Two and half weeks!

My fast from fiction ends in two and a half weeks! The first week was hard, but after that my life became incredibly busy all of a sudden. I think it was a good thing. If I wasn't busy, I would have caved. I haven't really thought much about it. I even went to the library with Lauren yesterday and didn't even stop in the fiction section! I took out books on home organization instead....yes, I felt a bit like a loser with my big stack of DIY books. Anyway, I think that this has been a good experience. My priorities will be different when this is over!

Organization Destination

Ok, I have something to confess....I have a problem when it comes to organizing papers.. I can make things look organized at a glance, but if you look closer it's really a mess. One of the biggest issues that Paul and I have is trying to find something when we need it. It's the typical "Where is ___?  "I don't know. I thought you had it."  Things seemed to just end up in a stack on the desk. I finally decided that I was sick of it. I found an awesome website that is geared toward helping you organize your home. It's http://www.organizedhome.com/  I love it! I am slightly OCD and this site helps me use it in a positive way.  This site helped me put together a whole filing system that is practical and something that both Paul and I will use. I'm so excited to be free of all my paper clutter! No more sifting through papers!

Feeling old...

You know when you were in your early 20's and you could stay up all night and still function the next day? Well, today I am reminded that I am in my 30's. Last night I was able to witness an incredible birth and see a new little life come into the world. I got home home at 3:30 this morning and then had to be up to go to my little part time job at 6:30. Lauren was very nice and let me lay on the couch for 20 minutes when I got home this afternoon! I don't know why I get so shocked at myselfwhen it takes me longer and longer to recover from these overnight appearences that these babies like to make! All of my doula friends call it the baby "hangover," No matter how short or long the birth is you always come out extremely wrung out. I really can't complain, though...being able to witness the miracle of life is totally worth losing a little sleep over!

I have to share a funny comment from yesterday. I have been using Aveda hair products and if you have used them you know that they smell "earthy." Paul jokingly commented on my smelling like a hippie. Lauren heard him and says " What? My mommy smells like a hippo? Paul and I both cracked up.  Anyway, that was a bit of humor from our day....

Update on the Little Lady...

I really need to put some pictures up on here! Sorry I'm such a slacker....Ok, we had a neurology appointment today. I have to say that I love our neurologist. He listens! Today was her follow up to see how her medication was doing. Good news is the siezures are pretty much gone from what we can tell. Bad news is the side effects from the medication are causing issues. I know that every medication has side effects and I  am living in a dream world if I think that I can find one that is perfectly harmless. Lauren's personality seemed to alter slightly once we started this medication. She is very irritable and gets angry really easily. This is not at all our happy go lucky little girl. She complains of headaches and stomach pain daily and we have to force feed her half the time. Some days she is fine, but other days you have to bribe her.When your four year old is in the fetal position on her bed crying because her stomach hurts, you start to realize that this isn't normal. I went into the appointment thinking that we were going to have to live with this, but the Dr. listened to all the issues and suggested that we either lower her dosage of the current medication or switch her to one the has less side effects. For right now we are choosing to just lower her dosage and see if her side effects lessen at all. If it doesn't work, we have the other option. The tricky thing is trying to tell the difference between the problems.  It's kind of a guessing game right now to see which issues are medication induced and which ones are just due to the epilepsy. Epileptics suffer from headaches sometimes, but they can also be caused by medication. The same thing with the mood swings. It's hard to process the fact that even though we don't see the seizures anymore because of the anti-siezure med, she is still has epilepsy. The epilepsy is having it's own effects on her brain while we are just seeing the outward medication effects. I am very thankful to have options now, but feel a little overwhelmed. Cutting down her dosage means that there is a possiblity of her having siezures again until we get the dosage right...slightly scary. You know what, though?  We serve a God who is sovereign over all things. That is my comfort!

Let's go shopping!

I am always looking for unique jewelry and things. A few months ago I discovered etsy.com. Now my very creative sister n law is on there! Go check her out!
http://faradaisyjean.etsy.com/  

Time goes by...

The hardest thing about this fast from fiction is filling up my time with productive things and not replacing my addiction with another one! I am doing better than I thought I would.  I have only read one fiction book in two weeks. The book on cd that I listened to on the way home from my mom's doesn't count because it was an educational biography! At least that's what I'm telling myself...
Lauren and I made it back from D.C. in one piece, barely....one slightly scary event involving driving through a blizzard and having a tow truck pull us out of a snow bank. We were fine and the car was fine. The most hilarious part was Lauren yelling from the back seat that daddy would be quite upset with me if I went "sledding" down the road again! I thank God for His protection over us! I have some pictures to post from our trip, but I can't figure out how to get them off my camara phone onto the computer. My digital camara died as soon as I actually wanted to use it! Figures!
March is looking to be pretty busy. Waiting on two babies to make their way into the world and trying to get some massage clients in where I can.  I find myself wondering why I feel so worn out sometimes when I only have one child. There are so many of you who have multiple children and full time jobs! You brave women, you! Maybe I'm just getting wimpy...

Can I do this?

Ok, people. Here is a challenge for you. Our pastor gave us a 40 day challenge this week. No, we aren't catholic, but it does coinside with lent. Think about something in your life that you give more praise to than God? Is it technology (iphone, t.v.), is it food? What do you spend most of your attention on?  Now, you don't have to give it up all together. You can just limit it a bit. You can't give up eating, but you can limit a food addiction you might have. But don't give up chocolate and substitute it with skittles either!  Anyway, my issue is that I read way to many novels. I read mystery stuff...James Patterson, Harlan Coban, Lee Child and a whole lot of christian fiction. The problem is that I should be spending more time in the Word instead of reading whatever novel I have chosen. This might sound slightly ridiculous to you, but I have a serious reading addiction. Whenever I have a free moment I read. I read four to five 300 - 400 page novels in week on top of all the books for four year olds that we have around! So, my goal is to focus more on christian non-fiction (like a biography or a book on prayer) and Bible reading instead of the fiction.  As soon as we started talking about things that we should spend less time doing, I was extremely convicted.

Happy Day?

Well, Valentines day has come and gone. No, I did not get my Lexus, but I did get a rice cooker that I had been asking for and chocolate strawberries. Can't complain! We played hookie from church and drove up to Indianapolis to see my parents who happened to be in town for the weekend. Lauren had been asking for days to go visit her grandma so we  let Lauren go home with them.  I will go drive up this weekend to pick her up in D.C.  I was so excited to have a day or so to get some things done around the house. I purged Lauren's room and sorted through her too small clothes. I got caught up on all the laundry. Now that it's been a day, I miss my girl! It probably wouldn't be so bad if we weren't snowed in here and my husband wasn't going to be at work all night! So much for my week of valentines.....

God is so good!

Lauren's MRI results were normal! Nothing abnormal..no tumors, lesions or anything scary. Such a relief. I feel like we can finally breathe again. When we told Lauren that they didn't find anything in her head she said "Oh, wow! Is it empty?"  Gotta love the way they think!

Valentines day is coming ...hint, hint

A girl can dream can't she?....sigh

The MRI Experience

We got up at 5:45am  so that we could be at Kosairs on time this morning. Everything is going well and we make it with time to spare. Lauren had not been allowed to eat or drink anything at all since she was going to have to be sedated. On the way there she asks for a piece of gum and not thinking I gave it to her. When the nurse asked if she had anyhting to eat or drink, we remembered the gum. "Lauren spit out the gum." I can't, it's in my belly!" So, her test got pushed back eight hours so that we could wait for the gum to digest!. It was great fun telling our child that she couldn't eat anything for eight more hours! When we went back to the hospital to get the MRI done we were quite entertained by a very slap happy four year old who was so relaxed from the medication that she couldn't even sit up straight and just giggled for an hour! At least now we know that when she is under the influence she is quite happy. :) It took her a while to come out of the sedation, but she seems pretty good tonight. Hopefully we will have results within the next few days.

Victory?

I think I may have conquered the caffiene addiction. No more splitting headache or serious cravings. The day that my headache was the worst, was the day that we ran out of tylonol in our house! I toughed it out and I am glad that I did because going through that much pain is enough to keep me from getting myself hooked again.  Geez, I sound like I've just been through drug rehab! Anyway, during this process I only let myself have diet, caffiene free drinks. I'm hoping I have cut some of my refined sugar addiction, too. It's amazing the things that we don't think are a big deal are really big addictions in our lives! I would have never thought that caffiene was that big of an issue until I went through this.

What was I thinking!

For some reason when I get an idea I have to do it all the way. Last week I decided that I needed to cut back on caffiene. No, I thought well, why just cut back? Why not just cut it out completely? This is day three now. Monday and Tuesday weren't too bad. Today? Well, today I want to hurt somebody. I don't know if it is a mixture of my sinus issues along with withdrawl, but I think I might die today. Lauren keeps looking at me very curiously and asking "Are you ok mommy?" I just close my eyes and moan in agony... I don't know why I couldn't be ok with just cutting back. A little caffiene is ok right? I am trying to cut down on the soda intake so I thought well, cut out caffiene! Next I will want to cut sugar completely out....somebody stop me!

Yummm....

Do you ever think about a certain food and you just can't get it out of your head? This was mine today.