Starting To Choose

    Surprise, surprise Squeaker is sick again. Nothing major just a cold but it is enough to make her miserable and start another antibiotic. Of course Squeaker has been having some massive headaches with all the sinus pressure. The last week or so I've been offering extra pain killers to Squeaker at nap and bedtime. She has been accepting them and yes they have been helping. Then Friday night around 11:30 Squeaker woke with a terrible headache. When I offered some extra pain killer she said "no."
     Honestly I was pretty surprised. I couldn't figure out why my 4 year old, or any 4 year old, would turn down a chance to feel better. It was just so dumb founding. I thought about giving the medicine to her anyway but I stopped myself. Trey and I have been working really hard and letting Squeaker make choices for herself and letting her have some control. Especially about medicine. There is so much she HAS to take everyday and every week. For the night I decided not to press the issue. Yes Squeaker was miserable, fussy and a little loud. I felt she had a right to choose not to take the medicine. She even refused essential oils, back rubs, and a head massage. Pretty much anything I offered Squeaker would turn down. It was hard and sad that she was turning away from all the help I could give but I knew I had to let her chose.
     Now I'm sure you could say, "She's 4 she doesn't get a choice." or "If she is being loud and disruptive then you need to make that stop." And as valid as those ideas are and I have taken those stances before it just didn't feel right for Friday night. Now I will say I had picked a time in my head (12:15am) that if Squeaker hadn't settled into being quiet and calm that I was going to "drug" her. Because sleep is precious around here and I had no desire to be up all night. Pleasantly in the end I didn't have to give Squeaker any medicine.
     Since Squeaker had denied having "tickles", which is what we call essential oils, but I felt she really needed something I went and pulled out the humidifier. Now the humidifier is a scary thing for me. Squeaker does not do well in heat or humidity. The humidity really messes with her breathing. Which yes makes summers in Alabama very interesting.  In the past the humidifier has caused some serious and scary breathing issues. So yes I fear the humidifier. I needed a way to deliever the oils, and the humidifier was all I had. I carefully filled it with water and oil and plugged it in. Turned it on low, said a prayer and hoped for the best. In a couple of minutes our little corner smelled of mint and lavender. I started to feel confident this would help. Sure enough after about 5 minutes Squeaker settled down a little and stole my popcorn snack.
      After snacking for a little while Squeaker asked for her juice and just after midnight she was off to dreamland. Where she stayed for about 3 hours. Not to shabby if you ask me.
     Do I know what the root problem was? Nope. Do I know exactly what helped? Nope. I do know that Squeaker is learning about her body and how to handle it. There will be plenty of times to come where she will have to endure pain, suffering, and hardship. Is it sad she is starting so young? Yes it is. That is something I can't change though. I can only teach her that sometimes you take the medicine, sometimes you just deal, and sometimes you take the risk and turn on the humidifier.

Blessed We Be

In general we live paycheck to paycheck. I have a chart that tells me exactly what day the bills get paid and with what paycheck they get paid with. I can also tell in each pay period if we are going to be tight on money or have some extra. Yes I am an organized geek. But for the last 4-5 years we have been living very tight, and this geekness has kept us in the black.

It was not uncommon for our finances to be so low that I would wait 3-6 days for payday to come around. Only then did I have enough money to go grocery shopping or put gas in a car. Anyone who lives like this will tell you it's not fun. It was life though, especially with all the financial demands of Squeaker's medical care we just didn't have much choice in the matter.

Over the last year as we have decreased our credit card debt through student loans and a refinance debt reduction loan. So yes we are still carrying debt but with lower monthly payments and much lower APRs. This has opened up our cash so we can stop using credit cards for gasoline and groceries. We don't use our Credit Cards of anything else anymore either. If we don't have the cash we don't buy it. (baring emergencies- Like new tires for the van when one blew out on the interstate)We are also to take some of our freed cash to "snowball" our debt.

Well we still live paycheck to paycheck with a small savings now. We most certainly we can't live a month without a job. Today though we hit a mile stone. We forgot it was payday. For years I looked forward to payday and had every dollar planned and prayed it would all work. Today I was half way through breakfast before I remembered. Trey forgot entirely until I told him I had paid the bills. It's not like there was a ton of money in bank account but there was enough to buy the basics and fill up my van. I didn't even have to think about it. WHAT A BLESSING!!

You may say well you worked hard for it and deserve it. That is true but I know Heavenly Father is looking out for us. He lead Trey to school as a certain time, and we tried several times to get a debt reduction loan until we found one that actually worked for us. It has also helped that Trey has been getting double bonuses from work as a retention bonus.

We still have a long way to go before we are truly debt free but what a relief it is not have make $5 last 6 days. We still have to watch our spending but to know the basics are covered, yeah I'll take it. :)

Assemble The....

MINIONS!!!!

Aren't they the cutest little Minions?! Squeaker loved having cousin Naomi around to go Trick or Treating with.

Naps...

If the craziness of this month has taught me only one thing it is the importance of naps. Squeaker is still on medically mandated naps which is pretty cool as a parent. Each day I get a break or sometimes a nap. It's pretty cool. But there are days where life just doesn't permit the time for a nap. I have always tried to keep it too a minimum.

This last month has been a whole land of crazy. With a random weekend trip to Florida, having family come in, doctors appointments, and then just life on top of it there have been more days without nap than I would like. Boy was it nuts, but I learned. I learned that if Squeaker misses more than 3 naps in a 7 day period she will be miserable and tired for about a week. If she misses 2 in a row it takes a week to recover.

Pretty much I have a 1 day lee-way. If we miss one nap it's okay. If we try to push her it never works out for us.

So for now I am guaranteed a break each day, the positives to all the crazy I deal with. :)