That's Why She Won't Swallow

Our kids have gotten good at the mouth wash thing.  They take a swig of mouth wash, swish it, and spit.  All four of them, even the three-year-old.  She loves doing what the big kids do.  In the beginning of this mouth wash experience, I made sure that Evelyn, the three-year-old, knew not to swallow the mouth wash.  Each time she would take any amount in her mouth in the beginning of using it, I would make sure to tell her that.  I didn't have to tell her very often though because she is so good at following the example of her older siblings.

Flash forward to taking medicine for a cold and a cough at night...pour medicine into a cup (similar to mouthwash).  My expectation is that she will gulp it down with its sweet grape flavor.  Sometimes she even faked that she was sick when I gave medicine to the other kids for a cold or headache so that she could have some too.  I didn't give it to her if she wasn't sick, so I fully expected that when she was sick, she would pretty much inhale it.  Wrong.

In the thick of a nasty cold, I gave her medicine right before bed so that she would be less congested at night and cough less, but after handing her the cup of purple teaspoon of medicine, she poured it into her mouth and then puffed out her cheeks, swishing a little.  I did not realize the connection in her mind between mouth wash and medicine and was telling her to swallow it, just like milk.  With her worried little expression in her eyes, she shook her head no and kept swishing.  I lead her to bed and she still had her cheeks puffed out and hadn't swallowed the medicine.  Maybe I should have given her a spoon full of sugar...helps the medicine go DOWN...

After much persuading on my part, and much resisting on her part, she got up and spit it out into the sink.  I just sent her to bed after that charade.  I would just have to deal with coughing that night.  Poor girl, and of course I was thinking, poor Mom, will be up at various times of the night and coughing will wake up siblings. Didn't happen.  Sometimes early in the morning, while I was sitting doing quiet time with Bible open in lap, I would hear her cough, and dread the idea of all the kids rushing in on my quiet time because it woke everyone.  Didn't happen.  Thank you Lord!

Next time I offered her medicine, she declined.  Thus, no medicine to "help her sleep" through her entire snotty, stuffy, coughy cold and she's done fine (and none of the other kids have seemed effected by her coughing).  I have given her some immune boosting pills (herbal stuff) - namely, Defend and Resist from Shaklee, and she is improving and not coughing anymore.  It was not until a couple of days after she refused to swallow the cold medicine that I realized she equated it with mouthwash and was horrified at the idea of swallowing it.  I hope I don't have to give her antibiotics any time soon...if so, they need to be in pill form...

I Guess This a Monthly Post...

I was hoping to do better than that!

I'm taking a risk starting this post now because I haven't eaten breakfast, only coffee, but the kids are still in bed so I'm going to take this opportunity.  I was about to post on Facebook, but I remembered my resolution to post more on the blog.

We still don't know where we are going to be next year - here in Colorado (our hearts' desire), in Texas, or in Massachusetts...or somewhere we did not expect at all...I keep reminding myself that God can do that.  Part of me wants to shout "Hurry up and decide...or just hurry up and tell us...did he get into DU or not!?...however, I've been reading in the Bible about waiting on the Lord...Psalm 27:4 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the Lord, He is our help and our shield.  Even though we are waiting on DU to get back to us, we are really waiting on the Lord...it's in His timing and we will go where He wants us.  

It would be so nice not to have to move after a year and to stay in this beautiful place with friends and family so familiar to both Max and I, but the place we really want to be is in the center of God's will.  As a military family...God chooses this place for us through the Air Force, at least in this point in our lives.

Now it is 11:20am and I'm back to writing. Evelyn woke up and called to me saying she was cold.  Of course she was cold she got directly into bed last night in her princess hoodie towel, which did not stay on her during the night.  Therefore she only had underwear on in bed and the towel and covers kept scooting off of her...note to self...don't let her go to bed in just a towel and underwear again.

Now for posting pictures...The last two weeks my Mom visited and she got to experience a lot of different things - she's not in all of the pictures, but some of them she took, but all of them she got to experience while here in Colorado.  What she didn't experience was the snow storm in the North East because fortunately for me, she was not able to fly back on Friday when her flight was scheduled and ended up staying another 4 days.  This was not stressful at all for either of us since she doesn't have the restrictions of daycare anymore (yay for grandparent retirement!) and I got to have the company of my mom for a little more than two weeks!

Here are some of the pictures from her visit:

She got to experience little snow falls here in Colorado...nothing compared to what was falling in the North East!

The kids wearing their black bear and wolf hats.   Grandude and Carrie joined us for dinner.

Evelyn getting a ride on Misty

The kiddos enjoying the snow.

Chicken running wild...oh, yeah...and three cute kids.

Getting ready to plow the driveway for the first time.  It wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be.  Evelyn was actually more scary in her bear hat...oh my!

Attacked by viscous snowballs.  Here I come with my plow to get you...JB! 

Benaiah and Gloria enjoying a ride from the neighbor's house.  Benaiah doesn't look too bad here, but he was pretty upset just before this after he cut his head open on a rock while sledding at the neighbors place.  Tough kid.  Wonderful neighbor (she's a nurse and took care of him while I was plowing away oblivious to what was happening until I saw JB and Gloria waving their arms).

Enjoying some sunshine on the deck.  Listening to JB's recording on his tablet of the story he wrote.

TOUCH A TRUCK...or a police car...

This is totally in the wrong place.  This is NOT at Touch A Truck, but aren't they sweet Valentine cookies?  Sent a whole bunch of these and, including chocolate-mint heart-shaped ones to Max in two big-ish boxes.  Thanks for helping me make two batches of each Mom!  Thanks for the recipes Gramma Shell!

Now back to TOUCH A TRUCK!

This is what Grampa Larry needed while in Boston with 2 feet of snow and big snow drifts!

Nice pose Gloria...now don't get any ideas!  Speaking in your father's voice!  :)

Gramma Lois reading a nifty train book that Gramma Shell bought for Benaiah at Touch a Truck.  My mom asked if he had read "The Little Engine that Could" and Benaiah responded by saying "I know a Little Engine that Couldn't"...an Adventures in Odyssey story about a train who was not happy with who God made him...so he ended up crashing and then hauling children at a fair since he was wrecked instead of going super fast (which he wasn't made for...he was made strong for pulling train cars)....

A cute little lambikins.  Unfortunately, you can't get too attached to these cute little critters because they die easily in the middle of winter...and for other reasons.

Man, I ended this posting on a sad note.  However, I want to leave you with this...God is good and He alone is in control and sovereign!  Comforting in the midst of continuing uncertainty and waiting...God bless!