A day in the life of..

Ok, we've been pretty much home-bound for six days. I've broken the rules and taken the girls the Walmart and I snuck out a couple times in order to regain my sanity, but my daughters and I have been pretty much staring each other in the face for almost a week. They really only had a cold, but Avery's fever lasted 5 days and Allie has been an emotional wreck! Fun times!

Today things were looking up, but I kept Avery home since she had a low fever yesterday and there that whole "24-hr rule". So we (SSSHHHH!) went to Target and the library. Is that terrible that we went to the library? I sanitized their hands and we didn't stay long! Anyway, this morning, before we left, Avery was watching an OPB show and shared her observation that the mother pteranadon (sp?) on Dinosaur Train always says "Yes" to her kids when they ask her for something. I stared at her and then explained that that's because she's a pretend mom. What's more - the kids are pretend kids. They only ask their mom for things that she CAN say yes to. To Avery's credit, she pretty much understood that. I think her comment was more out of surprise than jealousy!

So then we left for Target. As we walked in, Avery went straight to a shirt that wasn't even cute, and asked if we could buy it. After I said no (because I'm not pretend), she said something like, "We never get to buy the things we want." I tried to ignore that until she decided to continue with the pouting. I reminded her that I'm not a pretend dinosaur and there are a lot of things that I have to say "no" to. I love her and she gets so many things she wants - yada,yada,yada...

Then we went to the library. Thank the Lord one of my children didn't pee all over herself (sorry, Anna, I had to say it!), although I definitely wouldn't put it past my youngest. Allie lost me for a minute, though, and a mom found her and she came crying to me - so sad!!! The trip was a bit stressful, though, and I was very ready to leave. As we were walking out, I was thinking to myself, "these trips are more frustrating than they are worth." While that thought was going through my head, though, Avery said, "I just love going to the library!" Well, folks, there you go. So many things we do as moms are frustrating for us and quite testing of our patience, but that comment sure put it all in perspective for me.

Then we met Rich for lunch because he was meeting an old coworker who kind of wanted to see the whole gang. The girls ate jello and oranges. At least it was cheap. As we were driving off, I'm not kidding, Allie asked me, "What's for lunch, Mom?"

The afternoon was fairly uneventful, except Emily called, since she had my dog for a doggie-playdate, and informed me that Raleigh had dug a hole to China in her backyard and she had to give him a bath. Super. She was very gracious and wasn't at all mad! What a pal!

I had almost gotten the kids to bed after making dinner and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, when Allie said her ear hurts. An hour later I finally had her drugged and sleepy and back to bed. Guess she's not going to preschool tomorrow and we'll be heading to see the doctor. Never mind that I really need to get in myself, but that will have to wait! Really, I'm not bitter about it. The grace God has given me over the last week is clear - I'd have lost it days ago without His sufficiency! "We hold these treasures in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." Amen!

Not sure how tomorrow will look, other than I will either please Him or not. I'll walk with Him, or not. I'll be victorious, or not... You get the idea!

Did I mention I'm going on a vacation next week??????? Oh, man...