The week without screens...

Last Monday morning I abruptly announced that we would not be using screens for the entire week.  I collected the iDevices, stashed away all the remotes, warned Jordan that texting was not allowed (but allowed him to keep his phone on the kitchen counter) and made everybody sign a pledge.  I set some rules - the only screen time would be on the computer, doing school-related work.  (About 20% for the little kids, and 50% for Jordan), and Jordan could check his email three times a day.

Then, as the first half-hour passed by and wild-eyed kids- who were showing serious signs of withdrawal -roamed the house with dazed expressions, I sat everybody down and explained that we were doing this for our own good.  The devices were ruining school time.  They weren't playing together hardly at all anymore.  We needed to break some bad habits, and hours  - HOURS - spent TV watching weren't helping either.

Rylan seemed to suffer the least.  She is plenty happy with paints and paper, markers and paper, colored pencils and paper, stencils and paper, stickers and paper...  Just give the girl some paper.

Colin was in serious need of diversion.  He wandered aimlessly, and messed with everything he could think of.  He is used to having some loooong iPad sessions with videos he can watch from PBS Kids, or Reading Eggs or the kids' games.

Owen asked every half-day when they could have screens back.  He was sweet about it, but he just seemed 'lost' without my iPad and his Minecraft game.

Jordan took it the worst.  He took to sneaking "I AM SO BORED!" texts to his dad.  He got a reprieve from the no-screens rule on his birthday (the 9th), to play around with his new go-pro video thingy, he got to watch 'The Hobbit' that night with his dad after the other kids went to bed, and he got some gaming time with a friend that came over the next day/eve for birthday fun.  Despite that, he was by far the loudest complainer.  I caught him playing on the computer - using gaming headphones - early on Sunday morning (Mother's Day), when I came down to make some coffee.  He earned an extra SF day for that.  He also sat down multiple times all week, to "check his email', and was caught doing something else.  He claimed he was showing Rylan the website of the restaurant we were going to on his birthday.  coughbullshitcough.  Our whole family has been there multiple times.  His claims for needing 'to check something' were just getting ridiculous.  As far as teenage angst goes, his drama hit a high note yesterday when we informed him he had two extra days coming to him.  Tears.  Oh the tears!  His issues with screen time clearly dictate that he has an addiction problem.  It is to the exclusion of all else.  We could never follow the unschool route with him because he would never ever leave the gaming aside to fit in some learning.  I have some very real fears about how he will handle his addictive behavior in the future.  With him I know that he will always need something to occupy his time.  His ADHD makes it impossible for him to feel comfortable in an environment that is lacking outside stimuli.  I do know this, and I know that not all electronics are bad, but Jordan goes way beyond healthy levels of screen time on a daily basis.  Almost 85% of his interactions with friends occur over the computer.  That's just sad.

So the week wore on... they discovered Battleship, and Owen, our ever-resistant learner, learned some more letters and how to read coordinates on a grid.  Jordan plowed through the rest of Divergent, and got the next book in the trilogy - Insurgent, at the library on Wednesday, even though I knew he was getting it for his birthday from his friend on Saturday.  He finished it on Friday.  I don't think he absorbed hardly any of it though, so it is good that he owns his own copy of each book in the trilogy now.  The kids started playing again. They invented new things to do.  We cleaned and sorted the boys' bedroom.  Conversations in the car were happening again because they were now aware of stuff outside the car.  Before - even if it was a quick trip to the grocery store down the street, there was the immediate request to turn on the movie in the car.  yeah - this week was sorely needed.

Now, as for me?  Yes, I stayed off my one game that I have- Hay Day.  That was actually easy.  I stayed away from FB - with two exceptions - one was to share that Rylan and I are fundraising - for a 5K that I am running and a mile fun run that she is running - at the end of the month for the local pet shelter.  The other was to post about Jordan's birthday.  I didn't even post to my mom yesterday for Mother's Day.  (sorry mom).  So now I have a lot of catching up to do.  It was actually easy to stay away from FB.  So much of it is toxic these days.  I stayed away from the blog.  I stayed away from Flipboard (that is where my real addiction lies) and I stayed away from mindless surfing.

What I could not stay away from was email.  Damn email.  I hate email.  I had to make all of the final arrangements for Rylan's birthday party just this previous Saturday, arrange our last board meeting for the year (and bring an end to my duties - yay!), arrange the last meetings of the year for girl scouts (and bring an end to my duties - yay!), purchase the tickets for Jordan's birthday day at Elitch's, arrange Rylan's birthday gift surprise, google half a hundred things that I needed to know.... I spent a ridiculous amount on the computer this past week.  What a huge time suck.  

What I also noticed was how much I relied on the TV and iPad to occupy the kids and keep them out of my hair while I did stuff.  I am totally at fault for how much they were watching... :(

A very nice lesson for us all.  And the good thing - nobody has asked for any TV yet this morning...

Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... A nice mild morning, with a few clouds here and there. The sunlight is illuminating the bright green leaflets of the ash tree in the front yard - it just started leafing out a couple of days ago. Birds are twittering all around the neighborhood, and the occasional puff of a breeze is carrying a multitude of different floral scents: honeysuckle, crabapple, currant, red cherry and Daphne. It's heady stuff, but makes a walk through the neighborhood a real joy right now. I love the jasminey smell of Snow Crabapples. A man just walked by with his dog, talking loudly on his headset thingy, and the neighbor just fired up the engine and is heading to work. I have no idea what he does -it is an ongoing mystery. We just see a different brand new car in their driveway every few weeks, it seems. Maybe he is a car salesman...we just don't see dealer tags on the cars. weird. Let's sniff the jasmine again....ahhhhh.

I am thinking... about the wonderful dance show that Rylan and I went to last night. The dance academy where she takes lessons has an audition-only performance dance team, in addition to the wide variety of classes they offer. They have groups that perform hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, tap and dance theatre. Last night they put on a show that showcased all of the dance performances that they have used in competition during this past season. There are 86 dancers in this group, ages 4-18, and there were 43 (!) different dance performances for the show. The show moved at a steady pace, with no announcing, just dance after dance, and we saw some really amazing stuff. The most moving (for me anyway) was the solo dance that a 10 (?) yr old girl (she played one of my 'daughters' during the party scene in the Nutcracker), performed. It was a contemporary piece, and she really nailed it. I think I like contemporary best because it is just so open to interpretation, and a dancer can really pour their soul into it. How a child, so young, can be so gifted in that regard is just beyond me - but I enjoyed it immensely. Rylan had three friends from her jazz and tumbling classes that performed in a jazz piece (which was the real reason we were attending) and she looked wistful. I felt a little bad because I was wondering if she felt like she was on the outside of an exclusive club she didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago. We talked about it on the way home. I told her that being on this team meant that number one, you had to audition to get in, and number two, it meant a lot more practice and numerous performances. She considered it, and then decided that didn't really sound like fun. She loves dance, but the passion is just not there. That's okay. She has her whole lifetime to discover what her passion really is.

I am thankful... That Rylan doesn't have that kind of competitive streak in her when it comes to dance. Those types of girls drive me crazy. Their mothers even more so. The audience behaved pretty respectably,with families only whooping and hollering for their kid after each performance....except for one mom. Her daughter - age 6, maybe - got set on the stage for her solo (there were only 10 solos), and seconds before the music started, her mom, camera video rolling, yelled out - "You got this, baby!!". uugh.

I am also thankful that Colin is recovering well from his broken leg, now that the cast is off. He is still walking around on his tip-toes on that leg and favoring it quite a bit. We are working with him to stretch his leg every night. He is back to riding his little blue Strider bike instead of his pedal bike, but I can only imagine how uncomfortable that might feel to pedal a bike right now..ouch. He got on a trampoline yesterday at a party a Rylan's violin teacher's house, and he bounced for a little bit but greatly favored his leg. He got off with a grimace - it must have hurt.

From the Learning Rooms... We are just steadily plodding along here. Jordan went to a friend's house last week to listen in on a Calvert Academy online class session. He will have 2-3 weekly sessions himself next year, when we start with Calvert in the fall. He got a nice feel for it and said that he liked it. We have a field trip with the Calvert group in a couple more weeks when Jordan gets to go on a tour of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I look forward to meeting some of the families.

In the kitchen... This morning it will be yummy blueberry pancakes. Only one kid is up right now. Dean and Jordan are up at Spring Camporee, so they won't be home for a few more hours.

I am wearing... comfy clothes - t-shirt and yoga pants!

I am creating... I am making a discussion list for Dean and I to use late this afternoon when we go out for coffee. I have some pretty good ideas from a book I am reading (see below) to help him sort out some priorities for him in regards to his scoutmaster role in Jordan's boy scout troop. He is struggling with intense overload lately, and he completely stressed out. Parent emails are driving him absolutely insane, and he spends an average of 1-2 hours every work day (when he should be working ?!?) trying to put out fires, answering dumb questions, or asking a person for the umpteenth time to do the job they volunteered to do. He does delegate, but eventually all queries come back to him. He is behind at work, and by virtue of his employment being in the tech industry, I am always afraid that poor performance will mean his number will be up the next time layoffs come around. What really pisses me off is that this is a volunteer position that seems almost like a second full-time gig.

I am going... Whew - busy week ahead! It's birthday season again - Jordan on the 9th and Rylan on the 12th. I am getting my first salon haircut in years on Tuesday. Yay me! While my mom babysits the little guys on Friday (Jordan's birthday), Dean and I are taking the older two to an amusement park that has a private day just for homeschoolers. The last two years it rained on this particular day, so I am crossing my fingers. This is the second time it has coincided with Jordan's birthday, so that makes it extra cool. On Saturday Rylan is having her birthday party at a local pottery studio, and Jordan will be playing laser tag with a good friend later that afternoon. And Sunday is my favorite day of the year. :) Mother's Day!

I am wondering... If Rylan will like riding on rollercoasters...

I am reading... I've got two going right now - Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life, by Julie Morgenstern, and Parenting Beyond Belief, edited by Dale McGowan. I am enjoying both immensely and learning a lot. There is good advice in the Morgenstern book about how to line out job or volunteer duties and separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

In the garden... The lettuce is growing. As are the weeds and grass. I need to get busy.

I am hoping... That this nice, mild weather continues all week.

I am looking forward to... birthdays!

I am learning... all about sleep apnea. I have it. I did an at-home sleep study (all the insurance company would spring for, at the time) last Tuesday night, and saw the results the next day. I stopped breathing multiple times during the night, and my brain was poking me awake on average every 2 minutes. Needless to say, I never wake up feeling rested. Ever. My pulse ox runs at about 90, dipping down to 86 every time I stop breathing. The results are being sent to my doctor and insurance company, in the hopes that I will be approved for a full-on sleep study - an overnight at the testing facility, so they can see what the brain is doing as well. When your body stops breathing and then you snort and gasp after several seconds (my longest period without breathing was 17 seconds), your brain releases adrenaline and pumps up the blood sugar in a flight response. This prolonged increase in the blood stream is hard on your heart and your liver. My blood pressure has seen a very slight, but steady increase over the past year. Dean has reported that my snoring is pretty bad, that I repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, I wake up with a headache most mornings (due to the pumped up adrenaline in the system), and I never feel rested. I also feel sleepy throughout the day, drive while drowsy and have poor concentration. All bad things. A CPAP machine is definitely in my future. But so is feeling rested, better sleep for Dean, better concentration, better mood, and maybe an end to my depression???? yay!

I am hearing... Shawn the Sheep. A Sunday morning kid favorite.

Around the house... The dirty, smelly camping gear will be arriving shortly. :(

I am pondering... how to work in a walk this morning. Being home alone with the little kids presents a problem that I can't just leave the house and walk for 45 minutes on my own. The solution has been to walk in the gigantic church parking lot behind the house and let the little kids roam all over on their bikes while I walk laps. Kinda hard to pull that off on a Sunday morning. I could drive a short distance to a walking trail, but there is always the danger of rattlesnakes, and kids who take off on their bikes - out of earshot.

One of my favorite things... The birdies. And the scent of jasmine.

A few plans for the rest of the week... My haircut is something I am really looking forward to. Not a big change - I don't think. Sometimes all reason escapes me the second I sit in that chair... I've got the birthday cake requests in - Jordan as always wants Blackout Cake, and Rylan wants a 2-layer chocolate cake, with marshmallow frosting, strawberries on top and a Barbie stuck in it. okay.... we'll have to negotiate on the Barbie. For her party I am going to special-order cupcakes at bakery close by. Most of her friends have the tough lot in life of food allergies to contend with, so I want to make sure I have a treat to offer that they can have.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Colin took this picture from his car seat when we took our road trip last week.  I think this was on the stretch of highway between Steamboat Springs and Craig.

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April afterthoughts...

I just had the most amazing month of April in...well...let's just say, a decade. It has taken me a long, long, time to make my peace with April, since the month is crazy violent (every effn' YEAR!) and also marks some pretty unhappy anniversaries in my own life. I made up my mind months ago that this year was going to be different. I was not going to wallow in self-pity and I was only going to keep the barest minimum of the news on my radar. I was going to stay busy and actively work on making some changes within myself and within our family dynamic. I was also going to go med free (no antidepressant) and see how it felt.

Colin started the month off with a bang by breaking his leg. Diversion tactic! Good one, bud... you got my back! ;)

All these years, as tons of good things have come my way - a marriage, three babies, the new lifestyle of homeschooling, friends and so forth... it's been good - but it's been too much change all at once. I have been fighting for breath, operating in survival mode for years, and it has taken its mental and physical toll. I spent a good amount of last year taking care of some of the physical things. But the mental part - whoa that is tough. I created a life over the past several years that keeps me very busy. Busy means less time for emotional investment or risk of getting hurt. I'm involved. I'm connected. Just...not with my kids or friends, and not on the level with Dean that I long to be. I'm too involved in a couple of groups that no longer make sense in my life. They, at one time, served the purpose of making me feel like I was contributing..like I mattered.. that I was needed. At the time that was important to me, because for whatever reason, a divorce and job loss erased those feelings for me, and I struggled like hell to gain them back. I needed a group of adults to tell me - yes, you matter, we need you here, your input is important, we like you... But when it comes down to it, it does me no lasting good to have validation come from the outside - it needs to come from the inside. In the search for that outside validation, a lot of hurt has come my way. I depended on friends to give that secure feeling of 'belonging', but the whole friendship 'thing' has been fraught with difficulty. I have my own issue with an unwillingness to put forth a lot of effort because I am so scared of rejection, and so, after all these years...friends have paired off, formed their own groups and do their own things, and my only connection seems to be very superficial at this point. A lot of intense, sad feelings here that, for the meantime, need to stay stuffed down and out of the way. Ouch...right? Okay - this is not the tone this missive was supposed to take - this month was a month of triumph for me!

So, I recently decided that it was time to get rid of what wasn't working, wasting my time, bringing me down, giving my anxiety, stressing me out, and taking time from my family. That meant just about everything. I stepped down from our homeschool board - my term ends this month. I stepped down from girl scouts. We end our 'year' this month. It is all part of a master plan I am calling, "Reclaiming Your Life. Transitioning from Survival Mode to Thrive Mode", and I am feeling pretty darn empowered right now.

Quitting scouts and the board was hard, but I feel like I absolutely suck in any type of leadership position because I consistently attack my duties with my type-A intensity, and I take criticism too personally. I may be organized and all that, but when I completely lose my shit whenever someone attacks me for doing my job or for the way I am doing it, I feel like my time and effort were totally disrespected. I don't like how it feels to be depended on and judged by other adults. (children are another matter). There is this disconnect that happens - the parents no longer see you as a person. You are now this entity that must answer emails asap, fix the mistakes that the parents made in paperwork, run the errands for supplies and whatnot, help somebody catch up when they miss a meeting, do the training, do the scheduling, plan the meetings, field trips... I feel like I cease to be a person who has feelings and a life of my own. It is even worse when the parents are also your friends. That makes this disconnect even more bizarre and unsettling. I have spent a lot of time this past month reflecting on this very subject. I know that my decision has already made one mom a little angry. She is a friend, yet I get the impression that my quitting has let her down in a big way. "If you quit, then who will lead? SusieQ really loves scouts!" You know? Not once, in three years, did a mom step forward with the offer to share the load. It had to be asked for, and it was given with considerable reluctance. It is my profound wish, that as parents, we recognize that our time is equally valuable among all of us, and that in making an entity like scouting or a large homeschool support group be a successful and rewarding experience, parents need to work in partnership rather than an 'us vs. them' thing.

I read a book this past month that really lined it all out for me what I needed to do. Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, by Crystal Paine was an eye-opener. I filled up entire pages in a notebook of the things that weren't working, the direction in which my goals have shifted, where I need growth and change, and then pick just a few of them to begin working on. If you overwhelm yourself, it won't happen, you'll fail, and then you are in a worse spot than where you started from. The biggest message in the book is how to break it all down into something that is manageable, so that one elusive day - you own your time, instead of being a slave to it. I took this information and blended it with what Alejandra presents on quarterly goals on her website/YouTube channel. Alejandra is my new hero. I may not be as much of a perfectionist as she is (and perfectionism is not a bad thing - we Type A's understand each other's needs, whether it be color-coding, sorting or alphabetizing), but what she says makes absolute sense. I set about creating my own chart - (below). The heart of the message is zeroing in on a particular goal, and then break it down further - into smaller steps, and create a timeline for yourself in which you want this to happen. And then keep the goal sheet where you can see it - EVERY DAY. Remind yourself of what you want happening in your life. Rinse and repeat.

So I've got my goals set, and now I am in major purge mode. My next book that I am currently working on is Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life, by Julie Morgenstern. She presents a slightly altered approach by really analyzing the array of 'stuff' in your life - material things, your schedule, your habits. Every one of these areas could use pruning, but where do you start? I already dove headlong into pruning my schedule before I even cracked this book, but now I see how I can improve upon the work I've already done. It does require a lot of reflection. Take for instance, your schedule. When you look at it, you need to really pick it apart and rank the meaningfulness of each and every thing you do. Obviously the stuff that ends up at the bottom of the list - the stuff you really resent having to do (no - going to the dentist does not apply here...) is an obvious starting point. The board meeting that you attend once a month that really does not inspire you, the weekly bowling night with buddies that you've grown apart from.. you need to separate the obligation you feel from the activity and look at it from a whole new perspective. If you dropped this activity and reclaimed that time, what could you do with it? (Hint: look at your goal sheet with a new eye) Give yourself a focal point, a direction you want to head, and shed the things in your life that are contrary to that goal and preventing you from getting there.

Heavy, heavy stuff - but so rewarding!!!!

So that is what I spent my April doing. I want to slow down and enjoy this wonderful life I have - the card deck has dealt me some whoppers over the years, but I have survived. And now I want to thrive.

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Mommy/daughter ski day...

A week ago last Sunday Rylan and I went skiing at Copper Mountain Ski Resort.  We left the house at 5:45 a.m. and drove through the early morning darkness, catching only a glimpse of the sunrise as we crested the top of I-70 before it dropped down into the canyon.  It is about a 1 hr 45 min drive up to Dillon/Silverthorn, and another 15 minutes beyond that to Copper.  Rylan loved the sensation of being the only person on the road for a little bit.  I do to.  :)

We got to Silverthorn and pulled off to go to the Mountain Lyon Cafe for breakfast.  Dean and I first went there exactly nine years ago when we spent a weekend in Dillon and it is still as good as ever.

We drove on to Copper and spent the next 30 minutes getting our gear organized and on.  We were in Dean's new car, and it is a tight fit as far as getting dressed!  I am not well-acquainted with Copper, so I was a little mystified as to where to start Rylan out.  This was her third time on skis, and it had been two years since her last stint.  Unfortunately, I made a bad choice.  We hopped on a shuttle to take us to the Center Village so that we could get our lift tickets, and I thought we would just take a lift up to the top of the main green run that runs from the very top all the way to the bottom, and we would just make our way down.  Umm.. not such a good idea.

  

Here we are, we made it off the lift in one piece, and I was able to drag her to this spot.  A very nice lady took our photo.  Then we turned around and headed down the run.  We made it about 10 ft and Rylan went off the side just behind us, down a steep shortcut that led to a double black diamond.  Sigh.  I had to take off my skis, hike down to her, toss her skis back up to our run, and boost her up the side.  We got our skis back on, made it another 10 feet and then another major fall.  Rinse and repeat about another 50 times, over the course of the next TWO AND A HALF HOURS.  Then we finally made it to the bottom of that run.  Never in my life did I think it would be so difficult for her - and neither did she.  I think she was very frustrated with herself, and it was annoying her to no end that other little kids were zipping right past her.

Rylan has had two and a half years of karate, plus almost two years of dance...and yet this kids still struggles with body-awareness.  She struggled with which foot to put her weight on, which way to lean, how to transfer her weight, how to lean into the mountain, yet lean forward as well..  It really is a lot to take in, and I am seriously kicking myself for not getting her on the gradual bunny slope first thing.  Trouble is, I had no idea where it was located.  I studied the hell out of the map as we sat and ate lunch after finishing that long, horrible run, and finally found it tucked away in a glade between the black section and blue section of the resort.  Stupid place for a bunny slope, if you ask me...

So, after a late lunch we got on a bus and after getting off at the wrong spot, getting on again and hiking over a meadow with our heavy skis, we made it to the bunny slope and Rylan got to master getting on/off the ski lift and got in some good practice with turns.  She ended the day on a very happy note, much to my relief. I would feel terrible if this day turned her off to skiing.  She sported a very nasty bruise on her hip, and her muscles ached for a couple days from all of the snow-plowing, but she recovered quickly!  Here she is on her last run..

I was just fine, but I really should have put my orthotics in my ski boots because my feet - especially my left - were barking by the end of the day.  I could barely put weight on it.  I also had to do a lot of getting up and down from a sitting position while still in my skis as I helped Rylan get in and out of her ski bindings, and a lot of pulling her up and so on... my shoulder really took a beating - I am not as recovered from that surgery as I thought!  No falls on my part, so that is a good thing - but I also didn't really 'ski', as I was working with Rylan the whole time.  That was a bit of a bummer, because the snow was freakin' fantastic!!!!!

I love my girl for not giving up, and for staying as positive as she could, all things considered.  She is not a quitter, that's for sure!!  I also loved bonding with her over pancakes and cocoa during breakfast and music during our long drive up and back.  She loves alternative rock as much as I do!

A boy gets a cast on his leg

 

Colin went to visit the orthopaedist today, and he came home with leg cast that will be his close and personal friend for the next three weeks. I don't feel 100% comfortable with the diagnosis since the doctor spent half a nanosecond looking at his x-ray, but then again the doctor is the expert, right?

Since the Urgent Care clinic is connected to our hospital, they could pull up his x-ray in the computer system immediately, and display it on a large wall monitor. I think that is just the coolest...I'm of the opinion that every doctor should be connected to a network, and that every teeny tiny scrap of your medical history should be accessible in a database, so that the information a doctor has is as up-to-date as it gets... Anyway.. Off track here... So he glanced at the x-ray and said it was an easy fix - just put him in an above-the-knee cast for three weeks and he should be just fine. He was not concerned about the growth plate at all. I guess I should feel relieved, but I feel a little apprehensive..

So Colin got a cast put on his leg. First the nurse removed the rest of his splint (pictured above, courtesy of photographer Colin), then put on a long 'sock', wrapped his leg in some kind of squishy material - similar to that thin packing material you use to wrap fragile stuff in, and then used a wrap that hardens within minutes. Colin was not exactly the best patient...he was pretty squirmy. The nurse gave Colin a Batman action figure that had an exact replica of the type of leg cast he was getting.

Batman helped Colin control his wiggles somewhat, but then Colin was still wiggling as he played with Batman. There were other characters, so out came Spider-Man in his leg cast, Darth Vader in his arm cast, along with Captain America. Luckily these two 'broke' their left arms, so they could still fight each other right-handed. :). We all tried in our best Darth Vader voices to amuse Colin...

"Colin...(Vader breath)...I am your father..."

Colin had about 15 color and design choices for his cast, and so he immediately chose 'safety orange'. A very appropriate choice for this boy! Dean tried to steer him towards OU red, of course. The casting from start to finish took under 15 minutes (!), and we were done. It is a waterproof cast, so he can shower, bathe, SWIM...and it is supposed to dry out in about an hour. I don't think we will attempt the swimming thing (he would sink like a rock) but it is good to know I don't have to give him a sponge bath for the next three weeks.

All afternoon Colin got increasingly mobile, hobbling all around. You can hear his cast scrape along the floor, so I can tell when he is moving around, which is nice. I can't believe he is already putting weight on it, but apparently it doesn't seem to bother him because he didn't complain of pain even once all day. Tough kid!

 

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A boy breaks his leg...

If there ever was one of our kids to end up in the ER, it would be Colin.  He's the rough-and-tumble one.  I can't remember a time when he didn't have a bruise somewhere...  I just always assumed that regular trips to the ER would be the norm for this kid.  I am completely amazed that it took him four years to finally make that happen.

Just a couple of days ago, on Wednesday afternoon, Colin broke his leg jumping on the trampoline.  I was upstairs, pulling laundry from the dryer.  Dean was downstairs, working on the computer.  Dean happened to be home that day, as he was feeling like crap that morning and decided to call in sick.  As the day went on he felt better, so he was getting some work done from home.  I had just come from downstairs, and I had noticed in passing that the neighbor and his kids were jumping on their trampoline.  I heard the bustle of Jordan and Colin going outside to do the same thing.  Within a minute there was yelling and screaming coming from our side of the fence.  I hollered down to Dean to go tell Jordan and Colin to be quiet so that they wouldn't annoy the neighbor who was outside enjoying some time with his kids.  Then I heard Dean come in with a sobbing Colin and he brought him upstairs.  I came out of our closet where I had been putting the laundry away, and there was Colin, laying down on the floor and Dean looking him over.

Now, I am the kind of mom that is the wait-and-see type when it comes to injury.  99% of the time it is not as bad as our four little drama queens make it out to be.  I am hard-pressed to even dispense a band aid.  There has be BLOOD...LOTS of it.  This time around I was skeptical.  There was nothing outwardly wrong to suggest that there was an injury to Colin's leg, except the fact that Colin refused to put any weight on his leg and seemed to be in a lot of pain.  I manipulated all of his joints in both legs, there was no swelling, and he couldn't point out the exact location..he just indicated the entire left side of his body, which isn't exactly specific.  As time went on the area under his left knee grew warm, so we figured that was where the fracture likely was.  (Well, we didn't know it was a fracture, but all signs were pointing that way..)

Given the fact that he refused to bear weight, Dean thought it best that we go to Urgent Care.  Now, in the meantime, Jordan completely lost it.  It was basically his fault.  He had jumped hard on the trampoline, in order to bounce Colin really high.  It was intentional, but totally meant in the spirit of fun.  The kids like it when he does that.  We were kids once too, and we both remember that it was fun to bounce kinda crazy like that.  The problem is, Jordan can't quite regulate his quest for fun with keeping things safe.  We've warned him a thousand times that Colin and Owen are too small to bounce really hard like that, and to keep it in check.  He forgets...  So, as it became apparent that it was serious, Jordan just lost it and started bawling because he felt so bad.  Even at 13 going on 14, Jordan is a sensitive kid, and he wears his heart on his sleeve.  So, we asked him to pull it together and hold down the fort while Dean and I took Colin to get checked out.

The exam was pretty quick and routine.  Colin was not happy to be there, and refused to talk to any of the doctors or nurses.  He wouldn't even accept a popsicle from the doc - I had to be the go-between.  He had a couple of x-rays done, and sure enough, there was a small fracture line at the top of his tibia.  The doctor placed his leg in a splint and wrapped it up and sent us home.  Nothing could be done, casting-wise, until the swelling went down.  Of which there really was none, but whatever...

Since the splint goes up the back of his leg and up past his knee just a bit, Colin can not bend his leg.  So getting him home, strapped in the car seat was an issue at first.  Luckily we had a spare fleece blanket, and so we devised a long sling to suspend his leg.  We used the handle that is just above his seat to tie the blanket to and adjusted the height so that his leg was at just the right angle - it actually worked pretty well!

So for the past day and a half, Colin has been either on the couch or in bed.  We have to carry him everywhere, so bathroom trips are the most difficult thing right now.  His leg has to stick straight out, so I have to prop it up on my knee while he sits down and does his business.  His siblings have been kind enough to bring various toys to him and take turns playing with him on the couch, but I can tell this will get old, very quickly.  I think reality set in for him a bit yesterday, when he asked if he could go outside and play in the sandbox with his trucks.  'No'.  Jump on the trampoline?  'Are you serious?  No.'  Ride his bike?  'Uh...no'  This kid is a constant mover.  So the upside is that we will now know where Colin is at all times.  The downside is that Colin won't be happy about that.  At all.

Today we are going to the orthopaedic center - the same place I had my shoulder surgery done - to see a specialist.  Unfortunately the pediatric guy was booked solid, so Colin will be seeing a 'bone specialist' instead.  This is probably a good thing, because the fracture line is awfully close to the growth plate at the top of the tibia, and this could lead to some serious problems as Colin grows - like uneven bone length kind of stuff...  We'll know more in a few hours.

Not happy to be here...  "Stop lookin' at me!!"

Daddy helps with the popsicle

He looks happy here.  Which totally does not make sense.

A close up of his x-ray.  The length of the fracture is hard to determine here.  The top of the tibia is called the metaphysis.  The gap is the epyphyseal plate (growth plate) which is filled with epyphyseal cartilage, and the smaller section above is called the epiphysis.  The metaphysis and epiphysis eventually fuse together, and ossify, in the late teens.  The growth plate is where new bone growth takes place.  The further you travel down the bone shaft, away from the growth plate, the harder and more mature the bone.  Fractures in young children often take place at the ends of  long bones, where the bone is very fragile still.  Fractures in this area are problematic because they can interfere with the growth plate doing it's job in producing new bone.

Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... It is a bit overcast and cloudy right now, at 8 a.m., but the day is supposed to be warm and sunny.

I am thinking... About skiing with Rylan tomorrow.  I need to figure out what we are wearing and I am thinking about the drive.  The news channel just showed the traffic on I-70 this morning, and it was horrible.  It won't be as bad tomorrow morning, but the drive home will be!

I am thankful... That earlier this week, when we went to McAlister's Deli for dinner, six year old Owen was happy to play along when I pointed to different letters around us and asked him, "What's this?"  Owen dislikes playing any sort of answer-call letter games.  He dislikes letters, period.  :/

From the Learning Rooms... I heard back from Colorado Calvert Online Academy this week - they received our applications and all three older kids are registered for the fall! (happy dance)  I feel such an immeasurable sense of relief.  We hit the books this week with a renewed sense of purpose, and it felt very good.  I looked into duoLingo this week, and brushed up on my rusty Spanish by completing the intro round of lessons.  It is not as entry-level as I had hoped - more adult-friendly then kid-friendly, but it is very thorough by requiring an equal amount of reading/writing/speaking in both English and the chosen language of study.  I think Jordan will benefit from it.  One drawback to Calvert is that it does not offer any type of foreign language, so I think this will be a good stand-in.

In the kitchen...Nothing but an empty cup of coffee...be right back!

I am wearing... The Saturday requisite of pj's and robe.  No socks.  And my freezing toes could really use a pair.  Be right back!

I am creating... Still trying to come up with a solution to coming up with a weekly menu.  I hate menu planning.  I hate shopping.  What might help me is a list of recipes to choose from.  So I am making a master list of about 20-30 favorite recipes for each of several different categories: chicken, beef, pork, fish, meatless, pasta, Sides, Salads, and breakfasts.  Each list is divided into three columns: the recipe name, where I can find it (book, file, iPad...), and the ingredients it calls for - apart from staple items.  That way, when I sit down to menu plan and write the shopping list, I am sitting down with 9 sheets of paper - not piles of cooking magazines, cookbooks or endlessly scrolling through Flipboard or my Facebook wall.  Last Sunday I worked on 'Sides', and it took me all day!  I now have a nice list of about 35 recipes to start with though!  That will probably evolve into my longest list, since it includes subcategories like rice, pasta (ex. orzo), grains (ex. couscous), legumes, and by vegetable.  Some of the recipes are on simple end, like 'Steamed carrots".  No recipe needed, of course, and all I need on my shopping list is a 1 lb. bag of carrots.  I am making sure that I have a good variety of recipe complexity  - including lots of slow cooker meals to help this homeschooling mom deal with Arsenic Hour.  This is going to take a long time to finish and fine-tune, but I hope that it is done by the end of April.  I am soooo tired of frozen fish sticks.

I am going... Well, if all goes well, Rylan and I are heading to Copper Mountain tomorrow.  We'll head over to the ski shop later this afternoon and get our skis, boots and poles.  Dean and Jordan went skiing in December, and Dean got a free lift ticket from Copper after enduring over an hour of being stranded on a broken ski lift.  He has been after me ever since to make use of this ticket.  I am not the biggest fan of Spring skiing since the snow can be sloppy, but the base is phenomenal with all the snow that we have had, and it is still cold enough up in the high country that it isn't all slushy like it usually gets in late March/ early April.  So we are going!  This will be Rylan's third time on skis, but she hasn't been since the season before last, so I don't know how she will do.  I am honestly not looking forward to it.  I am hurting all over since I just started back up with running this week (horrible timing), in my hips especially.  My shoulder is still not 100%, and I am not 100% from the BR surgery either.  I am terrified of falling, being in such tender shape right now.  I am a pretty decent skier so I don't usually fall, but with Rylan in the mix, she will undoubtedly cross my path and I will have to ditch to avoid her.  Hope for the best!

I am wondering...Hmmm.. nothing?

I am reading... In the non-fiction arena, I am reading Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, edited by Dale McGowan.  It has been on my reading list for some time.  I didn't realize it was actually a collection of essays and such by a variety of authors, but I am enjoying it for the most part.  There are a couple of pieces so far that have made me cringe because of rather bold word choice, but other than that, I find it rather rewarding to read words on a page that echo my exact thoughts - it is comforting to finally hear other people who feel much the same as I do.  I don't discuss religion much with others, so at times it can feel like you are the only one who feels a certain way.

In regards to fiction, I am still slogging through Diana Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn.  It is almost punishing at this point.  I. just. want. to. finish. it. and move onto something 'funner'.

In the garden... Last week I picked my first tiny crop of butter lettuce and baby spinach, and it is just about time for picking again.  My 'crop' is planted in a single seed-starting flat, and sits in my large west-facing window.  We planted several weeks ago, and they are growing fast!  I will wait to transplant them outside for a couple more weeks.  We are also maybe just a couple weeks away from picking some fresh green beans.  The kids picked some dried-up bean pods that had poked through our fence from the neighbor's garden, so we planted them (indoors) in January to see what would grow.  Low and behold, the plants have climbed up a trio of 6 ft. bamboo poles and back again, flowered profusely and now numerous tiny green beans are growing.  It has been fun to watch it grow a few inches every day!

I am hoping... I don't hurt myself tomorrow..

I am looking forward to... Some mommy/daughter time!

I am learning... or 'relearning' Spanish verb conjugations.  uugh.

I am hearing...Owen singing along with a Backyardigans song on TV, Colin playing with toys upstairs and the washer entering the spin cycle.

Around the house... Today is 'get every-last-bit-of-laundry-done' day.  And 'find Colin's lost tennis shoe' day.

I am pondering... Not much, at the moment.

One of my favorite things... Vanilla yogurt, granola, sliced bananas and juicy blueberries.

A few plans for the rest of the week...Ortho appts for Rylan and Jordan.  Rylan is just finishing up 18 straight days of cranking her new expander, so now they will measure and determine the date the braces will go on.  Maybe Jordan will hear when his braces will finally come off.  Which is 9 months overdue, at this point.  We also have our homeschool science fair next weekend, so this coming week will be spent working on our projects.  Jordan will be presenting his work he is doing on his quadcopter, and Rylan is experimenting with making butter.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Denver Zoo, 2-27-14

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