Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Posted on May 11, 2013 by

It takes some one really brave to be a mother, someone strong to raise a child and someone special to love someone more than herself. – Lilly

To all the brave, strong and special women out there – Happy Mother’s Day!!!

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Sometimes

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

Sometimes I catch a glimpse,
In softened waves of blue
My child, my heart  …when I see a smile
I can’t help but think of you

Sometimes these  waves fill oceans.
And feelings string on every shore
A collections of  each memory
And every way I wish for more

Sometimes I watch for  answers
Because each day I call to you
I ask for faith and courage
And  strength …to help me through

Sometimes I ask for bravery
Like dolphins  in the deep
Because time moves oh so slowly
And some times the road is  steep

Sometimes I want to scream
This was not what I had  planned
Why you ever suffered
A mom can’t understand

Sometimes I  hear your laughter
And remember you at play
But My Child I always miss  you
Not sometimes, but everyday
by Colleen Ranney

Ben August , 1988- May 10, 2010

Ben
August 4 , 1988- May 10, 2010

Posted in Grief | 6 Comments

Spring Into Spring

Posted on May 9, 2013 by

As we spring into spring around here, we begin the season of birthdays.  Lili celebrated her 6th birthday last week and today our middle son celebrates his 31st birthday!!  Yes, I’m old enough to have a 32-year-old and young enough to have a 6-year-old and 3-year-old  :-)

Spring is also a time for renewal and this year we are renewing our garden.  We had a garden for several years after moving into our house, but caring for our oldest son who has autism and a seizure disorder, made gardening a challenge.  It got to the point that we had more weeds than vegetables and I may have been able to deal with that if I didn’t have to look next door and see the neighbors immaculate garden.  Okay, even with the neighbor’s garden I couldn’t deal with the weeds, so we gave it up and it went back to grass.  A couple of years ago we put in a couple raised beds, but it didn’t work out very well, so this year we decided to reestablish our garden.  I really didn’t want to purchase a tiller and go thru trying to till up all the grass, so we started putting down layers of newspaper to kill off the grass and brought in some clean soil.  I laid cardboard in between the beds and as hubby mows the grass, we dump the clippings on top of the cardboard.  Hubby also built two raised beds so the girls could have their own little garden areas and then he built two strawberry towers.  Between getting everything set up and all the rain we’ve had, we’ve been a bit slow getting things planted, but we’re beginning to spring into spring – Finally!!!!

The strawberries are doing very well in the strawberry towers and the garden is being planted slowly but surely.

The strawberries are doing very well in the strawberry towers and the garden is being planted slowly but surely.

Some of the things I love most about spring are the flowers and smells that permeate the air.  In our yard the lilacs and Wisteria are providing amazing scents.  The Wisteria is far from my husband’s favorite trees in the yard.  It takes over everything and will attack you when mowing.  However, when in bloom, it’s beautiful.

DSC_0490

My Wisteria tree.

As I look around our yard and at our garden, I dream of the day we’ll have the bigger garden, more strawberry towers, blueberry and raspberry bushes, goats, chickens, a horse or two (if Lili has her way) and nothing but our home and landscape in photos.

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Hey Moms, What Do You Think?

Posted on May 6, 2013 by

TodayMoms.com did a recent survey of over 7,000 moms and the results claim that moms of 3 kids are more stressed than moms of 1 or 2 children.  In addition, moms who have 4 or more children report less stress than moms of 1 or 2 kids.

Even though I’m the mom of 5 kids, I’m probably not the best at judging the accuracy of these results.  I started out as the mom of 1 and then 2, but then ended up the single mom of 2.  I remarried and when my youngest son was 6-years-old I became the mom of 3.  I have to add that my oldest has autism which added a different dynamic to the family and a different level of stress.  Fast forward 18 years and I became the mom of 4, which in my world meant I started all over again with 1 child at home to care for.  Two years later I added child number 5, but only 2 in my care.  I could be wrong, but I have a feeling this survey didn’t include moms like me :-)

Even though I may not be the ideal candidate for this survey, based on my experience I would have to say that my stress level with 3 was higher than it is with 2.  However, it really is hard to judge how that would be different if I wasn’t a mom dealing with the challenges of raising a child with autism.

I also have to ask how much personality plays into the stress that moms feel?  Did this survey take that into account?  For example, our oldest daughter requires demands enjoys a lot of attention and entertainment.  Truly, more than any of our other children.  Some of that attention and entertainment is provided by her younger sister, but many times it is being provided by me.  Not that I shouldn’t be providing that for my kids, because I should.  However, if she had her way, I would be spending the majority of my day catering to her entertainment requirements.  In walks stress as I’m trying to take care of all my responsibilities while giving her some of my attention.  And I need to provide some of my attention to child #5.  What if she had the company of 2 or 3 more siblings closer in age to provide her with the attention and entertainment she enjoys?  Would I feel less stress or would that just add more to my overflowing plate?  I don’t know and my husband has made it clear that I won’t be getting the answers to those questions :-)   I have to assume that at least some of the moms surveyed have a similar challenge, but how did that factor into the results?

How many of the moms surveyed have children with autism or other challenges?

How many of the moms surveyed work outside the home vs. stay-at-home moms?

How many of the moms surveyed homeschool their kids vs. sending them to school outside the home?

While the article doesn’t provide answers to all my questions, I found this survey to be very interesting.

You can read the article by clicking on the link above, but here are some other interesting tidbits from the survey.

  • 46 percent of moms say their husbands/partners cause them more stress than their kids do.
  • 72 percent of moms stress about how stressed they are.
  • Biggest cause of stress: 60 percent say it’s lack of time to do everything that needs to get done.
  • 60 percent of moms say raising girls is more stressful than raising boys.
  • Nine out of 10 moms stress about staying fit and attractive.

So to all you moms out there, how many kids do you have and how would you rank your stress level?

Are you the mom of 4 or more kids?  If so, do you feel you are more or less stressed now than when you had 1, 2 or 3 kids?

And what are you thoughts on the other survey results?

 

 

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Protected: Where Does the Time Go?

Posted on May 5, 2013 by

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Posted in Family, Kid Stuff

The 20 Question Interview

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

Lili turns 6 tomorrow and to mark the occasion I conducted a 20 question interview to get her thoughts on the past, present and future.

1.  What have you enjoyed most about being 5? Playing race games.

2.  What do you think will be the best part about being 6? Being taller than mommy.  (Not sure how much she expects to grow this year, but apparently she is expecting big things.)

3.  If you could do whatever you wanted on your birthday, what would you do? Go to the aquarium to see the beluga whales and a puffer fish.

4.  What do you like best about you?  My teeth (She has lost 2 teeth and has 3 more loose teeth)

5.  What is your favorite food?  Hot dogs and pizza

6.  What is your favorite game?  Monopoly Junior

7.  What is your favorite movie?  The Wild Thornberrys

8.  What is your favorite t.v. show?  Octonauts

9.  What do you love most about Naomi?  Nothing

10.Does Naomi ever do anything to upset you?  Yes, she hits me.

11. What food does mommy cook best?  Cookies and birthday cake.

12.  What is your favorite thing to do with daddy?  Building things and playing games with him.

13.  What is your favorite school subject?  Math

14.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  An Ocotonaut

15.  Do you think you’ll get married someday?  No.

16.  How many children do you want to have?  1, no 2

17.  Where do you think you’ll live when you grow up?  In the ocean

18.  What will your house look like?  An ocotopod  (I think I see a pattern here)

19.  What pets do you think you’ll have?  1 horse and 1 Papillion

20.  What is the thing you want most in your life?  Money

It will be interesting to see how her answers change from year to year :-)

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Rain, Rain Go Away

Posted on April 23, 2013 by

Central IL has been in the news a lot lately due to the record level flooding in the area.   The Illinois River hit flood stage yesterday and we got to see it up close.  As the girls and I were on our way to a field trip yesterday, we crossed one of the Illinois River bridges.  I couldn’t believe how much it had flooded that area.  From the time I crossed the bridge I saw nothing but water for another 1/2 mile or maybe a little more and it was a little scary to see just how high it was.  There couldn’t have been more than 3 feet from the top of the river to the top of the interstate in places.   Wow!!!!!

We don’t live that close to the river, but there were certainly a lot of flooded yards and basements in our area.  Fortunately, we were spared any water in our basement.  Our sump pump did it’s job running every 20-30 seconds for a couple of days, keeping our basement nice and dry.  However, I was worried about us potentially losing power.  No power = no working sump pump, so I sent hubby out to buy a generator as extra precaution.  I have to say that we both feel better knowing we’ll have some power at any point we lose power in the future.

The rains finally moved out of the area and gave us a few days to dry out a bit.  That allowed us to get outside to continue working on our garden project.  Unfortunately, it’s raining again today which means we’ll need a couple more days of no rain so we can get back to it.  While I love seeing all the green grass, leaves on the trees, blooming flowers and the new grass growing where we laid seed, I am ready for the rain to go away and the sun to come out for more than 2 or 3 days so I can get everything done on our garden that needs to be done.  How about 5 or 6 days?  I think that would be good.  Then again, all this gardening and yard work is showing me just how out of shape I am.  Maybe 1-2 days of rain after 1-2 days of hard work isn’t such a bad thing after all.

So, how’s the weather in your neck of the woods?

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