C’s choice from the library this week was one of my all-time favorite kid’s book- Horton Hatches an Egg. I loved that book as a kid and it has been a very, very long time since I have read it. It was just as great as I remembered!

I got home late this evening from a MOPS meeting. My children were all asleep and my husband was passed out on the couch in the living room. I slipped into the room where my two older kids sleep and took a few minutes to just be there. It isn’t often quiet in our house, especially when the children are awake! But these moments when I can be near them, listen to them breathe, and watch their chests slowly rise and lower with each breath, I am reminded of the great rewards of motherhood. These rewards often get lost in the day to day living when I feel worn down from countless questions and demands on me from every direction. But in these precious still moments, when I look at my kids, I know in my heart they are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Oh my, the children got to play with some of their cousins today at grandma’s house and apparently they found some face paint. C painted herself as a cat with a magical medallion on her neck that gave her superpowers. I love their imaginations and I’m glad they had fun. I am also very, very thankful that it mostly all washed off! Ha!

Just when I had finally packed away all the winter stuff winter decided to show up again. Amazingly it snowed again today, big fat snowflakes, the perfect kind to chase and try to catch as they make their way down. But we spent the day inside, which was’t bad as the flakes went as quickly as they had come. It was beautiful, though.

We spent some more time with the great grandparents today and the kids enjoyed their cousins. When we got home we played games, made a sheet fort, and took a bath.

Baby E has been doing so much better. He has one more day of steroids, and while he is still a little wheezy, it is nothing like it was before. He spent most of the day in a pretty good mood and didn’t really struggle to breathe. I have spaced out his inhaler treatments and he seems to be handling them well.

Sometimes I stop and think about how blessed we are to live in a time and a culture that has so many medicines, and access to doctors and modern technology. How many times have our lives been saved based purely on the time and place we were born and raised? There are so many things we take for granted- clean water, antibiotics, and vaccines (to name a few.) Advanced medicine brought my three babies into the world and has kept them relatively healthy since. We live mere minutes from our doctors’ offices and have easy access to our medications. Our diets, while not always healthy, do not leave us malnourished and rarely ever give us a more serious problem than an upset stomach. There are no lack of options to eat, and even if you do not have much money, there are usually foods you can still afford. We often complain about the taste of our water, but it is clear, and without life threatening bacteria and we think nothing of taking long showers in clean water. It’s not unusual for every adult in a household to own their own car, and more than one family is rarely crowded into one house. We have tvs, we have computers, we have plumbing, and electricity. We have education and information at our fingertips.

So when I am tempted to think that my house is too small or my car is too old or my kids are always sick, I will try to remember perspective is the only thing that makes those things true. In reality, my house is more than sufficient, my car runs perfectly well, and my kids may get ill, but it usually isn’t much more than an inconvenience.

And when I remember these things, I can’t help but be grateful!

This evening we had a very special visit with the kids’ great grandparents from Ohio. Every year they open their home for the massive pilgrimage we all take up there for the family reunion and a few times a year they try to make it our way as well. We love our time together and always look forward to seeing them. It is such a blessing!

It’s been awhile since we have gotten picture with them and all the great grandkids (in our contingent). In fact, the last one we took has less than half of the kids that are now here! Unfortunately the ones we took tonight are missing one little girl who had already made her way to bed. They do, however, contain the newest addition who is only a few days old!

Now, the trick to getting a good picture of 14 grandchildren after 8pm is to not take one at all, but we are stubborn folk and tried it anyway! So I took about 20 pictures and none of them were perfect, but I still think they are pretty great, so I whittled it down to my top choices. (I know, I know, you will love looking at multiple versions of practically the same picture. I mean, who doesn’t?!?) So without further ado…

Micah in this picture! Ha!

As I mentioned, Baby E has been under the weather again. He has an ear infection and a few days ago got an virus on top of it. I had taken him to the doctor because his breathing had become wheezy. The doctor gave me instructions to give him albuterol, which I did all night long and by the morning I thought he sounded ok (not great, but not horrible.) I went to work. In the afternoon I heard from the sitter that he wasn’t sounding too well and after getting to him and listening to him breathe I called the doctor, who wanted to see him, so Tim took him down.

I got C off to church with her grandparents I went to my sister in law’s house to get my hair cut. That’s when Tim called me to say that the doctor said he was very concerned about Baby E and that he needed to take him to the ER immediately. Apparently Baby E was having a real difficult time breathing at that point and was struggling. His little body was getting tired. The fear was that it would get worse overnight and that he wouldn’t have the strength to fight it. He didn’t want Baby E coming home until he was stable. He gave him some steroids and albuterol and they headed to the ER.

After Tim called me and the initial shot of adrenaline at the sound of ER quickly passed, I made hurried plans for Big E, grabbed my things from the house and headed toward the hospital. I called family and friends asking for prayer, making plans for the big kids, and then I stopped and grabbed food for both Baby E and Tim. When I finally got to the hospital, I had dried my tears (because yes, I had cried…) and got inside. Tim and Baby E were waiting for an empty room. Not too long after we were taken back and we met the doctor. He ordered a chest x-ray and testing for flu and RSV. By this point Baby E was acting much better and flirting with all the nurses.

He screamed though his chest x-ray and the other tests, and like all good ER visits, we waited forever for the results. And Baby E wouldn’t sleep at all. Around 10pm the doctor came in to say that the flu test and the RSV test came back negative. The x-ray looked ok, he saw some inflammation, but it wasn’t too bad.  He diagnosed him with Reactive Airway Disease (RAD) and said if he develops a pattern of this type of sickness he might get diagnosed with asthma. They ordered a breathing treatment and we finally left by 10:45, getting home well after 11. I got him to bed and set my alarm to check on him a few times in the middle of the night. My in-laws were awesome and kept the older kids overnight so I could focus on him. He didn’t need another albuterol treatment until 9 this morning, so that was a huge blessing.

I stayed home today to keep an eye on him and he had a follow up appointment this afternoon. He saw the same doctor he had seen the past two nights, and he said that he looked so much better than last night. The steroids are working well and I should keep using the inhaler. It will take a few days for him to clear up completely but we are on the upward side of this. The doctor said he was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t have to keep Baby E overnight considering how bad he sounded last night.

So there it is, the great ER adventure. I spent the rest of today keeping an eye on Baby E and hanging out with the other two. The weather was nice when we got home so they got to spend some time outside riding bikes and jumping in puddles.

I’m praying for an uneventful night tonight and an even clearer sounding boy in the morning. Thank you again to everyone who prayed!

C brought some artwork home from school. She is on the left and I am on the right. With all the lack of sleep lately, I think my portrait is pretty spot on!

I left work yesterday because Baby E’s breathing was sounding pretty bad and I wanted to make sure that I had time to get him to the walk in hours at his pediatrician before they closed. When I got to the sitter, he sounded bad, but he was acting pretty normal. He was smiling and giggling. I called the doctor’s office and they said to bring him in. I called Tim, and since he was nearby, we met and Tim took Baby E down to the appointment. (Since I had done the appointment the night before, and I had plans to get my hair cut, my very kind husband said he didn’t mind going. Had he been far away, I would have gone.)

Once we parted ways I drove the kids home, but I took the longer way that brought us straight into town and towards the bay. I’ve mentioned in the past how much I like living by water. There is something comforting about it, even if I can’t see it. As we came down the hill I could see that the bay was choppy and I pointed it out to the kids. They thought it was neat, so I decided to get closer. We turned down by the boardwalk and we could see that the tide had gotten higher and the waves were battering on the beach.

I thought maybe we could get even closer! There is a road right past the boardwalk that runs directly next to the bay, separating you from the water by only a jersey wall. I turned down on that street and as there was no one behind us, I pulled close to the jersey wall and stopped the van. Then we waited. The water was higher than normal, and the waves came crashing into the jersey wall. The water came shooting into the air and landed right on our van! It wasn’t a huge amount of water, but enough to hear it hit the van and see the water on the windows. The kids loved it. So much in fact we sat there for ten minutes letting the waves hit the car. They giggled and laughed each time it happened and we sat there predicting which waves would hit us and which ones wouldn’t.

It was an awesome and somewhat eerie sensation to be that close to the crashing waves, knowing we were perfectly safe but realizing how powerful the winds, waves, and currents were. It made us feel very small indeed.

By the time we left, the passenger side of the van was completely doused in bay water, but it was definitely worth it hear the kids enjoy the experience so much! And thankfully it rained today and washed all the salt water off!

We are home now from the ER. Baby E was having issues breathing, but they were able to get it under control. It is late and he is finally tucked into bed. Thank you to all who prayed!

Look at that smile! Clearly somebody didn’t get the memo that he was sick.

Baby E, who has been dealing with an ear infection for the past week, started wheezing today so I took him to the doctor. I thought perhaps the antibiotics weren’t working, and he might need a stronger dose. And because of his history with RSV I don’t play around when I hear that noise. The doctor looked at his ears and said he was actually improving, the wheezing was from something else. He listened to his lungs, said he sounded pretty bad, but treated him with a pretty high dose of albuterol. After confirming that that opened his airways, he sent me home with instructions to give him albuterol at regular intervals throughout the night. So, I’m going to set my alarm for every few hours to take care of my little guy. It’ll be like having a newborn in the house, right?!? That’s what I will tell myself as I drag myself around tomorrow like a zombie. Hopefully the albuterol works its magic and I can start easing off the dosage in the morning, but I will wait and see. Please pray my little guys starts feeling better. This poor kid really can’t catch a break and I just want to see him well.