
I don't have any photos for this post, so here is a photo of Estelle and Tuck, the squirrel who comes to the back door for nuts every day. I'm not sure which of them is teasing the other, but I'm pretty sure Tuck knows he has the upper hand ;)
I have been wanting to write a more personal post lately, but I just haven't really had much to write about. There hasn't been anything going on lately, other than my continuing to feel like a chauffeur. I had never hated driving until this year. I spend SO much time in the car now!
A typical school day:
Drive Eli to school
Drive Noah to school
Drive home
(If I have errands or appointments, I do them here)
Pick up Noah and friend, drive his friend home
Drive Noah home
Pick up Eli from baseball practice
Bring Eli home
Take Noah to drivers training, drive home
Go pick Noah up, drive home
A typical school day:
Drive Eli to school
Drive Noah to school
Drive home
(If I have errands or appointments, I do them here)
Pick up Noah and friend, drive his friend home
Drive Noah home
Pick up Eli from baseball practice
Bring Eli home
Take Noah to drivers training, drive home
Go pick Noah up, drive home
Overall, that adds up to about 3-1/2 hours in the car. It wouldn't be that bad if it was all at once, but because it's spread out throughout the whole day it feels like driving is my whole life.
Thankfully, Noah's last drivers training class is today, and school baseball is over (the kids start summer baseball now, but they are on the same team and they don't have practice every day like Eli did. Tomorrow, Noah's driving instructor is actually picking him up from school, and Noah will make the 30-minute drive home. I cannot believe this is happening! haha
Speaking of Noah, he fainted again. On Monday morning, Jerry, the kids, and I were watching a movie and Noah stood up to go to his bedroom. A few seconds later, I heard a loud thud and Jerry jumped up. I looked over and saw Noah on the floor, so I ran over to him. He was really confused and disoriented for a few seconds, and he said he remembers standing up and then the next thing he knew he was waking up on the floor.
When this happened a couple of months ago, I took him to our general practitioner, and his blood work was all normal. The doctor said it's not that uncommon and without other symptoms, the fainting is probably nothing to worry about. Telling a mom not to worry is like telling the grass not to grow.
On Monday, Jerry said that when he got to Noah on the floor, Noah was shaking. I couldn't see over Jerry very well, but when he said that, I wondered if Noah had had a seizure. To be safe, we took him to the emergency room. They did an EKG and ran a bunch of blood work. Everything was normal. After describing the shaking, they were confident it wasn't a seizure--it was Noah trembling when he came to (I remember this happening to me when I fainted, too).
I asked about a CT scan (my biggest worry is that it's his brain; I've mentioned that my childhood friend Spencer has stage IV brain cancer, and his tumors were discovered in the emergency room after he'd had a seizure). The doctor explained the radiation risks of the CT scan and we decided to hold off on that (I had no idea it involved so much radiation exposure and I'm so glad he told us--I've researched it a bit more since we've been home.)
If Noah has any neurological symptoms, then it would be something we'd want to consider, but the doctor explained how dehydration can cause fainting. I am sure Noah doesn't drink enough water, and that made sense to me. (And later, I remembered that my friend Spencer did have a symptom for a few weeks prior to his seizure--he had phantom smells. He would smell something that wasn't really there or that others could not.)
They gave him IV fluids and then we decided to really push him to stay hydrated from now on and hopefully this won't happen again. He's been taking it pretty seriously, too--bringing a water bottle with him to school and making sure to refill it at least a couple of times throughout the day. I never would have thought that having kids would be so worrisome!
I made a goal for June--to eliminate eating out, getting take-out, or ordering pizza. Because I feel like I am constantly in the car, cooking has felt impossible much of the time. I know that I probably just need to plan better (and utilize my slow cooker more often). The amount of money wasted on food this past month has been insane.
Yesterday, I wrote out a menu and grocery list for the first week of June. I'm going to grocery shop just once a week--no more--and cook dinner every day. If it's a busy day, I will use the slow cooker or make a super quick and easy meal; definitely no more take-out. This is what we did when we first started our budgeting plan to pay off debt. I grocery shopped on Fridays and I planned everything out really well so that nothing was wasted and we used a lot of what we already had.
Aside from the money, I just don't feel good when I eat restaurant food. I feel tired and lethargic, even when I don't overeat. I've been feeling very drained of energy and motivation lately, so I am hoping that eating better will make me feel better!
(I didn't post a Transformation Tuesday this week because I only had a couple of people submit photos--so I'll wait until I get a couple more. Please send in something! It can be something that seems ridiculously insignificant to you, but I assure you, it will be fun for others--including me--to see. The link above explains what/how to send.)