Random thoughts from the last 2 weeks

Time jar
Imagine your day is a jar.  The things you have to do fill the jar.  Imagine you fill it with rocks.  Pretty soon, your jar will be full and you will not be able to do any more things.  You consider yourself busy and your day is full.  Then something changes in your life requiring you to do more.  Remember those empty spaces between the rocks?  Those spaces used to be the time you spent doing things like watching TV, hanging out with friends or doing hobbies.  Now you have something else you have to do.  Fill in the spaces with rice.  Now you are really busy.  Your jar was full before, but now it is really full.  Nothing else can fit.  Wait.  Something else changes in your life.  You have another baby, change jobs, decide to move, a child gets sick etc.  You suddenly have more things you have to do to get through each day.  If you pour water in your jar, there is still room between the rice.  Now your jar is really full.  Now you don't even have time to think about doing the hobbies, let alone do them.  Can you fit anything else into a day?  Only if you have to.  Maybe you could add some salt.  The particles would dissolve in the water.  I bet your jar could hold a lot of salt if you wanted to.  Some days I feel like I have  jar of rocks and rice.  This last week my jar has had salt water in it.

Big news:  Ellie is (really close to) sleeping through the night!  I haven't fed her before 5 am for 2 weeks.  She has slept 11-12 hours straight 4 nights and 10 a few more.  If she wakes up and starts crying at night I can go rock her for 10 minutes and she goes back to sleep.  She turned 4 months today and  is super cute.  She loves to talk to people and just soaks up attention.  She wiggles a lot and moves around when she is laying on her back.  The last couple of days she has started wiggling side to side and looks like she may try to roll over soon.  She hates her tummy though.

Kirk went to the doctor last Wednesday to talk about his abdominal pain.  She gave him a few suggestions including trying a new diet that eliminates foods that are hard to digest.  It takes out wheat, lactose (cheese is still ok), onions, garlic, high fructose corn syrup, some fruits (including apples) and a few vegetables.  We decided to try it.  The doctor wants him to do it for 6 weeks.  I spent several hours looking up recipes for breakfast, making meal lists and shopping.  Kirk stayed with the kids for a bit on Saturday so I could go to Costco by myself.  I bought a ton of produce, quinoa, gluten-free flour, almond milk etc.  I also bought infant formula.  I thought it was funny that I bought formula.  I bet most people who are buying things like quinoa and almond milk would also want their babies to be breast-fed.  Anyway, we got all geared up for the diet.  Then Kirk got sick and it only lasted 2 days.  We will try again next week.

We went to James Collette's house for dinner Sunday.  It was fun to relax and hang out.  The kids had fun playing too.  We were there for 3 hours.

Kirk started feeling sick on Sunday night.  He went to work Monday and came home tired and a little sick.  Tuesday he woke up with a low fever but still went to work for 10 hours.  He was feeling ok by evening.  Wednesday morning he woke up really sick.  The fever was back at 102, he was freezing, he was achy and his throat was burning.  We went to the doctor because he thought it could be strep and a fever for 2 days is never good.  It is the flu.  He spent all day Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and half of Saturday locked up in a room watching netflix.  The rest of us pretended like he wasn't home except for getting him lots of food and drinks and ibuprofen.  So far, nobody else has the flu.  Ellie has a little cold and hasn't been sleeping well.  Luckily, Cade and Cami have been sleeping well so I can help Ellie at night.

Tomorrow is Easter.  Cami and I went to Cade's preschool party on Friday morning.  I left Ellie home sleeping because Kirk was around. He was going to text me when she woke up so I could come get her.  She was a good baby and slept the whole 2 hours I was gone!!  Cami had fun doing crafts and the egg hunt.  She likes being with the preschool kids.  Cade is a good brother and helps to make sure she has fun and gets to do everything.  Right after the party, we came home a grabbed Ellie and went to meet up with some friends at the park.  The weather was ok, but a little breezy.  It warmed up in the afternoon and we were able to go out for a walk.

Today I took Cade and Cami (left a sleeping baby again) to the ward breakfast party and egg hunt.  They had a great time.  Then we picked up Ellie and went to a park where some of our friends organized another egg hunt.  The kids were in heaven.  They loved cracking open their eggs to see what candy they got.  Our sweet neighbor dropped off an Easter basket today filled with bags for each of the kids.  Ellie got a stuffed bunny and a rubber duck.  Cade and Cami each got candy and some bubbles.  I hid some candy and eggs around our family room for them to find tomorrow.  Holidays are fun with kids.

Tonight was the general women's broadcast because next week is general conference.  I wanted to go but between Kirk being sick and Ellie not sleeping and mostly crying the hour before I need to leave, dinner didn't happen for a while and I couldn't leave Kirk to take care of the kids.  Luckily, I can watch it online over the next week.  I really enjoy going to those meetings though.

I really have nothing special that I do that fills up my time jar.  I thought I was busy then I had a baby.  I thought I was busy, but I still found time to redo our diet and plan and shop.  I thought I was busy, but then Kirk got sick and I found time to take care of him and the kids for 4 days straight.  Last night I was really tired.  My head was spinning.  But I made it though.

I'm sure that this next week will be good.  It will be busy--feeding the family, picking up toys, entertaining kids, cleaning house, doing dishes, doing laundry, grocery shopping, sleeping etc.