It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Last week was one of "those" weeks. Where I found myself staring off into space, dreaming of packing up the car (sans kiddos) and heading to Mexico (or maybe a place that doesn't require a passport--less prep time. Does Mexico require a passport these days? Really, any beach would be acceptable.) Here's a little glimpse of one of my days from last week: The kids woke up, whined through breakfast, cried through getting dressed, then threw fits about what movie to watch. After I got them settled with an agreed upon show, I just laid on the floor, face down, completely spent from all the discipline (and it was only 9:30am!). Mikaiah saw me at her level, crawled up to me and tugged on my hair as if to say, "Mom, you're the glue that holds us all together! You can't get overwhelmed now!" A few minutes later, I was thinking to myself (as Jakin was running around the house screaming in true little boy fashion), "If I could just have a few quiet minutes to myself, maybe I could regroup and get a handle on these crazy kiddos!" Seriously, not one second after I thought that, Jakin started to pray out loud at full volume, "God, Thank you for my Mommy because I love her!" It was a sweet reminder from the Lord that my kids are sweet and that I adore them. :) Jakin's sweet prayer inspired me to get going again, so I had the brilliant idea to get out of the house and mix it up a bit. We were sitting at the mall, eating lunch, when all of a sudden I notice that Jakin's limbs are turning purple and his little hands were so swollen that he could barely move them. (He had a rash the day before, which I just thought was some random allergic reaction. Apparently not.) I took him to a pediatrician over by the mall who was amazing, and we found out that he had a rare virus that kids with low immune systems can get from other kids who have respiratory viruses (such as RSV-hmmm...). Thankfully, we got it all checked out and he improved really quickly.
There were very good moments to the day, but overall, pretty taxing. Fortunately, the next day, the weather was AMAZING!!! Sunshine just brightens up everyone's moods and we had a blast outside. We had a picnic, took a walk and just had fun playing.