band was Meatloaf, "two out of three ain't bad" were some of the words in the song. Although I am fairly sure it wasn't referencing clutter I am going to steal the phrase in a loving way nonetheless. Two days out of three they are cleared off! There are a few items left but... For the most part they are clear! The table will always suffer... I know, I know we are not even to the middle of January yet. We are past the first week though and that is progress! I find

  This morning I awoke with a startle after a somewhat disturbing dream. In the dream we had moved into a new home... much like real life, the home in my dream was very similar in some of the details. A big difference was the new house was in a wooded area, had grass and was secluded from view. Another strange detail was a railroad track running behind the house, it was not real close, but only a short walk away. In this dream we were moving in and discussing the sale of our previous home and suddenly we were arguing about it. Maybe arguing is too strong of a word. Anyway I woke up. So maybe I will get to finish the dream sometime. It bothers me to have dreams like this as I believe it has meaning. Someday I will share in the blog a recurrent dream that I had then you may understand my concern. On to other things, I was looking around this house the other day and decided that room by the entryway, I think the house plans call it a "den", should be my next area to rearrange. W

  It is the day we were supposed to get results... we are still waiting. Looming on the horizon is how to handle the my granddaughter's need for childcare tomorrow. Everyone here has been fever free since Monday, and we have been looking at the walls together since then. Still no word from the lab though.  Our new books for the second semester arrived today. Sure hope they are as good as the reviews! Especially in the math and science department. We are all bored with the copy work and the mundane action of completing "book work". The holidays were a nice break for the kiddos from "school work" but it is time to get back at it.  As much as I miss the school teachers, I do enjoy lazy, somewhat quiet mornings, without having to rush to get kids out to a bus or delivered to a school building. The oldest having an IEP was helpful, but the youngest didn't have one. The nightly battles to do homework were almost worse than the early morning battle to get ready! No