The Three-Ring Circus

Today, I would like to update you on my life.  To best illustrate it all, I shall use the metaphor of a three-ring circus.

IN THE FIRST RING:

My kiddos.

The boy has been throwing fits and has been unable to focus again; we're finally down to the last Vyvanse at 20 mg, and so starting this week we're going to go up to 30 mg.  We may go as high as 40 if necessary (given his height and weight, I know the doctor wouldn't object) to get us back to a solid baseline.  The boy needs new coping skills, and he needs to be able to focus to get them right before we "de-medicate" again.  We're also continuing the Intuniv as is.  He's also considering whether or not he wants to remain in public school next year or return home.  He's on the fence.  I'm letting the choice be his this year.  We'll see how it goes.

The girl has been mentally/emotionally okay, but she came down with pneumonia last Thursday.  Well, OK, so really it was a very mild case of pneumonia and we caught it on Friday afternoon, but pneumonia it is (I suspect combined with a virus, but that's neither here nor there) and that means breathing treatments and Mucinex and Tylenol and 'roid rage and grumpy girl who wants to go to school and who DID go to school today because she didn't have a fever but then came home with a fever of exactly 100.0F and a headache.  A breathing treatment and Mucinex helped; she's off to take a bath and put on pajamas now.  Here's hoping she feels better again by morning.

IN THE SECOND RING:

My job.

I really do enjoy my job, but days like today make it difficult to remember why.  I won't get into details on here for many reasons, but suffice it to say that my level of screw-it-all is extremely high right now, and if they fired me tomorrow (which I hope they won't and don't think they will), I don't even know that I would care.  OK, I would care and would probably cry, but OMG STRESS.  I'm supposed to go in and chat with the director of operations about something tomorrow, and I feel like I'm being sent to the principal's office.  I can't imagine that I'm in trouble, but that feeling is still there… and really, it's just more OMG STRESS.

IN THE THIRD RING:

My personal life.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

OK, seriously, I am working on my cross-stitch project for Doodlebug's room and intend to read a couple of books I picked up at the store this weekend, but other than that, nope.  Allllll the NOPE.  Oz and I have his company holiday party this week; mine is next week.  At some point I need to go visit my mother for a Christmas shopping trip, and I have a couple of people left on my list for whom I need to shop.  The idea of me getting out for ME?  With MY friends or with MY husband?  Not happening.

---

My goals right now are to get everyone healthy/properly medicated, figure out the work stuff, and get through the next few weeks intact.  Then maybe it'll settle down…

Hey, a girl can dream.

Kitchen Therapy

This has been a long, exhausting week.  M1 still has his head firmly lodged in either electronics or his posterior, Oz feels like a life-sucking parasite has taken residence inside his head, and two of the cats decided within the last 10 minutes that they needed to demonstrate their hairball-hacking skills.

All of this means that I either resort to drinking or find solace elsewhere.

This is not to say that there isn't an open bottle of wine in my fridge.  There is.  Ohhhh, there is.  But I also bought two bags of flour and sought refuge in my kitchen... baking.

I totally plagiarized PW's picture for this shot

It started with the tortillas a few days ago.  Now, the recipe that I used (see either link) suggests using just plain white flour, but this fairly green girl likes things a bit healthier.  Yeah, OK, so substituting half whole-wheat flour really doesn't offset the lard by much, but it makes me feel better.  And that's the whole point of this exercise, anyway.

Then yesterday I made egg noodles.  I don't have any pictures of them because A) they were instantly cooked and devoured as part of the chicken cacciatore we had for dinner last night, and B) they weren't all that good.  They were a bit tough and chewy.  It's been a long time since I've made egg noodles, and I wasn't impressed with the recipe I used.  I need to poke around Pinterest for a while and find myself a new recipe to try.

Today, I got back in the kitchen again:

Burger buns the size of Oz's hand 

Hoagie buns... they're so, so soft...

These are actually the same recipe.  I have absolutely no idea if they'll be any good, but they look and smell amazing.  I've had to shoo cats away from them several times.  They're incredibly easy to make, too.  If you read the comments, it suggests only making 8 buns out of the recipe and letting them rise for 30 minutes instead of the recipe's recommended 10.  If you make 8 buns, though, and you're in a nice, warm, humid, southern-USA-in-summer-like environment, watch out!  They'll be huge.  Eight is a perfect number for hoagies, but I'd go for the full dozen burger buns.  Or let them rise for less time.  Unless, of course, you like burger buns roughly the size of your giant spouse's hand.  That's a bit much for me.

Is this all the baking I'm going to do this week, you ask?  Oh, no.  No, no, no.  I already have plans to make homemade ravioli this weekend.

Baking therapy.  It's the only way to preserve sanity, I tell ya.

That and Pinterest.  And wine.  Together, they're a lethal combo for my waistline.  I hope the scales survive.

P.S.  Share a link to your Pinterest!  I always love finding and stalking following new people!

The Domestic Arts

Normally when I think about educating the children, I focus on the academic: science, math, writing, history.  Sure, M1 is on the swim team and has his banjo, and sure, M2 plays violin and takes swimming lessons also, but those are still, in large part, academic pursuits, albeit of the elective kind.

There are, however, other pursuits that are still equally worthy of their (and my!) time that sometimes get overlooked.  I readily admit that sometimes I forget to look at the forest because I'm too busy focusing on the trees.

M1 has his K'Nex and science projects to keep him busy, and he occasionally wanders in the kitchen to cook; M2, while she does enjoy the odd cooking project, is primarily my little hobbyist/crafter.  She adores going into the school room and working on some elaborate project for a few hours.  She constantly wants to learn new skills, too.  She's begged me to find someone to teach her to sew (she doesn't want to take a class, despite my urging; she wants one-on-one instruction from a close friend or family member).  She found a book on patchwork at the library and wants to learn to quilt.  She has even asked if she can use food as a craft item, which I'm okay with as long as the food stays in the kitchen/dining area and doesn't migrate upstairs.

There's a fair amount of precedence for her myriad hobby interests.  My sister is a wizard with a sewing machine and even made her own wedding dress.  My mother has sewed since before I was born and once took a knitting class.  Oz's grandmother knitted professionally for many years and can knit a sweater to fit the person in mind without taking a single measurement.  Oz's mother learned to knit and sew and does quite well at that, too.  Me?  Well, I cross-stitch and went through phases when I was younger where I made beaded jewelry and tried calligraphy; a couple years ago Oz bought me a pysanky kit that unfortunately hasn't seen the amount of use I'd like.  So obviously the women in our family tend to stay busy with something or other.

One of the gifts that M2 got for her birthday was a small knitting loom.  She tried weaving at a recent homeschool event and enjoyed it, but Oz thought that perhaps knitting would be better suited to our wee girl's interests.

He was right.

The loom is small, but it's the perfect size for her.  The instructions were easy enough to follow that I could help her get it set up and going without any problems, and she took over from there.  She made just a little piece to begin with, but she already wants to make her brother a scarf for his birthday this fall.  It's cute to watch her discuss yarn color choices and create a 'knitting box' where she can store all her paraphernalia.

 She's planning, working, and happy.  The domestic arts may not be formal education, per se, but they certainly still have their uses, and I can't wait to see the results!