Introducing Friendly the Moth

We had a wonderful Easter surprise on the weekend! Remember our little caterpiller named Friendly?  Remember how he made himself a cocoon all the way back in September?  Well, that little cocoon sat in that jar in our window all over winter, and every time I looked at it I felt sad. It was taking an awful long time hatching (or whatever you call it) It must not have survived somehow. There must have been something wrong with the poor caterpiller.

  (Friendly circa: end of August 2014)

 

 (Friendly circa: beginning of September)

 I kept thinking that I needed to just throw that cocoon and dead leaves out into the compost or something since it was obviously not going to change. I thought it would happen in a few weeks, but the weeks kept going by. And the weeks turned into months. Winter came and then Spring came. And still that cocoon stared back at me in my kitchen window. It was sad.

Until I decided that this past weekend, I was just going to clean up that kitchen window (I may have a dead plant in it as well. I'm not good at keeping those alive, but in my defense, I was watering the bean plant. I don't know what happened! It was depressing for me since I was actually putting an effort out.)  I looked up at the jar and something white was staring back at me!

Our caterpiller was a moth!!!!!

I may have been more excited than the kids! I was so shocked!  I wasn't expecting it to actually emerge and change and still be alive! Hooray!!! We didn't somehow kill it!  (we suddenly remembered that moths hibernate over winter, so maybe that was why he didn't come out of the cocoon!)

We were trying to figure out the type of caterpiller it was back in August, and what it would turn into, and thought maybe an Edwards Wasp Moth. Well, I can say now that is not what it metamorphisized into. (is that even a word?)  But I can't tell you what type it is yet either.  But it is white and furry (and feels soft!) and so beautiful! It may be a Spilosoma virginica, the Virginia Tiger Moth. (which is called a Yellow Woollybear in it's caterpiller stage!)

From the underside, it actually resembles a snowy owl, to me!

 Now that it had "hatched" I was worried that it needed to eat, but I didn't know what that would be. Sugar water? So we thought the best thing for us to do would be to let it go. I took the jar outside and the moth climbed out and crawled around a bit, but didn't fly off. (It is technically still a newborn, so I guess that's to be expected; it did flutter though.)  Since it was a cool day, and moths tend to go out at night, I tucked the jar by our front door hidden behind some toys and near grass, where it would be protected and hopefully warm enough.

 When I checked the next morning, he wasn't there anymore, so I am hoping he flew off and found food and a new home.

So exciting!

cuzzie egg hunt

We had our Annual Cuzzie Egg Hunt at my mother-in-law's house over the weekend. I like calling our events with all of the cousins "Cuzzie events" (cuzzie is the name my SIL came up with!) but then I feel maybe a bit silly. After all, there are five in our family and only 1 in the other, so when we say "cuzzies", we really only mean plural in terms of us! I guess that's what happens when you only have one sibling. It will be interesting to see how many grandchildren I end up with! (hopefully lots!)

 

My mother-in-law likes to hide the eggs outside (which is what my Hunny grew up with. I grew up with them hidden inside. Maybe since it's usually snowy over Easter in Ontario, so you tend to do it indoors!) so the kids had fun searching her yard. The Older two had to search a bit harder, and higher, but we had a good laugh how in the end-- they were the ones having trouble finding theirs! The Middles (B and cousin Mia) found all theirs first. (the eggs were colour-coded to make it fair, with 14 altogether to search for)

 It was a lot of fun!

Yay for Easter Egg Hunts and beautiful weather (and rain that held off) and for family time!

never too late

(Ann Voskamp via A Holy Experience)

Good Friday

Darkness fell, 
      
        His friends scattered, 
            
                   hope seemed lost - 

                                      But heaven just started counting to three.

Thankful Thursday

Welcome back to Thankful Thursday, a feature started by Louise at Talk Nerdy to Me, where we look back over our week to remember our blessings.  It is so good to see the good things that have happened, especially if you have had a particularly tough week. Being grateful is good for the soul. Here are just a few things that I am thankful for...

1. Family dinners

Most of my extended family got together for a Pre-Easter dinner at my parents' house this past weekend. I love family dinners!  I really do love it when we are all able to be together. (my brother and his family miss out by living far away)

It was a "pre-Easter" dinner since it's not Easter and we won't be able to get together that weekend, as my sister is back to work in the NICU and on then.

2. sleepovers

We took advantage of our visit to my parents to put in one last Spring Break fun event and spent the night out in Chilliwack. It meant late nights and pulling out sleeping bags and pancake breakfast by Grandma! The kids didn't get to stay as long as they were hoping for Spring Break, because of all of our apointments and friend play-dates, but this was nice.
I am thankful that my parents let us come stay and that the kids love to spend time with them too. I am thankful for family!

3. kind brothers

Rhys slipped on the stairs and was crying, so his brothers piled pillows and blankets on the chair he was on for comfort and made him laugh! It was such a tender moment. I am proud of my boys!

4. April Fool's Day Sillies

Abi has been having fun finding tons of ideas for April Fool's Day this year. We don't usually do pranks on eachother...I didn't grow up with them. It's my Mom's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!!!) and we are a sensitive family and I can sometimes take things too seriously. (I'm not always a buzz kill; I just tend to sometimes think pranks can be meanspririted. And, I do NOT like being embarrassed.)

Abi decided to have fun with her classmates and bring in an old bottle of syrup filled with Pepsi for her drink!

5. Bubble Beards

The first thing she has to do when she gets into the bathtub is put on a bubble beard!

I am thankful for her silliness.

6. Kindness of Friends

I was chatting with a friend about our upcoming shopping excursions: we both needed to head out eventually to buy dresses for our daughters for school events. My friend's girl has a Spring Formal coming up (gr 10), and my girl has her grade eight grad! Eek!  The grade eight grad isn't formal or as huge as our grade twelve Grad (and those aren't as huge here as they are in the USA, although I hear they are starting to become big prom deals. Ugh!), thankfully, but she will be expected to wear a dress! And for some reason, that gets her all nervous! Abi is convinced she "doesn't like dresses", which is silly since she wears some every now and then already. But I guess sundresses are different than a dressy-dress!  Long story short, my friend offered an old dress of her daughter's to try on, Abi fell in love with it and it was given to us for free! yay!  So exciting! Hopefully, my mother-in-law, who has extensive sewing talent, will be able to take it in a bit. All we will need to do is find the proper shoes and we're set! Hooray!  What a blessing!  

Thank-you Lori and Kwynn!

7.  BFF Dinner Date

I got together with my two best friends again to celebrate one of our birthdays and, of course, forgot to take a picture!  I'm not very good at this! We're not really big selfie/photo people, so I never think to mention it.  But we did enjoy our dinner and our talk.  It is our goal to get together once a month. That doesn't sound like a lot, but sometime finding time that works for all of us isn't easy, and we tend to get used to our own lives at home without making an effort to get out with friends, so this is a good step. Maybe we can move up to twice a month eventually! :)

I am thankful for friendships that last through the years and shared lives and for good conversations.

8. New doctors 

We saw our new pediatrician and finally feel that we are making progress! I will post very soon on that visit; I have to process it all and put it into words. I am so thankful that this doctor has some ways that he can help. I am thankful for hope again. 

9. Short week

We just came off of our two-week Spring Break, and we're jumping into a Long Weekend now, so it seems like it may have been poorly planned, but I am so happy to have a shorter week. The kids haven't adjusted to early mornings again yet, so it's been a lot of late nights (to our frustration; we're trying to get the kids to bed on time, but they will not settle!) so some sleeping in will be nice!

10.  Mom

It was my Mom's birthday this week. I am so thankful for her. God has blessed me so much by placing her as my Mom.  She is patient, kind, compassionate, caring, loving, gentle, wise...all of those Fruits of the Spirit that I am trying to grasp! I am so thankful that we still have time to spend with her, that God has granted her this many years; we are praying for many more! I am thankful that I have so much to learn from her still and that she is willing to guide me along with advice. 

This was my week in a nutshell. I have so many things to be thankful for. How about you? What are you thankful for?

My bra tried to kill me

My day started out as most mornings go. I begrudgingly got up to the alarm and I wake the kids; I help get breakfast for the boys and encourage the Olders to eat while they can. I remind them to pack their lunches in their backpacks and help search for missing shoes and then I send them on their way to school. After an hour (sometimes more), and definitely after a tea, I finally get around to getting dressed. It was as I was changing into my shirt and my bra that the pain arrived.

I love my new bra (and my Hunny who bought me a whole bunch of expensive under-things. I haven't spent that much money on these things in years--the joys of being a mom!) I love how it fits and makes me feel.  However, these feelings of typical comfort and sexiness was not to be today. Instead, my chest felt compressed, as if in a vice. Instead, it felt tight and bound.

Pain started in my sternum and I felt breathless within minutes of putting on that new and beautiful bra. So much so that I had to take it off.  I'd like to say that the pain left soon after, but that was only wishful thinking. The pain moved up my sternum and radiated to both sides of my chest, with a crushing grip. It felt as though I was in an incredibly tight bear hug.

I am thankful that I have a diagnosis of Tietze Syndrome and can see the symptoms and know how to deal with them, although I've never had my bra bring on a flare up. That sucked.

Actually, I disagree with the doctor on the Tietze diagnosis and feel it is more likely Costochondritis.  Tietze is painful inflamation of the ribs and cartilage in the upper chest, often effecting the second and third ribs, causing swelling. Costo is painful inflamation of the joints between the cartilages that joins the ribs. The pain can be felt all over the chest and into the shoulders, and is "sharp and stabbing in nature." (hmm...that sounds familiar)

And, yes, that picture (which I got off of a Costo support group on FB) really IS what it feels like.  Whenever I get a flare up, I often wish I could rip open my chest! It hurts. It hurts to move, and to breathe. It generally really really sucks.

Hopefully this pain will not last long. That would be nice.

I don't have a diagnosis of FM, but I did have a Rheumatologist tell me years ago (when I was suffering with a painful back) that I "most likely" have it, but it's too early to tell for sure. I'm not too sure if I do or do not, but I do have many of the trigger points, just not all. I'm not too worried about it, since, well, I have other health mysteries to figure out! But I wanted to add the picture above to show you the symptoms of Costo.

*just to clarify, costo and tietze are incredibly similar. A lot of doctors still think they are the same. But in Tietze, you have swelling along with the cartilege pain. You don't have that with Costo. I am still trying to see if there are other symptoms and if I do actually have swelling. (I haven't noticed yet)

The nice thing about both is that doctors (and the internet) wants you to believe that it only lasts for a few weeks. Okay, that's only nice if it were true. I think that it can be true, depending on what caused it. If you were given a diagnosis of it after a sports injury, then yes, there is a chance you can recover completely just fine. However, most of us with this, have it due to an autoimmune issue. (which is why many will also have other health concerns, such as FM or even Hypothyroidism, like me.) But the other other nice thing is that the severe pain comes and goes. You can have a flare up (like me), and you will be in a lot of chest pain, but it will eventually settle for a bit. But it will come back. But at least you have that break for a bit.

I'm waiting for that break again. It's been three days now.

Palm Sunday

Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna!

I love Palm Sunday. I love the idea of Jesus riding into Jeruselam on a donkey and the people waving palm branches and putting out cloths for Him to cross over. I love that for the moment, He was praised and rejoiced and worshipped as He should be. Palm Sunday recognized Him as Saviour.

Yet, how much changed in just five days...

But today, we celebrate Him.

Hosanna!