Snow days are for coffee, blogging and cooking!

Snow, lots and lots of it is coming down fairly quickly here in my little area of south-central Pennsylvania. Which means one thing for me a SNOW DAY!

I got to enjoy a nice leisurely cup of coffee this morning in my PJ's at 7:30.
Then I had to dig my way out to the chicken coop to let out the girls. My girls were not that excited about the snow. 

A highlight of a snow day for me is getting to spend the school day with
these two kiddos. So Lucas and I are navigating Biology and Literary 
Analysis & Comprehension. Hannah is doing Physics and Honors British 
& World Literature.

While the kids are plugging away at these subjects I also get to cook!
So for lunch, we are having deconstructed pizza and brownies. For dinner, simmering away in the crockpot is a big batch of buffalo chicken soup!

Food and nourishment we will need for the big dig out. The soup and pizza are Keto recipes. For the pizza, I used Rotel tomatoes instead of just diced ones. Lucas noticed the chilies right away. I said they add a little kick, he said more like a solar flare. I just love this kid sensory issues and all, he makes our lives interesting!

How are you spending your snow day?

Updates

On Monday, we had Hannah's cardiology appointment, the good news is her heart is showing no damage from the under oxygenated red blood cells. Tuesday at Hershey she had her iron infusion. Per her Hematologist, the hope is the iron infusion will boost her levels and provide her with some relief.

Repeat iron infusions will be determined by labs and if she can maintain her hemoglobin level.  The doctor suspects she will have at least one more. Infusions can be done every 4 to 12 weeks depending on her levels. IF for some reason this does not help the issue then we will have to determine whether or not her bone marrow is functioning and if a blood transfusion is needed. So we, of course, are praying that the iron infusion(s) do the trick.

Our evening was rocky. Hannah had a bit of a reaction to the iron after we returned home. She had a normal reaction of nausea, joint/muscle pain, and headache but, she had a rare reaction of a high fever. So we played phone tag with

Hematology and Rheumatology for a couple hours. When morning dawned she was 

much better.

Wednesday's infusion was but tricky because Lucas is a hard stick. So after 4 attempts we finally got the IV in. The rest of his infusion went with out a hitch!

My appointment Thursday was a bit more complicated. My IgM levels are 

continuing to drop so... they are waiting on some titers to come back and then depending on what they read I will have to be revaccinated and then tested 

again. The possible outcome being IgM deficiency and then treatment would 

be IVIG every so often and possibly prophylactic antibiotics.  The other 

possibility is that I am dealing with Myeloma so I am being sent to Hematology 

to rule that out. Until then we pray and keep soldiering on.

Friday was a long day...LONG .  We left the house at 10 and returned home at 6.  Actemra is a longer infusion because blood work must be done before hand to 

check liver counts to make sure it can be given. Hannah was a trooper and so 

far has responded well.

Many thanks to all those that prayed us through this week! We covet your continued prayers. 

A high point this week is that our chickens started laying! It's just the first week

and from the 3 girls,we have 7 eggs!

Baseballs, Point shoes & Chickens oh my!

May is a very busy month for us. We are wrapping up school for the year.
WooHoo! This girl turned 16!

We are also busy getting ready for the spring recital and the spring baseball
season is well underway. So we have this happening...

  And it has been raining a great deal which makes baseball and dancing more of a challenge. My own feet and ankles (and knees etc) make heading out to work more of a challenge as well.                                                                            Any free time has been spent with these girls. At 11 and 12 weeks they are something else. We had something small trying to tunnel under the coop.  So we moved it closer to the house. We also put a hardware cloth 

skirt under and around it, then mulched and set stones to add more weight to the skirt. 

This is Dixie she is very inquisitive. She also likes the have her picture snapped.

This is Josie in the lower picture you can really see her lacing coming in.

                                                                                  

Then here is Lucy she is definitely top of the pecking order.

And a few pictures of the new coop situation.             

                    

                                                                        

                                           

                         

April showers bring flowers, mud puddles and weeds

We have had at least a week of rain... yes, yes, I know April showers bring May flowers. But do you know what else April showers bring? Weeds. Yes,

the flowers coming up but so are the weeds. In fact, they are coming 

up faster than I can pull them. 

And then there is mud. The girls moved into their new digs last weekend and

they are enjoying digging around in the mud for worms.  We have a new 
feeder and waterer system to put in that we planned on doing this weekend

but the rain stalled that idea. Keeping their water clean in all this rain is a full-time job.

We managed to make it through March and most of April without a huge

health scare. I mean we still have the platelet issues and Hannah's iron/ red 

blood cell thing going on...but, Easter was relatively quiet. Very thankful 

for a respite.

I was thinking back to when Cody first started having infusions and on months when we would have 2 the trauma would sideline me with depression. Now with both Hannah and Lucas having them, we do at least 2 sometimes 3. It's amazing how it just becomes normal.

My friend who visited us just recently, who has her own barrage of medical people coming in an out, said (when talking about our cart of medical supplies) 'Oh, doesn't everyone have that in their living room? 😉.' It's

become old hat but never gotten easier. What does make it worthwhile is to see Luke on the pitching mound and Hannah leap across the stage at dance. It gives me perspective, that while those things are not painless activities for them... they able to do them which might not be an option without the medicine.

  

Life is all about choices. I am choosing joy!  I will take the mud puddles and the weeds for the flowers.