Children

You ever notice how our children know how to push our buttons just right?  I mean they can frustrate us beyond measure in an instant they can also just as quickly melt our hearts.  I found myself today tried by Gabriel, I love him so but he was bouncing off the walls in the office at the high school when we picked up Tabitha.  I found myself holding him down with a gentile grip on his arms making him focus on me so he would listen and most importantly STOP!  I then thought how that must have looked not only to him but to others observing not only my actions but his behavior.  I realized that I was not only frustrated that he wasn't listening to me.  I was also embarrassed because of how he was behaving or really not behaving.  I found myself as we walked into the orthodontist office telling him if he behaved as he did earlier then he would find himself spanked and sent to bed as soon as we got home and he better not come downstairs until he was told he could.  He did behave well in the orthodontist office which I was very thankful for.  But I find myself thinking that I am not doing a good job teaching him the right way to contain himself when he is bored or things aren't going his way.  I am not teaching him a Godly way of going about things and I am trying to focus on doing a better job of this.  I think as parents our jobs are not only to discipline our children but teach them self discipline.  Gabriel really is a very Godly child or Christ like child in most ways granted he is a boy and when I say he is a boy that really should be BOY.  He always wants to say the blessing at dinner though he speaks quickly when doing so, he is very giving of himself often looking for ways he can help others.  Gabriel just bounces off the walls when he is expected to sit down and be quiet not meaning not talking but talking quietly.  That is unless his Daddy is there or I have threatened him like I did this morning.  I also didn't have to remind him this morning and it took a long time in the orthodontist office usually we are in and out in 20 minutes or less but they were busy today and it took every bit of an hour.  I did tell Gabriel that he did a good job and we are studying in our homeschool bible time Galatians 5:22-23 and going over the fruits of the spirit.  Hopefully during this study I can get across to him that he needs to be able to control himself even in times when it feels really hard to do so.

Sleep

OK so who needs sleep well the simple answer to that is we all do.  But the bigger question is how much?  I have found myself trying to find that magic number of how many hours of sleep do I really need.  Ideally I would love to get a good 7-8 hours a night.  Come to find out when I went through this sleep study last week I am only getting about 3-4 a night so pretty much half what I would like to be getting.  This few hours of sleep I am getting is not solid or straight through.  I wake up often during the night and not just for a few minutes here and there but for hours at a time.  My sleep quality is at 47-49% and the doctors say they prefer for it to be 90% or higher.  Honestly who could sleep with all these wires going all over your body I had I don't know how many thing tapped or glued to me I do know that I had one on my left cheek right below my eye that made it hard to get comfortable on my side and I had 2 on each calf.  Now with some answers I don't have sleep apnea.  Ok that is a plus but the doctors have no clue why I am not sleeping well I generally don't have a problem getting to sleep it is staying asleep that is my problem. I am however thankful that I have doctors that I am working with that want to help figure out the solution to the problem even if they don't know can't figure out the cause.

I just got to thinking though if I am not sleeping and feel like crud every day how do those that have sleep apnea or that snore function.  I know the only time I felt worse was when I had a new born and my husband kept me up snoring all night.  He does have sleep apnea which is part of what got us thinking I might also since I well felt worse than he did when he went through his sleep studies.  You know these people are out on the road driving and not just cars but buses and trucks too.

I am happily on a track that I think will have me being more alert during the day and back to what one would consider normal.  I am only 2 days in on trying this new medication to help me sustain sleep but I hope it is the answer.  Does anyone remember a particularly good night of sleep?  I remember some great sleep it was when I was a teen and I went to sleep one afternoon and didn't wake up until a day and a half later and felt so refreshed and awake.  I feel right now like I really need this type of sleep but can't with my children the life of a Mom.  I wouldn't give it up for anything though.

Getting Started

I set up this blog so long ago and am just now making my first post.  I have so many interests it isn't funny I like to craft, to scrapbook, to sew, but most of all I love homeschooling my children.  Currently I am only homeschooling two of three that will change with the next school year as the teen wants to join the ranks of homeschooling.  I look forward to the challenge that presents as well as schooling my elementary children.  


Funny thing I notice that life moves so fast we don't even realize how fast.  It seems like just yesterday I was boarding a plane in Jacksonville, Fl to go to Los Angeles for the first time in 11 years to see my Great Auntie Bee and my Gramma.  I kind of butted in on my brothers trip as he was heading over seas and didn't want to leave before seeing them in case something happened to one of them while he was gone.  I felt the same but it wasn't while I was gone it was that I hadn't seen them in 11 years.  That weekend went by so quickly we did enjoy our rental car we splurged and got a camero for the 4 days that we were there which really when you put in that we arrived at 11pm on a Thursday night and left at 9am on that Sunday we really were only there for 2 days.  At the end of June our days of being active duty were over as Jonathan retired after 20 years of Navy service.  Jonathan job searched for months while working construction jobs for a friend of ours to fill the gap when finally in November he got a job and left for Montgomery, AL. leaving me to setup our final Navy move in 3 weeks and just before Christmas.  Along with Gabriel getting his tonsils removed while I was single Mommin' it.  Funny thing is this was pretty close to 2 years ago in 2010.


Our 2011 was just as eventful tons of medical things going on between 4 of us the teen has stayed healthy her only on going issue is braces and boy are they expensive.  In February of 2011 we got snowed in during that record breaking blizzard in Oklahoma the children and I had traveled there for a funeral.  Our trip earned us a bonus of seeing my Niece when she was just a new baby.  Getting my feet wet with Homeschooling my little ones.  Sarah having her tonsils removed 3 days after her birthday.  All the while I have no energy and the doctors have no clue why.  Our house that we own in Georgia went you could say rentless for 9 months of the year though through legal channels we are slowly getting the final bit of that covered.


Now it is already a good bit through March of 2012 and there again has been so much going on.  I traveled thanks to my wonderful Dad to Los Angeles again in February this is only the second time in 13 years now that I have been back to the land I grew up in and I wish it was a visit for a happier occasion.  My wonderful and always bright and cheerful Great Auntie Bee passed away but I will think of it more as she went home on 4 February 2012 after living a very long life of 102.5 years.  I am thankful that I got to see a bunch of family that I hadn't seen for many years and even met some that I don't remember ever meeting but I had heard stories about.  I was also able to stay with a friend from the past, I won't say an old friend because we are the same age and we aren't that old.  I am thankful to Alison and her husband Eric for opening their home to me for the weekend I was able to really enjoy my trip.  All the while a neighbor watched the little ones for me for a day and my Hubby took a day off work so I could make the trip.  Our family is currently planning on making a long drive out to California this summer so that the kids and hubby can meet as many of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins as possible but most importantly my Gramma.  


I can't believe all the things have happened over the last couple of years and it has gone by so very very quickly.