still doing good

I'm so happy...I know, I've said it before, but really, I'm so very happy at how well I'm doing. I was up again this morning and able to direct and help the kids with chores and such. Then I laid down for the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening and got back up to help with Family Home Evening and then get the younger two kids in bed.

For FHE we talked to the kids about fire safety and what they should do and where they should go. We also found out that none of the three alarms in the house worked. Two had no batteries and one is malfunctioning. Probably a good thing we checked them, huh..... I have been having panic attacks at night about the kids knowing what to do if there is a fire at night, so I'm pleased to have done this much and we'll continue by doing fire drills randomly and to get new and more alarms in the house. We're also planning on getting some carbon monoxide monitors and fire ladders for the kids rooms.

I felt like I could have gotten up this afternoon, but I'm wary of overdoing it and having a relapse. I really don't won't to go back to where I was, thank you.

I found a cool site today. I've been hearing about digital scrap booking here and there and I've started looking into. I've been mostly looking at photo sites, like Kodak gallery, shutter fly, etc... I like what I see and I may still use them, but today I found a site that is specifically designed to print books and they have free software that "sucks" your blog up and spits it back out in book form!! How cool is that!

I wanted to do some memory books for the various kids/seasons and such, but I also wanted to do a book of my blog and I think this site is perfect for that. I had heard that there was a site/place that did it, but I don't know if this is that one, but I'm so excited about it. I've sucked my 10 in the Cabin blog up and have spent the last several hours editing it!! So much fun and I'm so excited about it, in case I didn't mention that.

So here's the site: http://www.blurb.com

being happy in small things.....

I'm sooooo HAPPY!!!! I was up for about three hours yesterday morning. Just puttering and directing kids in chores, then I cut 4 of the boy's hair and Brent's. Then I went to bed for the rest of the day. BUT, it doesn't seem to have heavily affected me. I was a tad bit more tired today, but was still able to be up for about 2-3 hrs total, not all at once. My longest stretch was about 1 1/2. That is sooooo much better than before!!!!

I do have a bit more coughing, but I think in general it's OK, as it's getting the nasty stuff out of my lungs. I think it's a balance, don't do enough to tire myself out, but do, do some so that I slowly work back in the norm. We'll see.

I'm just so happy to be able to get out of bed and STAY out of bed for more than 30 mins, which was my record before yesterday.

We're all back home now, three of the boys came home Friday night and Than came home last night. He got two very beautiful sunrise pictures and really enjoyed his sailing trip. It's amazing to watch him mature.

I was on another board with some internet friends and they were talking about how many teens they had, and we'll have two in Sept., when Than has his birthday. Then it made me want to figure out how many I would ever have at one time. If I figured it out right for about 9 mths, all the boys will be teenagers!! Than will be 19 and Max will be 13, so it will be the extreme ends, but they'll squeak in there. I think our garden will have to really grow in square footage to keep up with them by then!!!

Hey check out this link, it's super cute! http://www.maniacworld.com/twin-baby-moose-in-sprinkler.html

the pressure, the pressure

Acckkk!!! I want the first post of this new blog to be perfect!!! Of course I'm not going to get a post that "I" consider perfect, so I just need to write it and get on with it!!

I thought I'd share with you a few some sites that have really touched me this last two weeks, well one week, as I was out of it the first week.....

First, I'm sure you heard about Randy Pausch and his passing on July 24th. I've seen some of the clips of his lecture off and on since he did it last fall, but I've never taken the time to actually watch it and today I did. I also watched his time management lecture and both were so incredibly moving. They are both 1 hr and 16 mins. So I'm just going to link to them, instead of awing you with my computer geek knowledge of putting a video on my blog. Well OK, I don't know how to do that yet, but I'm going to learn and soon!! So here's the link to the Last Lecture and from there you can do a search for the time management one if you want to see it, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

He also has a book and I'm hoping to get my hands on it soon. Here is the website for it.
http://www.thelastlecture.com/index.htm


Because of the last year and a half life events that we've experienced, first Mom's heart attack, then Dad's death, and Collin's tumor, and now my pneumonia, I've been thinking a lot about my life. How I live it, how I conduct myself, what I'm teaching my children, what I would leave behind if I died now. I've been on autopilot for several years now, mostly trying to survive the whirlwind that is Max. But now he's coming down a few notches, other parts are settling in my life and I can look up and breath again. I have to admit that I'm looking at my pneumonia as a huge chance to do this reflecting and possible redirecting of my life.

So here is another site that has given me considerable pause for thought. She to has a book and it's actually on it's way to me. So I look forward to that. http://37days.typepad.com/37days/


That's probably enough for my first post. It at least gets it done for me and hopefully gives you food for thought.