A Tough 4 Weeks

The title of this post is lacking creativity but then again so is my brain! It really has been a tough 4 weeks. My household has been battling sickness for the last month and I am soooo SICK of it...(no pun intended)! When we were away in Toronto both of my family members came down with strep throat. Needless to say it was a horrible flight home for our 4 yr old but like always she is a real trooper. She barely complained at all. After we got home I got her into a doctor right away and she was put on amoxicillin and after day 2 she was ready to go. My dear hubby on the other hand took 6 days of the same antibiotic and NOTHING! Poor guy had to suffer until we could get him in to see our doctor. As it happened our family doctor was away and because of this we had a strange blessing. Mike (hubby) was able to see a different doctor who explained why he always gets so sick. I was quite concerned because if someone gets a cold he will ALWAYS get it and for him it just hangs on for so long! When we were in college I felt so bad for him because he was sick so often. No one was more frustrated about it than him. Anyhow, back to the strange blessing. During his visit with this other doctor he learned more about the effects of his medical condition. Mike's blood is absent IgA (immunoglobulins) basically you (I am assuming) and I have the antibodies present to fight off upper respiratory infections whereas Mike's blood does not have this. So every single little "bug" that he comes into contact with sticks. This is horribly inconvenient for us because we have a kiddo who attends day care and soon school where parents will still send their sick children knowing they are not well. I am sure they have their reasons but it sucks for us. Yet, the blessing comes because now that we are fully aware of why he easily gets sick, we are able to take the proper measures to help build his immune system. We are not a family who enjoys taking medications so we will up the anti oxidants by eating certain berries, taking oil of oregano and different natural remedies. Also, we will be telling ANYONE who is sick and out to just GO HOME! People are just not aware that they may be harming someone else by being out while sick. I understand that some people may not have a choice and that they may have to work but I am sure something could be done.

Anyhow, it has been a tough 4 weeks because so many people around my town are sick and do not have enough common sense to just stay home or keep their kids home. Our 4 yr old has been sick for the 3rd time now in 4 weeks and thus has given it to her Dad. I have managed to stay healthy...until now. I am getting over a cold that I just got the other day but I am happy to report that I am feeling better. Yet because of this cold I have been sleeping in a different room than Mike and that is not ideal. We have decided to keep our little one out of day care since we are so close to leaving on holidays and we just don't want to risk her getting something else to share with us. Could you please pray for us? Pray for health and safe travels. We leave really soon and we are very excited to be going. Also pray for this new baby growing. We were able to hear the heartbeat and the doctor was able to get a reading of 147 beats and she said it was a nice strong healthy heartbeat. For this I am thankful. God is good.

Since I don't think I will get to post anything until I get home, have a wonderful summer and remember...if you are sick...STAY HOME! :)

Getting Close

Hello Blogger Family,

I just wanted to drop in and say how excited I am that my holiday time is so close. It has been really busy around here lately with the flooding and everything else ministry related. I am looking forward to hitting the road with my family. It should be a good time. I have to admit that it is really hard to get into the office when our summer so far here has been so gorgeous! We have had so many hot and sunny days that sitting in an office is torture! However, there is so much to do before we go that we have to be at the office preparing for our departure. We leave pretty soon yet the list of tasks that needs completed before we leave seems super long. We are just taking it one day at a time. Today's work day was pretty good. We went to the larger city from here which is only about 1hr away and we shopped for new shelves for our food bank. We had lunch in the city and came home in time to pick up our daughter from daycare. That was a fun work day. When we got home my 4 yr old helped me make a yummy lasagna full of veggies and some ground turkey. It was really good. This reminds me of a funny I want to leave you with:

At the supper table our daughter was telling us all about her day at daycare. She told me that at quiet time she went to lay down but a boy named Devon tried to steal her mat. She said he didn't like her because when he was laying down he "gave her a dirty face." I couldn't help but smile...Even now I am smiling. He didn't give her a dirty look he gave her a dirty face! How DARE he?!? LOL! Too cute. Also she informed us after supper that she is "literally too big for the small potty at daycare because when she sat down on it her bum hit the water!" Kids have a way of really making you smile. Where did she get the word literally from??? Hmmmm, I am pretty sure I say it....a lot. I am literally going to have to watch what I say...Opps. Anyhow, Just thought I would let you know that our holidays are close and maybe we will get to see some of you on our travels??...Maybe I can experience a little "Hospitality Haven" along the way?...That would be nice. **Wink** Have a good summer.

Silly Hormones!!

So here is something funny that happened to me today. My dear husband took our little dog in to the vet today for a free check up before she gets fixed tomorrow morning. A little later in the day when we had some free time he told me about her check up and about the upcoming procedure. After he was done telling me the information he said in passing "Oh and I signed a form saying that if they get in there and discover that she is pregnant to just continue the procedure." Well THAT did NOT go over well with me! I immediately said something to the effect of "No WAY would I EVER let that happen!" and I burst out into tears. Poor hubby had no clue what he was in for. I sobbed for a good 20 mins explaining that abortion is abortion and it doesn't matter if she is a dog or not. Life is life and life is not ours to take away. Then I went on crying thinking about our poor puppy and how she could have lost her babies if that had happened without me knowing. I was all concerned about her feelings.

Anyhow after my little rant my patient and loving hubby told me that he understood how I could feel this way being pregnant myself and always concerned about the health of our little baby who is God willing growing strong and healthy. Well he has now told me he will make sure to change the paperwork at the vet tomorrow. So if my dog is pregnant they will hold off on the surgery until after she has her puppies. I mean it is very unlikely that she is pregnant but I couldn't bare the thought of a puppy abortion.

The funny part is that those silly hormones made me BAWL...I mean the ugly cry kind...snot everywhere and when I was done I had puffy eyes. I am just glad we were at home and not at the office when that happened! WHEW! I am thinking that if my hormones wern't so out of whack I could have just calmly told him my wishes. As it happened I was a wreck...Silly, SILLY hormones...I won't miss you!

A Chest Full of Pride...In a Good Way of Course!

I am a true Mother. For the last week my 4 yr old (who will be 5 next month) has been taking swimming lessons and I could not be any prouder. She is done as of today and here is what makes me a true Mother...I could NOT sleep last night wondering if she passed this level. I tossed and turned concerned that she didn't have the skills to pass into the next level to become a crocodile. I didn't think she was ready to be in the sunfish level but as I watched her I could not believe my eyes. She was doing fantastic! However I lost sleep concerned that she would not "win the level" as we called it. I wasn't quite sure she had mastered the skills to her teachers liking. I was most concerned about how she would take the news of not making it to the next level and having to repeat the sunfish level. Too funny, when I woke up dead tired to get her ready for her final class, I asked her if she would be sad if she had to do sunfish over again and she immediately answered with an upbeat "No!". She thought I was silly to even ask that. Apparently to her it doesn't matter what level she is in as long as she gets to swim! LOL! I lost sleep for nothing. Oooo if only we could go back to the days where our biggest worry was whether or not we could do a back float for 5 seconds or not!

Ok, so I lost sleep worrying about what? Nothing apparently. The Bible once again is true when it says in Matthew AND Luke: "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" The answer is no. All it did for me was make me have a horrible sleep.

I do want to tell you why my chest is full of pride as I look back at the week. My kiddo was the youngest and smallest in her class and some of the things they had her doing was crazy! I watched as my 4 year old jumped into the deep end of the pool (no life jacket) make her way to the top of the water and tread water for 5 seconds! I watched as she did back floats, front floats, front and back glides, swim for 5 meters, do a side glide and other skills that seemed too advanced for her. Granted she needs to work on the back floats and glides still but I was UBER impressed! I could not believe what a great little swimmer I have. I watched as she dove under the water to find "treasures" we would just call them rings...She really enjoys to swim under the water.

Then came today...After a sleepless night, today is when I would find out if she advanced to the next level. It seems as if I was the only one concerned about this. Her Dad didn't seem to be bothered by it and I must say I was relieved and could breathe easily when my kiddo announced that it wouldn't bother her if she had to repeat the level. I don't like to see my kid disappointed. What parent does really? So the moment of truth the class was taken to the sauna and given their report cards...She came out later with her card and I couldn't wait to take a peek. But her teacher was there and he stopped to chat with us and told us (Dad was there too) that she needed to work on her back float and glides (this we already knew) so I was thinking "ahhh he is telling us why she didn't pass" so with a hint of disappointment (from me) I turned to her report card and glanced down to where it says "Please register in _______________" and I saw the word crocodile!!! Which of course is the next level!!! I was so excited for her. The teacher told us that she has all the skills to advance to crocodile he just wants her to practice her back floats/glides. I was so happy for her. Yet, that was not the biggest reason for my chest full of pride. It wasn't even because of all the skills my kiddo learned. My chest was full of pride because even though I lost sleep wondering how she would feel if she didn't advance; she did NOT! It didn't matter to her. We don't like using the word failing or failure in our house. My husband was taught growing up to reward effort and that is what we do in our house. We told our girl before today that it didn't matter if she won the level or not, we were proud of her because she gave it all she had. It just so happens that I have a crocodile in my house now...Not a sunfish! :D