I am home sick from church today... again... but kind of different. I had a sinus infection, and I felt like I was getting better by about day 8 or 9, but then on day 10 (Saturday) I started getting a cough and then I lost my voice by the end of the day and my throat is all sore and stuff. I can tell that whatever was in my sinuses is draining out ok, but I'm worried it might be getting into my lungs. Oh well. Rest, liquids (hot chocolate is good for being sick, right?) and Robitussin. Blech. Actually I guess it's Wal-tussin cuz we're cheap like that. Oh but I do count myself grateful that I can actually TAKE the GOOD stuff for this sickness- having so many sinus infections while pregnant with Ethan makes me very grateful to not be pregnant so I can take good drugs. :)
I have the most adorable family. I have been trying really hard since Sister Beck spoke to us to do more of the things I felt really impressed about. I have learned some great things. First, I find myself remembering that my children are so, SO precious and it helps me to be calmer and to speak softer to them. I also have found that in speaking softer (kinder, nicer, quieter, more lovingly) to my children, they listen better and are happier. Audrey is definitely deep in the "terrible twos" and we are working through that- I recognize it is just a stage of growth, just like learning to walk, she is learning to be her own person and it is hard for her too. Like many parents of toddlers, we have difficulties getting Audrey to mind us well. I have found that as I speak softly to her, and word things more kindly when something is a smaller issue, she is more receptive to when I speak loudly, when something could hurt her or Ethan. This is amazing to me- I realize as I look back on my week that things went VERY well. I didn't find myself stressed to the max at the end of every day. It was not stress-free, but life isn't stress-free and I realized that it was just lovely to have more peace in my heart and in our home. I marvel that just a small thing can make such a difference.
I've also been learning to better choose my battles with Audrey. There are things that are hard rules (safety, learning to choose right and wrong, etc) in our house, but some things that I would ordinarily get irritated over I have been learning to deal with them differently. Even things that are against the rules, just in changing the way I react to things helps our day run smoother. I also feel that Audrey senses that change in our days and she is happier and more helpful. I love that girl. She is my joy. Well, part of it. I have many joys. :)
Ethan is also my joy- such a happy, happy boy. He loves attention and I feel bad he hasn't gotten as much of it lately as I've liked. I've been sick and it's hard to muster the energy I want to devote to playing with him. Audrey is a little easier because she can come to me as I'm laying on the couch and we can play Woody and Buzz (I'm always Woody, she's always Buzz). Now that Ethan is mobile, he is starting to learn that he can come find me. It was so cute to be cleaning the old house yesterday and walk in the other room to clean the windows, and after a few minutes I see Ethan's little face poke through the door behind me, and his face lights up and he grins as he sees that he's found me! What a cutie.
Thomas is my joy too. I love that man! I am so amazed at how hard he works, without being asked, at anything he puts his mind to. He gives so much for our family- works so hard at providing and caring for our home (and our old home too). I know he feels the stress of us depending on him and bills to pay and schedules to manage and countless other things... but I love him for it. I know Audrey and Ethan do too, even if they don't understand it yet. I really am enjoying that Thomas works from home, and Audrey can open our bedroom door and run it to give Daddy a hug before she takes her nap every day. I love that he prays with us every night before Audrey goes to bed. They had so much fun playing yesterday. I am so grateful that our children have a mother AND a father to love and care for them- as Audrey gets bigger I am realizing even more that this is so important. We love our children in different ways, because we are different genders and have different roles but also just because we are different people.
Audrey has gotten more and more curious about what I do in the kitchen when I am cooking. She likes to grab a stool or a chair and peek up onto the counter to see what I am doing. I wonder if it is helping her learn to try more foods when she sees me preparing it. She asks me questions about what it is I am doing, what she sees, when she can eat it... she has gotten very excited for dinnertime lately. She also will quote Emperor's New Groove- "its DINNERTIME!" and then she quotes the whole conversation between Yzma and Kronk about the dinner and the poison. She is so precious! Thomas has some great pictures I got to see last night from when we decorated sugar cookies for Valentines Day- Audrey helping me roll out the dough and cutting the shapes out, and frosting them. So cute. I will have to steal some and put them up here.
I've been doing more indexing through FamilySearch since I've been sick. I have such a hard time doing NOTHING when I am sick. I have a whole kitchen full of dirty dishes and floors that need mopping and I don't have the energy to do it! Even today- I had time to myself so I decided to relax and take a bath but I just had to scrub out the tub first cuz I just can't quit! So I like finding things I can do with my hands that don't require standing or lots of physical work. I picked up my cross-stitch again. I started it years and years ago when I was probably in Young Women's, but I only did a teensy bit. When I was pregnant with Audrey I picked it up and worked on it, and then whenever I'd get sick or anything I'd pick i up, and when I was pregnant with Ethan I did some more. So I pulled it out and I'm pretty close to finishing. I have no idea what I will do with it. But I enjoy doing it for some reason. Indexing is another thing I discovered that I really like doing, but I don't have a lot of time to sit and type ordinarily. If you've never tried it, you should- you don't have to be LDS to do it. Go here and set up an account and then download the software, and you should be good to go! I enjoy it because I really feel I'm doing something worthwhile with my time even when I can't be up and around doing housework. I feel a connection to these names I write and the way they lived. I was doing a batch last night from the 1930 New York Census and I came across a family whose house was worth $75,000. I looked it up and figured out that in today's money, their house would have been worth the equivalent of almost a million dollars! Another family rented a house and they paid $28 a month in rent, which is like renting a house in today's money for about $350. I just really enjoy the history around it, and knowing I'm helping others to find their family's history. These were real people- perhaps Gladys from Romania with a two-year-old boy named Seth had some of the same concerns in raising her son as I do raising Audrey.
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