Ok. Update time.
FIL is still in the hospital. He's end of life, but not imminent. He was supposed to move to a care home, but the hospital messed up some paper work so now we're in month 4 of him being in the hospital and he's (not surprisingly) developed hospital delirium. They're still looking for a placement for him now, but spots are limited for his level of care. Because Hubby is POA and his dad has 4 brothers, he's the point of contact and is fielding so many opinions and things. He's spending most nights at the hospital to keep tabs on things and make sure his dad eats, and also behaves. His dad can be a bit testy, and a couple of the nurses have admitted to Hubby to giving FIL medications to 'calm' him (basically they sedate him so he doesn't cause them issues). Hubby's brought this up with the hospital and I think it's being looked into.
This leaves me at home with two very energetic kids most nights, and just absolutely worn out by the time Hubby gets home after bedtime routine. Needless to say, I've gone to the gym maybe 5 times since FIL has been in the hospital. My plan is to head there tonight, but I've realized that if I don't go in with an idea of what I'm going to do, I spend most of my time wandering, wondering what I should do. So I'm digging through the site right now to get plans for my workout tonight. I'm also going to start doing more stuff at my desk again because I've totally bagged off on that.
I've been doing some research and I've discovered that some of my weight loss issues may be connected to my late diagnosis Celiac Disease. Having been so sick for so long likely affected things like my metabolism and how my body stores nutrients. My body spent so many years grabbing whatever scraps of nutrients it could get that if I try to restrict calories it says "NO" and grabs everything it can. So for right now I'm going to try and focus on toning and strengthening. I just get in my head so much about dropping weight (partly due to MIL and other family comments) and since most of the people who dieted around me growing up would crash diet, my brain says "STOP EATING THAT'S THE ONLY WAY" but I know it's not sustainable or healthy, it's just very hard to fight the little niggling voice in my head.
As far as the kids go, they're doing quite well. Munchie had a much better school year, still got in trouble a bit, but not nearly as bad as last year. Grades wise she's doing amazing, most of her tests have come perfect or nearly perfect. We're making sure that we teach her studying skills (helping her practice for spelling tests, weekly memorization, math practice), even for skills that come easily to her. She's shown an interest in music, so we're starting her in piano lessons next year, her Aunt (my close cousin) is looking at getting both kids into dance/movement classes. Biggie is a month and a half to the end of daycare (HOW?!) and is starting Junior Kindergarten next year. In an assessment for kindergarten skills he was advanced on everything, mainly because he's desperate to catch up to his sister.
This summer we're doing a split schedule, MIL is taking the kids Mon, Tue, Fri, and I'm taking Wed, Thu. I'm hoping to do a bunch of day trips with the kids, even if it's just out to walking/hiking paths or the library. I'm also looking at setting up my electric keyboard to get Munchie at least familiar where notes are (she can pick out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star if you get her to Middle C, but I'd like her to be able to find it without help).
Size wise I've now been asked if the kids are twins a couple of time while out and about. Biggie is just so tall, but at his daycare there are a number of wee new kiddos starting, and he's very gentle with the little ones. We're working very hard with both kids about being gentle, but especially Biggie because of how tall he is. The good thing is that, because he's going to be one of the youngest in his class, the size difference shouldn't be as bad as if he was the oldest. Right now Munchie is one of the shortest in her class, but part of that was due to her being so sick last year and being underweight for a while. She's getting back up to low average weight and height, which is good.
Health wise, we're still trying to figure out the allergy thing with the kids. Munchie seems to be out growing her issues, this spring hasn't been bad at all for her. She had some blood testing done, and there was no evidence of auto-immune reaction to allergies and NO SIGN OF CELIAC!!!! That's a huge celebration. Biggie still wakes up looking like he has two black eyes, but once he gets his allergy meds he's better. The doctor is holding off on getting his blood testing done until he's a little older.
Also, before Munchie's first blood test we were getting her prepared by explaining what would happen, and at first she was terrified when we explained the needle would go into her elbow, because she thought we meant the bony side. Once whe showed her a video she was fine, and she went with MIL and had no tears or anything. Hooray for prepping kids for difficult things!
Work is going well, same old, same old. Nothing to report there. Just have to keep plugging along and getting things done.
from
Southern Ontario, Canada
and
I'm also starting House of Valkyries tomorrow! 
Pronouns: He/Him
