Weekly Wrap-Up – What a Wreck

That’s almost a tongue twister isn’t it? haha

I’ve been making it a point to ask those in my Blog networking group what their goals are for the week, so I’ve been sharing some of my own as well. One of the goals I didn’t share was I want to start doing a weekly wrap-up just to share our week. The weekly wrap-up will include things on my blog, in our homeschool, life, etc. I also want to share some of my goals on here as I go along, etc. This is a great way to not only be more personal but to also give you more insight on what we’ve been up to and what I do hope to accomplish here on Pea of Sweetness.
Overall
So, this week? Well, this week was a wreck. Something people like about me is I can usually put a positive spin on a not so positive situation. I’m going to be straight forward, though, and say I’m not sure I can do that with this one! On Monday we were supposed to have our mandatory monthly inspection. It’s a long story, but to sum it up we live in military housing, and we’re lucky enough that my husband’s unit decided they need to check on everyone each month. Because our kids get completely out of sorts after someone has come into our home I knew we’d have to get as much of our homeschool day done as early as possible (which is already totally out of our routine – we generally start late in the morning), so I was running on hardly any sleep. They never came. I was a little very frustrated. Then, when we got ready to go to their therapy appointment the Durango wouldn’t start. *Sigh* After doing some research we discovered it was the battery, so the neighbor let my husband borrow his SUV so he could go buy a new battery. Praise the Lord that is exactly what it was and now it is running again just fine! Phew! So, that was our Monday! How was yours? haha
On top of that, this was probably THE worst week to be sick, but unfortunately the kids and I caught some sort of flu/cold. All 3 kids had a pretty deep cough, and I had some horrible sinus pressure and congestion. There was one day I couldn’t even LOOK at the computer. It was a blazing screen of torture. I tried to resort to the iPad to get a few things done, but it was just a smaller blazing screen of torture. So, the stubborn person that I am, I even tried my phone, which was a miniature blazing screen of torture… you get the point. I’m still not completely over whatever this is that I have, but at least I’m feeling MUCH better than I was that day! That was awful! So, I fell behind on things and got stressed out trying to catch up. I watched videos about our 3 year old’s upcoming surgery and got stressed out about that. So, it would be fair to say I’ve been a little emotional and stressed out this week.
I don’t like being behind on things. I don’t like feeling like my personal posts are getting drowned out by the ads (or even by the reviews and giveaways), but with my husband’s medical retirement coming any day now we need the extra support that it all offers, and so I continue to try to find a way to balance it (as well as life, of course) and try not to feel overwhelmed when I have weeks like this one! I have prioritized and cut out things I found weren’t beneficial. I continue to worry as we go into next week knowing it’s going to be another busy week with Chaz’s surgery being first thing on Monday and recovery after followed by a possible trip over to Houston to see my dad before he goes back up to Ohio. Ooh. I get worked up and feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. So I get on my knees once again and pray for God’s guidance, and I’m asking for your grace. I will find the right balance – the balance between posts, the balance between life and blogging, all of it – eventually, and I hope you will stick with me while I figure it out!
As for the surgery, I’m a nervous wreck. I know I shouldn’t be. I’m even trying to reason with myself “seriously, Em, you’ve had open heart surgery (and how many other surgeries?)! It’s just a 20 minute out-patient procedure. It’s fine!” It doesn’t help, though. I realized why when watching the videos. It’s actually not the surgery that makes me nervous. I know it is going to be fine and he is going to be OK. I know he will be covered in prayer and God will protect him. So what is it? It’s him. It’s the fact that he has Sensory Processing Disorder and most people don’t understand. It’s that they told me they’ll give him a medicine for his anxiety so he won’t remember, but you specifically said he’ll have anxiety! I can’t protect him from people touching him and making him uncomfortable. They have to do those things, but I think what is really bothering me is that I won’t be there with him to advocate for him to tell them to let me explain it to him first before they do it. I’m honestly not even sure I’m allowed in the room before he wakes up so I’ll be there right away when he does. I don’t even know those details yet. Those are the details that are making me a nervous wreck. I am praying for God’s peace for both of us, and that he doesn’t have anxiety and feels comfortable before and after the surgery as well! If you could please pray for him – his surgery is Monday morning, and I would be so grateful!

Highlights in our life

• We added 2 new members to our family! They are sweet gerbils, and we named them Ariella and Aliz. You will hear more about them (and see pictures!) in an upcoming review!
• We’re going Gluten Free! We have started the journey to gluten-free for our health. It’s been a slow process, but we made major progress this week!
• They did eventually come do the home inspection. We passed.
• Nothing much else happened because we’ve been at home sick!

Homeschool Highlights

• We started a couple of new things this week that we’ll be reviewing. Be sure you’re following me on my social media accounts (those pretty buttons at the top of my sidebar) to get sneak peeks because I sometimes post pictures during the review period! 😉 The gerbils we got are for a product for a different type of educational review as well! Exciting, right? Stay tuned for that one next week!
• Brayden and Aurora both successfully completed their current reading level with ABeCeDarian and will be moving up to the next level next week! They’re still on the same level with each other, too, so I’ll continue to teach them together.
• Again, we didn’t do much that was extremely exciting since we were all sick.

Pea of Sweetness Shop Highlights

• I made my first sale on Etsy! I admit, my Etsy shop probably isn’t set up well, and I still haven’t had time to work on my online shop (did you even know I had one in the works?), but it’s been a little disheartening to finally get back into my sewing crafting just to pay their shop fees for almost 3 months and not have any sales. So yay for progress!
• I will be sending my sister my niece’s name in vinyl to complete the growth chart I made for her last month (well, I made the vinyl, and she put it on the board since she lives super far away to save shipping a huge board!). I’m so excited to go up there this fall to meet my new niece and visit with everybody. OK, that last part isn’t really shop news, but it made me think of it! 🙂
• I plan on adding pictures of the vinyl creations I’ve made to both my Etsy shop, the online shop (that will exist soon), and my Facebook page and offering them as templates if people would like to purchase that exact design. As always, I do take custom orders!

Blog Highlights

• Let me start this with a THANK-YOU!! Pea of Sweetness made the Top 25 Homeschooling Moms on Circle of Moms thanks to your support! I feel honored and blessed!
• I posted a Feedback page where companies I’ve worked with can leave feedback. I just posted it, so I don’t have any feedback yet. I need to share it with those I have worked with, but hopefully this will be a helpful resource for those wanting to work with me in the future as well.
• I received 4 products this week for review. (Again, you might catch some sneak peeks on my social media!) 😉
• Again, I wish I had more, but remember the screen of torture? Yeah, that kind of put a hinder on things!

Goals This Week

• Add a Sponsorship Opportunities post. I mentioned this briefly in my Behind the Scenes post, but I plan on adding Bloggy Con 2013 to the list in addition to The Declare Conference. In addition to adding this post, I would also like to contact past sponsors about this opportunity as well as invite them to share feedback on my new page.
• Share a full post about my blog project – “You CAN homeschool special needs children. Offering encouragement to parents who aren’t sure.” If you’re a homeschooling parent of a special needs child and would like to participate please join here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EB19Qzb8nUn0X7qGgqI7jDRNGoFvGr5F7slKsjgvOqc/viewform
• Otherwise, make it through this week. Lame, I know! I don’t know how Chaz is going to feel after his surgery, and they said the recovery after just the adenoidectomy is much smoother than if he was having his tonsils removed as well, but we also have to keep in mind he doesn’t adjust to things in the same way that others do. So, he could be up and ready by the next day or he could be rather uncomfortable and grouchy for a few days. I don’t know. That will also determine whether or not we ARE able to go over to Houston to see my dad before he heads back up to Ohio. One thing IS for certain, if my little guy needs his mommy, posts on here may be scarce, but I’m sure you can understand. 😉

OK, that might have been a little LONG for a weekly wrap-up, but hey, you know my style! I hope that next week’s wrap-up has some wonderful news to post about Chaz’s surgery and recovery. Thank-you so much for your prayers and support.