"overwhelmed by first-world problems and choices"

I stole that line from my dear friend, Amanda; from a book she read called  "The Tyranny of Choice."  

Yesterday was a hard day.  Not hard like my child was dying in a hospital or hard like my marriage was hanging by a thread.  Not hard like being hopeless and not knowing a Savior that brings hope.  Thankfully, Amanda's blog was pretty fresh in my mind.  So as I trudged through my "hard day", I thought about complaining about my privileges.  I tried, really hard, to find thankfulness in the midst of a incredibly long day.

Thank you, Lord, for my cluttered counter tops which drive me crazy.  Thank you that we lack not a single book/writing utensil/manipulative in educating our children.

Thank you, Lord, for leftovers.  They are not our favorite.  Thank you that daddy generously eats leftovers every day so that we rarely have to.  Thank you that we have more food than we know what to do with.  Thank you that daddy has a great paying job and we can eat good-for-you food.  Thank you that you have blessed me with an ability and a love for cooking.  Thank you that we have NO real idea what it means to be hungry.

Thank you, Lord, for the massive pile of laundry that needs washed, dried, folded and put away.  What a blessing it is to have hundreds of pieces of clothing, shoes, jewelry and other accessories.  Forgive us for complaining about our privileged life.

Thank you, Lord, for my fussy children.  Forgive me when I get cranky with them.  Thank you that my children are healthy and smart.  Thank you for reminding me to snuggle with them now and clean later.  Thank you for reminding me that this too shall pass.

Thank you, Lord, for weeds and a yard that needs maintenance.  Instead of being frustrated, I am thankful that my kids have a fenced yard that they can play safely in.  I am thankful that the overgrown weeds provide science projects for Cam and Cait.  Thank you, Lord, that we own yard tools and thank you that we are busy enjoying life.

Catching up

With all our sickness and other busyness, I'm behind on blogging.  Time to catch up!

 These pictures are from our Family Night at mom's house last month.  The kids like playing X-Box with Bren.  This particular time, Cam brought a science experiment to do with his cousins.  We are so grateful to live close to our family and to regularly enjoy their company!

Life has finally returned to "normal" after 3 weeks of illness.  I am glad we are past all of that and everyone is healthy again!  THANK YOU, GOD!  We have been showing the house regularly but we haven't had any offers.  Last week, Bren and I got away for a little bit to see Manic Drive and Audio Adrenaline in concert with church friends.  Just like their song, it was a good time!  

JC broke out in an all over the body rash.  After a steroid shot and a steroid pack, he finally cleared up.  We still have no idea what caused the rash but it was very odd and a bit scary!

This picture of Cait and daddy is from when Cait was sick.  She just felt puny for so long!  My poor little one.

We had a great time celebrating St. Patrick's day.  The kids made these cute shamrocks and Cam did a unit study on Maewyn Succat.  Saturday (3/16) we served at the Food Bank in Anadarko and then went to Lawton where Granny made us a very yummy St. Patrick's Day corned beef and cabbage dinner!

Lily has taken off in walking. It took only a week for her to transition from crawling to walking.  She's is sure cute!

Cait is still the fashionista of the house!

Our family is organizing service projects and trying to get a group of friends to work with us.  There are several reasons for this.  One, we want our children to serve others and we would love to develop servants hearts in them.  Two, since our kids range from 17 to 1, it has been hard for me to find places that we can serve together as a family.  Most organizations want kids to be at least 8 before they can help.  Three, I would love for our family to build strong relationships with other families that have similar goals.

One way we have been serving this year is going to the OK Regional Food Bank at our friend's camp in Anadarko.  We work with the Bates family and other volunteers for about three hours.  Afterwards, we often eat with the Bates in the camp's dining room.  We have been so blessed by spending time with the Bates as they are such a kind and caring family.

We have also collected books to send to missionary kids in Uganda and we also painted some at our friends, the McGee's house.  I am excited to see what projects we'll get to do this year!

Lily loves spaghetti!  It's just that we have to have it when it is convenient for her to take a bath!  She is not eating any baby food and eats our meals with us and still nurses (a lot!).  I couldn't get Lily to eat cut up bananas but the other morning I sat down with a whole banana and Lily went berserk trying to get it from me.  So I gave it to her. And she ate 3/4 of the banana!

She even kicked back and relaxed while she ate!  Here's the best "action" shot I could get of Lily walking.  She seems to like her new freedom, especially on pretty days when she can play and walk outside!

We had a nice visit with my older sister and her 8 month old son this week.  He is such a cutie and he did great sharing his toys with Cait, Cam and Lily.  I am thankful for the healing that is taking place in our relationship.

Bren did a test drive on my bike yesterday and unfortunately the brakes were a little touchy.  He flipped himself and the bike and got a nasty case of road rash on his palm and elbow.  He also has abrasions on his foot and hand and bruised his foot really bad.  We are so thankful that he did not hit his head or neck.

I also got this picture from my baby sister who has started culinary school.  I'm excited for her and proud of her!

Flu

For the first time ever, the flu has hit our house.  It seems nearly impossible because we've hardly gone anywhere lately.  Cam threw up 2/21 so we stayed home that weekend.  I started feeling bad on Wed (2/27) and was running a high fever for the next 3 days.  It came with chills/sweats, body aches, sneezing, runny nose (a faucet, really!) and a bad cough.  Lily's fever showed up Sunday; Cam and Cait's on Monday.  Cait was by far the worst of all of us.  At least three times, we could not get her temperature to budge below 103.1.  I guess because she is so little bitty that she looks so frail and pathetic when she is sick.  On Tuesday I took the girls to the clinic and Cait tested positive for influenza A.  They gave both girls Tamiflu.

We gave the girls Tamiflu for two days before realizing it was making Cait agitated and Lily just completely cranky.  After looking it up online and reading that many children have had emotional problems on it, we quit giving it to the girls.  So they did not get yesterdays dose and today they are much more tolerable.

JC woke up today with a fever.  He had scheduled today off to get some work done on our van.  Instead he rested and is feeling better this afternoon.  I still have a cough but it has lessened greatly the last two days.  Cait and Lily's noses are still faucets. {yuck}  Cam seems to have gotten of the easiest and has really only a little fever for a couple days.  And of course there's Bren.  He says he's not getting sick.  And he hasn't yet.  I hope he doesn't!

So, here are some pictures from our flu season.  Cam needed something to keep him busy for awhile so he was tasked with cleaning out the storage containers.  I told him sorting was his math lesson for the day.

We braved a quick trip to Tulsa last weekend.  I was doing better and the kids hadn't gotten sick yet. We did not know I had the flu!  But we got to see JC's brother and celebrate Alex's 4th birthday!

Cait has been artistic and drawing a lot.  I think she does pretty good for a two year old!  Above is a person "with shoes on" and below is a jelly fish.  I am not sure why she is drawing jelly fish but that is her favorite thing to draw.

Thankfully we've had some pretty nice days.  The littles have been getting outside when they feel up to it.  I love how the girls are becoming friends.  Cait has been especially lovey-dovey with Lily since she's been sick.  She has told Lily that she loves her several times while hugging her.  It is so precious!

Lily has been more clingy than ever.  So when she finds something to keep her happy, I just go with it.  Like dumping sesame seed crackers and playing in them.  Whatever.

It's been hard around here lately.  It's not been pretty.  Dishes have stacked up and laundry spilled over.  We had three house showings in the middle of all this. But I've been trying to find some beauty in this mess.  Like when I was sing bedtime songs to Cait and she said, "quit bugging me" in her sick little voice.  It was quite cute!

An update, Cait's fever is back.  Hopefully not for long!