Christmas Eve

Thursday was pretty good.  I had another 3 loads of laundry to get done... it never ends here since we have to hang dry it and pray the weather is nice enough to dry it out.  I some cleaning in the kitchen done along with some food prep.  But after lunch I was extatic that I didn't have to cook anything for dinner.  Cooking is not a passion of mine.  I like to bake but if I had my choice, I would hire someone to cook for me.  The boys arrived home around 3:30-4:00pm where they promptly threw clothes in the wash and showered so that they could attend the dinner that night without smelling.  Manny had to dry his clothes by the heater as he was the main one without clothes since he was locked out of his apartment until the next day.  They they showed us pictures and told us stories until it was time to go.  We were late of course, kinda hard not to be here but we were glad we didn't leave earlier as the family we were dining with was just getting to their home when we arrived.  The evening went very well.  We conversed alittle, mainly listened and ate the yummy food that was prepared for us.  I taught them a small amount of sign language and then called it a night as it was 9pm already (dinner started at 8pm) and everyone was wilting.  We arrived home and quickly called my family to talk to them.  Then went to bed.    

Getting Lots Done

Wednesday was a much better day then Tuesday.  We had all slept very well.  Beyond some minimal cooking, I devoted myself to getting computer work done.  And I did it.  I got my update templates redone, I sent off donation letters, I emailed thank yous to some of our donors, I got most of my blog for our ministry redesigned and there were a few other things done but in the wake doing all of this, Cara only got 1 and a quarter of her 3 naps in for the day.  She was so attached it was getting annoyed.  I was so glad that Chris was returning home the next day.  I again didn't get exercise in. But I was wonderfully surprised by a friend here in Bolivia who stopped by to give us a huge bag of food for Christmas (odds and ends like rice, oatmeal and lots of other stuff.).  They stayed to visit for a bit longer then invited us all to christmas eve dinner.  I was very blessed that evening with our conversation.  Ingrid (my friend who stopped by) invited me to come and do some PT on a few of her patient's at the "free" clinic that she works at.  God is so good to us.

From bad to better

So my original post got deleted before it got published.  Grr. Anyways. So tuesday started with very little sleep before. Cara was up multiple times wanting to play, cry and she had tummy pains along with diarrea.  I was rather tired and angry all morning. I got mad at Corey and spanked him and yelled at him numerous other times.  I got a load of laundry started after getting corey a piece of bread with PB&J.  Then I put Cara down for her first nap. In my sleepless stuper I forgot to put the drain hose in the sink. So all the water drained onto the floor.  Needless to say, I flooded my kitchen and the room next to it.  I decided a shower was in order first so I could calm down.  And once done with that, I began to clean up the water mess. When Cara woke up we took the trash out to the road and upon returning to the house the kitchen was flooded yet again.  The lint from the wool blankets was clogging the sink.  So I began my clean up a second time. I finally finished that and was able to get my breakfast started around 10am. 

Since I hadn't ate breakfast yet I decided to just make lunch. So at 11:15 we had our first real meal of the day.  While I was putting Cara down for a nap earlier, I was looking at facebook and saw a post by my friend Jamie.  She posted a quote that said "Finding joy in the trials is a matter of faith not feelings".  Praise God for this post.  It turned my whole day around.  I was very productive in the after noon.  I got two other loads of laundry washed and dried. Food preped for the rest of the day, some work done on the computer and my house cleaned up.  We all went to bed early that night and slept well.  I didn't get my exercise in but I counted it a good day non the less.  

Relaxed productivity.

Today I was productive yet relaxed.  I got up around 430, had my worship, exercised and showered by 6am. When the baby woke up right at 6am.  Throughout my entire workout, I was praying for the baby to stay asleep until I was done my 25 min work out plus stretching. Praise God he did it.

I am hoping I can keep up the early wake up. It was nice to have time to myself without kids nor husband.  Especially to spend some much needed time studying God's word and talking with him.

I was able to get a small nap in this afternoon when I put corey in quiet time with his tablet and nursed cara to sleep.

I also was able to take time to spend with Corey. Teaching him his letters, drawing with him and just making him a priority.  I'm so glad we cooked yesterday.  A whole lot less prep time for food making today. Thus more time for the kids.

Cara started army crawling forward and saying mama. Makes my heart melt and ache.  I don't want her to grow up but I just love seeing her develop.  The struggle between being a mother and being a physical therapist is real.  I love seeing how God created us to learn and develop.

I guess we will just have to have another kid sometime in the later future.

Night for now. 4am comes quickly. 

Gotta get going

In 4 weeks we will be going on a 6 plus hour backpack trip up the mountains to provide some medical work to the people in a few villages. I'm excited to be doing this trip but I am feeling severely out of shape. Considering I am going to be carrying Cara up the mountain that extra 16lbs is sounding a bit daunting at this time.

I am also week due to an intestinal bug that I am fighting again. But in reality my muscles are incredibly weak right now.  The only exercise I've been doing is walking up and down hills in LaPaz at 12,000 feet. 

So here is to the first day of my working out. And making healthy habits. 

Here are my goals for the week.