State of the Union

So my last post was a bit depressing. Sorry. But, as promised, this one will be happier. Or at least not as pathetic.

Liam is finally feeling better. Poor guy had strep throat and two ear infections. I'm definitely not going to win "Mom of the Year" award for letting my kid get so sick. The pedi said sometimes kids get hives when they have a virus so luckily the antibiotic has taken care of the throat, the ears and the hives.

I am finally feeling better, too. Whatever stomach bug hit the boys earlier last week hit me on Friday and lasted through Sunday. It about knocked me on my rear end, especially since I was on my own with all three kids. On the upside, since all I ate was about a dozen Ritz crackers over the course of 3 days, I didn't have a lot of dishes to do.

My book club hosting went well, too. We discussed "The Time Traveler's Wife" and since we do themed dinners, I decided to serve time-themed foods. We had slow cooker pork chops, instant (bagged) salad, twice baked sweet potato casserole (since the main character lived part of his life twice) and pineapple upside down cake (since their lives were turned upside down). It was a really fun evening.

As for telling Sydney about Ryan's grandmother passing....that was tough. I told her as gently as possible and she cried a little bit. We talked a little bit about how sometimes people get older and their bodies just wear out and then she asked if she had to go to "the thing where everybody talks about the person and cries." Sadly, the funeral was this morning and with Ryan out of town and Liam and I recovering from our illnesses, it just wasn't possible. But Ryan said he was okay with missing it since he had a chance to say goodbye to her before she passed away.

And, I'm sure you've been holding your breath to find out about the potty training. Right? It went really well and Liam got to where he asked for his underwear one morning and did not have an accident all day. But then he got sick, had a few accidents and began fighting the underwear, so I decided to take a little break. We'll try again when he's back to feeling 100% and hopefully he'll catch on again in no time.

As with all challenging situations, I learned something during my stressful week. I learned that my parents are amazing. I mean, I already knew they were wonderful people, but they just amazed me this weekend. They took Sydney and Liam to a play on Saturday after our pumpkin patch visit (pictures coming soon!) and when they brought them home, my mom noticed that I looked tired. So after church on Sunday, they drove back out to our house (which is quite a drive from theirs) and my mom took the kids to the park while my dad mowed our yard. And as if that wasn't enough of a break for me, they took both boys home with them for a couple of days so that I could rest, clean the house and prepare for book club. My dad said it was just the excuse my mom needed to skip her volunteer work at the local food bank, but I know better. :)

I don't know that I would have survived the weekend without them. I only hope that when I'm a grandparent that I'll be able to do the same thing for my kids in their times of need.

But now I'm at a loss as to how to repay them for all they did for us this past weekend. Any ideas? (Preferably something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?)