Yaggie Kids - Days 4-10

The best laid plans and all...

The intent was kind of the same as what I did for our trip to Florida a few weeks ago.  Daily blogs so I could recall what we did, what happened, the food we ate, every little thing, not only for my benefit, but so that I could share those things with Hilary and Blaine when they returned home.

Well, that didn't happen.

Why?

Because I was exhausted at the end of each day?

Because there was just too much going on to even consider remembering it all and journaling about it?

Because the flu hit all of us, except Landon, and writing in a journal was not on the recovery schedule?

So instead, as we approach the end of our adventure with the Yaggie kids....the highlights!

1.  Stomach flu - hit Tessa on the first Friday, then Owen on Sunday, then Gary on Monday, then Beth late Monday afternoon

2.   Laundry - keeping up with the kids and the towels was easy if I did it every other or every three days.  My goal is for everything to be clean, dry, and folded when H and B return.

3.  Food - meals have been interesting.  The first Saturday we stopped at McD in Delphi (no chicken on the grilled chicken southwest salad) for lunch food.  Karen and Tessa went to Delphi in a snowstorm for lunches on the first Sunday.  Pizza from Arni's on the second Friday for Pizza, Popcorn, and Movie Night.  Second Saturday lunch was from Culver's after the cheerleader clinic, and second Sunday lunch was at Buffalo Wild Wings. Other than that and two boxes of donuts from Flour Mill, we ate at home.  Strawberry and chocolate mini-donuts.  NutriGrain bars.  Hamburger Stroganoff.  Pancakes for Sunday dinner.  Ravioli.  Chicken tenders.  Lots of fruit.  Yogurt.  Plus packing lunches was fun.  We added in some homemade cookies to the lunch box.

4.  Bath times - every other day was bath time except for Landon who had shower time after wrestling practices too.  A fun treat was using the big garden tub with the whirlpool jets in Mommy and Daddy's master bathroom.  Lotsa bubbles the first time we did it!  We had to be careful with Tessa's hair too.  Didn't want to catch any of it!

5.  One of my biggest worries was having the kids dressed correctly. I didn't want to send them to school wearing mismatched clothes or argue with Tessa about about what she could or couldn't wear.  On the bedroom floor are three rows of clothes stacked with pants, shirts, underwear, and socks for each child.  After the first week and doing laundry, I re-arranged each row and it has worked great!  After Landon cleaned his room on Saturday, he brought in a stack of hangers and we hung up his clean shirts and he put away his pants, underwear and socks.  Then I hung up some of Tessa's clothes also.  Everything will be ready for at least a week or 10 days after we return home.

End of the evening and time for bed......to be continued.....

Yaggie Kids - Day 3 Feb 9

Today has been much better than yesterday! 

For one things I had over 9 hours of sleep according to my FitBit. 

Then both Gary and I took showers which improved out outlook on life immensely.  That and fresh clothes plus clean hair makes a marked improvement.

Gary fixed some eggs and toast for breakfast.  Landon, Tessa, and I went into Rossville to pick up donuts at Flour Mill.  We ran into the Pattengales while we were there.

Next stop was the Delphi PO to pick up a postage due envelope.  First of all it was closed until 10.  So we went to the Canal Park and looked around at possibilities for future trips.  Then second the postage due was just re-paying what the postmaster had already paid for postage that was due on a package that Hilary had sent to Colfax.

After that we went to our house.  I had asked Landon if he wanted to help me bake a loaf of banana bread and he agreed.  He did a great job with measuring, mixing, and mashing the bananas and adding them into the batter. 

Of course Tessa wanted to do something also, so I told her we could make a batch of chocolate chip cookies.   Her interest wavers after about 5 minutes, so I had to finish them by myself.  They were a mix cookie so the work wasn't as time consuming as the banana bread, which was from scratch.

Gary called several times---to see where we were, to check on us, and to check on us again.  He wanted us to bring food from McDonalds home for lunch.  That was an adventure in itself.  One woman in front of us didn't know how to order anything.  She kept asking for prices and saying that they were too high and it was too much.   Then she couldn't ease into the traffic flow.  I thought we did well, except when we came home and unloaded everything  My southwest chicken salad with grilled chicken had no chicken on it --of any kind!

I was mad when I returned to McDonald's with my salad to demand that it be fixed.  I was not a happy person.  They did add about 6 chunks of chicken, then gave it back to me.  No refund.  No coupon to return.

When I went back to our house to eat the salad with chicken, I wrapped up the cooled banana bread, picked up the mail and a razor for Gary plus a package of gel pens for me, and I was all set to return.

Tacos for dinner tonight!  Gary is moking then--I hope.

Better day today!  It will continue to be fun!

Yaggie Kids - Day 2 Feb. 8

Well, we got off to a rocky start.
 
Gary and I slept (or tried to) on the couch (me) and recliner (him) until around 2, then we moved upstairs after Hilary and Blaine left for the airport.

My phone alarms were set.  I was awake at 6.  But soon after my alarm went off, Tessa was next to the bed, telling me her stomach hurt.

That resulted in a day full of vomiting and her staying hoe from school.  Not the way we wanted to start this adventure!

The good thing is that she stayed upstairs all day, away from Lynnlee, and she slept most of the dqy.

The bad news was that everything was so disjointed from that first moment, that I didn't take my morning medicine, I didn't shower or wash my hair, and I didn't really get dressed.  

I had fruit, yogurt, and toast for breakfast.  I ate a chicken patty and some chips for lunch.  Dinner was ravioli and sauce and some green beans.  Not really what I wanted to fix, but it worked.

Tessa and Owen were in bed early.  I retired soon after.  Gary and Landon came up about 30 minutes after that.  I was already sound asleep.

We did a Face Time with Hilary and Blaine while they were having dinner with Rick and Rachel.  I hope they all have a great time!

Yaggie Kids Day 1

It's really not Day 1 yet, but close. 

Maybe it should be called Preparation Day.

The plan was for me to go with Hilary and the kids to school so that I could re-confirm the place to park, the bus to put Owen on for his trip to CP, and to verify the time schedule.  Lo and behold---two hour delay for BOTH schools because of fog.

So plans changed.  The big kids got on the bus.  Gary stayed with Owen and Lynnlee.  Hilary and I took off for grocery shopping at Meijer.

All went well there, except it took us longer than we thought it would.  First the line at the pharmacy was long in time, but not long in people.  Then because the meds I picked up totaled over $200, I decided to take them to the Escape rather than rest them in the cart for someone to grab and take away from me.  Then an intended stop at the bathroom had to be detoured because the bathroom was closed.

After I finally met up with Hilary, we strolled, and I do mean strolled, the aisles, contemplating possible dishes to make for dinner for the kids and snacks and drinks for Gary to sustain him since we wouldn't be at our house.

After a long wait in the checkout line and loading everything into the Escape, we returned to their house via the drive thru at Arbys to get Gary two fish sandwiches, roast beefs for us, and fries for the kids.

Quick carry in and putting away of groceries, then off to VS Nails we went.  TIna was waiting for me.  Another tech did a pedicure and a French manicure for Hilary.  After we left there, a stop at Sam's Club to fill up with gas, then a stop at the bank to exchange some big bills for smaller ones, and back home we went.

After the kids came home from school. Megan came to pick up Lynnlee, and Blaine came home, Hilary left for a massage to help adjust her back pain.  Blaine filled Gary in on chicken chores and wood replenishing for the fireplace.  

Dinner was at Ethans, followed by our return to our house to finish packing up some things for a few days at the Yaggie ranch.

Hilary and Blaine finished packing. Hilary laid out three rows of clothes for the kids, one for each day, some complete with underwear and socks.  There is a notebook full of instructions for the 12 days they will be gone.  

Departure time for the cruisers is 2:45 a.m.  Their flight leaves for Tamps at 6:05.  They should be in the air by the time we get the first kids up for the prep for school.

I just set all of the alarms for tomorrow morning - times to wake Tessa, time to wake Landon, time to look for bus.  The only thing I am not sure of is the time Lynnlee arrives.  Yikes!  I forgot that one!  After tomorrow I will add that time to my alarm list.

Looking forward to a fun time with the kids.  We have lots of good meals planned.  They will be very busy all week with wrestling and gymnastics and cheer camp.  I hope we have some time to bake a banana bread and do some other fun things.

I am also glad that Hilary and Blaine have this opportunity to go on the cruise, to re-connect with Rick and Rachel, and to relax.  

One thing I do know is this....after the next 12 days, Gary and I will probably need another vacation!

The Illustrated Words of Jesus for Woman

I may have written about this before, but the journey does continue!

I have been faithfully reading the decotion each day, writing in the book, and coloring the pictures that accompany each day.  I took a pack of colored pencils with me on the Florida trip to help out - limited colors but they worked out well.

I try to post every day in the FB forum that Rhonda and I share also.   She hasn't been posting much - working, a business trip to Philadelphia, then she was sick.  But she comments sometimes that she is so thankful for our friendship and that she is enjoying my posts.

I hope she feels well enough soon, not just so she is on the road to good health again, but so that she can read daily and post because I do miss interaction with others.

The daily devotions are really good.  I like the focus on individual passages.  I spend some time thinking about my interpretations of those scriptures and how I can apply them to my life, then I read the narrative that goes with them.  Often my eyes are opened because my interpretations are very different.  But that is what happens and what is meant to be.  We interpret based on our own knowledge, our experience, our beliefs.  No one interpretation is right; no one interpretation is totally wrong.

I remember when I was so gung-ho on the YouVersion app and the Reading the Bible in 365 Days.  I would read the commentary, then read the scriptures, and sometimes I would just scan through the verses, marking them off as "read" and feeling accomplished.  After Greta and I went to hear the speaker in Ft. Wayne (whose name escapes me right now), my view changed.  While she stressed the importance of reading and studying the Bible, her view was that following a reading plan such as the one I was doing was not beneficial because the reading was in chunks with no time for dissection or interpretation.  She recommended focusing on portions of scripture, or even a book of the Bible, and taking the reading slow, with study of the words, the meanings, the messages found there.  

That made sense to me, and when I listen to Lysa speaking during the current OBS, she does the same thing.  She has been focusing on the creation story in Genesis, the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and their specific words and reactions.  When I was reading it last January, I read through the verses and moved on.  I remember thinking, Yea, yea, yea...I have read this many times before and I know this story already.  But now with Lysa's encouragement, I have been looking at the verses with new eyes, from a different perspective.

Yes, I like this devotional book.  Yes, it is giving me the opportunity to explore and focus on individual verses and interpret them, as well as record my thoughts.  I like the time to color the illustrations also!

But I do miss Rhonda and our discussions.  I hope she feels better soon, gets into a routine, and includes our daily devotions in that routine.

A Scare

Hilary called around 4 yesterday afternoon, panic in her voice, and asked if she could drop the kids off.   Blaine had called her and had been to Urgent Care and they were sending him to the Emergency Room. 

He felt like he had pneumonia because his chest hurt so bad and he was coughing, but he also had been working with chemicals at Tate and Lyle and had been exposed to some nasty stuff.  There was a possibility his lungs had some chemical burn damage.

When Hilary dropped off the kids, she was visibly shaken, the kids were nearly in tears, and the atmosphere was grim.

Landon started to cry after she left, let me hug him while he sobbed, and told me he had been praying that his daddy would be ok. He didn't want him to die.  A sweet sidebar on that was that I was holding Lynnlee too.  She was so still, not moving, not making a sound, then she reacher out her little arm and put it around Landon and patted his back with her little hand.  So sweet.

Tessa didn't help things any.  When she came over, she said "My daddy got hurt at work and he might die."  That set Landon off in tears again.

The evening was rough.  We tried to keep the kids occupied.  Of course we were worried too.  Megan left and then returned in abut 5 minutes. I don't know whether she decided it would be better to stay here with us instead of going back home to the flooded basement or whether she was concerned about Blaine too and just wanted to stay here where we would hear somethng, or whether she felt sorry for her dad and me with all of the kids, two of them crying and three of them not listening very well to what we wanted to do.

For a while Lynnlee and I were upstairs and she was exploring our bedroom.  Then Owen joined us and they played in the pack-n-play for about an hour. 

Landon was playing with the iPad.

Tessa and Cooper were everywhere, getting into things, pulling pillows off the couch, jumping around, pulling things out of the closet in the family room.  Cooper is fine alone and listens well, but adding Tessa into the mix changes everything.  She likes to do her own thing, and she doesn't listen well.

Dinner - Gary fixed mini-corndogs and hot dogs for the kids  We ordered delivery from The Dock in Delphi - catfish dinner for Gary, some kind of sub sandwich for Megan, and chicken fingers and fries for me.  I really wasn't hungry, just more nervous about Blaine, so I ate about half of it and saved the rest for lunch in Saturday.

Later Megan decided to take Lynnlee home, and eventually Hilary called me back.

All of the tests that were run on Blaine showed no damage and everything seemed to be fine.  The kids were overjoyed that their daddy was ok and would be coming home.  I was relieved as well, and thanked God for watching over all of us, especially Blaine.

I am reading Lysa Terkeurst's book It's Not Supposed To Be This Way right now as a Proverbs 31 OBS. In it she is talking about how we need to trust God when things just don't go our way or when life throws a monkey wrench into our plans.  I want to trust God so much, but I am afraid of huge monkey wrenches being thrown into our lives.  I am not sure I can handle those.  However, during the evening, as I was fervently praying, I was reminded that I just needed to trust God, and I prayed that His will be done and that I trusted Him.  I felt the worry evaporate---not entirely, but enough for me to be of more help to the kids and hide my fears about Blaine and the possible damage to his lungs.

Praise the Lord that the test results showed no damage now.  I am still praying that there will be no damage showing later.  And that Blaine continue to take the necessary precautions when he is working with dangerous chemicals.