full stop

I have come to a full stop this week.  Last week was busy, but it was the good kind of busy.  I had long overdue coffee with a great friend, met with my prayer partner, went to my weekly bible study, delivered meals to a two friends, went to our MOPS meeting, went to a meeting at church about our Women's Retreat in March, celebrated John's birthday and then on Friday and Saturday night our church hosted the art of Marriage, which was an awesome 6 video series by Family Life.  I was connected to my friends and my community all week, and it was awesome. 

Then came Sunday and it all came to an abrupt STOP.

This week, I have not left the house.  I have held sick babies, rubbed fevered heads and backs, given out motrin and kisses, whispered 'it's okay mommy's here' countless times to each one of my children, lost many hours of sleep and have been so thankful that I am able to be here to do so.  I have not connected with friends - no coffee or prayer time or bible study this week.  I have not delivered meals to anyone, shoot I'm barely cooking for my own family this week.

This full stop after such a full and active week has been good.  Well actually, the crying, whining and the kids that are sick is not nice.  But the time to stop, the forced pause has been good for me.  I have been able to play more games with the boys, watch videos with them without thinking about what else I could be doing, I have prayed more in the evenings for and over my kids than is typical.  I have been able to do some pre-Spring cleaning of closets and finished an organizing project that was started in December.  I feel isolated and alone this week, after my full week of connection.  This too has been good, a good reminder that connection and relationships are intentional.

Today is Wednesday and both John and Luke are back to feeling normal.  John had stayed home yesterday complaining of a headache, but was fine most of the day so he went to school today.  Luke also went to school today and was received like a long lost friend, even though he only missed one day of school. 

Grace is still not feeling better.  Her fever seems to be gone but she still has a cough and a runny nose.  The biggest concern however, is that she is not eating normally.  Since she doesn't drink any liquids {at all} she gets all of her liquid from her pureed foods.  Now that she is not eating very much, we have to watch her for dehydration.  Thankfully, she seems to eating just enough to keep her hydrated.  I'm hoping that now that her fever is gone, she will feel better and start eating more.  She seems to have more of an appetite today and more energy.

These pictures don't really have anything to do with what I've posted here, but I wanted to post some pictures and these are the only ones I've take this week.  Here are some pictures from our dinner on Valentine's Day, and as you can see Grace wasn't feeling well in the picture.

Happy Wednesday to you all.  We are expecting warm weather the rest of this week - like in the 60's warm.  I'm so excited, we've been listening to Jimmy Buffet this morning!