November Happenings

We started off the month of November with Violet having a mouth procedure.  Violet was resigned yet brave, and did an amazing job.  As I sat in the waiting room, waiting for the dentist to come out and tell me that Violet was finished, I had a very small glimpse of the worry that parents have while their child is in surgery.  It is a terrible feeling, and I would have rather had the procedure done to myself, than to wait while Violet went through it.  As minor as her procedure was, it was still quite painful afterward, and my heart broke on the drive home with Violet crying in the backseat.  When we arrived home, Will, Lucy and Emma greeted us in the garage and led a sad Violet into the house where there were blankets, a comfy couch and a bowl of ice cream waiting for Violet.

Watching the love and care of my daughters towards their sister filled my heart with such pride and amazement.  If the last ten years of parenting have led us to this moment, then I can say without a doubt that all of our hard work has paid off already.  Violet was so cared for, and lots of family and friends sent their love, prayers, and get well gifts and cards, making Violet feel so loved and special.

For the first couple of days, Violet had a lot of pain and could only eat soft foods and liquids.  After that, she started to improve and after eight weeks of stretches and mouth exercises, she is completely healed.  We had to do the stretches and exercises six times a day, which was brutal when it was painful for her.  We resorted to bribery, and we got through it.  I am so glad we are past that now.  Violet did such an excellent job.  It is hard not to get caught up in the thoughts of how unfair it is that Violet was born with birth defects.  However, I try to remind myself that it could be so much worse (she has the most mild gene mutation documented as everyone else with this specific mutation was born with a double cleft lip and cleft palate).

 Now that she is healed up, we will soon be starting the next phase of her dental plan, which includes some mouth appliances and some cosmetic dentistry on her teeth.  Violet is at the point now where she is struggling with other kids and even adults comments about the way that her teeth look, and it breaks Will's and my heart to see her go through this.  When you hide your smile, or hold back your joy because you are afraid of what people will say about your teeth, it is heartbreaking as a parent to witness.  It's as if other people's comments make our Violet wilt, and we want more than anything to instead watch her bloom.  We are currently fighting our insurance to cover Violet's dental needs, which is another added stress in an already unfortunate situation.  If Violet's teeth were lost or damaged due to decay, our insurance would cover what she needs.  But because Violet was born with a genetic condition that left her with missing teeth and misshapen teeth, not a cent of her dental work is covered.

November was emotionally tough on us, and we are glad to be moving on to the next phases for Violet.  We were also glad that Charlie stayed close to home, and we have yet to take for granted that he is back with us.  A friend of ours gifted us a book which arrived in the mail this past month, and is called Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore, which if that doesn't sum up Charlie, I don't know what does.  It's a story of a cat who has six different families who all feed him, and believe he is theirs, and theirs alone.  Sound familiar?

 We enjoyed time with friends this past month, with the girls putting on plays with their friends, and an impromptu pizza and movie night as well with other friends.  Note in the top, right hand picture below that our friends humored us and wore blue-light blocking glasses right along with our kids, which is our rule when watching any screens after dark.  Now that is true friendship.

 The below two photos show views out of our front window.  The first are our Halloween pumpkins, covered in snow and the second is a large buck that sits across the street each day.  We feel so lucky that we live in the house that we have - we feel like it is perfect in so many ways - with Green Space directly across the street from us and yet the close proximity to downtown that allows us to walk to most things.

 I was busy this past month prepping my inventory for Christmas, and sold out of beeswax ornaments several times.  I have to melt the beeswax outside, due to my honey bee allergy (the airborne particles when the beeswax melts provoke my allergies), and let me just say that next summer I hope to remember to do this part, as it was FREEZING outside.  It took me a full 24 hours to warm back up when I was finished with a weekend of outdoor beeswax melting.  Unfortunately, all of my bees have already died for the season, but the good news is, because they died early in the winter, we were able to harvest the remaining honey.

 The kids and I spent most of November at home, due to an unfortunate run-in I had with a landscape rock and Will's car.  I was pulling into a parking lot, and somehow hit a landscape rock that lined the driveway.  Will's car is old, so it was the equivalent of a 90 year old falling down the stairs.  And, due to the GM strike earlier this year, the parts that we needed to fix the car were on back order for a solid month.  We made do, and I have to say that thanks to family and friends, we were able to pull off having only one car for four weeks.  In the photos below from top left in clockwise order: Lucy hugging Opal in between her dance classes, Opal sitting next to the little boy statue at our library, all of the words Violet can read so far, cut up and made into a few silly sentences by me, the landscape rock that almost totaled out our car (a friend told us we should from here on out refer to it as a boulder for the sake of a good story), all of us on a walk, and a typical homeschool morning with all four of my girls working at the table.

 We had a snow day this past month, which helped with our one car situation.  If it's going to be cold out, I would much prefer there to be snow.  It gives the kids endless hours of outdoor fun. Take that same backyard with the same cold temperatures but no snow, and you would have to bribe them to go outside.

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving.  Below in clockwise order from top left: Opal dipping her Thanksgiving breakfast bacon into a pile of whipped cream (a new twist on buttering your bacon), my dad, brother and niece, celebrating my brother's birthday, and finally, Will's entire family celebrating Thanksgiving.

 We spent Thanksgiving day with Will's family, and then a few days later we celebrated my brother's birthday which was a great way to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my family too.

 Thanksgiving weekend we put up our Christmas decorations...

... and ushered in the holiday season.  I have such strong and happy memories of the holidays when I was a kid, and everything from the smell of the Christmas decoration boxes brought up from the basement, to time sitting by the Christmas tree, while reading a book and watching snow fall outside the window.  The foods and treats that my mom would make each year, and the anticipation of Santa and time off from work and school are some of my most happy memories.  Now, as I am the creator of my own kids memories, I can't help but long for some quiet by the Christmas tree that I would never take for granted again.  Here my four daughters are below, making some of their own memories, and I can't help but hope that they are as great as mine are.  

If you had told ten year old Liz what future Christmas would be like, I'm not sure she would have believed you.  Now to find some quiet time for myself, while living a life better than I could have dreamed!