Around Here

Thank you for your prayers. Matthew is doing SOOO much better. We are so thankful to the Lord. We were actually very worried about him for a few days. He was just not able to keep much down and had no desire or energy to eat or drink. Being married to a doctor, I had to decipher comments like this. When Dave felt Matthew's pulse, he said, "He feels tachycardic." What that meant was that Matthew's heartrate was very fast because he was getting dehydrated. We were worried that he would have to be admitted to the hospital because he was so dehydrated. But thankfully, he started to drink more and the nausea passed. When he went to see the pediatrician, she said that he could stay at home as long as he could still drink. We are grateful that he is now drinking normally, and even getting a bit of his appetite back. In the thick of all this, I was quite stressed. Being here in the Bay Area with no family around, well - my thoughts started racing. I don't want Matthew to have to be in the hospital by himself. I want one of us to always be with him. But Dave works! And I can't leave the rest of the kids! What's going to happen to us? It made me miss my family a lot. Yes, we have lots of wonderful friends and church family here, but I know that if my parents or sister or my in-laws were here - it would have been more of a non-event to leave the other kiddos. I had offers to watch the kids in the event that Matt did have to be admitted. I am grateful that it did not come to that and he is much much better! Although he has been doing a lot of this:

Which of course, he needs. I have heard it can be months before you regain your strength after mono. Although this afternoon we did get outside and prepare our bed for our seedlings.

We have been homebound. So we have had a lot of homemade fun. Actually, it has been a welcome respite - to have permission to just cancel everything and rest up. I have learned, too, that there are not that many things that are important. I am happy to enjoy this slower pace with all of my chicks at home and not rushing around taxi-ing them to various activities and classes. More fun at home: Lily on her "phone" which is actually the barcode scanner on her cash register.

Nathan's chalk drawing.

Just hanging out.

And with being at home more, some yummies we have made. And just so you have no delusions that it is easy at all to cook or clean or do really anything with Lily around, I have to tell you that I have to hoist Lily on the counter to "help" me with baking and cooking. Or I have to wait until she is asleep. But I always like getting new food inspiration and recipes from friends. So I thought I would share. These are really yummy muffins. You use leftover cooked oatmeal (I tend to make too much), and they are so soft and moist and delicious. You can halve the amount of sugar and they are perfect.

And our dinner the other day - quiche. Yummy! One has spinach and bacon, and the other broccoli and cheese.