Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Best Laid Plans

The morning after Christmas, Lilly woke up early. I had gone to bed late, so I was not too happy about her early morning calls of, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"
At some point in the night, Aaron had migrated into the next room to sleep with a restless William, so I couldn't even play the "let's see who can pretend to be asleep the longest" game with him. It was all me.
I took her out of the crib, and tossed some books on the floor with the hopes that I could buy even 5 more minutes of sweet, sweet sleep.
Then she opened the curtains and I saw this.

So I got out of bed, picked up Lilly, picked up my camera, and we went outside to take pictures. Because when you see a sunrise like this, you have to get out of bed and soak up that beauty. Even if you are so tired your eyes hurt. Even if it's freezing outside. Even if.

Sometimes, most times, my plans just don't work out.
I am learning not to let that bother me as much as it used to.

______________

I spent New Year's weekend giving the house a good going over. Cleaned closets, washed windows, organized drawers, decorations put away and me feeling full of optimism and excitement at the start of a fresh new year.

That night we noticed James' breathing sounded weird. It was weird. In fact, between breaths, he wasn't breathing at all. We figured it was from the cold that he'd had, all of them had had, but it never seemed like he was that sick. Still, it was a long, worrisome night of shaking him, moving him and rubbing his chest every time he stopped breathing.

And Monday morning arrived not with me feeling full of energy and optimism, but tired and more than a little grouchy. The 3 and me went to the doctor and they all got put on antibiotics. Apparently James has large tonsils. They are even larger due to this infection and the Dr. says they are basically flopping down and blocking his airway while he sleeps.
"Just wake him up when it happens," she said cheerfully.

And so, another sleepless night, another long day. But it was still a great day. I hope to blog about it soon over at Lilly and the Brothers. But it may be a while yet. I still have some Christmas catching up to do and a boy who is keeping me up at night with his not breathing tricks. So now, I am going to bed.


How grateful I am that it is not just at the New Year that we get a fresh start, but at the start of every day. It reminds me of this promise:
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His Mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning."

I hope to be back here soon, friends,
Greta

4 comments:

Lillian said...

Beautiful pictures and you are a beautiful mother, the mother of my 3youngest grandchildren and I am so glad. I don't have to tell you haw quickly it goes till they are all grown up.

Tom said...

We had the pleasure of watching the sun rise over rice paddies with Justin and Erin (from the car) yesterday. I love sunrises.

Sorry to hear about James.

Jennifer said...

great is thy faithfulness!
gorgeous photographs.
sometimes... it is actually better that our plans don't work out, no?
thanks for sharing.
i know how scary the not breathing thing is. we had several nights like that with ezra. it gives a whole new meaning to the word faith.

Kristine said...

How gorgeous. Morning by morning new mercies I see.
Large tonsils~ That's what Turner has. He just returned from an ENT on Monday, but no decision to remove them, as he does not have breathing issues . . . yet. He has hearing trouble from them though (odd, but it's all related to the middle ear). Hope you don't have to continue staying up each night.