Making holiday memories when you're far from family

Check out my guest post at MommyReporter.com!

Thanksgiving vs the goats...and a baby too!

I recently entered a drawing over at A Southern Fairy Tale and took the challenge to tell my favorite Thanksgiving memory. For the last 11 years Thanksgiving has been completely tied to the memory of my oldest daughter's birth.

It was a rainy Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I was sitting on the couch watching Mr. Rogers when my water broke. I called my husband who was in class (as an undergrad!) and a neighbor to drive me to the dr's office to confirm that my water broke.

At the Dr's, the nurse checked with the magic paper and said my water hadn't broken but she'd go look under the microscope anyway. While we were waiting, the baby moved and I found myself sitting in a very large puddle of water. The nurse came back and said "nope your water hasn't broken" and I pointed out the puddle of water :P Needless to say I was given a pass straight over to the hospital.

I remembered how much the contractions hurt with my first induced labor, and hoping to avoid that, I asked for an epidural. The lady came in and it felt like she was stabbing me in the back and pain went down to my toes. I decided the epidural wasn't worth it and told her to go away.

Hubby and I played some cribbage. We started watching a James Bond movie.

Those pesky contractions started hurting a bit. We were about 2 hours in to it now. I asked for the epidural again. New anesthesiologist. I sat up. They prepped my back. I had a bad contraction and said "I feel the head!"

yeah.

So they have to finish what they are doing. They get me back down and say "Don't push!" and I'm like "yeah right!"

There's nothing like having an unmedicated birth when you weren't planning on one!

And soon enough my 7 lbs 3 oz daughter entered the world. Angels sang. We were happy. All was well.

I was very anxious to get out of that hospital and home. I did NOT want to spend Thanksgiving eating hospital food. But my pleading went on deaf ears and I was stuck in the hospital on Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving was traditionally hosted by my mother-in-law. At the time, their home didn't have central heat. D pointed out that a one day old baby probably didn't belong in a home with no heat. I pointed out then that he better spend most of the day with me AND bring me a plate of good food.

The plan was going well until the phone rang in my hospital room. It was my FIL. My sister's dog had gotten loose and had (and there's no nice way to say this) eaten their two goats. It was a mess. MIL and SILs were hysterical. There were goat guts everywhere. And D needed to go help.

So I was left abandoned in the hospital with crappy food while my husband went to help with the crime scene clean up.

Even tho is it a rather gross story of Thanksgiving, it has left me quite thankful of the blessings I do have: Family. I had a beautiful daughter and I didn't have to personally deal with the goat mess. And, it's a great story! Leelee has a very dark sense of humor so having her birth story tied up with the vicious murder of two goats by a dog is actually quite fitting. LOL

Menu Plan Monday=Nov 9

Worst case scenario for us--Ida changes her track and we have a very soggy Tuesday or Wednesday and lose power for part of the day. That means my plans of crockpotting most of the week will have to go on hold.

So we're going with quick and easy and using the oven this week.

Monday: buttermilk fried chicken
Tuesday: Beef Stew
Wednesday: Zesty Chicken Tortilla Bake
Thursday: goulash
Friday: spaghetti
Saturday: kids choice pizza
Sunday: Sauerbraten

Noise Annoys

Being a parent is hard. People are always asking me how hard it is to raise a large family.I don't think it's all that different than raising three kids. Once the kids outnumber the adults, it's really more about crowd control. It's not harder, just noisier.

You really learn to tune things out, which is sometimes not always a good thing. You get used to a certain level of noise and when it gets quite, you know something is wrong. We visited friends this summer who have two autistic boys. There were 12 kids in the house between our two families. Needless to say, their autistic boy became overstimulated very quickly. He literally ran circles around the kitchen table flapping his arms. None of the adults paid it any mind. It was really no big deal. He wasn't hurting anything. Compared to the excited girlie shrieks, it wasn't even all that annoying. He was just there, doing his thing.

My kid on the spectrum, however, deals with things differently. He goes off in to his own little world by delving in to the computer. He's learned to tune out everything that is too much for him by hyperfocusing. And, like when mama and daddy tune things out, it's not always a good thing.

We've used the computer and TV as a reward for good behavior. The children get an allotment each day and if they go above and beyond, they can earn more time. Conversely, if they break the rules, they lose their TV and computer time. This has always been the rule at our house. Unfortunately, with so many people in the house, the TV seems like it's always on because it's always someone's turn. The noise level goes up! up! up!

And remember, this mama has ADD and my sensory trigger is noise. This creates an unhappy mama. This then creates a downward spiral of mama's mood as the day goes on. By bedtime mama is ready to pull her hair out. I end up staying up way too late just because it's quiet. On a good night, I'll turn in around midnight. On a bad night, I'll get sucked into the internet...like last night when I watched that woman give birth on a webcam.

I get up with the kids and usher everyone off to school. By this point, I'm completely exhausted and left to deal with homeschooling the oldest, parenting the terrorist 3 year old and the 7 month old. As the day goes on my mood sours because I'm tired! DUH! How many tantrums have you seen your toddlers throw because they are overly tired?

So now we're trying to work out some sort of balance. How can mama get the quiet she needs? How can the kids be allowed to be kids? How can mama get some sleep?

The biggest change for us is going to come from dropping the homeschooling. The boy is going back to public school. I'll blog on that more later. Long story short: We had a learning contract and he's in non-compliance. Sometimes following through with consequences means doing things you'd rather not do.

The bright side, is now I get to not only finish weaning my 3 yr old from me (she's not even really nursing, she just asks and pretends) we get to wean her from TV! I think this may even prove more painful LOL But the noise level in the house should go down and I'm really hoping that simple change will make for a happier mama. And maybe less TV will result in a happier 3 year old!

Really? I didn't think I was dumb...

I consider myself a pretty savvy mom. I don't call the doctor over everything. If I call the doctor, he knows it's serious.

But today, not one but two of my kids fake sicked me out. With daddy in bed with a little worse than a man cold and a teething baby, I'm already not sleeping too well. I guess they just got in under the radar.

Leelee managed to fake it this morning. She had an actual temperature and if anything is over 99 degrees they are sending them home from school straight away. No other symptoms. Just the vague "I don't feel good" and she brought me the thermometer. Somehow she got just enough of a fever to stay home. One of those two sick to go to school (because everyone is terrified of swine flu) but too well to stay home.

The school called this afternoon and I knew it couldn't be good news. Ben who had claimed he was sick this morning and did not have a fever was now complaining of sore throat and tummy ache. These were the exact symptoms his friend A has. Great. Friend A has strep.

Meanwhile D is moaning and groaning and sleeping. He got up and played video games then went back to bed. I'm thinking we're going to have to institute the same rule for Daddy as the kids: If you're too sick to go to work or school you're too sick to have the TV and computer!

While I ran to pick up Ben (and Kari because I was not about to drive back to the school for her in an hour), I called the dr's office to try to figure out what medication D can take. Drug interactions and all that stuff. Ran to walmart with my "sick" kids in tow because I'm just that kind of mom...got as far as putting the car in park before realizing that I left my debit card at home. By the time I got back home, I found Leelee outside playing and DH snoozing. Thankfully the little terrorist three year old was also out cold so the damage to the house was minimal.

Back to Walmart I ran and picked up some meds. Came home and collapsed. I couldn't help it. Mama fell asleep.

When I woke up, the house was quiet. That's never a good thing, either. It was quiet because my "sick" children were all outside playing.

Somehow Ben managed to fool the school nurse, too.

Amazingly, the minute I ask anyone to do anything around here they are all too sick to move.

I am so done with this.

Everyone is going to school, including D, tomorrow. And for good measure I'm going to send them all to school Saturday, too. Punishment and all that.

Cool things I've learned

I'm really excited about something I learned last week. It's not earth shattering. It's not even profound. It was just one of those cool tips that won't change my life but will make things easier.

Did you know that storing your PLASTIC WRAP in the FREEZER will prevent it from sticking to itself when you take it off the roll?

I tried it. It works. WOOHOO

I'd love to compile a list of "hey wow! that works!" tips. If you have one, please share it here and I'll make a big post!

Little Blends Winner!

I'm excited to announce the winner of the Little Blends contest :)

It goes to Storm, the Psychotic Housewife!

Yay!

Pop over to her blog and tell her congrats!