I have started a few blog entries that I have never finished because the events of life come and stop me mid-thought...I am not sure where I was going with any of them but I like to look back at where we were and what was going on...we have come a long way in 6 weeks...thankful, thankful...
Start of week 2 of Clay's concussion...
Having a sick child is nothing new to any mother out there...no mom is exempt from the worries we face! I give my worries to God but I am weary. To hear your child cry out in their sleep in pain is heart breaking. You jump up, run to their side and they are asleep. Thankful that the pain did not wake them up, you ease back in bed, just to hear it again and again. The gray circles under Clay's eyes reveal a lack of restful sleep and your day starts...and there is no make up in the world to make me appear rested!
I know God is in control of this situation and I am trying DESPERATELY to trade in my worrying ways for prayer. I think I have fallen sound asleep the past 12 nights praying. I love falling asleep praying...it is peaceful...until you wake up to the moans and cries of your child and you start the cycle over again.
In my prayers I count my blessing one by one. Boy, am I blessed with an incredible husband that loves me, loves our children and is the Christian leader of our home. I count that blessing first. Then I pray for each one of our children. Everyone thinks their kids are awesome....I feel no different! Each one of them are special, different....
Start of Clay's 3rd week out of school
WOW....Happy Monday
Wake up at 4:00 am when Brantlee's alarm goes off. He has a 6:00 am flight out of Albany this morning....this is his 13th flight in 3 weeks....it is getting a little old. BUT...after this week there are no trips on his calendar for a while. After getting Brantlee out the door, I lay back down but never go back to sleep. After laying awake for close to 3 hours I hear a loud crash and about 20 seconds later a scream! My first thought was...oh hell...now what? It was Evelyn, she fell out of her bed and knocked her eye on her bedside table. I got her to my bed screaming, settled her down, turned on the light and see a huge goose egg.
At this moment I have a choice to make. I can crawl under the covers and dread the rest of my day (which lately has been my go-to behavior)...feeling sorry for myself that I have been up for 3 hours, Brantlee is gone, yet another week, Evelyn now has a black eye and Clay is not getting any better, and it is only 6:45...or....I can get up and get moving. I make a very conscious decision to not let the past 3 hours set the stage for my week.
I head to the kitchen turn my ipod on as loud as I can and wake up the rest of the house. We have tried many ways to wake up the children. We have the standard alarm clock or sitting on their bedside rubbing their heads telling them nicely to get up. When that does not work I sing to them, "it's time to get up, up, up open your eyes..." They HATE that. I love to send Clay upstairs and let him beat the heck out of Lawson's drums. That always ends very badly but is too funny to resist sometimes. This morning I go with our other option....blare my ipod in the kitchen while making breakfast..
Last week...
Well, I think it has been a month or so since I last blogged...I am now blogging because my To Do list it way to long to deal with. This seems to be the better option. I need to make soup for the LPE teachers and we are having Brantlee's customers over for dinner tomorrow night. Most items on my list have to do with cooking and cleaning. My other items are "fun" things like thank you notes, returning clothes to the mall and finishing laundry. Blogging is definitely a better option.
We have had a very eventful month. We have traveled to Pensacola for my cousins wedding, to Live Oak for Brantlee's 20th class reunion and to Atlanta for fall break and a concert. I am never sure what possess us to pack up and go so much. We love being home but sometimes I think we love the road more. The children are great travelers. Don't get me wrong, some trips are horrendous and Brantlee and I swear to talk each other out of doing it again. But, inevitably, we pack up and go again and again and again.
At Liz's wedding we had so much fun showing LLCE around UWF campus in Pensacola. We parked in the South side dorm parking lot and showed the children where their daddy and I met.....told them how he was carrying his comforter and a box of GAIN. I knew then, a man that could do laundry was a keeper. We showed them which dorm he and Mr. Russell lived in and which one Sam and I were in. We walked to the ADPi dorm and the Commons. I felt pretty old...it was a feeling of nostalgia...sad but happy, missing those days but so thankful for the family and life I have now. The last thing we did was head to the book store where I bought a UWF tag and UWF Tervus tumbler. The tag on my car makes me laugh every time I see it. Argonauts??? What is an Argonaut and why is there a sea shell on your tag? UWF was not the most famous college around but it was a blast!!!
As for today, November 6, 2011, life is good. I guess we will always have ridiculous things happen in our family, the latest being Clay's trip to the optometrist (Tuesday) after his glow stick broke and squirted the glowing liquid in his eye....things like that I am guessing we will never be exempt from...But for now we are good. The kids all have company and are playing soccer in the front yard, Brantlee will be home this week and Clay has been back in school for 2 weeks. He feels good most of the time. He would say he is 80% back to normal. He no longer has a constant headache, which is great. The only issues we have now are headaches after a lot of reading and concentration and after playing for a long period of time. I am ready for him to be 100% but am so thankful at how much he has improved. We head back to the neurologist in Macon on Thursday and to spend the weekend with Amy...along with a Reckless Kelly concert for my birthday, Friday night...should be another good week for the Lawrence's.
