In late November, I wrote this blog entry and discussed the fact that I needed a blogging break. Many of you concurred. I cut my blog entries in half in December, fully expecting to resume full speed ahead in January. It didn’t happen. Here we are, approaching the end of February, and I am still struggling to get posts written on a regular basis.

Perhaps it has something to do with the additional time and energy requirements imposed by adding Dora last fall. Perhaps it has to do with... more

Other than the fact that my throat feels as if an entire army has marched over it, I am doing pretty well this morning after my gastric plication procedure yesterday. All my Propel tastes like anesthetic gas, but thankfully it is not as bad this morning as yesterday evening. I have done little but sleep since they put me out about 2 PM yesterday afternoon. I could easily put my computer down, crawl under the covers, and sleep some more right now … I have some slight discomfort... more

I’m writing this blog 500 miles away from home, sitting in a Red Roof Inn, hungry, and counting down the hours until I head to a local hospital today for an endoscopic procedure that will hopefully go a long way towards correcting the severe gastric reflux problem I have battled for years. I will get general anesthetic today, rather than “twilight sleep” which is what I experienced when I was “scoped” last fall.

Although Beth is with us, Dora is not. It is easy to bring Beth’s homeschooling. Dora... more

I called Julie tonight to talk about ATN and blog-related stuff. There is a pattern to our phone conversations. Not a pattern familiar to anyone who operates in any kind of normal sphere … but a pattern nevertheless. Here is a snippet of tonight’s dialog …

Julie: So we were at the doc’s office today and she really thinks there may be an autoimmune component to … Lulu, brush your teeth … what is happening with her GI tract … Brush … Your... more

My folks left this morning … I had them at the airport two hours before their flight! The older they get (they are 84 and nearly 84) the more stressed they get about missing their flight. Our local airport is the easiest place ever to go in and out of, so no doubt they sat there for an hour and 45 minutes … but they were happy! We had a fabulous time and as I hugged them good-bye, I was so thankful for another holiday to share with them.

I picked up Dora’s Penney’s pictures on the way home from the airport. When I showed her the 8 X 10, she said, “My eyes look sad.” Yes, they do. We picked out a pose with... more

My cousin just left for her 6-hour drive home, but we sure had a fabulous time. She’s just a young thing—fifteen years younger than I, but we have lots of fun together. Her dad is actually my second cousin, so we are truly shirt-tale relatives. She’s a whiz at sewing and has far more grey cells working than I do right now, so while she was here she whipped up a valance for our recently finished basement, as well as another sewing project for the basement. We went to the fabric store and once again, I was reminded that I used to have a life (pre-ATN.)

It... more

I have had a bit of trouble finding time to blog this past 24 hours. Yesterday Beth and I worked on schoolwork all morning—mostly math and language—and then went bowling with a bunch of other homeschool folks. I can’t bowl worth a whit and I’m even sore today from pulling something. Jeezz, what an old lady I am! After bowling we returned home to fix and eat dinner and then I rushed off with Beth, dropped her at swim practice and then went grocery shopping. My husband arrived at home just as we were leaving, which was terrific timing as Dora was in reverse at home.... more

I was supposed to go to the Chief’s game today. We have three tickets, purchased before we became an immediate family of four. I made arrangements early in the week to have Dora hang out with my friend Sunbonnet Sue (who regularly comments on this blog) while the other three of us attended the game. It would have been Dora's first "sitter" arrangement since her arrival. It wasn’t a punishment (I prefer the term consequence) for Dora, simply a reflection of one too few tickets. Although I awoke this morning feeling OK, after breakfast I became quite nauseated.... more

As I mentioned in several previous posts, Beth is now home for school, learning through the K12 curriculum—virtual school. We have been assigned an “education specialist” to assist us as we tackle this new way of learning. I had a chance to visit with him yesterday.

Turns out he has a daughter about 2 months older than Beth. He’s also not too much younger than me, and … here’s the really interesting part … he is the oldest of 11 children, the last seven of whom were adopted through foster care. His siblings were the foster kids who stayed... more

I mentioned in this post about how the RAD magnet had managed to find yet another mom who had been through the mill with tough kids and not had any resources. I was at my first homeschool get-together last week and I met a mom who had adopted a couple of girls twenty years ago. Go figure … I still can’t believe how unlikely it was that I started a conversation with this particular mom.

Her story was way too familiar. Her now early-twenties girls were preschoolers when they were adopted from the state foster care system. The younger... more