Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

Well, we are generally a pretty healthy house, but we have had a rough two weeks.  We have had 9 ear infections, 2 sinus infections, and pneumonia between the 5 of us.  Yesterday, I started to think about grumbling about it as I was driving home from my second doctor appointment of the day, but then I caught myself.  And I was ashamed.  My friend, Sacha, is battling stage 4 cancer, and I was about to complain about something so trivial and so fixable.  I’m actually a little ashamed to even admit it to you, but it’s the truth.  Watching Sacha battle this disease has changed my perspective on my daily life and I pray I will always remember the lessons I am learning these days.  Her courage will challenge you.  If any of you would like to follow her journey, you can do so at www.caringbridge.org/visit/sachamcgrath.  Also, if you are interested in participating in a walk or benefit for her, let me know and I can get you the details. 

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to go with Kate’s preschool on a field trip to Ropp’s Cheese Farm.  The kids loved feeding the baby calves and goats.
 

Lincoln turned 3 last week and we celebrated with our small family of 5 on Thursday.  I made cookie monsters, but I didn’t let it cool long enough before putting candles in it so it collapsed. =)

Creighton started army crawling on Lincoln’s birthday and that boy can get around.  He is getting into EVERYTHING.  I forgot what this stage was like.  But he is so much happier now that he is mobile. 
 

We have very much enjoyed the warm temperatures these last few days.  We have spent many hours outside already.  I love it!
 

These silly kids…
 

We celebrated Lincoln’s birthday again with my family on Sunday. 

 

That brings us to today, we had a play date with the neighbor kiddos, always a great time. 
 

One last picture of sweet little Braylee. 

Snapshots

It’s been a busy few weeks around here.  We are still working on the addition of a bathroom in our basement.  The drywall is up and Mike is in the process of taping and sanding.  We also got a new countertop for our kitchen as the old one was stained and had pieces chipped off and there was this white strip of, I’m not sure what to call it, but it was nasty and now it’s gone.  Hooray.  We still have to fix the drywall where the white strip was as it was quite securely fastened, but we think we may just put up a backsplash, so it’s still in process. 

Dad came over to re-hook up our garbage disposal after the new countertop was installed.  Creighton was delighted to just sit and watch Grandpa work.


Kate is very into pretending to be at preschool right now.  Her favorite is when Lincoln and Creighton will participate, but since they won’t always cooperate, she makes do with her stuffed animals.  The cardboard is her calendar.  Every day at preschool they sit and talk about what day it is and they take turns getting to draw a picture on the square of the day’s date.

 

How does one sleep like this?   Her head is under the pillow and her legs are tucked up under her.  Looks painful to me.


Just to make you smile, a picture of my niece and nephew.

 

Lastly, Kate helped my Dad re-pot some of his flowers and vegetables.  Somehow, this project ended with Dad and I re-potting. Imagine that.

Screech

 

Our dryer started making this dreadful noise awhile back.  It would go in cycles between a quiet, I can handle it screech to a full out, awful sound that would make you think twice about running it if someone was over or if a kiddo was napping.  Well, God bless Mike, he took the dryer COMPLETELY apart and NOW it does not screech at all!!!   So nice! I admit to being a little nervous when I walked into the room and saw the sight below, but what a guy to tackle such a project. :)

 

Fun Sunday Visit

We had Grams and Popsy over for dinner and games this past Sunday.  We had so much fun with them!  Thanks for coming over Grams and Popsy!!

Playing Outside

 
Playing On the Farm

Playing Mario Kart
  

It is well

This week I find myself thinking, just thinking about so many things.  I learned this week, that a friend of mine from my high school days has cancer.  She most likely does not have very long left here on this earth.  She has a husband and a young son.  My mind can hardly fathom it.  She is my friend.  She is my age.  She is 29.  She is too young. She has so much left to do.  She has a son to watch grow. She has more people to touch.  I try to put myself in her shoes or in her husband’s shoes and I find that makes it very hard to breathe.  I know that this is not the way they would have wanted or expected life to go, they would not have signed up for this path…

I had the opportunity to be at a conference that equips women to be better wives and mothers.  One woman shared her long journey with infertility in the face of every single person she knew getting pregnant.  That path was not what she signed up for.

Another shared a story of how for 22 years she had a seemingly normal life.  Then her husband got sick and one thing led to another and now he is on medication for a bi-polar disorder.  She has a new normal and it is not what she signed up for.

Still another woman lost her sight at age 15.  She has been blind now for more years that she had sight.  And it’s hard.  It’s not what she signed up for. 

I know in my mind that God is absolutely sovereign, that before any of these situations reached these families it came through God’s hand.  I absolutely believe that, with all my heart, yet it is still so hard for me to understand the why’s of it all.  But something I heard yesterday really touched my heart.  It is not always well with our circumstances.  Life happens, cancer happens, sickness happens, infertility happens, blindness happens.  Our circumstances change in big ways and small ways all the time and it is not always well with our circumstances.  BUT, even though it is not always well with my circumstances, it is well with my soul.  I have been given, by Jesus Christ, enough grace to handle my circumstances, even when they feel like they may break my heart.  It is well with my soul because of Jesus Christ and the hope that I have in him.  I pray that if you read this blog that you can say, though it is not well with my circumstances, it is well with my soul. 

Girly Boy…

Kate has not made it a secret that she would like to have a sister. :)  My good friend, Wendy, had a precious baby girl a week ago, and it brought Kate’s desires back to the forefront of her thoughts.  I told her it is possible that she would never have a sister and at best, it could be quite a long time, especially to a 4 year old.  She took the news pretty well.  She decided if she can’t have a sister, she will just make do with Creighton. 

Spring

Dear Spring,

I would appreciate it very much if you would come soon.  You see, I have a daughter, she is very high energy, and when she cannot spend every minute of every day outside, she resorts to doing the things that are pictured below.  If you could come a little early, maybe just maybe our whole house will not end up covered in something it should not be (fingernail polish, permanent marker, etc.)   Thanks.

For those wondering how the fingernail polish incident turned out, the fingernail polish has been taken away indefinitely and she did not get to sleep with her white blanket that night.   

   

In other news, I had her preschool parent/teacher conference last week and her teacher said she is doing great, she’s ready for kindergarten, AND she has one of the longer attention spans of all the kids in her class.  God bless preschool teachers.  Just so you don’t think I only catch her doing “bad” things, I did catch her with a broom and dustpan cleaning up a mess she had made without being asked.  She’s a ton of fun, but man alive, she wears me out.  My Mom is right, I haven’t been bored in a REALLY long time.  :) 

Lincoln is doing great in the potty training ordeal.  We are down to one diaper a day (night time) and he has not had any accidents this week (it is only Tuesday though).  But, we’re excited for positive progress!

Creighton has started holding his hands above his head.  We don’t know why, if he is doing “So big” or what, but he thinks it is really funny.  I tried to catch him at it last night, but he’s a quick little guy, even with an SLR camera. :)