An Orchard A Day

We have all heard the term an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but that phrase does not apply to us this week. We are at orchard status! And for all of my good friends reading this who think they have heard the whole story...keep reading there is more!

It all started on Thursday. I went to the dentist for a tooth that was bothering me. They took an x-ray and said I for sure needed a root canal and sent me off to the endodontist that same day. I arrived at the endodontist who took his own x-ray and he informed me that I for sure did not need an x-ray and sent me on my way. I am glad I did not need a root canal but I wasted an entire day at the dentist and now have to go back next week again to get my problem fixed which they now think is just a broken tooth.

Then Friday hit. Charlie left to go out of town for the week. Logan's little face was looking terrible. It reminded me much of when Ethan was a tiny baby and got his first round of eczema. I knew it was more than infant acne but the doctor assured me that was all it was and to not treat it with anything. By Saturday it looked like I had dropped a bottle of acid on his face. He was miserable so I started to treat it on my own with aquaphor and hydrocortisone cream. Within 24 hours his face was almost completely cleared up. So much for listening to the doctor!

On Saturday night I was hit with a major UTI and by Sunday I was in a ton of pain and everyone I knew was at church. The pain was so bad I started calling neighbors but no one was home so I just had to wait it out until my friends could help. Two angels showed up finally and took my kids so I could run to the urgent care. I got all my medication and headed home hoping to not return...boy was I wrong!

Tuesday night Morgan came down from bed crying about her ear and continued to scream in pain for 2 hours. This is after I had given her all the medication I could and tried to calm her down with chocolate, a movie, warm compress, and a back rub. Nothing would work. So I called our home teacher to come give her a blessing. He arrived with another friend who just happens to be our doctor as well and he called in a prescription for her since he thought she had an ear infection.

So Wednesday...I was up first thing to the pharmacy to pick up her medication. At this point I was thinking the craziness had to be over. Wrong again. By Wednesday afternoon Morgan's eyes were swelling shut, bright red, and oozing green crap down her cheeks. I called her doctor who informed me that they would not be able to get her in until next week and my only option was to take her to urgent care. What! Urgent care! Not again! So...back in the car again...back to drop off all the kids at my 3rd angels home and back to urgent care.

We found out that she has some bacterial infection called haemophilus! They now have her on 2 oral antibiotics and another one for her eyes.

At this point it was Thursday and Charlie got home. HOORAY! I managed to survive one of the longest 6 days of my life. Now for sure things must get better right? WRONG!

Sam woke up on Friday with a 102 fever and the tell tale barking cough of croup. If you have never had a child with croup before it is not fun at all. Usually it can clear up on it's own so we thought we would just keep an eye on him and see how he did.

Currently Charlie is on his way to Urgent care for trip number 3 this week! My little man is miserable and having a very difficult time breathing. We hope they give him the steroids he needs to help his little airway open up.

As if that was not all enough, Charlie has to go to the hospital tomorrow for and endoscopy because he can't swallow and I have my 6 week baby check-up on Wednesday.

So....over the last 10 days we will have gone to the doctor 8 times!!!! And that is if no one else manages to get sick and at this point the odds are not in our favor.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that we are at the tail end of all this illness. It has proven to be a very difficult week or so and throw in a new baby and no sleep and 5 kids to all of it and I am pretty much exhausted. I am forever and always thankful to my amazing friends who jump in and help when I really need them. When one of the doctors asked if I had family who could help I paused for a moment and thought and my answer was YES. We have made our own little family out here and I don't know what I would do without them.

Making Dinner Better

One of the things I love about being a mom is when I see something in our family that could use some improving and I take action to try and make it better. Dinner conversation has been one of those things that has needed improvement for awhile in our home. I was getting so tired of all the nonsense noise and silly conversations and banging of cups and silverware. I knew that we could and should be getting more from our time together as a family. So...this is what I started.

I came up with a bunch of questions and stuck them in this jar and came up with a few rules. First, was that a new person gets to pick a question each night. Second, each family member gets a chance to answer the question. Third, no one can talk while someone is answering the question. Third, once the person is done answering we can ask as many follow up questions as we like.

This has been a real hit. Each night at dinner the kids race to get the jar and are so excited to pick out a question. It has made our dinners far more enjoyable and we have had a blast answering some of the questions.

Some of my favorite questions I put in the jar were things like this:

- What was the nicest thing someone did for you today?
- What is your favorite thing we do together as a family?
- Describe yourself in 3 words
- What makes someone a good friend?
- What do you wish you could see from your bedroom window?

When we finish this jar I will just make up some new questions and start over. I think this could be great for kids of all ages and I have loved and been surprised by some of my own kids answers.

So...if you find your dinner conversation lacking you may want to give something like this a shot!

Holes

I think I am crazy. I am working on very few hours of sleep and I think it is starting to play tricks on my mind. I have been noticing holes lately. Let me show you....

Yes, I know all it would take is some rearranging of my current 5 children and the holes would be gone but I can't tell you how often I have thought about those holes in the last few days.

I had hoped that during this pregnancy I would have that feeling that we were done. While I feel more done than I ever have before I am still not ready to close up shop if you know what I mean. The thought of giving away baby clothes and maternity clothes gives me a knot in my stomach. And then I started noticing all these darn holes in our family pictures.

This is what I know for sure. I know that the time to contemplate if your family is complete or not is not when you have a 5 week old baby. I am far too tired and hormonal to make a decision like that right now.

Yet how do I make sense of these feelings and thoughts. I could not bare the thought of giving away clothes, yet I also can not bare the thought of possibly having yet another child. I mean 6 kids...really?????

The Spirit has always spoken to me in small quiet promptings. Part of me can't help to see these "incomplete" pictures as a possible nudge that maybe we are not quite done yet.

I am not making any final declarations here, but I am trying to work through some emotions. So, what do you think of these holes and how do you ever REALLY know when your family is complete?

Tulip Festival

We got home last night from our family trip to the tulip festival. The only way I was even able to consider making this journey was that we had 3 other adults willing to come along and help with our 5 kids. Thank goodness for grandparents!

The weather was AMAZING. It was so nice to sit outside in the sun surrounded by such beauty. There were quite a few people there but somehow it was still very quiet and peaceful.

The flowers were absolutely beautiful and I am glad we made the trip. The kids loved swimming in the pool and had a great time sleeping with their grandparents at the hotel.

We also had our first family picture taken as a family of 7! Wow...there are a lot of us now.