Am I There, Yet?

I had the opportunity to go to a prayer retreat this past weekend.  As usual, I didn’t feel like going right before I went.  But, rarely do I have regrets about doing something I know will be good for me, even when I don’t feel like it.  This was no exception.

On Friday afternoon, I went to my mentor’s house with about 10 other women.  We were an ecclectic group.  I was the youngest at 30.  The oldest was over twice my age.  I loved it.  I loved hanging out with women who weren’t in my life stage.  I loved hearing their stories and discovering a common bond…a sisterhood…with them. 

My mentor had us make a timeline of our life.  This project took all afternoon.  We started with a large posterboard.  We drew a line about two inches from the top and four inches from the bottom.  Then we took yellow post-it notes and wrote down every significant event in our life.  I wrote down everything I could remember from moving as a child to meeting the in-laws for the first time.  ;)  Then my mentor had us put them in chronological order and review.  We were instructed to remove every event that was painful and replace them with pink post-it notes.  We then named the “chapters” in our lives on blue post-it notes and placed those on the top of the timeline.  Then, we wrote down significant lessons learned on green post-it notes and put those on the bottom.  It ended up looking something like this (I purposefully shook the camera when I took this picture, ‘cuz I can’t have you knowing all my dirty secrets!  LOL!!!):

After dinner on Friday night, we broke up into smaller groups and shared our timelines with our newly found sisters.  It was pretty amazing.  It was pretty touchy/feely, but in a good way.  It was very encouraging.  Even I got emotional…LOL!!!

Well, now that you know how to make a timeline, whaddya waiting for?  Go do it!  Even if you don’t have anybody to share it with, it can be pretty revealing about why you do what you do and what you think about who God is, etc…

My 5-year old decided she wants to either be a graffiti artist or a closet organizer when she grows up.  She’s learning how to spell and we often hear, “Mom!  How do you spell _________?” and we usually ask her to sound it out and we help her along the way.  Yesterday, she was in her room asking us to spell out certain items of clothing.  After awhile, we asked her what she was doing and she said, “I want to remember where everything goes.”  I went into her room and discovered that she was labeling her drawers with ball point pen.  Her feelings where hurt when I told her she couldn’t do that, but I promised her that we would make some labels for her drawers this week that didn’t involve marking up the wood.  I then documented the graffiti on film before proceeding to clean them off.  I actually thought these were quite comical.

Pants

 

Pajamas (We call them “jammies” around here!)

 

Socks and Tights

 

Even though it may look like somethins else, this one says “shirts,” I promise!

 

We can’t figure out what this one says and neither can she.  Any guesses? 

 

I meant to put an update on my son’s health on Friday, but was out of the house until this afternoon.  Please forgive me!  :) 

Anyways…my little boy is feeling better!  He had a fever for 7 days reaching as high as 104.  On Thursday, the fever went away as mysteriously as it showed up.  There is now laughing and bickering between the kids in our house.  That’s a welcome sound after 7 days of quiet whimpering.  Thank you, all, for your prayers!

It’s good to see his smile again…even though it’s a bit mischevious!

I’ve been going a little stir crazy lately.  I haven’t been out of the house, with the exception of doctor’s appointments, for over a week now.  I kinda don’t mind, though.  I was in need of a break from life. 

So, I’ll bet you’ll never guess what I’ve been doing!  I’ve been knitting!  LOL!!!

I wanted to show off some of my recent projects, and since this is my blog, I get to post whatever I want.  :) 

I made a simple scarf and hat for a friend who watched my kids overnight recently:

Then I made a scarf and matching sweater for my sister-in-law and her dog.  The pic makes it look pink, but they are really made in shades of red:

Then, (these are my favorite!) I taught myself how to make some slippers.  I love these!  I made myself a purple pair, which I’m wearing right now.  And here are two more that I did:

The black and brown ones are made with thick chenille and are super soft and thick.  These were so much fun.  Anybody wanna buy a pair?  I’ll make them special order…any color.  I need to start making some money to support my knitting habit.  :)  I’m going to end up being one of those people who rents a booth at crafter’s fairs to desperately try to sell my goods so I can justify my insanity.  LOL!!! 

Thanks for your prayers for my little guy!  He still has a fever, but it’s lower than it has been.  Hooray!  Tonight it was at 101.1.  This is day 7 of fevers.  Argh!!!

I was doing some random blog searches and ran across this picture from a site called UrbanAddiction.  I thought it was hilarious.  Whaddya think?  Should I go for tat #3?

The poor guy has had a fever for 6 days and it’s driving me crazy!  I’ve taken him to the doctor twice.  They checked him for strep throat and influenza and both tests came back negative.  Both doctors said he probably is just fighting a virus, but to keep watching him.  If he still has a fever within the next couple of days I have to take him back for blood work.  They’ll test him for mono at that point.

Thanks for your prayers and please keep praying!

I am so frustrated!  About 1/2 hour after my last post, my son woke up from his crash on the couch (see picture in previous post) and his fever had broken.  I gave him a bath and then gave him a piece of toast.  He suddenly had energy that I hadn’t seen from him in a long time.  He talked non-stop for almost 2 hours.  I took him to his doctor’s appointment and the doctor said he had a virus and that he’s probably done with it.  He said we probably wouldn’t see any more high fever.  He did say to come back on Tuesday if the fever re-appears.

My baby is sitting next to me on the couch with another fever of 103.5.  I don’t know what to do…somebody help!  He hasn’t eaten anything since the toast this morning and hasn’t had very much to drink, either.  I’m so frustrated and don’t know if I can wait until Tuesday to take him back to the doctor.  Next time I won’t be giving him any Motrin before his appointment so that the doctor can see that he really does have a high fever.

Thanks for your prayers!

My 3 year old is still sick…please say a prayer for him.  He has had a fever since Thursday.  Last night it shot up to 104.  We fought to bring it down for a short time then it shot back up to 103.7.  We fought to bring it down again, and this morning he woke up with a fever of 103.6.  He has a doctor appointment today at 12:45.  Thanks for your prayers!

The upside of him being sick is that he hasn’t gotten into any trouble for 3 days and he loves to cuddle.  But, my heart is so sad for him.  He can’t stomach any food and is probably dehydrated because he’s only taking little sips of gatorade.  My poor baby!

This has been a tough week for us.  I’m still fighting off my sinus infection with antibiotics and other meds.  So far, Josh and our 5-year-old are O.K. (knock on wood!)  But, when one family member is sick the rest of us suffer, too.