Life

Life has been exceptionally busy lately. You know how there's a constant busy-ness with just your own family's routine, and then sometimes outside things happen over which you have no control that make "busy" go into overdrive for awhile? That has been the last week for us.

There were 3 families in our MOPS group that needed meals (2 of them were crisis situations and the other was the birth of a new baby). This involved much phone calling, cooking, driving to deliver meals, collecting meals from others, driving some more to deliver more meals, sending emails, making more phone calls, PRAYING. In a way it's relatively easy for us to do these things since I can fit them in around our daily routine, but it is challenging at times for me to stay on top of everything mentally. In fact just this moment I realized that I forgot to make a reminder phone call this morning to someone who had asked for one. I hope they remembered to take their meal to the new baby family tonight!

I have been reminded how much I have to be thankful for this week, and how much I take for granted. My kids, their health, their hugs and kisses and smiles, the opportunity to watch them learn new things, the thrill I still get when my husband walks in the door. Life is so precious. It is a blessing to be a blessing to others during times of need. Thank you, Lord, that we are not in dire need at this moment. Thank you that when we are, for we have been and surely will be again, You will provide just what we need.

In other news, our son who has SPD (sensory processing disorder) received his body sock in the mail yesterday! This was very exciting. Unfortunately for him it is hot pink, but he has decided he wants to keep it rather than wait another week for another one to come, which may also be hot pink since you can't specify color. He loves it and has used it for long periods of time since yesterday. In fact today he fell asleep in it, curled into a little ball at the foot of our bed! He looked like a large, smooth, pink cat all curled up sleeping. I am so glad we got it!

For those of you wondering, a body sock can serve two purposes for children with spd (probably more, but I'm still learning). It creates a little space that is all their own, to go when they need time and a place to regain a feeling of self control. And it also is extremely good therapy for them to push against the resistant fabric, providing sensory input for their muscles and joints (the proprioceptive sense). Here are two pictures of him in the body sock, first the back view and then the front, showing the velcro opening.




And lastly, I am concerned about Little Man's excema. He has it really bad on his legs and some patches on his arms and trunk. He had a viral infection earlier this winter called "Molluscum Contagiosum" which are little bumps that look like warts but aren't warts. They aren't dangerous, but if they get scratched and break open, the virus will spread to whatever part of the body is touched next. The pediatrician sent us to the dermatologist, who said that he could give us medication to "burn" them off, but he could tell that Little Man's body was beginning to recognize the virus as an enemy and build an immunity to it so we were at the beginning of the end. We chose not to pursue the burning treatment.

The way he could tell this was the beginning of the end was that a rash had appeared all around the bumps, which looks extremely similar to excema. So I'm not sure if this is truly excema or the molluscum contagiosum rash that has spread to his legs. I'm going to try and email the following picture to our dermatologist tomorrow and see what he thinks. Hoping to avoid a trip to his office unless absolutely necessary! Little Man is quite bothered by it (he cries and says it hurts) but lotions seem to aggravate it so I am unsure what to do.

Tomorrow is co-op. It was cancelled last Friday due to snow, so it's been two weeks since we met. One of our sons has a cough and another one had a fever all day today. I predict that at least one of them will have to stay home tomorrow, and my wonderful hubby will have to work from home in order to accommodate them. He is so supportive of our homeschooling endeavors - truly he is a gem!