Now What Do I Do With Myself?

Here's an unexpected twist in my life:  Our dear friend Kendra is heading south today on business and offered to take Caleb along with her to see my brother Sheldon and his family.  Caleb was going to stay with them when I went to Indiana but didn't because of having surgery on his arm two days before I went.  So Kendra thought he might like to go along and play with his cousin Emily for a day.  Good idea, but we thought maybe Logan should go too, since he sometimes gets left behind too much.  Kendra and Darla said sure, so today at 1:00 we sent our big boys down the road.  How strange!  I said, "At least it's not for a week of camp yet!"  So now, my other two "littles" are sleeping and I need to decide how to use my free time!  (It's amazing how only having a toddler and a baby feels like a major vacation!!)

Should I:

- Spend an hour Putting Things Away (the toys are a mess and the horizontal surfaces need some serious help!)?

- Blog and post pictures about our trip to Indiana?

- Spend some blissful hours in the sunshine, digging in my flowerbeds getting them ready to plant?

- Fold a mountain of laundry?

- Pay bills and update the budget?

- Finish writing a letter I started last night?

- Re-arrange and organize Hannah's room (it's a total disaster and still has extra furniture in it from when we had a guest a month and a half ago)?

- Bake bread?

-Take a nap?

- Read a "Birds and Blooms" that I got at the library this morning?

-Get organized for my cooking day on Thursday?


So many options.  I guess I should quit rambling and go get busy.  I think a 15 minute Nap followed by Putting Things Away, and then Digging In The Dirt are the first things on my list.  Hopefully Blogging will make it on my list for tomorrow!  I'm pretty sure the laundry and bills are on the bottom of the list.  :-)  I'm outa here!

Just a Few Lines...

Hi everyone!  I really should be heading for bed, but...  Keith is working a night shift, so it's really easy to stay up too late.  I just want to say that the big trip happened and we all survived.  Hannah did pretty well and actually did great on the long trip home on Tuesday.  I didn't wean her yet - that's a longer story that I don't have time to write now.  She's nursing weird again like she did when she had an ear infection.  I took her to the Dr. yesterday and she couldn't see her one ear drum because of wax.  So now I'm trying to get rid of the wax.  Oh, and Josiah has pink-eye.  Now Hannah's asking for her late-night feeding, so I must run.  More news and pictures soon, I hope.

Caleb's Song

Here it is, finally. The title is "A Happy Song".

Rolling With The Punches

I guess we all know it in our heads at least that life often throws us unexpected curve-balls. But they still take us by surprise, somehow. Right? Well, here's our latest curve-ball. Caleb tripped and fell on Friday - and broke his arm. Yup, you read that right. He landed on his hand or arm and bent it back. It's a smallish break in the growth plate. Actually, the growth plate is separated from the bone a bit. (Oops, I hope this doesn't make Heather faint or throw up!) It's not as bad a break as the one he did to his other arm 4 years ago - but it still needed pins put in so that it for sure heals right. So... Yesterday afternoon Keith and Logan (oops, I mean Caleb!) headed for Thunder Bay. They admitted him right away when they got there and said the surgery would be this morning. Then this morning they said it would be this afternoon. So, he went in around 6:30. :-) I talked to Keith after and he said Caleb was in quite a bit of pain afterwards but they were going to discharge him as soon as he could eat some solids successfully. They will stay overnight with some friends and head home tomorrow.



I didn't think to take a picture of Caleb before they left, but here's a little bit of cuteness from when he did the same thing to his other arm 4 years ago.

So, of course in all of this craziness, Logan had two birthday parties to go to on Sat., I'm trying to get ready to go on a big trip, I'm getting a cold, and we had a potluck and talent show after church today. It's been sorta stressful, to say the least. But God is still good and He faithfully shows His love to me in little ways!

Then, the second big curve-ball this week - nursing (again!). Hannah's been doing really well since she's on the antibiotics and her ear isn't bothering her. And then, a few days after she started the medication and things were going well, I started noticing that my milk supply is quite low. What!?! I haven't had much problem with that for quite awhile. Hannah just started consistently sleeping through the night, so I thought maybe that was the problem. So, I've been getting up at about 5:30 to feed her. Ugh. But it's not really helping. So today I started taking a medication that has a side-effect of increased milk production. I took it for awhile when I was nursing Josiah. Unfortunately, it also has a side-effect of head-aches for me. I thought I could just tough that out and make it through the trip. After having a head-ache most of the afternoon, I'm not so sure. So, now I'm leaving on this trip in 36 hours. I guess I might be weaning her when I'm at Rachel's. That really wasn't what I wanted, but I'm sure God still knows what He's doing!!

In other un-related news:

- Logan can ride bike without training wheels. He's SO happy about that!

- after our big snowstorm almost two weeks ago, the snow is finally gone today - I think. But it’s still pretty chilly.

- I saw a mosquito the other night.

- I hung the laundry out on the line for the first time on Tuesday. That was fun!

- As of May 5, you can only take one 50 lb. suitcase on the airplane! Just one for me and Hannah! Yikes. But, I get to have a diaper bag in addition to my regular carry-on, since I have a baby. It’s gonna be a big diaper bag!

- I can't think of anything else and I MUST go to bed! Good-night.

Can You Relate?

We get a joke every day from Good Clean Funnies.   I just had to pass this one on to you!  I hope it brightens your day!  :-)

We had this great 10-year-old cat named Jack who just recently died.

Jack was a great cat, and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on the mat in our bathroom.

We have three kids, and at the time of this story, they were 4 years old, 3 years old, and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loved Chapstick. LOVED it. He kept asking to use my Chapstick and then would lose it. Finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my Chapstick and explained he could use it whenever he wanted to, but he needed to put it right back in the drawer after he finished.

That year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys were fighting over the toy in
the cereal box. I was trying to nurse my little one at the same time I was putting on my make-up. Everything was a mess, and everyone had long forgotten that this was a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally had the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I was looking for Eli. I searched everywhere and I finally went into the bathroom. There was Eli. He was applying my Chapstick very carefully to Jack's ... rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said, "Chapped." Now if
you have a cat, you know that he is right -- their little bottoms do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. The only question to ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth!?!

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your Chapstick on the cat's butt.

Received from Pastor Tim.

Popping My Buttons

Caleb and Logan were in Music For Young Children again this year.  A part of the program is that every child writes a piano composition that is then entered in a competition with all MYC students around the world.  Sunday night we had our end-of-year recital.  Of course, I was about as nervous as the boys when they got up to play, but they did very well.  And then, big surprise!  Pastor Brian announced that there were two finalists in the composition festival - one in Mrs. Diane's class and one in his.  Then he announced "Caleb Graber!".   What a shock!  I just about bawled.  He explained after that he was a finalist in Ontario for his class (Sunbeams II in case you're familiar with the program).  So, we were pretty excited and honored.  Today I got a call from our little local newspaper that they want a picture of Caleb and the other little girl to put in the paper.  Cool!  I had Caleb practice the song again so I could tape him playing it.  I was just going to post the video, but I'm having no success.  When I click the "add video" button, it does nothing...  huh.  Anyway, I just had to share our little story.

I'm So Glad She's Sick!!!

As many of you know, nursing my babies has been a struggle more often than not.  Things have been up and down with Hannah, but we were doing okay.  Well, for about two weeks now, she has been nursing terribly.  She got to the point where she would only nurse if I put her to sleep or almost to sleep first.  Or stood to nurse her (not terribly comfortable at her size!), or sometimes both.  It was getting really bad.  I cried, I prayed, I trusted God, I cried, I prayed, I stressed...

Last week at our small group, my friend who's a nurse suggested I take her to the Dr. to see if she has an ear infection.  I thought that was a pretty long shot since she had no other symptoms.  But, if this kept up, I was going to have to wean her, and I thought I might as well get her checked before I did that.  I didn't have time to take her in right away,  so on Friday I put olive oil in her ears - my standard treatment for earaches.  She nursed like a trooper that day and I was so excited.  But the next day she was back to her weird ways, but not quite as severely as before.  So, yesterday morning I braved the walk-in clinic and took her in.

Guess what!?!  She has an ear infection!  I was floored.  And so thankful!  There's actually something wrong that we can do something about!!  So, for the first time in my life, I'm putting my child on antibiotics for an ear infection.  She's already doing some better.  Thank you, Jesus!!!  I talked to a friend today who said to put onion juice in her ears.  Huh!  I might try that to for good measure.  

Just had to share my happiness with you all!  

Revenge

You wanna see what scissors can do to hair, I'll show you what scissors can do to hair!! Josiah really, really needed a haircut, so I finally did it tonight. And it was another reminder of one reason why I procrastinate on haircuts - it's a pain in the neck! :-) I think Josiah (like Caleb) looks better with longer hair, but at this stage in life, I'm gonna cut it short so I can do it as seldom as possible!

The back of my head isn't worthy of a photo, Sheldon - you can hardly see the damage. But here's the lock he whacked off. I'm trying to decide if I should throw it away, or keep it for my scrapbook. :-)

Hazards of Toddlerhood

Oh. My. Word.

I'm sitting at the computer reading a very interesting blog.  My two-year-old angel is standing on the chair behind me and of course I'm engrossed in my reading...  Suddenly I hear "crunch" and realize Little Mr. has just Chopped! My! Hair! with a big pair of scissors!!  This is a rough re-stating of the ensuing converstation.

Me:  Josiah!!!!!!!!!!  No!  No!  Oh my word!!  You cut my hair!

Josiah:  Fowwy (sorry) Mom.  Fowwy!  (Puts his arms around me and kisses the back of my head to make it better.

Me:  Oh my word!  Oh my...

Josiah:  Goodness!

Me:  (trying not to let him see me laughing and pulling a big wad of hair from the back of my head).  Oh. My. Word.  That's no no, Josiah.

Josiah:  Daddy fix it!

So, I haven't even left my chair yet to go survey the damage.  I don't know yet if I'm looking at a new hairstyle or creative hair-dos for the next 6 months.  I'll give you an update soon.

Edited to add:  I checked the damage and it's not too bad.  He took out a little chunk about 6 inches long.  I think someone could blend it in so it's not really noticeable (any volunteers for the hairdressing job?)