Still a little blue...

I know I posted last week that Ryan wasn't due for a cardiology appointment for a few weeks, however we ended up going last Friday. When I scheduled the appointment (in Pittsburgh) the scheduler and I had a bit of a debate when Ryan should be seen. Children's in DC wanted him seen one or possibly two weeks from discharge. The lady over the phone refused to fit me in any earlier than three weeks. She finally told me she'd email Ryan's cardiologist in Pittsburgh to see if the appointment should be sooner.   Of course she called me back to say he should come down at his one-week discharge date. It was extremely hard not to say, "I told you so."  I'm telling you guys now though - I told her so!

I have pictures of Ryan getting all sorts of test. Not sure I've ever shown you his EKG though. He calls them stickers and helps take them all off when we're done. He's such a trooper. 

Ryan's satting in the 59-61 range without oxygen so we'll keep him on the 1/2 liter a little longer. He's getting tired of dragging around his nasal cannula, but doesn't complain too much during the day. Night time is a different story. He takes it off and throws it on the floor after I leave the room. I try putting it back on him while he's sleeping but it just ends up on the floor again. For now, I put it on him during the day and let him win the battles each night. 

His other vitals look great. He's back to his normal self at home. No coughing. Happy. Sleeping and eating well. All good stuff. 

After his doctor appointment we headed to a consignment shop east of the city since we were already half way there anyway. While there we stopped in Regency Square (a Pittsburgh neighborhood... there really isn't a square) at Square Cafe for lunch. The staff was friendly and accommodating. Ryan had a grilled cheese with fries (he made sure he was getting fries!) and I had the pecan-crusted chicken salad. Yum!\

We aren't due back to the cardiologist until late June. 

Feeding my family good food makes me feel like a good mom.

Tuesday was all about food. Seriously. Just food. Oh okay and some laundry.

Sometime in the winter I got into the habit of making whole wheat bread weekly instead of buying store-bought. I'm home during the day and with a stand-mixer the bread isn't hard at all.... only six ingredients. It tastes so fresh it's hard to go back. I wasn't able to get my act together last week to get it done, but was determined to make bread this week. Here it is:

After I dropped Ainsley off at school I ran in the grocery store (right across the street - seriously, could it be any more convenient?) to grab some pectin for jam. I bought strawberries with Liz on Monday and while today wasn't the ideal day for making jam, I knew the berries wouldn't wait. You can see how I make my jam here.  I changed two things from last year: 1) I went with the low sugar pectin (I hope to try a no-sugar recipe with another jam later this summer) and 2) I added the butter as recommended and skimmed the foam. It helped tremendously and my jam looks a lot prettier.

While in the store, I grabbed some lettuce and spinach for salads this week. A few hours later I got a reminder email from our CSA (we found an organic CSA in our new town - yay!) to pick up our boxes at the drop site. Guess what was in the box?  You guessed it lettuce, more lettuce, a little more lettuce, spinach, and an artisan loaf of whole wheat bread. There was also rhubarb and a small bunch of parsley.

Looks like we'll be having a lot of salads with bread this week. Ha!

On a totally different note, I plan to host the Pinterest Party again this week. It doesn't give you much time, but you can always post about something you've done recently.....

Memorial Day Memories 2012

Tired. A good tired. Full weekend. I only have the energy for pictures. Lots of them.

Two sisters, Dottie and Christine, drove in for the weekend. We also saw friends: Eddie, Jay, and Paula (and Rob vicariously). Having not planned much for the weekend we suddenly had a huge party!  Friday night Dottie, Christine, Eddie, and Jay came to our house arriving at different times. We stayed up talking until well past midnight. The boys decided they wanted to go out. Us girls stayed up a little longer then hit the sack so we could start early on Saturday.

Day two started at Pamela's on the strip. We all ordered the famous hotcake crepes with fruit. These are amazing.... however, if I were to do it again, I'd have one of us order the crepes and the other two a savory dish and split everything. I couldn't finish mine due to the sugar content (I will say I've been eating little to no processed sugar lately so this was overload.)  We walked the strip looking in all the little shops... I showed the girls Penn Mac (Pennsylvania Macaroni Company) and Wholey's - two local staples.

Amazing hotcake crepes at Pamela's

Christine and I at Wholey's

Popeye the Sailor Woman (Wholey's) 

Maryland Crabs at Wholey's. A favorite food of mine as it holds many, many family memories from growing up. 

Some of the olives at Penn Mac

 In the afternoon, we took the kids to the pool where Ryan preferred swinging (our neighborhood pool has a play structure right next to the baby pool. Natalie and Ainsley were little fish.

Ryan saying "Mom!" with his Auntourage.... 

Aunt Chrissy swimming with all my kids while I sit on the side of the pool. Not kidding!

After warming up to the idea of not being held by someone, Ainsley bounced around the shallow end on her own or held onto the sides to keep up with her sister. (We tried teaching her to swim to no avail)

Henry spent most of the weekend right here, grilling up wonderful dinners. 

One of the girls made this card for "Aunt Dottie"

We finished the weekend (Monday) at Liz and Kenny Smith's house hanging out by the pool, swings (with Ryan of course) and checking out their bees. They have honeybees!! Of course, I took no pictures. 

Hoping to be very focused this week on getting the house organized and weeds pulled. Probably won't get both in.... what's in store for you this week?

Yard Project One: Before and After

When I left for Ryan's surgery, the hostas were just poking their shoots through the ground. The weather couldn't decide if it was winter or spring and the ferns were barely showing face.  Three weeks is a long time when it's spring. These pictures were taken last fall... but are basically what the back flower bed looked like when I got back last Friday - only a little more green.

This took three days this week (not including the work on Saturday). An hour here and there as the children allowed or as Ryan napped. Thank you, Amanda, for helping me dig out hostas on Wednesday! That probably would've taken me another few hours.

Henry helped me dig out the ferns over the weekend. I was so brain dead and unmotivated, but he knew I wanted it done. He did most the work.  I transplanted the hostas, breaking apart the masses of overgrowth and spreading them out. I have a ton left over I'm parcing out to neighbors. I hate to throw them away.

As I bought the impatiens I told Ainsley and Ryan I love them because my mom plants them. (Let the tradition begin!) Ryan enjoyed digging in the dirt. Ainsley loved the idea of helping plant, but quickly grew impatient with the process.

I planted a few tomatoes and cucumbers at the end of the bed to see if we can grow anything in our yard without the chipmunks and deer eating them. I hope to get some fencing to put up to help. 

Anybody else putting in a garden this year?

Sneaky Boy

This is a picture of Ryan. I was unpacking the car on Tuesday. He was trying to drag his oxygen tank by pulling on his nasal cannula chord. This by no means is a good thing. I told him to give me a second and I'd help him. He said, "Off, off?" I told him he had to keep it on.   When I came back out from running whatever it was I was running inside he was stripped of his oxygen chord. "Ryan!" I said. He gave me a funny little smirk as if to say, "I waited, but you were taking too long!"  

The good news is he's getting stronger every day. He was taking 3 and 4 hour naps at the hospital the last few days before discharge and then falling asleep for another long nap between five and 10 pm. Then he'd be up until 1 or 2 in the morning wanting to play. He's back to his normal routine now... bed by 8 pm and a one-hour nap.  We visit the cardiologist in a few weeks. I'm hoping his oxygen is gone by then..... we'll see. 

Bits and Pieces

My brain is fried so tonight (this morning for you) you'll get the randomness of the last few days. Um, yeah, drawing a blank.... the last few days. Let's see.

Everyone is glad mommy is home. The first few days I had three children glued to my hips everywhere I went and let me tell you I don't need anything extra glued to these hips. The girls tested the boundaries to see who is in charge. It took a few days for them to realize it's me. It's all good now.

I ran to the grocery store Monday at 3 pm (twice, the first time I had to turn around and go back to the house for Ryan's narcotics. I forgot his 3 pm dose and felt it was important). So on my second trip I was there to get snacks for Ainsley's Daisy meeting because, of course, the first weekday back I would be the snack mom. Seriously, not a big deal. While there I grabbed a few extra things, like $35 worth of meat, cuz you know, we can always use meat.

Fast forward:  Ainsley comes home from her meeting with a friend. I walk the friend's sister, who was here on a play date, to the car. I see my car hatch is open... with my groceries still in the back. My heart sinks. My meat had been sitting in 81 degree weather for 2 1/2 hours. In my sleep-deprived stupor I'd forgotten to go back for the groceries after bringing Ryan and his oxygen tank inside. I even thawed out chicken when I got home forgetting the $35 worth of fresh meat in my trunk. Seriously, people, I need an intervention... or a nap.

Do you know what? I took my meat inside and it was still cold to the touch. COLD TO THE TOUCH I TELL YOU. Praise Jesus!

Tuesday while Ryan was napping and I was in my room getting changed for gardening I heard a loud thump. For a moment I thought maybe someone was breaking into my house. For some reason, I've had a fear of that since coming home (maybe it was living in a hospital with 24-hour security for three weeks. Who knows.)  Then I heard a large truck pull away and realized we'd just gotten a delivery.

Outside my garage were two styrofoam coolers shipped from Honeybaked Ham. As I loaded our freezer with three meals worth of food I literally teared up. I'm chalking this up to sleep deprivation too. Otherwise I might have to question my sanity at tearing up over ham and roast beef. Oh and the three freakin' awesome desserts that came with them.

The sleep deprivation is because I'm still getting up every three hours in the night to give Ryan medication. This will space out tomorrow, I think to every four hours. Remember, ladies, when the babies slept their first four hour stretch at night? I'm gonna feel like a new woman, I know it.

This week I'm pulling weeds and planting flowers because that's what I have control over. It's also really, really, really good to be out in the warm sunshine after three weeks of fluorescent lights. I'll show you what I've been up to as soon as I'm done this section. Pinkie promise.

I just heard some scratching in the kitchen. I think the mouse I caught a few weeks ago was survived by a family member.... UGH!

Summer Fun 2012

School is over in three weeks. THREE WEEKS!  Three children at home all day for the next three months. The introvert in me is panicking, the mommy in me is rejoicing, and the planner in me... well, she's planning of course.  

The other weekend when the girls came to visit Ryan and I in the hospital they found my bag of chore chart supplies. "What's this?" they asked. "That's for me to make chore charts. Do you want to help?" I asked. They were not only excited about making the charts, but it also gave them ownership as we talked about what needs done daily and weekly. We decided on daily things like reading aloud, math drills, piano practicing, making their beds, unloading the dishwasher and so on. We velcroed these items on a poster board so they can remove them and put them in the pocket as they do them each day. 

Ainsley's on the left; Natalie's on the right. 

Ainsley drew people doing each chore. Like reading, practicing math.... 

... and brushing her teeth. 

Natalie drew each item... like the piano. 

.. and her bed, toothbrush, and breakfast bowl
(she insisted on putting eating breakfast on her chore chart)

The second thing we did was make chore sticks - I copied the idea from my friend, Courtney, who has six children. We used pre-dyed popsicle sticks, one color for each of us, and labeled them with weekly chores. I explained to the girls that the sticks will go into one of two buckets: "To Do" and "Done." All chores need to be done if they want to participate in our Friday night family time (something they both look forward to).  The idea is they will do their chores throughout the week as they have a few minutes without me having to harp on them. You can see Courtney's original post here.... I think it's a great idea and hope it works just as well for our family. Natalie helped me write out the chore sticks and even gave me a color labeling them with jobs like "do the dishes" and "clean the kitchen." I'm wondering when I should tell her I do these things every day and not just once a week. Courtney makes a good point to show the children each task that needs done so they know the expectation. I added that I'll follow up behind them to make sure they're doing it well and not just rushing through it, not that any of my children would do that!

I also hope to do some sort of enrichment this summer outside their school curriculum to cultivate the girls' love for learning. I chose three things to study:  Amish Living with a visit to an Amish farm in Ohio (I'm going to FB you, Shelley!), Frank Lloyd Wright with a visit to a house he designed within 2 hours of Pittsburgh, and a classical artist such as Degas or Monet with a visit to the art museum in DC or Pittsburgh.  My plan is to read aloud a book on each subject, do a hands-on activity, and do a field trip. With one of these a month we'll have enough planned stuff to last us the summer. 

What fun activities do you have planned for the summer?

(Thanks, Tosha, for bringing me craft supplies to the hospital for the chore charts and sticks!)