Back to life, back to reality

Guess what? I have 5 kids. After a grueling week of Silas' surgery and all the ups and downs that accompany that...I came home and then woke up realizing that I have 5 kids. I wouldn't say that I'm depressed but my life is tough right now. Each day is a struggle. Struggling to adjust to having 2 more kids, struggling to adjust to having all 5 kids home from school (despite it being a month since summer began) and it's just hard. Iryna is still my most difficult child, but having found and joined an FAS group on Facebook has given me some peace or at least support...those are kind of the same thing to me in this instance. I have also made a good friend, Connie, who has a child with FAS and we console each other through texts and FB. I am so blessed to have many friends who help me in many ways. 

My CPAP machine is on the fritz. Whenever I put on the mask and turn it on, if I take a deep breath instead of regular shallow breaths, it shuts off. So frustrating. The sleep center has ordered me a new one which will be here next week. A whole week without my CPAP machine. Not what this mama needs. Ugh. 

And speaking of one week - Silas had open heart surgery a week ago today. Isn't that incredible? And he is doing wonderfully. He is still on lacix (sp?) to help him urinate some of the fluid leftover in his body from the surgery and we give him ibuprofen whenever he feels pain in his abdomen. Today he got ibuprofen 3x. So he's not without pain, but other than that he is running around like nothing has changed. I can see a yellow tinge to his skin now and it makes me so happy that his heart is working properly for the first time in his life. 

The brake pads wore out on the van and we had them replaced today. Paul is a great mechanic and we enjoy talking with him. Today I made some pumpkin banana bread (which is a tradition whenever he does auto work for us, as I KNOW that he charges us less money) and we also gave him a Book of Mormon. Then Tyler brought in some Choffy for them to try, which they loved. It's nice that Tyler is just as excited about Choffy as I am. I recently discovered the Coldstone Sweet Cream creamer with Choffy. Oh my. Amazing. I have some free samples of Choffy if you want to try some. :)

We are gearing up for our move in August. We are scheduled to leave mid-August, but I want to go early so the kids can be enrolled and ready to go before school begins. I am looking for a house to rent and hope that God will lead us to the right house, town, school, etc, for the Pierce family. 

Tyler has turned me on to the tv show NUMBERS. Anyone seen it? We are also watching Stella, Warehouse 13, and Arrested Development. And I am eagerly awaiting Downton Abbey to start up again. What shows are you into?