On the Mend... Soon on Our Way

Yesterday was the beginning of the end of the bug my kids were suffering from. It's such a relief to see them feeling better - even if they're still not 100% yet. I'm just so thankful that I might be able to get something done today!

But now that our road trip is much more of a reality, I have a lot of last minute packing to do. And for my own reference and sense of accomplishment, I'll be adding to and adjusting this list throughout the day as I get things done.

Breakfast
Shower
Clean litter box
Pack diaper bag
- camera
- sippy cups
- bibs
- soother
Pack toy bag
Pack first aid kit
- inhaler
- vitamin Cs
- zinc
Lunch
Pack kids clothes
- diapers
- extra wipes
Pack grown-up clothes
- spare glasses
- books
Put music playlists together
Clean kitchen
Clean bathroom
Charge and pack AA batteries
Make bed
Take naps
Feed and water Birds
Dig out coolers, fill one with snow
Pack food
- make salami rolls
- slice cheese
- muffins
- eggs
- pop
- pepperoni sticks
- crackers
- bagels
- cream cheese
- yogurt cups
- pistachios
Dinner
Wash and fold booster seats
Take GG to dogsitter's
Laptop
Bibles
Playpen
Shovel sidewalk out front
Shovel driveway
flashlight
border portfolio
battery charger
inverter
put clean laundry away
Pack cosmetic bag
Stepstool
Kids baths
Put kids to bed
Add water to fishtank
Pack project box
- craft scissors
- pencil, sharpener & eraser
Double stroller
Kids' blankets
Pillows
Travel blankets
Collect and take garbage out
Set up light in birdroom

Emma at One Year.

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

And now that Emma turned 1 year old three months ago, I'm finally getting her picture posted. At least I had it taken reasonably close to her actual birthday (I think I was a week and a half late this time). Anyway, today Emma is 15 months old.

She is quite the character - assessing people and situations very seriously for, perhaps not 'lengthy' amounts of time but, at least longer than I'd expect someone her age to do. I can always tell if some stranger behind me is trying to get her to smile because suddenly her eyebrows are closely knit and perched on the bridge of her nose. At a glance it looks like she's glaring multitudes of evil thoughts at some poor victim, but if she thinks they're ok, she'll instantly switch and give them the most charming smile. Or she'll release the glare, and then do her best to keep herself from smiling and that's almost as amusing as the 'eyebrow' look.

Emma can say a lot of words more clearly and accurately than PC can, but her vocabulary is still far behind his. Among the words that she uses, here are a few of her favorites: Owie, Hehwoah (hello), Mom-Mee!, Mama, Pease!, NaOh!, Nana, thAydeh (thank you), DaDee, dThat, Ohwuvh (Olive), yes, hi-EE, up, dow (down), bay-bee, bah! (bad), back, cug-el (cuddle), joo (juice), deh (drink), purble (purple), moruh!, hat, bonk and MINE! There are a lot more, but I'm having trouble listing them here AND keeping the peace in the living room.

Other than that, well, Emma is by far my most cuddly/snugly one. I love it when she comes up to me and just hugs my legs or if I'm sitting, she'll start sucking her thumb and put her head in my lap. When I pick her up, she almost always tucks her arms down in front of her so that they're wedged between her body and mine, and gives the most intense no-arm hug as she snuggles down as close as she can get. I'm doing a poor job describing this baby love, but it melts my heart every single time, and I love it! As far as quirks go - well, she's a thumb sucker, she is very happy to play alone, but interacts just as well with the other children, she LOVES to dance, and will start swaying, spinning or tipping from side to side within three seconds of the opening note. Another favorite activity - brushing her teeth BY HERSELF. She also does a great job playing 'lion' and has the most ferocious growl roar that she emits as she persues her prey at high speeds on her hands and feet.

She loves the cats and dog, and will spend lengths of time just petting them, or snuggling with them. Her nicknames include, Yum-yum, manna, and most often - Baby. Oh, and her favorite foods are: Crayons, sour cream, crayons, cheese, grapes, pomegranates, juice of any type, cheese, crayons, salad dressing, avocados, tomatoes, cheese, olives and crayons. Did I forget the crayons?

And now I must restore order to the ranks.

Rejoice...

"And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."
Luke 15:9

...Or in my case, "Sir hath found" the missing box of flea treatment. See This Post if you're wondering what I'm talking about.

Sir was working on getting the FM modulator installed in our van tonight so that it would be ready to go in time for our trip. When he had to go down to the birdroom to dig out his soldering iron, he found the box of Advantage. It had fallen off the table downstairs and into the bag that had all his soldering stuff in it.

Needless to say, I was very happy to have the pet medication back again. Just in time too, since the calendar says it's time for another treatment on Monday! Now - it's back to work.

Sick Babies

Well it was inevitable, but I was hoping we'd survive until a later date. After all, we are hoping to make a two day drive by car in less than five days. But how we plan things, are rarely how things go.

Emma woke up from her nap today and I brought her to my room so I could get a few more minutes of rest. She climbed all over me, and played queen-of-the-hanger (more of a battle for possession) with PC's cat, Olive, and occasionally would lay her head down on the bed and suck her thumb for a minute or two before resuming activity. Then she came over to me, and it seemed like she was trying to get into my arms. As I started to move to accommodate her, I realized she was about to chuck her insides outside and with no time to spare, I managed to dodge all of the mess, although the bedding on my bed wasn't so fortunate.

When Emma was done emptying the contents of her stomach, I gave her water, but she kept it down for a grand 30 seconds max. I gave her a bath, put clean clothes on her and collected all of the sippy cups so she couldn't help her self to more torture. Then I tackled dinner, stopping every few minutes to re-wipe Emma and clean up her latest mess. After the first two times, she really didn't have much to throw up, so the messes were pretty tiny. She ate a little dinner, and kept it down until about 15 minutes after I let her down from the table. Then I had to change her clothes again, but after that she seemed to settle down.

And then, just as we were starting the get-ready-for-bed process, PC joined the ranks of the retching. He lost all of his dinner (and he'd had seconds for a change!) and just like Emma, he couldn't keep even the tiniest sip of water down. He was able to warn me, and we made it to the toilet the first time, although, he didn't realize it wasn't over after the first heave, so the second one mostly missed. Once I got him cleaned up, his clothes changed, and the bathroom cleaned again, I finally got the kids into bed. But PC has been up three times now to throw up the tiniest amounts of almost nothing - the poor guy, his dry heaves are so miserable to watch.

And now, I'm waiting for Dolly to succumb. As a precaution, I took most of the blankets away from all of the kids, so I'll have some clean ones if they happen to not make it out of bed during the night. The bathroom light will stay on and the toilet seat will stay up as well.

Hopefully this is over pretty quick. None of the kids have fevers, and the only clues that I had that they might not be feeling well, was a little loss of appetite on and off over the last three days. That and they have seemed a little more tired recently, but I wasn't expecting this.

Anyway, we had plans to drive down to LA starting either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, but if we're all going to be sick, we may not be going anywhere. In the meantime.. well, I need to go make the rounds again, and then I need to change my clothes one more time. After that I can tackle the kitchen cleanup!

But I was wondering... I thought the bug that was being passed around right now was more of a extra-long lasting head/cough/sniffles cold rather than some sort of flu? 'Anyone have any tips on this one?

New Sidebar Link - Check it out!

Sunday night I found this site with a Bible Trivia Quiz section. Anyway, it's been a lot of fun to see how much I do and don't know. And all the answers are backed with a verse, so it's that much better of a learning tool.

So, I've decided to add it to my 'Other Links' with all the other places I like to go to in a hurry. That way I can be lazy and not type out the address each time I visit their site. :)

One To Follow

There is nothing particularly heroic in going with the crowd - is there? If in the street one finds masses of people moving in a certain direction, it is quite easy to move with them, just as a piece of driftwood easily floats down the river, carried along by the eddying current. What tries one's mettle is battling against the tide. It is the live fish that travel up the river; the dead fish go down with the stream.

Some time ago a shepherd was slowly driving a flock of sheep along a country road. Just as they reached a bridge which spanned a river, running in a rocky ravine, something alarmed the whole flock. For a moment the sheep stood still in a state of panic; then one of the number, bolder than the rest, took a big jump, cleared the railing and disappeared. In a flash another had done the same thing, and another, and another, and another. The shepherd did all he could to stop them, but it was too late. Each sheep seemed to be suddenly possessed with the idea that it must be a right thing to do since everybody was doing it. Only a very few were restrained; and in a matter of seconds the rocks below were covered with dead and dying sheep.

What Not To Follow

Do you follow the fashions - and particularly the religious fashions? At present it is very fashionable to ignore the Gospel, and live as though you had no soul to be lost or saved for ever, no sins to account for, no eternity to spend. There is not much virtue in being a mere follower of a fashion which is good. There is a great deal of vice in following one that is bad. There is a commandment, often either unknown or ignored, which runs,

"Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil"
(Exodus 23:2).

Not the biggest of crowds can make right the thing that is wrong.

If you ignore your soul and its needs, you are wrong. If you shut God out of your life, if you treat Christ as a mere historic Personage of no particular interest to you, you are wrong. If you just live for your own pleasures, thrusting your sins into some dark corner of forgetfulness, you are wrong. And it is no valid excuse to say, "Oh! but everybody's doing it."

Who To Follow

And further, let us tell you this - NOT everybody is doing it. There is no case for which it can be said, "Everybody is doing it." Always there are exceptions. In this matter there are, thank God, a great many exceptions. The Gospel of Christ is being widely preached, and thousands are believing it.

Many are choosing Christ today,
Turning from all their sins away;
Heaven shall their blessed portion be.
Where will you spend eternity?

Yes, where will YOU spend eternity? To say that folks nowadays are not troubling their heads about such matters is no answer to the question. You will still have to spend eternity somewhere. When you die, you will not be like the beasts that perish; and because that is so, Christ has died for you.

"There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all"
(1 Timothy 2:5,6)

Seek the Mediator for yourself. There is one God against whom you have sinned. There is one Mediator who died for your sins. May you be one sinner who gets his sins forgiven by trusting in Christ as your own personal Saviour - even as you read this. - F.B.H

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved"
(Acts 16:31

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Romans 10:9-13

BTP #2064

We got snow today!

A whole inch of fluffy falling, wet snow. Until noon - then it started raining and most of it was gone by the time it got dark out. I didn't get any pictures - it wasn't really that spectacular. Instead I enjoyed the novelty of it with the kids. I let them drag their feet coming inside when we got home from dropping Daddy off at work. That gave them time to make some footprints as well as catch and taste a few snowflakes. When we came in, we made paper snowflakes and taped them to the dining room window. I'll vacuum the little paper bits up tomorrow sometime - today was just too full.

Just to see if we'd get any more snow in the next few days to replace what melted today, I googled up a weather forecast and... Well, we won't be getting much snow, but it's gonna be COLD! (at least for our area).

And for any of you non-metric folk out there (don't worry, I'm non-metric :)), that's a hi of 21°F tomorrow, and a low of 6.8°F. For Sunday and Monday, 'looks like it'll be a toasty 12°F dropping to 1.4°! on Sunday and 3°F on Monday.

So, I guess I should find all those little hats and gloves! 'Looks like we'll be bundling up for a few days.

And how well you know me...

Well, the results are in. Below are the answers to the 20-question pop quiz that was my last post. Out of the people who participated, Sir still knows me best :) (I would say that's a good thing!). But he didn't want a prize from me and the kids, so we're going to be catching up to Grandma C. one of these days! Many thanks to everyone who gave it a shot - it was really fun to read the different answers.

1. My three favorite flowers are? Any kind of Lily, Narcissus tazetta flowers (particularly the Grand Monarque or Grand Primo varieties) and Black Locust tree blossoms. (pictured above, but not in the same order)

2. What is my shoe size? 10 - 10½ narrow

3. What day was I born? Tuesday, February 23rd, 1982

4. I predominately use which hand? Left

5. I have how many siblings? Four

6. My birth order? Firstborn

7. What is my favorite color? Red

8. Favorite kind of music? Classical/Instrumental

9. My favorite verse in the Old Testament? Jeremiah 31:3

10.How many children do I think I want? 9 would be interesting.

11.I have lived in how many houses? 3

12.My birthplace was where? St. Elizabeth Hospital in Red Bluff, California

13.What were my 2 favorite subjects in school? History and Literature

14.How many states and countries have I visited? 16 states (WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ, UT, WY, NE, IA, IL, IN, MI, OH, ND, NJ, HI) and 5 countries (US, Mexico, Canada, Netherlands, Scotland) and as Sir pointed out, 5 Canadian provinces as well (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON).

15.I play which instruments by ear? Piano, Violin, Guitar

16.My 3 favorite orchestra instruments are? Cello, Tuba, Percussion (particularly the Timpani drum and the Chimes)

17.I learned how to use an oven at what age? 16 years. (Unless you count the Dutch Ovens, but I didn't really use those until I was 8 or 9.)

18.What color are my eyes? Predominately blue, but are often combined with green and or gray. It's called 'Albertson Blue'.

19.I have broken how many bones? One arm, a fingertip and at least two toes.

20.What is my middle name? Lisa Marie

And that's that... So, there you have it!