Mallory's sick

Mallory woke up on Friday morning (2:00 am ish) acting like she was going to throw up, she never did and then went back to sleep, got up acting like she had to throw up and then went back to sleep. So Friday regular morning, (7:30 ish) she was not feeling well at all. She sounded funny like her throat was swelled and she did not eat breakfast. Well anyway she ended up throwing up at least 5 times and then I decided to take her to the doctor because her throat was really red and I thought she may have strep throat. Well anyway, I took her in that afternoon and she did have strep throat and Nathan still has his ear infection. So they are both on antibiotics, his is a much stronger one. Mallory is feeling much better today and has been playing all day. I am kind of upset that Nathan still has an ear infection. This is our third antibiotic within two months so that kind of worries me that we may have to do something else. The girls never had ear infections that took longer than one antibiotic to get over. So we will see what happens.

Well earlier this week I tried again to take pictures of the kids and once again I did not have full cooperative behavior from my oldest child. She was not too into it and I did not get that one shot of all them having fun and in action. I will have to try to capture it in another manner.





Here are the kids still playing with our handmade silkies.



I took Nathan's diaper off and we had to go upstairs to get a new diaper and he kept walking and this is what happen. His pants are always so large at the waist and when he finally does wear underwear they will all fall off of him. Hopefully he fills in before that.


On Thursday night Julianne had her first grade open house at her school. It was great. The kids have been studying Asia and they have learned about Chinese, Indian and Japanese traditions. They sang lots of fun songs and most importantly they had a great time and worked really hard on all the songs and their classroom.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
- Running in warmer weather
- Listening to Nathan's increased vocobalary
-Seeing Julianne have fun on stage and her desire to want to show us all her school work

Pillars of Wisdom from the Yoga Sutra

So I mentioned in an earlier post that I am a yoga fanatic. I have been practicing for a little less than a year and I still love it. I am actually able to get into the poses pretty comfortably and breathe with each pose. I have noticed a big difference in my old limited flexibility to my new limber status. I am now running pain free, for the most part, and I no longer have lower back pain and I just feel more supple all over. I actually find myself more relaxed and able to deal with daily life better. I now find the downward dog position very relaxing. I am now searching for a yoga studio that offers more types of and harder classes than my current gym. I love the yoga classes at my gym but I am ready to move into more complicated positions and more strenuous vinyasas. I will probably not join a yoga center right now since I already have a gym membership and I have three kids that usually go with me but I may look into other classes once a month to supplement my current yoga practice. I have a tendency to get bored easily with exercise and I have a strong desire to keep pushing my physical limits and I think a specialized yoga center could offer me some other yoga alternatives.

I am also learning more about yoga's history and it's related teachings and scriptures. These teachings came from Patanjali who wrote a manual containing essential advice for daily living.

This Yoga Sutra is specifically designed to lead individuals to greater happiness and spiritual fulfillment. Many followers think of these as Yoga's Ten Commandments. The Ten Sutra's are divided into two categories called Yamas and Niyamas. Yamas are about restraining behaviors that are motivated by grasping, aversion, hatred, and delusion. Niyamas are designed to create well-being for ourselves and others. (Yoga Journal, "Path to Happiness", February 2009)

Most of the following information is directly cited or summarized from the the Yoga Journal article cited above. I do not write as well as they explain it so I will pretty much use their wording and add in my own thoughts. This is a great exercise for me since I read the article and loved it and I always take more away from things when I take notes, as in school, so this is a good exercise for me to learn more about these teachings.

Five Yamas

1. Ashimsa: nonharming- The opportunity to relinquish hostility and irritability, and instead make space within your consciousness for peace. This is basically about examining all your negative thoughts and stepping back from them and not feeding into them, thus minimizing their hold on you.

I don't really hold onto many negative thoughts regarding myself or others. I do tend to worry too much about possible events or things which can occur that are also negative and these sometimes do hold me back (for instance traveling far from my children).

2. Satya: truthfulness-Many interpretations promise that once you're fully vested in satya, everything you say will come to be realized (this is an interesting statement). Sometimes it is hard to separate your point of view from the truth. Additionally it requires you to consider both the spoken and unspoken aspects of your words. It basically means don't gossip even if the information you're giving or given is true. It also discusses an interesting aspect that spending time in silence helps an individual distinguish between opinions and reality. Slowing down your internal chatter can help ground you in satya.

I can see how silence would help decrease one's need to gossip and/or to speak only from one's point of view. I know of so many people that just constantly talk and never really know what they are saying and if they are making sense of what they are saying or believing or gossiping about. I would love to learn to meditate. This is one of my goals for the next few years.

3. Asteya: nonstealing-"Don't steal and all good things will come to you". This can relate also to someone's time, someone's energy, someone's happiness, ideas, etc. It also calls for a focus on how and what you consume. If you are taking something, are you giving back the appropriate amount? In other words, have fair trade be your mantra-Respect time and energy from others, give credit where credit is due, and see if you can help build up the world's kindness reserves by giving more than you take.

I actually like this one and try live it pretty much everyday. I do make sure I am respectful of others time, belongings and of the things that I am consuming. I do try to give back to my friends and family.

4. Brahmacharya: energy moderation-Preventing the dissipation of one's energy through a personal energy conservation program. Basically you are not letting the senses rule your behaviour; you are not urge driven.

I think I understand this one. Don't always give into your urges or desires because they could lead to overabundance or to "bad behavior". I am not a real risk taker nor do I have any extreme urges or desires that would get me into trouble.

5. Aparigraha: nongrasping-This is the decision to not hoard or accumulate goods through greed but rather to develop an attitude of stewardship toward the material world. Basically asking yourself before you buy it do you need this for my role in life? as a parent? as a spiritual seeker? Or am I just accumulating stuff out of my own fear or greed. This can also relate to non material ideas such as old beliefs about yourself or your relationships, or clinging to a career that no longer feeds you, etc.

I usually follow this lesson. I do not accumulate too much stuff or hold onto old beliefs. I am pretty aware of the material world and I hate how much or nation consumes and uses up resources.

6. Saucha: purity-This involves keeping your physical and mental self "clean". You want to keep your thoughts uncluttered so you can feel free from afflictive emotions; you keep your body and environment in order, to create a sense of calm.

I do have an abundant amount of cluttering thoughts in my head that I do not need and most of the time drive me crazy. Mostly these are my worries that sometimes rule my mind, especially at night. I think I could defiantly work on this one.

7. Santosha: contentment-Accepting life as is. It's not about creating perfections. Life will throw whatever it wants at you, and you ultimately have little control. Be welcoming of what you get.

I do well adjusting to change and whatever happens, however, I do worry about how I will adjust in the time leading up to the expected change but when it occurs I adapt easily. I think that also applies to having and raising kids. I am pretty relaxed when it comes to raising my children and try not to control too many of their behaviors or actions.

8. Tapas: right effort- The willingness to do the work, which means developing discipline, enthusiasm, and a burning desire to learn. This relates to learning something new, changing your diet, contentment, or non-judgement.

I love learning new skills, new ways of doing things and to push my physical limits. I defiantly try to do the best job that I can do when it comes to most aspects of my life either it be being a mom, a wife, a friend, a planner, a photographer, etc. My problem is that I might try too hard and have high expectations that are not always met and then there is disappointment which is not healthy either.

9. Svadhyaya: self-study-This is about looking within and asking the eternal question: Who am I? When you self observe, you begin to uncover and address the unconscious patterns governing your life.

This one is difficult to do on a daily basis. This reminds me of the New Earth book by Eckhart Tolle. It is about being present and really looking inside and your reactions to daily events. I can do this when I am aware of it but as life goes on it is hard to do this all the time in the moment.

10. Ishvara Pranidhana: Dedication to the Highest-The highest happiness comes only from a love of, communion with, and surrender to, God. God in this sense could be an anthropomorhpic representation of God or it could be offering oneself to the divine matrix or making an artistic offering to the greater good.

I do believe in serving the greater good and a higher power. I guess I would call it a God or more than one God but I do have an overwhelming sense that things happen for a reason and there is some sort of higher order to this universe.

So those are my thoughts on these Yoga Sutra's. I have heard and read about these before but I have never really sat down and studied them and reflected my thoughts on each one. I would love to practices these everyday but it is hard and it is nice to be reminded of them on a dialy basis. I may type these out and hang it it my room so that I can be remined of these lessons daily. Or I may not. I kind of have my own teachings in my head and these pretty much parallel what my idea doctrines would teach. Thanks for reading I hope it was not too boring.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-being able to read interesting and challenging articles/books/etc.
-having a stylish husband for dressing advice
-warmer weather (I know I just mentioned this in a very previous post but I am very thankful for this)
-Easter candy, specifically jellybeans, peeps, and chocolate eggs

Craft of the week and some fun outside

Well the weather warmed up a little bit last week and then it began to become quite cold again this weekend. However, we finally made it outside to play for awhile and we did a marble painting project this week. The kids enjoyed it and I would have actually liked to do it by myself and see what creations I could have made but I had to keep track of the kids and the food coloring. For this project we used oil and food coloring, mixed them together and then put it in a shallow pan of water. The food coloring and oil do not mix well nor does it mix with water. So when you put the food coloring and oil mixture in the water it stays in little balls. We put the paper on it and it soaked up the food coloring in fun shapes. The kids got tired of doing it that way and ended up just squirting the food coloring/oil mixture right on the card stock for their own creations. We will probably use these pieces of card stock for future handmade cards.




I have not taken pictures of all three kids for awhile so I asked them to sit in front of our door and play a little bit. Well you would have thought I asked Julianne to run around the block. She was not into it and kept giving me fake smiles and not really playing with the other kids. Nathan and Mallory loved it and keep kissing each other for some cute pictures.


Don't you love Julianne's face. She looks like a teenager.




Julianne perked up after she got to ride her bike and not sit anymore for pictures.

I took Nathan to the allergist today for his yearly allergy testing. Well he tested positive for peanuts again, dust mites and some of the tree pollens for the first time. She said that usually the dust mites show up this early since they have been exposed to these mites the longest. I showed her pictures of Nathan from last spring when he had eczema on his face and arms and his eyes were really red and she said that last spring was very high in some tree pollen and she said they had lots of kids with the red eyes like Nathan. She said he is probably allergic to some other seasonal allergies but they have just not shown up on the test yet. She suggested that if we do not need any other help for allergies this spring that we not have him tested again until he is 4. She did say to keep track of his asthma outbreaks to see if it is really from a cold or from a nasal allergy. So it was good to find out that he does not have any food allergy and that he probably just has seasonal allergies. It will be interesting to see how he reacts this spring and summer. He is doing well now. He had a little bit of eczema on the back of his legs that really itch him but the rest of his skin right now is soft and eczema free. So we will see if that changes in the spring.

This is a picture of him the night of his test. They pricked his entire back so there were dots on his entire back earlier in the day and these are the ones that remain. The dot on the lower left side is the dust mite. The dots on the right side are the tree pollens. I am not sure what the others ones are.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Having a great doctor visit with Nathan. We played ball together and colored
-seeing the girls do gymnastics
-having a good parenting day

25 Random Things About me...

Well this has been going around Facebook for awhile and I have read many others and I thought it was a great idea however, I do not want my information on Facebook. There are too many random individuals reading that stuff and I knew that since only close friends and family read this blog I felt it was more appropriate to post it here. However, I did enjoy reading others "Random things" on Facebook because I did get to know other friends and acquaintances a little better, but it is not for me. I think it is a good idea to make this list because it gets me thinking about what things I know about myself and to examine my likes, dislikes, interests and hobbies. So here it goes

-I love the idea of a vegetable garden but I do not want to maintain it
-I get very nervous when I travel a far distance from my kids
-I do not enjoy flying and usually end up thinking about what could or could not happen during take off/landing/and while in the air
-I like lots of snow and I like when it stays around for awhile
-I actually like to exercises and I like knowing that my muscles are in good shape and are being used on a regular basis
-If my family would cooperate I would cook vegetarian dishes everyday
-I love staying home with my kids, it is such a short time in our lifetimes to spend quality time with them.
-If I could change professional careers and go back to college as a singly young woman I would choose a more family friendlier career like physical therapy, nursing, teacher, photographer, social worker.
-when I have a weekend away from my kids I like sew, watch TV, and spend time with hubby
-My guilty pleasure is watching reality TV
-I love massages but do not like pedicures
-I love jellybeans, skittles, Mike and Ikes, Dove chocolate, Carmel nips and trident gum
-I enjoy cooking and trying new food
-I would like to "flip" an old house
-I love taking pictures of my family
-I dislike when my kids whine and ask for things constantly
-I have never spanked my kids. I am not against it I have just never had to.
-I do miss my part-time Planning job and my co-workers in Knoxville
-I miss my Friday playgroup friends and kids from Knoxville
-My house is never completely clean
-I love using cloth diapers and I wish I would have used them with my two older children
-we may or may not have another child
-I love fixing things around the house. I am a handy woman
-I consider myself a spiritual person whose is constantly striving to become a better person for myself, my family, for our world, and the greater good
-One of my dreams is to run a non-profit child/parent resource center where parents can get help, take classes, talking to others about the challenges of raising children and really trying hard to raise their kids an appropriate way
-My idea of a fun adult night would be to go to a nice restaurant then go and see a comedy show or play card games with another couple

Well I think that is it. I think I actually have 26, but who is counting

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-warmer days
-getting a close parking spot and a spinning pass last Friday (I usually never get into the Friday class)
-Having alone time with Nathan
-our sweet, lovable dogs

Craft Time

OK so I have made it my mission to get back onto the craft wagon. I did lots of crafts with the kids before the holidays and I have not gotten back into it. They always enjoy doing the crafts, it helps them learn new things, I learn new things, I feel like I am actually doing stuff with the kids besides always cleaning up after them and cooking for them, and it keeps their behavior in check since they are occupied. So we started this weekend by dying silk scarfs. I got the idea from here and thought it would be a great activity and then the kids could play with them. The girls love to pretend play with anything and this was no exception. They have used these scarfs as blankets and beds for their Groovy Girls and Nathan has taken some interest in the scarfs.

So here are pictures from that event. The girls had fun dipping the scarfs in the dye and being in charge of their color.


The colors turned out beautifully. The Kool-Aid did wonders even though it still had food coloring in it and I should have just used food coloring. Oh well.

I also finally took pictures of the two dolls that I made for the girls while I was in Penn State with hubby. It took me about 10 hours to make both of these dolls. I enlarged the pattern by 50 percent so that these are bigger then the dolls I made during Christmas time. They turned out really cute and I may try to adapt the pattern for a boy doll for Nathan. The girls picked out their own fabric. Mallory chose the bright pink/blue one and Julianne wanted the yellow/pink fabric.



Additionally here is a picture of my birthday pillows my friend from Tennessee made for me. The are so adorable and I love the three fabrics together. Thanks again Katie.


Nathan is sick again. He started getting a fever on Monday so I filled his antibiotics prescription the doctor had given me when I took Mallory in a couple weeks ago. He had been taking antibiotics earlier in the month for an ear infection and ended last Wednesday. So it has been about 4 days and I can tell that it is back. He was sticking his finger in his ear and he has a mild fever. Monday night I went in his room and he was breathing really hard so I gave him a breathing treatment and slept with him so that I could hear his breathing patterns. I gave him another treatment on Tuesday morning and this morning. So this morning he still has a fever of 101.7, I gave him some Tylenol and he took a morning nap. He is still doing some belly breathing and his is coughing a ton so that is what he has going on now.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-good books
-sleeping in my own bed without my wiggly/loud sleeping/hot son (even though I did enjoy sleeping with him but did not really sleep)
-somewhat warmer weather

We are back

We just got back from visiting Penn State University in Pennsylvania, hence the name Penn State. Home to the Nittany Lions and Joe Paterno. It was a great visit. The city is a very cute college town in a valley between two mountain ranges. We stayed on campus so I got to do a lot of walking around and visiting the campus. Most of the buildings had slate roofs and most of the architectural was very pretty and traditional. I was going to take pictures but the second day we were there the wind was very strong and I was did not think that taking pictures was the best idea. I pretty much staying in the hotel room sewing the girls some dolls, I took a few walks, ran and watch senseless TV. D and I got to go out to dinner the first night and then we ate dinner with his coworkers the second night.

We missed all the excitement at our house on Thursday night. We called around 5:00 pm. and we heard a man's voice and asked D's mom who it was and she said it was my friend's husband. So he got on the phone saying that D's mom had called him because there was an animal in the house. D's mom had not really gotten a good look at the animal and thought it was a lizard or a toad. So she called him and asked our neighbor to come over to help them get it out of the house. So the two men came over and the animal ran up the stairs and into Julianne room. It ended up being a chipmunk. They were able to capture it and release it down the road. I guess the kids were hysterical and really upset. I guess Nathan was the one that spotted it and showed D's mom. D's mom, aka Mimi, said that Nathan was really upset and his checks were so red from being upset. Additionally, the girls were so upset that night that they slept in our room and Mimi slept in Julianne's room and Mimi's sister slept in Mallory's room. So anyway, it is a really funny story and I am actually sorry that I was not there. I do remember kind of hearing something in the fireplace a couple of days ago so it may have gotten in there. We still don't really know how it got into the house. I thought that the boys would have tried to capture it or at least smelled it but I guess they were oblivious to the fact that there was another creature in our house. They laid in their bed the entire time the action was going on. I guess that is what we get for buying lap dogs.

I finally finished my purse's from hell, so I am no longer going to call them that I will just call them my new purses. They turned out really well and I am actually pretty pleased with them. I am pretty hard on myself when it comes to making things and rarely say that my work is great but these are pretty nice. The outside is quilted, there are inside pockets, a Velcro closure, a bottom support and I love the springy fabric. I think I owe most of the credit to my new "walking foot" that I bought for my sewing machine. It keeps the fabric together and just is flawless in sewing two pieces of fabric together. So that helped keep the corners square and fitted and it helped me quilt the front panel.



While in Penn State I got onto the Internet with our laptop which also has a lot of our older pictures.











So I uploaded some pictures and here are some of my favorites.

I don't remember how old Nathan is in this picture but he is younger than 6 months since it was taken in Tennessee


This one is before Nathan was born


This is Mallory and I see some resemblance to Nathan

Here is Mallory in that snowsuit that I just posted a few weeks ago where Nathan was in it.

Mallory at a gymnastics party in Tennessee. She must be around two.

Mallory in her Halloween outfit. She is 2.5 years old and reminded me of ET.

Julianne and Mallory around Christmas time in Tennessee. Look at Julianne's poor face and Mallory did not have any hair.

Mallory getting dirty with paint.

I had two other pictures that I was uploading at that time of Julianne and it did not complete so I will have to do it another time.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-getting away with my husband
-being able to travel to a new place I have never been
-enjoying time to myself
-being excited to see my kids
-knowing that they were in good hands while we were away
-having great friends to help out while we were gone, Thanks Jess, Jill, Monty and Ron
-Having a safe uneventful car ride to Penn State and back

Where does the time go?

I cannot believe my last post was on January 28th. We have been extra busy around this household with dad and kids being sick, I have been working on my new purse from hell, and I am finishing up work for my former employer. So with all that it means I have less time to blog. So D played basketball at the local high school last Thursday and fell into a bleacher and fractured his rib. What that means is that he is/was in a lot of pain and they can not do anything about it. Finally on Monday he was in lots and lots of pain and could not concentrate so he went to the urgent care and they gave him some pain medication, Tramadol. He took it for a couple days and then on Wednesday started throwing up, was nauseated and had the cold sweats and it took him 12 hours to recover. We do not know what caused his severe upset stomach/nausea. It could have been the pain medication he was taking or it could have been a bug. Anyway, he is feeling much better and will not continue to take his pain meds in case that was the cause. He said he was in Hell on Wednesday so he does not want to take the chance. Mallory and Nathan both have ear infections and are on Amoxicillin. They are both doing well and seem to be feeling better.

My purse from hell, is a Mini Miranda Bag from Lazy Girl Designs. I love the purse and I am excited for it to be done but it has taken me forever. I think it has taken me so long because I am making two bags from the same fabric so that adds on extra time; secondly, the outside fabric is quilted so that took some time and lastly there are a lot of steps to this purse. I started it this weekend when D's mom had the kids. So I had lots of time and I have probably put in at least 20 hours into making this purse, hence the name Purse from Hell. I am almost done, all I have to do is to put on the straps and the flap closure. So when I am done I will have two identical purses of which I will use one and either try to sell the other or give it to someone. When I get done I will post pictures. I am hoping to get it done by this weekend.

That is about it for now. I better go since the kids are throwing toys up into the air. I thought I would write a short post now but the kids are taking advantage of the free time so I better go.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-I am glad I did not get sick (knock on wood)
-I am glad that D is feeling better, it is no fun seeing your spouse in pain
-having a weekend to ourselves
-getting a good gym parking spot on an extremely cold day with two kids
-getting into spinning class, I have tried to get into this class the past two Fridays, only to arrive minutes too late to get a card and hauling two kids with me.