Get in the Game!

If you’ve ever known someone that is trying to learn a new language, they can probably tell you the best way to learn is to just immerse yourself in the culture.  Jump in and live the way the natives live, eat what they eat, spend time with the people.  My husband and I have been immersed in a new culture for the past eight weeks roughly.  The Jesus culture!  We have been reading our Bible and having discussions, praying together for things other than our food ;) and fellowshipping with other Christians. 

Growing up I was raised in church, going to camps, retreats, and Bible studies.  Honestly, for me, I don’t remember a time before Jesus.  I came from a family that prayed together and did our best to be a witness to others by our actions.  I officially gave my life to Jesus and asked him into my heart when I was eight years old in Mrs. Virginia Hale’s Sunday school class.  I was so excited to go into “big church” and tell my family.

Since giving my life to Jesus I have strayed.  I said above that I can’t remember a time before Jesus, but unfortunately I can remember a time without Him.  When I moved off to college I thought I would carry my love for the Lord with me and share it with others.  It didn’t take long to get caught up in the college life.  I wasn’t a big party-goer and I didn’t like to drink every weekend, but I found myself too busy.  I didn’t find a church to go to or any organization to join.  I hung out late with friends and I had to sleep in on Sundays.  I had to work, go to class, and study.  After that I simply forgot about church.  After all, God knew my heart right?  He knew that I still loved him, why did I have to go to church to prove that?

 So I have this confession to make.  I didn’t exactly marry a Christian guy like I grew up thinking.  He was definitely a Christian believer and would even argue his faith if someone stated there wasn’t a God.  But in M’s own words he “wasn’t in the game.”  He says that now looking back he thinks of his faith in Jesus as a ball game, he was just  a spectator.  He was at the game, but he wasn't really in the game, he was just a bystander.  Now he gets to be on the field, he gets to be a starter and it is so exciting!  

Yesterday morning I was able to stand beside my husband in church and worship the Lord.  It was such a refreshing and intimate moment to be able to hold hands and raise our arms together to worship our God.  After we left church, my husband said that after we took communion he just felt so consumed with God's love that he cried.  You hear "real men" quotes all the time like real men wear pink, etc.?  Well real men cry because they're so full of the Lord :)

So the question is, do you want to stand on the sidelines and watch or would you rather be first string and start every morning with God in your heart and a smile on your face?  If it was your last quarter of the game where will you be?  Don't hesitate, GET IN THE GAME!!  :)

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." - Romans 5:1-4 

Sometimes "No, No" Just Doesn't Work

Well, A is definitely back to normal.  I told her not to do something and she told me to "hutch", I told her not to climb on the dishwasher again or she'd get a spanking and she said "no way!"  Her newest way to try and get out of trouble is to give me a kiss in the middle of me telling her to behave and then she steps back and says "aww."  I hate when she does that!  How am I supposed to give you a spanking and make you behave  when you just gave me a sweet kiss?!  By doing just that, going ahead with the forewarned spanking anyway-that's how I make her behave.

I am certainly no pro at parenting, after all she's my only child and I haven't even been doing this parenting thing for a year and a half yet.  But I know that in order to ensure good behavior down the road, I must start now.  I have to let her know that I am the Momma, not her playmate or friend.  I do not do what she tells me to; even when she's pointing that cute little finger and trying to be bossy.  I do not give in to every little thing that she wants; she doesn't always know what she wants so I have to decide for her.  I do not think that being destructive and making a mess is funny; I have plenty of things to clean already.  

My role as her parent is twofold.  1) Her Daddy and I need to guide her and teach her to love the Lord and follow Him.  2) We are supposed to raise her to be a productive member of society.  Sounds simple, but unless you are a parent yourself reading this you know it's not that simple at all.  I love my baby girl with all that is in me, I would literally walk through fire for her.  However, because I love her is the reason that I stand my ground and make her behave.  She's not even a year and a half, she can't be that bad right?  If that's what you're thinking you're very right.  But that's exactly how I'd like to keep it-not that bad.  She's a toddler so of course she gets into things that she shouldn't and she tells me no and she SOMETIMES throws a kicking and screaming fit.  She's not perfect, but she is very well behaved and we get such compliments from our friends and strangers when we're out in public.  

Children need structure and discipline.  They don't know what is good for them or not, we have to teach them that.  There's reasons that they cannot do whatever they please.  If you climb up the high chair by yourself you might fall and hit your head on the floor.  If you reach up and touch the stove/iron/grill/etc you will get burned.  If you climb up the dresser or tv stand it might tip over and you could break a leg (I actually know a little guy that happened to).  Most friends and family respect the fact that M and I spank and discipline A, because they can see the fruits of our labor and attest that A is very well behaved for her age.  A few think that we're too mean and that we should never spank anyone, but honestly those people have the children that no one wants to watch or even be around sometimes.

Moral of the story:  Spare the rod, spoil the child.  It's not just a Bible verse, it's common sense!

"Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them." - Proverbs 13:24

And there's times like this that don't need discipline at all.  These are the truly funny situations that you can laugh at.  She insisted on wearing one shoe all day that day :)

When you have an obedient child not only does it make life easier, but it makes it more fun.  A loves helping do things in the kitchen.  If she were throwing things on the ground or not listening this would not be possible!  Children like to please, even at a year old she loves to learn and help out :)  Here she's seasoning the mashed potatoes!

The Great Physician

Well, once again we have had a lot of things going on.  Sticking to the plan of writing posts twice a week has obviously proven challenging.  So, all plans aside, my hope is to write once or twice a week but nothing definite.  

Friday evening M and I actually went to bed right after we put A down; He had been working late all week which resulted in all of us getting to bed late too.  Saturday morning A woke up crying around 6:30 or 7, she definitely felt warm so I took her temperature and it was 103.7.  Unfortunately we've dealt with high fever before with her, so I gave her some children's Tylenol and put her back to sleep.  Most of the day she hardly drank or ate anything. M and I just assumed her on and off fever and lack of appetite all day Saturday was just associated with teething. She has two teeth coming in right now, so it made the most sense.

Sunday Morning she woke up crying around 4am.  As soon as I picked her up from her crib, I knew that her fever had skyrocketed.  She wasn't just warm or even hot, her poor little body was on fire with a temperature reading at 105.3!  M and I were scared to say the least.  I called the answering service for our pediatricians office and they asked us a few questions about her demeanor.  They said to give her some Tylenol and take her to the nearest emergency room and follow up with the PCP first thing Monday.

Literally 20 minutes later she was being poked and prodded with an IV, a catheter for a urine sample,  blood drawn for various tests, flu tests, strep tests, chest x-rays, etc.  After spending roughly 7 hours waiting for answers we got none.  Everything had come back negative.  We're still waiting on results from a few blood tests, but ultimately the only thing we know is her white blood cell count is elevated.  That along with an exceptionally high fever only tells us that her body is fighting something off.  She did get a strong dose of antibiotics in her IV just to try and knock out any sort of bacterial infection that may be there and also sent home with a script for antibiotics.

We left the ER around 11 am and her temp was 97, we got home around noon and it was already back up to 103.  We gave her some more medicine and waited for it to go down.  At this point we had figured out that if we missed the time frame to administer another dose of medicine, even if only by 15 minutes, her fever would start spiking back up.  Once her fever hits about 104, she stops responding to her name and acts as if she can't hear us at all. She either becomes very lethargic or is very irritable and can't seem to get comfortable. 

Last night she woke up several times screaming and thrashing around.  Neither of us could get her to calm down.  When we woke up this morning her temp was back up to 104.7.  I called as soon as the office opened and scheduled an appointment.  Turns out the pediatrician said nothing different than the ER.  Apparently there are thousands of viruses and that seems to be what she has, some type of viral infection.  Fevers can last 5-7 days so we just have to continue rotating the Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours and continue to give the antibiotics.  The screaming and thrashing about at night is most likely due to all of the trauma she's gone through this weekend and/or she's waking up realizing she doesn't feel good and that's how she's communicating it to us.

Needless to say M and I were both very scared.  He ran a few red lights on the way to the ER and didn't want to talk about it until we got her in the ER and her temp was brought down.  With A only being 16 months old she still can't talk enough to tell us if  and where anything is hurting her.  Thus the need to fight for her.  We somewhat felt like we've kind of had the run around this weekend.  "If it spikes again bring her to the ER." "If it's gets worse bring her back tomorrow." "If it lasts more than a week we'll talk about different options."  "Fevers that high aren't uncommon in children."  !!!!  I'm sure you can only imagine our frustration.  

At the end of the day we have finally realized that God is the Great Physician and our Wonderful Healer!  We have to put all of our faith in Him.  Not just simply pray for her and still worry, but actually believe that He is going to work wonders in our daughter's health.  Still, the Word says that when 2 or more are gathered in His name He will be there.  I fervently ask each of you who reads this story to please take a moment or two to pray for our baby girl.  In addition to praying for our baby, pray for all of the mommas and daddys who go through situations much worse and still are empty handed and have no answers.  Going through this situation has definitely given me a heart for those parents, I can't imagine being in their shoes.

"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.  He sent out his word and healed them." - Psalm 107:19-20

Snuggling with Daddy and her baby trying to get some rest;
 I'm praying we can all get a peaceful nights sleep

UPDATE!! This post was written on a Monday night and by Thursday she was finally down to a low grade fever, no higher than 99.  Friday she was officially fever free for 24 hours with no medicine being given.  We never did get any definite answers from the doctors about what made her so sick, but she is healed now and that's all that matters.  

Last weekend I was putting her toys in the toy box when I noticed some mold on the baby dolls clothes.  Turns out the bottom of the toy box was covered in black mold! I have no idea how it happened, but many toys and stuffed animals had to be thrown away.  M and I boiled water on the stove and filled the bath tub with it and added some bleach and let the plastic toys soak.  I did the same with the stuffed animals that appeared to be free of  mold, but we wanted to be sure.  Then I put them through the wash in hot water and dried them on high heat.  I soaked the toy box in hot water and bleach as well.  Everything is put away for now.  We're giving it about a month to see if anything starts to come back, then we'll put the toys back out.  For now she plays with 2 baby dolls that weren't kept in there and she "reads" her books a lot.  I don't think she really cares about the toys being gone.

Thank you for all of the prayers and kind messages that were sent to M and myself, we appreciate all of the love shown to us! :)
                                                                                                      

Squirrels and Snakes and Hives, Oh My!

If you read my last post you know that I haven't had much down time lately and this weekend has been no different.  Friday morning started out as usual; got ready for the day, made breakfast for the kids, and around 9 I noticed A had broken out in hives.  By the time M got home from work it had spread quite a bit.  We went to the pharmacy and got some topical benadryl and it worked, but only temporarily.  I had to reapply it before bedtime, in the middle of the night, and again when she woke up.  We decided to take her to an urgent care center where they gave her a steroidal shot and some antihistamine.  Thankfully she's been clear ever since.  We never did figure out exactly what the cause was, but more than likely it's something that was brought into the house on someones shoes or maybe a new ingredient in some food, etc.

So that was Friday and Saturday.  After church today we decided to clean out our vehicle and go through a car wash. When we got back home I was getting A out of her car seat and I heard M holler for me.  I quickly got A and ran to the front door...M opened our front door and was greeted by a squirrel on our entertainment center.  My husband is a manly man for sure, but rodents of any kind are not his thing.  We tried banging around to scare it out but no luck.  So we decided to go about our normal routine and pray that it ran back out.  I started doing laundry and M did the dishes.  I asked him why he was carrying A around and he said he didn't want her to get bit by the rabid squirrel.  I wish I had been able to video this whole situation, it was quite entertaining.  We set a rat trap with peanut butter and bird seed and M is slept with the broom by his side of the bed. We ended up bringing A to our bed and my protective husband locked our bedroom door and put a towel in front of it .  I ended up hearing it chattering today and it was literally jumping on the daybed in A's room trying to get out of the window!  I called the apartment manager who called a maintenance man.  After scaring it from her room to the living room and running a maze in there for a while he managed to scare it out the front door! Thank you Lord for Teo, maintenace man of the year :)  

And this happened 2 weekends ago, but it's definitely worth mentioning - A brought me a snake!  Yep, you read that right.  I was standing in my bathroom doorway brushing my teeth when she came out of the dining room dragging and swinging something in her hand.  I had been sewing the night before and thought she had gotten a scrap piece of fabric.  I nonchalantly told her to stop messing with things and went about my business.  We had breakfast, went outside to check the weather, came back in, and played in the living room for a while.  As we were walking to her room I noticed the "piece of fabric" move.  It was a snake!  It was no more than a foot long and we think it was just a garden/rat snake, but it was quite the scene.  Eventful, right?! 

This weekend has been full of surprises and excitement, and I'm thankful for every moment! I'm also extremely thankful that God sent Teo to rid us of our rodent!

"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!" - Psalms 126:3

                                                                            

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread - the good kind, with lots of energy to sustain us :)

Ever notice the Bible verse at the bottom of my blog?  "She watches over the affairs of her family and does not eat the bread of idleness." - Proverbs 31:27.  Well, in case you haven't noticed, I haven't written an entry in nearly 5 weeks.  Let me tell you there is no idle bread in this house; I have been busy, busy, busy!  

A friend of mine is a teacher and her son was being watched by a lady who had a son of her own and is expecting another in May.  The expectant momma naturally wanted to savor the last few months with her son being an only child, so I agreed to step in and watch Baby C until school gets out for the summer.  If I have never mentioned it before I also keep another friends child for 2-3 days a week.  Here's the kicker - both dads of these kids work with my husband and all three of our kids are less than 6 weeks apart!  So I have two 15 months old every week day and three of them on two or three weekdays. Suffice it to say it's a madhouse :)

In the last 5 weeks I also completed some curtains for a friend that asked me to sew for her.  I took on the task willingly, it's only two squares with a hem around the edge right? Wrong! It took me over two weeks to complete them, I had no idea how tough it would be to work around the kids schedule.  Needless to say I had to burn quite a bit of midnight oil to get them finished.

My sister, brother, and husband all share March birthdays and I love celebrating birthdays!  So of course, I had projects to complete for them as well.  And most recently I'm working on finishing up a few things that I have been making and collecting since this past fall for a friend who's having her first baby!  

Happy 20th Birthday to my baby sister!

Happy 18th Birthday to my younger brother!

Happy 26th Birthday to my handsome husband!

In the midst of trying to keep up with all of these projects and extra kids, I still have everyday stuff to contend with.  My mornings usually consist of getting up, making beds, getting everyone ready for the day and off to work, making breakfast, cleaning house, Bible story with the babies, and maybe a cup of coffee!  Seriously it's close to 9:30 or 10am before my bottom hits a chair...or the floor with the kiddos :)

Through it all I have a supportive husband whose faith encourages me and keeps me going.  I'm blessed to have someone who not only encourages me to pray, but who prays for me and with me.  He sees everything I do and appreciates it, yet he lets me know that I can't do it all on my own.  And when my day gets tough and there's nobody around to help with the diaper changes and temper tantrums, I'm still not alone!

Seeing this on his nightstand just stirs my own faith :)

I wholeheartedly want to continue with this blog.  In such a busy season of my life, I don't want to forget things.  I want to remember how smart A is and all the things she picks up on so quickly.  I want to remember the little finger she points at me when she's being bossy.  I want to remember how my husband lets me vent and complain to him about my day at the end of his own stressful workday.  This blog remembers all of these things for me.  So while I can't promise to jot down every moment the way I would like, I am going to make a valiant effort to post at least twice a week.  Every Sunday and Thursday I will post a new entry, Whether the days have been eventful or not.  

Someone just woke up from a nap, so it's back to the daily grind...or in the case of caring for 3 toddlers, the daily grime :)