Sickness, School, and Other stuff

Harriet is sick today with the mysterious fever/stomach/throat disease that is plaguing my entire family.  It has been exactly one year since Harriet's first Real Illness which is totally the grace of God.  But I don't really feel like doing this again for another year.  Some kids mope around and sleep all day when they are sick (like all of my sisters who have been plastered to the couch for the past three days).  Not Harriet.  No, she resists sleep just as adamantly as usual and wails and thrashes about all day.  She even refused her strawberry shake, poor kid.  I'm so thankful for Netflix because she has been able to chill (sort of) on the couch all day watching Pingu or Shaun the Sheep and stuff.  Last night, poor Edmund had some sort of tummy trouble which made him scream for over an hour.  Yeesh.  I'm also thankful for the Dr Sears Baby Book which tells me when I should freak out and what I should do.  Steve is getting off of work early tonight so that I can have help getting them in bed, which is most appreciated.

I'm almost, almost done with my C.S. Lewis class.  Just two more short essays and one week of class left. I can do it.  Somehow.  I'm not really sure how at this point, but it will get done.  Classes always do.  I received a pretty hunky dory encouragement yesterday when I got a certificate in the mail saying that I had made it onto the Dean's List for the fall semester.  I know that's silly, but I did work my butt off last year and so it's nice to have an acknowledgement of that effort.  It arrived at the perfect time since it's going to be another push to finish my current two classes with these little munchkins.  I know I'm going to look back at this degree-obtaining experience and say that it was all because of God's grace.  There have been so many times when I can't see how in the world I'm going to be able to finish an assignment, and yet God always provides a lengthy naptime or a babysitter for H or the energy to just push it through one more time.

I'm really feeling like my entire being is pushing against having a totally unpredictable routine.  Normally, I like to think that I have a pretty good idea of how to manage my time.  I know how long it takes me to write a paper or how long it takes to do the dishes.  I take pride in checking off a lengthy to-do list.  Now?  Everything is messed up.  I can't manage my time because I have absolutely NO idea when I'm going to have two minutes put together to do chores or school or hang out or whatever. My mom reminded me that there are only so many hours in a day and I really can't do everything.  I feel like I'm in a constant mental debate about what to choose: do I do the dishes or read to Harriet?  Do I relax because I've been taking care of kids all day, or do I crank out some more school because both of them are finally sleeping? I know that we are in a serious transition stage right now.  Things will get better.  In the meantime, however, I'm learning a lot about patience and my complete insufficiency.  We have much more of a routine than we did a few weeks ago, but I guess I'm just antsy.

One good use of my time happened on Sunday afternoon when I made freezer meals to put in the crockpot.  I found a link on Pinterest to a website that had a list of five meals for the freezer, complete with a grocery list.  Better yet, the recipes were all veggie-intensive, which is how we eat typically.  I assembled all of the ingredients, put E in the wrap and H down for a nap, and started chopping.  Two hours later, I had nine bags of meals in the freezer and the kitchen all cleaned up.  The best part?  None of the pre-cooking that is so often a part of typical once-a-month-cooking recipes.  Therefore, I only had to clean my cutting board, knives, and one skillet.  It was amazing.  I stick a crockpot meal in the fridge to defrost overnight, plop it in the crockpot the next morning, and by supper we have a nice hot meal without any effort.  Love, love, love!

I'm going to post one-month pictures of E this week.  I'll have to take some outside because the weather has been unbelievably glorious.  Can he really be a month old?  I lubs him so much.