Variations on a Theme.

The past two weeks have been interesting. All the three boys contracted a nasty chest cold that left them with fevers and coughing. All through the night the boys were waking from their coughs and needing medicine to reduce their fevers.

And then there's the baby. He was struck with his first double ear infection and antibiotics. He was, after all, worthy of the antibiotics since he had been sick for over a week and wasn't getting better.

Combine the sickness with daylight savings and....

....WHAM!!

NO SLEEP!

Between the coughs, fevers, and ear fluid causing infection, daylight savings caused an already sleep-deprived family to new levels of...well, depravity.

Last night was the kicker. The baby woke, as he does, and I fed him. Then, even though it was only 3am, I laid him back in his crib to hear a symphony of babbles, bubble blowing and growling. It went on, and on, and on. I did the only logical thing a mother in my situation could do, which was to nurse him to his heart's content until he fell asleep. The only problem is that nursing that much has a tendency to cause projectile spit-up and wet jammies and sheets.

You see the picture I'm painting, right?

Anyway, it was well after 5am before the baby was back sleeping. Half dreaming and half awake from the endless baby noises, I had the distinct thought that if a child were raised in the jungle as the famous Man Child was, he might, in fact, sound like the baby did last night. He does his fair amount of growling, after all.

My thoughts then wandered and I wondered, if a child were raised by a pack of wolves as opposed to a tiger, perhaps he might howl instead of growl. We hear about children who we suspect may have been raised by a pack of wolves, but I have yet to see any headlines. My baby growls, and my older two do have a tendency to behave like wild animals on occasion, but I'm afraid I have to bear (Ha! Pun!) the responsibility for that one.

Come on, boys, Pop Tarts for breakfast!

The Rocky Road to Dublin

Am I the only one who really, really loved Sherlock Holmes?

I loved it. The musical score is on my iPod, my text message notification is The Rocky Road to Dublin (the song in the video), and I am genuinely looking forward to the sequel, which comes out on December 16th. 

I may, or may not, like the movie based solely upon the leading actor, Robert Downey, Jr. The jury's still out, but I might have been the only one that saw Iron Man 2 in the theater, and Robert Downey, Jr. seems to be the common denominator. 

Before you write me off for good, I swear my motives are purely innocent, Watson. This is just cool. 

Yeah, cool. 

Mouthpiece

It's big news right now that the Duggar family is expecting their 20th child. It seems that while their family is overjoyed with the news, everyone else feels they need to criticize them. One particular comment that seems to be recurring is calling Michelle Duggar "selfish," for being "not happy with what she has," "making her other kids raise the little kids," comments about her health, and being "excessive."

How can we call a woman selfish who sees every child as a precious gift from God? How can we call a woman selfish for joyfully enduring months of exhaustion, sickness, fatigue, and the physical tolls of pregnancy? How can a selfish woman cope with labor, delivery, recovery, and then months upon months of breastfeeding, sleepless nights and diaper changes?

Most importantly, how can we call a woman selfish when she does these things because she believes it is her purpose, when it fulfills her because she is upholding her belief that all life is sacred, and she has been abundantly blessed for recognizing it?

This husband and wife have given everything of themselves not only in giving their children life, but to provide and educate them through the example of Christian service; putting others before themselves as Christ did.

Say what you will about the Duggar family, but selfish? No way.

A Month in.

I got a text from Mark last night telling me that he met his requirement for billable hours for the month. He completes his first four weeks at his new job tomorrow. He texted me because he was out of town and spending the night in a hotel. In four weeks, he has been on business out of state, stayed in two different hotels, been up all night working twice, and has put easily over 700 miles on his car.

Sounds intense, right?

One might think. Then, when added to additional stress of putting our house on the market, arranging to move to a new house,  as well as mishaps with our car, living without our belongings, and having three busy boys in general, you'd think we'd be on the brink of a breakdown.

We're not.

I cannot adequately explain how happy we've been this past month. Despite some stressful situations and (literally) sleepless nights, we are content. All it takes is for me to look back at our life a month ago today. There we were, in a house that wasn't ours, a town where even after a year we knew only a few people, and days and weeks gone by with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and general feeling of loneliness and isolation.

Here we are, a month in, and the month of "Thanks." I can tell that my children are happy. I know I am happy. Surrounded by family and friends, we are very thankful that our journey has brought us back right where we started.

Happy Friday.

Milestone.

***Attention** **Attention***

We have a LOOSE-TOOTH in our family! The FIRST loose tooth!

Bring on the Halloween candy!