A MIXING OF FAITHS

After sharing with our family Declan's desire to celebrate Hanukkah, my husband's aunt(a nun) felt it necessary to send our children a "Christmas" coloring book, each page has a prayer and a picture of the Christmas Story. I thought this was very nice until I spoke to my mother-in-law who informed me that the book was not sent so much out of kindness as to remind us that OUR Family is Christian, and we need to refocus the children on that(I will have you know that at first glance of the book, all three of my kids knew it was a story about baby Jesus).

Boy, did I want to throw the book away after that! We (mostly me) have chosen to raise our children with as much knowledge as we can about other religions and cultures. We live in an area with great diversity and do all we can to introduce the kids to it. We also travel a great deal, mostly to vacation, but this is another great opportunity for our children to encounter people different than they are. Oh well, I will get off my high hose now, and accept the book as a kind gift and enjoy helping my kids learn about Jesus, after all, that is what Christmas is all about, right?

SANTA ARE YOU OUT THERE?

I cannot take it anymore. Enough is enough. I am so sick of being sick or having my house full of sick people. We were back at the doctor today. Maggie has raging double ear infections and Ben pneumonia. I did not go to the doctor myself, but really need to, I feel so ill. I cannot breath through my nose at all, and my chest hurts when I breath. My cough is so hard that I almost wet my pants every time I cough(I think birthing three children is not helping with that:) All in all our house is full of nasty, nasty germs. I carry around a can of Lysol and Clorox wipes and clean everything I can. I am not sure what else to do.

SANTA, IF YOU ARE LISTENING, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A HEALTH FAMILY!!!!

HANUKKAH

Our Menorah hunting did not go as smoothly has we had hoped. Ben and I drove around town for an hour and a half, stopping by 10 stores and calling 2 others before we finally found a store that had one(thank you Bed, Bath and Beyond!). I could not believe the number of stores I went into where when I asked if they had a Menorah, they asked what it was, and they were serious. Anyway, we got ours and only missed one day of Hanukkah. We have lit a candle each night since at sundown, as we put on our Christmas Tree and Outside Christmas lights. The kids have really enjoyed learning about Hanukkah and even ate the latkes they helped make for dinner. Best part of all, they never asked about eight night of presents:)

PARTY ALL NIGHT!!!

Let me update everyone, there is alot to say, but I will share only a bit now. First, the baby is still sick. We are on day number 4, and I am so done. She has been in bed with us every night which has not made for good sleep. She sleeps for about 2 hours from about 10pm-2am then is up and down for the rest of the night. It is no good. This morning, Killi decided to join the party and get up at 4am with a fever and throwing up, it was awesome. A fun party we were having in our bed. Everyone is home from school today and resting, I am hoping tomorrow brings us some good health and sleep:)

AS THE BAND BEGAN TO PLAY OUT OF TUNE...

I really need to vent. Today, Ben and I had another meeting with the Child Find people about Killi. The outcome, they will come and evaluate her at school in the next few weeks. What this will do I'm not sure. She has been evaluated time and time again and nothing has come of it. Every time THEY evaluate her, she is fine or borderline or not behind enough to qualify for services; yet every time she is evaluated privately, a determination has been made that she has developmental delays. How can this be? I don't want to believe that they don't want what is best for her and are just blowing us off, but that is how it feels. I am so angry. I am so sad. I am so frustrated. I don't know where to turn next. We have been referred to The Kluge Center at the University of Virginia, and have gotten an appointment there in March. We are happy to have the appointment, but we now need to change our health insurance because none of the specialists we've been referred to take the insurance we have now. So, this means an additional $55 a pay period for health insurance, plus deductibles, plus God knows what else. I will do whatever I need to to help her, but I am really getting fed up with the system, Our we doing early intervention or not?

Next, I'd like to move on to the issue of Maggie being sick. I am not sure what is wrong with her but she has a fever and looks like she has pink eye. She also has a cough. Along with this, if it is possible, she has wanted me to hold her more today than others. I did not think that was possible as I feel all I do is hold/carry her around. I am hoping this plague skips over me as I am only a week out of a cold, shingles and an ear infection. I am sure I will not be that lucky, but I can hope, right?

To top the day, Declan announced at dinner tonight that he was not going to eat tonight until we lit our menorah. We our not Jewish, so I do not have one handy. He learned about Hanukkah at school today, and while I think that is great and I am very happy to have a menorah, pitching a fit at dinner tonight, was not what I needed. So, tomorrow I will search out a menorah for our house and refresh my knowledge of Hanukkah for dinner tomorrow.

Now I am tired as I am suffering a bout of insomnia, and have lots to do, 4 papers, finish Christmas cards, and mail out 50 invitations out for Megan's baby shower. I better get moving. I know tomorrow will be better:)

DON"T STOP BELIEVIN'

I hate the winter! The cold weather has just begun and already I have but on about 5lbs and I am sure there will be more to come. I worked so hard to shed the 30lbs I lost over the last 8 months, and now it is coming back. I guess the fact that I have stopped walking on the treadmill is not helping or the huge amounts of coke I've been drinking. I know I need to get back to walking and cut back on the soda, I just feel like I have no time. I know that is a no excuse, and I need to do it, and I am going to. Tomorrow is a new day, and I hope it's a walking day:)

GOOD NIGHT MOON

Sleep. That is all I've wanted to do all day, so I pretty much have. It was 9:45, before I got out of bed, and then all I did was eat. I was back on the chair asleep by 11:00. I sat there for an hour, then moved to the couch where I slept on and off until 2:15 when I got up to do the dishes (dishwasher broke today, think it hasn't sunk in yet!). I was back asleep by 3 and didn't get up until 5 to help Ben get the kids ready for swimming and get ready for my hour alone with Maggie. I did make the kids dinner, clean up the playroom(Ben let them play all day and never clean up!), ran a vacuum, and do some more dishes, before I got Maggie to bed. Now, all the kids are in bed. Homework is done and I need to go back to sleep. I wish I knew why I felt so shitty. I don't know the last time I slept this much.