April update

Spring has sprung and with it POLLEN! I can usually make it about two weeks when it begins to warm up and then allergies go through the roof! We are all sneezing and red eyed over here. We are winding down with school and the kids have spring fever. Kat is gearing up for her AP exam in two weeks. She took her ACT on the 10th and received notification of successfully making "National Merit Scholar's" first cut. Her life is spinning away from us far too quickly. Funny how I wanted her to "hurry up and grow up" because she drove me batty as a young one, but now I want to hold on and she is so ready to move up and on with her life. Thankfully I think we are still good friends and that she talks to me just about everything. Don't get me wrong, I'm still "the mom," but I'm a friend as well...kinda like the relationship I had with my mom as a teen...although at that time I never appreciated it and fought her a lot more than Kat fights me. She'll be 17 in August and hoping to graduate early in order to get on to college. We'll keep you posted on how that goes.
We are starting to understand Megan's learning disabilites farrrrrr toooo late! You'd think the amount of time that Megan has had in school, that someone, anyone who is more experienced with MANY children and MANY disabilities/backgrounds would have caught it. This is one child I feel a lot of guilt over. I cuddled and loved her so much when she was a baby and then she hit 2 and she changed and became the biggest challenge...yes, bigger than Kat. I honestly didn't know how to handle her and it left me a little numb after a bit. I know she CAN be successful, but I'm not sure she wants to. A few of my kids seem to lack the drive, motivation, the "umpf" to do schoolwork, chores, anything really. They'd much prefer to read, play the wii or on the computer. We'd started Dave Ramsey's kids program and they were doing so well until greed and envy kicked in and I had to stop it. We might restart it with some new ground rules as soon as I can stop single parenting!
Rebecca continues to be the artsy fartsy one in the family..always drawing, creating and now add to that cooking. I will have to spend some time with her preparing meals, not just cookies! Rebecca just turned 13 and has hormones now....wow three teen girls....not a happy place for about a week out of each month...maybe that is why Paul is working out of town so much these days?!
Stephen is bridging over to Boy Scouts in a month. Paul is so proud....he is living vicariously through his son and it is working well for both of them at this point. He really enjoys his friends and school and life is pretty good for him, even if he suffers from the "Harper Umpf."
Lauren's newest is that she is now on allergy shots. She is taking it in stride and is not nearly as stressed as she was when the allergist announced this was our next move. I'm glad we started before allergy season as it has had time to make a difference. Her skin is better and no more keeping her up at night itching...funny enough, her extremely dry chapped hands are gone. Makes me think that was allergy related as well. She is still in the studious student stage and loves to finish her work everyday. But the child is a horder and we find apple cores EVERYWHERE, empty boxes, etc. I've had her tested for anything that would explain the compulsive eating and skinny as a rail, but the dr. just told us that is just the way she is for now and there were no medical issues! Darn...can't fix it!
Kimberly has turned into a nightmare as far as being quiet, still or calm...she is now none of those things. Another Darn! I thought THIS ONE will be calm and easy for me...I haven't had one of those since Becca, although Stephen wasn't so bad....
Veronica is FINALLY sleeping through the night and is teething four teeth on top. So during the day she is whiny and wants to be held by only me. She has been trying to walk and is up to about five steps before sitting down, but the determination is so in her face that it is just a matter of time. She is still kinda pigeon toed, so that isn't helping either. She will be 10 months May 2!
Well, I've been up for an hour and I think the allergy meds kicked in so I can go back to sleep...sneezing and runny noses are no fun and impossible to sleep through! So this is it for the April update!