Update Follow up

Hey friends!

How is everyone? Anyone else FINALLY enjoying a nice spring day like we are here in Central OH???

The sunshine has greatly improved my otherwise crappy mood.

So here is an update on what's been going on since last update in March:

Daughter went thru a couple weeks of Physical Therapy, did not fix the back pain. Did a MRI, did not reveal any fractures. She is now on a prescribed anti-inflammatory to help with the pain. If this works, we will go the rheumatoid route to see what is causing the inflammation. To say this is frustrating, scary and overwhelming for all of us, is a gross understatement. It is scary when the Doc (who totally reminds me of the doc Chris Parnell plays on SNL and 30 Rock.) tells you that at least the MRI didn't reveal a tumor or cancer.

No word on Youngest's Autism diagnosis. Seems his Psychologist works at her own pace.

Middle child's behavior is still frustrating the heck out of me. I know I have to accept who he is but who he is  is frustrating!!! I love him and I worry about him and though I really want to tell him to MAN UP most of the time, I just try to keep my mouth shut. We have standardize testing here this coming week and he is so anxious about it, so I am trying to reign in my angry mommy vibe. We have been loosing the grip on where he can ride his bike with his friends and we let them ride over to Dollar General today (for those who know where we are, it was a big deal for us to let him go past Tinapple park!!). He did fine and came home in one piece.

On the food front:

Out of desperation for new recipes, I paid $6 to join www.allrecipes.com menu planning option for 6 months. You can get all kinds of great recipes on this site, but becoming a high level member, you get the menu planning. You put recipes you like in your recipe box and then you can drag them to the day you want to make them and it also puts them in a printable shopping list. You can browse recipes but hundreds of categories (slow cooker, diabetic, low fat) (you can do this with the regular site as well) and then add them to your menu. So far I have made:
*7 layer meatless tortilla pie: in the oven now, will let you know the consensus

*Slow cooker pepper steak: really good

*Zesty Tilapia with mushrooms: really good

*Christmas brunch casserole: outstanding!!

*Easy Olive Martini chicken: good but a little salty

The best part of all of this is that the kids have eaten it ALL. Totally worth the money if I am only making one meal.

I also checked out a FANTASTIC cookbook from David Rocco called "Made in Italy". The next weeks meals will be all out of this book. It is Italian cooking and it's simplest and most delicious. I thank my friend for turning me onto it. I plan on buying several copies and giving it to friends. It is beautiful and wonderful, all in book form!!

After quite a bit of soul searching, discussions with the family, and sleep-less nights, I have decided to take a hiatus from my Sat morning job. I love the job, love the money but a couple things have helped me reach this decision:

When I signed Middle up for baseball, games were supposed to be on Sunday's, but they are on Sat mornings. Though I do not plan on staying thru all the games, I want the option to do so.

But here was the big kicker:

Locally, a mom was at the end stage of her cancer and she wanted to see her son graduate High School before she passed. The community rallied around them, had a graduation for her son early and even had his baseball Senior night early so she could go. The opposing team all brought her flowers (if you aren't crying yet, you are a robot). She passed away the week after he graduated.

Time with our young kids is short. I will not miss a ball game or anything else to make a couple bucks. I am taking some time off with the option to work some hours over the summer if I want. I am blessed to have a Boss who understand me. My last day is May 11. It was heartbreaking to have Youngest ask me every Sunday morning if I was going to work.

Husband is traveling more with work and though he says he doesn't like it, I think he likes getting away for a bit. I know I would!!

I think that is everything. My High School job is going well. Spent 20 hours this week in Food Safety training and learned all kinds of gross stuff I didn't know. Hoping I passed the test, should know in a couple days.

Think Spring, friends!!

Cat