"Mama! I'm all done!"

I finished Immanuelle's quilt.

I call it "Ragged Rectangles." I did an adapted version of this quilt. Instructions were provided. But since I don't have a nifty cutting board thing like real quilters do, I chose to cut 9 big rectangles instead of 90 small ones.

I feel particularly motherly about it.  I am looong over the turquoise and pink color scheme, but there are some projects that just require you to push on through to the end because there isn't budget enough or Kaylee enough to start over.  Plus, this is only my 2nd quilt ever so I don't even have the skills to do anything more than what I did with it, no matter the color scheme.

My thoughts wandered from how sweet it'll be to tuck my big girl in under a quilt to thinking how there'll probably be an age where she thinks her handmade (and lets get real, a bit wonky on the sides) quilt is totally lame and wants to replace it with something cooler.

 Like they'll even say things like "lame" and "cool" when she's older... my opinion of her future taste is high but who knows if she'll just simply want to update it to a more sophisticated Pottery Barn look or put stickers {gasp!} or posters {oh no sir!} and a blanket with the faces of the latest one-album-wonder-boy-band on it. It'd probably be a Kpop group though (TCK's can be global enigmas).

In the midst of my sewing-mind-ramblings I'd hear "OH NO! OH NO! I GOT FAST POOP! I GOT FAST POOP!"  Pulling down Hershey-squirted undies will pull you out of thoughtful sewing reverie and replace it with about every tasteless (but let's be honest, hilarious) idiom that has the "S-word" in it.


Some sort of terrible awful, no good, really bad sickness has slid into the 1st and 3rd's bodies. Full body rash, fever, and diarrhea. Each coming a day or so after the other so you think you're in the clear and then you're staring bare-handed into Lightning McQueen undies that have been shat in.

This morning.

Oh my, this morning.

It all happened so fast. One second I was asleep and the next Isaac says, "Oh no Mama! I got fast poop in my underwear and my bed again." while simultaneously smacking the wet dirty underwear square on my unsuspecting hand, "See!?" I've never thought about the importance of hand-placement while sleeping, but I can assure you priorities have now been rearranged as my eyes opened to the *stink in my hand.

So finishing up the quilt has been a challenge for sure. And I've earned more than just my quilting-badge in the process. Taken care of a kid with the runs have you? On a squatty potty? Done that. What my nursing assistant class didn't teach me about "aseptic technique," I figured out anyway.

I feel like Special Agent Oso in designing my own badges:
"Disinfecting Diarrhea Feet!"badge
"The biggest Muslim Holiday in the World so few clinics are open and your kid gets the *craps and you manage to keep him from getting dehydrated" badge
"No Tile left Unwiped" badge, which goes hand in hand, with the
"Wall-to-Wall tile appreciation"-badge
"You just WISH they were *crapping bricks"-badge
"Quarantined with your kids for 4 whole days inside"-badge
And
"Trail expert" badge (for excellence in the field of finding fast poop tracks after mad dashes to the squatty potty)

With my sash full of badges, I step back and look at all of this as a huge grace. I won't deny the un-fun-ness of my baby needing 2 baths before 9am this morning. The grace is in what the Lord has shown me about my life right now.  I've done what I can and have even been able to catch a couple breaths above the stink and make an effort to do more than just stewing in a big crock of diarrhea, angry until all is right again.  There's been quilting, cookies, homeschool, prayer time, Friday Night Family Movie Night, and a little cooking...they're outward displays of the grace and peace I feel inside even in a *storm like this one.

I'm no super mom. But *stuff happens. And I'm thankful for the grace that weeks like this bring. You bleach it and pray for it to go away and then be thankful so you can see the Lord's good hand in it. Because it is there. Have you seen it in your week?


*I won't condemn you one eensy-weensy little bit if you said the "s-word" out loud or in your mind while reading. Promise.

Parental Pictoral Post-game Post

My parents and my lovely young (though I won't say "little" because she's as tall as me!) 13 year old cousin came to visit for 3 whole weeks. 

It was fun and relaxed and slow and non-stop all at the same time. 

Family is like that.  

The cleanliness of my floors suffered greatly due to unnamed people who forget they're in Asia and must take off their shoes. But no one complains because dirt on white tile floors is negligible when held against finding extremely fast go-karts in our city, and when miniature Walt Disney World Monorail systems are handed out freely, and rainbow-y kitchen rugs are bought and gifted on the spot when certain 2nd-born daughters claim, "they'll go perfectly in my kitchen!" Waterfalls and satay and movies every.single.night. was it how rolled around here for 3 weeks. Enjoy some of the moments!

Our dear Kak Aygee is helping to free our children from rubberbands-off-the-ground-borne diseases that threaten to infect our middle son at any and all public outings.

"They can't fall in!!!" Yeah, right! Like safety standards exist here!

"Don't show your teeth. They think it's a challenge."

Wanna know the cure for pink-eye? Ketchup. And Ikea.

And if that doesn't work, an afro-puff and some chlorine will seal the deal.

"Satay!"

Rice you stab with a stick. Tell me how your night could be better?

Ok, ok. You're right!  Pinterest and glow-sticks in coke bottles polishes an evening off rather dreamy.

I know it's hard to look at our mugs when there's random camping guys' underwear on the rock next to us.

I swear we were really trying to make it a good one!

What American WaterBirds look like when they hatch in Southeast Asia.

 Thanks parents and Laina for shelling out big bucks to come all this way and do things like go grocery shopping and swim.  Our socks are blessed clean off to have the family we do!