Goodness it's been a while.
Things around here have been ticking along. I wouldn't say things are great, but they're not...terrible? Asher is in 6th grade (well, almost done with 6th), Elijah in 3rd, Eden 2nd, and Rebekah is finishing her final year of Mother's Day Out. She would have started Kindergarten, but with COVID still running rampant last fall, we didn't want to ask her to wear a mask for 8 hours a day AND start Kindergarten a year early. So, she'll start on time in the fall. She's already reading some simple words (she can read more than she thinks) so she'll have a pretty easy time of it.
The first semester, Eden was doing distance learning with a tutor, but then her tutor moved away for some personal reasons, so we talked to Eden's doctors, plus the COVID numbers were FINALLY decreasing (thank you world for finally getting your act together and understanding how to properly mask, social distance, and vaccinate), so we all decided that it was ok for her to go back to in-person school. That has had it's ups and downs. There's only about four weeks of school left, so hopefully, we can hold on.
She had a cardio appointment in September...that I remember very few details about. Sorry about that. But she had another one yesterday, and it was fine. Continue as normal. Cool. She doesn't NEED to be seen every six months, but the doctor LIKES to see her every six months just because we're so far and it makes her feel better about everything. So, cool. We'll drive to Plano every six months. It's one day, we stop by Einstein Bagels and I get my cranberry bagels and it's fine. Though I generally need about 24 hours to recover from that much concentrated Eden. It's a lot. She talks A LOT you guys.
Elijah has been in Tae Kwan Do for a while and been enjoying that quite a bit. He's apparently got some skill there. I haven't seen much beyond a few videos, but he's eager to go most Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings, so cool. Great. Have fun. The other kids have been offered the same opportunity and none are interested.
He is also taking piano lessons for the .... second? year in a row and is doing great there. Some people think of Austin (obviously) and say "oh, well, that's where the talent comes from BUT I WOULD LIKE TO POINT TO THE LITERAL SHELF OF TROPHYS AND RIBBONS AND MEDALS I HAVE FOR MY PIANO PLAYING THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I also played the clarinet for a few years, though, like, not super great. I never could learn the fingerings for the notes, I just...kind of...memorized where to put my fingers? It's kind of hard to explain. If you asked me to play you an A, I couldn't do it. But if you asked me to play a song, I could. Then. Not now. I have no idea how to do it now. My embouchure is shot. 😆 Plus the fact that my father was the drum major not only in high school, but also for the MOB at Rice in college. So, be aware, the music genes come from both sides. Walkes are just not as obnoxious about it as the Mullins. Or we just don't care as much. Either way. (Austins seriously just pounds on that poor piano. Luckily, lately he's been using the headphones so it works out for us.) Again, opportunities offered to the other kids that they have no interest in.
Austin is in a band called Mooniform and enjoying that. They've had a couple of gigs and they're local, which is better than the last band he was in where they had to travel to them. They wear uniforms/costumes. He plays the keyboard for this band, instead of the...bass? guitar? that he played in the last one.
He's still enjoying his job. They've been incredible during the pandemic, allowing people to work from home as needed at a moment's notice. Austin prefers to work in the office, even with the kids out of the house, but comes back and forth whenever I need help. Maybe I'm just as distracting as the kids are? Or maybe it's the cats. They're pretty needy.
Asher is gearing up for what TLCA calls middle school, 7th grade. He'll be at a new campus next year. He's not exactly looking forward to it, but he's not dreading it. He still reads like crazy and asks to go to the library about every 10-14 days for new books. He's got a very dry humor and a pretty great personality when he want to show it, but generally is pretty quiet and prefers to just sit and read when around other people. In a lot of ways, though, he is very much like my dad, and I really like that.
Rebekah is doing great. She's getting a little more sassy as she grows up, a little more personality and a little more like me. She's basically me reborn. 😆 Not sure how I feel about that, but...it's not too bad. She has a whole army of plushies she sleeps with every night, and she creates little beds for them. She plays Mommy to some of them, and gives them voices. They have homes, jobs, families of their own, fights that she has to break up, school they don't want to get up for, the whole nine yards. She has a pretty great imagination. I only hear the soap opera of her plushies on Fridays when she's home all day, but I'll miss it next fall. We have a whole bedtime routine after teeth brushing and face washing that's pretty great. She doesn't share it with many people (only one so far that I know of) and I'll be a little sad when she decides she's done with it. Though she needs to quit adding to it.
She doesn't mind being along for the pick up parade since she gets to watch movies in the car and I usually bring her a cheesestick. Tuesdays, she gets art lessons and she loves those. She gets upset when she doesn't get them, so if they have to be rescheduled, I try to prepare her for that. She generally is ok if she's been told ahead of time, but she is 5, so there's only so much greatness for her.
As for me, I'm doing fine. I'm still cross-stitching a lot, though my pace has slowed down a bit just because we're busier than we were during the quarantining times. There are constant appointments or activities. Plus leaving at 2 every day to go pick kids up and not getting back until close to 4 definitely cuts into my stitching time. I mean, I've still done something like 25 pieces this year. So...I mean...I'm still working a lot. But I might not hit 70 for the year. But then again....I might.
I'm still reading a ton. I'm up to...78? books for the year. Not as many bangers this year as I'd like, but still a few I've loved. I'm in an in person book club and a virtual book club and a book of the month club and in the in person book club there have developed mini groups of people who talk about podcasts and certain other books and its great. We send each other memes and tiktok videos and when my sister needed some encouraging last month, my book club put together some goodies for her and I sent it. I'm so greatful for my friend A for inviting me two years ago.
I have written another book and have ideas for two others (one of which is partially written) and I'm working on editing and sensitivity reading on the written one. It's MUCH shorter than The Reluctant Cinderellas. And only has like, three swears, if that. 😆 It's a very different book and I'll let people know if/when I get around to publishing it.
My hair has finally returned to it's pre-falling out thickness! Mostly. I don't think it'll ever 100% recover. But it's not wafer thin like it was. We had COVID in the house in February, so I'm watching to see if my hair falls out again (fun fact, we think we had COVID back in February 2020, when we were all SO.SICK. and that may have been a contributing factor to my hair falling out that spring) but so far, so good. I'm still dyeing it, so you don't see my grays as much until the roots start to show. When that happens, I look sparkly. Four kids, pandemic, lots of stress...I'm a disco ball.
My migraines are mostly under control. I say mostly, but really, they are. I have one when I ovulate and one when I menstruate, since they're tied to my hormones. So...come on, menopause! Only another...10ish years of this? bleh. The problem is, after about six or so months, my body adapts to the medication, and we have to double the dosage. So there's a limited time frame as to how long I can be on it. The side effects were the appetite suppressing, which led to my weight loss, and sporadic tingling in my fingers, like when your hand falls asleep. It never lasts for very long, but it is a weird sensation to be doing something and all of a sudden your hands are tingling. They aren't numb, just tingling. Once the medication is no longer an option, we'll explore other stuff and see what works, because I'm too young to just have a hysterectomy for migraines. Which, I get. But like. It would help me. So. Please sir. I'm done with these organs and they are making my day to day life awful. Without the medication, I spend something like half the month dealing with excruciating migraines, maybe more than that, since I've been on medication nearly 3 years now and don't really remember how many days it was before that. Maybe it was three weeks? I would just take medicine and do the stuff that needed doing because that's what needed to happen and be miserable and feel bad all the time. I get that a hysterectomy has other things that go with it...but maybe they'd be better than three weeks of misery a month? Dunno.
I also got the joy of sciatic pain joining the party lately. Oh, the joys of my late 30's. Sitting in uncomfortable chairs for 30 minutes kills me. Yesterday's trip to Plano was agony. I couldn't hardly do steps by the end of it. I'm feeling some better this morning, but...we'll see what happens over the next little while. I'll have a doctor's appointment soon to discuss my migraines and I'll bring up the sciatica.
I had my annual mammogram last year and they found a small mass. It was non-cancerous, just dense tissue, but it necessitated a second, more intense, mammogram to figure that out. It was in a tricky spot, and one of those "we're going to mash really hard until you tell us to stop" kind of mammograms. And afterwards, when I was waiting, my friends were sending me encouraging texts. The lady who came to get me afterwards, her first words were "it's not cancer" so thank god for that. It's in a weird place, too. Good times all around.
Also, I'm shrinking. I've lost an inch.
I'm falling apart.
I guess just focus on Austin and the kids? They've got good stuff going on. I'm a mess. House issues, body issues, book issues, etc. It'll all work out in the end. It's just getting there that's the trick. And sometimes, all you can do is put your head down and just push your way through.
