Of Pink Casts and Sick Babies

I've been MIA again.

With pretty good cause.

The past week was a blur of very late nights, and busy, busy days.

One day, for example, I took the kids to swimming, then Lilly to the dr., then Lilly (and all the kids because they are always with me) to the hospital for an x-ray because her foot wasn't healing, then the dr. called back to say her foot was indeed broken and she'd have to get a cast tomorrow, then the grocery store (normally I would not add that into the mix but we were out of coffee and that constituted an emergency) then William's baseball practice and then James' baseball practice.  

Through the day, Davy started coughing and by dinner time I could tell his simple cold had morphed into something much worse and he'd be wheezing soon.

Aaron came home with a sore throat and ears that ached.

And I stayed up until 3 holding a very sick, wheezy, feverish baby boy.

The next day, Lilly got a pink cast.

For the first half hour or so, she had a hard time walking.

Her cast slid on our wood floors like an ice skate.

But in no time at all, she said she was going to play outside and was back at it.

Swinging, running, riding her bike.

You just can't slow Lilly down.
She was even giving her brother rides on her trike.

Lilly is such an independent, determined little girl.
Sometimes those qualities make it so hard to parent her.
So hard.
But most of the time, I am so proud of her strong little mind, body and heart.

That same day I took Davy to the dr.

He tested negative for RSV, but had some other respiratory virus.

He was just so sick.

That night I was up with him until 4.

Even as a newborn, he never had to be held in order to sleep.

But I couldn't put him down.

Besides, I was so worried about his breathing that I didn't want to put him down.

Thankfully my parents came up that day and I got to take a solid nap.

And that night Davy finally settled down around 2.

An early night.

Needless to say, blogging, no matter how hard I tried, wasn't happening.

Pretty much nothing was happening except baby holding.

And during the day, it was all  I could do to teach school and perhaps do some dishes.

Perhaps.

I think we made it through the worst of it with Davy.  

He only woke up twice last night and didn't need a middle of the night breathing treatment.

Lilly is finally sleeping well with her cast.

Nights were the only time that she slowed down enough to acknowledge that her foot hurt.

And last night I found a moment to get a small bit of writing done.

Today we have a Valentines party to get ready for.

We're so excited.

And please check back tomorrow because I have some exciting news to share (not pregnant).

It's already done, so I am not making empty promises.

See you tomorrow!

Love from,

Greta

Winter Sunshine Series--A Birthday at Crystal Cove

I am exactly 1 month behind on this blog.

It bugs me.

But, life goes on.

And sometimes it feels like a whole lot of life is going on.

I don't have a lot of free time for hobbies--unless I sacrifice all my sleep.

That turns out badly the next day.

For everyone.

Maybe I'll schedule myself a little blogging weekend one of these days--send the big kids off with Aaron and hole up here with David, for a long weekend of writing.

It sounds fun.

And so relaxing.

Hint, hint, husband.

Anyway, back to the sunshine, the beach and catch-up posts.

This one's about my mom's birthday.

My mom shares her birthday with both of her sons.

For reals.

Both boys born 10 years apart to the day.

On her birthday.

Twice.

It's just so weird.

She's had years and years of celebrating her day with her boys, so when I can swing it, I like to get together and remember her on her day.

This year we were able to meet her and my dad at Crystal Cove and celebrate on a beautiful day in the middle of winter.

It was their first time at Crystal Cove.
It was so fun to show them around one of our favorite places on earth.

I love almost all the cottages, but this one has my favorite name.
I kind of want to live in a house named the Hi.de.ho.

Isn't my girl getting big?

The boys took Dziadzi off to explore the tide pools.
This picture makes my heart very full.

This one does too.
I used to love walking on my dad's feet like this.
I even remember the big, brown shoes he always wore.
Lilly wanted Dziadzi to walk across the beach like this.

My dad probably would have done it.
She's got the men in her life pretty well wrapped around her finger.
Except for her brothers.
They spend enough time with her to not be so...misled by her cuteness.
But this guy has it bad.
Lilly loves her daddy.

While everyone else was out walking the beach, my mom and I sat up our chairs and an umbrella and soaked up some sun.
Mom held her Davy boy a lot.
I think he liked it.

I love how much she loves him.

She's such a good Granny.

And she's such a good Mom.
I'm so glad to have her.

We all are.
Of course a day at Crystal Cove must include beach side dining.
Lunch at The Beach Comber never disappoints.
It was a really great day.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We love you.

Love from,

Greta (and the fam)

Winter Sunshine Series--Sand Sledding

To all of you who are stuck with grey skies, cold climes and the winter blues, you might just want to skip this post.

And the next few after it.

I'm going to be talking about the beach.

A lot of beach.

It's just that January was such a fabulous month for going to the beach.

Sunshine, temperatures between 70 and 80 and the feeling that you are cheating winter.

It's been shorts weather.

It's been great.

True, we don't have snow.

But we still go sledding.

We head to Seal Beach and slide down the berm that's up for the winter storms.
The storms that are yet to materialize.
They'll probably come sometime in April and we'll be all bitter that spring is rainy.
In the meantime, we're having a blast sand sledding.

 It's fun to sled with friends too.

 Even, or maybe especially when, you crash.

You don't have to use boogie boards just for waves.
And check out William with the ladies.
I'm gonna have to keep my eye on that boy.

What does Davy do while everyone else is sledding?
He keeps watch from atop the berm.

Pop up!
(this was early January--pre full scale crawling.  he wouldn't stay put now.  he's making my life harder.  good thing he's so darn cute.)

William wanted to slide down the berm with him.
I said "not yet," envisioning Davy with a face full of sand, but I'm pretty sure Davy would have totally been up for it.

When the sun starts sinking lower and everyone is tired from climbing the berm again and again, you head home.

And you say to yourself, "this living in Southern California thing is not half bad."
I will admit, William is longing for a trip to the snow.
But with all this warm weather, our mountains are not very snowy.
So I'm hoping for one good storm in February or March and a couple of days in a cabin in the mountains.
We can get our snow fix and then come back to the beach.
Happy winter!
Love from,
Greta

My Hair!

I am just going to trust that you have seen O Brother Where Art Thou?
(and if you haven't, get thee to a library and rent it for 50 cents.  Now!)
Remember George Clooney's character, Everett, and how obsessed he is with his hair?  
When wakened from a sound sleep, he puts his hands to his hair and utters that great line, "my hair!"  (at the very end of the above linked video)
I feel a bit like Everett right now.


You'll remember not too long ago I was complaining because my hair was falling out.
By the handful.
It was starting to get frightening.
I always loose hair after my babies, but this was by far the worst of them all.
And I had real life bald spots on my head.
Anyone who said, "let me see," with plans to say something nice to make me feel better, would get a look and say, "wow.  That is a lot of hair."
Ouch.


But now, o happy day, callooh! callay! my hair is growing back.
Except it is growing back in and STICKING STRAIGHT UP!
It kind of looks like this little man's hair.
Aaron calls it chimp hair: those thin, wispy hairs that stick straight up.
Not super attractive.

All along my hair line, there it is, standing at attention.
So much of it in fact, that there are places where the rest of my hair can't even lie down flat because there are so many short hairs standing up.
It's in the back too, along the top, anywhere and everywhere.
I can't win.


Perhaps if I got a little bit of Everett's pomade, it might help.
He's a Dapper Dan man.

Or maybe I'll just wait it out and try not to care very much in the meantime.
This having babies, man it does a number on you, doesn't it?
My hair!
Love from,
Greta

When There's Nothing Left to Stand On

You know when you've heard something a hundred times but then, for the first time, you really hear it?

And these words that you've heard, that you've spoken, that you know by heart, take on a meaning that they never have before.

Your heart fills and so do your eyes.

And they both overflow with gratefulness for a new understanding; a revelation.

You want to mark that moment.

You want to remember when His voice spoke into your heart, and you heard Him.

I grew up on hymns.

I've been singing them for as long as I can remember.

We sang a favorite of mine in church today, The Solid Rock.

It's one I've sung many times before.

It's one I know most of the words to.

It's beautiful.

But this time, the words of that hymn ministered to my heart in a way that they never have before.

"My hope is built on nothing less,

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand."

The words struck me--"my hope is built on nothing less."

Where is my hope?

Where have I leaned for strength, for protection, for happiness and peace?

I've leaned on myself.

I've leaned on my marriage.

I've leaned on my husband, my children, my friends, family, home, job, even my circumstances.

And some of those things have failed me.

At some point in my life, all of those things will fail me.

Why?

Because they are sinking sand.

"When darkness veils His lovely face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil."

When I walked through my darkest valleys, He was there.

When it was so dark, it seemed like He wasn't, He still was.

The rest of my world sank around me, but He was my solid rock.

People will fail you.

Your marriage will fail you.

Your children will fail you.

One day your job might not be there.

Or your home.

One day there will be a fire, an earthquake, a car accident.

We think it won't happen to us.

But it will.

And if our hope is in this world, then we will crumble just as our world crumbles around us.

But if our "hope is built on nothing less" than JESUS, we will stand back up.

Tossed, buffeted, thrown down and hurt by the gales of this life, we will stand back up, because we're "resting on His unchanging grace."

And after that we can look back on the hard times, yes, even the hardest times, and see that He was always there.

It makes me love Him so much more.

Because He was there for me when I was alone.

When I thought all hope was lost, He stayed the course.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

I will fear no evil,

for You are with me; 

Your rod and Your staff, 

they comfort me."  Psalm 23:4

I realized today that for much of my life I have placed my hope in the wrong place.

I have given Jesus part of me, but held back much more.

"I can do it myself."

Oh, I hear myself in my 3 year old daughter all day long!

The truth is, I can't do it myself.

No one else can do it for me either.

He is the only thing that doesn't change.

"All other ground is sinking sand."

So I will ask myself, "who am I standing in today?"

"Who am I leaning on?"

It can't be anyone, or anything, but The Solid Rock.

Love from,

Greta

Live Oak Park and Such

This post is for my fellow Fallbrookians.

To grow up in Fallbrook is to go to Live Oak Park.

I have more memories than I can count centered around that park.

I love it just as much now as I did then.

Probably more.

I always wished I could live in one of those cool, old ranger houses.

Still do.

I always loved the towering, gnarled, oak trees.

Still do.

I always loved the finding acorns stuffed in trees by acorn woodpeckers and squirrels.

Still do.

My love for Fallbrook runs deep.

So does my love for Live Oak Park.

The only complaint I have about the park is that all the old playground equipment is gone.

You know the equipment we played on as kids?

The big merry-go-round that we'd get spinning at crazy speeds and then throw our heads back as we spun and tried not to get sick.

My brother and his friends would hold onto one of the handles and drag the lower half of their bodies in the dirt as it spun.

We had so much fun with that thing.

Then there were the super tall swings, the super tall slide, the bumpy slide, the big teeter totters, and that swing thing that you had to stand under and swung from with your arms up above your head.

Remember that one?

It's all gone.

Replaced with new, probably safer, equipment.

I miss the old, paint-chipped, sharp-metal-edged, head-injury-inducing stuff I grew up with.

But my kids like the new stuff just fine.

We visited the park with the cousins a couple of days after Christmas.

Lilly and Lizzy like to share everything.

Ha!  

Only sometimes.

Baby Abby.

William and Cora on the strange teeter-totter contraption.
William loves Cora so much.
They really understand each other, I think.
And she is sweet to him--so she's even better than a big sister would be.
Because sometimes big sisters can be bossy, or bratty.
(except for mine--she's perfect.  and i'm not being sarcastic)

I think my love for nature--exploring it, learning about it, studying it, and simply being out in it--started at Live Oak Park.
As a kid, I imagined it to be the wilderness and loved taking off on the "trails", searching for adventure.
It's a beautiful place for exploring.

Especially at this time of year when the grass is green.

A little bit of rain brings out the mushrooms.

And way up there in that Sycamore tree, we saw some acorn woodpeckers.
I wish I had brought my zoom lens.

I'm glad this park of the park hasn't changed.
There is something about those old, stone walls lining the creeks that I just love.
They bring back very specific memories.
Like the time I was 13, wearing my pink jeans, purple shirt, pink scrunchie, purple socks and pink and purple hightops, trying to keep all of them clean by just walking on the sandy parts of the creek bed. 
A boy offered to hold my hand and jump down into the deeper part of the creek.
"Let's jump together," he said.
"That's OK," I said with a toss of my ponytail.  "I can do it myself."
Is it any wonder I didn't have a boyfriend until I was 18?
I was never very good at flirting. 
But I did always love to explore that creek.
Still do.

It's a bit harder now, with Davy in tow and Lilly to help up and down.
James had his first brush with stinging nettles here a couple of years ago.
Now he knows to look out for it.
And poison oak too.
They don't let danger deter them.
And they're dying to go in that tunnel.
I remember feeling the same way.
My mom never let me.
I haven't let them.
I guess some things never change.

Oh those were some stinky and muddy feet heading back to the car.
But they had fun.

And when we got back, there were gingerbread houses to make.
But mostly a lot of candy to eat.
Because, you have to do up Christmas right.

And before we left Fallbrook and Christmas 2011, we swung by the Christmas house for a musical light show that rivals anything that Disneyland has.
And it's free!

Whew!

I'm exhausted.

Cheers to another wonderful Christmas.

Love from,

Greta

PS. If you are a bit of a Fallbrook nerd, or at least interested in its history, I found this, which talks a lot about the history of Live Oak Park.

There are some good stories in it and pictures too.