Hope you have a gobbling good day!!!
Sarah really enjoyed gobbling hers, much to her brother's dismay!
I have been doing a new Bible study and part of it deals with how we respond to a situation. I am more of a reactor and this tends to get me in trouble. When you react to something, you are letting your feelings dictate your response. When you act on something, you think it through and tend to have a more rounded response. This also allows you time to see God's direction. I have been trying to act more lately and not just react. This is hard for me and sometimes my reactions can come off strong, especially if it involves my children. Satan is trying very hard to be victorious in this area of my life, but I have God on my side and He has overcome the world for me, so I know through Him I have won the war!! Well, Satan is pulling out all of his fire power on this one. It all started yesterday morning. Sarah was being difficult. She has decided to throw everything. Food, drink, toys, herself(in a full blown tantrum). On Sunday night she threw her last unbroken straw cup. These are the $10.00 cups that are hard to find, but are what the therapist wants her to use. The cup broke. So, I am feeding Sarah breakfast, it is thrown, I pick it up and try to figure out how to pack her cup so that it does not leak. She breaks the cap that goes over the top to seal it when you pack it. I finally figure out a plan and she throws her breakfast and another broken cup. I gave it back and told her no, food on the table. We finish getting ready for school. I drop her off and head to Bible study and then home to clean house. Things are going great, get most of the house cleaned and the laundry started. Go to pick up Sarah. She has refused a nap and was misbehaving at one point and ended up in time out. As much as I know better, I really needed to make one stop on the way home. With no nap, I should have came straight home and put her to bed, but that would have been too easy! So we make the stop. Elijah is all into marching men(aka nutcrackers), so I told him we would start him a collection. I decided to start Sarah a collection of snow globes. So, while we were at the store, I found a perfect snow globe. Sarah was helping me hold it. It was playing music and the snow was floating, all was grand. Well, I stopped to pick up something on my list and for some reason I took my hand off the globe. About the same time the music stopped. Sarah took both hands and hurdled the snow globe as hard as she could across the store. Yep, it shattered. I counted to ten, picked up the globe and got someone to clean up the mess. I got on to Sarah. I then took what I had and the broken snow globe to the cashier, it was past time to leave. I handed the lady the globe and said that my child dropped it and it broke, she just looked at me. I then proceeded to say, well, guess I need to pay for it. Now to be honest, I never expected that I would pay for it, they send broken items back for refunds and the only other time I have had a kid to break something, I was told not to worry about it. Well, this lady said, ok. Do you want me to throw it away now that I have rung it up? Count to ten, Robyn, count to ten. Okay, count to 100, maybe that will work. I then said, no give it to me I will take it home. I paid and left the store crying. I do not know what to do about this throwing stage we are in. It is very tiring. We then get home and we have a message that the place that Sarah gets her occupational and speech therapy is closing as of Dec 12. Do you know how long it takes to change therapy? More than 2-3 weeks and at a Holiday time to boot. I was not happy to say the least. Well, got most of that worked out this morning, PRAISE THE LORD!!! It was actually easy. Then today I get a collection call for the same therapy place for a bill from Jan that I just got in the mail for the first time 2 weeks ago! Technically, they are not suppose to bill us for what our insurance does not pay. The state through the early intervention pays the rest. Guess I will handle that tomorrow, I really need to count to a zillion on this one and lots of prayers too!! Well, the kids are crying and being awful, guess I need to go and see what the problem is!!
Wow, there is not enough space for me to begin to list all of my blessings. God has blessed my life in so many ways, and the blessings just keep on coming, PRAISE THE LORD. I can not imagine a life without God's blessings. The Giver of Life wants to bless everyone, we just have to ask. What a loving God. My best blessing is God. Without Him there would be no blessing. He is my strength, my provider, my comforter, my all. He gave me life here and now and eternally. He is the creator of all. Wow, what a blessing of this world that He created and then gave to us. Then He created each and everyone of us and gave us life. I am so grateful for the life He gave me. A life of blessings. I think back over my life and those areas that seem like they were sad or hard, or a bit disappointing, without them my life would not be what it is today. Without my parents I would not have grown up in a loving Christian home. Having a sister with special needs would not have shown me that we are all equal and special. Marrying later in life gave me Doug. Infertility issues gave me the blessing of Elijah. Unconditional love of Sarah's birthparents gave me the blessing of my daughter, Sarah. Without my family, I would not know love unconditional that God bestows on us. Without Down syndrome I would have never understood what a childlike faith is all about and how the day to day triumphs are blessings, blessings by a loving caring Father. Without the stroke and death of my father I would not have known how precious life really is and how much I take for granted. Without that obnoxious bump in the road that we hit in January I would not have known full reliance on God and His blessings to me. So, I am saying that I am thankful for the "hard" stuff in my life, because it helped to mold and make me the person my Maker wants me to be. I pray that God leads and protects me and molds me into His image through my life.
Can you figure out the pattern? Elijah had been learning patterns at school, so everything is about a pattern and figuring it out. This is the current pattern at our house. Pretty, right! Well, last night was not better. Doug continued to talk in his sleep, Elijah coughed so bad that he had an accident in the bed and since he has never had nighttime accidents we do not have a protective covering on the bed. Great, that means his bed is wet and he gets to join us in our bed. He coughed and snored and made all kind of weird noises all night long. I could not sleep for all of the noise. Sarah was the good one in the bunch, she slept all night long!!! Elijah got up and acted fine this morning, go figure. Sarah got up and acted like she just could not make it. She was pitiful. Her snot began turning yellow last night and it was a pretty shade of forest green this morning. So I took both of them to the doctor. Elijah has post nasal drip that is causing the cough. We are suppose to do a nasal flush today. Hmmm, think that is one for Doug!!! Yea, like he would do it. I will do that at bath tonight, I don't think it is going to be pretty. Sarah has a sinus infection. Her ear tubes are clear!!!! Yippee on that, I was a bit worried. She does have ear drainage. So she is on an oral antibiotic and allergy meds. She feels horrible. She does not have any energy. Makes me sad to see my babies feeling bad. We are going to put on our jammies and stay in the rest of the day. I think I am going to go take a nap while the kids do. It might be the only rest I get.
Apparently no one but me likes to sleep at night at our house. Why is it that everyone else is waking me up? Why don't they just wake each other up? Why do they all pick a different time to wake up? Do they each know when the other has been up and wait until I go back to sleep to call out? Do I snore, is that how they know I am sleeping? Seriously, I really think they are ganging up on me. Here is how our night unfolded last night.
10:30 Doug and I go to bed. Both kids went to bed around 8 and are sleeping soundly.
midnight-Doug sits up and bed and starts carrying on a conversation. What? I am a sleep over here. I don't care about those trees. Yes, put your mask back on and go back to sleep. Yes these were my responses. He was talking about work, apparently to someone at work. Then out of the blue he asked if he should keep on his sleep apnea mask. Hmm, yes, you snore without it. Ok, to be honest, I actually said: "Yes, leave your mask on, shut up, lay down, NOW!! He obeyed. Back to sleep.
2am I feel this hand on my arm. After I peel myself off the ceiling, Elijah is crying. I think I scared him. He had a bad dream, so feeling bad that I scared him, I let him in our bed. Why, I don't know. I am bruised from all of the kicking.
4:30 am Sarah is giggling in her bed and talking. Don't know who she is talking too, I think it is the gibberish speaking angel that she has taken as her special friend. They are having a blast. Do I get up and check on her? Yep, she is just a playing and talking. I lay her back down and tell her it is nite-nite time, no playing. Like that works. Ten minutes later she is still talking and giggling. Ok, this would be cute during the day, it is not at night! Ok, Irene stop reading now. Do not read any further, you will not like what I did. I spent the next 10 minutes finding the beloved pacifier. Stuck it in her mouth and laid her back down. I did find the pacifier in the floor and 10 minutes later she was giggling again. I did not go back in, I was too tired and she was happy. She finally went back to sleep. Slept until 8:30 am.
5:00 Doug gets up for work. Turn off that alarm!
5:40 He leaves.
7am Elijah is wide awake. I am dragging out of bed. I am so tired!!
Both kids have acted like they don't feel good on and off all week. Sarah has some ear drainage, that smelled bad at first, but not now, so I don't know if it is infected or not, but the drops will not hurt so she is getting them. Elijah has complained about a tummy ache and then had a flare up of his unexplainable hives. If tonight is not better, I am checking into a hotel I am going to take the kids to the doctor and make sure more is not going on. Doug, well, that is Doug he talks and walks in his sleep. Always had, probably always will!! Want to join the fun tonight?!?!?!?
MINE!!! I don't want to put it on the tree!!!
Nope, going to keep it.
Okay, maybe I will put it on the tree.
Here I go.
Nope, It's mine. I am out of here.
Yep, it's up!!! Elijah loves Christmas. He started talking about it before halloween. I have never decorated before Thanksgiving, but this year I am tired of hearing Elijah beg to get the Christmas stuff out! I broke down last week and took out the decorations. Then we had to unpack them, nothing broken!!!!!!! Then I decorated his room hoping that would suffice for the time being. Nope, did not work. So, I decorated the playroom and bathroom downstairs. That lasted a week. He started yesterday begging again to finish the decorations. I had planned on doing it this weekend, but a friend has been trying to complete her profiles for an adoption and this past weekend her father passed away, so she has been in Texas. I am going to help her finish her profiles this weekend, so the Christmas decorating has to be sped up to yesterday and today or put off until next week before we leave on Thursday to go to Chattanooga for the long weekend. No time like the present. Elijah was so eager to do the decorating that he cleaned up his room and Sarah's room. Wow, if I had know that would have worked, I would have decorated weeks ago! I got the kitchen, dining room, my bedroom and bath, the hall bath and Sarah's room decorated before Doug got home. I then cooked supper and decorated the living room and finished up some odds and ins in the Kitchen before supper. After supper, while the kids were in the bath, I got out the Christmas china and put it in the china cabinet and then got out the tree. I got it fluffed and when the kids got out of the bath it was ready to decorate! Here is the kiddos decorating: (We normally get a live tree that we cut, but the farm we go to did not open this year due to drought. I missed going and cutting the tree:( )
Elijah loves Bibleman. He has the DVD's, action figures, and costume. He was Bibleman for the fall festival at church. Pop-pop knew someone who was having Bibleman visit their church. He got them to get Elijah an autographed Bibleman New Testament. They took a picture of Bibleman signing the book and a picture of Bibleman in action at their church. When Elijah opened the package and figured out what it was, he began screaming, "Bibleman is really real. He is a real Bibleman." He was so excited about it! He called Pop-pop, daddy and Nana to tell them about it. He wants us to send a picture of him dressed up like Bibleman to the real Bibleman to thank him for the package. He told us that he wants to be Bibleman when he gets big. He has such a great knowledge of God, we have talked to him about salvation, but do not think he really understands it right now. He just turned 5, so maybe soon. Here is a picture of Elijah with his package!
What is in my dryer......
This is not the pictures I had planned, but when she did this last night it was just too cute. I will share Elijah's fun tomorrow!!!
What a loaded title! Can you guess what they all have in common? Give up? Still trying? Want to really know? Come on try to guess!! I have not posted a fun post in a week, I have to keep you on your toes!!! My camera!!!! Not what you thought is it? Well, like I said before I really did a bang-up job on my camera when I dropped it. I can not decide on a camera and now is really not the best time to buy a camera. I just put Christmas in layaway at Kmart. So, if you are on my Christmas list, I got it at Kmart. Layaway is a good option this year. It spreads out the payment over time and I know I found just about everything I was looking for. I do have one raincheck, so when I go this week to make a payment I will look for it. Ok, back to the topic. You have heard that duck tape can hold anything together, right? It does! My camera is now working since I ducked taped it. Well, kinda works. I can not remove the SD card to download my pictures, but it has a USB port, so I can download them that way, but it sure does drain the batteries. On my camera I found a few pictures I was not sure the camera had taken since they were after THE FALL! Here they are:
Sarah's piggy tails!! Look how long her hair has gotten.
23 27 hmmm, around 25 steps by herself!!!! (Kathryne can you remember how many?) She was so adorable and very proud of herself!! She is on another roll. She is walking more, doing things with her hands more, and talking lots more!
Celebrations! Here is a picture of Doug opening gifts on his birthday. 
Yep, we have our first cold of the season. Sarah is all snotty this morning. I am already sick of wiping her nose. This is one part of motherhood that I do not enjoy! She is so whiney today also. I know she feels bad. I hope she feels better soon. Elijah is well so far!! I hope he stays that way. Olivia is here today while her mommy is at a class. She and Elijah are playing so well together. Well, got to go wipe a nose, I can see the snot running from across the room. Oh the joy of the cold season.
Sorry I have not posted since Saturday. I am still not feeling the best from the shingles. My energy level is way down still. Today has been a good day, so I am praying that this is the start of feeling better. Unfortunately, I have felt bad for so long that my house is a total wreck. You know it is bad when Doug and Elijah start helping clean!! I have gotten a lot done today and hopefully I can finish it tonight and tomorrow. My dad is coming tomorrow night and will be here until Thursday night when he catches his flight home. He is going to watch the kids Thursday morning while Doug and I go try to take care of that bump(the one I have posted about several times, that just keeps bugging me!) once and for all. I will be glad when it is over. I know God is in control, I am just tired. He has really taught me a lot as we have struggled with this. I started a new Bible study last week called Victoriously Frazzled . It is wonderful and has really helped me with this "bump" in the road. I am excited about growing more as we do this study.
Elijah is doing great. He got a superman costume after Halloween and has really enjoyed being superman. He is so cute. He has about worn out the costume already.
Sarah is doing great also. Potty training is going good still. She has been dry all day today, even through nap time. She still will not pee for others, but it will come. She got scratched again Monday. I was upset this time. I am going to go observe them at playtime and see if I can tell what is happening. Once I know what is going on, then I will start to help Sarah learn to prevent this from occurring. She just does not react as quick as others. We may also need to help the other kids understand when Sarah means no. It will all depend on what is happening.
The camera is broken bad. I can not get it to take pictures. Guess I am in the market for a camera. Any suggestions on a really great camera that takes good action shots that is not too high priced would be appreciated. I don't even know where to start!
Today is Doug's birthday. Elijah was so excited this morning to run in and sing Happy Birthday to him. Doug has not ran a race in a couple of years. There was a race this morning, so that began the day of festivities. It was a family fun run so we all went. Elijah was so excited about seeing daddy run in a race. Here are a few pictures of the race. Doug came in 3rd overall, he stayed with some really young kids. I am really proud of him. I dropped my camera so I have a few pictures of the race, some of them will not download due to the drop I guess. The one with him crossing the finish line is one of the corrupted ones:( Doug is in the pale blue on the far side.
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