Today is Monday and life is....lighting up!

We had a busy weekend. Nothing fancy, but busy. 

Friday night, the weather was warm...too warm for a Bon fire. We still ate homemade chilli with fixins as planned and our nephew spent the night. The boys played video games all-night-long. Emily went to a football game uptown. David and I had a mini date in the living room, which means we spent 1/2 an hour searching for a movie on Netflix...then ended up watching Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection. The two stars it received were generous, however, it was time spent together and there was ice cream!

Saturday, it was cooler. David did lots of yard work and I was getting busy on my pre-holiday to do list. While I was cleaning, I found my Mother's Day present from my mom. A unopened Shark  floor cleaner. I decided it was time to give it a try. After the floors started to sparkle, I noticed the dingy looking baseboards...so I headed to the garage in search of the paint to do some touching up. One thing led to another and a few hours later, I was almost finished. 

Zac had been invited to a youth group sleep over that night and Emily always has plans...so we arranged for Jonathan and his buddy to stay home and order a pizza while David and I got away on a real out of the house, just the two of us, date.  We tried a new restaurant that David had eaten at for a lunch appointment earlier in the week. It reminded me of one of our favorite restaurants in our home town...it was a perfect little Greek dive with souvlaki and chicken kabobs and cucumber sauce...oh my!  And then instead of going to see a movie, which seemed to be the popular thing to do this weekend, we went to none other than ...Target. We only needed cat food, but we gathered a few Christmas presents and Christmas lights and maybe a new iPhone cover and some Reese's peanut-butter trees. We headed home when Jonathan called to say his buddy had to leave. Not long after we had settled into bed, I heard the phone ringing in the kitchen. It was Zac. He was wide awake and  worried that he would be the last boy at the sleep over to fall asleep. He was ready to come home. It was 12:25!  Jonathan heard me milling around and he offered to ride with me. Emily had gone to the 10:25 showing of Catching Fire, so she wasn't home yet. We got our boy and arrived home just as Emily was coming in.... A little after 1:00! 

Sunday, we slept in. We (mostly me and Em) woke up after church had ended. Lazy us! David fixed French toast for brunch. I ran a quick errand to the mattress store. I forgot to mention that on the way to Target, we stopped to look at an inexpensive twin mattress for our bonus room and got talked into hearing about the benefits of hybrids and pillow tops and memory foam. I also heard for the second time that my habit of sleeping on my stomach is altering my life.  Anyway, we only bought the cheap twin, but we had driven the tiny car....so I had to go back on Sunday with the SUV to pick it up. David would have gone....but it was 12:45 and the Panthers were on in 1/2 an hour. Then....we watched and cheered and fussed and stomped and cheered some more as the Panthers pulled it out again.  In the midst of that, I had started pulling out the Christmas decorations. This is the first time in the history of ever that we have decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving. There are holiday knick knacks and artificial trees and stockings in place. The live tree and outdoor lights will wait until Saturday! 

Now it is late. The boys are tucked in and Emily is reading or journaling or doing something artsy
in her room. She has 5 or 6 candles lit and music playing. I'm about to check on her (extinguish the candles and make sure the house is safe) so that we can go to sleep. We have a short week coming up! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. We are not hurried and stressed and we are not forgetting to be thankful!  Feels good!

More thanks....

Rummikub and Boggle.
My game playing girl.
Baking cookies in the kitchen.
Almost no more leaves.
Nana on Thanksgiving.
Mamaw, and Michael and Karen too.
A 2 day week.
Clean baseboards.
Sales and coupons. 
Good smelling candles.
A bubble gum machine and a disco ball.
The leg lamp.
Traditions and kids that say they are important.
A friend with a birthday.
Her whole family.
Boots.
Scarves.
Broccoli Cheddar soup.
Advent chocolate.

Happy Monday and Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Monday and life is....real.

Zac had come down with a fever on Saturday. He felt terrible on Sunday and laid in the bed asleep all day. By Monday night, he had a horrendous fever (although I did not get the exact temperature because we did not own a thermometer at the time) and later that evening I noticed a rash across his chest. It was the rash and the memory of Emily and her run in with strep throat that caused me to move...to pack up my little one and head to the after hours urgent care.  The strep test came back negative, which was good news to the practitioner, but bad news to me. You see, had it been strep throat , we would have left there with either a big dose of Penicillin in the bootie or a 10 day supply of a liquid antibiotic.  Instead we left there with the same virus that we came in with and the promise of at least 5 to 7 more days of letting it run its course. Tuesday through Friday, Zac laid at home on the couch and in the bed feeling puny. He took Motrin every 6 hours to keep the fever at bay so that he could function without feeling miserable. By the weekend, he was not much better, but there was no more fever to speak of...just a worn out little boy who had been beaten down by a bad virus. We gave him a pep talk about heading back to school on Monday and told him to keep his chin up and he would soon be feeling great! 

Jonathan had been complaining about his right foot. Every now and then he would even limp a little. In the morning, he seemed fine, but by the end of the school day, he'd be complaining again. I encouraged him to go easy on it and let's just wait and see. He agreed but continued to say, "Mom, there is something going on here!"

On Wednesday, I was back in my car after running into Home Depot for 15 minutes without my phone. As I glanced at my phone, I saw 6 missed calls and 1 voice mail. The voice mail was from Zac, who was complaining of a headache. The missed calls were from Jonathan's school. When I called them back, they said he had been in the office complaining about his foot. 

So...on that day...we got down to business, finally, right? 

Within 45 minutes, Zac was sitting in front of the pediatrician. The scale showed that he had lost 5 pounds since the night we took him to the Urgent Care. He took a bunch of deep breaths while the doctor, who works with me at the hospital, listened...and then she looked at me...as if to say, "...Surely you own a stethoscope?" My child had pneumonia. No chest x ray was needed, but ...Yes! Finally, a reason for the puniness...and a reason for antibiotics!

By 5:35, Jonathan was sitting down for an X-ray. By 6:00, he was heading home with the results, a strained ligament in his foot and a boot to wear for the next 3 weeks. 

Sometimes, I totally blow it. I miss it completely. My children are so forgiving and they get me in my mess. They are doing much better now. Zac is perking up, fighting with his siblings again and that sounds almost sweet to my ears. Jonathan hates the boot and only wears it when he leaves the house, but he is much more careful and cautious with his activity. 

Sometimes, I want to write about only the good stuff when I get it right every time, but real is real...and real looks messy.  I am grateful that everyone is healing. I am not a lousy mom or a lousy nurse. I am moving ahead with more experience than I had before. I am learning to listen more carefully and bring my stethoscope home from work...and keep a thermometer some place that I can remember.

Life is real...and full!

Have a wonderful week!