dave & janet horsman ::: keepin’ it real since 1998

So, the other day I was thinking…  I know, I know… I bet your thinking, “Good grief, what’s she gonna write about this time?!”  But don’t worry, I’m not about to wack you over the head with some personal opinions about eschatology, lament over my crazy escapades with my kids, or confess to you my shortcominigs as a mother on weekday mornings.  I bet you all can’t wait till I get my new camera, eh?  ;) 

Okay now…where was I?  Oh yes…I was thinking, and I realized that our family has been living in our current residence for over two years now!  This is the longest we’ve ever lived anywhere.  Isn’t that crazy?  We’ve moved an average of every nine months since we got married.   And although, for the most part, I very much dislike moving, I’m craving that “fresh start” feeling that one gets from moving.  Don’t you like that feeling? 

Unfortunetly though (or fortunetly, I guess, depending on how you look at it!), a move is not in the foreseeable future for us.  However, I’ve resolved to spend this week “scratching” my itch.  The thing that I most love about moving is the have I used this since we moved here? and/or do I really want to put time and energy into moving this? mindset.  I’ve spent the first part of this week with this mindset…sorting through, and getting rid of “stuff,” and plan to do the same for the rest of the week.  I’m on a roll!  (I’m trying to convince Dave to help me rearrange some of the rooms, and even do a little painting too, but I think he’s had enough of such things with the prayer room remodel.  :))

So, if I’m an absent blogger for the rest of this week, you’ll know where I am. 

Our lightbulb science experiment was set up beside a lava lamp experiment at the Science Fair. The boys have been wanting to make them ever since.

Here’s the recipe:
-Pour water into the bottle until it is two thirds full.
-Add a few drops of food colouring to the water.
-Pour in a small quantity of oil, just enough to form a layer on top of the water.
-Sprinkle a few pinches of salt onto the oil and watch what happens.
-Keep adding salt to make your experiment last longer.

(This is the very last picture taken by our camera…reading Winnie the Pooh’s ABCs while eating a PB and J sandwich.  Couldn’t get any better than that.)

Noah’s fever broke!  All on it’s own…no visit to the doctor, and no antibiotics.  Sweet victory.   Late Wednesday afternoon, Noah fell asleep in the middle of our playroom floor.  We were all just sitting around…I was folding laundry, while silently praying that God would heal Noah, and Elijah and Zeke were both working on some homework.  For some reason, I really felt like I should involve Elijah and Zeke in my prayer, so I said, “You guys, could you please lay hands on Noah, and ask God to heal him?”  They did as I asked, although very sheepishly at first. 

They prayed, and I quote, “God, please heal Noah, and kick the infections butt!”  Amen!

Well, Noah had a terrific sleep on Wednesday night, and woke up cool as a cucumber on Thursday morning.  Hooray!  Was he getting better anyway, before Elijah and Zeke prayed for him?  Maybe…I don’t know though.  I do know that it was a huge faith-builder for Elijah and Zeke…and me.

P.S.  I get to go out tonight …with “the gals!”  A very much needed break…it’s been a looong week. 

Patient I:  Phoebe

Symptoms:  Runny nose.

Current condition:  Very good.  Runny nose only lasted about a day.   

Notes:  The flu shot that the patient recieved in late December seems to have protected her from the illness that has afflicted the rest of her family.  Make sure everyone gets the flu shot next fall! 

Patient II:  Noah

Symptoms:  Runny nose, fever, cough, lethargy.

Current condition:  Poor.  We’re on to day three of the fever. 

Diagnosis:  Ear infection is suspected, since colds have a history of settling in the patient’s ears. 

Notes:  Dr. Mom is ready to admit defeat and make a visit to a real Dr., who will probaly perscribe antibiotis.  :(  Dr. Mom wants to give the patients body the chance to fight off the ear infection on it’s own, but doesn’t want to subject him to undue discomfort.  Sigh  Maybe I should give it one more day?

Well, this sure helps put things into perspective.  Runny noses, coughs and fevers pale in comparison to the grief and agony that the families involved in this school bus crash are going through.  My heart breaks for them.  The first thought that crossed my mind when I saw this story on the news last night was, “I wonder what their last exchanges with their parents were?” 

Because too often our mornings here are too rushed…too grumpy…  I’m going to give Elijah and Zeke extra long hugs before I send them to school on the bus this morning.

I was sick over the weekend.  Like really, honest-to-goodness sick.  I can’t remember the last time I felt so rotten.  Yuck.  But that’s not the worst part…the worst part is that Dave went away for the weekend.  How ironic is that?  I haven’t had so much as a cold for the past two years, and then Dave leaves, and I’m sick as a dog.

I felt fine when Dave left on Friday morning, but right around noon time, I started feeling yucky…achy,  chills, tightness and pain in my chest and a dry cough.  When I woke up on Saturday morning, of course, everything was 100% worse…and I had to take Elijah and Zeke to their first skating lesson.  “I can make it.”  I thought.  “The lessons are only a half hour…a couple Extra Stregnth Tylenol, and I’ll be good to go.”  I was glad I had a baby sitter lined up for Phoebe and Noah.

But what happened next?  You guessed it…the baby sitter “called in sick.”  (Gee…now wouldn’t that be nice.)

Now, any sane woman, I’m sure, would have forgotten about the skating lessons.  But no, not me.  We had paid for the blasted skating lessons, and there was no way we were gonna miss one (especially the first one), by golly!

So, I crammed us all into a tiny, little, borrowed car (since Dave had taken our van).  Elijah needed to sit in the front seat, (I know, I know…call the authorites.  I prayed all the way to the ice rink and back - only a five minute drive - if that’s any consolation) and I couldn’t fit our double stroller in the truck of the said tiny, little car.   Which meant that I wouldn’t have the luxury of having both babies securely strapped down.

All in all, I guess it went pretty well…sort of.  I managed to get their skates on amidst all the, “I can’t get these on!”  “How do I loosen these laces?”  “These don’t fit!”  “Zeke, those are mine!”  …And from me, “Noah…please stay here,”  a half dozen times.  Phoebe (thankfully) was sitting quietly in our single stroller (I had managed to jam that one in) sporting that perplexed look of hers.

Finally, it was time to go.   Noah had actually cooperated really well, sitting and watching goodnaturedly for most of the time, but in all the packing up of our gear, he disappeared.  The lobby of the rink wasn’t huge, but big enough that I felt a little panicked.  We split up to track him down. 

It was Elijah who found him, on his way to the bathroom, and when I caught up with them, Elijah was trying to carry Noah out of the men’s bathroom while he hollered, “Me have pee!  Me have Pee!”  I scooped Noah up, and, not able to handle the logistics of marching all four children into the ladies bathroom with me, said, “Noah, just pee in your training pants for this once.”   Oh dear…Noah did not like the sound of that, and my dear two-year-old had a good, old-fashioned temper tantrum as we vacated the rink.  Beam me up, Scotty.

We made it safely home, and I laid on the couch/let my kids watch TV all day/somehow got the kids fed/felt sorry for myself for the rest of the weekend.

So there’s my sob story.  I must say, it pains me a little to admit to you all that I’m not invincible, but…I’m not.  I’m starting to feel better now, but I’m sad to say that Phoebe’s nose is starting to run.  :(  There’s only one thing that I hate more than being sick myself…and that’s having a sick baby.  Noah has a fever right now, and is sleeping.  Elijah and Zeke already had “it”  last week.   Of course “it” had hardly slowed them down at all…how do they do that? 

Anyway…thanks for reading.  Any prayers that you could send heavenward on behalf of my two sick babies would be very much appreciated.  I’ll post an update on the health of our family soon.

They Might Be Giants: Here Come the ABCs…this is our kids’ favorite CD.  Come to think of it… it’s one of my favorites too!  I think every family with kids should have it; each and every song is so contagious.  It’s educational too.  Listen to some.  Here’s a little video of Elijah singing his favorite - “The Alphabet of Nations.”  I love how serious he is about the whole thing.  (Zeke’s favorite is “E Eats Everything.” In the song E eats all the other letters except the letter Z, and then Z eats Es. Can you guess why it’s his favorite?)

P.S. Ok, so the inundation of videos didn’t quite come into fruition for this week. Dave’s been really busy…good busy though.  His main role here on campus is “growing” a 24/7 house of prayer.  (I’ve written about it before.)  His team just recieved an $80,000 donation to redo the prayer room!  Wow! Most of the money (I think) is going towards a new sound system, but they are also doing a bit of remodeling.  Dave and the guys on his team actually did most of the demolition and rebuilding themselves. It’s pretty impressive.