A busy weekend, not ending so good

So our weekend started great.  Friday we went as a family to the zoo.  Jed had been looking forward to that for days and days.  He was VERY happy when he woke up to find that it was *the* day to go!!  Everything went without a hitch.  It was a much more pleasant experience without having to fight all the crowds like we did last time.  We were able to take our time and not feel like we had to move on prematurely.  Jeremiah pushed the stroller the whole way.  That proved to be some tough work.  I just had to carry the baby :-)  To put it midly both of us were exhausted by the time we made it to the other end of the zoo.  We didn't want to have to try to take everything out of the stroller to fold it up to put on the bus, so Jeremiah stayed with the stroller while I took the kids on the bus to get the van.  The kids LOVE riding the bus, so that was not to be missed :-)  We had dinner and then drove home.  It was late by the time we got back.  Everyone pretty much slept in, as much as they could, being a soccer day. 
  I knew that there was no way that I would be able to stay out at the fields all day.  It was also shopping day, and I was going to need to get some of it done earlier in the day since we had a bon fire planned for later that evening.  I was noticing that Jonah had a bit of a sniffly nose.  Hmmmmm, that might not be a good thing.  He seemed to be ok otherwise.  I let Isabella sleep in late, then took her off to the soccer fields.  The other girls had gone with Jeremiah earlier.  I then took the boys with me to Walmart.  Jed was having one of "his days".  He was freaking out everytime Jonah made any noise.  I was about to go crazy!!  I put Jonah in the cart, decided to get my bag in next, then Jed.  After I put my bag in I felt prompted to check to make sure that my bank card was in it.  "That's funny, of course it is," I said to myself.  Then I thought, with two cranky boys, me being tired and Walmart looking like it was the day after Thanksgiving, I had better take a look.  If I got to the checkout only to find out my card wasn't in there I know I would literally cry.  So I checked.  I am sure you can all figure what I found....or didn't find!  Sigh.  Put Jonah back into his seat and go back home.  We didn't make it to the end of the parking lot before Jed started his screaming and crying about Jonah talking.  I prayed that the Lord had something in mind with this turn of events.  Traffic was a bit slow.  Not too odd seeing as how the road I was traveling has been under construction for months now.  I saw some smoke up ahead and assumed it was due to the construction.  But to my surprise and the boys utter delight it happened to be 'fire training in progress'.  We had passed by the house earlier in the week and were wondering why there were loads and loads of wooden pallets stacked on the front porch.  We knew the house was abandoned so we couldn't figure out why they were there.  Well they were there to get the fire going.  I prayed we would have a red light so we could watch for a moment.  The Lord granted that prayer and we got the perfect spot.  Had we been one cars length forward we would have been blasted by the heat of the fire.  That small moment seemed to reset the boys.  Jed stopped screaming and Jonah fell asleep.
  It was odd to go shopping with just the two boys.  It worked out well, but I was most certainly ready to get out of there.  We got home and helped with getting ready for the bon fire.  We had asked people to RSVP. Only two families responded and I bought enough s'more ingredients based on that number.  I got home and Isabella told me that basically the rest of her soccer team, minus a couple of people, told her they were coming.  Um, seriously?  So Jeremiah had to go back out to buy more stuff.  Ends up the two families plus another one from soccer are all that showed up.  We have a bunch of s'more stuff to take back to the store!!!  It was fun and stressful all at once.  I love the fire and atmosphere, etc.  But I don't like to try to watch two little boys running around in the dark.  They stayed far from the fire at all times.  Plus the yard is all fenced off.  So really there shouldn't have been a lot to worry about.  However, for some reason, Jed was determined to try to climb over the dog fence!  Ugh!  So I had to keep my eye on him.  Not that he could have gone far as the dog area is all fenced as well.  But I don't like "loosing" children, and so kept my eye on him.  At one point Jonah decided he wanted me to hold him. Not a problem as that makes it one less child to keep track of.  However I couldn't hold him for long and needed to sit down with him.  I sat in one of our fold out chairs.  About five minutes later he decided to get off my lap to go play.  No sooner did I let go of him then I find my feet up in the air!!  I guess he was a counter weight.  One of the legs of the chair didn't have any ground to stand on, not that I knew that at the time. So when I put him down I fell over backwards.  I wasn't hurt, but I knew some of my muscules would be sore later on.  After that I thought it was time to go in for a while.  Which I did, and it was a lot more relaxing to talk with the other moms inside the house, where I could tell where the boys were.  Jonah fell asleep in my arms.  After that pretty much everyone headed out for home.  After putting the kiddos to bed I stayed up for a while watching a tutorial on crockpot soap making.  Pretty cool stuff!  I stood up to go to bed and boy was I right about those sore muscles!  Thankfully some sleep seemed to take care of most of the aches.
   We start the last day of our weekend with going to church.  I had put a roast into the crockpot for dinner.  I had to go do something before I had a chance to put my onion away (I had only used half).  Moira comes out with watery eyes talking about the onion.  Um, yeah, onions are not to play with.  Just moments later Flannery comes out talking about how watery her eyes are.  I assumed the onion was the culprit.  I wish it was!!!!!  We got to church, and a few minutes later Flannery asks me for a tissue, then another, then another......with that we decided to leave to go home instead of heading to Sunday school.  Jonah still only has a little runny nose.  So I am hopeful that this is just a cold.  I had a bad experience with some eggs.  The apple cider vinegar didn't take effect soon enough and I was sick, sick, sick.  So I layed down when I got home.  Later on, when I felt normal I took the kiddos down to the creek.  They all had fun and got plenty wet.  I gave the boys a bath.  Jeremiah and Isabella headed out to our friends house to pick up their male goat...so we can have some spring goat babies :-)  The girls were watching a movie when I came out from giving the boys a bath.  Some time into the movie Jed fell asleep in his chair.  Hmmmmmm.  Not too unusual, but still.......He woke up quite a while later to say he was sick. Sick?  Seriously? I asked him if he was sick ( to double check) and he said yes.  Sigh.  Where do you feel sick?  He points to his head.  Then falls asleep a few minutes later.  A while later after Jeremiah got home he went to move Jed over to the couch and he was hot.  At this point Flannery had just come out from taking a bath and she started crying about how much her head hurt.  I gave her Motrin right away, because I knew I couldn't deal with her crying like that.  She has a high fever as well.  Sigh.  So much for this just being a cold!!  I called our homeopathic doctor.  No call back yet.  Hopefully by tomorrow morning.  So far it seems the Motrin has kicked in and Flannery is watching Bambi as I type.  Jed is still asleep.  I'll hold off giving him anything until he starts to complain of pain.  But I know the fever is there to protect the body and I will let it run it's course as long as I am able. 
  So that is how our weekend is ending.  I wish I could say that I am handling the kids being sick with a peaceful spirit.  But that is FAR from the truth.  I have been very impatient and um....cranky, to put it mildly.  It's not so bad if they feel yucky, achy and feverish.  But don't add in a painful head.  That always gets me worried.  Prayers would be appreciated.  I'll have to cancel Jed's speech for the next few days.  Plus we we're supposed to be helping another family by watching their children.  Oh well, tis the season to slow down, relax, and start giving children some extra vitamins and some garlic lemonade. 
  We had someone take a family picture for us at the zoo.  Not sure how it came out yet as I haven't had time to upload the pictures.  Hopefully I'll be able to put up a few pictures later.