30 days of no spending-week 1

Week one is OVER!!! I can't tell you how happy this makes me.  I feel like when we do a "no spend" the first week is always the hardest! So, I'm sad to say we weren't totally no spend, but we did make a pretty good go at it. Here is the week one run down. The first "offense"' happened Saturday. Ryan packed his lunch for work but forgot to put it in the fridge when he got there. By the time he finally got to eat almost 8 hours later, it probably wasn't safe so he ran to the cafeteria and got some grub. I'm saying good call on this one. He avoided food poising and his blood sugar crashing! A must both ways when you are charge nurse! The very next day came instance #2. Getting ready for church we realized that my kid who is going through one crazy growth spurt (an inch and a half taller in only 10 weeks!!!!) had no church shoes that fit!!!! Fantastic.  Thankful I used Payless' BOGO and 10% off plus a credit that I had with Paypal and now there are 3 pair of church shoes and Hannah's replacement boots (1/2 off) on the way for only $33 out of our pocket.  Those were the only two bad things.  One of the things we budgeted for was the State Fair, which we had tickets to prior to deciding to do a no spend month. This was a family outing with the in laws so we were going to go. In the spirit of money saving the kids and I opted to eat dinner at home and go for dessert at the fair. Ryan lives for fair food and it the main money maker in our home so I really encouraged him to enjoy it and eat dinner and dessert at the fair! It wasn't hard to convince him...like, at all. We shared things and had bites of each others, so we got samplings of everything we wanted and for our family of five, we rang in at $42 on food. That was $18 less than our goal! I've also spend only $152.85 on groceries for the month. That's almost 3 weeks of food, 2 freezer meals for a friend that is (hopefully) just about to pop, and a couple desserts for things! All in all I think week one was a success. A little more than we planned to spend but the hubs needs to eat on what ended up being a 14 hour shift and said child can NOT go barefoot to church. (Although she sees nothing wrong with it!) Here's hoping week 2 goes off even more smoothly!

30 of no spending....day 1!!!

Ryan and I have done a "no spend" month before and we loved it.  I don't know why we don't do it more! We are not terrible at controlling our spending. To be honest, what gets us is drink stops.  We usually get the kids something and 5 drinks several times a week adds up FAST! So late last night we decided that there really is no time like the present and we will start as soon as we wake up.  Maybe I should have thought this through...as in go to the grocery store before we start. I didn't. Time to get creative.  I was not going to have a strike on day one, Since we were out of bread tuna salad for lunch gets served in hard boiled eggs. That was close! There are a few exception to our no spend. What we are learning is that pre-planned expenses aren't what gets you, it's the impulses. That being said, we will still leave the money there for the kids and I to have our weekly Sunday night dinner date with Ryan's mom (after all, all four of us usually eat for under $10). Instead of just adding this money, we will work extra hard and it will come straight out of the grocery budget which will mean cuts on unnecessary grocery items. We also already had plans to go to the fair with the family. We will take our own drinks and we are already picking out the one food item we want.  Other than that we will just enjoy the sights and let the kids have fun. Besides, people watching really is the best part of the fair. That's it. Those were the only two things allotted for and everything else will just have to wait. The only spending this month will be necessities. We will pay the bills, medical expenses (we all have dentist appointments this month) and stick to our tight $300 a month grocery budget! I'm excited to see what we do this month.

Are there really "small things"?

There is a phrase that is so common and I've probably said it myself a time or two; "It's the small things".  The more I've thought about this over the last few days, the more it has made me wonder, are there really small things.  This is all coming from something that happened this weekend.  We were eating lunch at a little restaurant in what I'm pretty sure is the smallest town in America, and then IT happened.  My Rylee lost her very first tooth. We've spent lots of time wiggling it and waiting for it to happen on its own, but with a little push of her tongue and a tricky pull by me, the once dangling by a thread tooth was now in my hand.  SO SO SO bitter sweet. My six year old snaggle-toothed baby was beaming, smiling as big as the world, and I was full TEARS!!! I'm not supposed to be on the verge of a meltdown, I'm supposed to be happy. That's when it hit me.  Maybe these aren't small things.  At that point all my Rylee wanted to do was tell and show anyone that she could that she lost a tooth.  This was HUGE to her.  If it's big to her, it's big to me.  Furthermore, these are the moments in life Ryan and I thought we would never get to enjoy.  There was a time in our marriage when the visions of rocking babies, putting band-aids on boo boos, the tooth fairy, and playing outside all seemed to be unattainable to us.  Two surgeries and a year and a half of fertility treatments later and we were no where close to having a baby. Eventually, in God's timing He did see fit to allow us to be parents and it's things like this: the "small" things, that we don't take for granted for a second.  Celebrate with your kids. Make the big things to them big things to you!!! So now for my sweet Rylee, here it is...showing the world her lost tooth!!!

 

25 Random Acts of Kindness

The goal: 25 random acts of kindness (inspired by Christmas being Dec. 25)

Sadly we didn't make it.  We only made it to 14. At first I really upset by this.  The girls were having fun, Ryan was having fun, and I was having a BLAST!  We were able to do multiple things that we wouldn't normally do, for people we should, but don't normally think of.  We baked, we gave Christmas decorations to people that didn't have any, we gave money, we gave old coats that we had way to many of in the first place, the kids made things for people. ect. It was a lot of fun. It's really true, when you give of your resources, be it a skill, time, money, whatever--it makes you feel good.  That's not why we attempted this project, but it sure wasn't a bad benefit of it.  The best part of it all is that even though we were not expecting anything in return, there were things given in return. The Lord met several needs that we had and some that we didn't know we would have.  It's been fun to teach the girls that they are not the most important things in the world.  We were able to talk about things that would otherwise be hard conversations to have.  When we told them that there were children that had nothing-no extra clothes, toys, sometimes not even enough food, my little givers filled a laundry hamper of toys they had that they wanted to give "the kids" as they referred to them.  That blessed my heart.  To make it even better they didn't pick out old toys or broken toys. They even gave some of their very favorite things! Talk about convicting to me.  I'm so quick to part with things I don't like, want, or need but what about the things that I do like? Why do I think I'm more important than someone else or that I deserve to have this more? I was a great lesson for our entire home.  Next Christmas we will try again! We will start earlier instead of starting in December so things like illness, family illnesses, or weather (it is Oklahoma, after all) don't hinder us from reaching our goal.  We've also decided to tackle one project like this each month of the year! I would love to encourage anyone who reads this to consider the same thing.  It really is worth it!

Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

2013 advent

Here you go!!! This is this years advent calendar! Along with this list we have scripture readings every day and this year we are adding in 25 random acts of kindness to do this year!!!!  Because of the timing of the year some of them have already happened. All that is a blog post for AFTER Christmas! Merry Christmas y'all and don't forget, it's not all about the gifts under the tree! The true gift came long, long ago!

Cheap, candy-LESS Christmas stocking ideas



 

I've had a few people ask me about cheap and practical stocking ideas for children. I figured it was easier to just do a post about it. Here's some things you should know:

• the pictures below are the actual items that will be in my children's stockings this year (so please don't tell them!!!!)
• my children love simple things--I love this about them
• we don't emphasize Santa- we are not "anti-Santa". This is just not the focus of our home.  We do stockings but we don't talk about him coming down the chimney or anything like that. Therefore, they are not disappointed that nothing huge or glamorous was in the stocking they received.
• we teach our children to be grateful for even the smallest things-I don't know that they would be disappointed even if it were coal in there!!!
• Lastly, I think it's very important to really know your children.  Know what they like and dislike. You will notice that my 3 year old child's stocking is almost identical to my 5 year old child's. This is because they are best friends. They are interested in having the same things so that they can do them together, but the items bought cater to each girl's person interests too. (For example, the characters or colors may vary even though they are the same type of item!)

NOTHING in these stockings cost more than $5. Most of that is regular price, but there are a couple things that I used coupons for.

 
 

• coloring books
• markers
• crayons
• small puzzles
• lip gloss
• nail polish
• cute socks
• fun silverware (I got Landon Cars)
• necklace or earrings
• notebooks (I found ours in the dollar section at Michael's with the girls initials on them...no fight over who's is who's!)
• bubble tape
• fruit snacks
• fun hairbrushes
• stickers
• sunglasses
• character cups
• movies (look at Target, they have a $5 section)
• Band-Aids with their favorite characters
• small packages of trail mix or crackers
• ink pens (the ones I found were 6 color pens in the dollar spot at target)
• bath color drops (Crayola's are awesome)
• bubble bath
• character bath soaps
• character wash cloths
• small balls
• bubbles
• children's work books (you'd be surprised!)
• dress up jewelry
• t-shirt
• small stuffed animal
• books
• tokens or game cards to their favorite game place (Chuck E Cheese, Andy Alligator's, Celebration Station)

Those are just a few that I'm either currently using or have used before.  I'd love your feedback of what you would add to the list!

Kawa What????

Tuesday, October 16^th, started out just like any other day at our house. Rylee had her stomach scoped the week before and was out the rest of that week. She was so excited to finally be back at school. I woke  her up and told her to go potty, brush her teeth,  and wash her face. When she was finished she came in my room to get dressed.  As soon as she took her pajamas off I saw it.  Her back was covered in a rash. She was so angry with me when I told her she couldn’t go to school. I’d seen this rash before. Many times. Both on her and patients at the clinic I worked at.  She had Scarlet Fever, a rash that often accompanies strep throat.  She got it almost every time she had strep. I still got her dressed, we ate breakfast, and as soon as our doctors office opened, I called. “Can you be here in 30 minutes?” We hear this almost every time we call. As soon as our pediatrician walked in the room, he looked at Rylee and said, “This kid has strep!” The rash was now covering her arms and neck. That’s what I figured and so he swabbed her and left the room.  When he came back he looked puzzled.  The strep test was negative. Since it’s a viral test there was a chance we came too early for the test to pick it up.  He wrote her an antibiotic, something he has never done with a negative test before, and just told us, “It’s textbook in appearance for Scarlet Fever. Keep an eye on her and let me know if something comes up.” She still had no other symptoms. No fever, not lethargic, eating well, just covered in what she called “polka-dots”. We got her medicine and headed home. We had a pretty uneventful day.  (This would be the last time I would say that for weeks.) We played games, watched movies, did art projects, nothing out of the normal.  By dinner she didn’t want to eat, but was constantly asking for ice water.  I thought to myself, ‘Ok, good.  She may not be eating but at least she is staying hydrated.' She also had spiked a fever.  Maybe this is the worst and by tomorrow she will feel better. I was wrong. Tomorrow brought high fevers, a cough, and the worst rash I had ever seen.  I was puzzled. Strep is usually better in 24 hours, not worse.  I wasn’t panicking and I didn’t call the doctor back (a choice I would later regret), after all there’s a reason you take the medicine for 10 days right?! By 5:00 that evening she started throwing up, her eyes were pink in appearance but if you looked closely it too looked like a rash, lips were starting to crack from the fever, and oh, that fever…I could not get it down. It was staying in the 103’s even giving Motrin or Tylenol every 3 hours, light clothing, baths, popsicles, you name it.  Finally, when the throwing up got really bad, I asked Ryan if this could be an allergic reaction to the new medicine we were trying. She’d never had it before and only had two doses at the time so it fit the options.  We opted to play it safe and I took Rylee to an urgent care clinic.  We talked with the doctor about all the possibilities and ran another strep test, still negative.  It was a doctor that I know and he said he thought it looked like Fifth’s Disease, a viral infection that presented those same symptoms, and since Rylee’s face was so red with rash it seemed really likely.  He even went and got a dermatology book out and we sat down and looked together.  My sweet 4 year old looked just like the girl in that picture.  In fact, he even made a copy so I could show Ryan.  I agreed that this was a high possibility.  We continued the antibiotic just to be safe. Thursday and Friday were much of the same. Rylee was so sick.  By now she had horrible diarrhea, the fever still hadn’t broke, the parts of her eyes that weren’t pink were starting to look like a sickly gray color, her lips were bleeding, she was not interested in playing games or doing anything other than laying on the couch, she coughed more than she didn’t, her face was swollen, her hands and feet were swelling, and her belly hurt all the time.  She hurt so badly that she couldn't even walk to the bathroom without screaming out in pain.  We were carrying her back and forth anytime she had to go. This poor baby was sick, and getting worse by the hour.  Friday evening Ryan and I sat down and had a long talk about what to do.  Children’s ER can be the best of the best or the worst of the worst depending on the staff you get. Our last experience there had been slightly worse than horrible and I was skeptical. We had to decide if we should take her to the ER that night, or we had one other option.  We had already decided that he would stay home with her on Saturday and I would go to work. I could see who was working where, find a doctor that we know and trust and he could take her there.  While we were debating on what to do Rylee fell asleep and we both decided to let her rest and we would see how the night goes, but try to wait until morning.  This decision to wait may have been the best choice of the whole two weeks. (I’ll get to that later!) I left for work the next morning, Rylee still sleeping, feeling guilty.  Am I a bad mom for leaving her there so sick???? Ryan had been working all day the last four days and I was exhausted.  Sadly, it would be more restful for me to go to work than to stay home. (And let’s be honest, I NEEDED A BREAK!) When I got to work that day I was a little bit disappointed. The doctor that I was working with was a great doctor, but would be the first one to tell you kids aren’t his specialty.  To top things off, I couldn’t find a doctor schedule anywhere to see who all was working.  I was just about to start calling the other clinics when the second provider for the day walked in. Usually this was a PA, and I’m OK with that, but on this day God sent me just what I needed!!!! The provider was not a PA, but a resident MD who worked part time in Children’s ER!!!! Thank you Jesus.  I told her about our week and what had been going on, as soon as she heard all the symptoms and that Rylee’s fever was what it was she said, “Tell him (Ryan) to bring her up here.” I could see the light bulb above her head but she wasn’t saying anything at all about what she was thinking.  Ryan waited until the kids woke up, got everyone ready and came up to the clinic.  She took one look at Rylee and said, “Stick out your tongue.” She then looked at Ryan and me and said, “Take her to Children’s right now.  I have a friend working, I will call her and tell her to be on the lookout for you.” What??? Not only are we going to Children’s, she’s calling ahead and telling them to wait for us????  I wasn’t sure what was going on but I then made my most regretful decision.  Money was tight for us at the time and so I told Ryan I would stay at work and IF they admitted her, then I would leave.  The doctor told me several times she WILL be admitted but I just wasn't sure. Again you never know with Children's. We made arrangements for the other kids and Ryan left.  Once he left, I started digging.  I asked questions I should have asked before he left. Things like what’s wrong, why are you calling, why are you so worried? I wasn’t answered directly yet.  She was still on the phone waiting for her friend to pick up.  The next thing I was asked was “What’s Rylee’s date of birth?” When she hung up I demanded, “ You have got to tell me what is going on. Should I leave?” Earlier when I let them know if she got admitted I would be leaving she told me that Rylee would absolutely be admitted.  So then the answers started. She said, “Rylee has Kawasaki Disease. She’s very sick. Her heart is racing. She will be placed on IV medication and watched for days.” I think I was in shock because all I said was "OK". I walked back to my desk and googled . I should know better, I really should. The first thing I read was on the Mayo Clinic Site.  As I was reading I thought to myself, ‘She can’t have this. It’s too rare.’ About an hour had passed since Ryan left and I was told the phone was for me.  It was him.  They admitted her.  This can’t be.  Did he even have time to get there? I left  quickly stopped by the house and threw a bag together.  I wouldn’t return home for 6 days.   When I got to the hospital Rylee was already on IV IG. An antibody to the disease.  It’s highly dangerous. For the first 30 minutes the nurse didn’t leave our room. She was constantly charting vitals.  After that she would come in every 15 minutes and take a complete set of vitals.  Once two hours had passed we were allowed to be moved to our room where vitals would be continued every hour for the duration of the 12 hour medication.  I haven’t had a lot of time to research this medication in great detail so I don’t feel comfortable sharing my half understood view of it.  I will say that while it can be used for many reasons we were told that it is so dangerous to children because for Kawasaki it has to be given in a high dose.  This is the reason they have to do vitals so often.  My Rylee would end up having to have a second round of this medication.  Talks of a third bag were in the air when she spiked another 102 fever after two full bags.  I would love to be able to blog in great detail about our hospital stay but honestly most of it is a blur.  My little girl was very, very sick!!! As soon as we were in our room they started a daily aspirin routine of 18 baby aspirin a day.  Her little heart was working on overload and this was the only way to keep her from having a heart attack.  The nurse when we were admitted was amazing.  She stayed late to try to help us get settled because things were happening and changing so fast.  Words like aneurysm, heart attack, and heart disease kept being said and I’m positive that Ryan and I looked confused and dazed.  How can this be? Lord, please don’t let this baby have a heart attack.  She’s only FOUR! Age didn’t matter at this point, my baby was struggling and she needed me to be there and be strong.  She deserved that.  I put all my emotions aside.  This wasn’t about me.  This was about Rylee. If this sweet four year old could do this then the least I could do was hold it together.  I was there day and night.  I showered in her room, I ate in her room, I slept in her room, I wasn’t leaving.  The hardest points where when she had to take the aspirin.  4 ½ every single time.  She hated them.  She’s never fought us to take medicine but she fought this with all of her strength.  We would be sweaty after trying to get them in her.  I wanted to cry and say this is not how my baby acts, she’s not “that kid” that you see all the time.  The nurses were so kind and so patient. One of them told us that hospital aspirin tastes worse than any other medicine they give.  It’s not the little orange ones you get at home.  On day three it hit me…why are we not teaching her to just swallow them? It was this hospital stay that Rylee learned to swallow pills.  Since they are technically chewable she still got some of the taste but not as much and we always had something right there to give her. She had the first of many Echo cardiograms and we were thrilled to learn that after the second bag of IV IG there didn’t appear to be any permanent heart damage.   Rylee spent six days in the hospital.  She was exhausted after any little excursion of energy. She might play or do an art project for 30 minutes and then she would sleep for 2 hours.  We watched Mulan for the first time, and the second, and about 100 more times after that. Once we found out we were getting to leave the hospital, we were instructed to treat her like a heart attack patient would be treated, low sodium, baby aspirin every day, and then there would be three more echo cardiograms.  There would be one final echo and an EKG when we saw cardiology in December. We learned that it had caused a heart murmur, be he also said it was totally functional.  It’s monitored by our pediatrician regularly. We weren’t allowed to do any vaccines for one year and there was the risk that any infection could cause the Kawasaki to re-appear.  Of course, Rylee got the flu and that meant two more hospital trips and another cardiologist and infectious disease doctor would become involved. There were talks of re-admitting, more IV IG, and multiple meetings between doctors trying to determine the best care plan for her.  In spite of all the bad, we are blessed.  This could have hurt her heart so badly, there could have been permanent damage, she could have had a heart attack, she could have died.  I’m so thankful that we waited until I went to work and that the Lord placed a doctor that knew about KD in my path. Had we gone to the ER on Friday, she wouldn’t have met the criteria to be diagnosed.  Had we just gone in we could have had a doctor that knew nothing about it.  We’ve learned on this journey that so many moms are ignored or dismissed because of lack of knowledge on the doctors parts.  We went to the doctor 3 times in a 5 day period.  I’m thankful that we did.  At the time, you feel like you are crazy but these kids get sick.  Stand up for them! You are their biggest advocate.  Rylee had strep many times before this and I knew something was wrong.  I would have never figured it out on my own because I had never even heard of this!  I’m so thankful my little girl is safe.  This last year has been exhausting and she’s still not out of the clear.  Once she hits puberty we will have to monitor her blood pressure and possibly start medication for that, but because we are informed we will not be surprised with a heart attack out of the blue.  My Rylee fought this disease like a warrior and overcame. We are truly blessed!