Sometimes there's just a whole lot of laundry...

The stomach flu has been going around just about everyone we know.  It was inevitable really that it would hit us.  And it did.  Poor Emma got sick Thursday evening.  Oh, the timing! Her class had a pajama day and read in planned for Friday and she had plans to go to a friends after school to make cookies and spend the night.  My heart hurt for her to have to miss out on so much fun.  She was disappointed and even cried but as she often does she surprised me with her understanding and acceptance that things don't always go our way.

Yesterday was spent washing load after load of bedding and clothing and cleaning everything else, while praying that we could rid our house of those nasty germs and keep everyone else healthy.  This is become quite a regular routine around here.  In the last 4 week we've had head lice, strep throat, and now stomach flu.  Being a mom of three young of kids is so much fun but the laundry is a big job on a normal week, add illness and I'm telling you it's staggering!

While I won't rest easy for awhile, stomach flu has a way of keeping quiet for a few days and then striking again, today we are all well!  Which is a wonderful gift because our holiday celebrations begin this morning with our annual Teddy Bear Tea!

Before 5

2 more days of school until Christmas Vacation!  It's been a good week full of preparations for Christmas. 

Yesterday after school we gave Eleanor an early birthday gift and took her and a friend  to a craft studio in Webster Groves for a workshop.  While she was busy making art, Emma, Lucy and I walked around Webster and did a little Christmas shopping.   I think it was the most fun I've ever had Christmas shopping.   We didn't buy much but I did get a few ideas!  After a quick dinner at Bread Company we came home and all of us were in bed by 7:30.  No kidding, we were so tired.  Which is why at 4:30 I was awake.

 I was also awake early because of these two.  When they sleep with me I usually sleep on one side and  make one of them sleep in the middle…it gets hot in there and they both kick and push in their sleep.  Last night they were bickering so I slept in the middle but hen I got upstairs from my run this morning this is how I found those two.  Both in the middle, sharing a pillow.  

This

Remember when I told you that I wanted to put into words my feelings about Christmas Shop but seemed unable?  On Sunday this sermon pretty much summed up all I was feeling.  It reminded me of why, even though it's exhausting, and heart breaking, and frustrating I keep going back.  Hope.  Hope and love keep me going back.  A desire to stand with someone and let them know they are not alone and that someone cares.  This is Christmas.



 

The Holly and the Ivy

The calendar tells me that there are just 10 more days until Christmas Eve.  My front porch doesn't believe it.  There still sit pumpkins.  Pumpkins that are in fact covered in snow and possibly probably rotting underneath.  I need to pay bills and figure out what we have in the refrigerator, change everyones sheets, probably clean a bathroom or two and think about gifts for our teachers….and a good chunk of the folks on our Christmas list.  Nothing has been wrapped.  They'll be no cards this year and maybe no homemade cookie gifts for our friends and sweet teachers.  Just now, like in the last 20 minutes I've felt like maybe I could start thinking about making a list, a plan for what must be done and what can be let go of over the next 10 days.  The goal is to enjoy the time, not just check boxes off.   I'll make my list tonight, in front of the fire, while watching The Muppets Christmas Carol.   Spending 7 days at Christmas Shop always requires some time for reentry into my regular life.  This year has been no different.  Today I've choked back a few tears.  Not really sad tears just full tears.   There is so much in this world that I don't understand and being plucked out of my beautiful, neat, safe little life rips that wide open.  Today I can't quite put it into words but I will.  Instead of my own words, in my mind I hear The Holly and the Ivy, in my favorite version by The Lower Lights.  In particular these lines...

The holly wears a blossom

As white as any flower,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To be our sweet Savior.

The rising of the sun,
The running of the deer,
The playing of the organ,
Sweet singing in the choir.

Oh, the holly bears a berry
As red as any blood,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good.

November 26 (plus a whole bunch of missed days!): Head Lice

Holy cow am I behind!  And I have exactly 10 minutes for this so please excuse all typos and hard to understand sentences!

Today I'm thankful for head lice or maybe more accurately I'm thankful for the perspective they can bring.  We found the nasty little things on all 3 girls Sunday late in the afternoon.  All of my plans for things I wanted to get done that evening flew out the window so the girls could be treated (including me because guess what?!  I had them too!), bedding could be removed and the whole lice extermination could begin.  Though lice is never something a person wants to have I tried to keep my chin up and here is what happened….

- I found myself thankful that I do not work.  I had a terrible sore throat and didn't feel well Sunday night.  I went to bed at 9:00 because I knew that I could continue Lice Kill 2013 in the morning.  If I was still teaching I'd have stayed up all night long and would've faked myself happy and awake for a full day of teaching.

- I was thankful that I could cancel almost everything that I was supposed to do Monday morning.  I pack my Mondays full while Lucy is at school.  Just a couple of emails sent explaining my situation and I had prayers coming my way and friends picking up where I had to drop off.

-I was thankful that I have a washer and a dryer right in my house, and that I didn't have to get to a laundromat to do the…..wait….are you ready?  15 loads of laundry.  I'm not kidding.

-I was thankful that our budget could handle all the hot water, suds, and dryer heat I used washing everything in our house, and that we could buy Lice killing shampoo, new combs, brushes, pony tail holders and pillows.

-I was thankful that it was just lice.

- I was thankful that I am organized and can work fast.  In fact I love hard work.  Our friends from Colorado were in town and coming to dinner and no icky, itchy bug was going to stand between us and them.  Our house was clean as could be and homemade soup was on the stove when they walked through the door.

-I was also thankful that I know my limitations and so store bought bread and cookies also graced our dinner table!

-I was thankful for my health and the ability to be able to take care of my family.  Yesterday a friend of mine attended the funeral of a friend of hers.  Her friend was 36, a year younger than me, and 6 months ago she was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer.  What a reminder that every single day is a gift.

I guess yesterday wasn't the best ever but it sure wasn't the worst.  I really did find myself over and over again realizing the gifts all around me.  Sometimes you need a little lice in your life to realize just how good you have it.

Best Friends! 

November 20: Small Moments

If I'm not careful my days can go by in a blur.  From the time my feet hit the floor until my head hits the pillow my days are pretty planned, a complete maximization of time; there's a lot I want to do.  I don't want my days to pass in a blur though. I find I'm happiest when I remember to see the small moments unfolding in my every day.

Lucy goes to school on Monday and Wednesday and there is a lag in time between the start of Emma and Eleanor's school and the start of Lu's school.  It's not a big deal but this morning  I found myself feeling a little irritated in waiting….wasn't there something I could get done in those 20 minutes? Lucy and I pulled up to her school and she unbuckled, hopped out and came up to the front of the van.  I left the music on and we listened to her favorite song right now "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".  Lucy searched until she found the source of the sound….speakers near her feet.  It amazed her.  The next 20 minutes passed just like that, Lucy finding amazement in little things and me finding joy in her just being her.  I'm thankful for small moments and for reminders to tune in to them.

November 19: Pizza, Pizza!

Tonight I'm thankful for an easy dinner!  When I made our weekly menu for this week I gave myself a little gift….a no cooking night!  On our way home from El's dance class we picked up a pizza.  And now we're off to basketball practice.  Hooray for the little things in life that make things easier.