Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. The day that we honor our Mothers and as Mothers maybe actually get a bit of pampering too. Each year we typically have both my Mom and Andy's Mom, all the rest of the immediate family is invited too and we do lunch. Usually taco bar or hamburgers on the grill. The treat is the first making in the large ice cream maker of homemade ice cream.

This year is anything but typical for Mother's Day for me, very typical, however, for a mother's normal day. Starting about a week ago with A2 getting sick that accumulated in the removal of his appendix on Wednesday. We got to come home on Thursday to A1 who was fighting a sore throat and her neck was out of alignment. Still wanting to go to volleyball that night, but when she got back from her chiropractor appointment she hangs her head and asks for me to see if she has a fever. Yes, she did. So now I have two kids down, or up as they chose to be in their rooms. A good choice, since A2 really didn't need to "catch" anything from A1. I slept upstairs on the couch Thursday and Friday nights. I knew I would sleep better because I wouldn't be running up and down the steps to check on them if anything was wrong for everything I heard. A2, bless his heart, was afraid I wouldn't sleep very well there and that he would wake me up. I told him that was just part of being a mom, being up at all hours when the kids need you and I explained that this way I wouldn't be trekking up and down the stairs every time I heard something.

Things were running smoothly. While there was no snoring keeping me awake those nights, the wind was something else on Friday night. It had finally died down and apparently God wasn't finished carrying up through the storm when at 4am Andy came up to have me look at "some" hives he had. He told me he already had taken Benedryl about an hour before but was still itchy. His back was covered, like one giant hive. His chest and belly were pretty well covered too. I stayed up with him for about another 45 minutes until he was comfortable and sleepy. He said he didn't have any problems breathing. We tried to figure out what he had gotten into and narrowed it down some. A bit later, 2 hours, Austin was up and needing pain meds. Bless him, he took them and waited for some breakfast while I caught another 1 or 2 hours of sleep.

Saturday, I thought we were on the way out, A1 had been fever free for over 24 hours. A2's pain levels were down. Andy forgot what we thought he reacted to and ate some, so another round of Benedryl which knocked him out for the afternoon. He and A1 went to our church's dinner theatre that evening. He has sound to set up after tear down of the play's sets so they took two vehicles.

I hadn't planned on going to church because I didn't think A2 was going to be ready to try that and I didn't want to leave him home alone, just in case something weird happened. Well all the different eating times and high sugar and high caffenine foods caught up to me very early(2am) Sunday morning. I got up and took some things to make me feel better and went back to my bed. No couch at all that night; both kids had been doing great. Andy came in as he was getting ready for church later and said that A1 wasn't going she thought she was running a fever in the middle of the night. Back to running stairs. I rested in bed a bit, until A2 called me to see what was for breakfast. I did get a thanks Mom and I hope you have a Happy Mother's Day.

So today is not typical Mother's Day. I talked with my Mom on the phone today instead of live. I was glad that both she and my mother-in-law both had told me earlier in the week to just cancel our regular plans. That I should just take the day and rest. Well, while I took the day off, but I'm not celebrating a typical Mother's Day, I am celebrating a typical day for a Mom. I'm taking care of my husband and children, without whom I wouldn't have the honor of being called "Mom" in the first place. When everyone is well, then we'll send a day doing something special and fun. For right now, I'll just hold on to the Lord, who really is carrying me through all this. Thankful for all the prayers of my friends and family.

I hope you all have a Happy Mother's Day, whether you are spending it typically or atypically.