The Rest of Life

Although baby news has been the entire focus of this blog this week, in reality, life in all its fullness and diversity continues to flow on around me, leaving only brief moments of personal contemplation of the life growing within me.

Here is a recap of the week:

Monday:
~ a nice, normal day at home, enhanced by some fun homeschool time in the morning and the discovery of a few SNOWFLAKES floating by the window in the afternoon--the first for this season!

Tuesday:

~ when we awoke and looked out the window, we thought, "Could it be? Yes, it is! SNOW!!!" enough to nearly cover the roof of my parents' house at least...but not nearly enough to cover the grass...ah, well, it still counts as the first snow of the year, and still brought an extra dose of excitement to the boys as they dreamed about future snow adventures

~ up on the housetop: snow, snow, snow!

~ snow on the grass...

~...and on the garden and the neighbor's field...

~ and on the picnic table

~ later that morning, we had the privilege of picking up Amanda and her baby Nolan and going to the Sacra's home for tea...completely delightful!...since I didn't take my camera along, you'll have to click here to see photos on Emily's blog--who knows? you might even spot a little boy that I adore!

~ after we came home, I got Josiah and David set up for quiet playtime upstairs...after a while, their quiet time became very quiet, so I tiptoed up and this is what I found:

~ Josiah asleep in his bed with the adorable tip of his nose sticking out from under the covers

~ and David asleep on the guest room bed...that tea party sure wore them out! :)

Wednesday:

~ Jeff took Josiah and David to town to run their usual Wednesday errands, leaving me to enjoy the blessing of a napping baby and a quiet house

~ the only photo memory I have from this day is David, still bundled up from helping Jeff feed the animals, playing with our Fridge Phonics letters...and who is that behind him? little Tobin Bear, watching and holding, for the first time, the letters he could reach and absorbing all this fascinating information about what to do with these new things!

Thursday:

~ Josiah threw up on this day; and for the first time ever, I was gleeful about it... here's why...I awoke early that morning (around 3:30 AM) feeling very ill; and as I lay there contemplating the condition of my insides, I realized that I would soon lose my lunch, so to speak, so off to the bathroom I scurried...fortunately for me, throwing up is something that I have done very little of during our married years; in fact, I could probably count on both hands the times it has happened, and I think less than 10 times in more than 11 years is a pretty good record (especially considering the pregnancies that have been involved)...as I wearily lay in bed in the darkness and tried to assess how my stomach felt, I thought, "oh no, I sure hope this isn't morning sickness. oh, if this is, what am I going to do? how am I going to survive? how many weeks of this will I have to endure? oh, I can really understand now why some women don't ever want to get pregnant again. oh, God, I don't think I'm going to make it!"...a bit dramatic, I know; but that was how my mind was working in the early morning darkness...I was so relieved when Josiah threw up sometime after 6:00 that morning, and I realized that it wasn't morning sickness I was feeling, but an intestinal virus--hallelujah!...I can get over the flu a whole lot quicker than I can get over morning sickness :)...nevertheless, Thursday was a miserable day, made even worse by the fact that not only were Josiah and I afflicted, but also my dear mother...Jeff called my dad early that morning to see if Mom could come up and help me out, right after Dad emailed Jeff to ask if I could come down and stay with Mom!...in reality, neither Mom nor I could budge from our respective residences...to survive, I let Josiah and David watch lots of movies while I suffered along on the couch...once I had to throw up while all three boys were watching me; that was awful since, for me, the only thing that makes throwing up worse is having an audience...the best part of the day was having Jeff come home for a few hours in the afternoon to help us out and having him skip an evening meeting he was supposed to attend so that he could care for us...my hero! :)

Friday:

~ although still weak, I felt SO MUCH BETTER on this day; and I realized once again that sickness is beneficial for at least one thing: making me appreciate health!...how wonderful to be able to change Tobin's diaper on his changing table, rather than on the floor as I had the day before in case I passed out partway through!...how refreshing to be able to sit in a chair and feed him his cereal without immediately throwing up afterwards!...how fun to feel well enough to do a load of laundry!...how exciting to live life in a normal way!

~ because of the germs we might be carrying around, we skipped our homeschool co-op on this morning and did some of the school stuff we had neglected the day before...then, just for fun, I taught Josiah how to add larger numbers, including this one (which I couldn't even say in words if I tried because what comes after quadrillions anyway???):

1,693,517,882,618,777,396,541,812

+ 8,257,594,813,745,576,424,519,395

...he LOVED it! and really, it's so simple, once you know how to carry...he kept asking for more long problems like this because he was having so much fun

~ the picture of the day for Friday is this one of David holding a ladybug on his finger: a ladybug that he found, incidentally, on our kitchen table...hmmm, wonder how that got in the house?...David was so sad to put it outside since he really wanted to save it for suppertime to show Daddy...I assured him we could show Daddy the picture and then put the ladybug outside where it would be much happier (and would probably also freeze to death, but I neglected to mention that little fact to David dear!)

Today:

~ two special events: the first was an elegant ladies luncheon, Come to the Table, to which my friend Ceci invited me...the best part of that was seeing Twila Paris perform at the luncheon; I deeply admire her heart for worship...the other special part of today was a date with my love...Kate Sacra babysat the boys again (and David wept when she left), and Jeff and I had dinner at Dona Rosa's...a wonderful time of reconnecting with him!

I have several 30 Days Thankful to catch up on! Here we go...

Day 20 - This one is a no-brainer. I'm so thankful for Jeff's assistance during my sickness. His help with everything and cheerful attitude was a life-saver that day!

Day 21 - My Family Night was this evening, and I appreciate Jeff bringing home pizza for our supper--just what I was craving! Even more, I appreciate the kind words he wrote about me in the gratitude journal we use to record what we share about the honored person on Family Nights.

Day 22 - I know I've said this before, but I am just so thankful for this new tradition of date nights that we are establishing. They are one of the true delights of my life these days! One thing I am thinking of especially tonight after our date is that I love how I can talk with Jeff about anything--even hard stuff--and he helps to gently shift my perspective to a healthier one. I love how his advice is a guiding light for me; I would feel so blind without it.