Carry One Another's Burdens...

This Monday morning at Bible study I shared with the ladies that I had been sick, Ian was sick, Maggie was coughing and Zoe was sick. Just asked them to pray for us - and for me that I would be well enough to take care of my little family. I know I blogged last week about my sick day, but I didn't say that it was a really miserable day. I didn't know what to do. I HAD to lie down, you know what I mean? Ian came home early, which was great, and I was able to get some rest last weekend, but the cold still hung on. Long story short, I got the doc to call in a Z-pack for me a couple days ago and I am on the mend, I hope.

This morning I got a call from my friend Lisa who said she was going to bring me dinner tonight. I mean, have you seriously ever heard of someone bringing you dinner - not right after you have surgery, not right after you give birth, not when someone dies, but just BECAUSE! I didn't know what to say, so I said ok. She just dropped off this awesome meal from the Fresh Market (yummm!) and as I was putting it in the fridge I started to get tears in my eyes. I am just overwhelmed by the way she and my friends here continue to care for me. Sometimes I feel far away and alone here in Jacksonville because I don't have family around, and then things like this happen. And they happen a LOT! My friend Beth has saved me literally hundreds of dollars in babysitting by watching my kids while I take one of them to the doctor. And it's not like these people don't have things to do or families of their own! They all have young kids.

It's so great, and hard too. Learning to accept help when you really cannot give anything back. I mean, I barely make my OWN family dinner, much less bring it to someone in need. And there's no way I can watch any more kids than my own right now. I know it's not my season of life to be helpful in that way. I know I will be back on the "help circuit" soon, but for now it's pretty humbling to be the one getting help. I really believe that the Lord is meeting me in my greatest place of need right now...practically caring for me through people.

"Carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." -Galatians 6:2

Just too stinkin cute not to post

So here are some pics from Christmas that I just had to post. As you can see, Maggie got a Wonder Woman costume from Santa and it's by far my favorite dress up outfit she owns. (And as you all know, that's saying something, because that child has more dress up stuff than should be allowed a four year old.) The babies got diapers, formula and wipes from Santa. Hey, Santa's knows his audience!

The first picture above really cracks me up. One day before Christmas - i.e., before all sickness broke loose with the cousins - we were all at mom's house playing. She has this babydoll stroller that the kids push around and Maggie or Watts wanted to put Tori in there. So we tried it and it was a hoot. Her little nine and a half pound self sat in that doll stroller and Maggie, Watts and Nate took turns pushing her back and forth in the den (with supervision, of course). Please look at Tori's face...hilarious. I chose this picture of the stroller game to share with you mainly because someone is wiping Nate's nose in the picture - just a foreshadowing of the days to come.

My morning conversation

Me: "Maggie! Did you pick your nose and put your boogers on the arm of the couch?"

Mag: "Uh-huh."

Me: "Don't do that ever again. That's disgusting! I don't want your booger germs all over the couch, do you understand?"

Mag: "Yes, ma'am...Luckily I didn't put them on the bottom of the couch (the seat) because that would be gross to sit on boogers."

...Excellent point. At least she thought it through.

Sweet Pat

Feeling much better now...and by "much" I guess I mean that I don't have to stay in the bed all day. I am still on constant decongestant so that my head doesn't explode, but it's better than it was. Thankfully the girls are all fine - Ian and I just have this crud and we're pretty much worn out. You know the drill. Everyone I talk to has something right now.

I've had a bit of a down day today. Some of my closest friends, the Johnsons, are up in Chapel Hill right now at the hospital for a long stay. Pat, the mom, has had her second liver transplant (yes, you read me right...her second). She is recovering now, but is having a really rough time. I just think about them all the time, which is good because I am praying a lot, but also hard to think of all they are going through. They are a family of such faith and it's been really a tough thing as well as a privilege to watch them go through this illness over the past 4-5 years.

I met the Johnsons when I moved to Greenville, NC to be the Area Director for Young Life. They had never had an Area Director before, which was really lucky for me because they didn't know what to expect and I didn't know what I was doing! So I went and the committee chair-couple happened to be Sam and Pat Johnson. They had lived in Greenville for years and were raising their two high school daughters at the time, with a son who had already gone to college. As a single woman of the ripe old age of 24 (I still can't believe I did that), I was really striking out on my own and felt very afraid and excited to be moving to Greenville to partner in ministry with the folks there. From the very get-go the Johnsons treated me like their third daughter, and man did I need some lovin' and some laughter and some good cookin' while I was there. Amy and Tori, their daughters, and I became friends and the rest is history. They took me on family trips, bought me birthday presents, had me house-sit, cat-sit (which turned ugly thanks to Daisy), included me in the family farm days, weddings, and basically everything you can think of. I just love them so much. And I could go on and on. Maybe I'll think through some fun stories to share over the next few days...but I can't type them now because Maggie is literally crawling all over me saying, "Mommy....I want to go to bed NOW!". I guess it's time to be parental again.

Sick day

So this is my first day of being sick to the point of not really being able to take care of the kids. Ian is coming home early from work in an hour or so. Maggie's been playing computer games in the bed beside me while I try to rest during the twins' nap. Now Maggie is in there playing with Tori while I muster up the strength to go get her. I just had to blog, though, because as I'm sitting on the bed, I overheard Maggie singing to Tori. We watched White Christmas ONCE over the holidays and she picked up on one of the songs. This is what she was just singing to Tori:

"Lord help the brother, who comes between me and my sister,
And Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!"

You can't make this stuff up.

Off to inhale more sudafed cold meds.

Our New Year's Eve

So for New Year's Eve Maggie and Madalyn the Mouse (Mag's imaginary friend) planned a party for us. We had to make out a list of things we were going to do and here's how it went:

1. Eat supper
2. Put on jammies
3. Watch a video
4. Eat gum
5. Dress up
6. Play a game
7. Read a book
8. Go to bed

So that's what we did. And it was pretty fun! As you can see, we played Twister and dressed up in the stuff she got for Christmas. Ian was a little limited with the dress up stuff because it's all fru-fru, so he improvised and put a tu-tu on his arm and Wonder-Woman's lasso around his head. We also drank sparkling grape juice out of our high school musical cups so we could toast the night. My, how our lives have changed in the past five years.

Where should I even begin...

We're back from our Christmas vacation and I must again reiterate that the word "vacation" cannot be used when describing any kind of trip or time with small children. Nevertheless, it was fun to be away and with family. The goose did in fact get fat(ter), so I am doing my best to fill our bellies now with vegetables, wheat pasta, and only the occasional treat from our stockings. I seriously think I ate about 15 of my sister's peanut butter balls, which is basically like duct taping four pounds of fatback onto my hips. Awesome. But man, they were good.



For those of you who read my sister-in-law's blog, you already know about all the goings on at the Sloan house over the holidays. If you want the gory details, please go to her hilarious blog and read that post - you really won't believe all that happened... http://www.ashevillesloan.blogspot.com/ . Suffice it to say, though, that every single day was chock-full of children, coughing, fevers, eating, hospital visits, more eating, drinking, feeding babies, more hospital visits, really embarrassing hours in church services with small children, more eating, tons of presents, absolute chaos, and more family members than should legally be allowed into one 2000 square foot space at one time. So fun, though! I really love my family.



Sandy, Ian's mom, came to visit during the chaos and it was so great to see her. She just jumps right in now and joins the fun, which is really more than I ever could have asked for in a mother-in-law. She's a trip. She drives this tiny little two door Civic and it was pretty much dragging the ground as she pulled into the driveway. The presents she had stuffed in that thing would have made circus clowns proud. I am going to post pics to show you the excessive-ness. It was so fun. I love getting presents! I love giving them too, so Christmas is a blast for me.



There's so much more to write, but let me just end here by saying that we got home a couple nights ago and we still have luggage and presents all over the house. Ian goes back to work tomorrow - that's if he's feeling better. He has a man-cold, as he calls it (check out Leslie's blog to watch the man-cold video too...so funny). Zoe has more snot coming out of her nose than a 7 month old should, Tori won't eat because she's getting a tooth, and Maggie is hacking all night with a cough. What a vacation - but it was all worth it. I just love being with my family! It's good to be home, though!



Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll try to get on here and post about our New Year's Eve bash. Maggie and Madalyn the Mouse (imaginary friend) planned a party for us and it was a trip. Pics to follow. For now, though, enjoy a snippit from Christmas evening - 30 people at my parents' house - and six of them weren't even there! Also, please enjoy the extremely southern accents...added for your viewing pleasure.



Missed blogland! So glad to be back.