And as the seasons come and go, here’s something you might like to know.  There are fairies everywhere:  under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day.  So listen, touch, and look around – in the air and on the ground.  And if you watch all nature’s things, you might just see a fairy’s wing.  ~Author Unknown

A few weeks ago, when my husband Rich was teaching Sunday School, and I was home from church with three sick boys (and some healthy ones, too), I got really restless and made everyone grab their sleeping bags so we could be outdoors for a while.  It was so soothing and calm, and I’ve thought about that morning every day since.  We walked to a spot on our property by the stream, under the gently waving branches of some tall trees.  The pond was nearby, as well.  See up there in the picture?  See how Seth and Caleb are standing and looking down the bank?  The stream is down there….close enough that we could hear the sound of the water and the healthy children could go down and splash and walk on the rocks.  Do you see baby Sarah sleeping on the blankets with the brothers?  She’s tiny like a doll.  Do you see Grace?

Grace was quietly busy making a wonderful treat for the fairies.  I got to help.  Our imaginations soared as we gathered little bits of nature to use for the fairies….tiny berries, twigs, acorns, broken up leaves and twigs, seeds, little mushrooms, bark, and so on. 

I wove together a screen out of long cattail leaves.

While the boys have been busy making their own books about UFO’s and Sasquatch, Grace has been making her own book about Fairies.  She’s naming the fairies, writing descriptions, and drawing pictures. 

 We have checked out every book at the library about fairies that we can find.  Our favorites by far are by Cicely Mary Barker, who was an artist born in England, in 1895.  Her pictures are sweet and innocent, perfect for a little girl to study and try to imitate.

Here is a small sampling of Cicely Mary Barker’s precious art work:

“Down by the spring one morning
Where the shadows still lay deep,
I found in the heart of the flower
A tiny fairy asleep.”
~Laura Ingalls Wilder in “The Fairy Dew Drop”

I think it’s wonderful when we use our imaginations to dream of pleasant things.  Grace told me a few days after we made our little fairy feasting area that all the food was gone. ~

I am happy to report that Sarah is back to her bright eyed, happy, content self. 

But, sadly,

I am still sick.

Grace took these pictures last week~
Thanks for sweetly praying for us during this dreadful illness!

I have croup and so does Sarah now.  My throat hurts like the dickens and I’m coughing a lot~ all day and all night.  I feel sorry for my baby, but she is brave and happy even though she’s sick.  I took her in to see the doctor this morning (they insisted on seeing her when I called, b/c of her age) and he prescribed some medicine for her which should help with the barking cough.  I think one of the worse things about this with Sarah is that she periodically begins to retch and gets sick all over the place from coughing.  Not very pleasant for either of us.

The best part about this is that it is Saturday.  Rich is home and I get to crash in bed with Sarah-dear.  We have our cold-mist humidifier going, I just ate lunch, I am munching on yummy granola, I have a big jug of ice water near me and also a good book.  My trust laptop is also here, and I plan on snuggling Sarah all afternoon.  I’m not going to get out of bed or leave my room until I want to!  (It probably won’t take long before I get restless and start doing laundry, LOL).

Grace got croup first, THREE WEEKS AGO.  The Lord is keeping me remarkably at peace. 

Late yesterday afternoon I got to sit down and do one of the things I’ve been wanting to do, make Sarah a head band!  I bought her a couple at gymboree but they were way too big so I decided to try making her one.  It didn’t take long and I was so excited that I woke her up out of her nap to try it on and take a few pictures.

This picture makes me laugh because of Caleb….this is my life…..he wanted a popsicle.  I am constantly doing one thing while doing another thing, while thinking of the next thing, getting confused, while laughing or groaning……

Back to the topic…isn’t the head band pretty?  I took a piece of elastic and measured it around Sarah’s head, used my sewing machine to make a fabric tube, inserted the elastic, sewed it together, and added an embellishment (a fabric yo-yo and a button).

She was not too thrilled about waking up to be handled this way and that.

So I let her go back to sleep.

I just took these pictures about an hour ago.

As you can see, she has found her little hands and likes to taste them.

She can also lift her feet way up high.  We think it’s the cutest thing.

I plan on making her another one later on today…one that isn’t quite so wide, made out of the leftover mushroom dress material.  This could get addicting! 

The children continue to improve and are almost 100% better, so I can’t complain that I have a sore throat, a headache, and am tired and discouraged.  I look around at the many things that I wish I could do but can’t.  Now is the time to cut the “to do list” to the bare essentials and just make sure the children are cared for properly.

I sit and sip my morning cup of coffee with Seth here with me.

I am posting pictures on my blog today of the last weekend in July, when we were in NY.  Rich and I had to stay in two separate hotel rooms that weekend and even though we missed each other that night, it was fun to tease each other by “visiting” at each other’s door now and then.  Rich would NOT let me in which made us both laugh and laugh.  I went to borrow his toothbrush, “Don’t let her in, Jake!  Don’t let her in!” Rich would only open the door a crack to see what I wanted and to pass the toothbrush out.

In the morning, when he came to my room (I was with Grace, Sarah, and Ethan) to get us for breakfast, at 9am, he found us all still sleeping in the dark.  He had lots of funny, sarcastic comments to say about that…..I had to go to breakfast in my pj’s (windpants and his big long sleeved shirt).  Picture a groggy, half asleep mama carrying a bundle of blanket with a baby inside, and six other children with a big tall fast walking Papa and you get the idea.  It was hilarious.

And I have to say, those hotel scrambled eggs were weak.  Sad.  The lightest shade of yellow imaginable.  How thankful I am that we have our own chickens that lay us rich, golden eggs!

When we were getting ready to check out of the hotel that morning, since Rich wouldn’t let us in their room, I took advantage of the brick wall outside our rooms to take some pictures…….

People have asked if baby Sarah looks like baby Grace….well, Grace was a darker baby, with dark eyes, hair and skin.  Sarah is light and blond.  Sarah is bigger than Grace was.  Grace’s little ears stuck out more.  I don’t think Grace was as bald.   I’ll have to dig out some pictures soon to refresh my memory.

Anyway, they are both bright and beautiful.

I “borrowed Rich’s boys” and got a group picture.

David says, “Mom, do you think Sarah knows how much I love her?”  And I say, yes, she does.

By all those kisses you give her.

Maybe it’s because I’m a little run down, but I’m sitting here with a thankful heart and teary eyes. 

And this is one of the reasons why I love to blog….it makes me sit and pause a little, remembering the moments I had the camera in my hands to snap some memories…moments that belong to days, that belong to the years, that God gives us as a gift, to enjoy.

Caleb is home now!  They got home a few hours ago and I fed both Caleb and Rich some homemade wheat bread and homemade chicken soup.  Then they both took naps.

Caleb is pale and exhausted and still a little croupy.  The doctor said not to be surprised if he gets a little bit worse again tonight, but that he should be fine.

Seth woke up once last night while I was already up nursing baby Sarah.  It was nice timing…I gave him medicine and held him for a little bit and then he slept the rest of the night through.  He is clingy and grumpy but he is trying to be happy and brave.

On another note….one of our hens had hatched out 6 baby chicks today!  We just love to watch them, they are so cute as they pop in and out from under their mama’s wings and explore around her in the wood shavings.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart for all the prayers and well-wishes.

Well, I really expected Caleb to come home tonight but he’s not.  After his meds wore off he had another attack…couldn’t breath very well to the point where he got sick to his stomach.  The doctors said he had to stay overnight and they admitted him.  Our neighbor went to get Rich and he is on his way home to get changed.  Then he is driving back to spend the night with Caleb.  He said not to worry because Caleb is at a children’s hospital (I didn’t even know that) and he has a nice special room decorated with dinosaurs.  He has two nurses and a doctor taking care of him while Rich is away and they gave him crayons, let him pick out a movie, and gave him chicken nuggets and fries for dinner.

Caleb’s worse fear all along has been “will I get a shot?”  I asked Rich if he had to have one and he said no, but they were going to start an I.V. because Caleb wouldn’t drink and was getting dehydrated…..well, he sure started drinking after he found out about that!

Oh, I am so tired.  I hope that Seth sleeps better tonight.  He was up several times last night.  I hope this medicine helps him sleep.  I hope my busy mind and lonely bed let me sleep. 

Thanks again for your prayers and the verses some of you left!  God is near.

Rich called me and said that they were on the way to the ER when Caleb started throwing up…so the paramedics decided to go to other, bigger, city hospital “hot”..turned on the sirens and went as fast as they could.  I’m unclear as to what they did for Caleb, I know he got some oxygen and medicine to open up his air ways, then promptly fell asleep.  He never passed out but he’s been laboring for breath all last night and today, poor boy, and is exhausted.  Now Rich waits with him at the hospital, to see if he gets croupy again after the medicine wears off.  He may be home tonight but he might have to spend the night if he isn’t better.

Meanwhile, Seth is also sick w/the same thing so my friend Caroline went to fill his prescription for us and her husband graciously agreed to go to the hospital to get them later (or tomorrow) when Caleb is released.  Please pray that Seth gets better instead of worse.

I’m weak with relief that Rich was home to take care of us (he just got home yesterday afternoon from his trip).  I am so thankful that the Lord spared me from having to deal with all that on my own (with a toddler, a newborn, and four other children as well)!

Thanks for praying!  I really appreciate it.  Seth is down for a nap now and Sarah is asleep.  I’m full of adrenaline (but oh so tired) so I am going to make some tea and try to settle down with a book, praying all the while for my poor little Caleb……I’ve had sick children now for over a week!  I’m so thankful that they are usually healthy, this has been awful.

I was just wondering of you all would pray for Caleb.  We had to take him to the doctor’s this morning b/c he was having trouble breathing.  The doctor called the ambulance (while giving him a breathing treatment for croup symptoms).  I knew what ER they were taking him to, so Rich went in the ambulance w/Caleb.  When I got to the ER w/Sarah and Seth, they were not there.  They went to a bigger, more modern ER and at this moment I don’t know why.  I came home and am waiting for Rich to call me….I am about to call the ER to see if they can give me info.  Seth is sick w/croup, too…but not as bad as Caleb.  You can imagine how worried and shaky I am.

Thanks~Shanda