With the new year has come a new sort of busyness. Driving our eldest to work three days a week has majorly disrupted my "staying home" and homeschooling. I was consistently exercising at the Y three mornings a week after breakfast, biblestudy and helping with math for the younger ones. Not lately. Even this week the next oldest started to babysit for a sweet new family in our neighborhood. Their mother has several immediate needs for doctor visits and we are happy to help. But, there goes my second sitter in our family...this makes running out the door for our own appointments and errands tricky. I suppose we are now living a life a little closer to what the rest of the families in this culture are experiencing. But I doubt if many of them have eight children and one on the way. ; )
Hand, foot and mouth disease (or the coxsackie virus) has struck our four youngest this week. That means that the baby has been refusing food and most everything else. For two days I did nothing but hold him. That can be enjoyable or stressful, depending upon how much else I have to be doing. Sadly two of the younger girls have been vomiting and having sore throats, headaches and fevers. That seems to have ended today! I thought it was strep and am somewhat relieved to know its coxsackie. Poor baby, he has blisters on his toes and feet, hands and face. Thankfully he's eating, drinking and sleeping again!
The washing machine broke last week. It's only three years old. Apparently it was poor choice. The repairman laughingly told me that it is the lightest machine on the market. We need heavy duty and that it is NOT. So off to the laundrymat the boys and I went one afternoon. Fifteen dollars and two hours later we had six baskets of clean, wet laundry. We spent the rest of the evening drying our clothes at home. It was a good learning experience. I think I figured accurrately that we could buy a new washer and dryer with all the money we'd spend in three months at the laundrymat! Note to self: never use a washer with two cups of Downy already inside of the machine if you hate Downy scent!!! We have one load of clean, dry clothes quarantined to the garage due to its horrendous scent. People who use it all the time wouldn't even notice, but since we are scent-free in our home, it is really making us feel sick! When our incompetent washer is repaired tomorrow, I will wash that stinky load several times and hope it returns to normal. Thankfully we bought an American Home Shield warranty a few months ago so the repair will be cheap, comparatively speaking. We've already shopped for the new washer and dryer online and hope to win the approval of the repairman tomorrow. That will be a tax-return or summer bonus purchase.
We're expecting my dad and stepmom to visit on Saturday. The oldest even got off of work to be here. We're planning to make lunch for them and they'll be bringing Christmas gifts. We haven't seen much of them over the last several years. There seems to be a softening of my dad's heart lately and he is making a priority of visiting with us. We are gladly cooperating, and praying for the best.
