Put on the 'brakes'

Some days right now I feel like life if spiraling out of control.  I just wanna make it through the week.  All I can see is the 5 nights in a row ahead of me that I'm going to have to work late only to be awaken early by these needy little hungry whiny people that live with me.  :)  They are like hungry little birds screeching for their momma, mouths open, just about to take flight! lol.  I see the mounds of work pilling up on me visible on my desk in stacks of vibrant paper and ribbon, in my work emails and in the stacks of mail I need to sort and the empty refrigerator, making it difficult to come up with a nutritious meal (that everyone might eat).  A couple weeks ago I had a random small hurdle of tonsillitis and that slowed me down for a couple days.  It was sad that I was in so much pain but it was nice to actually have a couple forced nights at home to recover.  The visions of the soon coming days when I WILL be home to actually cook a normal dinner & put the kids to bed danced in my medicine induced head.  But all was back to normal in a few days.  Until last week that is... A couple Fridays ago now we went on our normal morning trip to the Y for me to spin and them to run free and get out their energy (since it's already 100 degrees)!  When I went to pick them up Ryder was screaming his head off.  No one could calm him down but they had no idea what had just happened.  I took him and asked him what was wrong and he said, "That boy shoved into me... but he didn't mean to... it was an accident"  I said,  "Ok, did you shove him back?"  Making sure nothing was done to anyone else, considering a recent biting experience!  Trying to calm him down I took him to the restroom.  When I lifted him to put him on the potty he SCREAMED.  I was so confused.  The next hour was filled with me trying to figure out what in the world had happened, examining his back & shoulder area to see what hurt, calling friends and trying to find a babysitter to watch Paisley- immediately.  The best story I could finally get out of him was that he was standing under the rock wall under the playscape and this boy fell off of the wall on top of him.  There was a worker standing nearby at the time, but she didn't see it happen.  

Within a couple hours we'd gone to the doctor and were on our way to get X-rays.  By this point Ryder, still in pain, but very intrigued with the turn of events in this day was flirting with every nurse at the X-ray place, was given a full tour, stickers, treats, got to play with all the equipment (that adults would never get away with!) and pretty much thought this was the best day of his life.  

All that to say, as suspected his collarbone was broken.  :(  The doctor called later in the night to tell us it was a clean brake on an angle which means it will heal itself in the next few weeks. We borrowed a strap from Morgan & Carrie, our pastors who've had 2 kids brake collarbones.  She was the first one I thought to call.  For all the moms who don't know (as I didn't), the collarbone is the easiest and most common bone to break but fortunately it heals the fastest as well.  Ryder has to wear a strap for 3-4 weeks and it's been harder than expected to keep my little 3 yr old ROCKET calm.  Literally, by Monday morning he was running full steam into the walls.  Fortunately the strap was worn by the Stephens boys so Ryder thinks that it is super cool and is like some sort of superhero backpack and hasn't resisted it at all, it might even be hard to get him to stop wearing it.  Random strangers have actually asked me if it's the kinda thing you can connect a leash to!  No, I wish!  haha!  Here he is sporting his black strap the first night we went out in it...

It's been challenging to stop him from doing things he's so used to.  We've not been able to do a lot of our normal things, and it's been difficult to lift this growing boy from the bottom into everything like the car, chairs, and bath.  It definitely gives me perspective for parents of kids with disabilities.  I don't know how they do it!  We've rediscovered the library, playdough and a lot of toys in the house!  (That are all over my house now!)  

To add to it all we realized this weekend the kids had contracted Hand, Foot, Mouth which is going around a LOT right now.  4 families in my moms club have gotten it.  What's funny is with everything else going on I think Paisley probably had a it a few days before I even realized it!  oops.  We had to spend Father's Day at home and send Daniel to church alone yesterday.  :(   

Sometimes it feels like you just need to throw on the brakes and slow down from life.  Maybe God just did that for us.  We've been forced to spend some long, (tiring) days at home and get things back in focus.  Perfectly Paisley is doing REALLY well.  I'm super busy, lots of jobs - updates on that to come!!!  Daniel's gotten a new job and my days at Starbucks are almost OVER.  I've got a trip planned to Nashville this week and the kids are going to the Grands.  The getaway is looking sweeter by the day at this point!  

And you wondered why I hadn't blogged in a while...