Maid to Order

AJ just went around the house, handing out the following questionnaire to all household members:

                                                                                               Name: ______________________

   Questionnaire

1.      What should a maid do? (check one or more)

(a)   Clean up after kids

(b)   Break up fights

(c)    Wash the dishes

(d)   Other

2.      If you checked “other” in the last question, fill in what you were thinking of.

________________________________________________________________

3.      Would you pay a maid:

(a)   Fifty cents

(b)   One dollar

(c)    Five dollars

(d)   Other (please write here) _________________________

4.      Do you want the maid to clean your room?

(a)   Yes

(b)   No

5.      Do you want me to cook…

(a)   Breakfast

(b)   Lunch

(c)    Dinner

(d)   Snacks

(e)   None

6.      Who do you think would be the best maid?

(a)   AJ

(b)   M&M

(c)    Ebee

(d)   Other____________________

7.      Should the maid be allowed to eat, drink, and otherwise associate with the rest of the family?

(a)   Yes

(b)   No

(c)    Sometimes

Please return this questionnaire to:

AJ 

Room 2

Upstairs

Kangaroo Housing Associates

I read the survey, and said to AJ, "Very interesting. What's this all about?"

"Well," she said, "Ebee and I both want to be the maid. So instead of arguing about who gets to do it, I thought this might be a good way to solve the problem."

Apparently, my daughters are arguing over who gets to do the most housework. I can live with that. :)

BTW, I made no changes in spelling, formatting, grammar, etc.--this was all her own work. I changed only the names to make it blog-friendly.

Not a Baby Any More

Ebee is doing an assignment for school where she has to chart what she looked like as a baby and what she looks like now, sorting out what's the same and what's different. So I showed her some of my old blog posts with pictures of her as a baby.

Ebee loved looking at old photos of herself and reading some of the anecdotes about herself and her sisters. She particularly got a kick out of the post about M&M letting Ebee suck on her toes.

I can't believe it's been 7 and a half years. Wow. She's definitely not a baby any more . . . she's reading and writing fluently, loves school, takes care of her pets almost on her own, helps with household chores and is quite a good little problem solver.

She has also grown out of all her food issues, allergies and health concerns. She's a happy, healthy kid. I'm so grateful.

Long Time No Blog

Wow, it's been about a year and a half since my last post. So much and yet so little has changed since then.

We sold our house and moved from the suburbs to acreage in the country, not too far from our extended family. We absolutely love it here. Our neighbors are all farmers and we are surrounded by cattle, horses, pigs and poultry.

We've added chickens, coturnix quail and midget white turkeys to our menagerie, as well as three mouse-hunting cats (one old black cat that had been a stray and stayed with the house when we moved in, and two sweet blue kittens). We still have rabbits, which we raise and show, and our sweet dog, who loves living on a farm and makes it her responsibility to make sure all the other animals are safe.

Not a week passes that one of us doesn't say aloud how much we love living here. It's so wonderful.

I've become a 4-H leader and am loving helping kids learn about rabbits. We have a really great group of kids.

DH is still working at the same job; computer programmer and general computer guru.

We're still attending the same church, and are involved in various small groups and ministries.

This year and last year, the kids have been in a hybrid program where they attend school half of the week and do their assignments at home the other half. It's been a fabulous fit for our family. DH takes the girls to school the mornings they have school, which allows me to sleep in, and usually I pick them up in the afternoon. The extra rest really makes a difference for me, and I'm able to be more functional.

My health issues are still there, and still fluctuate, but are a constant challenge. I'm still far better than I was a few years ago, though, and am still able to do quite a lot as long as I pace myself and plan for the inevitable resting up and recuperating time before and after any activity.

My sister saw a geneticist who specializes in connective tissue disorders, and was diagnosed with a hereditary connective tissue disorder. Probably some version of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or something very similar, though the tests to verify which version don't yet exist (it's not one of the few very serious types that tests have been developed for).

A hereditary issue makes so much sense, considering that both of my siblings and several of our extended family members all suffer from the same kinds of health issues. We're not quite sure whether that diagnosis is instead of or in addition to the FMS/CFIDS stuff, and are still learning about this and what it means.

Largely it makes me a little more careful and aware about overextending myself. While the chance of something like a rupture of a major organ is very small (we don't have the vascular version which carries a life expectancy in the mid-30s due to the high chance of heart or lung rupture), with this type of issue the connective tissue in skin, muscle and joints can suffer permanent damage or wear out preliminarily. From what I understand, any sort of overextension or straining could hasten or worsen issues that could cause more serious long-term disability. Limiting myself in that way is difficult for me with my personality, and I don't always succeed, but I'm trying. :)

My main concern, of course, is for our children and whether they will suffer from it or not. One of our kids is definitely hypermobile, which is one of the big indicators of the disease, but at this point all of the kids are healthy, happy and doing fabulously.

In addition to school, 4-H, AWANA and church activities, the kids are each taking lessons--M&M and Ebee are doing gymnastics (M&M, in particular, is an amazing athlete), and AJ did a couple of sessions of Christian Youth Theater and is now taking dance classes.

Overall, life is good and we feel very blessed.