Health issues

Since my back injury earlier this year, it seems that my body just can't find it's equilibrium. My sleep patterns are whacky and I seem to catch every little bug that's floating around. On top of that, I've been fighting a pretty serious case of anemia as well as depression and anxiety.

Trying to lose weight during this has been extremely difficult. One of the meds I was on caused me to balloon another 30 pounds to my heaviest yet. I went off that medication five days ago and now my scales says I've lost 27.6 pounds in that time period, so...yeah...pretty sure my scale is broken! (oh, though - how I wish it was accurate!). My stability ball was my lifeline during the first few months of my recovery, and I sincerely miss it - and I'm pissed at whichever pet thought it would be fun to poke holes in.

I have, however, discovered Zumba, thanks to a friend on the internet who got into it. Regular Zumba is still too hard on my back, but I can handle Zumba Gold (which is designed for older people and disabled people). I've only been doing it for about a week but I can already feel an energy difference.

In other good news, the kids have really settled down into the rhythm of things, school-wise and home-wise. We made some changes this year in our routine and it really seems to work! The first thing we did is we made video games on school nights an absolute no-no. Last year the boys had known that if they finished their homework they could play video games, and this lead to a lot of hiding homework so that they could play faster. And then, of course, the homework never got done! Now they know that there are no video games at all, so they finish their homework pronto - and so far, all their teachers have confirmed that they have no missing work. Every Friday the teachers send home a progress sheet, and if the sheet shows no homework missing, the boys get a couple hours of video games each on Saturday and Sunday. If they do fantastically well on the progress sheet, they get video games on Friday night as well. So far only one of the boys has missed a Friday game night, and he was so disgusted with himself that it hasn't happened again.

Second thing we did is to establish an allowance system. Each boy can earn up to ten dollars in a two-week period (since Sean gets paid bi-weekly this seemed the best way to go about it). If we have to yell at them about homework, chores, or fighting among themselves, they lose a dollar. Since none of the boys wants to lose money, they've all been pretty keen to keep the peace and stay caught up with their chores. It's amazing how much smoother the household runs with this little system!

That's all I can think of to update for today - I know I've been kinda slacking off on this blog. It's mainly because I don't want it to become fully of whining about how awful and helpless I feel about my health. You know, the whole "If you can't say anything nice..." thing. But I am trying to be more positive and hope to be updating with more regularity. Thanks for sticking around!