Cruise Control...

I'm sure its obvious if anyone is even still checking my poor little blog here, but I'v ebeen on serious cruise control. Keeping the car between the lines was about all I could manage for the last 2 months... here is a short rundown...

~husband started school and another season of cross country (which means waking up at 5 am)
~oldest daughter started school only 3 days after a diagnosis with a double ear infection
~youngest daughter developed an ear infection shortly after that
~youngest daughter and husband were diagnosed with a strange virus that resulted in sheer exhaustion, fever and sores in their mouth that made it difficult to eat or swallow

~youngest daughter came down with bronchitis followed up by a nice round of thrush from her antibiotics

~oldest daughter got a stomach virus

~husband and I caught her stomach virus

~oldest daughter came down with bronchitis

~oldest daughter got another stomach virus

~I was diagnosed by my ob/gyn with a medium (fist-sized)fibroid growing off of the back of my uterus (on the outside) toward my spine which can cause some pretty uncomfortable back pain
~meanwhile youngest daughter has had 5 weeks straight of unexplainable diareah

Yeah. Needless to say my life has been hectic, messy, frustrating, expensive, and tiring. Oh and did I mention that in the middle of all of that our dryer and our heater stopped working? Fortunately for us, the fixes for those only totaled $40 (which is good b/c our savings is about drained)...

We racked up well over $200 worth of co-pays to the doctor not to mention I-don't-know-how-much extra we've spent on: prescriptions, otc meds, sprite, carpet cleaner (for the diareah and vomit), paper towels, disinfecting wipes, ramen, applesauce, gatorade, etc. I think once we add all of that up the toal comes to around $500. Yikes. That is kind of a lot when you think about it. I could have a new couch for $500 easily. I need a new couch, but I won't be getting one anytime soon.

But, for now, I am grateful. Yes, you heard me... GRATEFUL. Today, my family (for the most part) is healthy, my bills are paid, I have a job and a roof over my head. Oldest daughter is THRIVING at her school, youngest daughter's language skills are skyrocketing, husband finishes cross country season this weekend, and this weekend we celebrate oldest daughter's 4th birthday with not one, but two fabulous birthday parties (one for family and older friends, one for the girls in her class). We also happily celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, found out that this little peanut is going to be a girl (Lord help us! ha ha), and managed to go on 2 date nights within one week. Not too shabby. We are blessed.

So, Thank You Lord, for this:

And this:

And this:


And this:

And this:

Amen.