January Misc

The last two months have been terrible for us. So much unhealthiness! As I write my head feels like it is going to explode through my ever painful ears. So tired. Don is still a mess as well but Rebekah seems to be back to normal. Needless to say we didn't do much this month but stay inside and watch way to many disney and nick jr. shows. But here's some pictures that showed we actually existed this month:

Rebekah makes sure each of her dolls have a book to read before we leave for any amount of time.

One of the few days Rebekah was actually healthy: Lunch at Wendy's with grammy

and heading to church

I've been teaching Rebekah preschool lessons. Today after the lesson was over she said she wanted to write me something and wrote this. So proud!

One of the things we did when Rebekah was feeling kind of energetic: May I introduce Rebekah City, complete with cars, buildings, and amusement parks.

One day this last week Rebekah was feeling better although she was coughing a lot still. She begged me to go outside - someplace like Culvers, she said. We could get some chicken.... Well, who could argue with that. Then she wanted to take a silly face selfie. What better way to commemorate going back into society!

January Books

I love to read but the best part of reading is talking about what you just read. I miss discussing books with people. So I decided to write my thoughts down as part of a journal. What better place than my blog? So, yes this will be all about books. If that bores you feel free to scroll back and look at pictures of Rebekah.

I finished two books in January. The first one I started in December. It was recommended by a dear friend of mine, Pamela Morgan, who is everything I want to be when I grow up. She said she loved this book and I might too. She was correct. This, my friends, is the best book I have ever read. I am in total love with this book.  

The opening paragraph - even before you get to the first chapter - by Mr. Pocock had me want to be on a rowing team. I was sold. Each chapter had a sentence or paragraph written by him. Sheer poetry. The main character was fascinating! Such strength mixed with such trauma. The story was phenomenal. My heart actually yearns to read it again. It is the kind of poetic beauty that lifts a person to a higher existence. There are truly no words to describe what this book meant to me, and so I will leave it at that.

I also read Follow the River on my cousin's recommendation.

A story about Mary Ingles, kidnapped by indians. Big bloody massacre, forced to go back with indians and had a baby (she was 9 months along) on the way. Because she didn't want to be the captain's squaw, her children were taken from her and she was sold as a slave. She escapes with another lady and walks back from Ohio to Virginia, all the time inspired by the great love she has with her husband. Happy ending although she is unrecognizable when she gets back. The book describes her intense walk back: lack of nourishment, clothing, loss of sanity, so forth. Wow. It's one of those books your glad you read but it haunts your sleep. Needless to say I will not be reading that one again.

This other book, 1984, I read because it is considered a classic and many of my friends read it and gave it high ratings. 

It was thought provoking and interesting but also dark and depressing. It kind of reminded me of another book that usually rates high from a favorite author of mine: Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I understand what it is trying to do and I see the point. It is well done. However C.S. Lewis himself said that it was his least favorite book and remarked about the total exhausting and draining perspective he had to see through while he wrote the book. It takes a lot of effort to see things that dark. I see what Orwell was doing and it is worth while. It is simply so dark and heavy that it was almost too much. I suppose one would argue that is why it is so good. I also would have liked more character development (even the love affair felt oddly empty and didn't make sense) but I suppose one would argue that was Orwell's point too: the characters are machines not people. 

I also get to read with Rebekah. That is quite a blessing. I love her books as much (if not more sometimes) as I love mine. So I thought I'd include some of Rebekah's favorites this month. 

**I decide to keep better track of her books we rent from the library this year. Many times she requests a favorite book and I can't remember which one it is, so we end up offering the librarian clue like main characters - "there was a bunny and a mouse..." or highlights of the story - "then the elephant sneezes..." and watch her as she magically turns our prompts into an actual book. (I so want to be her some day.) So, today I wrote an excel document of her library books that we had in the house (realizing that the month is already half over and we have already returned many many books to the library) and there were 78 books. 78!! It's going to be hard to keep track of her favorites but here are a few from this month.

This is a book that surprised me. It is a harder book - a historical account of a 10 year old girl and her trip with her father (Captain of the ship) to Antarctica.Yes, you read right. Rebekah picked this out by herself and just put it in the bag. If I would have looked inside the book I probably would have put it back on the shelf. But as it was we read 2 or 3 pages a night. I thought she would give up and want something else but she hung on every word. When we finished she wanted to start over again. It is interesting to read about the trip through the eyes of a 10 year old.

This one was more her normal style. Both Don and I read this to her and thought about the lessons we could learn as we babysit our "Benjamin." Rebekah laughs and laughs as we read it to her. Perhaps she knows....

This one was a favorite too. Mild manner garbage truck by day, Supertruck by snow storm. And nobody knows....

I liked this one but was surprised when Rebekah continued to ask for this one night after night. Tonight she took it from me half way through and recited the rest of it from memory. Wow. What an impact! Each of the characters represent a different view of life - the buffalo is curiosity, the sting ray poetic passion, the ball logic. Love how they all come together and learn from each other. Not to mention the beautiful art work!

And of course, she WOULD love this one:

All about a little girl who FINALLY gets mommy down for the night.

So Over This

It's not been a good couple of months for us. Rebekah got sick with croup early December. The medicine she was given had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde effect. At one point she stomped her sweet little foot and yelled at me, "I'm the boss!" Yeah, that was fun.

She rallied but after being her nurse and constantly being coughed on, I got sick right after. 

I fought it as much as I could and stayed moving but eventually I crashed. Don came home early from work one day to help out and mom took Rebekah for a few hours the next two days so Rebekah would have someone to play with and I could rest. 

Right after my voice came back (Rebekah very excitedly informed Don when I was better: "mama can sing again, daddy!") Rebekah started not sleeping. (Well, less than usual.) She seemed to be majorly congested. The infection seemed to be trying to escape out of her eyes. Yuck. So I took her into the doctor who said it was a double ear infection with conjunctive something or other in her eye. Amoxicillin was prescribed (which apparently tastes like stinky socks). A few days after she started the medicine she was feeling better. 

We had about a week. 

Monday she was to see the doctor and get a clean bill of health. Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM she started coughing again. It sounded familiar - like that croup. I called the doctor's office and spoke with a nurse who told me that it was most likely a virus and to treat it as such. 

Tuesday night she got a low fever and spent most of the night coughing and crying interchangeably, the cough hurt her throat so much. Wednesday her fever got higher (102.5) and stayed around there even with the ibuprofen I was giving her to ease the pain of her cough. I emailed her doctor just to make sure we were still talking about a virus but received no reply.

We stayed in and watched shows, but it was heart wrenching because it looked like this: 

I called Don and suggested he could give Rebekah a blessing. Then I called around our neighborhood and as luck would have it found someone to complete said blessing on my first call.

But Rebekah was fading fast. The crying started around 5:30. Somewhere around 6 I tried to get her to eat something. She told me she wanted to rest but was scared to lay down. I suggested we could cuddle together on a comfy chair so she could lay her head on my chest and then just rest her eyes.

I had no idea that wouldn't work any more. I'm so short and she is so tall that she had to squish her body down to reach my chest which was uncomfortable for her and myself. I made it work by crossing one leg over the other knee and supporting her back with my arm.

She finally fell asleep and I started to cry for I took that simple physical inadequacy as a symbol of my ineptness as a mother. Sometimes (who am I kidding - most of the time) I don't feel up to the task.  And now my 4 year old wanted her mama to snuggle her and I physically couldn't? Seriously?

So I let myself cry while my little girl was in an uncomfortable fever induced sleep. However I calmed myself before she soon woke up and threw up all over herself and me. 

Don had made it home by then and helped with the clean up. Then we got her a blessing and took her to bed. She slept peacefully for the most part but she was burning up. I checked at one point an got a 103.7 reading. 

She woke up and I gave her more Ibuprofen. She was so miserable I said I wished I could do something for her. She said, "there is something you can do for me mama.... you can snuggle me all night." I may have cried here too.

The next morning I was going to call the doctor whether or not I heard from her doctor, however she had sent an email saying to take her in. 

So today we went in. They did a strep test and an influenza test (yes, she had the flu shot). She tested positive for flu. The doctor gave us a medicine called Tamiflu to help Rebekah through the symptoms. He also gave a prescription for Don and myself. 

We came home and I gave Rebekah her first dose (which, apparently tastes like stinky boots). I also took my first dose. I got so ill I had to lay down. However, I think it may have been the empty stomach syndrome (I forgot to eat something this morning) and hope to have better experiences with the rest of the med. I do however have a slight fever and don't feel quite right. But hopefully we started the preventative med early enough that I (or Don for that matter) won't get it so bad we can't still take care of our snuggly girl.

This, my readers, is the last time Rebekah will be sick this year. I put my foot down!

Snow, Finally!

Never was there a girl who wanted snow more than my sweet little Rebekah. Christmas eve came and Rebekah's response was, "but mom, where's the snow?" Christmas day: "mama, where's the snow?" Very sad.

Last night it snowed. She was all about getting out in it. So while Don shoveled the driveway, I got her all bundled up and we played. 

She was not liking her gloves.

Then she remembered how cold snow actually was. Don, however, needed no reminder. He was not happy about this thing called snow.

But it's rather pretty. From a nice warm distance....

Rebekah was still in heaven. Snow angels:

Snow belly flops:

 Had to get the front view. Not sure what's up with her expression....

Then we went in for some hot chocolate. I was pretty much done with outside, especially since the temperature dropped to around 17 degrees. Rebekah wanted back at it. I suggested we could stay inside and do something fun as a family, like... make carmel popcorn!

Followed by a family dance session!

Happy New Year

We are still getting over the sickness that has overwhelmed Rebekah's and my life. However, I couldn't let the new year go without doing something to celebrate. We made this one craft:

We ended up putting "fire works" on the outside of the 2016. They kind of turned out.

Then we had a picture:

Followed by a prince and princess dance:

Then we went to bed in the hopes of waking up better. 

I'm glad to have a new year fresh, clean, and open to new possibilities in front of us. This picture was taken earlier in December (the weather has been crazy warm). It reminds me of saying goodbye to the new year and drive onward to the new. Couldn't ask of a cuter shotgun rider!

December Crafts

We've been sick this month and spent a lot of time indoors, however we didn't have the energy to do much. We did paint a little.

And made this really cool Christmas tree.

And we made this crown (Rebekah did a great job painting it) for a church thing. Rebekah quickly latched on and said we had to keep it.

That way daddy and I could be a prince to her princess. 

I can't count the times she has walked out of the room in her princess attire and "accidentally" looses a shoe.

Friends

We have such good people in our lives. One of which is this little boy and his mom and sister. Rebekah loves playing with him and recently she found out she loves riding bikes with him. 

The little girl was planning on starting swimming so we thought we would loan Rebekah's puddle jumper to her. Rebekah was only too willing to try it on. 

One of Rebekah's good friends moved earlier this year. She ended up coming back to Indy and visiting. So glad she did. Rebekah looked at Anabel and said, "I'm Rebekah," to which Anabel replied, "I remember you...." and then they hugged. So cute.

Rebekah loves her friends. I love her so much. I love that we love spending time together. I love that Rebe likes to take selfies of us together.

Eventually she may not want me around so much and so I am taking extreme advantage of the days when she does.

We started picnicking recently. 

She makes everything fun. (Yes, that is a piece of sandwich in her mouth. I said "pretend you are eating...."