Day 320: Almost perfect day.

I called it "almost" because the end of the evening did not go well, and it was so bad, that I could not put one positive word down on paper/screen, so I'm writing this the day after.  It's resolved now, but I like to be honest, and all our days are NOT perfect.  This blog is to be mainly positive and sometimes, writers can not pretend they are happy, you know?  But again, it's resolved for the most part.  Now onward to what good happened that day.  Here goes.

I had an early appointment for an EMG on my wrists/arms and yes, it confirmed minor carpal tunnel syndrome.  I knew that I have had "weak" wrists because I never got used to the back and forth motion of using the bow on the cello.  I have had wrist guards for years but because it's not actually painful, I don't wear them.  But, I have had numbness and tingling in my fingers, especially after sleeping on them or while pushing a stroller for a long time over rough patches of road.  I thought it was just remnants of being so puffy during Keturah's pregnancy, and it went mostly away until Abishai's pregnancy.  I also wake up and my hands are very stiff.  My left arm is weaker than my right, but that's no surprise with what's going on with left shoulder (which still hasn't been figured out yet).  The doctor doing the test will write up an official report and give to the doctor who ordered the test, and then she'll tell me what to do.  I suspect it won't be nothing much more than take pain relievers for pain and wear your wrist guards.  Since I take pain relievers round the clock anyway, that part doesn't matter, and the wrist guards, well, I'm not crazy interested in doing that because they are a pain to sleep in, so we'll see.  Although this wasn't a huge problem to get figured out right now, at least now I know it won't be going away.  I'm about 12 days away until I see the holistic doctor, and I'm praying daily she will be the one who will listen to me and get me the next steps I need to take for whole body help.

Then I came home to Abishai who had a 102 F degree fever.  Oh joy.  Not.  Thankfully it only lasted 12 hrs, but he was very lethargic.  He had gotten up really early last night (or was it the night before?) at like 2am and only wanted mama to sleep with him, so we slept on the floor of his room for a couple of hrs, and then I went back to bed.  But poor little guy was pathetic.  I've had an off and on slight headcold, so who knows if he had a little virus too.  I ran some thieves and oregano oils in our diffuser and then I was able to try a new naturopathic fever support liquid supplement that has yarrowroot, elderberries, and peppermint in it.  Super excited to try it!  I don't think it brought down the fever like Tylenol would but maybe it helped to eventually break the fever. The peppermint has a cooling effect, while I have read about elderberry syrup for coughs and such.  And yes, oregano oil is an immune booster and thieves gets rid of the germs!  Now if I just remembered to actually run thieves every day, maybe we wouldn't get sick all the time, lol.  I love essential oils, by the way, and try to use them first before I reach for conventional medication.  In fact, I'm using a blend meant for sore muscles on my temples because I've got a wicked headache from eating too much sugar lately.  It helps a bit, but this headache will take it's time to go away.  Plus, I think it's a withdrawal headache because I wasn't able to get more tramadol yet.  Anyway, oils are great and much better for you than pharmaceuticals because there are virtually no side effects. 

Super moon!  I have seen the super moon several times over the last few days, but I don't seem to have the right time or have the right camera on hand to get the right picture like some are all getting.  That's ok.  I'll leave it to the professionals.  And if my kids want to see it after reading this post, they can google "Supermoon PEI November 2016."

This is our timeline that is nearly finished!  The top couple of rows have "dates to memorize" cards from lessons from the previous 3 history books, 12 per book, out of 70 or so total lessons.  Then the rest of timeline figures are from this year, which is from the US Revolutionary War until present day (2014/Revelation).  Today we added each member's of our family picture close to their year of birth and discussed what was happening around that time and how their parents might have been feeling around that time.  We did the 6 of us, and Jared and I's parents.  We didn't do our siblings or our nieces/nephews because a) it would get too crowded and b) it would be repetitive as far as events that happened around their births.  Because my parents were born in 1949 and 1950, we can talk about soldiers coming home and having families, and because Gary and Leah were born a few years later we can talk about how things changed then as well.  Then we jump to the late 70's and early 80's for Jared and I, and 2002 and beyond for the kids.  We will then add the last three lessons before Thanksgiving, which are 9/11, the War on Terrorism, and the author finishes with Revelation.  I think I'll take the next month to review a bit and read some other books to the kids and let them finish their extra library books for history before we start literally at the beginning again at Creation in January.  I'm super excited to start all over because Keturah doesn't really remember a thing and Justin remembers only bits and pieces.  And I learned a ton the first time around and I can't wait to learn more!  Wahoo!

I must have taken this set of pictures before I left for the doctor's appointment because Abishai is running around in his new favorite pj's!  They were of course Justin's because he's my other train loving, car loving, everything has to be in order kid.  In fact, Justin has been known to sit there and watch Thomas the Tank Engine with Abishai or come running from another part of the house when he hear's the theme music.  These pj's look very worn and have some stains on them.  Abishai calls trains, "foo-foo's."  And then I'm reminded of the rhyme/song that goes, "Little bunny Foo-Foo hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice, and bopping them on the head."  And I'll always call trains, "choo-choo's" instead of "trains" because of these train loving boys, lol.  Maybe I'll post some pictures of Justin when we went to see Thomas, yes, I full size version on real tracks, when he was 4.

It's hard to capture this every moving machine.

Keturah's toes look funny!

The many faces of Abishai. 

He KNOWS he's adorable but most things make him laugh, too.

I love this one!

Smiling with his eyes.

Mr.. Sickie and his favorite doting sister/mother hen.  He was burning up, but still wanted the blanket.  He did eventually kick the blanket off.  He loves sharing blankets and stuffed animals with Keturah, too.

Instead of making Abishai stand up in his chair as normal because it's shorter than the other two chairs at the counter, I let him sit in Keturah's seat.  That meant she had to sit in his seat.  So, that's why she's super short.  It's a "junior chair" from my childhood.  And I actually still could sit in it until I was like 12 or something.  My siblings and I each had one, and I think I have 3 out of 4 of them in my possession right now.  The 4th one might be at my aunt's or my sister's.  Not sure.

I had to make sure Justin got a picture in the blog.  I keep telling him he needs to grow a bit wider so he can wear jeans that actual go to his ankles in length, which is opposite of what we told Benaiah.  Such different kids.  Oh well, it just means we need to shopping and he'll just LOVE that, NOT!