Sometimes there aren't answers to the questions we ask God. Sometimes He gives us that "yes" or "no" or asks us to wait on Him. Other itmes I've discovered that the answers may not come for years, if ever in this life, and it's that last part I'm struggling with. God is good and God is sovreign, but sometimes I just don't get what He's doing in my life and why, and not knowing can be painful. He gives and He takes away, that I know. It's the trusting after He's taken away that is hard at first, even after years of walking with Him. Maybe it's not so much of questioning that He is trustworthy or that He is good, but rather what is His definition of good? This world is full of sin and often sucks, and it's not what He intended, yes, I remember that, but still He allows things to happen that don't make sense.
I know where I'm spending my night, digging back into the pages of His Word, but I can't hide my struggle right now. There's a song with the following lyrics:
Find my in the river
Find me there
Find me on my knees with my soul laid bare
Even though you're gone and I'm cracked and dry
Find me in the river, I'm waiting here
I feel like that fits me right now. Pain lays my soul bare before my God. I need His healing, so I'm waiting.
~H2
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Learning more about being mommy
Doctors must love first time moms. Everything is new and everything is a question. This time it's been my turn. As far as first time moms go, I think I've had it pretty easy for the most part. Other than a double ear infection at 5 months old, H3 hasn't been sick at all. Sure, her nose dripped a bit when she cut her teeth, but that's normal from what I understand and that information was readily available online for my research. Tantrums and pickiness with food have been the worst battles, and my cousins, in-laws, and friends have been wonderful with their words of advice1 This last weekend has been a new challenge.
H3 woke up on Saturday morning with a hoarseness in her voice and a cough that sounded like a seal. When I checked her temperature, it was about 100.7. By the time her nap was done in the afternoon, it was 102.9. Even with Tylenol, her temp hovered around 102, and finally hit 103.3 at 10:30 that night, which is when she threw up twice too. Warm baths and steam helped, but she was still miserable and the coughing sounded awful. She just lay there limply while H1 or I held her, which is a foreign behavior for my very active 25 month old!
Listening to her cough, I did figure out that my little seal was probably dealing with croup, or something like it. My problem was figuring out how to deal with it. A few websites offered suggestions, but my biggest help has come from my dear cousin and a friend from church who has 5 kids. Thanks to them, I feel more at ease while trying to help my little one cope with this. We did take H3 into an urgent care center on Sunday, just to make sure there wasn't a bacterial infection complicating things. Her pediatrician's office wanted her to be seen within 24hours and not wait until Monday (today) because her fever had been so high and she was pretty dehydrated on Saturday. Sunday H3 drank a lot more water, so her temp stayed a bit lower than Saturday. She even played a little, as opposed to laying on the couch and staring into space.
Today she seems a lot better for the most part. Her temperature is hanging around 100 degrees, and she is still coughing and hoarse, but she is more active and eating better. Unfortunately the diarrhea kicked in. Gross, I know, and poor child has been through 7 of those diapers this morning before her nap. I feel a bit more prepared for that though, since she's had a sensitive digestive system since day 1!
Bascially I'm assuming stories like this sound familiar to those who have been moms for a while, but as a mom of just one, this has been a new challenge for me! Now I know what to look for if this happens again, and maybe it will be a little less scary.
H3 woke up on Saturday morning with a hoarseness in her voice and a cough that sounded like a seal. When I checked her temperature, it was about 100.7. By the time her nap was done in the afternoon, it was 102.9. Even with Tylenol, her temp hovered around 102, and finally hit 103.3 at 10:30 that night, which is when she threw up twice too. Warm baths and steam helped, but she was still miserable and the coughing sounded awful. She just lay there limply while H1 or I held her, which is a foreign behavior for my very active 25 month old!
Listening to her cough, I did figure out that my little seal was probably dealing with croup, or something like it. My problem was figuring out how to deal with it. A few websites offered suggestions, but my biggest help has come from my dear cousin and a friend from church who has 5 kids. Thanks to them, I feel more at ease while trying to help my little one cope with this. We did take H3 into an urgent care center on Sunday, just to make sure there wasn't a bacterial infection complicating things. Her pediatrician's office wanted her to be seen within 24hours and not wait until Monday (today) because her fever had been so high and she was pretty dehydrated on Saturday. Sunday H3 drank a lot more water, so her temp stayed a bit lower than Saturday. She even played a little, as opposed to laying on the couch and staring into space.
Today she seems a lot better for the most part. Her temperature is hanging around 100 degrees, and she is still coughing and hoarse, but she is more active and eating better. Unfortunately the diarrhea kicked in. Gross, I know, and poor child has been through 7 of those diapers this morning before her nap. I feel a bit more prepared for that though, since she's had a sensitive digestive system since day 1!
Bascially I'm assuming stories like this sound familiar to those who have been moms for a while, but as a mom of just one, this has been a new challenge for me! Now I know what to look for if this happens again, and maybe it will be a little less scary.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Apple Picking!
This past Saturday, our family (minus the dog) drove a couple hours away into the mountains in search of apples. There are no you-pick orchards in our area, and I have heard good reviews about one in the Blue Ridge Mtns, so off we went! I would have to say our trip was a success and very worth the drive. H3 enjoyed herself immensely, running around the trees and picking up apples off the ground for inspection. We let her pick a few from the trees as well, but left most of that to H1 and myself, since we actually plan on using the apples we bought! H3 prefers to carry them around and eventually throw them. While she loves apple sauce, she’s unfortunately not interested in trying to eat a real apple. Too bad, since I think she’s missing out! This is a very large orchard that has a picking season from July through the end of October, depending on the variety of apple you’re looking for. I specifically wanted Fuji and Granny Smith, since those are what we like to eat and bake (H1 loves eating Granny Smith with his lunches, but I prefer the Fuji and use both for apple pies, dumplings, muffins, etc). The trees were very healthy and laden with the fruit. It was wonderful and didn’t take us long to pick the 55lbs that we brought home.
A few of those are going to some friends of ours, but the rest I’m planning to either dehydrate or freeze (I’ll make up the filling for apple pies and then freeze them in gallon bags, and then freeze some plain slices). At this point, I don’t have all the necessities for making and canning apple sauce. I know I’ll get there eventually, but for the time being we simply don’t have the storage space for the equipment, much less any place to put the cans if I did them. There’s no pantry in this house or even space for one! It’s a great house for everything but that!
I think a good part of the trip was just for some fun family memories. Granted, H3 won’t remember all that, but I have pictures to show her and it was fun for H1 and I to watch her joy and excitement over something so simple as an apple.
A few of those are going to some friends of ours, but the rest I’m planning to either dehydrate or freeze (I’ll make up the filling for apple pies and then freeze them in gallon bags, and then freeze some plain slices). At this point, I don’t have all the necessities for making and canning apple sauce. I know I’ll get there eventually, but for the time being we simply don’t have the storage space for the equipment, much less any place to put the cans if I did them. There’s no pantry in this house or even space for one! It’s a great house for everything but that!
I think a good part of the trip was just for some fun family memories. Granted, H3 won’t remember all that, but I have pictures to show her and it was fun for H1 and I to watch her joy and excitement over something so simple as an apple.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Fall!
October is here and with it came the cooler weather, finally. We've had constant mid-90's since our return from NY this summer, and now it's cool enough (70's and 60's) to get out a little more!
H3 and I have been enjoying daily walks and playing for hours outside. Well, more like her playing and me cleaning up the yard. Although I don't usually mind yardwork, it's not very high on my priority list when it's warm out. We have a huge tree out front that drops twigs and small branches whenever the wind blows, so there's a constant pile to pick up. In a few weeks, I'll be raking up leaves! My mom gave H3 some sidewalk chalk earlier this spring, and now she is putting it to use. She'll make little marks everywhere, then hand it to me for drawing shapes. She recognizes squares, circles, triangles, hearts, stars, and diamonds and can name them. Usually, she also wants me to "draw" a few numbers and the alphabet. At this point, she does know her numbers 1-10 on sight, and can pick out 12 or so letters in the alphabet. She can sing the "ABC" song, but just doesn't recognize all of them on paper yet. Once in a while she'll make an attempt at writing one, but of course I can't make out what it is unless she tells me! Haha!
A week of rain last week caused two football games to be rescheduled. One hasn't been put on the calendar yet, but the other was rescheduled to this past Saturday night. It was an away game, 3 hours away to be exact, and poor H1 didn't get home until 2am Sunday! We had to turn around and leave for church at 8:30 too. He was quite tired that day. The season hasn't been going too well for the team, but H1 says that the kids are learning, so there's a positive side to things. It's been amazing what God has been doing in his life this year, both with football and in school. Two moms requested that their sons be put into his class this past month. Both families were going through separation/divorce and both moms specifically said they wanted their boys to be in H1's class because the boys needed a male role model in their lives. Quite the compliment, yes, but the best part is that it's a tangible piece of evidence that God has him here for a purpose right now! Sometimes that's easy to forget.
The move here was a necessary one for our family because of job situations, but it was hard because we knew no one in this area and have no family anywhere close. Still, this has been a good school system, we have a wonderful church family, and God has brought some wonderful friends into our lives here. It's been just over 2 years since we came here, and it's good to look back and see what He's been up to!
Tonight's agenda is getting dinner together and going to our church home group. We are hoping to go apple picking this Saturday. Granted, we'll have to drive a couple hours since there isn't an orchard close, but I found one that offers you-pick for 50 cents/pound, which isn't bad at all. I'm hoping to get some fuji and granny smith apples. My dad always made the apple pie filling, put it into gallon zip-lock bags, and froze it to use at a later time. I want to do the same thing! Not to mention all the apple recipes I'm hoping to try out!
Now, let's see how long of a nap H3 takes this afternoon...
Blessings!
~H2
H3 and I have been enjoying daily walks and playing for hours outside. Well, more like her playing and me cleaning up the yard. Although I don't usually mind yardwork, it's not very high on my priority list when it's warm out. We have a huge tree out front that drops twigs and small branches whenever the wind blows, so there's a constant pile to pick up. In a few weeks, I'll be raking up leaves! My mom gave H3 some sidewalk chalk earlier this spring, and now she is putting it to use. She'll make little marks everywhere, then hand it to me for drawing shapes. She recognizes squares, circles, triangles, hearts, stars, and diamonds and can name them. Usually, she also wants me to "draw" a few numbers and the alphabet. At this point, she does know her numbers 1-10 on sight, and can pick out 12 or so letters in the alphabet. She can sing the "ABC" song, but just doesn't recognize all of them on paper yet. Once in a while she'll make an attempt at writing one, but of course I can't make out what it is unless she tells me! Haha!
A week of rain last week caused two football games to be rescheduled. One hasn't been put on the calendar yet, but the other was rescheduled to this past Saturday night. It was an away game, 3 hours away to be exact, and poor H1 didn't get home until 2am Sunday! We had to turn around and leave for church at 8:30 too. He was quite tired that day. The season hasn't been going too well for the team, but H1 says that the kids are learning, so there's a positive side to things. It's been amazing what God has been doing in his life this year, both with football and in school. Two moms requested that their sons be put into his class this past month. Both families were going through separation/divorce and both moms specifically said they wanted their boys to be in H1's class because the boys needed a male role model in their lives. Quite the compliment, yes, but the best part is that it's a tangible piece of evidence that God has him here for a purpose right now! Sometimes that's easy to forget.
The move here was a necessary one for our family because of job situations, but it was hard because we knew no one in this area and have no family anywhere close. Still, this has been a good school system, we have a wonderful church family, and God has brought some wonderful friends into our lives here. It's been just over 2 years since we came here, and it's good to look back and see what He's been up to!
Tonight's agenda is getting dinner together and going to our church home group. We are hoping to go apple picking this Saturday. Granted, we'll have to drive a couple hours since there isn't an orchard close, but I found one that offers you-pick for 50 cents/pound, which isn't bad at all. I'm hoping to get some fuji and granny smith apples. My dad always made the apple pie filling, put it into gallon zip-lock bags, and froze it to use at a later time. I want to do the same thing! Not to mention all the apple recipes I'm hoping to try out!
Now, let's see how long of a nap H3 takes this afternoon...
Blessings!
~H2
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