The Road Ahead

I've been sick all week, which means survival mode. It's also meant I've been unusually depressed. It also means I've been at the computer a lot, which has made me even more depressed. It may not be the best idea for me to be reading so many current event blogs, but I have an insatiable need to know what it is going on. The worst part is feeling like I can't do anything but what I am already doing, which is my vocation of bringing up my daughters, with the help of their father. And maybe that's all that I'm supposed to be doing. I certainly haven't been called to do anything else as of right now, and my motherly duties are expanding. The Dancer is spending more and more of her time at... the dance studio, now that she has started pointe on top of her other classes. The Musician hangs out with friends a great deal and is starting her important senior year in high school this fall. Yikes! I may also have to try my hand at organizing fundraising efforts for my daughters' school activities if a levy does not go through this spring. It's actually very freeing to think about just following my vocation....

Kinda Sorta Here

In my effort to post more, I am here to bring you this short post of Nothing of Any Substance Whatsoever. You see, on Saturday, the Musician got sick. Every member of the family followed. I was the last to get sick, and am just starting to feel better today. I'm hoping we can get back to normal now. Between Christmas and the Musician's birthday, this is the craziest time of the year for me. And even though most of the chaos ends with the holiday season, I then have to prepare for the Dancer's birthday in early February.

Oh, and I also opened up a huge can of World War III with my inlaws over the weekend.

Curve Balls

All of us here in the Evil Genius household now have the cold that Mr. BTEG acquired at work last week. So the girls and I are hanging out here at home, me nagging the girls to do a little bit of housework in between My Little Pony episodes.

Not only that, but in an illness-induced haze the other night, I tripped badly getting out of bed and have barely been able to walk for the past few days, with rather impressive bruising and swelling on my left foot. To add insult to (literal) injury, having a left-foot injury and having a stick-shift car means I can't even drive, even if I could limp out to the car.

On a related note, one of my favorite catch-phrases has been: "That's part of the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom." Because being a stay-at-home mom is such a luxury, or at least that seems to be a popular opinion. I've also seen a couple of things lately that made me realize that lots of people think that non-automatic windows in cars are a thing of the past. Well, only for those who don't have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom.

Yet Another Reason

to believe that Gaia worship is a religion: the LA City Council is encouraging its residents to avoid eating meat on Mondays. For some vague, feel-good ideas about saving the planet, contributing to health and avoiding illnesses. If we say the right things, do the right things, perhaps the Nature God will favor us with plentiful "plant-based" foods, good health and no natural calamities. In the end, it's all about what we do, though. Like so many other religions are.

You know, abstaining from random sex and not having a lot of sexual partners, whether hetero- or homosexual, would "reverse some of our nation's most common" diseases. I guess temple prostitutes are cool with Gaia.

Move Along

This has been a very difficult week here in the Evil Genius household. It hasn't been as bad for us as it has for others, but it's been a very difficult and painful time ever since Saturday morning. And now I'm fighting a cold that I probably caught because my immune system was down from a lot of grieving. And I'm in that place where you never want to be happy again because bad things can happen, and you never know when one will happen next. I think rest and time are needed for the next couple of days.

Cough Cough

The entire BTEG family has been sick for about a week. I absolutely hate getting sick around this time. For one thing, it's harder to get back into a regular schedule after the holidays. For another, it's harder to start working on the goals that you want to achieve for the year. Even sewing does not hold much appeal when all that you want to do is sleep, and your body aches. I'm also coughing heavily when I do too much physical activity.

I am thankful that the weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny. It's good to get some extra sunshine at this time of year.

In Between

Settling down in our new place. Hasn't helped that we all got sick, but that's to be expected this time of year when your immune system is worn down by stress and extra exertion. My brain is unfortunately too confuzzled (a term coined by the Musician) to write coherently about what I want to write about, this late. I have strong attitudes about things, but I don't feel like I can do serious writing any real justice, right now. Hopefully soon!

Self Improvement

In conjunction with my previous post, I am on a quest to shake up my life a little. I get this way periodically. This time, it's because Mr. Evil Genius was ill for so long, and since then we have been going through a period of not much cash flow. Plus just when Mr. Evil Genius got a new job and things were looking up, we found that we have to move. That was a serious blow which took me a while to overcome.

I will also bring up here, that though my bipolar medicine has done a good job of taking out the bad parts, or the bottom of my moods, it also seems to have taken out the top part of my moods as well. Was the most active and productive part of me the manic part? Can I achieve without that high? Time will tell.

I'm starting to feel like I'm ready to tackle life head-on again, instead of just going through the motions. I hope it will last, even if where we end up moving is not ideal. I miss the old me.

Feelin' the Love

Staring at a blank screen is about as bad as staring at a blank sheet of paper. :) There is a lot going on, but not much of it is good. Oddly enough, though, when I think about all the things that are going wrong, I then somehow realize how much good is out there. Lots of prayers and support for friends who are facing illness and other difficulties. Economics forcing us to look at what is really important, both in our family life and in our church life. The ability to reach out to friends online, and have a dozen friends answer back with support within minutes. The ability to be aware easily of what's going on in the world that might effect us. As Red Green says, "We're all in this together." Or as my pastor says, "This is why we keep our eye on the goal, it soothes the pain of the present. St. Paul says: I consider the present sufferings not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us."

Sickies

There is a cold going through the Evil Genius family. I am the one who currently has it, and I am at that stage where I am incredibly bored but don't feel up to doing anything. I'm also hoping I will get a better night's sleep than I did last night. For being sick, you'd think I would have slept like a log, but I didn't. I think I will go have some ice cream to soothe my sore throat. :)

P.S. What does it say about me that my blog has a label for ice cream? :)

A Little Gripe

I'm tired. Physically. All I want to do is rest and sleep. Yesterday when I was preparing dinner, I dropped a glass and then a bottle of spaghetti sauce. The bottle was plastic, but the plastic lid cracked and the sauce made a big mess. At least the glass broke in fairly big pieces. I'm hoping the simple answer to my issues is that my cold is still wearing me down, despite being on antibiotics for a week. I still do have some symptoms, like coughing and laryngitis. It's a little scary that a cold could still be hanging in there, but we don't need anybody else with complicated sleep issues in the family. We have discovered that Mr. BTEG has moderate apnea, but that doesn't account for all his issues, so it's off to more doctors. We are a family of health problems, but I can always thank God that it is not worse.

Goodbye Old, Hello New

We survived Christmas and even managed to drag ourselves over to our friends' house for dinner after church. We then proceeded to sleep the next two days. At last the girls and I got ourselves to the doctor's a couple of days ago for antibiotics and cough syrup. The Equestrienne and I are also treating pink eye. I will definitely do my best to avoid getting sick the rest of the winter season.

Christmas was enjoyable, just tiring. It was fun watching the girls open their gifts. Church was great, as always.

Once again, I have made several New Year's resolutions. Since I have been sick I have lost ten pounds. One thing I would like to do is keep that off and get rid of more weight. There is a treadmill in the garage that needs to be down the basement. Mr. BTEG has had too many health issues of his own to move it. Maybe my brothers-in-law can help with it when my in-laws come over tomorrow. My sisters-in-law are bringing most of the food, which is a blessing since we are still resting a lot here at our house.

I didn't post nearly as much as I wanted to this year. 2008 was a very slow posting year due to being in the hospital and all the emotional difficulties before and after. I was hoping to do better in 2009. I can always hope 2010 will be better, at least partially because we are not crammed into a tiny living space anymore. I pray we have good health and also pray for good health and happiness for my readers. Blessed 2010!

I'll Be Sick for Christmas

All of us here in the Evil Genius house are fighting off a cold/flu bug. Not very festive, is it? I'm worried we may have to pass on celebrating Christmas outside our house. I'll be disappointed. Not to mention, the dirty dishes are piling up, the few remaining Christmas cards are not being mailed, the living room is full of scattered bows and wrapping paper, and all the carpets need vacuumed. Also our cupboard is starting to look pretty bare. Hope at least one of us is well enough to pull things together before Christmas Day.

Sidetracked

I have a long and thoughtful post rolling around in my head, but in my head is where it is going to have to stay until tomorrow at least. Spent most of the day at doctors' offices with Mr. BTEG dealing with issues related to his many auto-immune disorders (four to five or so.) Our bodies are indeed fickle things. I'm glad there is so much out there that can help him, though.

Germs

I suppose it's due to the girls being in public school that we seem to be sick more often this fall. Although I think Gino was the one who brought the H1N1 virus home, the Dancer is the one who first developed the current germ going around the family. I don't have her cough but I spent most of the afternoon dozing which is definitely not normal. On the other hand, there has been lots of coughing going on during her dance classes. One girl was especially sick a couple of weeks ago and her grandmother was urging her to go out and dance. I couldn't see why the grandmother brought her in the first place. The dance teacher thinks the grandmother comes from the tough-it-out school. It's very annoying to me when people knowingly expose my child and myself to illness, especially for something as nonessential as a dance class. I won't go as far though as one mom who pulled her 3-year-old out of dance class and preschool until H1N1 is over. Germs and sicknesses will be floating around all winter! Hope we are not fighting off illness until March!

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

While out and about the other day, I saw a bumper sticker for breast cancer that really gave me pause. It said, "Everyone deserves a lifetime." My first thought was, everyone? Really? What about all the millions of babies that have been aborted? Don't they deserve a lifetime too? Why does someone with breast cancer deserve life more than someone with Down's Syndrome, or even someone who could be born perfectly healthy, had he not been conceived at an inconvenient time? Also ironic is that the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which raises funds for breast cancer research, also financially supports Planned Parenthood. I guess they don't really believe that everyone deserves a lifetime.

While searching through breast cancer paraphernalia to get the exact quote for above, I also found a shirt that was off-putting to me. I do believe that prayers can avail much in our earthly fight against illness and death, but putting a pink ribbon around the cross seems very wrong. Ultimately, Jesus died to take away our sins, not for his cross to be co-opted for the cause de jour. What do you think?

Lastly, while reading a blog's comments, the subject of religion came up, and a member of the Eastern Orthodox church declared that Orthodox believe that Jesus died to destroy death, not to pay the price for our sins. Is this really what Orthodox believe? Does anyone know?

For a Daughter and a Doll

I'm getting over the cold I've had to the point where the Dancer and I spent extensive time in the sewing room yesterday. I finished up a pair of shorts for her. Please do not look at the clutter on the stairs behind her. I need to get photo editing software on this netbook. :)

We also worked on a doll dress for the Dancer's American Girl doll. It's a Simplicity, which is not one of the best patterns, but please rest assured I paid no more than 99 cents for it. I bought it in my early sewing days. Next time I will send her searching elsewhere in my pattern stash. The only thing that really has irked me so far is the fact that I had to gather the head of the sleeves although the pattern doesn't call for it. Sewing gathered sleeves into a teeny little armseye is a pain. I should have basted the first one in, like I ended up doing for the collar. I have to fix the first sleeve only a little; the second sleeve will be basted first. At least the Dancer is learning a lot about sewing! It's fun to be sharing this with her.

Online Virus

Well, actually I'm the one with the virus. I'm finally going to have to give in and admit that I am sick. I'm disappointed and frustrated, as there are things I want to do and I just don't feel up to doing much! I think I will be resting a lot instead. I suppose I became susceptible with how busy the weekend was. Too bad this weekend will be just as busy.

Struggles

Wow, I haven't posted in a few days, have I? Life was kind of boring this week, as the girls were sick, the Dancer the most so. No dancing lessons, no horseback riding. Not much schooling getting done with the Dancer. Not much getting out of the house. Had a mini-breakdown over some struggles with the Equestrienne; was talked back into sanity by some friends. Looking forward to church tomorrow.

How's the Sickie?

Movie quote! I went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics as what ails me has been here long enough that it's probably not viral. I also got some prescription cough medicine. No codeine. Codeine and I don't get along. Hopefully once I am not up during the night coughing I will feel like tackling life fully again. I have a huge list awaiting me. :)