Always watching over me

    At about 10:30 last night, as we were finally heading to bed, I smiled at my husband and asked, “So, should I blog about today?”  He shrugged and sort of smiled back. We had been doing anything but smiling earlier in the day but sometimes, when life is at its most unbelievably craziest, you get to a point when all you can do is step back in ironic appreciation of how things sometimes end up....
    When I started my blog, almost three years ago, I wanted to write about the times in my life where I could see God at work.  The ordinary moments and extraordinary moments when I see God’s hand on me and my family.  Now, I believe, without a doubt, that God is always at work in my life and always with me.  So I guess every story is valid.  If my criteria for what makes the cut on this blog is just that God is working through the events and happenings I write about, than everything potentially makes the cut.
    Anyway, yesterday was not one of those days I was feeling very blessed, at least not at first but maybe it was one of those days that God really blessed me most……..
    The day started with the air conditioning repair man coming.  It was a long stressful morning that resulted in a hefty bill to fix the a/c for the 4th or 5th year in a row.  Both the manager and the technician admitted it was a bit unusual to have so much trouble with a 6 year old system and that something seemed not quite right about it.  Neither one would take any responsibility for it though, nor would they offer to do anything to assist us in solving the bigger problem of why things keep breaking.  They were “kind” enough to give us a 10% discount off the current repairs, bringing the final bill to $530.  Tim was at work, virtually unavailable, and I was trying to juggle school work with the kids in between phone calls to the a/c company, conversations with technician, and freaking out about yet another repair bill that was not in the budget.  In the end, I just put it on the credit card, offered my worries and frustrations up to God, and then quickly proceeded to get the kids ready for their home school P.E. class.
    Once the kids were all signed up and settled in at their class, I took the little one and headed off to do some birthday shopping.  My oldest is going to turn 13 next week and I’ve found one of the greatest challenges of home schooling is finding opportunities to shop for Christmas and birthdays.  It may seem silly but I really do have to be creative about it because the kids are always with me.  This seemed the perfect opportunity though.  I went quickly, visiting three stores, and making various purchases.  It was fun to be out with just the 2 year old, chatting with her about all the things she saw- “mama, doggy,”  “mama, shirt”, “mama, baby!” 
    We rushed back to P.E. with 10 minutes to spare and I was met at the door by a friend.  She informed me that my 8 year old had fallen during class and hurt herself.  They were getting her ice and she was pretty upset.  I went to her quickly and looked at the scrape and bruise on her right eye.  She would not tell me anything but seemed to be okay.  I snuggled her a little while, trying to cheer her up.  Then I gathered her and her siblings up and we headed to park day with our home school group.  We were not there long when my poor little bruised and battered girl started throwing up unexpectedly.  “Uh-oh, she must have hit her head harder than I realized,” I thought to myself.  I called the pediatrician right away and was told to take her right to the ER.  So, in the car again with the 5 kids and off to the hospital, calling Tim along the way.  He promised to leave work and meet me there to pick up the 4 healthy children.  Of course, he works about 45 minutes away. 
    In the end, all was fine.  My daughter got a CT scan and was checked out by the doctor.  She was diagnosed with a concussion but was discharged and we headed home for a late dinner.  We watched her closely all evening and I got up twice in the night to check on her.  By this morning, she was back to her old self with barely a headache to remind her of her adventures.  The bruise will be around for a while but that will just remind me that, though it was an insanely crazy (not to mention expensive) day, it could have been much, much worse.  I am so grateful she got away with just a concussion and not a more serious head injury.  I am so grateful for all our home school friends who were praying for us at the park while we were in the ER and who later called to check on how my daughter was doing.   And, I’m so, so grateful that even after the most chaotic, unpredictable days I get a little quiet time to pray and thank God for being with me through it all, even when I am too crazed to even notice Him in the midst of it.  Though the day was a roller coaster of stress, worry and fear, I ended it feeling grateful for the blessing of my (overall very) healthy children all snug in their beds, and the amazing perspective that only the craziest day can give...
       

Meeting a movie star!

Winter the dolphin and her "adoptive mother" Panama

Three of my children watching Winter up close!

Winter shows off what is left of her tail

The river otters were pretty cute too

Two of Winter's prosthetic tails- her current one and a "baby" one

    Florida has always been known for beautiful winters.  It is warm and sunny and wonderful here in winter.  For the last few years, Clearwater, in particular, has become a little bit more famous because of its Winter.  In 2005, a baby dolphin was found entangled in a crab trap and sent to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA), just 15 minutes down the road from us.  The dolphin was named Winter and, though she eventually lost her tail due to her injuries, she is doing fine today.  Winter’s story of adapting to life without a tail and then being given a prosthetic one has been featured in a book and even on the national news.  We had visited Winter’s home at CMA years ago, long before she was even born but this past weekend we finally had the chance to go and see her for the first time.  The aquarium, which is really more of a sea creature rehab hospital, has not changed much since our last visit.  It cost a whole lot more now but that may be because there are a whole lot more of us now.  It was also a whole lot busier.  That Winter sure knows how to draw a crowd!  Still, despite the crowds we had a lot of fun learning about Winter and her “family”. 
    In September a movie all about Winter will be coming to a theater near you.  It was filmed at CMA and stars Winter as herself.  From the trailers, it seems Hollywood has, of course, put their own spin on things but the aquarium staff assured us that though the people parts are made up, the dolphin parts are still true.   I don’t usually “plug” movies on my blog but that little dolphin was so darn cute and her story is so positive and sweet.  You can check out the trailer here, and see more about CMA and Winter here. 

The best laid plans...

    The beauty of home schooling is that so many of the lessons we learn each day come from the life we are living and not only from contrived lesson plans.  The real life learning we experience is often much more valuable and more meaningful than anything I could plan ahead of time with carefully constructed lessons in my lesson plan book.  This morning, I awoke with a plan in mind for our school day.  It included math, spelling, history, religion, and lots of fun literature activities.  But, first I had planned a trip to the library.  So I piled all the kids in the car along with two big bags bursting with library books to be returned and we set off as I mentally reviewed the list of books I wanted to check out…  books on Italy, Sri Lanka, France, England, Jamaica, and Vermont, a story about ducks for the baby, a few mystery stories for the older children, and some easy readers for my kindergartner.  We pulled into the empty parking lot of the library right at the time they should have been unlocking the doors, thanks to my perfectly timed plans.  But, like all perfect plans of mine, something very imperfect was in store- the library was closed.  “Oh yeah, today is Veteran’s Day,” I told the children as we pulled right back out of the parking lot after seeing the “closed for holiday” sign on the front door.  On the way, home we had an impromptu discussion on veterans and why we honor them.  We talked about the freedoms we have as Americans and how lucky we are to live here.  I guess that counts as history, right? 
    Once home we all sat down at our school table and got to work on our previously planned lessons.  We got through religion with no incidents.  Worked on math quietly and did some sight word flashcards.  Then I let the boys have a little break to play.  They got it into their heads to build a tower of blankets and pillows on the love seat, then dive into it all.  What fun!  In fact, it was so much fun that my super sweet nine year old son decided to let his 15 month old sister in on the joy of it all.  He threw her on top and then pulled her by her arms off the pile to do it again.  She immediately burst into tears.  Ten minutes later even with lots of snuggles and comforting she was still crying.  I noticed she was also favoring her left arm.  Uh-oh, maybe her tears were not just from utter terror at being tossed around.  I called Tim hoping he could come home for a few minutes to access her injuries with a clearer mind than me- I tend to overreact about these things.  No such luck, he was in his car on the way to a meeting.  I called the doctor and, though they had no openings, told me to bring her in right away, they’d fit her in somehow.  So off to the doctor we went. 
    Instead of doing fun literature activities we spent our afternoon in waiting rooms and examining rooms talking about how we should be careful with small children no matter how tough they may seem.  We learned about nursemaid’s elbow and how if pulled little arms can pop out of their sockets, and how if you are really, really lucky they pop back in on their own but that that is still quite painful and can make for very fussy toddlers.  We learned about x-rays done just in case, and the dangers of big brothers and sisters in the x-ray room and the blessings of kind-hearted medical center front office workers who are willing to play I-spy with said big brothers and sisters to calm the nerves of a mother not to sure about leaving them alone in the waiting room unattended.  We talked about how our joints work and about tendons and ligaments on the way home while our bellies rumbled from missing lunch and the tired, traumatized baby slept in her car seat. 
    All in all it was a very productive day of learning even if it wasn’t exactly what I had planned and thankfully when we got home and baby napped we were even able to fit in one fun literature activity.  My children may not remember every lesson they learn, they may forget how to measure the area of triangles, or the proper spelling of the word “announcer” but I am pretty sure they will always be careful not to pull a baby by the arm again.  A valuable lesson for sure.