A Crazy Day for Home Visitation

Get up this morning thinking today is going to be a Terrific Tuesday.  Was I mistaken!  Here is how my day went (I will be leaving out personal info)!

For those of you that have seen Marley and Me. This is written like John Grogan's blogs. lol

Struggled to get Lillian out of bed. Washed a peanut butter mixture out of her hair(she had gum in it).
Drove Lillian to school. Drove myself to work and arrived late.
Got paperwork ready for first home visit. Got called into bosses office to find out we will be going to a conference in Oct. and chit chatted for awhile.
Left for first home visit. Arrived after a 25 minute drive ON TIME!! Yay.
Got told I did not know how to do math. Realized I was not getting anywhere with MOB(mother of baby), so decided to cut our visit short. Tried scheduling new home visit for next week and realized that I would be in Nashville for a training all week. Got told that I needed that training(referring to lack of math skills-apparently 12+5=18.5). Left home visit.
Arrived at office and ate lunch, then decided I wanted a milk shake.
Did not realize that a trip to chick filet for milkshakes would take 1.5 hours.
Messaged MOB that I would be late to second home visit. Called MOB for third home visit to tell her I may need to reschedule, phone has been disconnected. Called office to verify number. Called MOB again, still disconnected.
Arrived 30 minutes late to second HV. She was cool, thank goodness. Child gave me a high five :-) (he hates strangers). Spent 45 minutes with prenatal mother showing her how do prenatal exercises. Fun Stuff.
Drove to third HV, MOB thought I was not coming. Verified her number. I had a dyslexic moment and converted a 6 to a 9.  Found out that their is a new visitors policy for her apartment complex. All visitors must park in the visitors lot and have a visitors tag in the window. Any vehicle not registered  and without a visitors tag will receive a wheel boot.
Rescheduled official home visit for next day. Walk downstairs to service men standing at my car about to attach a freaking boot to my wheel. Explained the short visit and just finding out about the new policy and they referred me to the front office. With another home visit scheduled shortly, I drove passed the office and got phone number to call.
Driving to my last home visit of day, I get stuck in horrible traffic. Trying hard to bypass traffic, I decide to turn down a side street hoping to come out where I needed to be. Not so much. Ended up having to back my car down the road to the nearest safe area to do a two point turn. Got back on main road. Decide to turn down another side street. Again, bad idea. Get back on main road.
Decide to sit in horrible traffic only to realize they have the whole intersection and the road I need to turn on blocked off, because of a crazy wreck.  Finally am able to make it through the intersection and cut through a parking lot to get on the road I am supposed to be on. Get a glare from the cop sitting in the lot. Whatever!
Arrive at MOB's house. Her father is startled to see me so late in the day and welcomes me in.
Drive to get Lillian. Drive to Wal-Mart for shirt for field trip. Drive home. Then realized I forgot my purse at office. BLAH.

Repetitive Forgetfulness.

My kid has some odd quirks about her.

Crawling.

Lillian starting crawling combat style at 6 months of age. She figured out how to get up on her hands and knees and crawl shortly after, but liked combat style much better.  She did not actually use "normal" crawling skills for two weeks after learning how to do it originally. At this point she was highly mobile and could not keep her contained for anything. 

Walking.

Lillian took her first steps four days before her first birthday. She walked from the refrigerator to the living room  before getting back on the floor and crawling. She did not take her next steps til two weeks after she turned one. When she decided she was ready, she took off and never slowed down. 

Talking.

Lillian learned new words all the time as she was developing a vocabulary and learning how to talk. Funny thing was she only had a five word vocabulary at any given time and would "forget" a word she learned as she learned a new word". I found this pretty funny!  Especially when the doctor would ask how many words she knew and could use properly.  I would have to respond with "well she only uses five words right now" Obviously, talking is no longer an issue for her! lol

Potty Training.

This was the one thing that she did not "forget" how to do!  lol I started potty training her at a year and half and she was daytime trained by the age of two. It took about a year to figure out how to get her nighttime trained. She would have two week stretches with no accidents and then bam; I would be changing sheets or cleaning floors in the middle of the night or early in the morning. 

Sleeping.

Sleeping is and always has been a battle.  My kid does not sleep. She has never slept the "expected" hours listed by the pediatrician. She has way to much energy and a need to know what it going on every second of every day. Just recently I have learned that she could be highly sensitive to sugar.  So I am limiting her sugar(Easter has blown that out of the routine) and am finding that her energy level is fading fast and she is actually ready for bed and sleeping all night with the help of all natural pineapple juice! 

Now on to the newest first!  

Reading.

Lillian has sounded out/read her first few words!  Excited I am!  But like every other first in her life, she has "forgotten" how to do it. I tried to get her to read a sentence in her Easter Egg Train book and she just looked at me like I was crazy.

I began thinking it was all the medications she is on for allergies and asthma making her "forget". As I am driving home today it hit me.  Lillian has been like this with EVERYTHING she has ever done and when she practices the skill again she takes off and their is no stopping her. Two weeks seems to have been the magic time frame for everything she has "forgotten" so I am hoping that time frame hold true for this as well. I am going to try to wait patiently for her to "remember" how to do it and in the mean time work with her on P, B, and V.  She mixes these sounds up big time! 

Saving and making money one mile at a time!

After driving to a home visit the other day and seeing a lady standing at the bus stop with her very young infant, it made me so much more appreciative to have a job that I can afford to have a vehicle.  However, with the rising gas prices, I think it would be more economical to ride the bus along with the lady I saw. 


After great thought and consideration of where my clients live, I have decided to save money and park the vehicle I love so much.  I will be riding my bike to and from home visits, with the exception of one person that lives 14 miles from the office. 


I would like to keep this up till the official first day of summer in June, but with the rising temps we will see how it goes.  While riding my bike, I hope to show my clients that health is important to me and tone down my problem areas, save money on gas and do my part in protecting the air quality, lesson the miles typically driven in my car each week, and a BIG plus make a little bit of money.  Each month we get reimbursed for mileage at about 50 cents a mile. This check always goes right back into my car(gas, oil changes, etc).  Depending on how well I do with this goal, I may be able to save this money for fun stuff or paying off the student loans faster....lol 


Wish me luck!  

Getting Older....we all do it(whether we want to or not)

Confession time!  OLD people SCARE me!  Or at least they did many years ago.  Seriously though, they stink, they are slow, they are touchy,they think everyone is their grandchild, and they fall asleep in mid conversation. As a child I absolutely hated going on "field trips" to the nursing home to brighten their day, because it stressed me out BIG time!  Old people scared me so much I did not want to be anywhere around my parents when they got OLD.

I have had an epiphany.  My four year old stinks(at times), she is slow(at times), she is touchy, she thinks everyone is her friend, and she also falls asleep mid conversation.  Sound familiar?  This is exactly how I used to describe OLD people. HAHA.

Anywho, to get on with the reason for this post! This past August my dad went into the hospital with serious health issues.  Tests after tests were ran to confirm a "fatty liver" The doctor told him that he had to make drastic lifestyle changes if he wanted to survive. He has been doing well with these changes. I did not go back home to help my dad, because my dad absolutely hates having people fuss over him(I am so much like him). 

My mom recently had a procedure done to fix her faulty valves in her heart. This procedure has left her needing a lot of help. My sisters and I joined forces and tried to make sure one of us was at the house at all times to help out during the healing process and all the chores. Wednesday I took a day off of work so I could be at the hospital "just in case".  The thought of the "just in case" stressed me out.  But knowing that I function well under stress, I knew I would be needed after the surgery.  

My mom (bless her heart) although young, reminded me of an old person in that hospital bed.  I was given the opportunity to sit with my mom while they were trying hard to get her bloodwork done before surgery.  My dad left to get something to eat so I got to sit and talk to mom.  She fell ASLEEP mid conversation. 

At that point I realized that my parents are getting older, but no more scary than they were in my childhood years.  They are actually less scary. They are people that just need a little more help from their kids.   My parents have given me so much of their time and love my whole life.  I might not be able to repay them financially for everything they have done for me, but I can give them my time and love. 

Love you guys!  Even if you are getting OLD!! lol

...for gaining wisdom and instruction...doing what is right, just, and fair...

There are 31 days in the month of March and 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs. I have made a goal to read the book of Proverbs in the month of March; one chapter an evening.

The primary function of this book is to instruct youth.  Obviously my age does not fit in the youth category in the worldly sense, but I am still learning to be like HIM. Because we all still want to be nurtured and learn to live like HIM, I believe we all fit in the youth category in a biblical sense.  I invite you all to read the book of Proverbs in the next month.

Books, books, and more books! For Learning purposes that is!

The TAG reading system by Leap Frog is something Lillian has specifically asked for so she "could learn how to read".  Apparently she pays more attention to commercials that I would have thought! She raved about it every time we went into the stores. I was on board 100% with purchasing this, because I have no idea how to begin teaching her myself.  She is very much a independent person who learns by trial and error on her own.

Ms. Clause was able to find the whole system with books included on sale for Christmas! After an issue with purchasing the WRONG batteries and MISPLACING the USB cable we finally got the software uploaded to the system and Lillian is ready to read........NOT. I have realized that I didn't purchase the learning books, I purchased the story books.

With that said Lillian LOVES the system.  I simply upload the story onto her Tag Pen and she taps the pages and it reads it to her.  It is a win win situation.  She gets to have her story read to her and I get to get my dishes done at the same time. When my dishes are done and she is asleep I can sit back and relax!  Sometimes she will help me with the dishes so that I can sit with her and listen to the story together(my favorite time of day)!

A Working Single Mom

Early on before Lillian was born, her dad and I decided that I would stay at home with Lillian as long as finances allowed me to do so.  At the time I had no idea I would have to go back to work when my little one was four months old. Prayers were heard and I was asked by my church to take a position at the on site childcare facility. Lillian received half price tuition and I was able to help my family financially. After discussing finances and doing some budget cuts I decided it was best for me to return home and concentrate on my own family needs instead of the needs of other peoples children.

I have entered the workforce once again after receiving my degree.  I absolutely LOVE my job with The Center for Family Development.  My number one goal with families is to establish a nurturing bond between a mother and her child.  I completed my internship with this agency while in school and really had no interest in working for them after school was over. I was given a part time position over the summer and when the summer was over I was given a full time job offer to think about. I took some time and thought about the offer and what it would mean for my child and myself and realized The Center would be a perfect spot for to start out at in my career. It is not the highest paying job, but it has many perks.  I have been thankful to be able to bring my daughter to work with me on occasion and be able to flex my time around to spend more time at home with her.

At times I wonder what it would be like to work at one of the higher paying agencies, but I feel that I would not have as much time to strengthen my relationship with my child, which is what parenthood should be.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because, God has said, "Never will I leave you;never will I forsake you."

What I find difficult is coming home and trying to get dinner on the table and cleaned up with no help. Lillian is getting to the point where she wants to help set the table and try to help wash dishes(which is actually very good at).  I feel like I never have time to just relax, because I am doing all the SAHM duties PLUS working 40 hours a week.  I should be used to it, because I do not recall ever having help before with the deployments and going to school.   Maybe by the time Lillian goes to Kindergarten we will have a routine set and it becomes easier!  One would hope!