Sunshine and daises and the lack thereof.

Good news! I'm getting new glasses! Bad news - old glasses, my favorite glasses of all time, got a little broken during soccer. Uh, I took a head ball with my eye? I guess that should have been a chest ball, but have you any idea how uncomfortable chest balls are for a lactating girl?

About as much fun as a barbed wire hula hoop.

So instead I ducked, not quite far enough, resulting in a break above the right lens.

The lens now falls out if I run or jump around so I left the game early.  On the drive home I became aware of intense itching on my neck and scalp. By the time I got home I'd broken out in hives all over, and was feeling dizzy and nauseated.

I think it was an allergic reaction to nuts perhaps, as I'd had peanuts (that is, peanut butter) and hazelnuts (ok fine - Nutella) and walnuts (on salad - so that's good...) all in one day. Whatever it was, a cold shower calmed the hives down, but the nausea lasted through the night. I noticed it every hour and a half as our sicky Joe woke up crying. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT! GAAAAAAAAH!

By 5am I was so dead that I had Joe in bed with us and groggily changed him without a changing pad so OF COURSE he broke the constipation streak with flair right there on our sheets. I woke up Dave (he'd had a half hour of sleep since getting sicky Riley back to sleep so it was about time) and together we cleaned up Joe and changed our sheets. We got back to sleep about 6, and the babies got us up at seven. I want a t-shirt for surviving that night.

You know, life has its challenges. People get sick and glasses break. And then there are serious heartaches of loosing loved ones, abuse, etc. But there is a recurring thought with me these days that each challenge is meant to be part of our journey. That we are meant to have certain challenges, be they physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, what have you, because they can make us better people if we respond to them in a positive way. I wish I could say I respond with more grace - usually for me it's two steps forward and then one back.

I figure that's ok though. I think those steps back have their own importance, giving us greater empathy for all God's children and helping us appreciate what is good even more. And morning comes sometime and with it all kinds of possibilities. New glasses, maybe. Or new friends or jobs or something to remind you:

 life is beautiful.

Thoughtful face, compliments of Joe.

Well, that post evolved.

Love you all,
Heidi