catch-up

I have been away from my blog for the last week because our family has been sick.  Jacob started getting chills, fever, and body aches starting Monday night, until Thursday noon-ish, when his fever was finally gone without medicine... for a few hours.  Then it surged up again late Thursday afternoon, and he started having trouble with his asthma.  We took him in to the urgent care clinic, and they did a chest x-ray and discovered he has pneumonia.  He is on antibiotics now and seems to be doing much better.  His fever is gone, and he is eating and playing again.

Early Tuesday morning, around 3:30 am, I woke up with a horrible earache.  I tried everything I could think of for the pain, and finally made it to the doctor at 10:50 am.  (Which is its own crazy story, see Nattyman's blog.)  My eardrum had ruptured.  So that explains the excruciating pain.  I am on antibiotics, steroids, and high-powered pain killers as needed.  The pain isn't so bad now, but my ears still feel totally full of fluid, and it's quite uncomfortable.  I will be so happy when it drains!  I am doing everything the doctor and I can come up with to make it happen more quickly, but it's just not happening yet.

Well, now that I got that out of the way, there have actually been a few things on my mind I wanted to write about.  I wanted to share some of the funny things Ethan has said over the last month or two.

E - "What's that smell?"  (as we go outside to get in the van, shortly after I had changed the fuel filter)

me - "It's probably gasoline."

E - "No. [convinced]  Smells like warthogs."

E - [drinking from our water bottle in the car on the way home from CO, says with suspicion in his voice...] "Is this toilet water?"

There was one more funny quote, but I can't remember it now.  I'll come back and add it if I can remember it...

Jacob lost both his front teeth this week.  The first one he swallowed while taking a drink here at home.  The second he swallowed while jumping on a friend's trampoline.  For the first tooth, he wanted a butterfly style yo-yo from the "tooth fairy."  For the second, he wanted a dollar and a half (which I provided in 6 shiny state quarters from different states).  He knows it's us, of course, so it is funny when he tells us exactly what he wants under his pillow.  

I think he looks very cute.

Finally, I have had some more thoughts about making space in our full lives for each other.  We had our back-to-school picnic at church last week.  After coming home from it, I was thinking how making space in our lives for each other doesn't have to mean opening our homes, although that can certainly be an effective way to accomplish it and is certainly still a goal for me.  But, as in the case of the picnic, sometimes it means sharing our resources and our time and our hearts with each other, even though no one's home is being shared.  Being willing to be open and transparent with each other and have true fellowship.  Being willing to forgo normal routines or schedules for an evening in order to share life with each other.  So, this was encouraging, to see that I can make space for others, and I can experience them making space for me, even though I haven't yet learned how to keep my home open for others as much as I'd like.  And it was reassuring that although an open door is sometimes what people desperately need - someone they can call or come to at any time, whenever the need is greatest - that still, scheduled time for each other is part of making space, too.  In fact, it is probably a necessary part of keeping our lives open for each other, and the non-scheduled, as-the-need-arises time together flows from our scheduled times together.

I am going to end my catch-up entry here, as my super-dose of ibuprofen is making me sleepy.  As a last word, I will say, I am praying for the hurricane victims, especially those in Haiti who are so vulnerable and helpless.  Our church partners with a church down there, and I hope and pray we can aid the victims both in body and spirit, as they must be so disheartened right now.