What a Week!

Last Sunday, I looked at my husband and expressed how thankful that I was to be feeling well. I had been suffering with a head cold that just wouldn't go away for almost two weeks and I was finally feeling energetic again. I had a productive Sunday, even finishing it off with several blog posts that I set to auto post all through the week. I went to bed, ready to take on a new week, knowing it was going to be a good one.

Monday is always a busy day here because we have class, then coaching sessions, then we head home to prepare for house church in the evening. As Monday wore on, I started to feel a bit fatigued and achy, yet I refused to believe that I could be getting sick again, so I pressed on. By the time house church was over, I made a beeline for the bed and stayed there until Wednesday, when I finally transferred to the couch. I have been so sick. I am confident I have had the flu. I literally have been surviving on Nyquil and Advil. It's been the pits. Now, I'm feeling better, but my energy level is so low and though my appetite is returning, my tummy gets very ugly every time I eat. I'm sitting here eating ginger ale and saltines for dinner because my attempt at eating a real lunch made me miserable.

Here's the thing, now it's Friday night and I'm looking back at the week and I am so discouraged, which is ridiculous. If any one of you reading this had been in bed sick all week, I would assure you that all you need to do is rest and take care of yourself and everything else will come in time. And I would mean it. Yet, looking at my own situation all I can think is how high the laundry pile is, how the groceries are low, and how I'm going to have a bunch of big fat zeros on my accountability report for the week if I don't muster some energy to stay out for a while tomorrow. It's ridiculous. Why do I do this to myself?

And my husband, my sweet precious husband has been such a jewel. He's tried hard to keep everyone fed, keep the laundry under control, complete his assignments, wrangle kids, and he's made nightly walks to the grocery store or pharmacy for the ONLY thing that sounded good to me each night. He's even spent the last hour talking me off of the ledge I've somehow climbed up on this week. Gently reminding me that people love me, my children aren't ruined, Christmas will still be worth celebrating, I haven't failed forever in the Great Commission, and my family isn't falling apart, just because I've been stuck in bed all week. Sometimes, you need to hear someone say those words, even though you shouldn't have to be told these things. He's such a keeper.

I do have to say that I did get one thing accomplished this week that I hadn't counted on happening. I made this:

It's a Christmas Countdown/Advent calendar

It has these little drawers that hold whatever you put in them.

I saw one in the scrapbooking store that I have been frequenting here, the very first time I went in to explore. While I was in there I inquired about the class they had where they were making them. They explained that the class was full because they didn't have enough kits for all of the sign-ups. I expressed my regret and that was that. But then, last week, I was in there for something else and one of the owners was so excited to show me that they had an extra kit and they saved it in case I wanted to buy it and do it on my own. I purchased the kit, which looked like this:

Can you say, "Who has time for this?!?"

I carried it home, hopeful, but knowing that realistically it might be a project for next year, when my life is not THIS insane. I set it out of the way and went on with my regularly scheduled life. Then, on Wednesday, when I started to lift my head off of the pillow, I saw it and thought, maybe I could work on that for a little bit? So I did. And little by little, over the course of a couple days of cutting, sleeping, pasting, sleeping, painting, and sleeping I got it done. I even found some wonderful mother online who had already assembled 24 scriptures to read in anticipation of the Christmas season which were already typed up in strip form so that all I had to do was print them, cut them, and put them in the correct drawers. I added a few special treats for a few of the nights, which my husband picked up at the local Dollar Store/Safeway and we had it ready before we put the kids to bed last night, December 1.

I'm not totally satisfied with the center. I would like to add a bit more dimension to it, but it will work for this year. And maybe the next 16 years. We'll see. It's done. We have a simple, functional way to recall the scriptures behind the story, and I'm very excited to take it down to the corner and show the ladies at the store my finished product. Because the middle of their sample did not reflect the same aspect of Christmas that mine does. And I'm hopeful that it just might give me one more opportunity to share a bit of truth with my friends down the street!