Completely Random

This post will be a moment (or a few moments) in my mind. Hang on, it could be a bumpy ride.

Rainy Day Activities: When it is raining, keeping the kids from tearing their own, their brothers, or their mother's hair out is quite the challenge. When kids are two, activities last, according to my scientific data (that I did myself) about eight minutes. Example: I took a video of the boys playing puzzles. It's long and maybe not of interest to a lot of people, but here it is anyways: Puzzle Time. In the end it lasts a grand total of four minutes. At this point it is time to clean it all up and find something new.

Because of Isaac: Friends, I continue to be amazed at the money coming in from this organization. JB and I keep thinking that "this will be the week" that things slow down. But as of today, we have over $9,000! This is in under 3 months. If we were to stay on this track, it will be under one year for the $25,000 to come in for Grant and Elizabeth. Please visit http://www.becauseofisaac.org/ for an updated total or add us on your Facebook page. We understand not everyone is in a position to give, but please remember that small donations add up and you sharing this website with your friends is our biggest form of advertisement.

Potty training: Is going, well, I don't believe in jinxes but I am still afraid of doing such ... but it is going really well. Elijah has been nearly perfect for two days in a row with potty. Isaac has been perfect with potty for many days now. The #2 continues to be a challenge. Sometimes we get it in the potty, sometimes we get it in the pants. Cleaning up poopy underwear has nearly confirmed for me that I am just not cut out for cloth diapers. I really hate poop! Just don't like it. Especially when you are trying to take off a pair of underwear filled with the stuff from a squiggly little boy who doesn't understand the idea of "go slow" or "don't kick your legs." Other issues that are a bit exhausting with potty training include:

• Removing underwear and pants about 42 times per day per child. This is for times when just a little pee-pee is coming and times when it is completely a false alarm. My back is sore from this!
• Little boys (especially Elijah) trying to put his finger in the stream of urine over and over again.
• Little boys (especially Elijah) desiring to empty the small potty himself. (Not good. Just not good.)
• Little boys (both of them this time) who like to unroll the entire roll of toilet paper when you walk away for a moment.

I am still pinching myself that it appears, somehow, we managed to double-train the boys. It was my dream to get this done at one time. I had my doubts since Elijah is still quite a few months younger than Isaac. But man will I be glad to get a break from diapers (for about, oh, two months.)

Anxiety: I have felt a bit of my old and not-so-good friend, anxiety, creeping back in. I'll be writing more about this later, but I would appreciate your prayers regarding this. The anxiety is random. It is worry about fairly obscure things that for many months have not bothered me. For instance, I worry about Scrubs barking at people when they come into the house (he takes a few minutes to warm up to strangers.) John reminds me that he is a "watch dog" and that he isn't supposed to like all new people. I know that, but I wonder what people will think of me. What if Scrubs did something bad? (He has never come close to biting anyone.) And Scrubs is just the beginning. I will also find myself worrying whether I have upset someone. Did I hurt someone's feelings? Why did I say that? You know, that type of thing. If you are a new reader, I have written about my anxiety issues on the blog before and the counseling I did for this before we left for Turkey. But I am now, no longer medicated for this issue, and am dealing with this on my own with new hormones presenting themselves throughout my body. Your prayers for me as I work through this are much appreciated.

Pashminas: Don't forget to check out the sale at the top of the page. We've raised $140 for Because of Isaac through Pashmina sales and would love to keep this secondary source of fundraising continuing.

Egg allergy: Isaac had to get an Epipen shot on Tuesday evening for the second time ever. His face started swelling up and didn't respond to Benadryl. So the shot came out. It is horrible to listen to him cry when he gets this shot. It's even worse because he basically knew it was coming. Man, you can feel how our Heavenly Father must feel when he has to watch us going through pain while knowing that there is ultimate good in that pain. The thing is, we don't know what caused the swelling. From what we could tell, he hadn't had any eggs or egg products. It's the first time he has had a major "issue" since JB's graduation back in the summer. Overall he had been handling egg products very well -- eating brownies and waffles and other things of the like. So we'll see how he continues to do. The Epipen definitely took care of the swelling but I didn't like how pale Isaac went (from the medicine) after we gave him the shot.

Coupons: I found out that I won the base contest with an overall savings of 17.2% on our monthly grocery bill. That's a lot!!! My "prize" was just a mug with some chocolate and I felt kind of strange accepting an award for domestic skills (of which I have none.) But it was fun nonetheless.

And lastly ... good friends:
It's wonderful when you meet people who love your kids and your kids love them in return. Here is a picture of Linda and Elijah after dinner last night. Linda was kind enough to read a book with Elijah that I had already read 12 times that day and needed a break from!