The Light At the End of the Tunnel

In case you haven't noticed from my absence, it has been a long, dark, journey folks. I had this same surgery on my other foot a year ago so I felt I knew what to expect. I lay around for a couple of weeks playing video games, people bring me food, then life slowly goes back to normal.

If only it were that easy. I have fallen twice, bruising the foot, which slowed my progress off of crutches a little bit. I am such an over-achiever that instead of just accepting this fact I tried to push myself harder and walk with one crutch at school (possibly up and down stairs even). It ended with tears and pain pills and my husband having to support my weight to get me into the car. I am sure he loves being married to a stubborn woman.

As if all of that weren't interesting enough both kids and I had strep a little over a week ago, then this week I got a killer sinus infection that settled into my lungs. Do you know what being a walking festering infection of a home means? It means that no one can get close enough to clean or bring us food like they had originally planned for fear of catching whatever it is we have got going on over here (and it isn't pretty). 

I have still had to make it to my college classes and try to do school with my kids, but the last few days I can barely move at all. A bit -o- blizzard post-poned a test I was supposed to take on Thursday and I was so glad because I honestly thought I had pneumonia and was so surprised when they didn't hospitalize me. The thought of going to class and taking a test (and trying to stay awake, not cry, and keep from coughing up anything weird on anyone) seemed like a lot to ask from a girl. 

Today I woke up and felt borderline normal. By normal I mean, I feel how I would normally feel if I were to say "eww, I feel a little under the weather" instead of feeling like one foot is in the grave like I have been feeling. Marked improvement! My father-in-law is coming to get my kids and I plan to spend the day alternating between more recuperative sleep (in hopes of waking up completely normal tomorrow) and homework that has been ignored all week in favor of sleep. 

The bright side is, all of this illness kept me from walking, so my foot finally got the extra rest it needed and I can now get around with 1 crutch and the walking boot or no crutch for very limited times. Also, I was so sick I haven't eaten in days so I have visions of being 20 pounds thinner (reality: divide by 10). I am sure swimsuit season is going to do me well if I keep getting sick like this. 

Now that I can walk, I can go back to taking pictures of things, observing them, getting to the laptop and blogging! I am excited. I have hated neglecting my blog. I like to do things every day the same way. I am a creature of habit. I tried to pick the blog back up a couple of times but it was really hard to do because I couldn't do all the things with Bella's school that I wanted while on crutches or get pictures. Not much to write about when I am just looking at the same four couch cushions. Thankfully things will be back to normal soon.

I finally see the light at the end of this tunnel!!!

what's a girl to do when she's laid up?

Scrapbook, of course! I have been scrapbooking with my daughter (and have 3 new finished books to prove it) nonstop. My husband bought me a sizzix bigkick for valentines, and i love it! Here is a page i made using the puzzle die cut.

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Penguins, Penguins, Penguins!

Your eyes are not betraying you, we are still working on penguins! Alex can't get enough of them and because of my surgery we are having lighter school days anyways. I still have at least 2 weeks left of being unable to really even leave the couch, and I don't want to get into anything new that I would have to go shopping for or anything in the mean time. The stairs here are so steep I have to crawl up and down them to leave our house, and that is not fun!

Here is my favorite project this week: it came from the Penguins and Mittens book, of course, and it is just adorable. You take googly eyes, card stock, a film canister, and glue and make  a penguin. How handsome is this guy!?!

Here we (attempted) to make igloos out of marshmallows and toothpicks. It was not as easy as I thought it was. There are a lot of projects for penguins and Antarctica involving igloos, so I have now had to explain to my 3 year old that penguins don't REALLY live in igloos. Oops.

Alex really just wanted to eat the marshmallows. 

Here are some Penguin fractions that I got from Love2learn2day

Here is a penguin potato stamping project from Penguins and Mittens. I posted this picture so you could see how the potato pieces were cut in order to make the penguin parts. 

And here is the final product! 

Here is Alex with his Penguin toob. He enjoys playing with all of the penguins, for Bella she can try to identify the different species.

Here is our "Frozen Adventures" wall. Each day Bella writes a story about something that happens to her while she is visiting Antarctica and we post it on our wall!

We are loving our trip to Antarctica, and hope that you will enjoy it, also! 

Little House in the Big Woods - Chapter 3

Language Arts:

Chapter 3 Spelling, Vocabulary, Questions

Chapter 3 Word Search

Science:

How Bullets Are Made


Study Foxes:




Fox Lapbook

Study Muskrats:

Muskrat Printout

Home Ec:

Make Maple Candy


Art:

Pioneer Covered Wagon Craft

Character Building:

Obedience

What Was I Thinking?

I thought that since I had this same surgery last year this would be a piece of cake. Sever my tendon, lay on the couch for a couple of weeks, crutches, and eventually regain my ability to walk and maybe even my life.
There is so much that my feet have been keeping me from doing. I have spent most of my twenties with a disability that left me unable to even take a walk without horrible pain.
But now as I lay in bed, my back sore from the imobility, unable to sleep, with a throbbing foot, I wonder if I was crazy to look forward to this. Did it hurt this much last year? And if so, how did I manage to convince myself to go in a second time. Did I forget all of the pain because I knew my other foot was bad and I might have to do it again, like women sometimes do with labor?
I will just dream of summer and the time I will finally get to enjoy with my family when I can walk. I llok forward to games of tennis with my husband, trips to the amusement park, and taking my son to the zoo to see his first real penguins. All I have to do is make it through the next few days.

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Surgery Day!

Today is the big day. I have to go get surgery on my foot. I am feeling pretty nervous this morning. I know that it will be fine, but I wish that it was already 1pm and the whole thing was over with and I could be somewhere eating a chocolate pudding.

We haven't planned ahead this time, and I don't know why. We are setting ourselves up for failure. We haven't posted a calender for people to sign up to bring us meals, and we really need to do that. I had this same surgery last year so I know what to expect, and I know that I won't be able to cook, clean, or do laundry. We don't have any of that planned out.

Also, this time it is my driving foot so I won't be able to drive for about 2 months, but I am enrolled in college right now and our kids are in things like bible quiz and speech therapy. My husband works 50 hours a week and is in online classes himself. How is he going to do it all without overexerting himself? This whole thing makes me nervous. Please keep my family in your prayers in the next few weeks!

What's In the Box Wednesday Preschool

For the second half of What's in the Box Wednesday, I will share with you what is in Alex's boxes:

We are still reading different penguin or snow books everyday!

I got this out today and he played with it for over an hour!

Also, I have left only the handful of letters he is still having trouble with on his hooked on phonics ring and we work on them everyday.

Both of these books have so many fun activities for my little man to do!

For more preschool ideas look at my amazon recommendation on the left hand side here!

What's In the Box Wednesday - 3rd/ 4th Grade

I have got to get back on the ball! I have several half finished blogs in drafts and I have just not had much follow-through lately, it seems. I have been so far behind on my work for school that it is crazy. We have had snow days for half of our classes since college started and that leaves me confused and unsure about how much I need to do and how much is going to be made up in class. I put in several hours of work yesterday (another snow day) and hope to finish getting caught up today and re-establish some routine and schedule to my own life. I even have plans of making a daily schedule for myself like the one I have for the kids!

Today's blog is What's in the box Wednesday. I decided to start splitting up Bella and Alex's so that it is less cluttered. First, Bella's!

Box 1 - Math (Singapore Math)

Box 2 - Language Arts (Learning Language Arts Through Literature and Handwriting Without Tears)

Box 3 - Art (Penguins and Mittens, I also used it for math today)

Box 4 - Science (Animal Neighbors Fox, Fox lapbook)

Box 5 - Bible (Willing to Wait, JBQ)

Box 6 - More Science! (Exploring Creation with Zoology 2)

Box 7 - Sewing (We are making a purse)

If you are interested in more resources for this grade, 

check out my Amazon recommendations in the link on the left hand side!