Seventeen

I have been with my 3 kids 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...every single moment since December 22nd. I'll spare you the trouble of looking at the calendar....that's 17 days!!! Over half a month!! More than 2 weeks!! That might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I'm the kind of girl who just needs some space, some quiet, a few moments alone every now and then. I love to be alone. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be more thankful for my kids. But in the last 17 days we've dealt with strep throat, pink eye, RSV, bronchitis, a stomach bug three separate trips to the doctor and of course Christmas and New Years was squeezed in there too. And for the past 6.5 days Ryan has been out of town for work. So basically, I've been barely hanging on.

There was the sweet friend who made me cry when she surprised me and brought homemade soup to my little sickies. She refused to hug me when I started to cry and quickly backed off the porch and headed to the safety of her car...away from all our germs. I don't blame her. It was actually rather comical.

 And then there were the giant get well cards that some of our neighbors worked very hard on for each of the kids.

The cards were delivered to our front porch early one morning along with some yummy doughnuts. So even though life hasn't been very pleasant, I have felt loved and supported. The texts, the emails, the Facebook comments, the blog comments letting me know that people are praying for us has been a great source of encouragement. It's just been one of those times where it all comes crashing down at once. And in hindsight..it could have been much, much worse.

But guess what??? Right now I'm sitting on my couch and it's completely quiet. Will is sleeping and Ryan got home this afternoon and he took the big kids to the park (because it's 55 degrees! WooHoo!) I survived. Yippeee! Let's not do that again! My kids are almost healthy (not so sure if I should put Will in the nursery at church tomorrow). The hubs is home (at least for a day) and all my Christmas stuff is finally put away and I am reclaiming my house! Life is good.

Speaking of Ryan....he's going through some major job changes. As most of you know he runs a distribution center for the largest fireworks company in the world. This past week he packed up 180,000 sq feet of warehouse space and moved it all one hour North of here. He's going to have a pretty decent commute to work now, which stinks for us, but it's a good move for the company.

We went and visited Ryan one evening earlier this week.

Here's a little peek at his new office. It's going to be a nice place to work, it's just too bad it isn't a little closer. I'm thankful I have a husband who works so hard to provide for our family. We certainly have missed him this past week, but we are also thankful that he works for a great company that has been a blessing to our family.