a little February fullness

February was, of course, a short month ... but it turned out to be a very full month for us -- even without a vacation.

Little Buddy was sick with fevers/flu many days this month and I was slow and limping around many days due to plantar fasciitis. I guess the timing worked out good ... I was able give Little Buddy the holding he needed and rest my foot at the same time.

On the upside ... we went bowling this month -- twice actually -- and we (Jeff and I) hadn't bowled in at least twelve years! (I think the other bowling pix are on Jeff's phone ... ) Jeff took the kids on a field trip to the "physics circus" or something like that. We also had a phy. ed. afternoon at a community center pool with friends from "school".

There were a few parties in February as well. A couple of birthday parties. Halo went to a sledding and frosting-cookies party. I went to a bunco party -- my first. And finally, Buddy had a birthday this month as well :)

P.S. The ice cream photos are from the Mongolian BBQ restaurant -- one of the kids' favorite places simply because there is a self-serve ice cream machine :) I like it for the stir fry ... and the ice cream!

a little strawberry snack

Today was beautiful!!! Lovely!!! 52 maybe??? The kids were having a spontaneous vacation day because I am so behind on everything and because it was nice enough to play outside. I ended up going outside too ... and somehow got sucked into our never-ending garage disaster. Where did all of this "stuff" come from??? Well, enough about that -- it's not blogworthy.

Anyway, as the kids were tooling about on the dry and clear driveway and I was in the garage ... the FedEx truck pulled up. The FedEx man delivered a box which said, "refridgerate immediately". Now, this is blogworthy ;) So ... we opened immediately opened the package ... and discovered some fancy strawberries from my in-laws :) Yum! Then, we decided to have snack-time immediately :) Foofie wasted no time in pointing out which berry she wanted ...
Eating strawberries outside in February is fabulous! Seems like spring is on the way again!

a little valentining

I thought one of the reasons I signed up to homeschool was so that we could get out of making Valentines and all that goes with it ;) Oh, and prom too ... Valentines and prom. But alas, we are in two homeschool groups this year and so we need ... Valentines. 99 to be exact. We used several store-bought ones ... Hello Kitty and Spiderman ... and then Foofie and I made some homemade ones today. We made 26 hearts like this -- for Halo, who was working on a research paper ...
to glue onto white cardstock like this ... Little Sweetheart helped by smudging the glitter around and snatching the scissors at every opportunity :)
Foofie made 32 sweet little "hello" cards ... and then she taped a pencil on each one :)
Also ... I spent many hours sitting and cuddling Little Sweetheart over the past week. He had lots of fevers ... much listlessness ... and required lots and lots of holding -- even while asleep. So ... while he napped in my arms ... I began cutting out tiny hearts and birdies -- since Valentines Day was on the horizon. I realized I like hearts more than I thought I did ... and the color red -- well, it turns out I like red more than I thought as well :) Then, I made this little love tree. I might decoupage it on a pencil jar or something ... for whatever ...
Happy Valentine's Day :)

a little medical mystery

Today, I am thankful to be able to stand ... and walk. Late last night I could do neither.

I was down in the construction-zone basement getting a couple of things and was about to go up two sets of stairs to take a shower before bed. {I always have to shower before bed -- I just do.} Anyway, I have no idea what happened ... but seemingly out of the blue ... I got this TERRIBLE ankle pain ... and was reduced to crawling on the dirty floor. It was as though my ankle stopped functioning and the pain was enormous ... the only greater pain I can recall ever experiencing was labor.

So ... my husband had to lug me to the shower ... shower me up ... and haul me into bed. I was about as helpless as I've ever been. I attempted to brush my teeth -- dry -- while laying in bed. I was in way too much pain to get any clothes on. The pain was centralized in my ankle ... but it went almost to my knee and all through my foot. It was sooo bad that I was nauseated and having trouble breathing. It hurt constantly ... even when I was still.

Husband gave me four ibuprofen and then asked me lots of questions ... Is it hot? Yes. Is it like shooting pain? No. That rules out a bone spur. Your ankle hurts when I'm touching your leg? Yes. Maybe it's a vericose vein thing??? I don't know. So anyway ... it hurt really bad ... insanely bad.

Husband then googled "spontaneous ankle pain" ... and said maybe it's rheumatoid arthritis??? Or maybe ... he guessed ... you have a degenerative ankle ... you know, how your aunt has a degenerative shoulder. Could a muscle spasm cause this magnitude of pain??? I really don't know.

All we could do next was pray. So we did. I pleaded with God for healing. It took forever for me to get somewhat comfortable ... for my shaking to subside ... and for sleep to claim me. And as I lay there ... praying and pondering ... I was thinking about prayer. We don't really know how it works -- but we're told to pray nonetheless. God could have just instantly healed me last night ... or He could heal me over time ... or not at all. What would God do??? Why wouldn't God heal me immediately??? And then I thought, if He heals me I will boast about it ... about Him. And then my next thought was ... and if He chooses not to ... I still have to boast in Him. And that's the challenge ... the praising God and saying "God is good" when things don't seem so good from our perspective.

Perhaps this sounds a little serious for "spontaneous ankle pain" ... I know it wasn't life or death ... but it was horrific ... and seriously painful beyond description -- very writhe-worthy. Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I was at about 85%. It was tender ... and a little painful ... but I could stand on it and move around!!! So ... allow me to boast in Him ... PRAISE the LORD! Thank you God that I could stand and walk and move around today. Sitting is fine here and there ... but being able to move around is much more desirable. I sure hope I never have to go through that again ... Husband probably feels the same :)

Now then ... does anyone know what I had {what I have}??? And what should I do??? Just take it easy??? Husband joked, "Bet you'll get a lot of great advice!"

P.S. I'm not going to the doctor -- not yet anyway ;)