The New Normal

So, I keep waiting for things to get back to normal now that Alex has been around for a couple months here and I think what we've decided is that things will never be the same -- this is the new normal and we're just going to have to adjust accordingly. And I'm not going to lie -- it's been rough! It's like being on a never-ending roller coaster that's not on a monthly or even a weekly route, but sometimes a daily cycling between ups and downs. The ups being those times when I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on things and "I can DO this -- I can do hard things!" And the downs beings when I feel like I'm drowning in the sea of life and there's no possible way I can manage everything that NEEDS to be done much less do the things I WANT to do. For the most part, though, life is still good. It just gets a little bumpy sometimes. So, buckle up for the following recap of the last several weeks of our life...

After the Labor Day ER trip with Jane I was hoping things had settled down on the medical front. Alas, that was not to be the case. A few weeks later in a truly epic night Jane was once again having an asthma attack, Scott was slated to leave EARLY the next morning for a business trip (we're talking getting up at 4 in the morning), the kids were melting down all night long, and to top it off Sophie decided to stick a coin in her mouth at bedtime and ended up swallowing what she thought was a quarter. Oh, and just in case anyone has forgotten we also have a newborn. Hahaha. We were on the phone with the after hours nurse pretty much all night long, Scott ended up taking Sophie to the ER around 10 because she said the "quarter" felt like it was stuck in her throat (it wasn't -- nor was it a quarter [which we discovered in the morning when Ethan said it was really a penny; I'm just not quite sure why this was not mentioned the night before. Hahaha]). To be honest, it probably should have been Jane going to the ER not Sophie, but we managed to keep her breathing okay through the night with breathing treatments every 2 hours. In the end, the silver lining to this cloud was that Scott ended up canceling his trip and staying up with Jane that night so I could take care of the baby. I was awoken in the morning by Sophie who came to me wheezing and begging for a breathing treatment of her own. I ended up taking both little girls in to the doctor that day and they were both put on some oral steroids and given additional breathing treatments. Fun times!

All these medical issues reminded me of a project that I had been wanting to do with the kids since the beginning of the year. After listening to President Eyring's talk in April's conference this year, I felt really strongly that if I want the kids to love and serve one another, we need to join hands in serving others as well. We decided at Family Home Evening that each month we'll let the kids come up with a family "service project" that we can work on together and hopefully create a little more love at home in the process. After a few suggestions from me, the kids decided they wanted to make some things to donate to the Children's Hospital here. Sophie really wanted to tie some fleece blankets and Ethan and Grace REALLY wanted to make some "comfort pillows." After a long and frustrating (for me) trip to Joann's, fabric was chosen and for the next Family Home Evening we got to work! For the record, I will NEVER make those fleece blankets again -- they were beyond aggravating to work with. Especially since they seemed like they should be so easy. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. Mostly, because Sophie couldn't really do it on her own, and I had to finish them for her later and by the time I was done I didn't want to have anything else to do with them. The pillows, on the other hand, were easy, peasy, lemon sneezy! And Ethan and Grace had SO much fun picking out Halloween fabrics and stuffing them with fluff. I'd do these again in a heart beat!







While they were working Grace instructed me to be sure and take pictures to show Emily. Hahahaha. Here you go Auntie Em! The finished product:



In an ironic twist of fate, Jane ended up being checked into a different Children's Hospital just a week or so after these were done. Scott had a recruiting trip planned for BYU and left on a Wednesday. My mom was going to fly out to visit on the Thursday to help me while Scott was gone and to see the baby for the first time. Luckily for me, Jane's breathing didn't start to get bad until after my mom was already here! I have no idea what I would have done if she would have needed to go to the hospital while I was all by myself with all 5 kids! We started out at the doctor's office where I thought she'd just get another breathing treatment (even though we'd been giving them to her regularly at home) and maybe another prescription for the oral steroids. However, her oxygen levels were low enough that the doctor told us to get her over to the ER at the Children's Hospital and that they'd let them know we were on our way. Yikes. We darted over to check the other kids out of school, and then my mom dropped me and Jane off at the hospital while she took the rest of the kids off my hands to go and get pizza and play at the park. Let me just state for the record that Jane is, as a rule of thumb, nuts. When she is in a sleep deprived, oxygen deprived state, she is even more out of control. Trying to hold her down and keep her from ripping off the nebulizer mask for the hour long treatment in the ER was next to impossible and it didn't help that I was exhausted from being up with both her and Alex all night long the night before!

In the end she needed to be checked in over night. My mom came to the rescue by staying with her so I could go home with the others and in a truly tender act of mercy the baby slept almost all night long. After getting the kids off to school the next day I went over to the hospital with Sophie and Alex and traded out with my mom. Thankfully, Jane was able to come home late that Friday night and Scott got back from his trip on Saturday afternoon. It was a bummer that we weren't able to do anything fun with my mom while she was in town, but it sure was a blessing that she was here! And I'm pretty sure the other kids still had a blast with her.

Here she is finally collapsed in exhaustion after I pulled her around and around the pediatric ward in that wagon for over an hour.

A successful session with the nebulizer.

And then there's Sophie powdering her nose (for like 15 minutes straight) and then my nose with my mom's make-up while Jane was taking a nap. Hahahaha.

When Ethan and Grace arrived after school they kept calling this "the greatest adventure ever," and were quite upset when Jane got to come home that night. They really wanted to come back the next day so they could play in the awesome Child Life room that was filled with every toy and art project imaginable for the kids to come and use. Jane on the other hand couldn't wait to get out of there and was quite upset when I left before her with the other kids while my mom waited with her to be discharged.



Once home we had to continue with the breathing treatments for a few days and I have to say that "Ramona and Beezus" became a life-saver for us! It was pretty much the only thing we could use to get her to sit still and keep the mask on for the whole treatment. Although, there were plenty of instances where I looked over to see her like this -- pushing her mask to the side to get to that precious bottle. Hahaha.


My mom won the title of funnest and coolest grown-up in the house when she took it upon herself to help the kids carve a pumpkin on Saturday afternoon. Thank goodness she had the patience for it, because I probably wouldn't have done it when she left.

Yay, daddy's home! And so is Jane!

I just love this picture.

Granny Nanny with all 5 of my kids!

Sadly, my mom had to leave the next day and life got back to "normal" all too quickly. Aside from the normal chaos and clutter reigning in our lives, we had the added bonus of listening to the kids (okay, it was mostly Ethan) practicing day and night for their upcoming Primary program in church. The three big kids were asked to sing by themselves for the second verse of the song "If I Listen With My Heart." Here they are practicing during Family Home Evening last week, and for the record, each of their personalities are perfectly encapsulated in the following clip, and NO Grace did not put on this kind of show for the actual performance! (Thank goodness):






On the day of the program, the girls actually let me brush and groom their hair and they all made efforts to dress their best for the day. Unfortunately, Ethan refused to pose for me, but rest assured that he looked dapper as well.

Posing in her new dress I made for her.

Alright, we're winding up here! The last thing on our docket is Halloween. In my extremist insanity I decided to make Jane's costume. I thought she would look adorable as Little Red Riding Hood, so I made a dress for her -- completely from scratch might I add (I felt so Project Runway...hahaha) and found a pattern for a hood. THIS is what my dining room "studio" has looked like for over a month now:


A complete and total disaster area. Don't let the "artististic-ness" of the shot fool you. It is a complete metaphor for my life these days! I finished up Jane's hood the night before (which she wouldn't even try on, by the way) and threw Ethan's together right after school on Tuesday just in time for the Ward Trunk-or-Treat. Thankfully, Grace and Sophie wanted to wear the same costumes I made for them TWO years ago --- Dorothy and a princess -- and even more thankfully, they still fit! Alex rounded out the group as a cute little pumpkin. Ethan and Sophie have both worn this one as well. There's nothing cuter than a baby pumpkin! Except for maybe a little toddler with pigtails. :) Here are the results:

Trying to keep that hood on...

Finally rid of her costume...


And doing what she does best -- running away.



Cutest pumpkin in the patch.

And then there's Ethan. Can you guess what he is?? Hahaha. Most people could not. But once explained, I think everyone thought it was pretty clever. We were just lacking a bit in our execution.

Still don't know? He's a s'more, of course! Hahahaha.



Well folks, that's about that. I'm TRYING to get on top of things this week and I've succeeded in finally cleaning up all my junk in the dining room and cleaning off the front porch. Oh and I even got around to digging out last year's acorn wreath I made and spray painting it a fresh new color of "pumpkin orange." Quite apropos, no?

Home Sweet Home, in deed.

I'm tired. And I guess that about sums it up! Coming up on the docket in the near future? More doctor's appointments. In the past month I've had to schedule appointments with various specialists for ALL five children. There has to be some kind of award for that, right? I feel like we're single-handedly keeping the medical profession alive right now! Hahaha. Last week I took Grace and Alex to an ENT -- Alex had his tied tongue clipped (and he now will take a pacifier! Yay! and he's easier to nurse! Yay!); and Grace has been scheduled for a tonsillectomy on November 11th. That will be a blog post on it's own, I'm sure. Next week I have to take Jane for a follow-up with the pulmonologist for her recent hospitalization and Grace has a birthday and her yearly check-up scheduled as well. Later on in November I get to take Ethan to a urologist, and in December I get to take Sophie and Jane to an allergist. I probably should have studied medicine rather than elementary education. Hahaha.

Alright, that's enough of that. As hard as everything is at times, I was really struck by something during the Primary Program on Sunday. As I was trying to keep Jane under control on the pew while the kids were on the stand performing, I felt the Spirit whisper that everything is going to be okay. The kids are going to to be okay. In spite of my imperfections as a person in general and a mother in particular, they are going to be fine. Better than fine, even. Watching Ethan, Grace, and Sophie sing was really sweet. Even sweeter was seeing Sophie -- who didn't really know all the words -- looking to Ethan for help for the parts she didn't know. I was touched by the symbolism there. I'm grateful that my kids will always have someone to look to when they need help. Not just from Ethan (who really is a good big brother to them) but from their Father in Heaven as well. I am grateful for the help that I've felt over the last couple of months -- from sources both seen and unseen I have felt strengthened to bear the burdens that have been thrown upon me. Because that's the thing with doing hard things -- it will always make you stronger. And at this rate, I'm on track to becoming Hercules. Hahaha.