I'm back on my blog

I'm back, with no good excuse for my absence. Life with six kids, you know?

Bits and pieces from the last two weeks:

*My friends whose newborn was in the NICU were able to take him home after eleven days in the hospital. He initially came home on oxygen, but was given a clean bill of health from his pediatrician a few days ago and is now off of all the tubes and wires and doing well.

*The women's study group I've been a part of over the last school year completed our time together studying Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. What a great book! I'm glad we took as long as we did in studying it, because I needed a lot of time to mull over the various disciplines highlighted in each chapter, as well as work on incorporating some of them into my life. Highly recommended!

*Last week we actually began school at 8:30am for three days running. This meant that we were done with school before lunch--absolutely the smoothest homeschooling days in my memory. My new goal for school: start the day early enough so that we can complete everything (with the possible exception of math) before lunch each day.

*This last weekend was dominated by our little guy getting another ear infection. Poor little smidge! He's just been miserable, wimpering and wanting nothing but to be held by Mommy continually. Babies are so pathetic when they're sick. He just couldn't understand why the world had suddenly become such an awful place, when up until now the worst thing he's had to deal with was the occasional bad diaper or bad bout of gas.

*Yesterday afternoon the little guy started feeling better. After grilling brats and dogs for dinner, we took the kids to the drive-in theater. We had a ball, although The Iron Man was wayyyyy too intense in parts for our kids--they spent a fair portion of the movie covering their eyes with their hands. Even comic-book style violence isn't that great for the littles, and there was a lot of it. Lots of fun, too, though. Made for a verrrrrryyyyyyy late night, since the movie itself didn't begin until 9:00.

*Last night being such a late night and me being pretty sleep deprived because of the little guy's ear infection night-time fussiness, we ended up not doing school today. We did take an unexpected field trip to dh's workplace, though, to watch him work on a drill from a location accessible to the public--a rare opportunity. Got some great pictures, which I'll post on Facebook, and the kids were thrilled to see Daddy hard at work.

P.S. In trying to label this post, I've realized that I don't yet have a label for books or reading. How is this possible? I'm a bookaholic, and have been my entire life. I read less now than I did when I was unencumbered by short people, especially since they started growing taller and having opinions and wanting intelligent interaction and all that nonsense, but, good grief! How have I been blogging for, what three months, without mentioning all the books I've read? Some terrible kind of disconnect, I'm sure. I'll be amending that in the future, you can be certain.

I spoke too soon

The weather today was bizarre. First it was overcast, then it was cold and cloudy. Next came the wind, and there were some serious gusts that whistled through the windows I had left open from yesterday's beautiful, mild weather. Then came the rain, then snow, and then hail. Hail! and Snow! On tax day, for pity's sake!

My friend's new baby boy is in the NICU. My 8yo daughter, the baby and I went to go visit them in the hospital tonight, only to find that their room was empty because my friend and her dh were down in the NICU visiting their baby. When my friend did come back to her room we talked and prayed together.

I'm so grateful that none of my children have ever needed advanced medical care. Even when our preemie suprise twins were born, their lungs were fine and they were able to room in with me from the beginning. Aside from some difficulty maintaining their body temp, which we helped along by wrapping them in three receiving blankets each, they were remarkably unaffected by their early entry into the world.

Sobering, to see how quickly my plans and assumptions must be set aside.

Black Sunday

Fifteen years ago or so, a good friend of mine dubbed Palm Sunday "Black Sunday" because of the lousy run we'd had for a couple of years on that particular day.

Today was not on the same level as some of those truly terrible days, but it wasn't easy, either. Between the two littlest having rotten colds and dh needing to put in some overtime, we decided to skip church today. That always starts our week out wrong--the whole week just seems off kilter.

And we're in the midst of so many things right now, stressful and joyless, that I wonder sometimes if we're in a permanent state instead of a season.

To top it all off, it snowed again last night. Winter doesn't want to let go of us, this year.

Right now, I am focusing on the good things: I'm so grateful that my children are safe and, beyond a case of the sniffles, healthy. Dh's job is a blessing, an affirmation once again that God loves us and provides for our needs. I've been in closer contact with my extended family over the last couple of months, and once again I've been reminded of how blessed I am to be a part of my large, loud, grace-filled but snarky, and even sometimes cranky family.

As winter holds on I'm looking forward to next Sunday, and Easter, and the reason for my hope.

Teething

The little guy had a tooth break through last night. In the three and a half months since his birth he's proven to be an easy-going, mellow type of baby, so his current fussiness is very out of character. He may have a slight fever, but if it is a fever it's so mild that I haven't yet brought out the thermometer to verify his temp.

If it weren't for my slings, I would be completely stuck with a armful of baby. As it is, I've been able to keep him closely snuggled while still making lunch for the rest of the gang, get some work done on the computer, and even straighten up the fridge a bit. I've had to set aside some of my other plans for the day (assembling four lasagnas and two other casseroles, bagging up frozen veggies into individual meal sized portions, and folding several baskets worth of laundry.)