from the other day...
love - "mommy, did you know that guinea pigs hatch from eggs?"
me - "actually, guinea pigs don't hatch from eggs. they come out of their mommies tummies."
love - "mommy? i wish you could have a guinea pig in your tummy and it could pop out."
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
lo, how a rose e'er blooming
i am wrapping teacher gifts,
christmas music in the background.
little boy is at my feet, climbing, grabbing, into everything.
my patience is wearing thin.
and then a song - "lo, how a rose e'er blooming".
grief washes over me.
my dad loved that song.
a lump in my throat, and then tears,
as the boy climbs and grabs things off the table.
the boy he never got to meet.
three years later and it still hurts.
the ache grows and deepens as more days pass without him.
my dad, safe with Jesus.
us here, missing him.
christmas music in the background.
little boy is at my feet, climbing, grabbing, into everything.
my patience is wearing thin.
and then a song - "lo, how a rose e'er blooming".
grief washes over me.
my dad loved that song.
a lump in my throat, and then tears,
as the boy climbs and grabs things off the table.
the boy he never got to meet.
three years later and it still hurts.
the ache grows and deepens as more days pass without him.
my dad, safe with Jesus.
us here, missing him.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
december so far
i've been really feeling like i can't keep up with life lately. it's been frustrating. and then today it hit me...in the past month i have taken jobot to six doctor appointments (the sixth one was this morning), spent a good part of two days in the ER with him, stayed at the hospital for two days, gone on a six day cross country road trip, and tried to keep up with laundry, housekeeping, parenting, and general tasks of caring for our family in the midst of all of it.
that realization made me feel a little better at least. there's been a lot going on.
but, i have managed to put up some christmas decorations, and even make some new ones, so at least there's that.
that realization made me feel a little better at least. there's been a lot going on.
but, i have managed to put up some christmas decorations, and even make some new ones, so at least there's that.
the little houses are made of paper. last year, i got a little kit to make them on clearance after christmas. i stashed it with our christmas decorations and forgot all about it. what a fun surprise to find! putting them together and decorating them has been an enjoyable little project. also, i really like having a mantle.
our tree has been toppled over three times and counting. we started with several unbreakable ornaments on the tree. well...several of the "unbreakable" ornaments have been broken (including charlie brown, who was unfortunately beheaded by our little one year old), and ornaments were being removed by little hands faster than they could be put back on, scattered all over the house, and stepped on...so we are going with a mostly ornamentless tree this year. there are a few (tacky) plastic ornaments up at the top of the tree. the christmas tree is not a battle i am willing to have with the kids...so we make due with our little three-foot artificial one for now and they touch it and play with it all they want.
we even already had a christmas themed family movie night with pizza in the living room.
and we have been enjoying our christmas present to ourselves - a portable fire pit! we have wanted one for years and found a great black friday sale on one (although we bought it on monday, and i think it's the only thing i have ever bought on a black friday sale...i am not a fan of that shopping day). we tried it out the other night and it was so much fun! a little chaotic with the kiddos, but they enjoyed it, the weather was perfect, and our neighbor even came over and sat around the fire with us for a bit. looking forward to more fun times with the fire!
oh, and we also put a few christmas lights on our house...how could we not with such a cute little house to decorate?
love had her first french braid. brought me back to the days of braiding my american girl doll's hair...except the doll sat still, love did not.
there were about ten fun minutes when love and i crafted together post rest time the other day. it didn't last long, but it gave me a glimpse of future times of creating together.
there has been lots of dress up these days (two little princesses around here)!
and then there was yesterday when we were playing dress up. a few minutes after the fedex delivery guy left i realized that i had answered the door with this antenna hat on my head. ha!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
mostly about jobot being sick...because he's been sick a lot
i haven't been here for awhile. life has been busy and full.
there was a visit from my mom, complete with a fun overnight trip to the charlotte, nc area.
then a day trip at the north carolina zoo where we met up with my college friend, natalia and her lovely family (hi natalia!). we hadn't seen each other in years and had never met each others' husbands or children. it was an enjoyable day of catching up, reconnecting, and picking up right where we left off.
then jeremy's dad arrived for a visit. we did a two-night overnight to atlanta, ga and had a great time. he stayed through halloween.
and then there were the last two weeks, where jobot made his second and third trips to the emergency room and was finally admitted to the hospital for two nights. it was a mini-crisis in our lives, one that we are thankful to have in the past now.
it all started a little over two weeks ago. jeremy was working all night, so i was home alone with the kids. jobot had been dealing with a mild cold all week, but that night he woke in the middle of the night (a rare occurrence for him) and was wheezing and breathing fast. i sat with him for awhile and he finally went back to sleep for about an hour, but was up for the day at 5:30. he was feeling uncomfortable and walking around the house crying...very much not like himself. i was concerned because he was using accessory muscles to breathe and retracting (sometimes it comes in handy to be an RN and a mom). i tried calling our doctor's office when they opened for weekend hours, but since we were new patients and had not yet been in to see a doctor, they couldn't do anything to help on the weekend.
we picked jeremy up when he was done working in the morning and headed to the ER. turns out our little man had RSV and an ear infection. five hours, a few breathing treatments, an inhaler, and a prescription for antibiotics later we were back home with a much happier baby.
we headed to our doctor's office on thursday for a follow-up. it was our first time there and our new pediatrician wasn't available, so we saw someone else. he said that everything looked good and jobot was having a good recovery.
then came sunday night. jobot was restless and woke up repeatedly. on monday morning i noticed that he had a few spots on his legs, but there weren't very many and i wasn't sure if it was a rash or bug bites. he played happily all morning. around noon he developed a fever of 101.5 and became very lethargic. i changed his diaper and realized that he definitely had a rash. he just wanted to be held and i actually put him in the baby carrier (he still fits!) while i got lunch ready. he fell asleep. i called our doctor's office and left a message on the nurse triage line. two hours later i still had not heard back from the doctor's office (!), so i called the front desk and let them know i was still waiting for a return call. they said a nurse would call me back shortly. jobot was napping on me and just wanted to be held and had a fever of 103. an hour later i finally spoke with a nurse who said that she needed to talk to the doctor and would call me back after she did so. an hour later (this is FOUR hours after my initial call) she called me back to say that the doctor would like to see jobot, but it would be fine to wait until tomorrow and that i would have to call when they opened in the morning to get an appointment time. i was not happy.
after we picked jeremy up at work we stopped at the store to get some more baby tylenol. i was feeling so badly for jobot that i bought him a little toy ambulance that lights up and makes several different noises just to cheer him up. and of course, love had to get a little toy too...she chose a little excavator that lights up and makes noises. this is totally not normal...me buying the kids toys on a whim! much less, toys that make noise and light up!?! jeremy laughed at me, and now i can laugh at myself. i was so desperate to see some smiles from the little guy. (it worked too, by the way).
monday night jobot seemed very uncomfortable and not like himself and the rash had gotten worse. this did not just seem like a normal rash and jeremy and i were both feeling anxious about waiting until the next day to see a doctor. finally, we decided to just take him in to the ER to at least ease our minds. i took him in. our hospital has a special children's ER and it was packed with people...including several kids who were vomiting in the waiting room. ew. once the vomiting began i was seriously debating just leaving, but then jobot's name was called and we got out of the waiting room.
we finally saw a doctor who said that he didn't exactly know what was going on but it was a skin rash and could possibly be a reaction to the antibiotics jobot was on for his ear infection. i doubted that, but we stopped the anitbiotics (he only had one day left anyway).
jobot was up on and off all night. he was so uncomfortable and irritable. we both felt so bad for him, but we were also exhausted. i called our doctor's office on tuesday morning and got an appointment for 2 pm. it felt like forever away! he wouldn't eat or drink and was walking around pointing at his mouth and crying. i finally looked in his mouth and saw that the rash was in his mouth and throat.
finally the appointment came and we got in to see our new pediatrician. at this point, i wasn't having the best feelings towards our pediatrician's office after waiting so long for a call back on monday. i was eager to meet our pediatrician so that i could decide if we wanted to stay with that practice or go somewhere else.
she walked in the room and i knew immediately that i liked her. she took one look at jobot and became very concerned. she said that she thought he had something called "eczema herpeticum"...a rare and severe skin infection that people with eczema can get. she said she wanted us to go right to a dermatologist to get a second opinion and that she would likely be putting jobot in the hospital for a day or two. at this point, i was relieved to have someone else taking this seriously because we knew that it wasn't just a simple rash. however, seeing how concerned she was made me feel anxious too!
jeremy's work day was almost over and i called him and asked if he could leave early to come with us. we picked him up and headed straight to the dermatologist. as soon as the dermatologist walked in, i got a bad feeling. she had quite an attitude and acted as if we were the most annoying thing she had encountered that day. she glanced at jobot, didn't really listen to what we had to say, and announced that he had fever blisters and eczema. she started rattling off a list of things she was going to prescribe...diluted bleach baths (what?!?!), creams and ointments, etc... i tried to ask questions..."really? fever blisters from a fever of 103?" and "what are we supposed to do about the fact that he isn't eating or drinking?" dermatologist lady was dismissive and rude and finally...tactful but assertive and annoyed mama bear came out. "i'm sorry, but are we inconveniencing you? you seem like you are annoyed that we are here. this is our child you are talking about and all these things that you are prescribing are not what he needs. you are dismissing us. this is something serious and we are only here to find out if you think that he has what our pediatrician thinks he has." cue my voice rising. "and seriously...what are we supposed to do about him not eating and drinking?" it went on. i asked her to please call our pediatrician and let me speak to her. she left the room to call and then i cried.
she called our pediatrician and talked with her...yes, she agreed that he had eczema herpeticum. then i talked with our doctor who said that we needed to take jobot to the children's hospital where he would be admitted. we stopped at home to grab a few things and headed to the hospital. once we were at the hospital, we were so relieved to have jobot being cared for by professionals who knew what they were doing, so we felt less anxious.
they placed an IV (they did great, but it was still terrible to watch!) and started him on fluids and IV antiviral medication. they weren't 100% sure what he had and two different doctors took photos of his rash to send to their doctor friends to see what they thought he had. (in the end it turned out that he did have eczema herpeticum.) the floor he was on in the hospital was actually one that jeremy worked on over the summer, so he knew some of the staff.
our hospital stay went as well as could be expected and we are thankful for that. the children's hospital here is really nice and only two miles from our house. we were blessed with kind and attentive caregivers, and friends who brought us food and coffee and watched love while we were at the hospital. i stayed with jobot the whole time and jeremy and love spent time with us as well. jeremy was super husband and tried to keep up with things at home in the midst of everything else...doing laundry and caring for love. our kids missed each other so much, it was actually quite adorable. love cried when we told her that jobot was going to have to stay at the hospital. one of my favorite moments of all time was on wednesday afternoon when jeremy brought love to the hospital. i was pulling jobot around the halls in a wagon and love and jeremy turned the corner and the kids saw each other. both squealed with delight and yelled each other's names. love ran over to the wagon and they just looked at each other and giggled. they were SO happy to be reunited and it melted our hearts. at one point, love even announced that when jobot got to come home, she was going to let him play with all of her toys (that didn't happen, but it was a nice thought anyway - ha!).
i think that every single person who cared for jobot commented on what a cute little man he is and how cooperative he was. he was a great little patient - even leaving his IV in the entire time we were there! he was visited by a great dane and given a teddy bear and several other little gifts. i think we set a record for the number of pastors and chaplains who visited us in such a short stay - we counted 11 of them - a steady stream of chaplains (8 total - jeremy's coworkers), and 3 pastors from two different churches. a few of them even visited twice and our doctor joined us for a little prayer time one morning. we were well cared for and prayed for and are so thankful for such caring people, especially living in a new place. having that community around us made all of this so much less scary.
by wednesday morning jobot seemed to be feeling better and even ate a little. and by thursday morning we were happy to see that he was back to himself (though his rash still looked terrible!). we quickly learned that it is not easy to manage an active one year old who is clueless that he is attached to an IV pole. the doctor asked us if we like hospital food or if we wanted to head home that day - you can bet we jumped at the chance to get out of there! more than getting away from the hospital food, i was eager to sleep in my own bed without nurses waking me up, IVs beeping all night, and voices yelling "can i help you?" out of the speaker when i pushed the nurse call button.
we came home from the hospital on thursday evening and i was so exhausted i could hardly think straight. i hadn't felt that tired in the hospital, but once we were going home i got a pounding headache and was so, so tired. our house was a disaster until sometime yesterday, when i finally got things somewhat back in order.
on friday we followed up with our pediatrician who said everything looks great. we will go back to see her again in about a week. i am so thankful that she took this seriously, realized what it was, and got jobot the care he needed. it wasn't the ideal circumstances for meeting a new pediatrician, so i'm so thankful that we got a good one.
and of course, we are most thankful for jobot's recovery and his precious little self. we are thankful to God for putting him in our family and for bringing healing to his body. this illness was a good reminder that these children are not ours, but they belong to God.
to quote from the heidelberg catechism, which echoes our hope and prayer for their lives...
"they belong, body and soul, in life and death to their faithful savior Jesus Christ...he has fully paid for all their sins with his precious blood and has set them free from the tyranny of the devil. he watches over them in such a way that not a hair can fall from their head without the will of their Father in heaven. in fact, all things must work together for their salvation. because they belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures them of eternal life and makes them wholeheartedly willing and ready to live for Him."
that is our prayer for these precious children of ours.
we have much to be thankful for this thanksgiving!
there was a visit from my mom, complete with a fun overnight trip to the charlotte, nc area.
then a day trip at the north carolina zoo where we met up with my college friend, natalia and her lovely family (hi natalia!). we hadn't seen each other in years and had never met each others' husbands or children. it was an enjoyable day of catching up, reconnecting, and picking up right where we left off.
then jeremy's dad arrived for a visit. we did a two-night overnight to atlanta, ga and had a great time. he stayed through halloween.
and then there were the last two weeks, where jobot made his second and third trips to the emergency room and was finally admitted to the hospital for two nights. it was a mini-crisis in our lives, one that we are thankful to have in the past now.
it all started a little over two weeks ago. jeremy was working all night, so i was home alone with the kids. jobot had been dealing with a mild cold all week, but that night he woke in the middle of the night (a rare occurrence for him) and was wheezing and breathing fast. i sat with him for awhile and he finally went back to sleep for about an hour, but was up for the day at 5:30. he was feeling uncomfortable and walking around the house crying...very much not like himself. i was concerned because he was using accessory muscles to breathe and retracting (sometimes it comes in handy to be an RN and a mom). i tried calling our doctor's office when they opened for weekend hours, but since we were new patients and had not yet been in to see a doctor, they couldn't do anything to help on the weekend.
we picked jeremy up when he was done working in the morning and headed to the ER. turns out our little man had RSV and an ear infection. five hours, a few breathing treatments, an inhaler, and a prescription for antibiotics later we were back home with a much happier baby.
we headed to our doctor's office on thursday for a follow-up. it was our first time there and our new pediatrician wasn't available, so we saw someone else. he said that everything looked good and jobot was having a good recovery.
then came sunday night. jobot was restless and woke up repeatedly. on monday morning i noticed that he had a few spots on his legs, but there weren't very many and i wasn't sure if it was a rash or bug bites. he played happily all morning. around noon he developed a fever of 101.5 and became very lethargic. i changed his diaper and realized that he definitely had a rash. he just wanted to be held and i actually put him in the baby carrier (he still fits!) while i got lunch ready. he fell asleep. i called our doctor's office and left a message on the nurse triage line. two hours later i still had not heard back from the doctor's office (!), so i called the front desk and let them know i was still waiting for a return call. they said a nurse would call me back shortly. jobot was napping on me and just wanted to be held and had a fever of 103. an hour later i finally spoke with a nurse who said that she needed to talk to the doctor and would call me back after she did so. an hour later (this is FOUR hours after my initial call) she called me back to say that the doctor would like to see jobot, but it would be fine to wait until tomorrow and that i would have to call when they opened in the morning to get an appointment time. i was not happy.
after we picked jeremy up at work we stopped at the store to get some more baby tylenol. i was feeling so badly for jobot that i bought him a little toy ambulance that lights up and makes several different noises just to cheer him up. and of course, love had to get a little toy too...she chose a little excavator that lights up and makes noises. this is totally not normal...me buying the kids toys on a whim! much less, toys that make noise and light up!?! jeremy laughed at me, and now i can laugh at myself. i was so desperate to see some smiles from the little guy. (it worked too, by the way).
monday night jobot seemed very uncomfortable and not like himself and the rash had gotten worse. this did not just seem like a normal rash and jeremy and i were both feeling anxious about waiting until the next day to see a doctor. finally, we decided to just take him in to the ER to at least ease our minds. i took him in. our hospital has a special children's ER and it was packed with people...including several kids who were vomiting in the waiting room. ew. once the vomiting began i was seriously debating just leaving, but then jobot's name was called and we got out of the waiting room.
we finally saw a doctor who said that he didn't exactly know what was going on but it was a skin rash and could possibly be a reaction to the antibiotics jobot was on for his ear infection. i doubted that, but we stopped the anitbiotics (he only had one day left anyway).
jobot was up on and off all night. he was so uncomfortable and irritable. we both felt so bad for him, but we were also exhausted. i called our doctor's office on tuesday morning and got an appointment for 2 pm. it felt like forever away! he wouldn't eat or drink and was walking around pointing at his mouth and crying. i finally looked in his mouth and saw that the rash was in his mouth and throat.
finally the appointment came and we got in to see our new pediatrician. at this point, i wasn't having the best feelings towards our pediatrician's office after waiting so long for a call back on monday. i was eager to meet our pediatrician so that i could decide if we wanted to stay with that practice or go somewhere else.
she walked in the room and i knew immediately that i liked her. she took one look at jobot and became very concerned. she said that she thought he had something called "eczema herpeticum"...a rare and severe skin infection that people with eczema can get. she said she wanted us to go right to a dermatologist to get a second opinion and that she would likely be putting jobot in the hospital for a day or two. at this point, i was relieved to have someone else taking this seriously because we knew that it wasn't just a simple rash. however, seeing how concerned she was made me feel anxious too!
jeremy's work day was almost over and i called him and asked if he could leave early to come with us. we picked him up and headed straight to the dermatologist. as soon as the dermatologist walked in, i got a bad feeling. she had quite an attitude and acted as if we were the most annoying thing she had encountered that day. she glanced at jobot, didn't really listen to what we had to say, and announced that he had fever blisters and eczema. she started rattling off a list of things she was going to prescribe...diluted bleach baths (what?!?!), creams and ointments, etc... i tried to ask questions..."really? fever blisters from a fever of 103?" and "what are we supposed to do about the fact that he isn't eating or drinking?" dermatologist lady was dismissive and rude and finally...tactful but assertive and annoyed mama bear came out. "i'm sorry, but are we inconveniencing you? you seem like you are annoyed that we are here. this is our child you are talking about and all these things that you are prescribing are not what he needs. you are dismissing us. this is something serious and we are only here to find out if you think that he has what our pediatrician thinks he has." cue my voice rising. "and seriously...what are we supposed to do about him not eating and drinking?" it went on. i asked her to please call our pediatrician and let me speak to her. she left the room to call and then i cried.
she called our pediatrician and talked with her...yes, she agreed that he had eczema herpeticum. then i talked with our doctor who said that we needed to take jobot to the children's hospital where he would be admitted. we stopped at home to grab a few things and headed to the hospital. once we were at the hospital, we were so relieved to have jobot being cared for by professionals who knew what they were doing, so we felt less anxious.
they placed an IV (they did great, but it was still terrible to watch!) and started him on fluids and IV antiviral medication. they weren't 100% sure what he had and two different doctors took photos of his rash to send to their doctor friends to see what they thought he had. (in the end it turned out that he did have eczema herpeticum.) the floor he was on in the hospital was actually one that jeremy worked on over the summer, so he knew some of the staff.
our hospital stay went as well as could be expected and we are thankful for that. the children's hospital here is really nice and only two miles from our house. we were blessed with kind and attentive caregivers, and friends who brought us food and coffee and watched love while we were at the hospital. i stayed with jobot the whole time and jeremy and love spent time with us as well. jeremy was super husband and tried to keep up with things at home in the midst of everything else...doing laundry and caring for love. our kids missed each other so much, it was actually quite adorable. love cried when we told her that jobot was going to have to stay at the hospital. one of my favorite moments of all time was on wednesday afternoon when jeremy brought love to the hospital. i was pulling jobot around the halls in a wagon and love and jeremy turned the corner and the kids saw each other. both squealed with delight and yelled each other's names. love ran over to the wagon and they just looked at each other and giggled. they were SO happy to be reunited and it melted our hearts. at one point, love even announced that when jobot got to come home, she was going to let him play with all of her toys (that didn't happen, but it was a nice thought anyway - ha!).
i think that every single person who cared for jobot commented on what a cute little man he is and how cooperative he was. he was a great little patient - even leaving his IV in the entire time we were there! he was visited by a great dane and given a teddy bear and several other little gifts. i think we set a record for the number of pastors and chaplains who visited us in such a short stay - we counted 11 of them - a steady stream of chaplains (8 total - jeremy's coworkers), and 3 pastors from two different churches. a few of them even visited twice and our doctor joined us for a little prayer time one morning. we were well cared for and prayed for and are so thankful for such caring people, especially living in a new place. having that community around us made all of this so much less scary.
hurray - eating a popsicle!
by wednesday morning jobot seemed to be feeling better and even ate a little. and by thursday morning we were happy to see that he was back to himself (though his rash still looked terrible!). we quickly learned that it is not easy to manage an active one year old who is clueless that he is attached to an IV pole. the doctor asked us if we like hospital food or if we wanted to head home that day - you can bet we jumped at the chance to get out of there! more than getting away from the hospital food, i was eager to sleep in my own bed without nurses waking me up, IVs beeping all night, and voices yelling "can i help you?" out of the speaker when i pushed the nurse call button.
waiting to go home!
jobot's rash on thursday night after we came home from the hospital - yikes!
on friday we followed up with our pediatrician who said everything looks great. we will go back to see her again in about a week. i am so thankful that she took this seriously, realized what it was, and got jobot the care he needed. it wasn't the ideal circumstances for meeting a new pediatrician, so i'm so thankful that we got a good one.
and of course, we are most thankful for jobot's recovery and his precious little self. we are thankful to God for putting him in our family and for bringing healing to his body. this illness was a good reminder that these children are not ours, but they belong to God.
to quote from the heidelberg catechism, which echoes our hope and prayer for their lives...
"they belong, body and soul, in life and death to their faithful savior Jesus Christ...he has fully paid for all their sins with his precious blood and has set them free from the tyranny of the devil. he watches over them in such a way that not a hair can fall from their head without the will of their Father in heaven. in fact, all things must work together for their salvation. because they belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures them of eternal life and makes them wholeheartedly willing and ready to live for Him."
that is our prayer for these precious children of ours.
we have much to be thankful for this thanksgiving!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
lately
thanks to our front door, rainbows appear on the wall most afternoons.
this is very exciting to the kiddos.
a recent water balloon fight in the backyard.
jeremy's birthday!
saturday morning breakfast at the farmer's market.
another lowe's build and grow workshop. we made firetrucks this time.
our kids are the only ones i actually see wearing the goggles ("gobbles" according to love). it's hilarious - they love them.
two tired out kids after a busy morning. (this is a very rare sight!)
we are all about the glitter over here these days!
our house is pretty much covered in glitter.
"house people"
love turned three-and-a-half. we celebrated, because...why not?
painting! he usually ends up painting his face and hair and then needs a bath.
painting some paper bowls to make jellyfish.
and...1, 2, 3!
we are having some fall weather over here - that is, if you can call temps in the 70s and low 80s fall. ha! i guess it's more like summer in the midwest, but after a hot and steamy summer here, it feels like fall to us. i made our first pot of soup on sunday. we've been taking lots of walks (three yesterday!) and enjoying being outside more now that it's more bearable.
also, jobot has learned to climb on the kitchen chairs, couch, coffee table, and anything else that could possibly be climbed on. as a result, this whole parenting thing has just reached a whole new level of exhaustion!
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
smoothie mornings
we often have smoothies as part of breakfast in the morning. or we have them for an afternoon snack. it seems to be the only way to get green veggies in jobot these days.
(these photos aren't the best quality...our kitchen does not have much natural light, and it was still mostly dark outside anyway. most of the photos are blurry, but that captures how life feels at this stage! a lot of these days, especially ones that involve making something in the kitchen with a one and three year old, seem like a blur!)
the kids each get a little pile of kale (or sometimes spinach) and frozen berries to throw in the blender. sometimes we add a banana or other fruit.
next we pour in the kefir or yogurt and add some milk if we need a little more liquid. sometimes we throw in a few ice cubes, if we feel like it. maybe some honey or stevia.
then the kids take turns running the blender.
there is usually some fighting.
and someone often ends up crying.
and then we are done!
(these photos aren't the best quality...our kitchen does not have much natural light, and it was still mostly dark outside anyway. most of the photos are blurry, but that captures how life feels at this stage! a lot of these days, especially ones that involve making something in the kitchen with a one and three year old, seem like a blur!)
the kids each get a little pile of kale (or sometimes spinach) and frozen berries to throw in the blender. sometimes we add a banana or other fruit.
next we pour in the kefir or yogurt and add some milk if we need a little more liquid. sometimes we throw in a few ice cubes, if we feel like it. maybe some honey or stevia.
then the kids take turns running the blender.
there is usually some fighting.
and someone often ends up crying.
and then we are done!
Monday, September 23, 2013
day in the life {september 19, 2013}
5:00 am - i hear jobot coughing and crying a bit. i hope that he isn't up for the day and debate whether or not i should go in the room. he has been sick with a bad cold and has been coughing/fussing several times during the night which is very abnormal for him. i have been sleeping terribly all night. jeremy has been on call since yesterday at 8 am, so i am home alone. i always sleep badly without him. jobot fusses a bit more and then seems to fall back to sleep. hurray. i fall back to sleep too!
6:30 am - i am woken up by both kids. they both woke up at the same time and both are crying. i go to love's room first to get her up. she is crying, whining, and seems disoriented. she refuses to get out of bed. i start to leave her room and she decides that she will get up. she says she is cold, so i get her settled in the living room with a blanket. she clearly doesn't feel very well...yesterday afternoon she seemed to be coming down with jobot's cold. i go to jobot's room and get him up. he is coughing and still seems sick. love wants to watch strawberry shortcake, so i get out the laptop and put it on.
6:50 am - i change jobot's diaper and get him dressed. it's cool outside, so i put him in the one pair of pants we currently have in his size (we will have to work on that!). then i get myself dressed. i pour myself a cup of coffee and make a pot of breathe easy tea for the kids. i check in with jeremy. he said that he had a good night with no calls.
7:00 am - i sit down with my coffee, read my devotions, and check email and weather. i check the kids' temps. jobot is at 102, love is at 100. bummer.
7:20 am - i start getting breakfast ready. the kids have whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffins from trader joes, bananas, and tea. i have quiche and pumpkin muffins (made with almond flour) leftover from tuesday's dinner. i reheat my cup of coffee. love looks at my breakfast and announces that she doesn't like quiche and makes gagging noises. we talk about how that is not polite.
7:50 am - i ask love if she wants to get dressed, but she says that she wants to stay in her pajamas for a little while. she doesn't feel good, and we're not going anywhere, so that's fine with me. she settles back in to finish her strawberry shortcake episode.
8:00 am - i clean up breakfast and tidy the kitchen. i walk into the living room to see jobot holding a package of baby wipes and pulling them out one by one. thankfully, there were only six wipes left in the container. i pick up the wipes off the floor and put them in a ziploc - at least we can still use them that way.
8:15 am - i sit down to make a grocery list. i am supposed to go to BSF this morning, but can't because the kids are sick. i text my small group leader to let her know i won't be there. i'm bummed.
8:30 am - we read books.
8:50 am - there is lots of whining going on. love gets dressed.
9:00 am - we head outside for a walk. this is our usual routine when we are home in the morning. we love our morning walks, especially now that the mornings are cooler. we stop to say hello to charlie the cat. he used to run away from us, but now he always comes right over to greet us. he often sits in our front yard during the day.
9:30 am - home from our walk. the kids ride their bikes and cars in our carport. i text our generous friends who were planning on watching our kids for us tonight so we could have a date. because the kids are sick, we will reschedule. (another bummer!). our neighbor comes over to chat for a bit.
10:00 am - we go inside. love wants to do a project, so we get out the rubber stamps. i warm up some tea for myself (leftover from yesterday).
10:25 am - done with stamping. i wash the stamps (and think to myself that next time i will have love do that task. she would enjoy it.)
10:30 am - love is whiney and wants something else to do. jobot is chewing on one of love's shoes that he found (gross) and emptying the pantry. i get out more art supplies for love and she gets busy creating. she is at a stage right now where she is very into cutting, gluing, and making all kinds of creations. it is so fun to watch, but today it involves a lot of frustration and crying. when she is sick, she is very whiney and weepy.
10:50 am - jobot falls and splits his lip. i scoop him up and then realize that his lip is bleeding. thankfully it didn't bleed for long. i realize i have blood on my shirt, so i change and spray the shirt with oxiclean.
11:00 am - a glue stick fell on the floor so love is crying. jobot is crying too, though i don't know why.
11:03 am - i reheat my tea.
11:05 am - jobot seems bored, so i get the duplos out for him. we build stuff together while love works on her project in the kitchen.
11:20 am - i reheat my tea for the third time. love is melting down in the kitchen over her craft project not turning out how she wanted it. then the next minute she is excited about her project. jobot is trying to grab her stuff off the table, so that is making her mad too. whew.
11:25 am - i start lunch. annie's mac n cheese and clementines for the kids. they haven't been eating much since they don't feel well, so i want to give them something that i know that will like and eat. lunchmeat, celery with peanut butter, plain yogurt with vanilla and stevia, and canteloupe for me.
11:27 am - jobot walks into the wall. more tears.
11:35 am - i text jeremy. "the whining is going to drive my crazy! LONG day!"
11:40 am - i have a brief moment of losing my cool and bark that there has been enough whining and that i don't want to listen to it anymore. then i apologize. we sit down to eat.
12:00 pm - i clean up lunch.
12:15 pm - i recheck the kids temps. love is at 100.3 and jobot is still at 102. after i check his temperature, jobot snuggles in and i tickle his back. he sits there for about two minutes and then is ready to get down. i change jobot's diaper and put him down for a nap. it is early for him, he usually goes down between 1 and 1:30, but he is clearly tired and not feeling well. he looks relieved and closes his eyes when i lay him in bed.
12:25 pm - i get love settled in her room for her rest time. she seems really tired as well, but i am doubtful that she will sleep. she watches a movie on the ipad. i put a few things away, reheat my tea (again) and head out to sit on the porch and catch up on emails and blogs. i am glad that i did budget/bill paying last night so i can just relax a bit now. i feel tired. i upload photos from the camera and edit them. it is beautiful outside and feels so good to sit on the porch.
1:45 pm - love's movie is over and she is ready to get out of bed. no sleep for her today, even though i think her body really needs it. (since pretty much the day she turned two she has rarely taken a nap, but she still has rest time in the afternoon and she very occasionally falls asleep). she says she wants to do another "pwoject", so we get out the art supplies again and she works on her art at the kitchen table. i get some new batches of kefir going (water kefir and milk kefir).
2:20 pm - love is still engulfed in her project at the table. i sort the pile of art projects she has completed over the past couple of weeks and decide which pieces to keep. the rest go in the recycling bin. we have been going through paper quite quickly these last few weeks. i rearrange some things to make room in a kitchen cabinet for some art supplies. they were stored in our room, but we've been using them everyday, so i decided to just keep them in the kitchen.
2:45 pm - i am hungry so i eat some beef jerky. love has some beef jerky with veggie sticks for a snack. she is still busy at the table. i pick up the toys in the kitchen and living room.
2:55 pm - she has used up the glue stick! time for a new one from our supply drawer.
3:05 pm - she is done creating, so we clean up the craft stuff. she decides to play with model magic, so we get that out. i start folding some laundry. jobot wakes up as soon as i start folding.
3:15 pm - since both kids are up, we head to trader joe's. (this would usually be a stop in the morning on the way home from BSF since both places are close to each other and are far away from our house). since the kids are sick, i was planning on going this evening, but getting it done now will make the evening easier. the kids and i will have time to get groceries before we pick jeremy up at 4:30. then we can run home, drop the groceries off, and head to the health food store for dinner (a thursday night tradition). we were going to be out on our date tonight, but since that can't happen, at least we can go out to eat.
3:20 pm - jeremy calls and says that he is done working. (hurray - we haven't seen him in over 31 hours!). we have just driven by his work, so we turn around to go pick him up. our house is only two miles away, so we head back home so he can change and so we can get a cooler, since we will just go to trader joe's and then the health food store to eat. while we wait in the van for jeremy to change, love writes on her magna doodle. she asks me what letters she wrote and i tell her she wrote an "n". i am amazed when she erases it, writes another "n", draws a picture of a nut, and says, "n is for nut!"
4:05 pm - we set out for trader joe's once again. i am a bit disgruntled that my afternoon has gotten switched around so much. really...i am out of sorts because the kids are sick and the day has looked completely different than it was supposed to look. i explain my frustrations to jeremy and then give myself an attitude pep talk and get over it. jeremy rubbing my neck on the way to trader joe's helped too.
5:00 pm - we leave trader joe's and head to our local health food store for dinner. thursday night is family night where kids can eat free with one adult entree (jeremy and i just share and there is plenty of food for us). it's a great deal - our entire family can eat a healthy dinner out for less than $10! it is so nice to have a night off from cooking and i find that i really look forward to this night every week when we go (it's especially nice after jeremy has been at work for so long and all of us are tired). i am really excited because we see a swing cap bottle of soda, with a bottle that we could reuse. i have been wanting a bottle like that to try making carbonated kefir water, so we get one. jeremy drinks the soda (root beer) with his dinner.
6:10 pm - we are done eating. usually there is a guy who makes balloon animals for the kids, but he is not here tonight and love is disappointed. we leave the health food store and head home. on the way home, we pass a school sign that says, "jeremy day". we laugh - who knew it was jeremy day? ha! we take a photo of jeremy with the sign.
6:30 pm - we pull into our driveway. our neighbors are outside, so we cross the street and visit with them for a bit. love runs around with their four-year-old and jobot putters around the yard. before we know it, the kids are covered with sidewalk chalk.
7:15 pm - we get the kids in the bath. our bedroom light burns out. i put away the groceries while jeremy supervises bath time. i wash the swing cap bottle and put some kefir and juice inside. we will give it 48 hours and see what happens!
7:40 pm - after medicine (hyland's cough medicine), temperature checks (jobot is at 100, love is at 99.5), and teeth brushing, jobot is in bed. he was so tired.
7:50 pm - love is in bed. she calls out to us for a while ("i'm not tired! i don't want to go to bed! i'm not going to sleep"). we pop our heads in her room a couple of times. jeremy finds the lightbulbs and fixes the light. i tidy up the kitchen and house.
8:15 pm - we are both sitting on the couch and we hear love snoring from her room. i am on the computer and jeremy is on the ipad.
9:00 pm - we watch an episode of undercover boss. jeremy rubs my back.
9:50 pm - i take a shower.
10:15 pm - after reading our devotions together, it's lights out. we are both exhausted! goodnight!
6:30 am - i am woken up by both kids. they both woke up at the same time and both are crying. i go to love's room first to get her up. she is crying, whining, and seems disoriented. she refuses to get out of bed. i start to leave her room and she decides that she will get up. she says she is cold, so i get her settled in the living room with a blanket. she clearly doesn't feel very well...yesterday afternoon she seemed to be coming down with jobot's cold. i go to jobot's room and get him up. he is coughing and still seems sick. love wants to watch strawberry shortcake, so i get out the laptop and put it on.
6:50 am - i change jobot's diaper and get him dressed. it's cool outside, so i put him in the one pair of pants we currently have in his size (we will have to work on that!). then i get myself dressed. i pour myself a cup of coffee and make a pot of breathe easy tea for the kids. i check in with jeremy. he said that he had a good night with no calls.
7:00 am - i sit down with my coffee, read my devotions, and check email and weather. i check the kids' temps. jobot is at 102, love is at 100. bummer.
7:20 am - i start getting breakfast ready. the kids have whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffins from trader joes, bananas, and tea. i have quiche and pumpkin muffins (made with almond flour) leftover from tuesday's dinner. i reheat my cup of coffee. love looks at my breakfast and announces that she doesn't like quiche and makes gagging noises. we talk about how that is not polite.
7:50 am - i ask love if she wants to get dressed, but she says that she wants to stay in her pajamas for a little while. she doesn't feel good, and we're not going anywhere, so that's fine with me. she settles back in to finish her strawberry shortcake episode.
8:00 am - i clean up breakfast and tidy the kitchen. i walk into the living room to see jobot holding a package of baby wipes and pulling them out one by one. thankfully, there were only six wipes left in the container. i pick up the wipes off the floor and put them in a ziploc - at least we can still use them that way.
8:15 am - i sit down to make a grocery list. i am supposed to go to BSF this morning, but can't because the kids are sick. i text my small group leader to let her know i won't be there. i'm bummed.
8:30 am - we read books.
8:50 am - there is lots of whining going on. love gets dressed.
9:00 am - we head outside for a walk. this is our usual routine when we are home in the morning. we love our morning walks, especially now that the mornings are cooler. we stop to say hello to charlie the cat. he used to run away from us, but now he always comes right over to greet us. he often sits in our front yard during the day.
this photo was actually taken a different day, but it's the same routine every day.
9:30 am - home from our walk. the kids ride their bikes and cars in our carport. i text our generous friends who were planning on watching our kids for us tonight so we could have a date. because the kids are sick, we will reschedule. (another bummer!). our neighbor comes over to chat for a bit.
10:00 am - we go inside. love wants to do a project, so we get out the rubber stamps. i warm up some tea for myself (leftover from yesterday).
10:25 am - done with stamping. i wash the stamps (and think to myself that next time i will have love do that task. she would enjoy it.)
10:30 am - love is whiney and wants something else to do. jobot is chewing on one of love's shoes that he found (gross) and emptying the pantry. i get out more art supplies for love and she gets busy creating. she is at a stage right now where she is very into cutting, gluing, and making all kinds of creations. it is so fun to watch, but today it involves a lot of frustration and crying. when she is sick, she is very whiney and weepy.
10:50 am - jobot falls and splits his lip. i scoop him up and then realize that his lip is bleeding. thankfully it didn't bleed for long. i realize i have blood on my shirt, so i change and spray the shirt with oxiclean.
11:00 am - a glue stick fell on the floor so love is crying. jobot is crying too, though i don't know why.
11:03 am - i reheat my tea.
11:05 am - jobot seems bored, so i get the duplos out for him. we build stuff together while love works on her project in the kitchen.
11:20 am - i reheat my tea for the third time. love is melting down in the kitchen over her craft project not turning out how she wanted it. then the next minute she is excited about her project. jobot is trying to grab her stuff off the table, so that is making her mad too. whew.
11:25 am - i start lunch. annie's mac n cheese and clementines for the kids. they haven't been eating much since they don't feel well, so i want to give them something that i know that will like and eat. lunchmeat, celery with peanut butter, plain yogurt with vanilla and stevia, and canteloupe for me.
11:27 am - jobot walks into the wall. more tears.
11:35 am - i text jeremy. "the whining is going to drive my crazy! LONG day!"
11:40 am - i have a brief moment of losing my cool and bark that there has been enough whining and that i don't want to listen to it anymore. then i apologize. we sit down to eat.
12:00 pm - i clean up lunch.
12:15 pm - i recheck the kids temps. love is at 100.3 and jobot is still at 102. after i check his temperature, jobot snuggles in and i tickle his back. he sits there for about two minutes and then is ready to get down. i change jobot's diaper and put him down for a nap. it is early for him, he usually goes down between 1 and 1:30, but he is clearly tired and not feeling well. he looks relieved and closes his eyes when i lay him in bed.
12:25 pm - i get love settled in her room for her rest time. she seems really tired as well, but i am doubtful that she will sleep. she watches a movie on the ipad. i put a few things away, reheat my tea (again) and head out to sit on the porch and catch up on emails and blogs. i am glad that i did budget/bill paying last night so i can just relax a bit now. i feel tired. i upload photos from the camera and edit them. it is beautiful outside and feels so good to sit on the porch.
1:45 pm - love's movie is over and she is ready to get out of bed. no sleep for her today, even though i think her body really needs it. (since pretty much the day she turned two she has rarely taken a nap, but she still has rest time in the afternoon and she very occasionally falls asleep). she says she wants to do another "pwoject", so we get out the art supplies again and she works on her art at the kitchen table. i get some new batches of kefir going (water kefir and milk kefir).
2:20 pm - love is still engulfed in her project at the table. i sort the pile of art projects she has completed over the past couple of weeks and decide which pieces to keep. the rest go in the recycling bin. we have been going through paper quite quickly these last few weeks. i rearrange some things to make room in a kitchen cabinet for some art supplies. they were stored in our room, but we've been using them everyday, so i decided to just keep them in the kitchen.
2:45 pm - i am hungry so i eat some beef jerky. love has some beef jerky with veggie sticks for a snack. she is still busy at the table. i pick up the toys in the kitchen and living room.
2:55 pm - she has used up the glue stick! time for a new one from our supply drawer.
3:05 pm - she is done creating, so we clean up the craft stuff. she decides to play with model magic, so we get that out. i start folding some laundry. jobot wakes up as soon as i start folding.
3:15 pm - since both kids are up, we head to trader joe's. (this would usually be a stop in the morning on the way home from BSF since both places are close to each other and are far away from our house). since the kids are sick, i was planning on going this evening, but getting it done now will make the evening easier. the kids and i will have time to get groceries before we pick jeremy up at 4:30. then we can run home, drop the groceries off, and head to the health food store for dinner (a thursday night tradition). we were going to be out on our date tonight, but since that can't happen, at least we can go out to eat.
3:20 pm - jeremy calls and says that he is done working. (hurray - we haven't seen him in over 31 hours!). we have just driven by his work, so we turn around to go pick him up. our house is only two miles away, so we head back home so he can change and so we can get a cooler, since we will just go to trader joe's and then the health food store to eat. while we wait in the van for jeremy to change, love writes on her magna doodle. she asks me what letters she wrote and i tell her she wrote an "n". i am amazed when she erases it, writes another "n", draws a picture of a nut, and says, "n is for nut!"
4:05 pm - we set out for trader joe's once again. i am a bit disgruntled that my afternoon has gotten switched around so much. really...i am out of sorts because the kids are sick and the day has looked completely different than it was supposed to look. i explain my frustrations to jeremy and then give myself an attitude pep talk and get over it. jeremy rubbing my neck on the way to trader joe's helped too.
5:00 pm - we leave trader joe's and head to our local health food store for dinner. thursday night is family night where kids can eat free with one adult entree (jeremy and i just share and there is plenty of food for us). it's a great deal - our entire family can eat a healthy dinner out for less than $10! it is so nice to have a night off from cooking and i find that i really look forward to this night every week when we go (it's especially nice after jeremy has been at work for so long and all of us are tired). i am really excited because we see a swing cap bottle of soda, with a bottle that we could reuse. i have been wanting a bottle like that to try making carbonated kefir water, so we get one. jeremy drinks the soda (root beer) with his dinner.
6:10 pm - we are done eating. usually there is a guy who makes balloon animals for the kids, but he is not here tonight and love is disappointed. we leave the health food store and head home. on the way home, we pass a school sign that says, "jeremy day". we laugh - who knew it was jeremy day? ha! we take a photo of jeremy with the sign.
6:30 pm - we pull into our driveway. our neighbors are outside, so we cross the street and visit with them for a bit. love runs around with their four-year-old and jobot putters around the yard. before we know it, the kids are covered with sidewalk chalk.
7:15 pm - we get the kids in the bath. our bedroom light burns out. i put away the groceries while jeremy supervises bath time. i wash the swing cap bottle and put some kefir and juice inside. we will give it 48 hours and see what happens!
7:40 pm - after medicine (hyland's cough medicine), temperature checks (jobot is at 100, love is at 99.5), and teeth brushing, jobot is in bed. he was so tired.
7:50 pm - love is in bed. she calls out to us for a while ("i'm not tired! i don't want to go to bed! i'm not going to sleep"). we pop our heads in her room a couple of times. jeremy finds the lightbulbs and fixes the light. i tidy up the kitchen and house.
8:15 pm - we are both sitting on the couch and we hear love snoring from her room. i am on the computer and jeremy is on the ipad.
9:00 pm - we watch an episode of undercover boss. jeremy rubs my back.
9:50 pm - i take a shower.
10:15 pm - after reading our devotions together, it's lights out. we are both exhausted! goodnight!
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