Family Journal

My counselor that I have been seeing has given me so many ideas that I have tried and I absolutely love them all.  He suggested that we start a family journal he suggested it before christmas but I forgot totally about it with the holidays and things so I finally got one out and it is so amazing.  He suggested that we set it out where ever we will see it constantly and to treat it like it is gold, he also said to make sure that everyone knows that anyone can write in it and read at anytime.  The kids have really grasped this concept and they are writing things about school, and RaKelle even opened up to me about some things that she never has before it is so awesome.  It has given all of us an opportunity to write stuff that we don't want to talk about and we can answer things on there too.  It will be an amazing thing to read when his time here on earth is over.

Another suggestion was to start some traditions with just the kids and I that we do every week, or month, or as often as needed that we can do when Jaren passes away and that they will look forward to every week, or month.  So we started to have sleepovers in my room RaKelle sleeps in there on Thursday nights since she doesn't have to go to school until later on Fridays, and Ashlyn sleeps in there on Friday nights, and Braxton sleeps in there on Saturday nights.  They love it, they look forward to it every week and they count down the days till they get to do it again, they like that everyone has to go to bed on their night but they get to stay up later with me and watch TV or a movie and then we go to bed. Our neighbor made them Daddy Quilts for Christmas out of Jaren's old clothes and they are so beautiful so they wrap up in them and they use them as covers at "our" sleepover!!  It is so neat to see how excited they get to sleep in my bed. 

We are still waiting on Jaren's wheelchair, and now he has to have a new insulin pump so we are getting all the paperwork done for that now so much fun for me (not), but in the end it will be worth it (I hope) I know he will not be able to learn a new pump so ALL of his care will be on my shoulders except testing his sugars since he can still do that, the new pump that we chose still uses the insets which is the tubing, so that will be nice too even though I have had to do that for awhile now because he forgets how to do it or he does it so different that the catheter gets bent and he doesn't get any insulin at all.  I know I will have to be more attentive to his diabetes but hopefully it won't be a huge adjustment for him because change does not sit with him. 

He has been going to Taylorsville senior center on Tuesdays with his friend Noel and they enjoy it.  My friend picks Jaren up on their way to the center and then I pick them up from the center and take them home it works out so nicely and it gives us some time to get things done without our little shadows following us wondering what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing.