Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Things are going well here. I got all moved into our new apartment. I still have to go back to the old one tomorrow to clean and turn in my keys, but then I am DONE! I worked all day getting the new one set up. The good news is, it's not nearly as cramped as I thought it would be. Yeah the rooms are smaller, and yeah I'm giving up having my own room, but we're not going to be tripping over each other or anything. Adrian's room has his loft bed, with his "big" toys underneath, Charlie's old dresser (half for him and half for me), his new Lego table (he hasn't seen it yet!), plus all of his toys in the closet. His clothes and my clothes fit easily with lots of room to spare (it helps that I've been purging lots and lots of stuff!). Charlie's bed takes up most of her room, but there's plenty of walking space around the bed. She'll have a nightstand on one side and tall pantry cabinet on the other, that will hold all of her machines and supplies. Her cube organizer had to go in the closet which is a shame since it's so cute! Her bedroom set is absolutely adorable though!

The living room is our computer/craft/homeschool area. I got rid of the TV, since we really just use netflix on the computer anyway. I ordered two saucer chairs and got rid of the futon. It's not going to look like a "proper" family room, but we never had a use for something like that anyway. In the old apartment we had a nice, big living room, with a futon and TV and we just never hung out in there! I'm hoping this new set-up will be more friendly for our odd little family. :-)

I've had to spend a little money getting everything we needed to make this smaller space work for us, but I did make money selling all the old, bigger stuff. I just ordered a 2 seater breakfast table and a bathroom tower to go over the toilet (there is NO storage in the bathroom!). I'm just amazed that it's all coming together so nicely. I was afraid I might have been making a mistake trying to cram us all in there. So far, so good. I've been working on minimizing our possessions for a while now, so I'm sure that has helped.

Ok so it's New Year's Resolution time! Let's look back at last year first. I didn't lose the last 15 lbs, but I didn't gain anything either. I blame the lack of weight loss mostly on the state of my teeth. I've had a really difficult time eating right because of the pain...but that brings me right to the next goal I had...getting my teeth fixed! I qualify for medicaid now, so it's happening. It's going to take 3-4 appointments probably (yikes!), but it's getting done. So you could say I partially succeeded in that resolution.

Onto the next goal...decluttering and organizing. I have to say I did GREAT on this one. I'm still using my Home Management Binder. I got rid of a TON of stuff. I very rarely misplace something. Well, except my keys. I tried to make a permanent home for those on a hook by the door, but they never end up there. One day I will figure out what to do with them. LOL Unnecessary spending...I didn't do so well with this. People always say, when you have money, you spend money! Ain't that the truth! And it's not like I had tons extra, but it was nice to be able to just go spend $20 or $40 when I wanted and not worry that it was "bill money". I will meet this goal by necessity, though, since I will be staying home with the kids as of next week.

Charlie goals were pretty much met. We don't know why she had GI pain or why it just went away on it's own one day, but she's perfectly fine in the GI department now. The only "pain" we can see that she has is with an autonomic storm, but we can handle it with clonidine, and we are on our way to controlling the storming as well.

We've hit a few bumps in the road with Adrian and the homeschooling. He's a challenging one, that's for sure. He's started seeing a psychologist for his anxiety. I've put off turning in the paperwork to his pedi for the ADHD stuff. Subconsciously I must not want him diagnosed. The papers are right there and I drive by the pedi's office almost daily. I don't know. Maybe one day when I feel like strangling him I'll go and turn it in. LOL He's doing great academically though. He sucks at deskwork, but he's bright and intelligent and that makes up for everything else I think. He's reading at about a 3rd grade level, halfway through his first grade year (and that's with us taking 2 months off due to illness and moving!). His math skills are easily 2nd grade, if not almost 3rd grade level. Don't ask me about writing and spelling. I have high hopes that he will one day write and spell. LOL

So that's last year.

This year I do still want to get in shape, even if that doesn't mean losing weight. I want to find something I can do from home to bring in what little extra income I need. I really just feel I need to be home with the kids right now. I want to focus more on Adrian's stuff. Whether that means having all his "quirks" diagnosed, or just teaching him how to deal with things better, I don't know. We'll see. And I want to get Charlie communicating better, either through eye gaze or using her two "words". Or both. :-D

Here's to an exciting new year!





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.amazon.com/Unschooling-Handbook-Whole-Childs-Classroom/dp/0761512764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325474465&sr=1-1

homeschooling- don't stress the bookwork:)

the new rooms look great.

Laura said...

I love the 2012 picture. Turns out its already on my phone. Love you Aunt Shauna, Laura.

Beth said...

Hi there,
I've never posted on here before but I do check in from time to time. I read about Charlie back in the day on MDC. I'm glad to see you are doing so well. I thought I would share a potential work opportunity that might suit your needs. Check out www.liveops.com. Its answering phones and taking orders from home through your high speed internet connection. It eliminates call centers and overhead for the companies (and also gives them the workforce they need to take their orders without paying for an 8 hr shift of someone sitting at a call center) but also allows people who need to stay at home with children or seniors to make money from home. You get paid for the time you are on the phone (which I think is about $10 per hour but sometimes there are incentives, like if you get people to add crazy bread to their pizza order or something, you get a commission). the better you are at it, the more calls you get. you sign up for shifts basically, and can take over other people's shifts if they put it up for grabs, etc. I've heard good things from people about it. I don't work for them or anything, I just thought of it when you mentioned needing to bring in some supplemental income. Best wishes!