Once upon a time, in a beautiful land where the skies were a brilliant blue, the grass an emerald green, and where the children ran barefoot without care....ehhhh, scratch that. I'm definitely in a land where the skies are a beautiful blue (Carolina blue for that matter :-) ), but grass is nowhere to be found. The children, well they do run barefoot without care. There is some sort of physics law that has to do with all things reverting to chaos. Yup, that's where we are at. We do have green, but it's all weeds. Like 6 foot tall weeds. And, no, I'm not joking.
The past couple of years have been trying. That would be putting it lightly. But amidst the storms there have been breathtaking breaks in the clouds where the sun seems brighter than it normally would. That certainly helped to get us through those dark days. The kids have been asking to go through the blog, to look at the pictures, to read the stories. There are a lot of missing stories for the past two years. For good reason. It was not the time to tell them.
We have battled a slew of illnesses. I am sure you have all seen that theme here on my blog....illness this, illness that. Diet this, supplement that. Health has most certainly alluded us. Black mold was found in our house, which we got rid of, and for the first time in years we had a winter that only had one case of the sniffles. Amazing to say the least. Unfortunately there are some signs of weakened immune systems here as we head in the winter of 2018/2019 that I am very much hoping have nothing to do with any possible mold hiding out. Only time will tell.
Then there was the year of separation in our marriage. It was very much needed. Still a long ways to go in the marriage department, so a work in progress.
Then there was the horrible car accident, that took a good 6 months of our life. However the ramifications have lasted much longer than that. I was finally ready to get back to life this summer (a year after the accident), when we were hit with whooping cough! And I had a lovely stint as an alternate juror on a murder trial. We were blessed with a reduced membership to an aquatic center, due to Moira being an employee. The first summer in NC, in a VERY long while, that we had access to a pool. We went multiple times a week. Thankfully whooping cough isn't as horrid as it is made out to be IF....please NOTE the **IF**.... you are taking very high levels of vitamin C. And then we had the wonderful blessing of making it to NY for my youngest brother's wedding. We had not been to NY in 14 years! The last time we were there, Saoirse was only 9 months old!
And then we had another amazing blessing, that was of course first met with rough seas. Our first grandbaby was born this past February! Isabella had a rough pregnancy. As in morning sickness all 9 months. A few scares along the way thrown in for good measure. But at the end of it all was a precious baby boy. His name is Liam Jeremiah. He is now 8 months old, and the star of the show around here. The months that followed his birth were very difficult. There was a stay in the NICU, then horrible, horrible nursing problems. Those issues were solved three months in with a tongue and lip tie revision. Isabella exclusively pumped for three months! Now they have a strong nursing relationship! There were a few bouts of thrush, and some horrid dental issues. Isabella was plagued by horrible, horrible heartburn, that literally rotted her back teeth :-( On top of it she had to get her wisdom teeth out. It's been a rough ride for those two.
Having older children has made things easier and harder all rolled into one. Flannery was blessed with her first job at Krispe Kreme. Having to drive her back and forth, Moira back and forth, and Saoirse to any events was taking a bit of a toll. Thankfully with another vehicle added to the mix that has made things a bit easier.
So we land here. Still in some chaos. Behind on many levels and in many ways. Time running out to find a way to get to the root of Jedidiah's issues. And like I mentioned early, signs of weakened immune systems. It was back to the drawing board. Plans were drawn up, and we've just begun implementing the plan. I'll have to share another day. The plan was not made till after I had a bit of a meltdown. Because, let's be honest, chaos is messy. In our case, very messy. Figuratively and literally. And so as a plan was being created I decided that I would attempt to get out at least once a week to try to make art out of the chaos. For me that would mean photographs. My kids do a good enough job making art messes in the house, I didn't want to add to that :-)
Hula hoops that have seen better days. Though we spent a lot of time poolside, not a lot of time was spent in the yard. It's time to pick these guys up and get moving!
See, weeds *can* be pretty! Actually there are a lot of weeds that are powerhouses of nutrition and healing. Just one of the many, many....many weeds in our yard. Our neighbor's goats have been getting out and hanging in our yard. Who needs a mower, when you have goats. We need to get some goats of our own...we miss ours greatly!
Chains. These in particular are chains to lock up the front gate. But figuratively I would say we were being bound by a lot of chains mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. With God's help all of them will be broken!
Another beautiful parting of the clouds was Moira's re-dedication baptism, and Jedidiah and Aubrey's baptism this summer. Jedidiah wrote this on the foundation of our house. Fitting. Jesus needs to be our foundation! When he's not....the house does indeed fall. Thankfully He is still in the business of miracles. Houses can be rebuilt, and rebuilt on a proper foundation.
