Additionally

In addition to my friends great loss, the stomach flu visited our home. I ended up spending Friday night, two weeks ago up every 30-45 minutes with Xander. He couldn't keep anything down, even water. And then on Monday, Rich appeared to get it.

I think from the exhaustion of caring for Xander and then feeling stressed about caring for everyone while I'm supposed to be "resting" triggered contractions to start up again. Taking warm baths helped, but after I started getting them again on Wednesday morning (16th), I decided to call my midwife just in case. She had me come in and we discovered that these contractions had been causing change. I was now 50% effaced. Just a week earlier I had been discussing easing off of the quasi-bedrest I was on and now found myself put on COMPLETE bedrest for the next 4-5 days. My caregroup was awesome and brought over some meals and mom took a day off of work to help out, but Rich got the lions share of the workload - taking care of two delightfully rambunctious boys and a wife relegated to her bed. He's been quite the trooper.

On Monday, since the contractions hadn't died down as much as we had hoped, we went in to see Dr. Eddy. He is such a wonderful doctor and I'm again reminded how thankful I am that he was there to deliver Keegan. We discussed our options and decided to go with formal pre-term labor medication. Thankfully, I haven't progressed any further and for now, I'm on a combination of partial bedrest and medication. So I'm back to a slow crawl and not able to accomplish much. I wish there was an easier way to grow, but I know that God is sovereign and working all things for my ultimate good. My prayer is that God will continue to work in my heart as I get this new opportunity to grow my faith and a fresh lesson in humility.

To mourn with those who mourn...

It has been a rough past couple of weeks and hence my blog silence. My dear friend lost her baby boy, Micah Allen, and delivered him still at 36 weeks. He was beautiful and all appeared well the day before when I was with her, but then the next morning, he was gone… I cannot fathom the pain of losing a child. Sitting with her in the hospital as she awaited his birth was a strange mix of sadness and hope. So sad for their incredible loss and yet filled with hope as I watched them turn to the Lord during this time. Pastor Trey was amazing. I feel privileged to have been present and encouraged by his kind care for my friends.

I am also so thankful for the presence of her midwife. In many ways, although a trained medical professional, midwives also take on the role of mothering the mother. They are there throughout your pregnancy and then with you every step of the way through labor and birth. And this was so clearly portrayed in her care for Christine as they walked thru this trial, even though in this case the delivery was handled by the hospital personnel.

Just for fun and a new skill!

I'm a horrible packrat. I will get little things that I decide to keep and use for a project "some day"... Inevitably, it just collects dust and then the reason I decided to save it is forgotten. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf and actually use what I save.

So the fabric samples that I received in the mail were put to good use this morning. We had fun making "quilts"!

When I went to write Alexander's name on his finished project, he asked if he could write a "big A". So I handed him the marker. He ended up drawing an "H" instead and then proceeded to draw his first person. I was so excited that I pulled out more paper and he had a blast drawing his family and all kinds of other things. It's the first time he's specifically drawn people and said who they are. Usually it is just abstract scribbles aside from his desire to draw certain letters.

Pleasant to behold...

My kids are like any other kids and tend to enjoy the box as much as what is inside it - which makes it hard to throw away said boxes. (I know, I'm an awful packrat.)

We aquired some mini Pringles boxes on our loooooooooooong flight back from DC. Keegan just loves them and plays with them almost every day. They were great for packing a few little toys in for our most recent (and thankfully smoother) flight. He had so much fun, dumping the contents and then repacking the tube.

I can only having trash lying around for so long though, so in light of the success of our last box project, I decided to beautify the tubes.

Somehow, seeing these lying around the house just doesn't bother me quite as much! I used scrapbook paper, but should I ever have to do it again, I think I'll try using wrapping paper.

Pure Delight!

I LOVE mornings like today's! This morning we straightened up the downstairs and then Rich did a good thorough vacuum. I just love having a decluttered, clean home. Even though it wasn't perfect, just having all of the toys put away, the counters cleared, the kitchen completely cleaned and the floors vacuumed just really makes me feel good! (Don't worry mom, I did not serious cleaning, heavy lifting, etc and rested frequently!) Than to top that off, the boys and I hung out in the backyard for the remainder of the morning. The weather is BEAUTIFUL! This is why people love Arizona so much! There was minimal squabbling and I had the opportunity to have a leisurely (only seldem interupted) time with God!

One of my favorite parts of being homeschooled while growing up was the flexibility to spend long periods of time in the Word and talking to God. Mom was always flexible and seemed to sense when I needed it and would let me wait on other school work until I was done. With each new season that I've entered into I've tried hard to recognize those opportunities. Some seasons have been easier to accomplish this than others. Full-time office work was probably the hardest season to accomplish this in, although with some creativity and intention, I was able to pull it off during the lunch hour. Being a full-time mommy has also proved challenging at times. Although I'm home, I have so many more responsibilities than when I was a child/teen. But the opportunities are still there as today demonstrated and I just have to be ready to slow down and enjoy them.

I've been so inspired by the life and writings of Brother Lawrence in the area of communing with God amidst everyday life. My desire is to live every moment in view of God and in relating with Him. As the pastor mentioned on Sunday, I want this to be true of my life:

Sorry to ramble, just had to share...