Writer's Guilt

I have writer's guilt. It is similar to writer's block, in that I find myself unable to write, but different in that I have plenty to say. My problem is every time I start to blog, I start thinking about all the things I SHOULD be doing instead of wasting my time at the computer, so I stop writing. That doesn't mean that I've been productive housework wise. It just means that I've allowed my guilt to keep me from writing. I suppose if I actually got the house clean, I wouldn't feel so guilty anymore and could blog to my heart's content, but what's the fun in that, right? ;)

To make up for it, I'm going to post a bunch of randoms from the past few days.

Last night both kids were playing upstairs. I thought that they were in Alex's room. But suddenly Kairi started screaming that Alex had my pretzels -- that means that he was in my bathroom. (Doesn't everyone keep pretzel sticks in their bathroom? No? Oh, well I do.) I hollered up the stairs that he needed to bring them to me immediately, and that Kairi needed to close my door.

Slowly the boy trudged down the stairs. Bag of pretzel sticks in one hand, other hand in a fist behind his back. He tried looking repentant, but there was a glimmer of a smirk on his face -- a tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth that screamed he was trying to not laugh at his own cleverness. He drug his feet to me, handed me the bag, and said "Sorry Mommy. Go pay now." and took off running for the stairs. I grabbed his arm right before he took off, leaving his little legs running as fast as they could w/ him going absolutely no where.

I told him to hand over whatever was in his other hand -- the one he kept hiding from me. The smirk was gone. He was devastated for about 8 seconds as he started to hand me the handful of pretzels he thought he was hiding so well. Just before they reached my hand, he took a bite off, dropped them, and started to run again. Let's just say that he was completely devastated when I made him spit out his bite.

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My house is veeeeeeery slowly coming together again. I have cleaned out the kids' closets. Put up 2 out of 3 new bookcases. Moved another bookcase. Bought a new tv that needs to be mounted on the wall. Found a table for the kids, but can't put it up until the old tv is moved upstairs so that there is room for it. I know that one day my house will look the way I want my home to look, but so far it's not there yet. Let's hope it is by the end of the week at least, though. :)

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My weight loss is moving right along. I'm so very proud of myself. :) I have lost nearly 15 pounds since I started in January and am so excited about needing to put some of my clothes in the back of closet because they're getting to be too big.

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Alex knows not just that the PS3 plays movies, but how to take the old movies out and put new ones in. He can also operate the cd/dvd drive on the computer.

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Kairi has become quite the stickler for the rules recently. She's constantly correcting Alex, telling him that Mommy says the rule is xyz and he needs to obey. Of course, if the rule is to speak respectfully to your mommy, then it can be ignored...... right?

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Kairi cut her hair for me the other day. I still have to get it to someone to have it repaired, but for now it's not notice-able if I style it just right. She's having a hard time with "cut only paper" thing. She'll obey it (now that she's been in trouble for cutting her hair), but if she could talk me into letting her cut something else she'd be thrilled.

That's all I have time for tonight. Hope everyone is doing well! I promise to try to comment on blogs soon.... :)

And I should be back by Monday to tell the latest in our Naval adventures.

A New "Diet"

Chris has battled kidney stones for a while. They hit unexpectedly and always at the worst moment. Days before Kairi was born. At 2am of the first night we were able to get a little bit of sleep for the first time in several nights because of sick kids. The morning we're supposed to be getting on a plane and heading to Texas for Chris' first vacation in 2 years. Always at horrible times.

A few months ago he saw a urologist who offered us some hope. He ran some tests and said that he would be able to determine the type of kidney stone Chris was having and that there was a possibility of being able to treat him for the kidney stones and make them at least slow down if not completely stop. Friday morning Chris had the follow up appointment. I was anxious to hear what the verdict was -- trying to be hopeful that it would be easy to deal with and not something to worry about (as depending on the type of kidney stone, it could be an indication of a kidney disease).

The final word is that his kidney stones are made up of calcium-oxalate, the most common kind of kidney stone, and the least concerning. Which is good, for the most part... nothing serious is related to these stones so it's not a real indication of anything really being wrong. What it also means, though, is that there's not a truly "easy" treatment. We're having to adjust his diet. I was definitely not opposed to doing so, but seeing the list of good vs bad foods for his diet has left me floundering. He's supposed to avoid excessive animal proteins, foods high in carbs esp whole wheat foods (there goes bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice), and anything that's considered to be high in oxalates. The oxalate list contains things such as black pepper, beans (of any sort including green beans), berries, parsley, tomatoes and all tomato products (yikes!), and on and on the list grows. Let me just say, this will take some getting used to. I feel a little selfish but am just a tiny bit glad that I only have to make this work for the next 2 1/2 weeks, then I get to go back to cooking normally. I just have to figure this out for when he gets back home.....