Penny Pinching and an Update

Hi, all. I hope you are all having a nice Friday. I have a question for those of you who are (or who have recently) penny pinching. How do you decide what is "worth it" to buy and what you just bake to save money. For example, my family likes english muffins. On sale, you can get them for $1.67. I can bake them. Same thing with bread, it costs $1.29 a loaf, but can also be baked. Flour is around $2 for a 5 pound bag. Is this really going too far, or does it really save me money to bake them? My mom and I were arguing (discussing?? LOL) about this earlier today. She asked me why I am wasting my time to save $0.50 a week. I thought about it, and realized maybe it's not worth it. What's your opinions (aside from it's better for you... I am still wrestling with that one :-)? Thanks!

An Update: We saw the doctor, nurse, attending and nutritionist yesterday at our 1 week post discharge visit to the hospital. That was exhausting. My daughter is still having some behaviors, and they came to a head yesterday. I think being back there and seeing the doctor "responsible" for this thing sticking out of her body really put her crank on because she threw a tantrum to end all. She actually took her shoes off and threw them at the doctor. The doctor's response? "Yeah, I'm used to that!" LOL I guess it's normal for the kids to lash out at their doctor in these situations. I sat my daughter down after and explained how sad that could make the doctor because she tried so hard to help make her feel better and her thanks was throwing a shoe. Well, we just had to go find that doctor and apoligize! My daughter has been behavior free ever since!

But back to the medical end of things. She is healing nicely, but still not gaining weight. So they increased the amount of formula to go through the tube at night. It must have been too much because she woke up wretching this morning. She can't actually throw up because of the fundoplycation (reflux surgery), so she just had the dry heaves. I disconnected the tube from the feed and drained some, which helped. Tonight we will go more incrimentally. I guess they figured since she was doing so well that a 5 ml jump wasn't too much, but apparently it was. So I will only go 1 ml every few nights until the goal is acheived.

Thank you all so much for all of your support! I love reading your comments and suggestions :-)

With thanks,
One Christian Mom

Thank God for Pastor's Wives!

I was blessed by a visit from my Pastor's Wife yesterday. She is a wonderful woman who is a pastor herself, but she keeps to the sidelines, her husband is head Pastor at my church, she runs the women's and children's ministries. Well, that means she has a double interest in me :-) My daughter is in one of her Sunday school classes, and knew about the surgery. Actually, I don't think there are many people who don't know about it LOL. I am an open book. Anyway, she had called to see how my daughter was doing, and if she would enjoy a visit. As we are all getting cabin fever here, I agreed even though my house isn't company worthy right now.

I though of about a million (OK, maybe not a million, but a whole lot) of excuses to call her with and tell her not to come, but in the end, God caught hold of my heart and I did not call her with any of them. She arrived, and wonderfully did not say anything about the mess. The dishes from breakfast weren't done, the laundry wasn't folded (and there was more piling up) and the baby was still in his jammies.

She visited with my daughter as if she was the only child on earth. My daughter always feels special around her. Then, not to leave them out, she spent a little time with the boys as well. My daughter was tired and went to her room, and Pastor's Wife talked with me for a while. If you read my blog regularly, you know that she has a different take on depression than I do. It is one area in which we have always butted heads. She asked me how I was doing, and again I was truthful with her. I told her I had been crying a lot and felt like everything is always piling up on me. This time, she did not give me the "you have it better than some" speech or the "you can do it, just look to the Lord" speech. She surprised me.

She said, "Do you need help?" I looked at her, stunned. I said yes, because the Lord is leading me to be more truthful about my needs and not just say I can handle it all the time. I feel like I should be able to, but I just can't. I told her as much. Well, that woman stood up, walked over to my sink and started washing dishes! Just like that!!! :-D She blessed my kitchen for about an hour, cleaning and organizing. I didn't realize how hectic life can be and how easily things get disorganized. You just get used to them that way. Well, after the dishes (dinner and breakfast) and 2 cabinets, she had to leave for a church meeting. But she promised she would come over every other week and help me to learn how to better manage the house.

I just did not know what to say. I feel like the Lord led her to my house because I wanted to tell her not to come so badly - I was so embarrassed. She was not embarrassed, she just knew what to say and what to do to bless me that day. Today has gone much smoother, having a cleaner kitchen helps keep it clean, and helps get other things done elsewhere!

Hoping you are blessed as well,
One Christian Mom

We are home - catching up

Hi, all! I wanted to thank you again for your prayers, I don't think we would be where we are today if it wasn't for all the wonderful people praying for us. We left the hospital on friday afternoon, and arrived home early friday evening. We are still hashing out the details, the attending who discharged my daughter didn't actually care for her, so some of the information/prescriptions we recieved were in error. But other than that, she is doing unbelievably well. I am thankful for the feeding tube, as she is still not eating well. The doctor said that is normal, especially with the tube feeds, and she should gain an appitite over time.

She is receiving supplimentation in the form of Peptamin Jr. in her tube at night, a total of 600 calories each night. Let me tell you, this is more than she consumes in a day sometimes, so she should really start to gain weight quickly. The doctor will determine how to adjust the rate as she starts gaining.

The boys are doing well. They were well taken care of, if not a little dirty :-) Boys will be boys, and with so many people in the mix, the daily bath was overlooked for a few days! As soon as I saw them, I marched them straight into the bathroom for a bath. They thought that was the best thing ever, as they like baths :-)

It will take me a bit of time to get re-organized, and with the daily care of my daughter I don't have as much free time, but I will try to catch up with all of you soon. I enjoy reading your blogs, but may not visit as often as every day anymore. Love to you all!

Happily (and recovering myself!),
One Christian Mom