Peaches, Peaches Everywhere

My boys love canned peaches. They go through a 29 oz can in one morning in addition to whatever else they may be eating. There is always room in their tummies for more canned peaches. So, since peach season is upon us, I bought a box. Then my neighbor gave me a box from off of her tree. Then S1's bus driver came by with another box for us. So, even though I had canned my neighbor's peaches and part of the box I bought, I still had tons to can this week.

But it was a busy week. Monday was Labor Day and if you have read my previous blog you know how that turned out. Tuesday was the start of the first full week for S2 in preschool- which he absolutely loves. I also had activity days and I was teaching the girls how to make pillow cases. That lasted all of half an hour before my machine started to act up and I couldn't sew anymore. After half an hour of fiddling with it I sent the girls home. Then after half of them had left I figured it out - my bobbin had been put in the wrong direction. So, I hurried and finished the cases for the two girls who were still there. Then it was home to the boys and making dinner. One of the other girls lives across the street from us so I had her come over that evening to finish hers. Unfortunately she had pinned the wrong side for me to sew and I didn't realize it until I was done sewing that side. She sat and picked it out while I made one for her brother. By the time I was done it was time for her to go home, 8:00 pm, for bed so she took her brother his pillow case and I told her to come over after school on Wednesday and I would help her with hers. I also called the two remaining girls and extended the same offer. Then S2 insists on having a pillow case too so I have to whip one out for him before getting all the monkeys to bed.

Wednesday morning after getting S2 off to preschool I came home and had an appointment with the early intervention unit in our school district. I had called last week to set up an appointment to have S3 evaluated before taking him to see the cranial facial doctor at the children's hospital. Since Metopic Synostosis can cause behavioral and learning disorders and retardation, I wanted to make sure where exactly S3 was developmentally. The pediatrician does a general check but it's not as detailed. Anyway, after the evaluation and interview, it turns out that S3 is only at his age in one area out of six. He's not too far behind, only a month or two, in three areas but he was four or five months behind in a couple of them. I am not overly worried because he is the third child and I do have to deal with S1, so S3 is kind of on his own, on the periphery so to speak. But it could also be the beginning of problems to come if we don't get his forehead fixed.

The rest of the day I spent trying to get the house in some kind of order. S1 didn't have respite so he was home early while I was trying to help the other two girls finish their pillowcases. Boy, is that kid fascinated buy the sewing machine. He just stood there with his hand on top of it grinning. Then he would bend over and stare at the light. I had to sit right there to make sure he didn't get his finger sewed into one of the girl's cases! After they left it was time for dinner. Then I had one more girl who hadn't finished her case so she came over and we got that done. Luckily S1 was downstairs watching a movie so we were able to get done before he noticed.

Thursday morning S3 had his appointment with the cranial facial doctor. So, I got both the older boys off to their respective schools and off we went. Well, the doctor looked at S3 for all of oh, five seconds, and said, yes he does have metopic synostosis. We then talked about ramifications if we left him how he is, about surgery and all that good stuff. He gave me orders for the opthamologist to make sure there wasn't pressure on his optic nerve (which can happen causing vision problems with the disorder) and for a 3-D reconstructive CAT scan to see if he has pressure on his brain yet or not. Then Dr. said we needed to get this done and come back and see him on Tuesday, three days later! That isn't good when it usually takes a few weeks, if not months, to get appointments at the children's hospital. Plus I said, should I call for an appointment time and he said, "No, just come in and tell them that I told you to come." We were able to get the opthamologist taken care of shortly after his appointment but we have to go back on Tuesday for the CAT scan. So we will have the CAT scan at 8:00 am since S3 has to be fasting for the sedation (he has to hold still for 15 minutes). Then we will head over to the Dr.'s clinic after we get done and see how soon we get in. The medical imaging people said that the doctor will be able to access the CAT scan as soon as we are done and if he wants the radiologist to read it on the spot, they will so it's not a problem to have it done the same morning. Plus, I don't know how soon they'll be able to get me in at the clinic.

This all took much longer than I had anticipated so I was grateful that my friend Reta, who had picked S2 up could keep him and get S1 from the bus. As it turns out I got back shortly before the bus did. Plus Reta said she was bringing me dinner since I had to make a ton of calls when I got back to check out insurance and such. It was very nice not to have to worry about cooking. I called to let our parents know what was going on also. By the early evening my eyes were very sore from crying. They also were starting to puff up. David was teaching school all day and then he had the school musical rehearsal and an open house so he didn't get home until almost 9 p.m.

All I have to say is thank goodness for Mary Kay's soothing eye gel! I was sure that when I woke up Friday my eyes would be swelled shut from all my sobbing but Thursday night I put it on my sore, tired and puffy eyes and felt instant relief from the fatigue and went to bed. The next morning my eyes were totally normal!! This does not happen normally, that gel is a miracle.

Friday was a busy day since I had to can one and a half boxes of peaches. The one's from S1's bus driver were absolutely divine. They were so delicious. I had some leftover peaches so I made a cobbler but had to wing it since I couldn't find my recipe. It turned out pretty well except that I forgot to put cinnamon on the top! I also had to work on some stuff for the heritage festival that our town was having. I had to condense twelve pages on how the neighborhoods got their names down to one sheet of paper, front and back, for a tri fold brochure. I also had to make up a quiz/drawing form and re-type the twelve pages since the lady I had gotten them from didn't know how to give them to me electronically and they were full of typing errors. I got copies made and went to buy prizes for the drawing and the foam board for the display. I was up half the night typing. I finally called it quits and figured I would assemble the display boards the next morning, but I slept in so I had to do it while setting up at the festival. Oh, Friday night Dave also told me he had forgotten about play rehearsal so he wouldn't be here to watch the boys! We called all around to find a sitter and finally found one.

Saturday morning I slept in too late and S3 wanted me to hold him or he would just cry and cry. That made it a bit harder to get ready. The sitter came and I finished getting my stuff together and took off to set up. I came back to the house part way through the festival because S2 had a soccer game. I took him to the game and stayed with him. Then I took him back to the festival with me. I checked in at my booth, which was really a self-guided thing that didn't really need me there except to attract people to it so they didn't just wander on by. Everything was fine so I went with S2 to have some fun. We used one of those two man saws to slice a disk of wood off a log and he had something branded into it. Then we went over to the brick making table and stamped a brick. We checked out the teepee. Then we went back over to the table and I let him go to the playground because I could see it from where I sat. We were both glad when it was finally time to go home.

So, it was a very busy, emotional week. I'll let you know what happens on Tuesday and I need to tell you about my little barterer - S2.