On the Mend

That last post cracks me up!

I was so frustrated and SO mad. It was one of those weird days.

Then I spent Friday and Saturday sick in bed. It was sad. See?

very pathetic and pitiful.

But I did get to listen to almost the entire book of "Unbroken" and Nels was an amazing Mr. Mom on Saturday. That wonderful man washed and folded ALL the laundry! I should get sick more often.

In other news, some good things:

• We hung up Nels's hammock last night in the backyard. Hello, old friend! We haven't enjoyed one another's company for nearly two years. You were missed. Welcome to paradise!
• I love riding lawn mowers. - Unless I'm drugged on Benadryl. Then they lull me to sleep. A summer job discovery. Ever since, I lay off the drugs when I'm mowin'.
• I can see the floor in my van. The WHOLE floor. It's a miracle.
• Nels played catch with me yesterday. Makes me SO happy. and sweaty. I played varsity softball when I was a Freshman, then we moved to Bountiful when I was a Sophomore and I never tried out for the team because I was too intimidated. Another true story.
• Lilie has a great eye and is an excellent batter.
• Violet loves kickball! When Daddy played with the girls the other day, she was the only one he could keep interested. I think we're going to have to give it another go.
• Clara hates her snipped-off binkies and tells me off every time I give it to her. She, too, LOVES the riding lawn mower. She has become the tantrum queen. She is also a champion sleeper.
• Elsie needs a break from technology. :) The other day she was playing "Dinosaur Train" and after regaling me with "facts" like, "Mom, did you know that dinosaurs lived in outerspace?!" (I think there may have been a slight misunderstanding there) exclaimed, "I love information!" Trips to the non-fiction section of the library are forthcoming.
• Hazel and the hammock are going to clock a lot of hours in this summer. That girl loves to read. She's burned through almost the entire Percy Jackson series (along with many other books) in the last couple of months. 
• Three more weeks of school! - Then I'm toying with the idea of going AWOL for the entire month of June.

The Long-Awaited Slow Down

I'd like to begin this post with a huge thank you to all of you who have put up with the massive ups and downs that I've had this past year - and still love me anyway. :) These kind of cuckoo swings are unusual for me. Thanks for being supportive. I promise to stop being such a baby, put on my big-girl panties, and get on with life. :) Our lives are so very happy and full and I am incredibly happy here in Sandpoint. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed how unsettled our lives have been. So thanks.

Anyway. Enough of that.

I've realized that it's been quite a while since we just did a good-ol'-fashion update, so here we go.

First off - I really like our new house. It's got lots of room inside and out and we've been LOVING IT. Seriously, I don't even know what to do with all the storage in this house. It's awesome. There is a huge family room upstairs that I'm still trying to figure out how to use and a big living room on the main level that feels just like home.

Unpacking has been an excruciatingly slow process. I think I'm just a little burned out of doing it, but every time I make some progress, it feels like the windows of heaven are shining down on me and I skip all around. :) It's seriously ridiculous how happy it makes me.

The yard is amazing and I'm really looking forward to all the fun I'll have in it when there isn't so much to do inside. There are acres of fun little areas to play in and the most perfect white raspberry patch that needs cleaned up. There are horses in the property behind us and a rooster that crows constantly next door. Last week we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in the fire pit for dinner and then had a great time playing with the marshmallow guns I made for the girls - something like 3 years ago at a Super Saturday. :)

Since moving in, we've seen lots of deer and a bluejay (have you ever seen a REAL bluejay??? they're gorgeous!). The other night there was something or several big things in the trees to the side of our house, but it was too dark to know what it was. Makes me want to get a dog - but instead I think we're just going to get a new kitten. (hope it doesn't get eaten!) With the house, we've adopted the big, black cat that lives here, but I think today we might go find a new replacement for Gertie (who found a new home at my parents' house when we moved to Sandpoint).

We are all adjusting well to the new school year. Hazel and Lilie love their classes and Elsie is in preschool 2 days a week. She counts down every day until she can go again. It's so cute. I definitely don't feel that preschool is a necessary step for kids before they go to kindergarten, but the social time for Elsie has been really, really great. She just loves people SO much!

When we were at my parents house last month, one night my mom and dad had the young single adults in the ward they serve in come over to the house for a backyard pizza party. My parents have built a new outdoor pizza oven.) We made our pizzas and ate before "the singles" came over and then went inside as they started showing up. Elsie kept trying to sneak back outside. - I thought she just wanted to go back out to get another snow cone from Grandpa. - After I stopped her for about the 5th time, she scowled at me, stomped her feet, and just started crying because she "really needed to go out and meet the people!" She was so upset - not because of the treats - but because I wouldn't let her go out and meet all the new people who had shown up! :) She is such a funny little social butterfly. No matter where we go, she is constantly finding someone new to introduce herself to. Even at the pool, she will inevitably end up over by that couple that is sitting down from you on the steps making out (you know the ones - they're at every pool!). I'll take my eyes off her for 30 seconds and the next thing I know, she's down there telling them her life story and asking them their names. :)

So yeah. Hazel and Lilie are doing well. :) Lilie plays every day with lots of different kids, but - true to form - can only tell me about 3 names of the kids in her class. :) She just doesn't care that much about those kind of silly details, which I think is hilarious. Hazel knows everyone's name and can talk endlessly about who is nice and who follows the rules and who doesn't raise their hand. :) The differences between those two constantly amuses me.

Hazel's 9th birthday is this coming Sunday and for the first time in probably 5 years, we are going to have a birthday party with friends. (I don't like arranging parties.) She is super excited and we're keeping it VERY low key.

Violet is now 2 1/2 and we decided to finally potty train her last week. It lasted one day. I hate potty training. She is a joy to have around. A loud, silly, weird joy. :) She loves to be the family clown, is almost always happy, and is very concerned with whether the people around her are happy with her. She is still my most bashful child around strangers, but loves nursery.

Clara turned ONE last month - and I'm going to write up a post just for her. She is walking and jabbers a lot. She finally has TWO teeth and a couple days before her birthday, I set up her crib for the first time. :) I'd had her just sleeping in the port-a-crib in our walk-in closet in the other house. She has always been incredibly easy-going, but in the past month or so, she's decided to develop an opinion about things. She also will regularly tell-off anyone who gets in her way. She only says about four or five understandable words, but her tone makes the meaning of her jabbery rebuke clear as day. :)

Last week, Nels did something that I don't think he's been able to do more than once in the past 5 years. He took a whole week off of work. And not because he was sick, but because he had PTO to use up and he was able to actually do it. It was a miracle.

Violet and I had strep throat the week before and I was so worried that Nels was going to get it too and then be sick all week. Lucky for us, he avoided our germs. Unlucky for him, Sunday as he was helping the girls find their church shoes, somehow he hurt his back again and spent the next 4 days mostly lying on the floor on his back. {{{sigh}}} I say "mostly" because Monday he was feeling well enough to still make it to the Anthrax concert in Spokane with a friend. :) Ironically, the friend he went to the concert with is a chiropractor here in town. :) It was REALLY nice to have him around and Thursday he helped me make some serious headway in cleaning up the garage. He also took really good care of the girls while I was able to so a lot of cleaning and unpacking. I sure do love that guy!

Saturday Tracy, Tom, and Winston came to visit. It was REALLY great to see them. I think we'll be able to tempt them back more often. :) We took them down to the lake and the kids had a great time swimming --- even though we didn't have swimsuits with us. :) Who needs them anyway? My girls have no complaints about swimming in long sleeves and denim ruffle skirts. :)

As for me, things are going good. Other than the occasional mental breakdown, I'm actually really happy. Fall has rolled in full-force, complete with warm afternoons, cool nights, golden leaves, and the natural slowing down that always comes this time of year. The days are getting shorter and I find myself in a mad rush each evening to get everything done before the sun sets. Before I know it, the sun will be setting right after the kids get home from school. :) But until then, we are enjoying another beautiful season in Sandpoint. Last week we passed our One Year mark. It seems so strange how time marches on. In some ways it feels like just yesterday, but in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago. -- But I guess there are a lot of things in life that feel that way.

I'm finally starting to feel like we're getting into the rhythm of life again - with menus and baths and bedtimes. I'm baking bread again - if only I can figure out this new oven so I stop burning it. And I'm realizing (once again) that the more time I spend outside the better I cope with life. :)

Pics of our backyard.

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When Sharing Isn't Caring

You know, a little puke can always help put life's little dramas into perspective.

Or a lot of puke. Sometimes it takes a lot.

Started with Claraboo, spread to Vi-vee, then to Mama and Daddy, followed by Hayzizzle, then Elsmarie this morning, and LilieLoo this afternoon. 

Lots. Lots of puke.

Lilie is my favorite puker. She sits right next to you, panting puke breath right in your face about every 30 seconds. Either that or she's moaning tunes in the bathroom. She's . . . really something.

We had a wonderful time with the Chicks this last weekend at our annual reunion. I'm SO glad that the puking waited until it was over. - Well, for all of us except Clara. And by "over" I mean - on the drive home.

I got pulled over for speeding as we were driving through Sandpoint. That was awesome. But I did get out of the ticket by apologizing to the officer in advance should I up-chuck on his shiny shoes. The retching from the backseat, by Violet, didn't hurt either.

Fun times at the Chick house. 

February: all in one post

Tick, tock, tick, tock . . .

It's May.

Oh well, I'm going to give you a quick (not) little (not) overview of what February was for us . . . crazy.

As part of his job, four times a year, Nels will be traveling for about a week. Shooting video at the seasonal photo shoots that Coldwater has in various different locations. I'm not gonna lie, when Nels told me that he was heading to Miami, while I stayed in Idaho . . . in February . . . I was a teensy bit jealous. :) Especially when he'd send me pictures like the one above. {{sigh}} :)

Someday, Rachel. Someday.

Because Sandpoint is an hour and a half from the airport and because he had an early flight, Coldwater Creek put Nels up in a hotel in Spokane the night before he left for Florida. The kids LOVE staying in hotels and so we decided that we'd drive Daddy down and then stay the night with him.

I had grand plans for our day. Nels only worked half a day, so we were going to get the girls early from school and then go to the children's museum and explore downtown Spokane a little bit before we headed over to the hotel to swim for hours and hours before bedtime. I was at least as excited as the kids and couldn't wait to get out of our tiny apartment for two days.

Then right before Nels got home I decided to take ten minutes to myself getting ready in the bathroom with the door closed and Violet found the laundry detergent that I'd left within her reach and decided to pump Melaleuca's fabulously concentrated liquid laundry detergent into about thirty different spots up and down the hallway and all over her bedroom. {{sigh}}

So instead of having fun, we spent about four hours that afternoon cleaning carpet.

I was . . . um . . . mad.

Poor Nels. I bet his arms were extra, extra sore for the next few days afterward. But at least during, he kept a smile. :)

So in case you are ever in a similar predicament, with a similarly mischievous toddler, I'm going to give you a rundown on how to get laundry soap from carpet.

First, I dumped salt into all of the soapy spots, which really helped soak up some of it and keep it from spreading further before we could get to it.

After you vacuum the soapy salt up, then the real fun begins.

You pour hot-as-you-can-stand water into the soap spot, then you vacuum it up as fast as you can.

Then you pour more hot-as-you-can-stand water into the spot, then vacuum it up as fast as you can.

Then you repeat that about ten to twenty times, depending on how big or saturated the spot is.

You just keep sucking and sucking and sucking that spot until your arms fall off and no more soap comes up.

Then you cry a little bit and move on to the next, even bigger, spot.

It. Sucked. For Hours. Literally.

Anywho, we eventually did make it to the hotel that night. At around 7:45. We picked up some pizza on the way and let the kids swim until about 10. Not quite the night that we were hoping for, but we still had fun being together with Daddy before he abandoned us. :) And as angry as I was that Violet did what she did, I said several prayers of gratitude that she did it before Nels left for Miami and not after. :)

Besides, as big of a handful as she is, I think I'll at least keep her till she stops being cute. :)

We all survived the week that Nels was gone, without too many more swearing-at-the-kids moments.

A few days later, Hazel had a really fun folk-dance performance at school that Nels was able to attend with her.

She was really excited! :)

Within a couple of days of Nels getting home, I got an email from the lady processing our short sale at the mortgage company. She was letting me know that they'd come to the conclusion that our home in Idaho Falls needed to be listed as our "primary residence" in order for our short sale to move forward. Period.

I told her, "Great. As of today, it is our primary residence. My girls and I are just 'visiting' my husband here in Sandpoint."

She then got all nutsy on me about how our furniture needed to be there (DONE!) and she would need to send somebody by to inspect our house, "just to make sure" that we were really there.

I was completely annoyed, but just really, really ready to move things forward with selling our house. So I packed up the three younger girls and headed back to Idaho Falls for an indeterminate amount of time.

As much as I hate driving so far, the drive between Sandpoint and Idaho Falls . . . well maybe more like: between Sandpoint and Butte . . . is actually really lovely. Montana at dawn is stunning.

We made it to Idaho Falls, set up house and tried repeatedly to get a hold of someone to schedule a time for this unnamed "representative" to come over and "make sure" we were there. It was maddening.

In the end, after "Angi" had apparently checked the box saying that our I.F. home was our "primary residence", our file immediately got passed on to the next lady in the chain of command. I finally got in contact with this angelic woman a couple of days after driving down (again trying to get the name and number of this "mystical informer" who needed to come over to our house), as we spoke it became clear that the last lady I'd been working with knew absolutely nothing and the mysterious "person" who needed to stop by our house was actually just a third party who would probably just drive past our house (if anything) to make sure that it didn't look "abandoned". Which means that thanks to one person's incompetence, I drove all the way to Idaho Falls with three little children and stayed there for several days for no reason. Nice.

However, we made the most of the situation and were able to visit with a lot of friends and drove down to Utah to see my family - which was fabulous.

My sweet siblings all came up to my parent's house to see me and my girls on Sunday. I love my family. Love them. And miss them incredibly. We had a good time laughing at Genny's incredible dancing doggy. :)

Tuesday my mom went with me and the girls to IKEA and then to Gardener's Village in south Salt Lake, where Elsie and Violet had a grand time trying on a whole wall of scarves. It was a beautiful day and so nice to spend time with my Mommy.

One of my biggest original dilemmas about going to Idaho Falls had been that I wasn't sure I would be back to Sandpoint in time for Valentine's Day or Nels's birthday which is the following day. As it turned out, we didn't make it back for V-Day - which wasn't too big a deal - but Nels made it special for our girls at home by making them special heart pancakes and by "doing their hair really nice". :)

He's such a good dad.

We did make it home for his birthday the next day by driving from Idaho Falls to Bountiful Tuesday night and then packing up at 2:00 in the morning Wednesday and making it home to Sandpoint by about 10:00.

This is a picture of how Elsie "wasn't tired" on the trip back home. :) Violet didn't sleep at all the whole way, but Elsie and Clara slept most of the way home. They were all little troopers.

I'd had plans of making Nels a big yummy dinner and a cake that evening, but after driving all the way home the girls and I were completely pooped and not feeling real hot, so I promised Nels that we'd do it the next night - which he was completely fine with.

However, it seems that while we were in Utah, we'd contracted the plague and I spent the next several days sleeping on the couch or standing outside on our balcony with one or the other or both of our little babies while they tired to just breathe and cool off. Poor Violet and Clara both had raging fevers and congestion and hacking, hacking coughs. Elsie had pink eye and then Nels had pink eye. Then Nels and Hazel got the plague virus as well. It was horrible. In the end, right around the time that everyone else was starting to feel better (more than a week later - it was such a nasty bug!) I started to get sick. Because that's the way life goes.

We eventually DID celebrate Nels's birthday, sometime. I don't really remember when, it was all such a haze of tiredness, but I have pictures to prove that it actually happened. We're so glad he was born!

How could we not love him? He's just so awesome!

Happy Birthday!

TO

ME!!!

He's such a ham. No wonder our kids are weirdos. :) I'm so thankful for Nels. He makes me laugh daily and he's the best friend I could ever ask for.

Day 5 - high angle

You would think that a full week after contracting whatever bug it is that we caught, I'd have good news to report on our health. Unfortunately that is not the case. On top of Vi and Clara having this crap, Hazel and Nels have gotten it as well. And Elsie shared her pink eye with Nels. I guess that's what he gets for not washing his hands. :) just kidding. I feel really bad for him. He's miserable.

Lovely.

Isn't this week over yet???

To top it all off, last night I started feeling poorly. Not with this nasty respiratory crud, but my old, familiar, achy friend - Mastitis.

The result of too little sleep for the past three weeks.

Please. Please. Let us be better by Monday. I've got too much to do next week. And my kids really need to go back to school.

--------------

On that HIGH NOTE, I'm going to resume my sporadic photo posting with the HIGHlight of my day. At a HIGH ANGLE.

In an effort to fool myself into feeling well, I made bread today.

Hopefully that will keep my kiddos alive for a few days after I die.

now i guess i'll have to tell 'em, that i've got no cerebellum . . .

What do you do . . .

. . . when your four year old gets pink eye while you're on vacation?
      Well. You spend an hour in an Urgent Care with a cranky receptionist who is ticked that you came in five minutes before they close. Then you spend half an hour at Walgreen's for them to tell you that your prescription coverage isn't accepted at Walgreen's so you'll have to wait until the next morning to get it somewhere else.

no biggie. just sanitize everyone's hands till they are raw and dry - so that stupid infection doesn't spread to the one year old or the infant that you also have with you. no biggie.

. . . when your one year old develops a bit of a fever and a cough on the eight hour drive home?
      Well, you figure it's probably the Dramamine that you gave her that morning to avoid the puking that happened repeatedly on the drive down.

. . . when you finally make it home and your one year old is burning up and hacking up a lung?
      Well, you finally accept that she picked up a virus while at grandma and grandpa's house and spend the whole night up with her - giving her ibuprofen to bring the fever down and taking her out on the balcony for 15 minute periods to help her lungs relax in the cold night air. You sleep on the couch with her, praying that in so doing you will avoid getting your pink-eyed child also sick.

. . . when your 5 month old baby also develops a fever and cough the same night?
      Well. Then you accept that you will get NO sleep that night. You spend the entire night alternating between taking care of your one year old and getting her back to sleep, only to have your little baby start crying again because she's burning up/can't breathe/really hungry. You feed, medicate, spend some more time on the balcony with her. Finally get her back to a fitful sleep.

Repeat.

All night long. no biggie.

. . . when you've been gone for a week, missed Valentine's Day, and return home on your husband's 32nd birthday with two sick kids? When you're totally sleep deprived from getting up at 2:00 in the morning so as to make it home by lunch time and your husband was up all night working on some freelance video stuff?
      Well. Darn it. You don't end up making him a fancy dinner. You don't end up making him a cake. In fact, you don't even end up making out OR sleeping in the same bed with him.

Umm. biggie.

. . . when at the doctor's office the next morning both your babies are diagnosed with croup?
      Well. You just shoot me. That's what. Because you're going to spend the next three days doing the same thing over and over again. Your baby can't breathe. Your one year old WILL NOT take the steroid prescribed to help her breathe better.

Even after you sit on her.

Stubborn child.

You spend the entire day holding your crying, squirming, miserable infant, trying desperately to get the exhausted toddler to take a decent nap, but the half dose of steroids that you WERE able to gag down her throat has made her act as if she drank a pot of coffee and every time you get her to lay down next to you and just start getting drowsy, your infant wakes up crying after only being asleep for about half an hour because she can't breathe and is burning up again.

You just give up.

The house looks like it threw up, with bags from your trip, goldfish crackers, mac'n'cheese that your toddler threw on the floor. Groceries get left on the counter, because you are so exhausted that your mind turns to mush and you don't realize until after the kids are in bed for the night that you didn't get the sausage and 2 pounds of mozzarella into the refrigerator. You completely forgot to give your four year old the eye drops for her infection for the entire day. . .

. . . and to top it all off, by the end of the evening, your infant has also got a goopy eye.

Just in time for you to gear up for another night of fevers, crying, squirming, boogers, coughing, and sleeping on the couch.

I feel like I need a lobotomy.

guess I'll have to break the news, that I've got no mind to lose





if you've never listened to the Ramones, you should. i never would have guessed how often *as a parent* their lyrics are playing through my mind. :) just go ahead and try to tell me these phrases don't apply to you, too.


"I don't wanna be a pinhead no more."
"Nothin' to do, nowhere to go. I wanna be sedated."
"Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go . . . they're ready to go now."
"The kids are losing their minds, Blitzkrieg Bop."
"Beat on the brat. Beat on the brat. Beat on the brat, with a baseball bat." Okay. Just kidding. Not that one.
"You can't always get what you want."
"Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown . . ."  Alright. Those last two were actually the Rolling Stones.

And I'm digressing.

Mother's Day

Violet is sick. My poor little baby. Congested and coughing. Saturday Nels fell asleep earlier than I did and took Violet with him. Because I'm awesome, I decided to stay up longer and watch a few more episodes of 24. Around the time that I was ready to hit the sack, Nels brought her back down to me, saying that she seemed uncomfortable and was probably hungry. She also had a low-grade fever. After having to take Elsie to the hospital for a respiratory virus when she was a newborn, I get a {little} anxious about coughing babies. I was up with her until almost 5:00 making sure that she wasn't getting too hot and that she was still breathing okay.

I knew I wouldn't be taking her to church in the morning, so when the girls came into our room, hungry, at 8:00, I pulled myself from the depths enough to ask Nels to feed the girls. I vaguely remember him saying that he wasn't feeling good, but then he got out of bed and I once again succumbed to incoherency. 

Fifteen minutes later, Elsie was crawling on me, sticking her bony, little knees and elbows painfully into my bones while poking Violet's sleeping face and trying to make her clap. I sent her to go find her dad, but she immediately came back saying that Daddy was sleeping downstairs on the couch. I told her to go play with her sisters, but she refused. Resigned, I got out of bed. With Nels sick, I couldn't very well expect him to take care of Violet, (plus, he's not great at nursing) so I decided we'd be staying home from church. Besides, with three hours of noncontinuous sleep under my belt, I really wasn't up to getting ready and then wrestling with three little girls through Sacrament Meeting by myself. 

In a stupor, I entertained Elsie -- or rather kept her from "entertaining" Violet for about an hour, washed the day-old-stinking dishes, cleaned up the living room covered in Legos, blocks, play food, and dried up bread, changed Elsie's peed-on sheets, changed my puked-on sheets, and swept the floor. All the while, feeling mad about this stupid made-up holiday. Determining that in future years, we wouldn't be celebrating "Mother's Day." I decided that it was a retarded holiday, only serving to make me feel unsatisfied and disappointed when it turned out to be just another day. 

Who cares if Nels is sick?? I got three hours of sleep last night! I had a baby two months ago. I've been sick every other week for two months and haven't gotten a full night's rest in FOUR! I have a baby who I desperately love, but who wants be held almost non-stop. When I'm not feeling good, do I get to go sleep undisturbed in the dark basement? I . . . I . . . I . . . Me . . . Me . . . Me.

At that point, I decided that I didn't want to stay home having my self-proclaimed Pity Party, I'd like to go for a drive. Take the kids up in the mountains. So after lunch, I packed some apples and cheese sticks, loaded the girls in the van, and left Nels sleeping downstairs.

After an hour of "how much longer???" we arrived at Palisades Reservoir. We drove across the dam, checked out a campground, talked about landslides and boat trailers and ground squirrels, and finally ended up at the same spot we went to last Mother's Day. 

The water is much higher than last year, not leaving a lot of "beach" per se, but who needs sand anyway? Dirt and sticks are just as good. :) We ate our snack, rolled up their pants (or in Lilie's case, used my pocketknife to cut her pants into shorts :), and turned them loose.

See? Not much beach. :) The road here runs down to a much more sandy area, currently covered in water. 

They had a wonderful time together making "boats" out of driftwood and playing pirates and mermaids. Here Lilie is using her stick to dig diamonds (rocks) out of the dirt. :) I was sternly reprimanded for not bringing their shovels and swimsuits. :) Somehow or another, I didn't think 60 degrees and breezy was appropriate swimsuit weather. 

They were wet and happy. Lilie said that she wants to lived there. Hazel thanked me for teaching her about "stuff" like rockslides and hydropower. Elsie was happy that by the time we left, the water "wasn't cold anymore." Violet ate and then slept the whole time. After an hour and a half, I cleaned off their feet, stripped off their pants, and got them back in the van. On the way home, they said that it was a best day and that they were so happy. 

We got back home and while I set about making dinner for everyone, really talked to Nels for the first time all day. I apologized and repented for being such a stinker all day. He was still not feeling good. He's been under a lot of pressure at work (like always) - feeling frustrated with a demanding job that never seems to have an end in sight. I feel so bad for how short and snippy I was with him all day. He works so hard and is so good to us . . . to me. Why should one day of him being sick override all that he does for us each and every day?

If I have expectations that Mother's Day is supposed to be some glorious, work-free, praise-filled day, as often as not, I'll be disappointed. Instead I've realized that for me, Mother's Day needs to be a day that I get to be thankful to be a mother. A day that I can enjoy the service I give, rather than expect to be waited on. A day that I get to enjoy being a wife and being able to teach and to love these sweet little people. 

As the day finished out, I realized the three hours of sleep were catching up with me. Around the time that we finished family prayer, I felt the old familiar achy-ness that preempts my getting mastitis. I got some good solid sleep last night and have been gorging myself on Vitamin C. This morning, though not feeling tip-top, I'm not feeling any worse. 

I love being a mom. I love my kids. I'm so thankful to my sweet mother who I'm POSITIVE can sympathize with the lack of pampering that I felt today. She is such a good example to me of patient love and service. I hope that I can be just like her when I grow up.

Violet's Day in the Spotlight

Nels finished up this video of my little newborn the other day and I thought I'd share. I'm so thankful to have such a talented husband!



Violet Chick is Here from Nels Chick on Vimeo.


Isn't she just adorable?! I think so too. :)


Also, when Violet was about a week old, our friend, Megan, came over and took pictures of our new addition. They turned out really wonderful. You should check them out.


Violet's Newborn Pics


So Tuesday evening, I started feeling really weird. Icky. Then later that night, I knew I was developing mastitis. Why, oh, why??? I really thought I was in the clear this time around. I've gotten it with each of my girls, but with as good and hearty an eater as Violet is, I was sure that this time would be different. I have taken it really pretty easy the past three weeks. I've only gone to a store -- or even out of the house (barring routine doctor visits) - a handful of times and my house and family can certainly attest to the laid-back demeanor I've adopted since her birth. 


Nonetheless, I've been on antibiotics since yesterday morning and yet I'm still feeling pretty cruddy. Violet also doesn't seem to like my being ill very much and has seemed very uncomfortable today. I hope it's not the drugs making her feel poorly? Maybe she's just having a rough day? Truth to tell, Vi, so am I. I hope that's all it is. 


Hopefully tomorrow I'll be on the up and up. Cause let's face it. As much as I like trying to sleep between doses of Ibuprofen and watching Mythbusters, after watching three straight seasons, I'm done. :)