Lord, That I May See

I'm taking a quick nap on the couch. The kids are outside and the baby is actually sleeping longer than an hour. (Zana is a cat napper, and even stays up past midnight every night. I'm exhausted!) About 17 mins into my nap I am awakened. "GUYS!!!"  Sparky is leaning out the front door yelling to the girls. "GUUUUYYYSS!  Mommy is SLEEPing!  So when you come in you should be QUIET and TIPtoe cuz her eyes are CLOSED!" The girls must not hear him.  "MOMMY IS SLEEPING!  WHEN YOU COME IN YOU SHOULD TIPTOE!  HER EYES ARE CLOSED! IT LOOKS LIKE SHE'S LOOKING AT HER PHONE BUT SHE'S NOT! THEY'RE CLOSED!" I sigh and fake sleeping a little longer. Then I finally open my eyes and look at his face hanging over mine. "Oh hi, Mommy! You're awake now!"

Baby Zana has been sick this week.  Sicker than I've ever had a newborn be before.  We think that it was RSV or something like it.   I have spent many hours of rocking and praying and staying awake in the night.  It was a long, scary week.   She's finally on the upswing today and I am so so thankful for God's mercies and care! Here's seven things that have been saving us this week: 1.  A nebulizer I'd never used one before, but then I'd never had a tiny baby with such shortness of breath before! 2.  This Breathe  oil blend .   I use essential oils often and I know that the commonly used respiratory oils such as the mints and eucalyptus are not considered safe to use on little babies.  This blend has all safe oils for little ones. 3.  The Nose Frida This is so much more effective than the bulb suckers!  And the force of the suction can be more controlled by you. 4.  My essential oil diffuser I've been...

On January 15, 2017 Dearest girl,  Finally your baptism day arrived!  You are one month old, and we had tried to schedule your special day last week, but your godparents were snowed in and so we postponed it.  I know that you had been waiting for this joyful moment for your whole little life, waiting for the time when you would finally get to be full of His radiant Light! Your sister Sunshine  was especially eager for your day to come.  We both had been saddened when we talked earlier about how you did not have the Light of Christ in your heart yet, how you were waiting so patiently for that beautiful sacrament that you do not have the words to ask for!  When I explained to you  how we had to postpone your Baptism day, you looked at me so intelligently and I know you understood.  You are good at waiting for your blessings, my little one! You laid so calmly with wide dark blue eyes as the deacon poured the powerful waters and said the ...

I read almost 30 books last year!  29 and a half to be exact.  5 and a half of them were audiobooks, and 5 of them were re-reads. But 19 of them were real, print books that I'd never read before.  Go me!  If I hadn't kept a list I wouldn't have believed it!  Only 3 of them were non-fiction, so 2016 was definitely a year of fiction.  I think all my reading years have always been fiction years. :)  I have always liked to escape into a book. I did a favorite books of the year post before on the blog and so I thought I'd do one again, since my "reading life" was a healthy one this year.  In this favorites list, I exclude titles that I was re-reading and looked at only the new material.   1.   Peace Like A River by Leif Enger Beautifully written, haunting characters and a story that stays with you.  I ending up buying this one to own because it is in my top 3 for this year.  (Anne at Modern Mrs Darcy puts it in her list of...