Truly lovely

I received an e-mail late last night sharing this video. My friend who sent it to me described it best - breathtaking. If you have a few minutes, please please watch it. It is about marriage. And, as a believer, I am so thankful for "the great cloud of witnesses" that we know surround us as written in the book of Hebrews. Ian and Larissa are truly witnesses of Christ's amazing love. This young couple certainly challenge me to press on in marriage and to choose to love every day. I hope it encourages and blesses you, too! Please click HERE to read about and watch a short video about This Momentary Marriage - the Story of Ian and Larissa.

Mommy Moments

First off, an update on Matt. I have had many people ask me how he is doing. He is doing great! I think he is almost 100% recovered! Praise the Lord! He attended church on Sunday for the first time in 3 weeks, and even had friends over afterwards to play. He went back to Chinese school this morning (much to his displeasure), and went to piano lessons as well in the afternoon. He is, however, taking a hiatus from martial arts for the month of May. Contact sports is a no-no when recovering from mono. The reason is that your spleen gets enlarged during the infection and can rupture if you get hit there. Otherwise, his appetite is back, and he seems to be recovering very nicely. Thank you for your concern and prayers! I have been reading Little House On The Prairie to the kids, and they have been really into it. They love the fact that the Ingalls have a brindle bulldog named Jack. They also love to hear about the food the family eats. We decided to have a Little House breakfast the other morning - bacon, and then cornmeal pancakes cooked in the bacon fat. Yum. We had syrup instead of molasses though.

Here is a snapshot of singspiration before Sunday school this past Sunday.

And here are the two littles this morning. Yes, they sleep with me and they often kick each other (and me) at night. But I found them snuggling like two puppies this morning.

And lastly (I hope Nathan will forgive me for telling this story), a little misadventure this afternoon. We were at piano lessons. Matthew was having his lesson, so Nathan, Aaron, Lily and I were out in the backyard of our piano teacher's home. There is a jungle gym structure there that is made of wood, with a big plastic slide and a swing. Anyway, Nathan went down the slide, and then he was quiet for a while. He comes up and says, "I think I have a splinter. In my butt." There is a wooden plank that butts (no pun intended) up against the top of the plastic slide. He had slid his bottom across there and got hurt. I was trying not to laugh, but I had him come over with me to a corner of the yard and pull his shorts down so I could have a look. Yup. More than one splinter in fact - maybe a handful :-(. Everytime I tried to pull one out, though, Nathan would giggle and start moving so much that I couldn't get them. I was half getting impatient and half laughing and telling him to be still. Then all of a sudden, Matthew pokes his head out of the sliding door and says, "Nene, it's your turn for piano." I told Matthew to tell the piano teacher Nathan had a splinter and I was trying to get it out. The boys' piano lessons are group lessons - meaning there are other kids in their lesson with them. So I can hear from the sounds coming from the windows that his lesson has started. Someone is playing piano. I am getting panicked that someone else will come out and call us and see Nathan's butt and me hunched over it. Meanwhile, he is still getting giggly whenever I come close to picking out his splinters. Too ticklish, I guess. I finally tell him we will have to wait until we get home and have Daddy do it. Nathan reluctantly agrees and pulls his shorts up. He says to me very seriously, "This is dreadful." Poor lamb. He made it through piano lessons, though, without once wincing when he had to sit down. I had to think about sad thoughts in order to not bust out laughing every time he looked at me. That boy just cracks me up. Dreadful indeed! Dave had the misfortune honor of picking all those splinters out. I wish in a way that I had a photo to go with this story, but I don't think that I could post it even if I did :-). One thing for sure, Nathan certainly gave Dave and I trials of patience when he was a toddler and a preschooler. But now - goodness, I think we laugh more in one day that we used to laugh in weeks because of this boy. We love him to pieces. I will end with two pictures of Nathan since this has kind of turned into a post about him. The first is from years ago - and this photo was taken at Sunday school and put on a Mother's Day card they made for all the mamas. I think he was 3.

Man, look at those dimples! And that face! And the bandaid on that squishy arm! Next photo is from about a year ago at Uncle Kevin's wedding where he was the ring boy. So handsome!

Our Father's Love

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him ~ Psalm 103:13, NLT

Just For Fun

Wearing Mama's sunglasses!

Aaron likes them too!

And oh - my favorite - strawberry season!!! One the best snacks evah - strawberries with a yummy dip that a friend introduced me to. It's sour cream with brown sugar.

And as you can see. . .

The kids all love

strawberries, too!!!

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.

A Mother's Love

I recently saw a couple of videos that show a mother's (and father's also in the first one) love. I think it is so awesome how God can illustrate what love is in all of His creatures. If you have a few minutes (maybe 5 total), take a looksee. The first one made by a family that documented a robin's nest that was built in a planter hanging in their porch. This little video brings up so many feelings in me! What strikes me most about this video are: 1) How steadfast the mother robin is as far as keeping her beautiful blue eggs warm. 2) How the mama and daddy robin are so faithful at bringing food to their little chicks. 3) I also observe how attuned the chicks are to their parents movements. As soon as one of them comes with food, they pop right up with their mouth gaping for food. "Feed me! Feed me!" 4) And of course the last frames of the video. The natural progression on chicks growing up and leaving the nest.

Robins: 4 Eggs, 4 Weeks from Fred Margulies on Vimeo.

The second one is called "How to Stop Nightmares." I found this linked to another blog that I read, but it has actually been on reddit and has gone viral. I am not much of a cat person, but this is very sweet and touching. It reminds me of being able to comfort and soothe my babies as they sleep next to me. My kids all loved both of these videos. They even enacted the robins wanting food, and the baby kitten having a nightmare.

Mononucleosis (and the amazing lymph nodes)

It has been confirmed by blood test. Matthew has mono!

He is much better today. No more nausea or vomiting, thank the Lord. Poor thing was suffering so the last few days. He spent two nights sleeping on the bathroom floor to be close to the toilet :-(.

Last night he stayed in bed, kept his pain meds down and no nausea. He is still so fatigued and febrile if we don't stay on top of the Motrin.

Please continue to pray for him of you think of it.

Below are photos of his lymph nodes. The pediatrician actually measured them. The left one was 9cm by 6cm and his right one 10 by 5.