Can't really think of a title...

This week has really been "blah" so far. Poor Josiah is cutting all four of his two year molars at the same time, which is making him crankier than ever. The bad part is, the crankier he is, the crankier I am. I have been trying to maintain an upbeat attitude and trying to help Josiah by doing all sorts of things like stopping anything and everything and only spending time with him. Also, I have been going around the house singing all of his favorite songs and letting him watch all of his favorite videos. None of this is working! He has been following me around the house begging for "gook" [milk!] all day long. I generally give him about 20-24 ozs of milk a day with water mixed in between. He has been screaming and throwing his cup when I give him water or when I tell him that he can not have any milk. So, the scenario is something like this:
Josiah: "Need gook, momma! Pease! Need gook, now. Oh momma, need some gook? Just a little gook, pease?"
Momma: "Honey, you just had milk and you can not have any more right now [at which point he starts screaming and stomping his feet, and perfecting the sign for "please"]."
Josiah then carries on his hissy fit, is warned that he needs to stop and obey mommy, at which point he doesn't, then is therefore disciplined.
This is the viscious cycle we have been through the entire day for the past two days, only occasionally he will substitute the phrase "I'm so hungy, momma!", instead of "gook". This has been the way my last two days have gone...the entire day! Okay, so I ask myself, is this just molar problems, or is this the infamous terrible twos coming to haunt me? I am so stressed out!

Meanwhile, little Bethany is just taking it all in stride. The only thing going on with the little sugar is a pretty bad case of thrush. Poor thing, her mouth looks terrible and she has these terrible white blisters all over the outside and inside of her little lips! She doesn't complain much, though, but doesn't want to nurse much either.

On the up side, even thought Josiah has been having a couple of really bad days, he has shown me that he is a great big brother and that he is going to be really sweet to his little sister most of the time. Most of the day, little Bethany is either in my arms, in her portable crib on the floor or in her portable swing on the floor. She was crying this morning in her crib, and I was on the phone with the insurance company, and I saw Josiah get down on his knees beside her bed and take her hand and say, "Let's pray!", then he has proceeded to say a few uncomprehendable words, then a hearty amen. Another time he was down on the floor by her bed and he was saying, "Oh, baby! Are you hungy? It's okay, don't cry.". This warmed my heart. Josiah also has asked several times, "Can I hold her?", and has helped me pat her back to burp her. He often tells her he loves her and kisses her a lot. He also loves to share his toys with her, but she is not too fond of this yet! :-)

Well, I guess I am just venting and ranting...it always feels good to write things down and get them off your mind. If you think of us, please pray that this new way of handling our days may be brighter int he future!

Just call me GRACE

I am not the most graceful of people. I tend to trip, lose my balance and even fall a good bit of the time. It is so annoying! When I get frustrated or mad, this tendency is even worse. Well, this morning around 4am, I got up to check on the baby because normally she would have woken up to eat before then. I found her peacefully sleeping away. She was so beautiful! I decided to let her sleep. Well, I looked down and saw a blanket had fallen in the floor and I thought I should pick it up before I slipped on it. I leaned over and the blood rush and half-asleepness took over! I left my dresser drawer open just a little bit the night before. Well I lost my balance and fell face first into my stupid dresser drawer, then all the way down I went! I cut my knee and hand pretty bad and I was afraid to touch my head for fear that I gashed it open, but thankfully, there was no blood there, but you can see a visible bruise on my scalp! My right arm is pretty sore and I have a headache and a little bitty blood blister on my left thumb...I don't know what I did in the fall to get that, but it hurts! It could have been much worse. Since Danny works over night, he told me he was going to wake me up when he got home to make sure I was okay. I was feeding the baby when he came to bed, so I am sure he was relieved to see that!

Menu Planning

I declare this week of menu plans to be:

THE WEEK OF THE CROCKPOT

So, I do my menu planning on a bit of a different schedule than most. Most people work Monday-Sunday, or beginning of the week to the end, but I usually go from Friday-Thursday and do all of my grocery shopping on Thursdays. I do my shopping on Thursdays because Danny is off of work, and I actually like going to the grocery store with him. We make a great team! Plus, I hate going by myself, and there is not enough money in this country that you could pay me to go alone but with my two kids. We would do without before that happened! Danny sent me a cool website about a week or so ago and it had hundreds and hundreds of crockpot recipes. The website is www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook . I have gone through a lot of the recipes and printed some out and here are the recipes I will be trying this week - all in the crockpot!!!

Friday: Crockpot Spaghetti : www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/spagsauce1.html

Salad

Saturday: Basil Chicken: www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/basilchk.html

Brown Rice

Creamed Spinach

Sunday: We declare this bi-weekly fend for yourself dinner

Monday: Chicken Breasts Supreme: www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/cbs.html

Parmesan Broccoli

Tuesday: We always go out to eat after weigh-in

Wednesday: Yankee Pot Roast and Vegetables: www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/yankptrst.html

Thursday: We declare this bi-weekly fend for yourself dinner

We have two days a week where we fend for ourselves for dinner because our schedules clash. Danny works overnight and sleeps late on Sundays and Thursdays because of work, so we can't have dinner at the same time.

So there you have it! I have never made crockpot meals every day for a week, but I hope this proves to be a very time-saving endeavor...I'll let you know!

Weigh-In Tuesday, Week 4

YAY! Down 1 more pound. Slowly but surely, this tortoise will win the race! The only problem is, I did not reach all of my goals that I set for last week. So, here they are again:

• Track the foods I eat and their points value
  
• Find the time and place to work in some more exercise [any advice here would be great!]
  
• Simply eat better

Okay, so I might have reached one goal. I did simply eat better. I made a conscious effort to go for wiser food choices even when unwise choices were right in front of me. I will not even go into the Chik-fil-A icecream saga, but will only say, pray for me that I might be able to resist temptation in this area. Icecream isn't even one of my favorite foods, plus it is freezing outside, so who would want icecream in this weather?!? So these goals will be added to my goals for this week which are:

• Be a better encouragement to my DH, by example and with my words
• Don't eat out again until next Tuesday night

More next week, and thanks for your prayers!

Dr. Herbert Whitley

For some reason, when Bethany was referred to pediatric cardiologist, Herbert Whitley, I thought his name sounded good for a fictional character in a little kids book. Well, Dr. Whitley was a very kind doctor and was good to my baby girl this morning. Apparently I met Dr. Whitley in the hospital when he checked Bethany out originally...I did??? He remembered me, but alas, I did not remember him. He said I was pretty drugged up...how embarrassing!

Well, the good news is that the three holes found in Bethany's heart after she was born have closed! Praise the Lord! The doctor said that everything looked great and sounded great and that we have no more need of him. The bad news is that Bethany was so upset at having to be undressed in front of him, she screamed all of the way out to the car, and it was sooo cold here this morning that her little tear drops froze on her cheek! I kid you not! I wish I had my camera! Poor little darling! Well, we got home got her hooked up to the thing she wanted most...food, and she calmed right down and smiled a bunch at me later. I do not think she will hold it against me in the long run!

What's cooking at the Hodges???

Wednesday nights we generally get together with the folks from church and go to the nursing home to sing to some elderly members, but it was so cold tonight, and Josiah was running a fever, so we decided to stay home. I was in the pantry and saw a box of Oat Bran muffins and was overcome with the urge to cook a bunch of stuff tonight. Danny and I have been cooking up a storm. Danny has done most of the extra hardwork as I have had to stop and feed the baby, but we made 4 different egg casseroles. I made two little ones for Josiah that have ham and cheese in them. Mine has cheese and ground turkey meat. Danny made his probably the best out of all of ours! To his, we added peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon and cheese. I wish I liked all of this stuff, because his looked great! We also made a bunch of whole wheat pancakes [4" around is 1 pt per pancake!]. I also cooked a crockpot of black beans yesterday, a crockpot of pinto beans today, and Danny cooked up some ground meat to go into spaghetti sauce. The only thing we didn't end up cooking was the oat bran muffins...my inspiration!

Let me back track to Monday...

Monday I took DD, Bethany, to her 1 month check up [what?!?! she's 1 month old?!?!]. My little girl was a trooper! She is doing well in all areas and is not putting on a lot of weight, but she has put on some height! My little girl is 24 inches long! Her little pants I had on her today look like baby capris! Okay, back to her weight...she has not made it back up to her birth weight yet, and these were words I dreaded hearing, because I knew the song and dance...the doctor and nurse were going to go on and on and on about how I must not be making enough milk, how I need to supplement, and how we must get the baby's weight up. Well, I went in with confidence and would not let them tell me I wasn't making enough milk or that I needed to switch to formula, etc. I think these doctors and nurses prey on the mothers who seem unsure of themselves and less confident! Not a word at all was said to me about formula this visit. Of course, it would be great if she was back up to her birth weight, but she is close enough, and she has put on over a pound since leaving the hospital [born 8'7", lost down to 7'3", now weighs 8'5"] so I think they were pleased. Anyway, a heart murmur was not at all detected, yet a follow up appointment with the cardiologist is still in order. If you recall, Bethany had three little holes in her heart that had not closed after she was born, and she had a pretty bad heart murmur the first day after she was born, but it has not been heard again since then. All in all, we had a great check up, so we will now just wait and see what the cardiologist says.