Thankful Thursday

Almost May and it's busy here...back and forth with doctors and insurance for Micah, getting ready for Micah's graduation, gearing up for starting my part-time job actually working with the kids (I've been doing prep the past couple weeks), and plenty of other little things. Amid all that, thankful...for...

1. Doors that shut correctly. It's a little thing; but, when we replaced doorknobs, we were able to get rid of the doorknob between our house and garage that was unreliable. Sometimes it would close and sometimes you'd need to go back and close it a second time to get it to click. Not a big deal but annoying. So, having a door that shuts correctly the first time is appreciated.

2. Steroids. Steroids rock. As we continue to try to figure out a new treatment plan for Micah (which will take a few months from when we finally get it started to know how effective it is), he's been back on the prednisone to get the current flare ups back under control. And, on Monday, we were down at Children's again to get him a steroid injection in his knee (guided by ultrasound). And, thankfully, he can now put weight on his left knee...which he hadn't been able to do well for more than a month. Whew.

3. Lost and found. Relatedly, when we were at Children's, I accidentally left my library book in the back of the wheelchair that I used to get Micah out to the car. (We don't usually use a wheelchair so I wasn't accustomed to checking for belongings.) Fortunately, someone turned it in to the lost and found, and I was able to call and verify that they had it. (I didn't realize I'd left it until we'd driven the hour-plus home.) Also fortunately, my good friend Molly lives near there and will pick it up for me. :) (I'm still a little bummed, though, because I was at a good part and now I have to wait to read more, lol.)

4. Edwyn. I thought I was going to have a post just about Edwyn. You see, last weekend our new dishwasher was delivered and installed. In the process (having cleared the under-sink cabinet to attach the dishwasher stuff), Nathan noticed that the kitchen faucet appeared to be leaking. Sigh. So...off we went to buy a new faucet. We settled on one named Edwyn. I like Edwyn. But. Nathan didn't feel like installing it over the weekend because it's a pain to do. Since somehow it was no longer actively leaking, we opted to put everything back and wait and see. We've since decided that the faucet is actually not leaking. Yay! We don't know exactly but figure that maybe something got loosened during the dishwasher install but is fine now. It means we'll be taking Edwyn back (which is a little sad), but not having to spend the money or time on a new faucet is lovely.

5. First flower of spring. I noticed our first flower in the front yard for the season! 

I'm pretty sure it's some sort of tulip (because that's what I planted there, lol). Even though it's raining/hailing right now, I'm thankful that it finally feels like spring.

And that's some of what's going on here. Happy end of April to you all!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday, all! Plenty happening here so I'm just going to do a somewhat unexciting update post...

1. Doorknobs & hinges. Last month we finally got around to switching out the last of the brass doorknobs and door hinges in the house. Whew. It's not a huge difference and the doors are still the old original ones but it feels good to have updated them.

2. Age map. Micah cracks us up, y'all. During our ongoing family movie nights, Micah's opinions are frequently shared. One of the latest conversations stemmed from Micah's outrage over age differences in couples. He has very set ideas about what an appropriate age difference is and it varies by age and is a fairly narrow band. The ensuing debate led to boys creating "age maps" of what each considered appropriate. (There were actual charts made, lol.) It was an entertaining evening. :) 

3. Bao. I think I've mentioned before that boys join in making dinner from time to time (we had a more regular rotation but it's become more sporadic lately). In any case, I always appreciate it. And I have this picture that I haven't shared before...

This was when Nathan was in California for work. Micah made the pork baos that he's made a number of times, and Noah helped with running the steamer to speed up the process. 

4. Micah's arthritis update. So, as you know, Micah's been having flare ups and pain since February. Initially, we thought it was just due to the cold weather but it became clear that the current med plan had stopped working. So, we had an appointment down at Children's last week. Our discussion had two parts.

One, we worked on figuring out what to do right now about the ongoing pain and decided he'll have a steroid injection next week on the left knee that's giving him the most trouble. (That should almost definitely resolve that unless the accompanying ultrasound shows something beyond the arthritis inflammation, like actual damage from the flare up.) In the meantime, he's been back on the prednisone that's helped with most of the other joints. (The prednisone works great but, sadly, he can't stay on it for very long each time.)

Two, we worked on figuring out a new medication plan going forward. He'd already tried all the options that didn't involve needles, unfortunately. So, this time he had to choose between the two options left (due to his age, not all options are open to him yet). He opted for the monthly IV infusions over injecting himself every other week. He really hated injecting himself, lol. (He did that weekly for a few months before he'd started on the last plan with all oral meds.) Working now on getting all of that set up to hopefully start by the end of the month. (He'll go to an infusion center and have that administered over about 3 hours.) Bleh. Fingers crossed that we can get things back under control going forward.

On the plus side, since he's staying in CO for college, his rheumatologist can continue helping him and knows just where to send him for everything. So that's nice. :) 

5. Dishwasher. On Monday, I discovered (by stepping in a cold puddle of water barefooted) that our dishwasher had decided to break. We've had it for eleven years, so I guess it was time. Sigh. I'm going to be thankful that it cleaned that last load...that we're in a position that we were able to just go buy a new one (it will be delivered Saturday)...and that our meal plans for this week were already pretty light on the dish-dirtying. Also, hooray for paper plates, lol!

6. First day. I started my new job on Monday. This week and next are about prep work...getting accounts set up and doing some training, shadowing another site (there are multiple programs; I'll be coordinating just two of them), and getting things ready for starting up. The plan is to start "officially" with kids on May 1. Yay! 

7. Asher update. Asher met with his advisor this week and is now officially registered for his fall classes...and he seems pretty happy about them...which makes me happy. Also, it means that his to-do list is pretty much done for this fall now. Whew. 

So. That's some of what's been going on here lately. Thankful for it all!  

Thankful Thursday

So. I did a thing. Last week I had my first official interview since 1999. Seriously. ;P And this week, I was fortunate enough to be offered the job! It's a part time position (only 12 hours a week) with a local non-profit, coordinating their homework helpers after-school program at two facilities. 

I've been handling the pre-work stuff yesterday and today and will start officially next week. I'll be helping kids (K-8th grade) with homework and planning/running activities. The groups will be fairly small and somewhat personalized to the kids and volunteers involved, so I don't know much more at the moment. The program continues through the summer, too (but the program name changes since there isn't homework over the summer). 

So...yay! I'm feeling like this will be a good fit and is almost exactly what I'm looking for right now. To celebrate (and because Whole Foods' ads online have me totally figured out, lol), I picked up a Mango Yuzu Chantilly Cake. It's only available for a limited time and is delicious!!

And that's what I'm thankful for today...this awesome opportunity to reenter the workforce (and the yummy cake). :) 

Easter

Happy belated Easter, everyone! (I have other things to catch up on but will wait on those and just pop in to share about our Easter yesterday.) We don't usually do a whole big celebration here but...figuring that this may be one of the last Easters with all three boys here...we went ahead and still had Easter "baskets." :)

I don't know that I've ever really used baskets. There have been years with dump trucks or bathroom caddies or boxes made out of candy or organizers for game pieces...you get the picture. This year's baskets were insulated lunch bags (complete with reusable silverware sets for each boy so they don't take my silverware, lol). I got each boy some of his favorite candies and then there were some random candies also inside the bags...and bath/shower bombs...and a funny little ice cream scoop. 

And then we had an egg hunt...indoors only, each boy had a certain color and had 12 eggs to find, if you found all 12 eggs you got some cash, and if you were the first one to find all 12 there was bonus cash. I stepped up my hiding this year, too. 

Yes, I may have recruited assistance to hide things up high since boys assumed I'd only hide things where I could reach, lol. Also, boys may have taken to re-hiding eggs when they found a brother's egg...which made it difficult to track. ;) It took about an hour for them all to find their eggs. :) (And, in case you're wondering, Micah found all of his first by making a deal to split the bonus with Noah if Noah would tell him where he'd re-hidden Micah's last egg, lol.)

And then we had some downtime to tackle weekend chores and eat and such. 

And what came next requires a short backstory...So, Nathan was in San Francisco last week for a few days on a work retreat. While he was there, he mentioned to me that there'd been talk of karaoke after work. I told the boys...who decided it was a good idea to try karaoke, that it might be wise to know what "their" go-to karaoke song would be. We then spent Thursday night doing our own version of karaoke using YouTube videos and just all singing together. It was, um, loud. We didn't have any microphones or anything and Micah felt that this could be made up for by shouting, lol. 

Nathan got home late Friday night and was able to listen to the random recordings I'd made. And we decided it would be fun to have an actual karaoke machine. :) Thanks to Amazon's amazing overnight delivery, we had a new machine by Easter morning.

Sooo. Easter afternoon, we broke out the karaoke...and, in varying combinations, continued for hours (breaking for dinner and chores and such). Some were good. Some were less so, lol. And, along the way we had so much fun...even got Micah to sing "Let it Go" from Frozen at one point (he hates the song, lol)...  

And then we played some games together before heading to bed. :) Hope you all had a lovely Easter also!