A plague upon our house

This week has been brutal. One week ago, on Saturday, Abby threw up. That started 5 days of "stomach bug". When she was done, I had washed so much laundry and cleaned up so many spots on the carpet that my knuckles were bleeding (from being so dry). I was so relieved to be done with this round.

Much to my dismay, that very night, Silas threw up. The whole thing started again. It is Saturday and he is still sick. He actually laid on the couch all day today - my monkey boy was still.

Let me say for the record that I love my kids and am privileged to take care of them, especially when they are sick. Let me also say that I have cabin fever. I am actually excited to get back to work. I hope none of you have a plague upon your house!

It got cold...and I got a cold

We don't care that it is cold...we like to play outside!

I have been "off blog" for several weeks because I have been sick. It started with that strange feeling in the back of my throat and turned into three weeks of illness. For an entire week, I was without my voice. It was frustrating and exhausting. I got to the point where I had to clap at my children to get them to look at me so that I could whisper what I had to say. So miserable.

May I ask you to pray for someone tonight? My friends, Brian and Charisse Craft go to Shiloh Road Church and I work with Brian. Their youngest child, Ethan, is in 8th grade at ETCA and is in Pediatric ICU at Medical City tonight. This past week, Ethan got a fever and came down with what they thought was the flu. Testing revealed that he has a staph infection and is in septic shock. Becasue Ethan has had a pacemaker for most of his life, he was taken by helicopter to Dallas late Sunday night. His kidneys are not working very well and he is in alot of pain. If you would like to keep up with his progress, go to Caring Bridge.

Happy New Year

We wimped out on New Year's Eve once again. We didn't stay up until midnight, we didn't eat black eyed peas and we don't have any resolutions. All in all, though, we are really looking forward to a better year. 2008 was a long and stressful year...we are glad to be done with it.

Our family's first accomplishment of 2009 was getting Abby out of her crib and into a "big girl bed". We knew the time was coming but everyone (including Abby) was content for her to stay in the crib for as long as possible. On Christmas morning, however, Jeff found her standing at her door crying - she had fallen out. We left town that afternoon so the big move had to wait. Fortunately, it was relatively painless. The first night she cried about 30 minutes because she had the freedom to come out of her room but I kept putting her back in bed. Since then, she is perfectly content.

A preview of my next post...we spent Christmas day and the day after at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. Have you heard of this place - a resort with an indoor water park. I'm not much for advertising on my blog, but we had a blast. More next time...

The Coming

Every year I try to re-focus our family at Christmas time....every year I feel like I have failed. I want my kids to understand about advent and the way that Christ came, is coming and will come. All I can do at this point is say it over and over and hope it sticks at some point.

And then the loot and plunder are unleashed. Excessive sweets, excessive toys, excessive everything. What a crazy day!

Despite all the craziness, Christmas is great. Note to self, next year...more Jesus, less presents!

Promises Kept

The most wonderful thing in the world is a promise kept! This season of advent reminds me that God is the ultimate promise keeper. There is no promise made by God that has not been kept. I am so thankful that He kept the most important promise of all - to send His Son to save me and you.

I am also mindful that humanity is sinful and people do not always keep their promises. I know of two little boys who were told by their mother that she would see them for Christmas (after more than a year of absence)...but will now have to spend Christmas without her because of a broken promise. What is worse than the broken promise of a mother at Christmas?

In a world of sin and broken promises, I would like to make the following promises to my family:

to be more patient, to spend more time and less multi-tasking, to be less critical, to love more fully as the Father has called me to love.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Silas' lucky day

Today was Silas' lucky day! He started the morning at Nona's (my mom) house after a sleepover. The rest of us picked him up around 9:00 and we headed to Nacogdoches to see Nanne Sue (Jeff's mom). Jeff dug around in the attic and found some "old" Star Wars toys - Silas was totally excited. We came home after lunch and spent some time outside before the freezing weather arrived. We found a patch of clover and I began telling the kids about how some people believe that you find luck if you find a clover with 4 leaves. Within 30 seconds, Silas says "I found one". Amazing. To top off his lucky day, Jeff's 34 year old Lionel train set started running tonight. Jeff had bought some new tracks, done some work on the engine and it runs. Silas had so much fun running the train around and around...although, I wonder who had more fun?

I'm Alive!

My grandparents with Emma, Silas and Abby at Dinner Theatre

It's good to be back in bloggerland. I have been away during the final week of dinner theatre (and the week after). I have been absolutely exhausted and running at full speed for weeks. Once the show was finally over Sunday night and we cleaned up after ourselves, I arrived home at 10:30 p.m. only to be up at 6:30 a.m. ready for a full week of work and life. I was so glad to be done with dinner theatre but was completely overwhelmed by the mess that was my house, my kids, my laundry, my life.

Several afternoons of diligent cleaning, washing and organizing (and 5 glorious hours of Jaunita's time) have finally resulted in some order. Unfortunately, the exhaustion remains! I am overwhelmed by the prospect of two out-of-town trips and Christmas in the next 7 days. Is there any way to get the holidays to come to me? Isn't it a sufficient explanation that I have three small children, a job and am totally spent? I know...I'm just ranting!