Where Morning Dawns

“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” Psalm 65:8

“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”
Psalm 90:14

For the last couple months, I have been attempting to join with the “Summer Maximize Your Mornings Challenge” (aka “Hello Mornings”) hosted by Kat at Inspired to Action, which encourages moms to get up early before their kids wake up to spend some quiet time with God in devotions and prayer for your family. Though I have been far from perfect and maybe averaged 50% (that is probably a generous estimate) in getting up early, it has still been really good for me and I intend to keep going with it and hopefully make it a regular habit. Kat has a free e-book to help moms create an effective morning routine which was really helpful, even though I haven’t yet implemented all of her suggestions (like having a morning exercise routine - baby steps, people!).

Though I am definitely not a morning person and I used to LOVE sleeping in, having kids who wake up at 6:30am or earlier has required my lifestyle to change and I have sort of been forced to become a morning person. I never would have dreamed that I would intentionally choose to get up any earlier than was absolutely necessary, but I discovered that if I didn’t get that time in the morning with God, it was extremely unlikely that I would find the time later during the day with all the demands of work, motherhood, social events, ministry, etc.

I am still figuring out what routine works best for me, as I find it’s difficult to do all the things I’d like to do in just one short hour in the morning – like read my Bible, journal, pray, listen to teaching, etc. – yet, I’ve come to really enjoy that time alone with God. I am really blessed that my husband Joe was willing to work out a little deal with me, where I get up at 6:00am on just 4 days of the week, and he takes care of the kids and feeds them breakfast, etc. until 7:00am at which point I have my breakfast and then he leaves for work at 7:15am. Then, in the evenings, he gets to have some quiet time with God from 6:45-7:45pm and I put the kids to bed. This has worked out pretty well for us and I have usually curled up on a comfy chair in our living room and Joe tries to keep the kids from pestering me too much.

But, this last weekend we made a slightly impulsive purchase that we’ve been thinking of for a while, but we unexpectedly found a good deal on a second-hand patio set at a garage sale, so yesterday and today, I went out onto our deck in the backyard, all cozy in my pajama pants and housecoat, for my morning devotions. Most mornings this summer, the sun has been up LONG before I arose, but this week, it was just rising as I came outside and the sky was blanketed in beautiful warm pink and purple hues (my iPhone picture above doesn’t come close to doing it justice). There is something that is just so good for the heart when you’re outside as the morning dawns, before the sounds of traffic and the whir of the air conditioning unit kick in and all you hear is the wind blowing in the trees, the crickets chirping and the birds singing.

Watching the sunrise, I felt like the psalmist, filled with awe at God’s wonders and I felt a kiss on my heart of His unfailing love that filled me with songs of joy. He is truly worth getting up early for!

Processing Grief

Warning: this post is me processing and therefore it may come out as random ramblings and may be rather long.

I feel like it’s been so busy and crazy for the last month and a half that I haven’t had time to sit and think and process everything that has happened. I was barely at the beginning of my journey in grieving the loss of my baby girl Ezana when we got the terrible news about Angie’s death. Now I am trying to figure out how to mourn for both of them and it’s hard. People continually ask how we’re doing and I find it so difficult to answer that question. At times, I feel steadfast in my spirit and even though my life has been shaken, I feel like I’m still standing, by the grace of Jesus and His strength carrying me.

But that doesn’t change the fact that my emotions feel all over the place. I’ve had moments of great joy and laughter, many moments of tears, several moments of fear, a few moments of bewilderment, and some moments of numbness and just feeling overwhelmed. I feel like I don’t really know what to feel or how to feel it. How do I process all the thoughts and emotions? How do I capture the things that God is speaking to me and doing in me through this season of hardship? Is it important for me to capture them or is it okay if I simply take them in, in the moment and then let them fade away into the recesses of my lacking memory?

I had actually wanted to talk to my sister-in-law Angie about what she experienced when she had a couple miscarriages of her own, but we never really ended up getting the opportunity for that conversation before she passed away. I wonder now if she has her hands full in heaven with a couple kids of her own, as well as our baby there to welcome her? In some ways, it was actually comforting to think that my baby had an Auntie in heaven with her. It doesn’t really make any sense, but for some reason I think I thought my baby needed someone to take care of her and to love her, though I know that she was being more than abundantly cared for and loved by her heavenly Father already. Just silly thoughts, but I’m sure God understands my aching mommy’s heart and that He doesn’t mind letting Angie love on her – it’s all His love anyway.

It’s still really hard to let go of my baby. Maybe I’ll share sometime soon about the picture that God showed me as I released her to Him. I think that might have only been the first of many times that I’ll need to release her though. I don’t think I’m even ready to begin thinking about the fact that I actually have to let go of all my kids and release and entrust them to God’s care. It’s hard not to think of them as being primarily my kids when they actually were and will always be God’s first. I’m sure all moms experience this pain at some time of wanting to hold onto our kids so tightly and never let them go. Perhaps this is something too that will happen many times during their lives – as they go to school for the first time, as they get their drivers, as they go on their first date, as they move out of the house, as they get married, and the list goes on. Maybe if I can practice letting go now, it’ll be a tiny bit easier at those future stages??

It’s also completely different grieving the loss of someone I never met, never held, never saw, never heard, and just barely knew as a spirit within my womb compared to someone that I had the chance to know for several years and love for who they were. On one hand, I am grieving the countless lost opportunities that I’ll never experience in this lifetime with my baby daughter and I’m feeling the ache of wanting to know what she looks like, what her voice sounds like, what her personality is, who God created her to be? On the other hand, I am grieving the loss of my sister and I know exactly what I’m missing – I remember the laugh that I won’t hear again, I know the generous heart that I’ll miss, I know the sense of humor that brought so much laughter, I recall the warm, strong hug that I won’t feel again. I’m not sure you could say one is worse or better than the other – they are both equally hard.

Yet, how blessed am I to know that they are both in the presence of God! Though my heart aches and feels the pain of their absence, I can feel the joy of knowing that they have unending joy and that they are gazing into the face of the One I love and long to be with more than any other person. In some ways, this ache is famliar. I’ve felt this pain of separation before. I’ve felt this longing for someone I’ve never seen, never touched, never heard His audible voice, never met in person, yet I know Him and I know His heart and I know what I love about Him and I know what I’m missing. That pain and that mourning for my Bridegroom is stronger than all the others.

Some might question how you could love somone so strongly who you’ve never met, but I think any mother knows that feeling – the moment that deep love is sown in your heart when you find out you’re pregnant, long before you meet your baby. Some might even try to tell you that your baby isn’t real, isn’t a person yet, but your heart and the love that’s there, knows different. And if there are those who question God’s existence and the reality of Jesus because He can’t be seen or proven by our five limited senses, let me tell you that the love and longing in my heart is more real than anything my senses could perceive. Though I’ve not seen Him, I love Him and I wait eagerly for His return – for a grand reunion that will cause all the other reunions I look forward to, to be so dim in comparison.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29

  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9

Update on Rayah’s Teeth

For those of you who may be concerned or wondering about how Rayah is doing after her fall on Tuesday and the nasty hit to her teeth, I wanted to give you a bit of an update.

First of all, I just want to thank you again for all your prayers! Rayah has seemingly had virtually no pain and has been her usual happy self with very little complaining about her bumped teeth. She’s eating well, though she can only eat very soft food for the next little bit, and her gums appear to be healing well too. She has been whining about her mouth, but I think it’s because she’s actually teething and working on those back molars.

We had a follow-up visit with the pediatric dentist on Thursday and they took an x-ray which showed that there was no major fracture in the bone that holds her teeth in place and that the roots of her teeth are intact. You could see the adult teeth that are there, but there is no way of knowing at this point if they sustained any trauma or damage. So, the bone is back in place where it should be, which is great, but her teeth are still a little loose and not in their correct position,  jutting out a bit from the rest of her teeth.

We’ll be seeing the dentist again in a couple weeks, so we are praying and hoping for the best in the mean time. Some of the concerns about keeping the teeth in are that they could get bumped again, which would obviously not be a pleasant experience, they could possibly get infected, and if they don’t move back into line, they could cause problems with Rayah’s bite. I’ve already noticed that she’s tending to put her top teeth behind the bumped teeth instead of over top of them, so I definitely don’t want her to develop an underbite!

If you would like to pray for Rayah, please pray that her teeth with go back into their proper position, that they will become strengthened and no longer be loose, that there will be no infection, and that she will not develop any bad bite habits. Also pray for us for wisdom if we have to make a decision whether to keep them in or take them out. My struggle with it all is obviously how it will affect her eating if she doesn’t have those bottom three teeth and also just silly ol’ vanity and wanting her to have a full toothy grin.

A Toothy Accident

As if there wasn’t enough going on in our lives, we had another rather eventful day today. I was outside with the kids and Rayah and I were out on the deck and I went down onto the grass to get something. Rayah was right beside me, but it didn’t occur to me in the moment that she would want to follow me and before I knew it, she had stepped right off the edge and fell face-first down the couple steps. I quickly picked her up and she was screaming intensely, but with her clumsy nature, she has had many spills and a few bloody cuts from biting her lip or something, so I didn’t really expect it to be too bad.

As I looked in her mouth, I immediately saw that her whole mouth was a pool of blood, so I quickly whisked her inside to try and clean it out to see what the damage was. At first glance, I was horrified as it appeared that three of her teeth had been completely knocked out. I was worried that they were gone and she had possible swallowed them, but it wasn’t long before I saw that they were still there, but horribly bent down and now facing forwards instead of up!

It was rather gruesome and there was a lot of blood and I didn’t know what to do, so I immediately dialed 9-1-1 and they dispatched an ambulance, as I was at home with both kids and no vehicle. I then called friends who live nearby to come over to watch Justice and then called Joe at work to ask him to come home early. I had left Justice outside in the fenced-in backyard and was sitting in the window seat at the front of our house to watch for the ambulance as I tried to comfort Rayah, when I then noticed my son running around in my front yard with a big shovel!!  Arggg!  He had actually escaped our back yard just the other day, so we had switched the latch on the gate to try and prevent him from being able to get out – which apparently he had no trouble figuring out a way to open it!

So I quickly ushered him inside and sent him to his room and it wasn’t long before the emergency vehicles started rolling in. First there was a paramedic truck, then an ambulance and then a fire truck and then when something went wrong with the first ambulance, a second ambulance came on the scene – it was quite something! By this point, the bleeding had mostly stopped and Rayah had calmed down considerably, but when the house was rushed by some 8-10 unfamiliar men who all gathered around to stare and assess and poke and prode, she got pretty hysterical – lol. My friends arrived soon afterward and watched Justice for me and then I quickly gathered a few things in the diaper bag and Rayah and I loaded into the ambulance and headed to the Children’s Emergency. It wasn’t surprising that after all the commotion, Rayah soon passed out into a deep sleep.

At the Children’s Emergency, the doctors couldn’t do much for her and were unsuccessful in getting a hold of the on-call pediatric dentist, so after a couple attempts, I got through to our family dentist and we got an emergency appointment with them. Joe was at home with Justice, who was napping, so Rayah and I had to wait for a couple hours for Joe to come pick us up, which was a little challenging, because Rayah was surprisingly cheerful and happy and wanted to run around wreak havoc in the waiting room. When Joe finally arrived, we headed to our dentist who examined her briefly, but wasn’t comfortable performing any procedure on her, since he wasn’t as well equipped for dealing with young children. So he then referred us to a children’s dental office which was clear across town and we headed back in the direction we had just come from!

Before arriving at the children’s dental office, we had been warned by our dentist that Rayah would likely lose her three teeth and that they would extract them. To me, this was very sad news, even though I know they’re baby teeth and that she’ll get new ones in 5-6 years, I really was hoping that they would be able to save her teeth. When we saw the pediatric dentist, she told me the same thing, but after they strapped Rayah into a restraining blanket, she stuck her fingers in Rayah’s mouth and basically just pushed the bone that was holding her teeth back into place. Poor Rayah screamed her head off, but once it was over, she was soon back to her happy self. The dentist informed us that she heard a definite “clicking” noise when she pushed the bone back, which is good news, but that we will have to wait and see how the teeth do over the next few days and that there’s still a chance they will need to be extracted.

I am feeling hopeful and am praying that her teeth will be able to stay in, even though they are still rather crooked and not in line with her other teeth at this point. I was just so proud of my little girl today, who was so brave and such a trooper, considering the ordeal she went through! I am also so thankful for all the prayers that went up on her behalf and that her injuries weren’t any worse. To be honest, I’m still feeling a little on edge and a little emotionally sensitive and a little nervous about the days ahead, but I am just learning again my need to lean up on the strength of the Lord and to trust Him with all my fears.

Here is a little collage of the day’s events with pictures from the ambulance ride, our wait at the hospital, and a couple of Rayah’s sweet rearranged smile. If you want to see the really gory pictures, I won’t include them in this post for anyone with a sensitive stomach, but if you’re really curious, you can click here to check them out!

Lastly, here’s a picture of our deck step where Rayah has now left her permanent mark.

Mothering Mondays

If you are a mother, I just want to take a brief moment to share about my dear friend Rosaleen who has a beautiful blog where she details all the wonders of her life as a wife and a mother to 3 adorable children as they travel the world and experience different cultures and gorgeous scenery.  Her writing is always filled with poetry and romance as she invites you into a world of innocence, purity and simple joys.  Along with her beautiful photography, her incredible decorating skills, her amazing food creations, and homeschooling adventures, she is now taking some time to simply bless mothers by offering an opportunity to submit your name into a draw for a weekly gift.  This week she is featuring an elegant and feminine eco-friendly planner, which I am so tempted to put my name in for, but which I would probably sadly not use now that I have my iPhone. But, if you are a mother and want to join in on her Mothering Mondays for the chance to receive something simple to bless you, just for being one of the great women who gives life to a precious child, then go on over and visit her at Beatific – Finding Beauty and Blessing.

My Handsome Boy

It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything about my dear & handsome son Justice, since Rayah sort of stole the show with all of her birthday & sickness drama!   Justice is quite the spunky fellow lately, with his favorite phrases being, “I won’t ______ / I can’t ______ / I don’t have to _______ / I don’t want to _________ - ever, Ever, EVER!!”  LOL.  He is becoming quite independent and is very adamant about dressing himself in the mornings now, so it takes some creative parenting to convince him to let us help him when things don’t go quite right.  He is also becoming more creative in his imaginative playing and increasing in his drumming & dancing skillz!  He’s a hilarious kid with a fantastic smile who brings us MUCH joy!  

Anyways, here are some fantastic photos my friend Alyssa took of Justice during a family photo shoot we had in the fall that I absolutely love!

Rayah Update

Hello friends!  For those of you who hadn’t seen my update on Facebook, I wanted to let you know that Rayah is doing MUCH better!  All of the pussy scabs have fallen off her face and the swelling has gone down, so she finally looks like herself again.  She is also back to her happy, active, mischievous self, so it is great to see such an improvement from how she was a few days ago!  Her skin on her entire body still looks very, very dry and is red in some places and flaking off, so you can continue to just pray for complete healing and that her skin won’t be too irritated or itchy – she has still seemed a little sensitive when we’ve tried to put lotion on her.  But here are a couple pictures to show you how she looks now…

Thank you so much to everyone who was praying for her and for our family!  Praise Jesus for the healing she has experienced and for His hand on all of us this last week!

Sick Baby

Well, we have had a very busy week!  As some of you may know already from Twitter or Facebook, our sweet little baby girl has been very sick…

Sunday
Rayah started to show signs of discomfort in the evening, hitting her face with her hands and crying several times during the night. 

Monday
She woke up with puffy red eyes and looked quite sad.  She had a runny nose as well, but otherwise doing not too bad. 

Tuesday
She woke up in the morning and her eyes were even puffier and the skin beneath her nose was red, irritated, and raw.  So I dropped Joe off at work and took the kids to the walk-in-clinic.  The doctor there did a swab of her throat and did a quick test in his office, which produced a positive result for strep.  Because of the puffiness of her eyes and the possible implications of water retention and damage to the kidneys as a result of the strep bacteria, the doctor told me to take her to the Children’s Hospital to have some blood work done to confirm this diagnosis and get a prescription for antibiotics. 

So I headed to the Children’s ER with the kids and thankfully, we got in fairly quickly.  The doctor there, however, felt that her symptoms were not indicative of strep, since the inside of her mouth and throat looked fine and the areas of redness on her face were not in the places they would expect with strep.  Plus, her runny nose seemed more in line with a virus.  But, since the test at the walk-in-clinic had been positive for strep, he did another swab of her throat to do a better, more accurate culture test that would take a couple days, and prescribed us an antibiotic just in case. 

So, I went home thinking she just had a cold or flu virus and that she was just reacting abnormally and that her skin looked so bad because of the snot and tears.  In addition, she was drooling like crazy, which was probably due to a molar breaking through and she also had what looked like a heat rash over her whole body.  She was sensitive to being touched and would cry when we picked her up or changed her diaper, etc. 

After we were done at the hospital, I decided to just go driving, since she kept falling asleep in the van and I figured it would be a good way to help her get a decent nap.  So I went and got myself a Starbucks frappuccino and started driving around the perimeter of Winnipeg with music playing from my iPhone, quietly praying as both of my kids passed out in their car seats.  Since I wanted to stay on highways as much as possible to prevent having to stop, I headed down the Trans Canada Highway towards Steinbach, thinking I would just drive for a little ways and then turn around, but then it wasn’t long before I was at the #12 highway that brings you to Steinbach and I figured I might as well go all the way and make a surprise visit to Grandma and Grandpa.  So the kids got a pretty good nap and woke up as we came into Steinbach and got see Grandma at work and then Grandpa at home.  We headed back home then for supper with daddy and that night was another rough one for Rayah, who would wake up crying often. 

Wednesday
She woke up looking horrible!  Her eyes were even puffier and more red and the red, irritated skin on her face was now all around her eyes, nose and mouth and was scabbing and pussing.  The skin in her neck folds was starting to peel and was constantly wet from drool, snot and tears dripping down her face.  We toughed it through the day, but felt like we would maybe take her back to the hospital the next day.

 

Thursday
She slept much better during the night, so we even got to sleep in a tiny bit that morning and were thinking maybe this meant she was starting to get better?  Joe mentioned that if she seemed to be improving, maybe we wouldn’t need to take her in again.  But when he went to wake her up, the first thing he said was, “We’re definitely going back to the hospital!”  It seemed that every morning she would look worse than the day before!  Her eyes were almost glued shut, they were so puffy and pussy.  She also seemed puffy in other areas of her body and it appeared she was retaining water and actually felt heavier to us.  So we got everyone packed up for another trip to the hospital and thankfully it wasn’t busy, so we got in right away. 

We saw the same doctor I had seen on Tuesday and after seeing how much she had changed since he saw her and some of her new symptoms, he felt that it was not strep nor just a virus, but that it was most likely a staph infection.  But he wanted to get a second opinion, so we waited to see another doctor.  The second doctor examined her as well and then they decided to try and do some bloodwork on her.  This was probably the hardest part of the day, since Rayah was obviously not feeling well, but then she had to be pinned down with 3 nurses working to try and get some blood samples from her.  At first it wasn’t too bad, but as they struggled to get a vein, it got worse and worse and Rayah was wailing and squirming, trying to get away.  I felt like crying, but tried to stay strong, and just stroked her head and sang softly to her in the Spirit, and sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children” or just hummed.  Eventually, the nurses gave up on getting a vein (I don’t blame them – I’m sure it’s hard to find those suckers in chubby little babies) and they did a toe poke, which I think worked out, but was tedious and took a long time. 

After that ordeal was finally over, we needed to wait for the results and the first doctor told us that he wanted yet a 3rd doctor to come see her, from Pediatrics Infectious Disease.  I can’t say hearing those words was terribly comforting, but we just tried to stay positive, and at this point they moved us to a bigger, nicer room where the kids could watch TV and have more room to play.  Justice did great the whole time we were there, just having fun playing in the waiting room with Daddy or running around the hospital with me when I took him to the cafeteria for lunch.  We tried to get Rayah to have a nap, which she did for a short time, and I brought food back for Joe to eat, and then finally the doctor from Infectious Disease came and saw her.  After this, they decided that yes, they believe she had a staph infection and that the best way to treat it would be a different antibiotic which would help attack the toxins that the bacteria was producing, which was causing some of her symptoms like the rash.  However, apparently this antibiotic tastes really bad, so they wanted to give us the opportunity to give her a sample to see if she’d take it before giving us the prescription.  So then we waited yet again for the sample to come, and when it did, she took it fine and we got our prescription and were released to go.

 

I asked the first doctor a few more questions, like “Is it contagious?” and “Is there anything we can do to ease her discomfort?”  Apparently, the staph bacteria exists on our skin all the time and it only causes problems if it manages to make it’s way into the blood stream through a scratch or cut.  So, while it’s technically contagious through contact, it’s unlikely you’ll get the infection unless it also gets into your blood stream.  Besides, you could actually get the infection from your own skin, so not a whole lot of reason to worry about getting it from Rayah.  Also, there’s not a whole lot we can do for her skin – we can’t really clean it off, since the scabbing is part of the necessary healing process and besides, she probably wouldn’t let us anyway, as she is extremely defensive about us touching her face in any way right now.  Another side effect of this infection is that with the toxins produced by the bacteria, is that they go throughout the entire blood stream, so this is what produces the heat rash, which is similar to a sun burn (which explains why she was so sensitive to touch) and which breaks down the superficial layer of the skin and causes “sluffing”, where the skin dies and starts shedding – lovely.  So, we can expect to see her skin start to shed in numerous places on her body (which it is now starting to do), and hopefully her face starts to improve.

After this, we left the hospital around 3:00pm and ended up driving to Steinbach again to my parents’ place for supper, which allowed the kids to have a short nap in the van, since they had both missed their naps that day.  However, after it all, Rayah was in suprisingly good spirits and when we were at my parents’, she wanted to play and climb the stairs and walk around, pushing the high chair, so there was some definite improvement in how she was feeling overall.  When Joe and I were talking about what her face reminded us of, though, we both had thought that she almost looked like a burn victim – it’s crazy what this infection has been able to do to her skin!

Today – Friday
Today her face looks a lot drier and like it’s starting to crack in places, with a little bit of bleeding.  Her nostrils are also almost completely closed off from built up snot and scabbing, so hopefully we can figure out how to clear that out!  However, she slept fairly well and was eating better and was happier – playing, smiling and laughing occassionally, and crawling and walking around.  Definitely not as lethargic and mellow as she was earlier in the week.  Thank you to everyone was has been praying for her and we welcome your continued prayers that she will recover quickly and that her skin will heal well.  It’s likely that she actually does have a virus at the same time, which explains the runny nose, which is obviously not helping her breathing or sleeping or her skin, so you can pray for healing for that as well.  You can pray that she won’t be in too much pain or discomfort and for protection over our family, that none of us will get sick.  In the pictures below, the first one shows the skin dry & cracked, while the second one shows her with polysporin smeared over everything.

 

In all of this, I am thankful that Rayah is holding up well and that Justice has been a great big brother to her during this time.  He has shown concern for her, been more gentle, has been praying for her, sharing his toys, and saying sweet things to her, like “Hi, pretty girl!”    I’m thankful that Joe had yesterday and today off from work, which was so helpful to have him around!  I’m thankful for the flexibility of my work that I am able to focus on caring for my kids when necessary.  I’m thankful for all our friends and family who were praying!  I’m thankful for the excellent care we received at the Children’s Hospital and the wonderful staff there, who were compassionate, caring, and thorough.  I’m thankful that in trials we have the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and that we have hope through the gift of prayer and giving our burdens to Jesus.  It also opened my eyes a little to realize how many other parents are bringing their sick children to the hospital and the emotional, mental and physical dynamics it causes as you worry about your child and want to see them receive care and find out what’s wrong and make it all better!  If they don’t have Jesus, what or who do they place their hope and trust in?  And what a day that will be when Jesus splits the sky, returns to the earth and makes all the wrong things right again, taking away all sickness, pain and sorrow!

Mr. Mischief

I recently took out some books from the library for Justice from the Mr. Men series by Roger Hargreaves – namely, Mr. Noisy, Mr. Messy, and Mr. Mischief.  These choices were no accident, as I believe they all describe my son quite well, but today he was in fine mischievous form!  Whenever I go to put Rayah down for her nap, I am taking a risk by leaving Justice unsupervised for those 5 minutes and today he decided to have some fun with the flour bin.  This is actually not the first time this has happened, so maybe this is a case of, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!”  But, suffice it to say that I was extremely tempted to throw an epic temper tantrum when I came upon this mess!  It sure didn’t help the situation that when you vacuum up flour with a small central-vac hose that for some reason it causes you to get dozens of static electric shocks!  Interestingly enough, Justice seemed to be quite aware that what he did was wrong, because when I went to reprimand him, he suggested that he get a “spanking on his hand” and “go to his room”.  I agreed.

As Mr. Mischief would say, “Oh, what a beautiful piece of perfect mischief!”

Going Back to Work

Well, after a wonderful year off for my maternity leave, I am set to return to work this Friday, October 1st. I am so grateful that my job allows me the privilege of working from home so that I can still stay home with my kids, but this also comes with challenges of its own! I remember it being difficult when I worked at home when Justice was a year old and I was pregnant with Rayah and it definitely wasn’t easy! This time around, we considered the option of getting a live-in nanny, but we’ve had difficulty finding someone and in some ways, the cost seems to defeat the purpose of working! Thankfully my job is only part-time, requiring 4 hours per day, but I’ve made an arrangement with my workplace that I will be available for a 6-hour period from 7:30am – 1:30pm, realizing that the kids will probably require at least 2 hours of my attention during that time. I am hoping to purchase a Blackberry to help me be more organized and so that I can be aware of emails coming in, no matter where I happen to be in the house at the moment. I’m also trying to get myself set up with some other organizational tools like a planning sheet for meals, the kids’ snacks and activities, and lists of ideas to help me keep them occupied while I’m working. I’m guessing that this is going to be one of the most challenging things I’ve had to do and that it will require all of the creativity and wisdom and strength and mental/emotional/spiritual resources that I have to draw upon (thank the Lord that He has endless amounts of all of those to give to me)!!  So, if you think of me, please keep me in your prayers as I enter this new season, that God would give me much grace and everything else I’ll need to be a work-at-home-mom.

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