A spoonful of chocolate

You know how Mary Poppins uses a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down? Well, in our house, it's chocolate. Lexi refused to take her bubblegum flavored children's tylenol until I bribed her with chocolate afterwards if she drank all of it. "Oh! OK!" and that was that.

Lexi is sick. We are on day three of a 102 F fever and general "not feeling so good," as she tells me. Her fever comes and goes along with her doses of tylenol, which I find interesting. During the down times, she is on the couch watching Netflix kids movies, and during the up times you can barely tell she's sick (in other words, she's running around the house singing and yelling and doing all the things she normally does). And then she gets all whiny and lethargic as soon as her fever returns.

 My older sister, who will be living with us this year, has been a huge blessing to me. Not only is she an amazing help with the kids (she has more maternal skills than I do and she is single!), but she has also been scrubbing all those overlooked places in my house that I have good intentions for, but never get around to doing it. She says she is just "cleaning out all the dark corners." haha. Funny that she says that, since we have been busy cleaning out all the dark and untouched corners of our relationship as well. And for that, I am thankful. And blessed to have her back in my life.

Every night for the past few weeks, I put the girls to bed, and then the three of us (Alli, Eric and I) head down to the basement and work on the remodeling until we drop. I understand why people normally hire a full crew for something like this (ha!). But in spite of the work, it is actually a great learning experience for all of us (and for my cats, who are quite thrilled to have found a small opening in the drywall and have taken to racing back and forth behind the walls as fast as they can...). And being that Eric isn't thrilled with his real job, he goes on "vacation" to the basement and is really enjoying the manual labor and power tools. Who doesn't feel powerful with power tools?! Seriously, they are awesome. Even more so if you are a woman and know how to use them. :-) Our goal is to get the place livable by the middle of the month, when we are expecting some long awaited visitors.

In spite of the all consuming work that is the basement, this winter is starting to feel a bit isolating to me. As a stay at home mom (especially when the kids are sick for days on end), it can be days before you venture out of the house. Every meeting with people has to be intentional and planned in advance. No one is out at the park because it is so cold, and really, even if there were people out, my girls are begging to go back inside to get warm after ten minutes in the cold outdoors anyway. 

But I am thankful that it is February. Because February means that spring and change and new growth are indeed in sight. And spring is always worth waiting for.