Hanging In There

It's been a rough few days personally after recuperating from the stomach bug, my allergies seem to have flared up and I can't breathe (not to mention my right ear has been plugged up since my last cold a month ago). These little issues totally drain my ability to be patient with the boys, especially Koen. It seems his decibel level has just increased exponentially every day and it is so hard to tolerate when everything that goes in my ear just echoes. Anyways, enough of the lame complaining. Just wanted to give an update of my emotional status (basically a wreck), which is why I think I haven't blogged much or been able to keep it positive at the beginning of this post.

What's great is that every day is a new day (whether or not my head is full of snot). And today was Monday. That means Koen joyfully goes to preschool and Tavin and I get to hang out. We love being with Koen, but the quiet break is a relief for both of us. We both needed a calm start to the day.

We started out by coloring some birthday cards for Aunt Abbie. (Koen has already made about 10! - he loves that Aunt Abbie!) Tavin loves to color with markers and was so happy to just sit with me and do a "cah-f" ("craft" in Tavin language). Look how proud!Later we headed to the living room to play with the Marble Works that Koen had built for Tavin before going to preschool. It's a really sweet new norm for Koen. Whenever we are hanging out on the first floor, the first thing he does is make Tavin a Marble Works. Tavin usually keeps busy making a race track for his cars (namely two small Lightning McQueens). Anyways, Tavin and I had fun using the Marble Works. He does really well not knocking it over and loves watching the marbles make their way down.After that we played upstairs for awhile and then we headed out on some errands. Tavin is my little Target buddy. He loves walking holding my hand into the building, then going up the escalator. He throws all the groceries in the back of the cart. And then we usually have a tickle fest of some sort while we wait in the checkout aisle. It's nice just having one along for the errands. We headed to Whole Foods after that and then on to pick up brother from school. On the way home we stopped at the post office to send all those cards to Aunt Abbie (quite a creative package on the way to you, Aunt Abbie!). Then things really started to unravel. I don't know what it is about lunchtime. Perhaps it's that it's close to naptime, or maybe they get too hungry, but the boys get so loud, so silly, so unruly. Koen, being the oldest, takes most of the responsibility, but Tavin is quite the follower (and sometimes even the instigator!). With my ear reverberating and my desire to just see them eat their lunch without trying every silly trick in the book, I just got so discouraged. I feel like I've been having these rock bottom moments daily lately. It's very draining. Thankfully laying them down for naps is almost always a sweet time and today was no exception. I love reading books and praying with them before nap, so that was a nice way to end things positively. I've been waking Koen up at 4pm every day so that he will still be sleepy enough at his normal bedtime. Most of the time I let him come downstairs around 4;30pm while I finish getting dinner prepped. It was some nice one-on-one time and a good start to the evening. Doug came home in plenty of time for dinner and dinner did go a lot better than lunch (although volume is always an issue even when the conversation is pleasant). And it's always awesome to have Daddy home, so that was a blessing tonight. Here's a few sweet pictures of them on the couch when Doug got home...
All in all, not a terrible day, but I look forward to another new start tomorrow and my desire to rely on the Lord even more for strength in those frustrating moments that were much too frequent today.