Where the highlights are few and far between.

Do you know what shuts down the plans of a nice spring weekend like nobody's business?

Strep throat. 

Before early Friday morning when Joshua became victim #1, I had envisioned lots of good things for the weekend.  We had just made it through a tough week while Jason was in Las Vegas for his conference. I had a real hard time with the whole thing because he was so busy and then the three hour time zone difference was a real bugger. He would have a few minutes to talk so we would Face Time for the kids but it left me totally lonely and tired and stressed and missing him by the time he walked in the door on Friday night. 

But instead of anything fun, we spent Friday running to dr appointments because I have seen enough strep throat to call that one when I see it, and also that the wait it out approach would take us to nowhere but misery.  Saturday morning confirmed the result of Friday's swab and I got to get out of the house just long enough to run to...wait for it...CVS to pick up amoxicillin.  It was a thrilling Saturday morning. Nothing like strolling the Arts Festival in Lewisburg as I had hoped.  Or taking the kids to a birthday party they were invited to. Or playing with Cooper and Kinley like we wanted to. 

Saturday evening, just when Joshua was starting to get back to himself after  a few more doses of medicine, Lauren made an ominous annoucement that it hurt when she swallowed. I tried a pre-emptove strike with a dose of Motrin, but her screaming fever led me to a night vigil with her from midnight on. God bless her heart-- she was just miserable. She rested and whimpered as long as I was rubbing her arm. Which was fine except, exhaustion. 

We got up this morning and decided to try out the Careworks Urgent Care in Danville because, well just see above for the part about waiting leading to misery. Mara, Lauren and I headed there and within about an hour and a half were seen, strep tested and verified by a PA. Because two trips to CVS for the same blasted bottle of amoxicillin would just have been more excitement than one Mama should be allowed in the span of 24 hours, we sent Jason to collect the pink medicine while I assumed the position of couch snuggler. I eventually managed to get her to the chair because her fever  was starting to make me think I was in one of those hot yoga classes where you would never in a million years catch me.

The only good news is that I finished two whole books this weekend. If that doesn't tell you how much time I spent sitting with the germ machines, I don't know what will. 

I did manage to cook a yummy dinner of spaghetti and salad and garlic bread, and some homemade apple crisp to use up some apples thst were starting to think about checking out on me.  This effort was negated by a house fire call that had Jason gone from 5:30-9:00. But hopefully it tasted good to the kids.

We now lie in wait for the third and final chip to fall. I feel like once you have two siblings in the same household with positive strep tests, CVS should throw in the third bottle of amoxicillin as a door prize. 

Mara's Morning

I love my morning time with Mara after the rat race that is getting the big kids out the door to school. We aren't in a huge hurry, and we just go about our morning chores together, talking and singing (and usually giggling) along the way. I adore this girl- hard headed and stubborn as she may be. 

So here is a peek into our morning today.  

She picked her Pop Tart for her breakfast. She also picked the Sofia plate to eat it from after inspecting each of the other 37 plates in the cupboard, all of which would have worked just fine. But did I mention she is particular?

Then she worked on a bit of makeup.  She loves to do her makeup when I do mine. And I sadly thought, after snapping this picture, that in the blink of an eye I will be helping her do her makeup for the prom. Goodness...my heart. 

And then, while I made our supper, she worked in her Play-Doh kitchen to make meatballs. She advised me that they take a long time to make and I will have to be patient. 

Next year, she will begin preschool and our mornings together will be a little more structured. So for now, I'm soaking this up. 

Well...this day isn't working out as planned.

Puking wake up call #2 came at 3:00 this morning when Mara's bug caught up with Lauren. Over the course of the next 45 minutes we went through the eqivalent of an entire laundry basket of clothes between the two of us, as well as blankets, towels and the like.  

To say I am tiring of this is...well...truth. 

We were supposed to be in Lewistown this morning, enjoying a special two days with our favorite people there. The kids are all disappointed, although not half as much as I am. I really, really needed some time at home. We are still hopeful that maybe tomorrow we can make a trip for the day, but we need a miraculous turnaround in our sweet girl before that is a possibility.

Easter Parties!

I love so much the openness of having parent volunteers at the kids' holiday parties at school. They have become some of my favorite days- mostly because they are also among the kids' favorites. I know the days are likely numbered that Joshua will think it is cool to have me there with him, and so I relish these holiday celebrations while they last. The only challenge I seem to have with the parties is how to fairly divide myself between both classrooms when the parties happen simultaneously. And life will really get interesting once we add a third classroom to the mix. But for yesterday's festivities I only had to divide in half, and it worked out just fine. 

I started in K4 and did a lot of jobs with the other parents like counting and hiding Easter eggs and cleaning fruit. We also prepped the resurrection buns that the kids were going to make. Some great conversations took place with the ofher parents in the class-- always a blessing to get to know the other children's families-- particularly since the same kids tend to be together in the same class from preschool through to graduation at Meadowbrook. 

After all of that, I headed to 2nd grade just in time for their egg hunt. This is where things started to get a little interesting. After finding all of his eggs, Joshua had one that was taped pretty heavily, and so he decided, in his infinite 8 year old wisdom that has no appreciation for things that can get you sent to the ER, to use his scissors to try to break the tape. He failed miserably at that, but did an outstanding A+ job of slicing his finger open. He came to me calmly and mentioned that he thought he cut his hand. When I saw the blood pouring from it, I said, "Yep, you sure did!" and promptly carted him to the nurse's office. After about a half hour of firm pressure and no less than 87 gauze pads, we got the bleeding stopped.  They didn't think we needed stitches, which sounded fantastic to both me and Josh since that's where I think we both figured we were heading.  He was wrapped up like he had cut off a finger and we went back to the party. Good grief. 

After I returned to K4, Lauren was enjoying her resurrection bun (the marshmallow they had wrapped inside their roll had disappeared...just like the empty tomb) and then we got ready to play some games. The kids absolutely love playing the games and I love hearing their giggles. 

School was dismissed at 11:30, so Josh headed home but Lauren opted to stay with me because of her ballet class at 4:45 and really, how many back and forth trips between Lewisburg, Milton and Turbotville can one Suburban really make in one day. So we got her some lunch (and as a sidenote, this girl must be in the midst of some kind of growth spurt because of all the eating!  She had a full party plate, a 6" Subway sub, chips, chocolate milk and then asked to stop for a donut before ballet. I like food...a lot...but all I could think of was that she was going to regret that donut choice in the middle of the spinning and jumping at Downtown Dance.). While I attempted to work, she was cracking me up by using a sticker pad that has all kinds of funny face elements on her own face instead of the pages in the tablet. She is so fun to be with. Definitely the easiest of our three to bring with me to the office. 

And THAT was our Wednesday.