Multitudes & Life Lately

We've had sickness in the house since Dec 21 or 22... with about a 3 day break around last weekend. Just when we thought we were in the clear... back came the nasty cold virus. So it's been a bit of a miserable start to the New Year, but this past week the Lord has reminded me of so many blessings in my life...  and what better way to highlight a few than with Multitude Monday?!  It's written out slightly different this week - more like a life update... but each point has something I'm grateful for in it.

141 - Last Tuesday, Jan 8th, (seems like decades ago now!) we had a fun night out celebrating Jersey Girl's 30th birthday. The men lined up babysitters for us (because they knew we wouldn't be initiating that detail! ... leaving our kids with non-parents at night across town....), and we hit up one of our favourite restaurants - Joey's! It was so so so nice. A relaxing meal with 2 other couples enjoying the best appetizers. Bliss. And surprisingly (ha), our kids survived a few hours without us and had a blast! I barely got acknowledged when we walked in the door...a good thing. :) I think the kids wore the babysitters out, but they MIGHT be willing to watch our kids again sometime... ;)

For the rest of the week, while sick and trying hard not to host too many self pity-parties, the Lord reminded me what great friends he has placed in our life and how I should not take them for granted.  Here are a few examples of what a gift they are just from this past week (along with a smattering of other things I'm thankful for):

142 - Hearing I was sick again, S offered to take AJ for the night and bring him back the following afternoon so my man (also sick) and I could get a real rest.  Unfortunately, this first-time-mom can't bear the thought of not having AJ under the same roof for a night, so I didn't take her up on the offer... but the offer meant a lot!

143 - I turned another year older on Thursday. Jersey Girl dropped this off and totally brightened my day:

A calm tea from Starbucks, and still warm scones... and because she always goes to that extra effort, I got pretty packaging and a balloon! :)

 Pretty awesome - huh? Soooooo good!

144 - To end the day, my man walked in the door with these:

Please excuse the tissues & saline bottle... ;)

145 - For my birthday, friends had offered to do an evening of free babysitting so my man and I could have a night out before this second baby arrives... We were so looking forward to it! But, alas, no fun trying to enjoy yourselves when you feel miserable and just want your bed... so we had to pass on the night out. 

146 - So... What did our friend do? She brought us supper! Home-made soup, bread, dessert,  along with flowers and a birthday card. How sweet! It was delicious and I was so thankful to not have to think about making supper :)  For some reason, I don't have an accompanying picture... oops.

147 - Poor AJ has had a bit of a boring life lately with an almost-due prego Mama who can't shake this cold... Saturday was like spring - such a gorgeous day. Jersey Girl and her little family were going to the zoo for a few hours and offered to take AJ along... that meant so much to me! He had a fun outing with his friend and got some fresh air... while I took full advantage of the time and went into cleaning mode trying to disinfect our home! As much as I wanted to use the time to sleep, cleaning felt like more of a priority... I could barely move Sunday, but mentally felt SO much better! :)  That was such a gift.

148 - oh, and they picked up pizza on the way home... so no supper planning again. yay! :)

149 - Thankful for being able to get in to see both a doctor and a dentist at the last minute...  On top of this cold, Friday one of my impacted wisdom teeth (that should have been removed years ago) had a flare up. This has happened many times, but not like this... PAINFUL. Night time was so much worse with lying down - tylenol just dulled it enough to manage. I wasn't sure if it was something different, so Saturday I called the Dr's clinic and begged for a last minute appointment... I got in at the end of their work day, but the Dr didn't think it was an abscess or something she could treat. So I was able to get an appointment with my dentist this afternoon (day four of PAIN)... thankfully I think she was able to help. She froze my tooth/jaw, suctioned what she could, and gave me a round of antibiotics... hopefully tonight will go better. I guess I better stop putting off getting my wisdom teeth out... yikes. 

150 - My mom booked her ticket!!!! She arrives a week from tonight... I can't wait! And hopefully the baby doesn't wait much longer than that, because we want to make full use of her time here... ;)

BONUS - My feet JUST started to swell a bit...  not that I'm happy they are looking a little more plump than usual, but I'm so thankful it didn't happen so much earlier like it did with AJ! I can handle a couple weeks of it... :)