Just A Quickie...

I love the new Blogger app for Android, but the down side is it's easy to forget what I have started blogging about, say in a waiting room, and actually come back and finish it. Another problem arises when I'm ready to post and I don't have a signal because then I have to actually remember to post the entry later. This is an obvious operator error. So thank you for bearing with me :)

Also you will notice that I no longer use my children's actual names in my entries and I have gone back and edited older posts as well. A fellow blogger (and mom) suggested this to protect my children considering that blogs are public, and it seemed kind fun to give them "code names" so I figured why not?

So that's what's been going on in my world...We now return to your regularly scheduled blog :p

Munchkin Mania - Putting the Pieces Together

*Originally written on 11/3/11*

Things are coming together in munchkinland and am I ever glad for it! I was beginning to think I was losing my touch. I had adolescents trying to get kicked out of AP classes and assert themselves in defense of their rights as individuals (yes it was really that deep) all the while ADD was running rampant two hallways over and everyday after 3pm there was pandemonium at my house.

Progress reports came home and for the first time in a long time I didn't need to look heavenward except to say "thank you". Bookworm is making a wicked comeback in his advanced language arts class and is actually looking forward to getting another book for his next book report. He's chomping at the bit to go to the big library in the city now that he has a card. I think that may come in handy when motivation bottoms out again...and it probably will. Maybe not, one can hope...but I'm a realist.

Ace is bringing up his language arts grades after an academic standoff earned him his first ever grade below "A". Adjustments were made...I guess you could say there was a peace conference and a treaty was signed in which both parties were cooperative and flexible. He has since been back on the acadenmic fast track where he usually hangs out. Now art class is a different blog, entirely!

Peach as usual shone like a star which makes me proud because she is super busy and while that could harm her grades she is able to maintain balance.

Little Bear recently resumed his medicine for ADD which really helps all the other methods of "treatment " work a whole lot better. I wouldn't have believed it if you told me it had such an impact on him, but going over a month without it was taking its toll in and out of the classroom. He was sad and frustrated.  He had a sad face nearly everyday on his school behavior chart. His grades were pitiful, work came home half done or poorly done.  From the outside looking in it seemed as though he couldn't spell or do math or anything, one would think he had a learning disability. His teacher actually asked me what had changed and I had to tell her he doesn't have his medicine right now. At home with his siblings? Forget it, they were all plotting his demise!

It's been two weeks since he resumed treatment and Little Bear is doing fantastic. Happy faces everyday...EVERYDAY! His classwork from last week seemed to belong to another child! A's! All his work...math, spelling, vocabulary all of it earned an A! Yesterday afternoon he sat coloring all evening because he's discovered he's good at it. He drew and colored 3 pictures and various other items. Tonight he's playing with his brothers and sisters, happily involved in a make believe game, clamoring and laughing through the house. My husband is ready to lose his mind, but the "noise" is music to my ears :)

Munchkin Mania - Bright Minds

*Originally written about a month ago and finally finished this morning*

Sooo much to blog about, soooo little time. Where do I begin? Do I talk about bright children? My momma and me the momma? "In-cog-eat-o" and other stuff I stay up at night thinking up? Or do I blog about all the... WOW... that my husband's cochlear implant has brought into my world? Hmmm... Only an hour before the bus drops the balance of my kids off at the door shattering the euphoria of coffee and naptime. Sounds like we're gonna talk about bright kids that's gonna be my catch-all term, "bright kids" you like it? I like it...Let's go!

When I say bright kids  I'm talking about the kind of kids that keep a mom up at night thinking up things like in-cog-eat-o and so forth just to stay one step ahead of the game. I have shared many conversations via facebook status that would occur in only one place on Earth...MY HOUSE! This week has been busy and we've reached some milestones. My Moxie Girl is done with diapers! Very thrilling indeed, and a lot sooner than I expected, Moxie Girl is only two years, two months old! My husband thinks this indicates that she too is a bright kid. I guess when she dragged a box over and stood on it to have her height recorded last month she was just being cute...

Little Bear learned to ride a two-wheel bike which was a very big deal for him and for me as his Momma. He has such a tough time feeling like a big boy, like part of the "First Set" and he wants to be one of them. It's really not fair this caste system my children have developed, but one has to expect that bright kids will develop a caste system. Little Bear is the first of the "Second Set" also commonly referred to as "the babies". (Note: I do not actually have "sets" of children. My husband and I have six children born over a period of eleven years.) This actually seems to put him in the lowest order of the system by my observation. He is only 16 months younger than Peach who is the last of the First Set. So the members of the first set don't feel he needs the coddling and attention, patience and understanding that the other members of the second set are given. But at the same time he is deemed unworthy to be ranked with them in all their coolness due to the immaturity he exhibits as a younger child. Learning to ride a bike means there's one more area where the field is leveled and Little Bear can join in and play with the First Set as an equal. One day I'll have to blog in detail about the caste system...anyway, yeah big victory for Little Bear!

Peach turned eight and has had so many opportunities present themselves to her this past week. I'm nervous about her growing up and remain ever conscious of my job as Momma to keep her down to Earth and teach her the proper place for all the things in her life. She recently has come to appreciate that Bookworm is kind to her above all the others. She even took the time to thank him and I can see that they have a very healthy relationship.

Report cards came home and this is an area that fills a mother of bright kids with dread. Here's a news flash for y'all: bright kids does not equal beautiful report cards 90% of the time. Yes they are in the gifted program, no that doesn't mean school is a breeze. Bookworm orchestrated a semi-elaborate scheme to get out of the Advanced Language Arts class he's in simply because he dislikes writing! He thought if he scored low enough he would get bumped down to the regular class. Two problems with that, 1) Those kids are doing writing now too, they all are! 2) I'm his Mother. He even kept track of his average so that he didn't accidentally fail the class. This is what I contend with folks. Bright kids.

Ace is struggling for the first time with a teacher who's personality conflicts with his own. She doesn't find him absolutely remarkable and fantastic. This is devastating enough for Ace, but they are caught in a power struggle as well. She wants him to conform to doing things her way and he is not a conformist. Ace feels that he can deliver the assignment to her complete and awesome just like she wants if only she would let him get there his way. So it begins with my second child entering the 'tween years!

Munchkin Mania - It's A.D.D. Darlin'

Let's cut to the chase, Little Bear has ADD. He's not one of those crazy kids bouncing off the walls, he isn't hyper. But spend enough time with him and it makes itself known. This was kinda tough for me at first, but not because I was upset that my child might not be perfect (he is still perfect I assure you) I had other ideas and experiences that made me super cautious.

First I need to tell you that my younger sister has ADD, the kind with the "H" sandwiched in there, the kind that is characterized by children who climb furniture and leave a path of destruction. So having lived with her as most siblings do, this became my idea of kids with ADD. Little Bear does not fit that description. His busy-ness is not so much of body as it is of mind. He loves to talk and never runs out of material and he finds it harder than most to focus and sit. But I thought that he was just being a 6year old boy. I found it difficult to equate his behavior with ADD because of the extreme case I had grown up knowing.

Then there's the matter of me being so well read, my husband might say "too well". You may have caught the idea that my kids are gifted or very bright. I have read quite a few professional journals discussing the misdiagnosis of ADD being placed on a child who is simply gifted. I was not interested in slapping a label on my child, even the gifted label is used with caution, it's not something I feel the need to tell everyone I meet. So yeah I was not in a hurry to jump on the teacher's band wagon when she said he might have ADD. My reaction was to refer him to the Gifted Specialist in the school for evaluation.

There was no doubt that Little Bear is gifted, however (don't you just love the "howevers") she recommended that I talk to his doctor about ADD. She is very experienced with children and with bright children and I trust her implicitly with my other brilliant minds, so I had to trust her here too. While I was waiting for his appointment to roll around Little Bear graduated from Kindergarten. It was that day, during the cap and gown ceremony that I saw it and knew in my heart that he was indeed struggling with ADD. I stood behind the rows of graduates and watched. As the program dragged on slowly all the children were losing patience and fidgeting and playing. One by one it seemed they would give up listening and enter their own much more entertaining world. However, there was one student who had been in their own world from the moment they took a seat, and that was my Little Bear. For nearly two hours I watched his antics as he did everything in his power to make staying in his seat interesting. I cried.

My tears weren't due to sadness that my child was flawed. He is not flawed, he's magnificent. My tears were sadness that I had taken so long to realize that this was in fact what was going on. He had struggled through Kindergarten and barely skated by in some areas and if I had recognized it sooner he wouldn't have had to. But I can't beat myself up for being a cautious and studious mom. It's my job to protect my kids.

We got his diagnosis over the summer, the psychologist was so kind. He said "Oh it's ADD darlin', but thankfully without the hyperactivity component." Which he related does make it more difficult to identify. Apparently I'm not the only one with preconceived ideas about kids with ADD being "high strung". Now as a mother the idea of medicating my child was not a welcome one. But I had to do what I could to help my child and I trust my pediatrician who handles Little Bear's treatment personally. No P.A.s or nurse practitioners. I have seen first hand the effects of Ritalin on my sister when the dosing wasn't proper. I have also had experience with adults who basically pretended they had ADD just to be allowed to legally take "speed".

This kind of stuff makes treatment for ADD seem scary to say the least. There is a social stigma about giving kids medicine to help their ADD meanwhile there are moms who give their kids Benedryl to make them go to sleep. This is why. Parents have misgivings about using a drug that is so closely related to an illegal substance, with due reason when one thinks about the personality altering effects drug addiction can have. This is the stuff that gets all the attention. I'm sure many parents don't realize that it's the alcohol in Benedryl that makes their kid sleep. That they could make their kids alcohol dependent. No one thinks like that because you can go into Target and buy it off the shelf. Just like you can buy liquor from a package store. The stuff they commonly use to treat ADD requires a prescription and is a federally controlled substance (Yikes!), either that or your getting it from a guy in a dark alley whose face looks like a pincushion with a goatee and 15 tattoos right? Not exactly, but you get the idea.

So there you are saying OMG this lady is advocating medicating children with ADD, giving them mind altering drugs! LOL Well yes and no. Yes I advocate prescription treatment of children with ADD under certain circumstances. No these medicines do not alter children's minds, not on the level you think. My son is still very much himself. He is still busy and an active boy. The only alteration is that he no longer has that wind-up toy quality about him. He can pay attention and play games, follow directions (because he's able to listen) and is able to block out stimuli that used to drive him to distraction. He is still a little imp! Medicine doesn't take away a child's personality.

There are alternatives to medication. Many parents manage ADD with diet. I did not explore diet for several reasons, one being that I feel diet is financially difficult to maintain. Specialized foods cost more. The biggest problem I have with diet is that in reality you have to put everyone on the same diet and that breeds resentment among siblings. You could just put one child on a diet but that would certainly make him feel like the odd man out and they already feel that way as ADD effects their interaction with their peers. Kids with ADD struggle socially as it is, no need to compound things.

There are also natural remedies that are said to help treat ADD such as the tonics sold by Native Remedies. A word of caution here, don't be so quick to believe everything you read regarding medications on sites like these because they are after all trying to sell a product. Do your own research. Natural remedies have side effects too, so be sure to do your homework. I advise you to check if Amazon.com sells a particular formula you are looking at because Amazon customers leave unbiased feedback on products which could prove invaluable. We did not chose to try natural remedies because the cost is high and there are no clinical trials to prove the effectiveness of any herbal medicinal. The FDA doesn't evaluate them. It's a lot of money to spend on a maybe. But for parents dead against medication for their child this is a very appealing alternative and probably is more cost effective and simplistic than dietary treatments.

Here's where I wrap this up all pretty like : )

If you know or suspect your child has ADD talk to your pediatrician. Even if you don't want to use medication the doctor is a valuable resource for monitoring the severity of your child's ADD and knowing whether or not they are also hyperactive (which changes the rules a bit). Do your homework, become an expert. Whichever treatment option you chose do something! Don't tell yourself he's fine or it'll go away. It won't go away, and you have no idea how deeply ADD effects a child until you start a treatment plan. You also will not know your child's full potential and abilities unless you pursue a form of treatment. I'm telling you from experience, as a mother.

I'll be blogging now and then about Little Bear and his progress. He has recently restarted treatment after a lapse in insurance coverage and I look forward to sharing our journey with you.

Knitty Gritty - Expanding the Stitch Nation

I'm so flattered that everyone loves Moxie Girl's sweater so much that they want one! LOL I haven't even gotten to blog about it and put the pictures up here! Considering I got over 5 requests for more than 7 sweaters I would say that there are still quite a few people out there who appreciate handknits. I think that's awesome. I got one request to teach someone to knit and it got me thinking, that'd be the real gift wouldn't it?

I'd love to make sweaters for all the little girls in my life but I would rather spend twice as much time (if necessary) teaching their mommas to knit, even Becky with her ADD. The reason? If these ladies knew how to knit then the possibilities would be endless for them! I feel that fiber crafts (knitting, crochet, spinning, etc) are a dying art form. I'd love to see and know more chicks with sticks (and yarn)! It's a wonderful skill to pass on to our daughters and even our sons. You don't need a lot of equipment, it's quite relaxing, and also very gratifying.

The thing that it isn't is the one thing I hear most often... "it looks so hard!" No it's not. Looks can be deceiving. The sweater everyone adores consists of the knit stitch and the purl stitch with some slip the stitch action where you don't really do anything to the stitch except move it out of the way. 90% of knitting is done with just these three actions. Sometimes there are variations but only sometimes. So don't say it's too hard girls. Give it a go!

It's not expensive, nice yarn is $3 something at Wal-Mart for a skein (ball) big enough to produce two or more hats. Never buy redheart yarn for someone you love including yourself! LOL Experienced chicks with sticks know that redheart is the yuckiest feeling yarn on earth! The sticks (knitting needles) are less than $8 a pair and will last for decades making each set a good investment. Ravelry.com has an abundance of free knitting patterns, and you're ready to give it a go!

I know what you're going to say next "but I'm not talented like you". I'm not picasso folks. If you follow the directions and steps you can knit as well as me or anyone else. It's not that kind of craft. I honestly think they could probably teach monkies to do it. Blind people can and do knit. No blind people don't have anything more in common with monkies than the next person this is just the order of my thoughts. Actually that sweater is only the second finished knitted object I've made. I felt like I could handle it so I tackled it. You'll be able to gauge your own abilities once you actually start knitting. Of course you will never know unless you actually try to knit. Like I told Gabbie "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard". It's all about effort...So give it a go!

Oh wait I understand... you don't have time to learn or time to sit and make sweaters or socks...AND I DO?? LOL I do little bits in the evenings to relax and unwind. Sometimes I'll hook up my bluetooth and chat on the phone while plugging away at a project. I might sneak it with me to the park or doctor's office, or play place at the mall, tucked inside a Vera tote of course! It can be really fun, and relaxing and it passes time beautifully :) I don't want you all saying how you wish you could do it...YOU CAN DO IT! I'd love to inspire some of you to give it a go!

So here's my big confession. Absolutely everything I know about knitting I learned from Amy Finlay's videos on knittinghelp.com. Girlfriend's honor! She taught me how to knit and purl, how to finish projects and how to fix mistakes and save my sanity... twice while making Josie's sweater I slipped over to her website to learn (as in for the first time ever) how to do a couple of finishing touches. I am an English knitter, also called a thrower due to the movement of the yarn. I almost always use the continental (or long tail) cast on though, because I think it's most efficient. But you can start off with a regular backward loop cast on if the other method intimidates you. Notice the links? I'm trying to make this as easy a possible *wink* Gabbie has been knitting since she's 6 girls...and she's left handed! I think you've got this! So once again I say give it a go!

I'm only a phone call, e-mail, text message, or facebook post away! If need be I have ways of connecting you with knitters in your area...I am dead serious. Make your daughter a scarf, then make her a hat, then you'll have the skills needed to make her a sweater... I promise! You'd all make your mothers so proud! LOL Or at the very least yourselves, and my how your daughter will love to wear and show off the things her mommy made her! They quickly become treasures.

THIS IS MY GIFT TO YOU!
With lots of love,

Merely Me - Winding Up The Week

Here is something new and different... I'm blogging from my phone! LOL I love technology and the clever little ways it helps me daily.

So this week I did my math work (need to e-mail my teacher...doh!) And I think I'm making much better sense of things than I did in my first math class. I also finished part one of my humanities research project. Yay me! I am making headway with the house work and the laundry will be done by 10 tomorrow morning at the very latest. *Does the "cabbage patch" and chants "go me"* To top it all off I finally started the second sleeve on Moxie Girl's sweater which, in case you missed it, is the final portion to knit! I'm hoping to knock that out by Sunday morning!

It has been some week! I was off to a slow start but had an awesome day today and am planning to kick butt again tomorrow... which is kinda the reverse of last week. Oh the joys of being a SAHM! LOL
I had a handful of sickies this week and tomorrow I have the pleasure (touch of sarcasm) of having all the kids home from school. My Moxie is potty training rather well and I'm excited to be nearing the end of diapering children.

No real pearls of wisdom today. I'm mostly trying to organize my thoughts this time. My blog can't always have profound deep meaning. But I will share this little seed of truth with you, this week I realized that having a terrific marriage doesn't mean having a perfect marriage. I used to think I should hide the ups and downs I faced with my husband for fear people would think we had an unhappy marriage or a troubled relationship. It just hit me that all relationships see troublesome times. The fact that we can make it through those times, watch things fall apart and then work to put them back together, is what proves just how fantastic and strong our relationship, and the love its built on, is.

Edited to add that the laundry was done before I went to bed! *repeats the "cabbage patch" and chanting of "go me"*

Merely Me - The Art of Living

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." - Henry Ellis

      I ran across this little gem about mid-week and found it to be quite poignant. I've had a lot of ups and downs this week, days where I was in supermom mode melted into days where I felt more like psychomom. On Wednesday I felt accomplished and on top of my game only to feel hopelessly behind on Thursday and then Friday. The letting go and holding on can refer to a lot of different things, but to call it the art of living is an interesting singular metaphor with but one meaning, that it is an acquired skill. Much like one would need to train and learn to sculpt or paint fine works of art it takes time to learn this "fine mingling"; when to let go and when to hold on, what to let go of and what to hold onto, when what we should hold onto transforms into something we ought to let go and so forth.

     It occured to me that the down swings we experience are largely due to our "fine mingling" being signifcantly less than "fine" or just plain all kinds of out of whack! I've always been proud that I held on well...but could it be done too well? I never gave thought to the fact that perhaps what I hold onto is the problem. When we have a negative experience our mind wants to latch onto it then suddenly everything seems bad or wrong or hopeless. This mood-congruent thinking causes us to continue a pattern of negative thinking that can carry through our day, our week, or even longer if we don't let it go. My morning peppered with disaster upon disatser had me ready for a breakdown. I hated my life and nothing was as I felt it should be, everything seemed wildly out of control. An hour and a half with my babies at the park was enough to put my mood back in perspective yesterday. I wasn't all sunshine and roses but I was able to maintain an even keel, no longer on the verge of having a kicking, screaming tantrum. We ought to be careful what we hold onto.

     I know my self to be particularly weak in the letting go aspect of the art. I believe that I'm living and learning and improve all the time. This week I let go of a tremendous burden. I was able to strip away a facade and shine true to myself. I finally came to terms with and expressed many (certainly not all) of my feelings in the matter and was able to come away from it at peace and feeling somewhat renewed. Unfortunately now I'm left to analyze what it is I'm holding onto that would have prompted me to willingly carry such a burden as long as I did when it was not what I wished. More letting go is in order and my mind is struggling with my heart to bring about the needed release. This inner battle contributes to the ups and downs right now, but it time it will end. Sometimes what you ought to hold onto transforms into something you absolutely need to let go.

     This absolute need to let go bleeds right into a desperate need to hold onto what I have in my hand. It's a queer little state of affairs. The things that we have readily in our hands seem unnecessary to hold onto. Some just sit there so tame and willing. We naturally hold onto, grasp the things we fear may be fleeting. But the steady, docile things pleasantly perched in our palms are left unsecured. Imagine for a moment that you've got a pearl sitting in your open hand, it's not going anywhere, it's beautiful. Suppose someone bumps into you? If you're lucky you'll close your fingers around your pearl in time to avoid losing it...but only if you're lucky. What we fail to realize is that we are standing with our pearls in the middle of Grand Central Station! We are going to get bumped, a lot, without fail. That may seem silly, of course in a busy New York City hub we would secure our valuables. Let me just say that we are much more diligent in caring for our material valuables than our intangible precious things... for heaven's sake hold onto your pearls! If you don't you may as well just toss them away now because you will lose them eventually.

Merely Me - Samie's Situation

So I read my sister Samie's note on Facebook regarding her desire to try surrogacy to have a child with her flame Earl. You like that? "Flame"? I like it... anyway... I was typing up a comment to leave that ended up looking more like a blog entry, so I figured I'd save some space on her wall and make it one! LOL The thing of it is, it's very easy for us to give our opinions on things even when we have no idea what another persons feelings or motives are concerning the subject. I am, to say the least, the last person to know about the stress of losing an organ as precious as the womb and with it the chance to ever carry a life inside me again.

After six children I still don't even have my tubes tied...seriously. But yes we are "done" having kids for all you people with your eyebrows raised...it's y'all who've got me blogging right now. I guess I ought to thank you, because were it not for you eyebrow raisers, you naysayers, you uninformed "well meaning" gossips, I may have nothing else in common with my sister on this point and then I would have some hard time feeling like I could be by her side and support her without feeling like a forgiener. To be honest when she talks about her inability to have more children etc. I feel like I'm the last person she wants to hear comforting her. I don't offer her words of comfort. I don't tell her it will be ok or it will all work out or anything because coming from a baby making machine I feel that would be insulting and she'd have every right to roll her eyes and say "that's easy for you to say"...because it is.

But thanks to the judgemental people out there (some of whom probably never meant any harm, and have perhaps changed their views) I can rally behind Samie and at least say I know a small, tiny sliver of what you're going through. I know what it's like to be misunderstood and criticized for following your heart; that pain I can relate to.

There were only a handful of people who were supportive when we decided to have Moxie Girl even though babies are a blessing. Even some people I should have been able to count of for support (if not excitement) were bitterly opinionated. Doesn't it always happen that when people ought to feel happy for you (or in Samie's case sympathetic and understanding) they manage to be just the opposite? LOL But no one was in our shoes. No one knew or understood how important it was for me to give Peach a sister even though most people know that I have only sisters and there is a specialness about the bond sisters share. If they weren't making comments about us having more kids ("another one") they were making comments about us trying at home methods to have a girl accusing us of "playing God" when we were really just playing with lime juice. It's not like we were sorting embryos folks... In any case we should be happy with whatever we get right? For the record I would have loved a son just as much as I love Moxie Girl! LOL

Think about this, I'd been wanting a sister for Peach since she was born, that doens't mean I love Little Bear and Mini less because they have penises. I was disappointed, and I cried once. But my love for them is endless. Samie may not understand this gender thing because she'd be happy just to be able to be pregnant and I get that. But she can understand wanting to feel your family is complete and doing what you can to achieve that without settling for any alternatives. So I had to try. I'm sure Samie would agree, especially in her situation that it's more about knowing you tried. You can hope for an out come but it may not happen. At least though you know you did what you could.

Having been in a place where I had very personal feelings and made decisions that were readily, openly, and painfully opposed I can read her feelings and support her without having any opinion at all. I realize that I'm not really in a place to HAVE any opinion! LOL What do I know about being unable to have babies?!?! Not a blessed thing! But I can respect that SHE is in this place and this is how SHE feels and what SHE wants for herself and her family. I don't have to understand; she doesn't need me to understand or accept her choice in order to do what she wants. But it would make it so much nicer, happier and easier if she had it, doncha think? I rememebr the sadness that hung like a cloud over my last pregnancy because so many people behaved and spoke as if they were unhappy I was having a baby. When she actuallly turned out to be a girl I had so few people with which to share my joy and excitement, and I had plenty to share believe me!

I don't want Samie to have to endure feeling let down by those closest to her, not through her journey and especially not when her moment of joy comes. The answer is not for me to stay out of it even though I have worries about offending her or not knowing what to say to express support of something I don't understand. So what do I say? To everyone else I say don't judge, you don't know what it's like to be in another person's place even if you have a similar sitaution. What's good for you may not be god for someone else. What do I say to Samie? Hmmm...

        "I do think that while it will take time for you two to save for this adventure (yeah I used the "A" word! LOL) that can be a good thing. It gives you time to prepare mentally and emotionally, to get a feel for your new life in Texas and get the other kids adjusted. Carrie may be in school and you can have a strong routine in place by time you turn your world upside down (as usually happens) with appointments and procedures and baby business. Keep thinking positive! Oh and I love you!" :)

Merely Me - Long Time Gone

It's been over a year since my last blog entry, but then again it's been over a year since I felt quite like myself. I'm altered in some ways yet still very much the same as ever. I'd like to try to blog once again, I have so much going on and love the ability to put my thoughts down in writing. So this morning I spent some time updating my blog features etc. At the moment I'm watching the kids play outside, and my laptop is going to die, so I'm going to cut it short and say "Hello again!" and hopefully I'll be back soon :)