Oops! I forgot!

I was supposed to blog every day! I've probably thought about it every day but never realized so many days have slipped by since I blogged last.

Hmmm, so much goes on in this life but when I sit down to write about it, my mind flat-lines.

I was knocked down flat the other night and all day yesterday due to a stomach ailment of unknown origin. None of my kids were sick so that should rule out any tummy bug 'cause I just don't get sick unless I've had all 8 kids rotate through some nasty bug 3 times each, taking turns at it for a week straight, ill with ill symptoms day and night...then finally, after enduring all that goes with tending to children that are ill with ill symptoms, not sleeping a wink for 168 days (as it would add up if each of the 8 children was ill for a week straight then repeated the rotation 3 times..), I finally collapse and get ill, with ill symptoms myself...Since all THAT didn't happen, I wonder if it was a food-borne illness.

It. was. horrible. To say the least. I woke up at about 1:something a.m. with knife-like stomach pain that would double me over. I went to the bathroom and emptied my insides of a pure-water-like-substance...multiple times... I went to lie down for a bit only to have to make a run again for the bathroom. By this time E was up, getting ready to run out the door to the airport for his 4th week in a row work trip. He sat and rubbed my back as I was lying on the couch, groaning, then holding my breath, then groaning, curled up in a ball as wave after wave of knife slices went through my stomach.

Well, to make my long story short, I was curled up in a ball all day yesterday, sleeping, groaning and sitting on the toilet.

Today proved to be a much better day, provided I didn't try push my luck and eat a tiny dabbling of ice cream (that brought on the knife pains again, just not as severe).... I sat out of my martial arts class and watched and learned (a lot, I might say) from the sidelines since I was so wiped out and still had water-like stool throughout today.

That's all I have to say about my stool-laced adventures! :)

Our house is a disaster zone! BUT, I've finally decided that, since it's gotten considerably worse since I've started working again but our finances have finally started to get considerably better, so that we are finally getting caught up again after 2 months of me working again...I'd much rather be losing control of the house than losing the house due to lack of finances. This is a much better option. AND, guess what! I work ALL day shifts now!!! Can you believe after all those years of working nights, I work days? I just got onto that schedule where I work every Friday, 7a-7p and every other Saturday and Sunday, 7a-7p. Then, I have another client that has 8 hour shifts that has many openings every week that I can pick up shifts with the weeks that E's work in slow and he's in town. So, as much as I resisted going back to work, it's actually going pretty well...the kids seem to understand that it's essential and are being pretty good about doing their jobs while I'm gone too. It's just that certain tasks, like dishes and laundry are my jobs while they pretty much cover the rest of the main living area...so my jobs, if E isn't around, get left undone. Usually E is home Fridays, so that's why I've chosen to work them. Then he can help with the homeschooling a bit, although I try to plan most of our work M-TH, with Fridays being independent work day...I assign them Math and then whatever they need to catch up on...usually handwriting and maybe Science.

Homeschooling has been getting more and more random, which makes me nervous at times, but at the same time, I notice a lot of the informal stuff we do has actually lots of learning laced into it. And the girls seem to be loving it and I see a big inner shift in a lot of them when we are homeschooling. Very good character building, self-motivation, leadership skills, self-discipline, super good interpersonal skills have been developed between all of them....all those good things that they actually work on in school. And this is in a very natural, real-life situation where emotions and tempers can oftentimes run high and uninhibited, unlike in a school setting, where most nice kids are on company-behavior mode (and not-so-nice kids aren't).

I've seen a lot of maturing and confidence develop in these guys. And we still have a lot of time to cram in the academics once the snow flies...which we tend to do.

Well, now, off to bed.

The End