Just when we thought things couldn't get any crazier....
What with Alex having the busiest couple of weeks, no months, at work in the history of...ever.
And Alex taking 2 very difficult classes this summer, requiring him to spend every free moment studying.
And me being alone with Johnny all day err day while he pulls 12+ hour days at least twice a week.
And Alex being sick for over a week now....
Three words:
Hand. Foot. and Mouth. (ok, 4 words if you count "and")
Our poor little Johnny was burning up with a fever early Sunday morning and a visit to doctor-grandpa that evening confirmed that it was hand, foot and mouth. Not to be confused with the more serious, and mostly occurring in live stock, foot and mouth, or hoof and mouth. FH&M is pretty common among children and according to my pediatrician father-in-law (btw, have I mentioned how incredibly thankful I am to have a pediatrician in the family? Seriously, it's amazing. I wish everyone was this fortunate.) there's been quite an outbreak of it around here. Johnny's been running a fever, he's covered in spots, no appetite, and is displaying the general malaise you'd expect from something like this.
Outside of hospital stays this is really Johnny's first time being sick. You'd think after going through 4 surgeries with my child a little viral infection would seem like no sweat. But at the hospital we had 24 hour nurse access and here it's just me and Johnny. There's no call button to push when he needs more medicine, or when I want to ask if his spots or his poop look funny. It's been hard, but we're surviving. And I feel like I've reached a new parenting milestone, having a sick child at home.
Spending the last 2 days in bed or on the couch nursing my sick babe has afforded my lots of time to catch up on some of the blogs that I follow. I know I'm about a week behind on this, but Haley over at Carrots for Michalmas posted this last week in response to this buzzfeed about why birth control exists, answer being that children are terrifying and will ruin your stuff and cramp your style.
I won't give any commentary here, I think Haley wrote a great post and I really hope you check it out if you haven't seen it yet. But I will say that in the circles I run in it's very easy to forget that there exist individuals and groups who really do not afford children the dignity and respect that they, like all humans, deserve. And I will say that on a day like today, when Johnny definitely is "cramping my style" (ie: no shower, no make-up, no getting dressed, no doing anything but reading blogs and writing this) he is such a precious gift and there is no doubt in my mind as to his value as a person.
Children are hard, and messy, and tiring, and you need the grace of God, (and coffee, and Netflix, and Jimmy John's freaky fast delivery) to make it though some (ok, most) days. But children are also a gift, a joy, a heritage, not to mention they are necessary to society.
I realized just a few minutes ago that this week is National NFP Awareness Week. How funny that I should come across that buzzfeed during a week dedicated to Natural Family Planning. If birth control exists to keep people safe from "terrifying" children, NFP exists to affirm their value and dignity.
Spending the last 2 days in bed or on the couch nursing my sick babe has afforded my lots of time to catch up on some of the blogs that I follow. I know I'm about a week behind on this, but Haley over at Carrots for Michalmas posted this last week in response to this buzzfeed about why birth control exists, answer being that children are terrifying and will ruin your stuff and cramp your style.
I won't give any commentary here, I think Haley wrote a great post and I really hope you check it out if you haven't seen it yet. But I will say that in the circles I run in it's very easy to forget that there exist individuals and groups who really do not afford children the dignity and respect that they, like all humans, deserve. And I will say that on a day like today, when Johnny definitely is "cramping my style" (ie: no shower, no make-up, no getting dressed, no doing anything but reading blogs and writing this) he is such a precious gift and there is no doubt in my mind as to his value as a person.
Children are hard, and messy, and tiring, and you need the grace of God, (and coffee, and Netflix, and Jimmy John's freaky fast delivery) to make it though some (ok, most) days. But children are also a gift, a joy, a heritage, not to mention they are necessary to society.
I realized just a few minutes ago that this week is National NFP Awareness Week. How funny that I should come across that buzzfeed during a week dedicated to Natural Family Planning. If birth control exists to keep people safe from "terrifying" children, NFP exists to affirm their value and dignity.
Natural Family Planning is something I am very passionate about.
If you have questions about it I'd love to talk more with you.
You can also check out the Couple to Couple League ,
Twin Cities Fertility Care Center and Creighton Model for more info.
If you have questions about it I'd love to talk more with you.
You can also check out the Couple to Couple League ,
Twin Cities Fertility Care Center and Creighton Model for more info.