On My Mind

Today I laughed and cried. A lot. Friday when Jeremy came home he was feeling pretty sick - stomach maybe flue-type sick. Then Cora threw up three times that night, then Katie threw up all over her bed at 1:30 in the morning. We were expecting Sydney and I to catch it, but we never did. Everyone seemed better enough Saturday in the evening. Jeremy was on call, but we had no problems here, so after Jeremy rested this morning we went to church. Our goal was to at least show up and go home with no injuries (it's a dangerous place with three little people). We spent all of Sacrament chasing the three in circles, but we got through it and thought we were OK. Fast forward to the last hour. Jeremy had rocked Sydney to sleep and I was chasing Cora in and out of class. Well, Sydney suddenly woke up and threw up all over Jeremy and the floor. He found me in the hallway, I handed Cora off to I don't even remember who and ran for paper towels to start cleaning them and the floor up. As we were doing that Sydney threw up again all over me and the floor. Jeremy had already used the girls coats to get what he could off the floor, I grabbed the first person I could for help to grab Katie as I hunted down Cora with a vomit covered Sydney in my arms. We cleaned up what we could and got out of there as fast as we could. Sydney threw up again on the way home. Once we were home she would be fine for about 10 minutes, then lose it again. We lost count after 12 times of this. I'm glad she has nothing left in her tummy so she should sleep through the night. I'm optimistic that tomorrow will bring better times. I can deal with a sick baby. But a sick baby with a toddler and another baby feels like a tragic comedy. This is a type of training in patience and compassion I never anticipated. Yet, I really can look on this and laugh, I just cry at the same time. Our weather is super sunny. I love that, but I'm hoping the temp will climb above freezing. It's a sneaky trick from mother nature. You look outside and it looks like the snow is melting. It looks warm. But it's frigid when you go out! However, I am so glad we're getting the longer, brighter days. I even see spots of grass in our once snow covered lawn. What other fun things have happened to us in March? After I posted about making yummy naan, we decided to try it with a chicken tika masala recipe. I should have paid attention that the recipe called for enough salt to kill a colony of slugs. It was SO SALTY!! Jeremy and I both felt like we'd swallowed gallons of ocean water for days. You could taste the salt three mornings later. Yuck. So much for my fancy cooking. I ran a 5K two Saturdays ago. The only way I've been able to get any running in prior to that is if Pele and I go at 5am. It is so hard to get out of your bed at 5! But the mornings I do it I love it. It's so peaceful, I can see the most beautiful stars, and I feel so much better during the day. Anyway, I ran the Shamrock Shuffle on the 19th. Jeremy was my hero and took the girls so I could do it. I was hopeful, but people kept passing me until the last half mile. I just kept going thinking, "oh, well. At least I'm out and doing it." So I was shocked when my time was just under 28 minutes! Then I realized I'd started in front of almost the whole lot of people running and I just kept getting smoked by the fast people. But I'm very proud of myself for what I was able to do. My knees held out (I had to get them checked out, get a couple of knee braces, and get some new PT exercises in January) and I got the T-shirt. I think that's half the part of thing, getting the T-shirt. Other thoughts on the month? Sydney and Cora can now both wave. Sydney's a bit more communicative than Cora. She can do the sign for airplane, ambulance, occassionally "more" and "please," and can get out "da-da." Cora just screams, rolls her tongue, and giggles. Katie picks up new songs and tells stories all the time. They have collectively broken our pantry door, several books, and a myriad of toys. We may be adding Jeremy's phone to the list after it got thrown up on today. We have yet to see how extensive the damage is. If anyone is still reading this, good job. That was a lot to get through. I think I better get to bed before any of the little people wake up sick again.

Photos for the Grandparents

This was looking out our kitchen window a few week ago. I'm SO glad that it's getting warmer!

Look, a diaper party. Don't ask me which one's which.

This was from some time last week. It was nice enough we decided to play with the remnants of last year's side-walk chalk. It's one of the few pictures of her smiling face.

This was today. We reached 56 the last time I looked at the thermometer. So out we went and I thought a wagon ride would get us a little farther than our shared driveway.

However, as cute as they were, this is what I got every time I tried to get them to look at me for a picture.

Nothing says spring fun like a puddle and a stick. Yes, those are pink boots.

She had to keep dancing with her stick in the air, then tell me she was "running amok."

Cora's action shot.

Sydney's having her fun time in the puddle.

And this is Sydney pointing out the helicopter.

Another action shot of the lovely ladies. Everyone was in tears when we had to come in. But I tell you what, there is something amazing about being able to move around outside for the fun of it, not just to keep warm.

The Gillywatt and Domesticity

No, a gillywatt's not from Harry Potter. It's an Arctic bird Jeremy and I learned about this last week. In the short summer of the Arctic it nests high on a cliff. When the eggs hatch Mama gillywatt dives 250 ft below the ocean surface and holds her breath for about 20 minutes to get the fish that her little babies need. Jeremy turned to me and said, "And you think it's tough to feed our girls." OK, so at least I don't have to work THAT hard, but they're also done caring for their young in about six months. (I make no claim of spelling the name right or the details right, I have a fuzzy memory.)

Though feeding time may be intense around here, I have branched out a little more with my food skills. In the last two weeks I added poppy seed dressing and naan (an Indian flat bread) to my list of homemade goodies. Though this made me feel relatively impressed with myself, the Lord has a good sense of humor.

I decided I need to make comforters for each of my three girls. I can sew Christmas stockings, so how hard could this be? Ha, ha, ha. I enlisted the help of a friend who is a good seamstress and she took me to look for material. I forgot that things like that include skills such as matching colors. This is not a strength of mine. I half froze in the fabric store, overwhelmed by how many choices and trying to figure out how to put colors together. So I have somewhat commenced on this VERY intimidating project to me. I'm hoping to be done by Christmas.

Let's just say that mastering the domestic skills is a baby step process for me. Sometimes I pity my girls for my lack of textile skills, but then I remember I can teach them how to build fires, cook some yummy food over a fire, use a compass, and tie some fine knots. I wonder what fun things they will teach me.....