Thursday, April 10, 2014

Decluttering, Children, and Other Stuff Oh My: Updates Galore!

Gah!  It seems like life just slips past faster and faster anymore.  And, unfortunately for me, the blog just takes a back seat behind...well pretty much everything else in the universe sometimes.  But, bright side, I do have some really GOOD reasons for why I've been "out".
One experiment in changing diet:  Paleo Banana Bread Muffins.  They were good!
 First:  The Daughter Unit

Since my last update on Armina, we've gone through a lot.  I guess the last time I updated was me filling you in on our Valentine's Day visit to the ER which resulted in a bladder infection for her right?  Well, a week after she got off of the antibiotics, she started the nightly vomiting ritual again.  My nerves completely shot, I got her back into the internist super quick to try and figure out something, anything that might be causing it to happen.  What I got back was that it was probably a stomach bug she'd gotten and it would pass.  The ND, when I went to see her for an update, seemed to think that Armina was doing better and then when Armina vomited a couple of days later finally came to the conclusion that something at dinner time, maybe my husband fighting with Armina to get her to eat healthier, was upsetting her enough that her digestion was shutting down and rejecting food, so she gave us essential oils to diffuse at dinner time to help (and orders to stop fighting Armina on food, but to present the food over and over again and let her pick up the foods in her own time. This was a huge relief to me, but I still think it annoys my husband to no end sometimes).

The internist then sat down and researched Armina's entire case from November onward and we finally got a diagnosis of Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome.  It runs in families with chronic migraines (my husband suffers from them) and the child, while not inheriting the migraines, ends up with this condition instead.  So, basically, the internist gave us a script for Zophran (a strong anti-nausea drug) to give to Armina when she starts to feel the onset of symptoms to stop her from vomiting and an order to have a follow up appointment made for June.

Overall, so far, so good.  We've had a few stomach aches, but once the Zophran was given we didn't have any problems going back to sleep and being fine.  Although, honestly, I think the essential oils are helping her the most.  She's eating better overall and hasn't complained of the constant stomach ache she was having before, so I'm hoping we're finally seeing the end of this rain cloud.  Here's hoping anyway.  Wondering about what the image of the muffins is all about?  Well, read on and I'll get to that (promise)...

Second:  The Declutter Lenton Challenge

Funny part?  This thing has spread.  I mentioned this to my step-mom who jumped on the bandwagon and a couple of my friends did too.  Pretty funny!
My friend Shannon brought up a post on Facebook, randomly mind you, a while back of a challenge of "40 Bags in 40 Days" where you were supposed to aim at getting one bag of excess "stuff" for every day of lent and in the process declutter your life and find more Zen in minimalism.  I really liked the idea as a lot of areas of my home needed a LARGE overhaul (or in the least a deep cleaning), and so I've been slowly working on home stuff around here.  I got shelves put up in my laundry room and my laundry room reorganized, my pantry reorganized, my upstairs hallway closet became an appliance barn, gluten free zone for baking supplies and a place to store baking dishes...and things that pretty much impacted the entire house (including reorganizing every piece of furniture in the house pretty much).  And lots of other stuff.  In the process I've lost of a lot "stuff" that I just plain didn't need to clutter up my life.  I've slowed down over the past couple of weeks as my "zones" are becoming less and less, but I'm still working on it.  And I feel good about what I've accomplished.
No real photo for this one, but I love this image.
Third:  The Son Unit

We've been busy the last little bit with Alvah related matters too.  A chapter is coming to an end for him.  The end of preschool, which in his case has been three years long.  So, we have had to figure out where he was going to go AFTER preschool.  Which, we finally settled yesterday on him going into an ABA based program that the district was pushing for.  I was torn about it, until we realized what the alternative was (which wasn't really an alternative to how Alvah's personality works at all), so we checked out the program and knew that it was the place for Alvah to go.  We love his future teacher, have high hopes for what he's going to accomplish in the next couple of years and I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders knowing that others see Alvah's potential in the same way my husband and I do.  So, here's hoping it works out well!

In the middle of all of this going on, I've been trying to slowly switch my daughter to a gluten free diet and trying to think of different ideas to help get my son to start eating...you know...REAL food...without him turning on food like he did when the allergies hit and we had to switch everything on him.  I went nuts with a meal plan to make life more organized around here (I went out two months for dinner and am working on incorporating breakfast and lunch into that plan as well) and have been trying new recipes (unfortunately not many of my own creation...I've been too tired with everything going on to try much out in that department).  

And so, there is a brief (and yes, this was brief with everything that has happened, trust me) synopsis of what has been going on around here.  I  hope life has been treating you well and YES I will post up more than just, "Hey this is what I've been up to" types of post very soon!

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