Silence and Stillness

Ann, who always inspires me when I read her writing, had this quote at her place yesterday.

"Silence is imperative...

We are going to be quiet with One who has everything to tell us...

His voice is so still, His deepest contacts so imperceptable,

that only in quiet can we perceive them.

The Holy Spirit educates us in inner stillness,

and it for lack of this that most spiritual lives are

so crude & shallow & vague."

~Evelyn Underhill

There is little or no silence and stillness in our house these days. There is much noise. Whether it's crying from the baby, screaming/talking/fussing/laughing from Caleb, the CD player or TV providing background noise (as if we need it), or my own head full of thoughts, quiet is hard to find. I'm craving that right now. My relationship with God is feeling crude and shallow and vague these days. I have a million excuses for not spending time with Him, and, of course, at the top of that list is that I'm so very tired.

But I need to spend time with Him. I'd be less tired. I'd be able to handle Caleb's tantrums better and with more patience. I'd be a better friend/neighbor/sister/daughter/wife/mother.

Since Levi decided our day was starting at 6am this morning after being up every two hours, I was reading in my Daily Light book while I ate breakfast. Today's Scriptures were all about being satisfied in Him.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." ~Matthew 5:6

"He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." ~Psalm 107:9

"How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light." ~Psalm 36:7-9

Today I seek quiet moments with Him.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Justin! You're a wonderful husband and father.

What would we do without you?

We love you!!

Thoughts

I can't count the number of times I've said over the last 8 weeks, "I CAN'T do this." Usually it's when, simultaneously, Caleb is in full two-year-old mode and Levi won't sleep. (Don't be surprised if you come to our house and Caleb says, "I sittin' in the naughty chair." He's been there A LOT lately!)

But things are getting better day by day. I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this "parent of two children" business. It's hard. And it's much more than double the amount of work! But it's good, and I'm loving being the mom of two boys. "My two sweet boys" I call them all the time.


Levi is finally feeling up and breathing much better. Thank you all for your prayers for us over the last four weeks. It's been a long month of sickness, but I think we've finally turned the corner!

A Visit to the Emergency Room

We spent ALL Saturday night, or I should say Sunday morning at Texas Children's ER with Levi. (I cannot remember the last time I stayed up all night long without sleeping a wink.) We took him to the doctor on Saturday morning because he is still very congested and having horrible coughing fits. (The poor guy has little red dots all over his face from all the coughing.) He has never run a fever, so it's just been "wait it out" because there was nothing they could do.

Saturday night about 10:30, I took his temperature and it was 101.2, so we called the doctor and had to take him to the ER. Then we watched for hours as they poked and prodded our little guy trying to figure out the source of the infection. They took his blood and urine for tests, did chest and abdomen x-rays, and did a lumbar puncture to test his spinal fluid for meningitis. His white blood cell counts were high, so they knew there was an infection somewhere, but they were unable to find it. At one point the doctor was concerned that it was either bacterial pneumonia or meningitis. Both of those options are scary. They put in an IV and gave him antibiotics before we left. So far, his fever has stayed down. When a 7-week-old runs a fever, they get pretty concerned. There were several other kids at the ER getting chest x-rays; it seems everyone is sick these days.

We're hoping they've knocked out the infection, but we're still not out of woods because he has so much mucus still in his chest that could become infected. He's been sick for about 3 weeks now and over a week with the bronchiolitis, so he has no idea what it's like to feel good. I've relapsed with the upper respiratory stuff (with two sick kids and little sleep it's not a wonder), so we really need some healing in our house.

Levi's Birth Announcement

My real-life friend, Holly, designed Levi's birth announcement, and we love how they turned out! You can see it here at Holly's design blog.

She does such great work and was wonderful to work with! I'm completely jealous of her graphic design talent. I haven't even had time to sit down and figure out how to use my Photoshop program I got for Christmas last year. :-)

Thanks, Holly--you're such a blessing to us! We love it!!

It's Been a LOOOOOONNNNNG Weekend

This will be quick. And hopefully one day soon I'll stop posting about us being sick.

Both boys have been sick for over two weeks (and all of us in between). They also shared their germs with their Grandad, Aunt Kiki, Ava, mommy and daddy, Uncle Scott, and probably a few others. (Grandad, daddy, and Aunt Kiki all got the eye infection from the boys.)

Caleb has had a cough that would not go away. Finally Friday night it got really bad and he couldn't stop coughing. We called the pediatrician and she said it sounded like reactive airway disease, which we've dealt with before after he's had a virus. So, we started the asthma meds. Then, he spiked a fever of 103, so we called the doctor back and she said it sounded like he was trying to spring pneumonia, so we started antibiotics. He cried and coughed in his bed almost all night.

Saturday morning Levi woke up breathing very shallow and fast. I counted his respirations and they were 100 times a minute and didn't get any slower then 62, and I know from our experiences with Caleb that 60 is where they start to get concerned. So, we loaded up both kids and took them to the doctor.

We found out Caleb also has an ear infection, and the doctor does think he's had an underlying pneumonia, which is why it's been so hard for him to kick the sickness.

Levi got a breathing treatment, and the doctor almost sent us to the hospital with him because he was breathing too fast to eat, and she was concerned that he would get dehydrated quickly. After about 30 minutes, the breathing treatment helped and he was able to eat without stopping to cough and breathe, so she sent us home. She did tell us that if he got a fever above 100, it was serious and we needed to call right away.

Caleb is still coughing a lot, but the stuff in his chest is loosening up, so what we're doing is working. Now we're still watching them closely for fevers and breathing. I think they're both getting better, so hopefully soon we'll all be well.

Last night Caleb slept better than he has in a long time, so I was just up every two hours with Levi, which was a vast improvement over the last few days!

Sleep is a marvelous thing!