All in an Evening's Work

This evening, I was responsible for fifteen patients. Between the hours of 3 pm and 1:15 am, I administered medications to each one of these patients.  I also took temperatures, blood pressures, pulses, counted respirations, and checked oxygen levels and blood sugars.  I gave two shots, gave two suppositories, did a treatment on someone's genitals, and put cream in a patient's rectum. I assessed wounds, lung sounds, and performed skin assessments.

An ambulance dropped of a patient in a wheel chair who was a new admission. I had not been told that I would be getting a new admission, and had no paper work.  This patient then became very agitated, and after an  hour or two, signed out AMA.

I had a patient with a temperature of 100.6 degrees. Even after medication administration, the temperature continued to rise. I had to use non-pharmaceutical treatments to "break the fever", and fought the temp all evening, only to have it increase again at 11 pm.

I replaced oxygen tanks, put oxygen on a patient,  and cleaned a concentrator. I made a total of five "callouts" to doctors. One doctor told me "to do what I wanted", and asked "Why can't you fix it?".

I sent a pt to the ER. I wrote orders, transcribed orders, discontinued orders, and carried out orders. I ordered labs and talked to the pharmacy twice. I called family members. I did medication education with both patients and family members. While one patient had a fever, I had another one yelling at me, and another patient refusing to sit down in the wheelchair.

I ate lunch while talking to a doctor and charting. I am a breast-feeding mom, and only had the chance to pump twice. I should have pumped at least three times, if not four, and even took a phone call while pumping.

I charted on six patients. I was punched, called names, and yelled at. I was hugged and kissed. I was exposed to MRSA. I held the hand of a dying man and cried. I argued with a nurse.

My shift was supposed to end at 11 pm. I did not clock out until 1:15 am, and I am still afraid that I forgot something. I came home to dishes in the sink, two loads of laundry to fold, baby toys scattered over the living room floor, and my two boys (husband and son) in bed.

Apples, Apples, Apples....

Apples, apples, apples….

The other Sunday we had over the Pastor and his wife for lunch after church. I made a simple meal of pot roast and noodles, green beans (for the boys), and lima beans (for the girls). I didn’t have anything planned for dessert, so while we were enjoying lunch, my mind was racing as to what I could serve. I quickly went through a list of ideas, (in my mind) most of which would take too long to make, or I didn’t have the right ingredients. I was beginning admit defeat when I remembered the very large pile of apples that I had brought back from PA just the weekend before. My mind was working fast. Apples, apples, apples… apple crisp, no, too much work. Apples, apples, apples… Apple pie? Way too much work! Apples, apples, apples… If I had only made that applesauce! Apples, apples, apple… hmm….apples and caramel dip? No caramel dip…. dip… Could I make a dip? Probably… what would I need? I quickly looked through a cookbook. Nothing. I got online. Found some recipes, got some ideas, and threw some stuff together, and yum! What a hit! (Well with everyone except Matt… but that is just typical Matt).  You know what the best thing about this dip is? It is actually pretty healthy! Who needs recipes anyway?

But for those of you who do… here it is!

Apple Dip

¼ cup natural peanut butter

¼ cup plain yogurt

1 or 2 tbs brown sugar

dash or two of pumpkin pie spice

4 large eating apples (I suggest Granny Smith, but they are really tart…  and some people are not a fan!)

Mix all of the ingredients, minus the apples in a small bowl with a spoon. Core and slice apples. Serve . Dip apples in dip. Eat. Chew. Swallow. Yum.   

Disgustingly Perfect!

Unlike my mom, I LOVE to decorate! I loved “setting up home” when Matthew and I got married, and I anxiously looked forward to holiday decorations- specially fall and Christmas. The first Christmas Matthew and I spent together as a married couple, I decided that I wanted to make all of my tree ornaments. (Even though I was working almost fulltime, and attending college fulltime). I got all of my big ideas from a Gooseberry book that my Gram had given me. My theme was snow. My tree was decorated with white lights, a snowflake garland, big snowflakes, little snowflakes, blue and cream colored mittens (which I had made), blue, white, and silver balls, and white cotton as snow. I found a snowman tree topper, and a snowman tree skirt. Believe it or not- all of the snowflake ornaments came from the dollar tree!

On Christmas day we hosted a brunch, and my entire family came down. It was later on in the day, after eating and opening gifts, my mom was just staring at my Christmas tree. With pride, adoration, envy, and dislike, she sighed and said: “Your tree is disgustingly perfect!” 

Fresh Cut Tree

One of my favorite childhood memories of Christmas was the family tradition of getting a tree. For as long as I can remember my family would go to a Christmas tree farm, pick out a tree and cut it down, for you can’t get any fresher then this! When I was a little girl we used to go to a local tree farm, just “down the road”, and get our “perfect” Christmas tree. You have to understand- getting this tree was quite the process. We first had to get my very slow moving father to agree that it was time to get a Christmas tree. Usually the chosen day would be a Saturday morning (because till dad got home from work during the week it would be dark), and we would then spend half of the morning gathering little snow boots, mittens and hats. Once we were layered in clothing, and bundled up to the point we could barely move, we would all pile in to my dad’s pickup truck, and drive the short distance to the Christmas tree farm. Here we would traipses up and down the hills, debate and argue over a trees, and listen to my mom complain about how cold it was. Usually after looking at about 100 trees, we would finally find tree on which the majority of the people (my family), agreed was “okay”. My dad would then cut down the tree, and then proceed to drag it either down the hill (if he was lucky), or up the hill,  (“sorry Dad, this is the perfect tree even though it is at the very bottom of the hill and on the edge of the tree farm property), and put it into the back of the truck. As our family got bigger, getting tree got more and more complicated. We were always so busy, it was hard to find a time that everyone would be able to go, and eventually we had to take two vehicles, because we just wouldn’t all fit in the truck. And of course the bigger the family, the more voices, which meant more opinions on which tree was “perfect”. But nonetheless, every year, like clockwork, going out and cutting down our Christmas tree was something we did.

Matthew, on the other hand never experienced cutting down a tree until he met me, and my family. Their Christmas tree was stored in a box, and gotten out every year, and decorated only by his mom, and they (the kids), were not allowed to touch it! Were as my family decorated the tree as family. The first Christmas Matthew and I spent together, Matthew joined my family in the “tree hunt”. From that time on, Matthew proclaimed that we would never get a fake tree.

I am sorry to say that this year Matthew and I broke tradition. This year, our first Christmas as a family of three, our Christmas tree came from HOME DEPOT! Do not fear, the tree is still real, but I cannot even begin to explain to you how disappointed I was! This year, time was just not in our favor, and Home Depot is only a short distance away, so Home Depot it was.

In the years to come, I hope that we can go back to cutting down our tree. I want to spend a Saturday morning looking for little mittens, snow boots and hats, and placing my children in so much warm clothing that they can barely move, just to walk up and down hills in search for the perfect Christmas tree. I want this to be my one of my children’s favorite memories as well.

This is the tree we picked. Matthan was so particular. 

and we are still red necks at heart..... this is how we transported our tree home! 

                                           and this is the tree decorated....

Count Your Many Blessings....

I am thankful for every minute of life that God has given to me. We are not guaranteed anything. I am thankful for Jesus dying on the cross- for me, for the world. For grace, and for mercy-  God knows what a mess I am. For hope, a future, eternal life. For forgiveness ( I am forever messing up). For unending love, peace, quiet, for joy, song, and celebrations. Thank you Lord for giving me everything that I have- my husband, my son, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. For friends- near and far. For our "PA Church" and our "NY Church". For the country, and for the city. For the seasons. For change. For consistency. For creation. For a job, and money to pay our bills. For our home, and our "stuff". For blankets on our bed, and food in our fridge. For our car and jeep. For technology. 

I am thankful for my husband. He gives meaning to my life, laughter in my soul, love in my heart, and adventure. Most importantly, I am thankful that he is following God's calling. He puts up with my emotions, my tears, my break downs, my anger, my resentment, and every other imperfection that I have (which are numerous). He has promised me till "death do us part". He gently encourages me in my faith, supports my dreams and aspirations, and inspires me. 

I am thankful for my son. What a wonderful gift from God. A miracle of new life. He brings me love, and laughter. He brings challenges, and requires selflessness. I am in love with his smiles, his tiny fingers and toes. His cries break my heart, and his hugs and "snuggles and cuddles" melt my heart .

I am thankful for my family. Mom and dad, for raising me, for their sacrifice of time, money, and self. For their encouragement. For love and laughter in our home. For discipline. For blessing me with siblings, for excepting my husband. For my brothers and sisters, for they are my friends, and my inspiration. 

For my friends- they offer me so much! Love, support, fellowship, gifts, laughter, haircuts, joy, comfort, help,and encouragement. They pull you up when you are down. They laugh when you laugh, and cry when you cry. They become family, when family can't be close. 

This only a teeny tiny bit of what I have to be thankful for. From the smallest detail to the biggest gift! I encourage you ... think about all that you have to be thankful for. It kind of puts things into perspective. 

ps.I wanted to have this blog posted on Thanksgiving... but obviously we do not always get what we want!  

How To Cook A Pumpkin

On Wednesday afternoon, Matthew was "i"-chatting with his twin brother, when I over heard my sister-in-law say, "Tell Tab I checked her blog on how to make a pumpkin." I quickly jumped in front of the camera, hoping to share my knowledge on how to make a pumpkin! This may seem odd, but you have to understand, my sister in-law Micah is a great cook, and baker, she scrapbooks, sews, (like really well), and she also knits or crochets (I am not sure which, but which ever it is she does a bang up job, and makes the most adorable hats!). In case you are not getting it, Micah can do EVERYTHING... I  was excited to be able to tell her how to do something!  Too bad, she was already more then half way through the process of making her pumpkin, because she was doing it the wrong way! (ok, there really isn't a wrong way to make a pumpkin, but there is definitely an easy, and a hard way, and poor Micah was doing it the hard way.) The hard way, which Micah found online, said something about peeling the pumpkin, cut into chunks and boil it. Blah, blah. This is way too much work, and I can't imagine that the pumpkin taste half as good as it does when you make pumpkin the "right way." So Micah, I apologize for not having anything on my blog on how to make a pumpkin, and please, next time just call me!


Baked Pumpkin

Cut pumpkin in half, and scoop out the seeds, and "stringy stuff". (save the seeds if you like roasted pumpkin seeds). Lightly grease a cookie sheet (one with edges), and place pumpkins face down.

Cut a few slits in the top.

Bake at 350 for about an hour or so, until the pumpkin is super soft when poked with a fork.

Scoop out pumpkin from skin.

The best part about this recipe? Your house will smell so good! A few weeks ago I made pumpkin and my husband randomly said: "I love when you bake pumpkin. It smells so amazing!".

Note: if you have extra pumpkin, you can freeze it. I suggest measuring it out in cup size portions so that way you know exactly how much if frozen.
Micah- I hope that you will try this recipe, I really don't think that you will be disappointed.

Becoming a Mom

Lately I have been getting asked questions like: "What is it like, being a mom?" "How are you adjusting to becoming a parent?" "Were you ready for all of the responsibility of raising a child?" "Do you find being a parent hard?" I usually answer with something like... "well I have five younger brothers and sisters so there really wasn't any surprises with having my own".... or "it is not always easy", and "we have our moments". And it is not always easy, and we do have our moments. There are many days that the dishes are left undone, the dirty clothing is piled a mile high, the trash is over flowing, and Matthan won't take a nap. Or maybe the clothing is all washed, but it sure isn't put away, and just when you thought you were seeing the light at the end of the long "laundry tunnel" Matthan has a blow out so large that it creates almost an entire load of wash all on its own.  I feel like my apartment is never in the condition that I would like it to be, and I don't think that either one of our vehicles have been cleaned out since Matthan was born. Things like dusting the living room take a back burner and dusting the master bedroom never even makes the list. But over all, if these people could look deep into my heart they would see that I absolutely love being a mom,  and though it is hard, and things don't always go as planned, there is nothing more rewarding to me then taking care of my son. Responsibility? Yes, but a blessing a privilege.