Health?

Well, as promised but very late, a little about what happened that fateful day. The baby had been waking up with what I can only call "goop" in the corners of his eyes for a few days. No biggie, I get those sometimes - everyone does, right? Well, I guess this wasn't normal "goop"! LOL I can laugh about it now, but then it was a little scary. The night before we went to the doctor his eye started swelling. It looked like a black eye, except it was a reddish color. Pink eye was out because his actual eye was clear. He had a mucous like substance stuck to his eyelashes in the corners of his eyes, and his eye was swollen. I thought maybe it was sinuses and put a warm compress on his eyes. That seemed to help a bit, and he went to sleep.
The next morning he woke up unable to open one of his eyes. The mucous kept the eye shut. It was a little swollen, but definitely stuck shut like glue. By then, the water had stopped working, so I was pouring water out of the brita into a pot to warm it for a washcloth so I could wash away the mucous! It sounds ridiculous, but it all seems to happen at the same time.
What happened to the water was unexplainable by me. One minute the shower was fine - it was off, The next minute it was pouring water from the faucet at full blast with all the knobs in the off position. I had to turn water to the house off, there is no shut-off for that one room. So, we were without water. I guess I could have turned it on in an emergency, like if the brita ran out (ours holds 2 gallons), but we also had bottled water left over from the party, so we were drinking from that. My husband came home the next night to fix it for us.
So I took the baby to the doctor and they diagnosed an eye infection. She gave us a topical lotion to put inside the lower lid that cleared up the infection almost immediately. Both he and I were very glad for that!
That's all for now - coming soon, a post about our moves to eat healthier.

With God's Love and Grace,
OneChristianMom

A Cute Side-note

My younger son has an eye infection and we lost water yesterday, so today has been a less than typical day, I was just checking my email and wanted to post a quick note - I will post more on this day's goings-on hopefully tomorrow when things are hopefully back to normal.

My 3 yo son said the cutest thing today. He was pointing to his belly button. He happens to have a half-innie which is actually almost flush with his stomach. He got the idea that it looked like a ladybug. He said, "Mommy, this is my chest, this is my tummy, this is my belly-ladybutton." I said, "Your what?" He said, "My ladybug-button. You know the thing that looks like a ladybug that sits on my belly!" I wanted to laugh so hard, tears were rolling down my cheeks! I just thought that was so cute!
In hopes for water!
One Christian Mom

Birthday Party

My daughter's birthday was last week, and this weekend we had the party. It was originally planned as an outdoor party at our church's playground. I had an alternate rain location set for my house, but was SURE we weren't going to need it. Guess what?! It rained, and rained and rained. I had to rack my brain for what to entertain the kids with :) Originally I had planned sidewalk chalk drawing contest, a pinata, use of the playground, a bbq, and other outdoor-type activities. Well, that was going bust.
So, I called my sister who always has great ideas! She suggested party games such as pin the tail on the donkey and musical chairs. Then we came up with the idea of an indoor picnic. I put all of the snacks in baskets lined with paper towels, I put a tablecloth on the floor for the kids to eat on like a picnic, and we still had hot dogs and hamburgers as standard fare.
The kids played games, used my kids car track and other sharing toys. The men cooked outside under a rigged tarp. The women watched the kids and helped me with the games. We all had fun! :-)
My daughter received many wonderful presents, even though we had stated that no gifts were required. I felt funny asking for presents in this kind of economy and knowing the trouble some families are having right now. My daughter told me it's ok, all she wanted was her friends all to come and play and have cake with her! How wonderful is that. But - she did receive presents, and they were wonderful. Some arts and crafts things, some imaginative play things, and some outdoors things. Oh, and some things to help make her more beautiful! :) My dad decided to give her money in a card so she could decide what she wanted and buy it herself. When she saw the money, she said, "look mommy, imagine all the poor kids I can help with this in the church donation!" I almost cried!
All in all it was a great day, and I am still recovering! LOL One of the reasons we decided not to have the party at our house is that it always takes me about a week to clean up after it and I didn't want to go through that this time, especially being on my own. But alas, it was not to be. So I sit here amidst not-put-away toys and empty baskets awaiting their return to their rightful places and content kids playing with the new toys :-)
In fun and love,
One Christian Mom

A Birthday Tradition

We have a silly birthday tradition around here. Each person in the family gets to go shoe shopping on their birthday. The kids love it. My daughter turned 6 today, and she asked me when she woke up, "Mom, do I get to pick out my own shoes today?" I did not mention to her that we would be going, she just remembered from other birthdays. I love having traditions. Do you have any birthday traditions?

So, our birthday girl's day started with breakfast, she chose cream of wheat. She doesn't usually eat breakfast, and today was no different, but since it's her birthday, she wanted to try. I ate it :-) Then we cleaned up a bit (work does not know it's your birthday). We made birthday cupcakes, then got dressed and ready for the day (yes, it was late, but oh well!)

We went to the park with some friends, and brought them some lunch and cupcakes to celebrate. After the park, we went to the shoe store, where my daughter picked out a pretty pair of pink and white lace up sneakers. Frugal, too - they were on sale :-)

Then we came home and rested up a bit watching a favorite show. Then we prepared dinner. We are about to sit down to eat now, pizza by request. Then it's off to church, where I am sure she will tell anyone who will listen about her birthday! LOL All together a pretty good birthday.

With Love,
One Christian Mom

A Conversation With the Lord

Bren over at http://piecesfromme.blogspot.com/ recently posted about sitting quietly and waiting on God for His word. It made me remember a recent conversation I had with the Lord. I believe we can talk with Him, and I do hear Him in my heart from time to time. Not as often as I like, but sometimes I feel like I keep busy just to not hear Him, maybe because I don't want to hear what He has to say. Here was my conversation.

Me: "Lord, why can't my husband change? Why can't he get his priorities straight? Why..." You get the idea, it gets kinda personal and I don't want to "air" everything, etc...
The Lord: "You are my child and I will take care of you."
Me talking back to the Lord *shamed*: "Lord, I didn't ask about me, I asked about him."
The Lord: "He is also my child, I will also take care of him when he is ready."

OK, I get the point. BE PATIENT. I think this is either a test or a lesson, because for anyone who knows me, I struggle with patience. SOOOOO, at least I got it out, I heard from God, and I know that in due time, things will be right.

I wish I had more words of wisdom, but usually I am the one receiving the wisdom! :-) I guess the wisdom here is, if even I can hear from the Lord, you can too!!!!! So try it. He wants to hear from you. HE LOVES YOU!!! So talk to him, then sit quietly and wait. Let me know what you hear :-)

With God's love,
One Christian Mom

A Trip

Well, we just found out we are going on a trip! It will be a super-long one, too. My mom has sent us tickets to go see her! We haven't seen her in almost 2 years, which is WAY too long. My Aunt had some frequent flyer miles saved up, and she graciously used them to get me and the kids tickets to go there for the family reunion. The problem was with blackout dates and whatnot, we could go for either 4 days or 3 weeks. So, we chose 3 weeks. Unfortunately, hubby is not too thrilled with the idea, but in the end, it is better if we go. Maybe he will start to realize that he really does miss the kids (and hopefully, me).

He is still on and off the wagon, at least in my opinion. Of course, he won't admit to having been drinking, but I can smell it, and also a person acts differently when consuming alcohol. I pray he stops, I pray he accepts God's grace, and I pray he will come back to us.

That is what has been on my mind today, as he visited briefly with the children today. They need him so much, and he spends more time with them now than he ever did, but it's still not a normal relationship between a father and children. I am thankful that they now have solid playtime with him, though.

God bless, and I hope you have a wonderful Lord's Day!
One Christian Mom

A Few Updates

I really need to be better about blogging! Now that I mostly leave the computer off, when it is on, I have my list of stuff I want to look up, but I never put blogging on the list! I will be better!

So, since the last time I wrote, my daughter had some testing done. She had a stomach-emptying scan done, and also a stool sample taken for digestion. Both came back "within normal range", which means we are back to square one as to why she is still not gaining weight, and occasionally still sick. But, on a brighter note, she is no longer fighting me on taking her "tubie drinks". It was explained to her several ways, and she always refuted it. We even went the "if you don't get them, you could eventually die" route. Her response was, "well, being with Jesus is a good thing, right?" ROFL! Kids are so innocent and faithful :-) So we let her know that her brain couldn't develop normally without food, and since she doesn't eat, she needs the tube feeds as her food. Her brother would soon be smarter than her. WELL, THAT DID IT! :-) She takes them now with no argument.

My kids have been better behaved, and I have not been yelling as much. We went back to the "1-2-3 Magic" program, which is working wonderfully. I don't like time-outs, but they work, so we're sticking to it. I am also employing the idea that if I start to hear myself yell, I stop. I regroup, then I state what I want. So if Son is hitting Daughter, I start to yell "Don't hit your...". Then they look at me. This gives me time to regain my composure at least. I then quietly send my son to his room for 3 minutes (one minute for each year of life) to figure out why he was sent to his room. When he comes out, he apologizes (or not, but usually he does) and they go back to playing. MUCH EASIER than the yelling lecture! :-)

We are weaning the "baby" (who is now 18 months) from his bottle. I say we, like there is anyone else doing it... *laughs at myself*. Everything with the kids is in 3rd person, I get so used to it, I forget to switch back when talking (or writing) to adults. LOL Anyway, I am weaning him because he started asking for them. He used to have one at naptime, and one before bedtime. Now, he asks for them throughout the day. I had to get rid of them altogether, I am an all or nothing person. If I give him one at bedtime, there is nothing stopping me from giving him one in the middle of the morning. So off they went. He isn't doing so well with it, but I know it's just a matter of time before they are all together forgotten.

I have been keeping very busy, trying to learn a few new crafts. Hand-sewing, which is progressing slowly. I am starting with turning a pair of ripped jeans into shorts. They have holes in the knees, and would have been donated, but I decided to make a project out of them. Also, I have started needlework, which I am enjoying. Crocheting as usual, and starting my Christmas stitch list.

Well, hopefully I will write again sooner than 3 weeks!!! Thank you all for keeping up with me even in my sporadic writings. :-)

With Love,
One Christian Mom