Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

I was able to get Little in to see the pediatrician this morning. The good news is that she doesn’t have chicken pox. I was really not looking forward to dealing with chicken pox on top of moving next week!

The less good news is that she has a skin infection called impetigo. It is caused by strep or staph bacteria (I told Matt this weekend that I was afraid it might be a staph infection) and characterized by the small red bumps and honey colored crust that we’ve been seeing. The doctor recognized and named it as soon as she walked in the exam room.

We start a 10 day round of the antibiotic Omnicef today, and hope that the medicine will clear the infection from her system. Very good news overall, but her poor little face still looks terrible!

Welcome to another episode of “here’s what I’ve planned for us to eat this week although I hope we don’t eat all of it because that means we have people coming to look at our house in the evenings.” And without further ado, here’s our menu:

Monday – shrimp po’boys (frozen shrimp left from last week), fries, lima beans

Tuesday – eat out (we have a house showing at 5:15)

Wednesday – chicken club sandwich ring, jalapeno kettle chips

Thursday – leftover sandwich ring and chips

Friday – beef quesadillas, tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa

Saturday – lunch: leftover quesadillas or nachos / dinner: pizza

Sunday – lunch: leftover pizza / dinner: Life Group meeting

Here’s hoping your week is filled with good eats!

Little woke up Tuesday morning with a blocked left nostril. This wasn’t run-of-the-mill dried green snot, it was a plug of orange crustiness encompassing her entire nostril and a good bit of her upper lip. She wasn’t running a fever or really acting like she didn’t feel well, so I didn’t bother with calling the doctor’s office.

Over the next couple of days we noticed a lesion forming under her nose that we attributed to irritation from the blockage. When there was no improvement in her situation by Friday, and all was still orange, I contacted the pediatrician for help with the case.

After describing all of the symptoms (or lack thereof) to a baffled nurse I spoke with Little’s doctor. Her pediatrician seemed to think the mucus build up was caused by a cold or virus. She said the orange color was probably caused by some bleeding in the nostril when Little rubbed her nose or picked at it in her sleep (good to know for future orange-snot events). The doctor said that it would probably get worse before it got better and that a cough would likely develop by Saturday. I wasn’t entirely convinced but was willing to give it the weekend and see how things progressed.

Here we are on Sunday. No additional snotty-ness or a cough have befallen us, but Little has been smitten with a pox of some sort.

Toward the end of the week I noticed a couple of small, light-pink bumps developing on Little’s face (one on her forehead and one on her cheek). Now she has lesions on her upper lip and nose and about ten of these red bumps spread around her face. I think one of the bumps is also developing on her abdomen.

I’m not sure if it is related or not, but she has a blister on her lower back/upper bucket (that would be her bottom for the uninitiated). It started as a water blister, but being in her diaper area has now ruptured and become a sore.

At present, we are trying to keep everything coated in neosporin. Looks like tomorrow will bring a trip to the pediatrician.

Sheryl has written a series of thoughtful and thought provoking posts this week on her challenge. I’m certain that I won’t be nearly as inspiring, but thought I would give something of an update on the process of God at work in my life.

The last few days I have prayed my verses (Psalms 141:3 and Proverbs 31:26) in full or paraphrase at least once a day. I try to begin each day by focusing on the idea of God setting a guard on my mouth and of opening my mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness.

My reactions to Little have really begun to change from frustration at being interrupted or needed all the time to truly recognizing that she is a blessing and gift from God and that this time in her life will be short and one day I will miss being needed and holding her close to comfort her. Sheryl’s post on Day 2 really made me think about the fact that I am what Little needs right now – I am her security and comfort – and I am the only one who can meet that need.

I did slip up yesterday when I used a hard tone of voice with a security guard. I was meeting friends for lunch and getting irritated at not being able to find a parking spot at the restaurant. When I finally did find a spot, got the car turned off, and started to unbuckle Little, the security guard (for the bank in the next part of the development) informed me that I couldn’t park there unless I had bank business. I commented that there was no sign to that effect; he answered that he was there to be the sign. In frustration I uttered some things in a not so nice tone of voice that were not edifying. Maybe I also need to work on submitting to the authority placed over us.

In regard to the move and the house – we had one showing this week and have received no feedback or additional communication. I’m hoping that this weekend will produce more results – at least more showings – but nothing doing at the moment. I’m trying to focus on the sovereignty of God in this matter. He knows how, when, and to whom the house will sell. All I can do is pray that it will happen quickly and that I won’t be anxious about it.

As I was reading Hebrews this morning, I noticed chapter 2 verse 8 refers to the sovereignty of Christ. The second part of the verse reads, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.”

Although the context of this verse is Christ as the author and founder of salvation, I believe that the words everything and nothing are used in the broadest sense meaning that Christ is the head of all things and that all things (in heaven, on earth, and under the earth) are in subjection to him. This means that the sell of my house, a new church home, our move, and the words of my mouth are all under his control. Praise God!

Just a quick word on a few giveaways out in blog-land:

First, Steph at Adventures in Babywearing continues her summer of awesome giveaways! This time she’s giving away a Podonbutai designed by Jenn at All Natural Mommies. The Podonbutai is an ingenius babywearing device that can be used as a podeagi, an onbuhimo, or a mei tai (the carrier, not the cocktail) depending on your mood, preference, and how you tie the straps. I think Little would be just adorable riding in it!

Then, the ladies at Pinks & Blues blog are giving away a cute Vera Bradley bag and a tub of coconut butter from Sheena’s The Body Shop site.

And last, but not least, Susan and Janice at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving 10 lucky winners The Neat Receipts Scanalizer portable scanner and software. This looks like such a neat product for scanning receipts, recipes, or magazine articles I would like to save for later.

If you would like to join in the fun, click any of the links above to visit the contests.

Yes, I did walk this morning; thanks for asking!

Yesterday marked the anniversary of our country’s independence from British rule. I am grateful that God allows me to live in this country. I am grateful for the freedoms we have as individuals and as a nation. I am grateful for the men and women of our armed forces who work and fight to maintain those freedoms.

So, how did we spend the day yesterday? Eating hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and apple pie? Watching fireworks?

Nope, we celbrated our nation’s birth by packing a couple of boxes, taking a family walk in the park, playing WiiSports, and reading. And our day culminated with a trip to eat mexican food, because, really, isn’t that what any red blooded American does on the Fourth of July?

~~Little and I have walked 4 out of the last 4 days.

Sheryl at Peanut Butter and Jelly Boats is challenging herself to 21 days of prayer and fasting to help her overcome some issues with what comes out of her mouth (see post here). She invited her fellow bloggers to join in the challenge, and I’ve decided to come alongside both in praying for her and challenging myself.

Although I’m not planning to share whether or not I’m fasting (I’ve decided that this is best left between God and me), I will write about the specific things I’m praying about and through and how God is at work in those things.

Now, since that last sentence was clear as mud, let’s get started.

~~ I will be praying, along with Sheryl, about the words that come out of my mouth; this is a constant struggle. I want the words that I speak to be edifying, gentle, and kind whether I’m speaking to a stranger, a friend, or Matt and Little. I will focus specifically on praying the following verses:

~~ I will be praying about the sale of our house and our impending move; that everything we do will be to the glory of God.

~~ I will be praying about finding a new church home in Nashville. It took us a year and a half to find a church here (that’s a long story for another time), and I’m hopeful that the lessons God taught us in that time only have to be learned once.

Today is actually day two of the challenge (yep, that’s me – a day late and a dollar short), so for the next 20 days I will be praying with and for Sheryl about the words of our mouths and also about these other things.

In other (but somewhat related) news, I’m also challenging myself to get back in the habit of exercising; I’ve always heard that it takes 21 days to create a habit, so the timing is just right. For the next 21 days I will walk or do some other form of exercise (like load and unload boxes) for 30 minutes each day. As a kind of accountability, I will add to the bottom of my posts a note about whether or not I’ve had my walk for the day. So far, so good – Little and I walked for at least 30 minutes both yesterday and today.

I don’t know how well we will stick to my menus the next few weeks due to the upcoming move. Several things will come out of the freezer so that we have as little cold stuff as possible when we load up the truck; we will also probably be eating more convenience foods since items in the kitchen will gradually disappear into boxes. I really hope that we have to change up our menu some this week to accomodate eating out because that means that people are coming to look at our house.

With all that said, here is our current menu plan:

Monday – shrimp po’boys, fries, and black-eyed peas

Tuesday – Paula Deen’s chicken casserole from the freezer, rolls

Wednesday – leftover casserole, rolls

Thursday – spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread

Friday – pizza

Saturday – lunch – eat out / dinner – leftovers (shrimp, pizza, or sketti)

Sunday – lunch – leftovers / dinner – Life Group meeting

Hope your week is filled with lots of good eats!