After writing several posts discussing the routines I was establishing, I haven’t written more. Why? Well, we moved, and we don’t currently have Internet. This, of course, makes it harder to keep up with blogging. But that’s not the only reason. I mean, I have written a few posts offline and published them at the library. This one, for example, I’m writing on my iPod during the wee hours, because I can’t sleep and have nothing better to do.

The real reason Is that pregnancy is getting the better of me. I just hit the third trimester, and I’m tired a lot! By the end of the day, I’m dragging most days. I don’t always have the energy to get even my basic routines done. Sometimes my husband will wash the supper dishes and shine my sink for me while I crash on the couch with a book or go to bed early.

However, my routines haven’t gone completely out the window, either. I still lay out my clothes most evenings and get dressed before I start breakfast most mornings. I still swish and swipe every day except Sabbath. I still try to keep my sink shiny as much as possible.

Partly because my energy levels are a tad low, and partly because I have been dealing with pain in my hips that is directly related to the effects of pregnancy on chronic scoliosis, I don’t move very quickly, and sometimes it takes twice as long to get everything done. This doesn’t leave me with much chance to do extra things, like unpacking. But I try. Of course, it doesn’t help that most of the boxes are full of dusty items that give me hay fever, and I can’t take allergy medication while pregnant, so I can’t do a lot of unpacking at a time.

But I do have a daughter who is becoming quite a capable housekeeper. She can was most of the dishes, just not the really heavy ones or the really fragile ones. She can mop the floor on hands and knees. I usually use a damp mop with a handle, but the other day there was something sticky on the floor, and even though I mopped it 3 times, it just wouldn’t go away. So I filled a bucket with soapy water and gave her a rag. She mopped while I took a shower, and when I got back, the floor wasn’t sticky anymore! She likes mopping this way, too; don’t ask me why!

So I’m just trying to cope as well as I can, doing what I can and looking forward to getting my body and energy back later on in the summer. Of course, by then routines will be of utmost importance, so I’m doing my best to maintain the ones I have as well as I can. I also plan on using some of my down time to make my control journal. That way my husband will (I hope) be able to keep things more under control in the first few weeks after the baby arrives.

So instead of continuing my series on routines, I will soon share how I made zones in my house. Because I wasn’t happy with Flylady’s zones, but I liked the idea of zones. I’ll tell you about that soon.

How about you? Have you established any routines? How do you keep up with them when you are sick or pregnant or just don’t feel like it? Please share!

There is only one thing worse than moving when you are pregnant. Okay, I should be grateful. At least it’s second trimester, not first or third. I mean, I’d be perfectly useless in the first trimester. In the third, I could direct, but I wouldn’t be much help. In the second, I at least have the energy to pack and unpack–at least, more than I would with the other two.

This is actually the third time I’ve moved while pregnant. First time was from one town to the next, and I was in my first trimester of my first pregnancy. Fortunately we didn’t have much, and my husband was able to move it all himself without my help. The second move was during the second trimester of my second pregnancy. It is amazing how much I did–even to driving the big moving truck!

But this time trumps it all of those times. What is worse than moving while pregnant? Moving while pregnant and sick.

The day of the move out of our house in Aloha, OR, I was feeling pretty well. I could tell I was fighting something, but my energy was good and I figured I could do what needed to be done. Thankfully I had some help with getting packed and loading the van (because carrying heavy boxes was not something I felt safe doing, especially this far along in pregnancy). But I overdid it. The next day, I could tell that I was succumbing to whatever I wad fighting. And I succumbed. Missed church and everything. My daughter, on the other hand, was able to rest when she felt sick and got well in just a few days. I was sick for almost a week.

We moved most of our stuff to the new home and a few things we needed to our friends’ basement apartment for a few days while we waited for everything to be finished in the home. I had planned on spending the days we stayed in the basement unpacking and organizing the house, so that it would be easier to move in. Instead, I spent most of them relaxing in a recliner and trying to recover from being sick.

One week after moving out of the rental house, I was feeling well enough that I just wanted to move into out new house. So I packed up our stuff and got a friend to come help ne load and unload the van.

But once again I overdid it. And while I didn’t get quite as sick as I had the week before, I was not exactly well either. I had a sinus infection that was toying with being bronchitis. Then it was finally clearing up, and I was trying desperately to be productive, cooking and doing mountains of laundry (because our bedding had been in storage for a year and was musty smelling–as were our towels, my maternity clothes, and other needed items), and trying to unpack and organize the kitchen and the rest of the house.

A couple of those days, I was so out of it that all I could do, it seemed, was cry and wish someone would come over and help me. Or bring me food so I didn’t have to cook. Or offer to watch the kids for an hour or two so I could focus on unpacking, or take a much-needed nap.

But no one came. I went to bed early and felt better the next day.

But then, exactly two weeks after moving out, I noticed my sinuses were getting bad again. As in, infected. But I had two prenatal appointments, and a kitchen that was very much in need of staples like fresh fruit and veggies and some other commonly used items. So I went shopping. By the end if the day I was dragging, and I was in bed a bit early. Or I should say the recliner, since my hip was bothering me and laying down just makes it worse–especially for midnight trips to the potty!

Well, that was yesterday. Today, I have a sinus headache. It’s 10:00 am as I’m writing. I’ve eaten breakfast, and my daughter has (my husband prepared it while I tried to sleep), but my son still hasn’t eaten. You might remember that he is allergic to almost everything, and he is going through the typical 3-year-old I-no-yike-dat-food stage, so almost every meal is a battle. And I don’t have energy for battles right now. Not to mention that I don’t really feel it’s good to have battles over food. I’d rather let him get good and hungry so that he’s willing to eat whatever is set before him.

So now I’m worn out, wishing I had help, trying not to be overwhelmed by the things that must get done today, wishing I had more energy to do what needs to be done.

And thinking that the next time I hear of someone that is sick or moving, I am going to bake a casserole and head over and offer to help. Even if I have to drag the kids along. The friend who helped me pack had kids, and I really couldn’t have done it without her.

And I hope that I can get over this infection soon and be back to being the happy mom that I like to be!

My last decisions post was two weeks ago. What is my excuse? If I said I was busy, it would be true. However, my real excuse is that my kids and I have been sick. My son came down with a cold and fever a week and a half ago. The fever came and went for several days. A couple of days after he got sick, his sister came down with a milder version of it. Then by the weekend I was feeling symptoms of the same thing. So instead of writing about the decision I made the week before and sharing my next decision, I just took care of my kids and myself and said I could wait until next week.

My decision two weeks ago was:

I determine to make my relationship with God the #1 priority in my life.

Did I succeed? To be brutally honest, no. I allowed life, sick children, my own illness, and other factors to fill up my time. I slept in and not lost the early morning time, when I can focus best.

But I am not going to be discouraged by failure. “When I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.” Micah 7:8. Instead, I am going to make this decision my decision for the coming week and really make time this week. Especially first thing in the morning.

And right now, that means finishing a chapter in the book my prayer partner and I are reading together. Because that book is about Jesus, and learning more of Him will make spending time with Him more precious.

Now it’s your turn. What decision have you made this week? Share with the link-up tool or in the comments. If you haven’t participated before, please read the instructions first.

Remember how I was sick for a week and still had to do (nearly) everything that I would do when I’m not sick—but slower, leaving me with precious little free time to actually rest? Well, now that my husband is home for the weekend (this was written last Saturday), it would be nice for him to be able to help out. I’m still sick, after all, and it would be nice to be able to rest a little.

Fat chance. My husband is now sick. He seemed fine at lunch, but then he went for a nap shortly after lunch. Usually he goes for a walk first or at least waits an hour or so for his lunch to settle—not today. I was looking forward to a nap, but figured I’d let him take his first, since he seemed to be settled down for one by the time I finished cleaning up after lunch. After a couple of hours, he still wasn’t up, but I was ready to go lay down. Gislaine was already playing outside, so I took Manny, whom I had been watching, and put him down beside Daddy, saying, “It’s my turn for a nap,” and went to bed.

Well, I never really got any sleep. I remember dreaming about lifting my foot to go up the stairs, but not high enough, and I stubbed my toe on the step, effectively waking myself up (don’t you hate those kinds of dreams!). Then the kids were running riot downstairs. So I didn’t really get much of a nap.

When I finally gave up and came downstairs, my husband was still zoned out on the reclining deck chair where I’d left him. I asked if he’d rested. He said, “Not much. I don’t feel well.”

So now imagine my thoughts. I’m sure you’ve been there, especially if you’re a mother.

I’ve been sick all week, but I still did about 90% of what I normally would do. I mean, sure I didn’t clean all the bathrooms—just the toilets—but at least I got meals out on time and changed diapers and did all the laundry—and then some, when Gislaine’s pull-up leaked. . . It’s not fair! Now that he’s sick, he gets to lounge around all day, without a care in the world, while I, still sick—and probably no less sick than he is—have to keep going. It’s not fair!

Well, that’s how they started to go, anyhow. But the Lord stopped me. Lisa, He reminded gently, remember that your husband gets migraines when he’s sick. When he gets sick, he usually gets a migraine to go with it, and that’s way worse than what you’ve gone through. For some reason, he doesn’t always tell me when he has a migraine, so I’m not sure if he does yet or if he just feels tired. [Note from the following day: Not only did he have a migraine, but when I went to bed, he had a fever of 104.7! That’s way worse than I ever dealt with! But I didn’t know that when I wrote this.] I consider how he was up just as late as I was before I got sick, and that my coughing the last few nights has kept him from sleeping well. I also remember how when he would come home from work, I would finish getting the kids fed, lay out pajamas or whatever, and go take a hydrotherapy hot-and-cold shower, and go to bed. Or just simply go to bed. As early as 8:15. Meaning he had to do the supper dishes and put the kids to bed (neither of which is easy), and then do anything that he would normally do in the precious little time he had after coming home between 7:30 and 8:00, as he does every night. Bless his heart! He never complained. At least not to me.

So why should I complain? I am on the mend, after all. I made sure to rinse the dishes, mostly, so actually washing them will be a cinch once the sun goes down (because I just can’t get out of the habit of not washing dishes during the Sabbath—especially now that I don’t live in cockroach paradise!—and because the dishwasher that came with the house is not working). Then I’m going to bed. Probably by 9:30. That should be our bedtime, but before getting sick, I may have only gotten to bed by then once since we moved, and very seldom before that. “Schedule” seems to be a dirty word in our house—or at best an ignored one. But let’s not go there. I’m still praying about that issue!

So instead of complaining to my husband about how I have to work while I’m sick, but he gets to be lazy, I made him a green drink of mullen leaves, kale, and a little pineapple juice. I should have put garlic in it, but I didn’t. That’s okay. He drank it. I’ll find out what he thinks of it later. I’m glad he wasn’t sick while I was, or I would have had to do the supper dishes the next morning—not fun! And I’m thankful that he has a strong immune system. He’ll probably be all better in a few days.

But just to draw out a lesson. Our thoughts affect our emotions. If I had given in to those first negative thoughts a few hours ago, I would be pretty miserable by now, and resentful of my husband. Instead, I’m thankful for the man I married, and I hope he gets better soon!

This is one of my favorite sore throat remedies. One of my friends shared one with me that has more stuff in it, but I never buy radishes and only rarely have red onion around, and besides, it’s got so many things in it that it would take a year of making it when I’m sick to remember it without looking up the recipe. Not to mention that I don’t have Internet anymore, so looking up the recipe would consist of writing it down on my need-to-do-online list and waiting until the next Friday or Sunday to get it. And then going to the store for ingredients. And considering that this cold I am just getting over started on a Monday. . . well, you get the picture.

This remedy is one that I sort of invented myself. It’s quick and easy to make, and it really helps a sore throat. I’m sure it also helps the cold too, but then colds are usually viruses that just need to run their course, so it might not shorten it much. Could help the intensity, though. Anyhow, here goes:

Lisa’s Sore Throat Remedy

About ½ cup lemon juice (I always estimate this)
A little water (maybe a quarter cup or less)
3-4 cloves of garlic, mashed, minced, or pressed (so they blend better)
As many dashes of cayenne pepper as I think I’ll be able to handle, plus a couple more
A little honey (maybe a tablespoon—I never measure)

Blend the above, gargle, and swallow. Simple.

Now here’s the theory behind why I made it. Garlic is a good antibacterial and I think antiviral too. I don’t know where my Green Pharmacy book is to check. Well, I do know where it is. . . somewhere between 5 and 10 feet away from me, in one of those boxes that are stacked about 5 high. . . But I think it’s common knowledge that garlic is good for you, and that it kills bad things in you, so that’s why garlic. Lemon juice is soothing to sore throats—at least in the long term. I sometimes use fresh lemon, but it about doubles prep time trying to avoid the seeds, and I rarely have fresh lemons around anyway, so I just use the stuff in the jar. Maybe if I got a citrus juicer. . . Anyhow, it’s good for you too.

Cayenne pepper is a stimulant that attracts blood to whatever it touches (they say to put it in your socks to warm your feet—but I’ve never tried it). It dilates the blood vessels, allowing more oxygen and white blood cells to reach the area. Also, the capsicum (I’m so proud that I remember that word without looking it up!) is a pain killer. Once the burn dies down (in less than two minutes, I assure you), the pain-killing part has begun to work.

The honey does more than just help it taste better. Honey also has antibacterial properties. If I don’t have time to look up proof sites before posting this, do the research yourself. But suffice it to say, though liquid, it never spoils, so that has to count for something! Anyhow, it also tends to coat things, and I have found that the cayenne burns a tad bit longer (not much, though) when I use the honey, meaning it’s staying there a bit longer, doing it’s work. I have made this without honey, but it is much harder to get down.

So even though I have had a bad cold, I have not endured much of a sore throat—only first thing in the morning, before I got around to making this concoction. And that was usually the last I felt of a sore throat until the next morning. I always make it fresh for me, and gargle a mouthful every 5-15 minutes (often during breakfast preparations), until it’s gone. That would be 4-5 doses. I don’t think I’d want to take them one after the other. I like hot food, but not burning in my throat, and thanks to the gargle, that’s where this stuff burns!

Also, I always swallow, so that I can get the full benefit of the garlic. Some people don’t believe in taking cayenne internally. That’s fine. I won’t argue with you. Let me just say that #1 this is a medicinal use, and #2 if you don’t want to swallow, you don’t have to! As far as I’m concerned, it has benefits, especially medicinal ones, and I will use it from time to time, especially medicinally.

I have made this for my daughter, minus the cayenne and about triple the honey and the water, and after about 3 days she started liking it. She didn’t at first. So I started using it as a way to make her stop complaining about her nose.

“Every time you say, ‘My nose bothers me,’ I’ll have to give you some medicine.” Then I would follow through. It took some work to get those first few doses down (including some threats of sitting on her and pouring it down her throat). I should clarify that a “dose” for her was less than 2 ounces, and since it didn’t have cayenne, and since she didn’t gargle it, I made her drink it all at one sitting. Well, today just before lunch, she said, “Ohhhh, my nose hurts. Mommy, I need some medicine.” Bless her heart! Too bad I didn’t have any and was just about to sit down to lunch! But I told her that the main ingredients in the medicine were in the sour cream that I was putting on her salad (lemon and garlic), and that seemed to satisfy her.

Written Saturday, July 10

I’m not sure even where to begin this post. There have been so many things over the past week or two that I would have loved to blog about—but didn’t have the time. And now that I have time, I can’t think of one of them. Or else they don’t seem so important. I’m not sure if my husband took a picture of the kids in the pool—he set it up yesterday. I have been sick all week—too sick to think of things like pools in hot weather—and he hasn’t been home during the heat of the day.

Sew Sew Sew

I’ve gotten 3 of those dresses for little girls in Africa done. It’s been quite educational for my daughter. Here is a sample of a conversation we have had several times while I was sewing.

“Mommy, what are you doing?”

“I’m sewing.”

“Is that for me?”

“No, it’s for a little girl in Africa.”

“Why are you sewing for a little girl in Africa?”

“Because she doesn’t have any clothes, so she needs me to sew her a dress.”

“Her mommy will buy her some.”

“No, she doesn’t have a mommy, or a daddy either.” These dresses are for orphans, many of whose parents are victims of AIDS. They may or may not have siblings to care for them, and for many of them clothing is a luxury they can’t afford.

“Oh. But why does she need clothes?”

“So she doesn’t have to be naked.”

“Oh.”

I know after several repeated variations of the above, it must be sinking in, because one evening she informed Daddy something to the effect of, “Mommy is making dresses for little girls who don’t have any clothes.” When I’ve finished the 5 dresses I agreed to make, I’m going to make one more for her. I’m not sure if I’ll make it to match one of the ones I made, or just use some other fabric. And I’ll probably use it as a summer nightgown (since she really has enough dresses but does need some nightgowns). In fact, it would make very easy nightgowns! But I hope it will help her remember the little girls in Africa who are not as fortunate as she is.

Sick of Being Sick

I have no idea how, but I caught a really nasty cold this past week. It’s kind of strange. About a week and a half ago, my daughter came down with this moderately high fever (topped out at about 103.8). It lasted about a day and a half. My temperature went up, but never reached 100, so I guess I fought and won without getting sick. But the poor thing was pretty bad off during those two days. She’d just sit quietly in the big rocking chair, getting up only to go to the bathroom or to humor me by drinking a little water—why does she hate water so?

Just as she was getting over it, her brother came down with it. His got about as high and lasted just as long. They were all better by last Sunday. So much so that I took Manny with me to a 4^th of July celebration at a church member’s house. That was a lot of fun. I even made a “cheese cake” (without cream cheese) that was topped with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries laid out like a flag. The fireworks were stunning. The fellowship was pleasant. I got to swim a little in the indoor pool with my newly made modest swimming attire. I’ll have to post a picture sometime. I don’t think I’ve taken one.

But then Monday morning I woke up with a head cold. I blamed it on all the late nights I spent madly sewing those four prairie dresses—did I mention those before or not? I spent well over 28 hours in a week and a half on those! And of course getting to bed at almost midnight on the 4^th didn’t help (though even if I had, who knows if I would have been able to sleep. . .).

So I spent last week trying to get things done and not snap at my children while enduring the worst cold I’ve had in a long time. I had little energy, but staying in bed and resting isn’t an option for a stay-at-home mom with no car. Not to mention that my husband works 10 hours a day, not including the 2-hour round-trip drive, and lunch, so that means I’ve got to keep up my end of things as much as I can. So I did all the things I normally do. I cooked and did dished. I made soymilk and tofu and sandwich filling. I did go lighter on the cleaning (just cleaned the toilets instead of the whole bathroom, dust mopped only, no damp mopping, that kind of thing), but I still had to dress and bathe and feed my kids and my husband. I felt like I was a zombie, just doing things. Of course they took 2-3 times longer than they normally would, which gave me very little time to actually relax. And it didn’t help that at least twice last week Manny woke up just as his sister was going down for her nap (meaning I had no chance to nap, even though I so desperately wanted—and needed—to do so!).

Friday

But the week finally did pass. My husband was home Friday as usual. He left after breakfast, though, to go pick berries. Came back with two big mixing bowls of raspberries and a smaller mixing bowl full of black currents. The latter will have to be turned into jam—they don’t taste very good at all. The former, well, I froze about half of them, though they’re still on the cookie sheets and casserole dish lids that I put them on last night, and therefore won’t get bagged until after sundown. While he was gone I made lasagna for Sabbath lunch (I would probably be able to smell it now warming in the oven if my nose weren’t so stuffed!) and did a few other things, like dishes and putting ingredients into the bread machine so we would have bread for Sabbath if we wanted it.

When he got home, it was after 1:00 pm and I was exhausted. I told him he could season the beans (lunch was sort of haystacks, but on tortillas, so more like soft tacos, but not exactly that either) and went to bed. Half an hour later, the food was ready and I was hungry, so I went down to eat.

Then I left. I had to get out of the house. I was still sick and tired, but I just needed a break from the monotony. So I drove the three quarters of a mile to the chiropractor’s. I hadn’t had an adjustment for over a month, and with scoliosis that just isn’t something I can or should skip too much. So I filled out paperwork and secured an appointment that very afternoon, just an hour away. I spent that hour driving up and down the streets of Estacada, trying to memorize the town (not hard, considering it’s only got two main streets and “downtown” is only about 2 blocks by 3 blocks). I visited Key Bank and asked what I had to do to get that free touchscreen iPod. I picked up a to-go menu from the Thai restaurant. I stopped at a yard sale and chatted with the lady of the house about the weather here verses Florida and Texas (we both agreed that Oregon is the best—sorry Marci, if you’re reading this. ). I took note that the only two doctors in town, both DO’s doing family practice, close at 2:00 pm on Fridays. But in one of them the cleaning lady opened and at my request gave me a business card. She was Hispanic and was very pleased that I could converse with her in her native tongue.

When I got back to the chiropractor’s, I was a couple minutes early but he was ready. I enjoyed a nice massage with some machine he has (it’s got three or four balls on it and it really digs in and feels good!), a heating pad, then a full adjustment. I felt so good afterwards! It was definitely worth it, even though my nose nearly dripped while waiting for the heating pad part to finish!

When I got home, I swept the floor in the kitchen (I always do that at the end of the day, because it gets dirty the fastest), wiped a few obviously dirty spots with a damp cloth (it took me 3 times as long to sweep as normal, and I was in no mood to give it a proper mopping), and then cut my brother’s hair. He is in the Marines and needs a military haircut whenever he has drill. I think I did a pretty good job.

And I stayed home today. I’ve still got a bad cough, but my energy is better. I took a 2+ mile walk and picked wild flowers for the lunch table. The CD I burned of sermons by Mark Finley on Audioverse.org didn’t work (bummer!), so I decided to write instead. And now my husband just walked in the door about two sentences ago, so I’m going to go set the table and make a salad to go with that lasagna while he takes a brief nap. Here’s hoping the coming week goes better than the previous one!