Dealing with a wrinkle...

I suppose life wasn't exciting enough with all the birthdays. This week turned out to be the most unexpected of all. It started last Sunday morning when Scott told me his parents were coming that day and would be visiting til Tuesday morning. I always laugh when the brother in laws say there is a lack of communication in the family and I have to say this was a prime example. At first I panicked a little because I didn't have a menu planned, but then just decided to go with the flow and wing it:). Everything did turn out quite well and the kids were super excited to have the Grandparents AND Uncle Preston visiting.

The day that Scott had been preparing for was finally upon us. He is the coordinator for the Remembrance Day Services in our town and it is a BIG job. It takes weeks to prepare, lots of phone calls and lots of extra meetings in town. Thankfully he was able to take off the week before in order to not be overworked like previous years. I think it was still quite exhausting for him, but not quite as stressful. It all came off without too many glitches and the Legion was VERY thankful to have him in charge once again. An unexpected blessing was 5 loaves of bread and 2 boxes of Tim Bits sent home after the visitors were fed:). Our kids made the connection between the 5 loaves and 2 fishes story in the Bible:). There was also a platter of dessert bars, which were enjoyed by all. I'm always amazed at the ways that the Lord sends these blessings unexpectedly. I wasn't really looking forward to baking bread once everyone left and found that I was given a bit more time, due to the generosity of the Legion folks:).

Little did I know that it would be needed even more so in the days ahead than I thought. Wednesday started out as a normal day. Chores, Schoolwork, then time to clean up before supper. It all seemed a bit overwhelming that morning and the kids weren't as cooperative. I had a bit of a "Martha complex" and was running around in a whirlwind of activity. Last items on the schedule=pick up toys off living room floor. Bend down, clean up, stand up=Ouch! What was that! I can't put pressure on my leg and it hurts to walk. Yes, it's very bad timing for an injury, but I'm thinking that this was the Lord's way of telling me to slow down again. I spent a very painful, restless night wondering just what kind of injury I'd done to myself. Thankfully I was able to get a morning appt. with my Dr. when I called on Thursday morning! This is such a blessing after the long dr. shortage that we had for the past couple years. We finally have 5 full time drs., which make it easier to get in on the day that you call. Unfortunately the diagnosis was not what I was hoping for. I was thinking that maybe I'd just popped something out of place and he could pop it back in. Voila!:) Not so easy, I'm afraid. I have tendonitis in my knee, possibly caused by a stretching of the tendon in my ankle when I was a teenager. Who knew that playing tether ball was so dangerous? It is when you have someone jump up at the same time as you and land on your ankle instead of the ground. Anyway... The orders are to stay off my feet as much as possible for at least the next week. The dr. said it takes 1-6 weeks for full healing, depending on how fast my body is at healing. Pregnancy is probably the worst time to have this, but I'm thankful that I wasn't a week or two away from delivery when it happened. Having this pain in my leg and labor pains at the same time would be a lot harder to deal with. Scott and the kids have been trying to help as much as possible. A brace on my knee and some Tylenol have made the times I need to be up a lot more bearable and the pain has definitely subsided from Wednesday. Praising the Lord for each little bit of progress. Trying to eat as healthy as possible to aid the healing and not gain a lot of weight during the last bit of pregnancy. I'm used to be active and don't worry too much about the food. Resting more means not using up as much of the food, so lots more fruit, veggies and protein and less carbs for a little while.

Garrison really enjoyed turning 7. His favorite gifts were Hex bugs from Grandma Prisk(little electronic bugs that go around a track:) and the Lone Ranger Lego set from Uncle Kirk. He was actually super excited about all his gifts, which included a sleeping bag, books and clothes, but these are the ones he mentions the most right now. He's worked his way through several birthday books already and I think will be enjoying a few more to get us through our recent snowstorm. It's really the first one of the season. I think we have at least an inch of snow, with 4-6 more inches expected before tomorrow!

It's also giving Scott extra time for Science and History Lessons and Quizzes. The older two took their first quizzes and did pretty good. They both got an A in History and a B in Science. I have to say that they did really well in Science considering that I couldn't have answered most of the questions on their Science quiz. Scott has been teaching them Physics(gears, fulcrums, loads, cam shafts, etc... I didn't take Physics or Chemistry in school, so most of this is new to me. I'm not around when he's teaching most days, so I was quite surprised by the difficulty of the questions. I don't have any concerns that our kids will have trouble passing any tests that the public schools might give them. So far there aren't any required, but if they were, I'm quite sure the kids will do great:).

Only one more birthday left for our family this year! Adelaide turns 2 on Sunday. Many have commented that she looks different than all the other kids with her super blonde hair and coloring. They didn't see Garrison at this age though and we think she bears a strong resemblance to him. She also resembles one of her Great Grandmas and we look forward to seeing her change in the years ahead. She's got a cute, feisty little personality. She has to have a bit of spunk to get along with all her siblings:). Her vocabulary is improving and we can understand quite a bit more than we did 2 months ago. She's close to 3 feet tall, which means she will definitely be taller than me! If the rule of doubling their height at age 2 is correct for their final height, then she will be close to 6 feet:). We shall see...

On another note... We lost a laying hen yesterday. There was a bit of blood on one of the eggs and we didn't think too much of it. However, the rest of the vicious hens did! They pecked the poor thing to death because of the blood. We'll try to be on our guard from now on and isolate a hen if this happens again. Scott says the hens are anxious to peck anyone that comes in, which is quite surprising. The kids are usually the ones that gather the eggs and I haven't heard any complaints from them. Maybe they just like to attack Scott... They have been laying closer to 6 eggs a day though, so we're thankful to have more for eating and baking.

We're now over the halfway point in November. I'm quite happy about this because it means the time to delivery is that much closer. We still have quite a few Christmas preparations to take care of before all the family arrives next month, which hopefully means the time should go faster. However, the time off my feet will mean it slows down a bit til I'm healed. So... I'll try to behave myself and enjoy watching the snow fall:).