I am glad for many things

I am thankful for the blessing of modern medicine. Sarah has a really intense and very resistant E. coli infection. I am so thankful for the lab techs who discovered the source of Sarah's intense pains. We made 4 trips to the doctor's office yesterday. I was home for less than one hour the entire day!


I'm thankful we already had a meal in the fridge so I didn't have to panic about dinner that night. 


I am thankful that our pediatrician's office has such bright and cheerful decorating in each room to make the children feel more at ease.


I am thankful for antibiotics, even though it's being a slow battle (even after getting a double injection of HUGE doses of medicine. I've never seen such large syringes used for injections before!)


I'm thankful for the colossal fort Nathan built with the kids this past Sunday, because Sarah couldn't walk up the stairs to her room since her legs were so swollen and sore from the injections. She's been living in the fort surrounded by pillows and books for two days.

I'm thankful for ice cubes (what a wonder it is to have ice whenever we need it! Could you imagine being a pioneer? How inconvenient!) that can help counteract a raging fever when Sarah can't keep down any oral fever reducers.


I'm thankful for the Little House on the Prairie books; we've been reading them aloud together to distract Sarah from her pain. I can't imagine trying to deal with this illness in 1840. I'm SO thankful for the opportunity we have to compare our blessings with daily life from the American frontier! It makes us thankful for all the little things- running water, soft beds, electricity, etc.


I am glad that she's been able to finally keep down the first food in 2 days- a vitamin-fortified Jamba Juice smoothie. I'm so thankful that Jamba juice can put an entire day's worth of nutrition in one smoothie.


I'm thankful for all the friends who have offered to run errands to pick up prescriptions or Popsicles- even though I didn't take anyone up on that. It seems like it's always at bad times that I needed something. I hate interrupting people's family time to ask them to do random things for me.

I am thankful for the primitive medical practices I've been learning for fun lately, so I could stay up with Sarah at night and help cool her fever when she couldn't keep down any fever reducers. We had some neat talks while I bathed her skin with water and rubbing alcohol.


I am thankful for Pollyanna's 'Glad Game'. Sarah and I wrote in her journal and listed everything we could think of to be glad about. She's thankful that grandparents are praying for her recovery, and for antibiotics, and for family, and that she can at least use her imagination to distract her mind. 

I am so especially thankful for my best friend, Mr. Kingsley. He knew I was up a lot last night. Even though he has a pressing deadline at work this week, he stayed home this morning to get the boys breakfasted and dressed. He drove Matthew to school and returned home to wash the dishes from last night. He made me breakfast and whistled cheerfully as he worked. I felt so taken care of. What would I do without my dearest friend? In order to make up for lost time this morning, he is working until 10:00 tonight. He is so selfless and I'm so thankful for the way he blessed me this morning! 

Month in review

So much has been happening- and it all seems so overwhelming to attempt to catch up on everything, so I've stayed away from the blogging realm. Unfortunately, I use my blog posts to supplement my hand written journal. I usually write the meaningful, spiritual experiences in my personal journal and use the blog to record the temporal affairs of the family. There's so much I don't want to forget about the past two months, so here's a quick highlight of our happenings while I've been silent online:

In January-

For home school I taught a unit study about the Opera. We did opera puppet shows and filmed our own movie production of Peter Pan. The kids loved it! We studied Mozart and 'The Magic Flute' then we attended the Austin Lyric Opera for a field trip. The girls loved dressing up and eating out at a restaurant together. We really enjoyed the trip and created lots of wonderful memories!

I face painted for the Texas Governor's Inauguration at the capital. We carpooled since parking passes were worth more than their weight in gold for this event. I drove my van- since I'm the only one with a large family vehicle like that- and it was full of clowns. The inaugural party had over 10,000 attendants and served 5-star free BBQ to the public. We feasted and enjoyed our food on the beautiful capital grounds. Most of the politicians didn't bring their kids, so the work load was very light. Too bad my agent booked this one- I couldn't pass out my personal business cards. :(

I felt energy returning after the three months of severe morning sickness, so I felt excited and motivated to get things in order again. Three months of the children foraging for themselves in the pantry sure did a number on my organization in the kitchen. In January I couldn't even see the pantry floor. A dear friend came over and helped me with the task of completely emptying the shelves, washing and re-papering the shelves, and reorganizing the foodstuffs. Ah! It felt so good to get it clean again!

I focused a lot on our emergency preparedness and felt very prompted to start teaching other women about it. I've promised to post the lesson material and 72-hour kit information on this blog---and haven't done it yet. Hopefully I will get to it soon. I taught an evening lesson about family evacuation plans and everything I've learned over the past 5 years about 72-hour kits and how to improve them for your family.

Drum roll please.....

We had our ultrasound last week and found out that we're being blessed with a baby boy!

Sarah with baby Daniel 5 years ago

We are so excited for this special new friend to join our family! Sarah is pleased that she won't have to share a room with a baby sister, and Daniel is happy to have a new friend to impress with his endless antics.

We're trying to decide on the name....and it's taking a long time. Sarah's suggestion was Diego Sasparilla Kingsley. Now the family all affectionately calls him Diego. For a nickname, it has a lot of character. The real name is still unknown. Suggestions?

Priorities

Our family art project this week. The windows are full of hearts!

I've been absent a lot from this blog lately. I've found an interesting phenomena happening this past month. My heart has been changing in so many ways. I think they are changing for the better.

I've kept a printed copy of this talk about priorities in my bathroom for a long time. I would read it and think about it each time I visited the bathroom (which honestly, happens a LOT with this pregnancy). I've also had a copy of this talk about motherhood in there as well. Since I spend a lot of time there each day (I think I would win an Olympic event for the highest number of bathroom trips each night!), I've been getting very acquainted with the gems of wisdom on those pages.

I've asked myself a lot of searching and sometimes difficult questions. What are my true priorities? What do I spend most of my time doing? Am I using my time to focus on my real goals, or is most of my time being wasted on petty distractions? I was disappointed to discover that most of my time was spent on things that don't really matter. (This is one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging much lately.)

I've found out several things about myself this month, and I've made some tough choices that I hope will improve my time management and realign myself to my most important goals.

One of these regards face painting. Remember this post when I wished I could focus everything on aggressively pursuing a body art career? I used to feel so competitive in that market. There was a frantic feeling within me, that I HAD to go to more festivals or I was missing big chances to earn a lot of money. I was constantly thinking about how to get more business. I realized that I was not focusing on my family as much as I should. Prime face painting gigs are always on weekends and holidays- which is the prime family time. I realized that I was missing the opportunity to create life-long memories with my own children just so I could make a buck or two. It sounds pretty pathetic, doesn't it? I thought so.

I don't really care for the face painting gigs anymore. IF I want to do them, I do. But I no longer feel obligated to accept every job that comes my way or actively promote myself or seek work. I'd honestly rather be with my own kids. It's funny- I was hired to work for the state governor's inauguration party last month. It's the biggest event of the year with 10,000 servings of free 5-star BBQ to the public (remember, this is Texas- nothing important happens without BBQ) and prestigious clientèle (who wouldn't love to pass around your name to the state's Senate members and top politicians?). My agent told me it was a big deal to be picked to work for this gig. Honestly- I didn't even want to go. Not a bit. I didn't care how much they were paying me. Isn't that an odd reversal from my feelings a few months ago?

As I've prayed about my true priorities, surprising things have changed. I haven't even read a book yet this year- I feel like there are so many other more important things to delight in. I've started focusing more on helping others, teaching my children the principles of good character, developing my own faith and testimony more, and delighting in family time more fully. I've felt much happier than I have in a while (although, it was really hard to feel cheerful during the 3 months of my hyperemesis...that may have something to do with it!).
I feel more energized and positive as I focus on what really matters. 

Sarah reinventing hopscotch this morning. 

I'm really looking forward to Valentine's Day. The Lovers' Holiday is also my anniversary. It will also be the 20-week mark of the pregnancy: we're halfway done! We also get to find out what gender our baby is (even though Nathan and I already think we know what to expect. If we're wrong, it will really throw me for a loop!)

Tonight my lover and I are going on an early Valentine's date. We're enjoying dinner (if it's my pick tonight, we'll eat some nice Indian food. But I always pick the same cuisine- maybe it's Nate's turn to decide.) then we're going to Latin dance lessons followed by dancing. Doesn't it sound lovely? Actually, I don't really care what we do. Whenever I get to spend time with my darling, I'm happy. Some of my favorite dates were just walks along a lake enjoying the sunset and chatting. Everything is wonderful when I'm with him!

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home...

I love my Mister Kingsley so very much! He's really the highlight of my life. He's always doing little acts that make my day joyful.

I love the fact that he always comes home from work whistling cheerfully the moment he walks in the door. We can hear it from every corner of the house, and the children and I all come running in excitement to welcome him home. I love it so much. Now whenever I hear whistling, I involuntarily smile and look about myself for my sweetheart. He always whistles the same melody when he enters our home. The lyrics start out with I'm so glad when Daddy Comes Home. He really does bring so much joy into our family!

Today it snowed here in Texas. It's a bit funny. No one here knows how to drive on ice, and society literally shuts down after a light snow storm. We had only an inch of snow this morning, but school and work were both canceled. While a mere inch of snow doesn't impress a girl from Idaho and a boy from Alaska, I'm delighted that we were blessed with an extra day together as a family this weekend. I love having Nathan stay home from work. I felt like it was really a holiday! I'm so happy being surrounded by my little children and the love of my life.

I hope your weekend is delightful! I'm looking forward to more cozy family time tomorrow.