Irony

Looking for a quiet activity to pass some time with little fingers? Q-tip painting! They loved it.

I decided to join an online group in a 40 Days of Gratefulness challenge for Lent this year. Essentially, we are all being asked to give up complaining. Given my general attitude toward the weather and being cooped up in the house all winter has been anything but grateful, I knew it was a challenge the Lord himself would appreciate me participating in. After all, I am also a parent tired of the endless whining of my children. For the record, that wasn't a complaint. It is just simply a fact. A fact God uses regularly to teach me patience, grace and the power of time out. To be honest, my time outs involve tea and a book but not the bible these days which has even more to do with my negative spirit than the weather. But I digress. Wednesday was the kick off and I woke to a small flare of some sort. My hands were swollen, I was achy all over and felt beyond tired. It has been a long time since I woke up in that condition. I am grateful I did not face a full fledged flare; however, getting to the bottom of this one took some investigative work. I discovered the champagne mustard I used in a pork tenderloin glaze Tuesday evening contained wheat flour. Ugh. I am not going to lie. My reaction to that fact did not in anyway reflect a grateful heart. I was annoyed. So now that I have had time to regroup, seek the real time out with the Lord I needed, and decided champagne mustard is the least of which I have given up, I am counting it a blessing that I am simply a little under the weather and the weekend promises a fresh start.

In other news, we are watching Brutus carefully. The old boy went to the vet for his annual appointment two and a half weeks ago where we discovered he's lost ten pounds in the last year. Given his age and the fact he was a on a weight gain trend for a few years, it is somewhat concerning. We have taken it upon ourselves to increase his food in the evenings when he is convinced he is starving anyway. We go back in another week and a half to check his weight again. At this point, we are comfortable waiting on him to show us what's next. All outward signs indicate he is healthy, even puppy-like in the snow or during moments of playtime with Greg or the kids. He is still inhaling the table scraps little Maverick insists on throwing him and enjoying car rides with Lauren that involve a small fry from McDonald's. We are concerned about the weight loss and sadly, he appears to be losing more. The vet offered blood work but was honest with us about the likelihood being cancer. Praise God Greg and I are on the same page with this. We wouldn't put an animal through Chemo treatments because we consider it inhumane on top of impossible in our family budget. Ignorance is bliss. We'd rather not know and enjoy what time we have left. We hope it is still a good long while but pray he makes it clear when we need to help him say good bye. I am not much of an animal lover myself but Brutus is family and a huge part of our life. He's pretty special overall.

Now to lighten the mood....a few Ty quotes from this week. He is so funny.

1. Out of the blue the other day Ty informed me he wasn't having much fun being four. 
2. Yesterday he told me he will be a grown up when he is five. 
3. He wants a pirate themed birthday party this year. I asked him who he wanted to invite and he listed three neighbor kids and Paige. (Lauren's best friend from down the road).
4. Last night at bedtime he decided he wants to change rooms again. This time he wants to sleep in our room in between me and Greg. Sorry little man. That is not happening. 
   
   

He takes advantage of any snuggle time he can get prior to bedtime. It isn't every night but fairly often. Putting him into the top bunk isn't exactly an easy process but he wakes enough to help.

Greg left for work early again last night and the kids complained they didn't get Daddy time and wanted to make up for it by sleeping in his side of the bed. By my calculations, the kids assume Daddy's side makes up for about 90% of the bed. We should have considered the King size mattress a few weeks ago.