Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Update

Updating here to let you prayer warriors know
YES she is a Type 1 Diabetic.

Just like her mama.
Just like her grandma.

(yet they still tell me it's not hereditary?)


They did a simple urine test and 
her glucose was high as were her ketones.

We have an appointment tomorrow morning in Minneapolis

Lord, please give me the grace to be all  You and she need me to be.

Thank you all for your prayers.
You are awesome and I will pray for you in return!

(not sure I'll get to a "Thankful" post, I'm feeling rather sad tonite)


A Prayer Request, An Update and Decluttering!

First a special prayer request for this little Sweetie Pie!
Bridget here is 4 1/2 and I am suspecting Type 1 Diabetes in her.
I started noticing last week, frequent urination, from the unquenchable thirst she has. 
I've noticed irritability, moodiness (mostly to a whiney mood) and she's been very lethargic.
She has funky breath too.
(it's not sweet, but funky)

I have been a Type 1 Diabetic since I was 10.
At 10 I understood what was happening, I could take care of myself.
(I'm not saying it was not hard, because it was)

My prayer these past few days has been, 
"Please not now Lord" 

And since yesterday, it has been "Lord give me the grace to handle this"
Because at this age (4 1/2)
It will be all me handling it.

I also confess, I've been praying, 
"Please Lord, no more suffering, I can't take any more"

I'm selfish and it becomes all about me doesn't it?
It's not about me

Lord, please give me the grace to handle all of this.

I'm begging for prayers from you.
For her.

She has an appointment at 3:45 today.
I'll update when I can.
 
 
These ducks have been in our yard since Sunday!  
(It's been raining since then!)
 
 Onto the whole moving thing.


The selling of my husband's business fell through.
Way too long of a story to go into
but I will say that we've gone onto PLAN B

My husband's goal is to try to get his business running without him 
there, so we can eventually move.

That may take some time with all the Obamacare crap changes.
He's looking into his options now with all that

Our ultimate goal would be to list the house by Fall
(Plan A was June)
and move before winter comes again
But if that doesn't happen by then, we will try 
to leave for part of the winter this year
and list the house in the spring and move then.

The good thing is where we move is up to us.
(well, God of course)
But it doesn't depend on a job anymore.
Because he will still have his business here, in Minnesota.

We are still hoping to move to Arizona or Texas.
But now, we are leaning towards Texas.
San Antonio, Corpus Christi areas...someplace warm 
and closer to the ocean!
Arizona is not out, it is still a possibility.


It's hard for me to not have a concrete plan.
I'm a concrete person, I have to have goals, I have to have a plan

SO our Plan B will have to suffice for now.
(as vague as it is)

Onto
DECLUTTERING!!
 

Remember that broken dresser I told you about?
Well, this was our solution:

 My 7 year old loves yellow, and this is her dresser.
It's bright, but it looks way better than the other way...
Doesn't it?
(we changed the room around too)
 This is another Goodwill pile.
I'm calling it "Goodwill" but we actually donate to a place called
"Treasure Chest" they give all proceeds to  help Birthline,
 a pro-life pregnancy help place

I go to garage sales, but will never have a garage sale.
It's easier to give it away
and we give EVERYTHING away.

(with the exception  of one thing, I'll show you later)

 Baby blankets and that is my "Boppy" pillow
(I'm washing the cover)
Only used for one baby...sad to let it go
Baby blankets, sad to let go too....
I decided to go through them and only keep the homemade ones
to give to the kids when they have babies someday.
(and they are treasures)

More about baby stuff later...
 We've gone through CD's, Games, Tae Kwon Do equipment
and given it all away.
 I took down all school posters and art work hanging on the walls...even in the school room!
(I took down those hooks later, and that bag over there is gone to Goodwill too)
 I forgot to take a "Before" picture, but this is my schoolroom cupboard and shelves
all organized.
Trust me, they were much more cluttered "Before",
 with things piled up on top too.

I have to admit, school stuff and Art supplies are the hardest for me to 
give up.
I'm not giving it all up, this is what we've kept.

When decluttering, it has helped a ton,
to say to  myself:
"Do we want to move this 1500 miles?"
"How often do we use this?"

If the answer is "no" or "never" 
It's gone.

 I have to admit, the snowpants and boots were easy to give up!
With the exception of keeping enough for one more year if we need to.

 Although, Tom gave his coat to Bob here.
I looked all year for a coat for him!!
His specifics were:
Blue or green
Snap up (no zipper)
Big pockets, big enough for his hat and gloves

Easy, huh?
NO
There are no SNAP up coats with those specs!!

Then, I saw him wearing a spring coat with a zipper one day.
I asked him if he could zip the zipper, 
and sure enough he could!
(one of his arms is partially paralyzed)

SO he tried Tom's coat and he LOVED it

If we are here next winter, Tom is out of a coat!




 My wedding dress.
Yes, I decluttered it.
I heard about this organization:
They take wedding gowns (used)
and turn them into gowns for babies that pass away at the hospital.
Parents are unprepared usually
 and this gives them something beautiful to bury their baby in.
 It really wasn't hard to give away
(a little wrinkled here)
with that long train, I am hoping they get a few outfits made out of it.

I asked myself, "Do I really need my wedding dress laying around in a box?"
I want the girls to get a dress in their own style when they get married.
 Old bouquet...gone
(I made it)
Why did I keep this anyway?
 My veil...will be used again for a First Holy Communion!
 I had one daughter who said she will want to wear my dress when she gets married.
She's also the one that wants to be a nun.
I told her with those puffy sleeves, she will NOT want to wear it.
 Here's the address if you are interested.
I'm not very sentimental, am I?
I have pictures.  I'm sentimental about pictures.
 Tom got rid of his baseball collection!
This was HUGE
This he did SELL.
It was worth 8000 bucks
He could have gotten that if he had the time to list and sell them on E-Bay.
(he doesn't)
And that would have taken a long time to get rid of them, like months.

 So he sold them to a card shop, all as one whole set for 
1500 bucks.

 He'd been collecting since he was a young boy.
 He did not get rid of the Star Wars book though...

 Our dress-up box
I have to go through this but I want to give it all away.

I'm going to admit here, that I actually HATE dress-up.
I hate saying that, but I do.  
I feel like I'm preventing my kids from being creative or something by saying that, 
and by not having dress-up.

But, I hate when they do get it out, it is all over the house, and we find pieces for days after.
It's just a BIG mess.

It's a big box that takes up a lot of space
And I don't like it.
I can get rid of it, can't I?

I never had dress up.
I turned out OK.
Right?
What would you do?

 Goodwill run
Stamps...I gave those two middle boxes full of stamping stuff.
(Stampin' up to be exact)
Even the lady at Treasure Chest was like,
 "Wow, you are giving all these beautiful stamps away?"
 I told her I still had one whole large bin at home that I was saving.
This holds everything though, card stock and envelopes
chalks, markers, lots of stamps and ink pads....

 Now onto hard things.
Baby stuff.

OH, my goodness, this is 15 full bins of baby clothes up to my youngest 
boy and girl.  

15 bins waiting in a certain area
I'm holding onto them til right before we move.

I'm 44 1/2 now and have not been pregnant in over 2 years.
It's hard to give up, because there is still that hope for one more.

I'm keeping my high chair (always good to have a high chair for company)
My stroller (I think)  I guess, if we move next spring, I'll give that up then.

My baby Pack and Plays (I have 2) I'm keeping)
My baby bath, now that is so hard to giveaway...why? 
Is it because I love baby baths?
Is it because I loved that actual tub?

Proving to be a hard one to give away.
 Keeping all  homemade items
Like this beautiful knit sweater, 
knit for Little Red, from Jenny!

Someday his wife will use this for their babies.

Gave away all old shoes already...like these, now why were these hard to give away?
They are so dang cute that's why!

I'm also finding that the girl clothes are harder to giveaway than the boy things.
Why is that?

 I have a ton of extra empty bins now...
I went through all the kids clothes and got rid of a ton 
that either we didn't ever wear or whatever
but I have 6 bins in the sizes 6-8
Most of them are 7-8 size.
(with another whole bin of jammies)
Having 3 girls that overlapped sizes for a while 
and all different body types and personalities 
left my 4 year old with the pick of the crop!
I don't know how to lessen this....

Decluttering is a struggle from within.
But once it's done, it feels so freeing.

Once it's done, nothing is missed. 
If you have any questions, please ask!

I tried to get this out quick and probably did not do 
a very complete job of explaining the whole process!


Monday, April 28, 2014

The Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays

Can't help but sing this song today....It's been raining since yesterday morning and expected to continue through the end of the week! Not complaining...at least it's not SNOW.  (it would be nice if it were 60 though, instead of 40)

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Thankful for Everyday Life Link-up

(you can use this picture if you want for your own link-up)
 
 Thankful for God's Divine Mercy and the blessings of Easter
 Thankful my favorite day of the year is coming this Sunday!

From St Faustina's diary:
"...On that day are opened all the divine floodgates 
through which graces flow. 
 Let no soul fear to draw near to Me,
 even though its sins be as scarlet."

Divine floodgates!!!
FLOODGATES!!
That is All the graces possible, that is as much graces as at Baptism!!

 Thankful this Sunday, these 2 great men will be canonized saints in 
the Holy Catholic Church.
Pope John Paul II will be called
"John Paul the Great"

How awesome is that?
It's pretty dang Awesome!!

I love this man and it brings tears to my eyes, 
the joy I feel of his canonization.

I'm so excited about it.
 Thankful for pre-teen slumber parties.
At this age, there is no planning on my part,
it's so easy, no special cakes or games,
They do it all!
They planned a big fashion show that took up the afternoon.
 They went for a couple walks around the block
(don't you love the kiddos in the background?)
 I love that my oldest daughter included her younger sister
(because we made her)
and it turned out really good.
I know they both had a wonderful time!

(note on slumber parties...we never used to do them and don't with the younger ones
but now that they are older, and we've known these families for years and years
we do them.  SO after we move, we will NOT be doing slumber parties any more.
I could probably do a whole post on this one subject, but 
there is just something about staying up late together, 
talking til all hours of the  night in your sleeping bag, 
waking up together and having breakfast together that makes it special. 
I have special memories of overnights with my teen friends
 and they are all good ones!)

 All I had to do was provide food 
Ice cream during the movie
(they watched Prince of Persia)
 They even dished it up themselves!
 Fun times!
 Breakfast:
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, yogurt, fruit and juice!
 Then, it's time to go home...
 One girl lives right by the giant snowman!
Thankful we were able to see him again...although he's not looking so good now....
 Thankful for the beautiful sunsets we've been having, giving an
orange glow to everything
 Thankful for reading forts...look how they lined up their stuffed animals to watch...awwww...
Thankful for rosary distractions, he stole big sister's hat
(you're welcome for the toesies shot)
 Thankful I got to go to my cousin Debbie's daughter's baby shower
(Debbie is only 1 year older and is going to be a grandma!)
It was a good time, and her daughter is just lovely!
 Thankful I got to see some of my aunts and my grandma!
Here she is with Sweetie Pie!
 Thankful for this easy fun cake we made for Easter!
 Thankful for egg coloring
Oh, it's so fun to watch these kiddos!!

 He was so funny, he was not quite sure what the heck we were doing!
 These 2 lasted the longest!
 and Thankful for sacrifice beans turned into beautiful Jelly Beans!
(which are gone now by the way!)
 Every year is so fun and new for these two littles!
 Pretty much what his mouth looked like all day
(someone kept sneaking him jelly beans)
 This may be cute, but
all I heard all through Mass was:
"This dress is itchin' me, when can I take this dress oooooouuuufffff?"
(in a really whiney voice)
I was pretty much ready to throw the dress in the garbage after that
(not really)
 Not til we got some Easter pictures!
Thankful it was a really beautiful day, so warm and sunny!
(just like Easter should be!)

 Tom and I
 Thankful for this wonderful man

 Thankful for sweet little boys
 and  his first buzz cut!! 
Why is that so hard to do?
It turned out SO cute!!
I used 1/2 inch on the sides and back and 1 inch for the top.  
It's adorable.  
Yes, he gets lots of extra kisses because of it.

Happy Easter everyone!!