What a week

Hello, this week has been rough! The sickness of all sicknesses descended upon us last Saturday and it hasn't completely left even today. I stayed healthy until about Tuesday, but then it nailed me hard: fever, chills, horrible sinus pressure, runny everything, headache, omg, I wanted to die. I thought it had pretty much passed by Thursday but then it ramped back up again and today is really the first day I've been able to do anything besides survive.

In desperation partway through it I took a couple doses of benadryl/sudafed at night to help me sleep and that, plus the recent changes in how Aaron has been eating, plus I believe a growth spurt and my body not catching onto it yet, left me with milk that almost entirely dried up on him. That was alarming and stressful. I got some great advice from my sister and a bunch of friends and have been taking steps to help bring it back. It's back, but not to optimal levels yet. I think another day or two and we'll be fine, but it's awful to wonder if your baby is hungry and only have a few bags of milk saved and be stressed about how that's going to work out. I know I could have gone and gotten some formula if push came to shove, but I'm not ready to stop nursing, and I didn't want to do that if I didn't have to, so it was just stressful. We're making it through now though, thankfully. I still have a part of the cold left, but I've been able to have a normal day today and feel good. That's a blessed thing after such a rough week.

In fact we had a fantastic day. It was glorious outside, in the 60s in the morning, warming up to the 70s later on. We spent as much of the day as we could outside. Bill raked the yard and trimmed out a few unruly plants. The kids played with all their toys, and I got to work on a project for a friend that I've been slowly doing bits of for a few weeks. We also got to run a few errands, including getting ice cream at our favorite Mennonite store, which the kids always love.

So speaking of my project, my friend asked me to make a display box for her set of flutes. I had done the box a few weeks ago but hadn't figured out the best way to cut out the pieces for the flutes to rest against. I was thinking through all my different tools and just couldn't think which one would have the precision on curves that I needed on a thin piece of wood. Earlier this week Bill and I helped one of my Cub Scouts do his Pinewood Derby car and Bill used a coping saw to do the cuts. It struck me that of course, that was the right tool!

Sure enough it worked perfectly and wasn't even that hard. I was so pleased. Then I was able to use a little multi-tool my dad sent home with me at Christmas to sand the curves and it seriously turned out better than I could have hoped. The coping saw came from him too, so this is only the second time I've used it and it was wonderful.

So here's a picture of the box and the inside pieces that still need to be oiled and then glued in place. It's going to look so amazing. The box is done except a final buff with steel wool. The inside pieces are done staining but need a few coats of tung oil to be done. I'm so glad I discovered that stuff recently. It is far and away the best finish I've ever used and I've tried a bunch of different options. This stuff will give you the smooth, satiny feel you want every time and with such a small amount of effort to apply it.

All right, I'm done geeking out about my project. It's the first time I've ever had someone commission me to make something for them and I'm so excited that it's turning out so well. Huzzah!!!

We capped the night off with a little campfire. We regularly battle with Genevieve to keep her clothed. She just prefers to run around in underwear only. I'm not hugely worried about it except that it has been cold for a long time, so that didn't really work if she ever wanted to go outside. She'll run up to me in her puddle jumpers and underwear and be like, I'm ready to go outside! Yeah, no. So this outfit is pretty impressive. She picked it out herself and was particularly excited to have her skirt on over her pants. She has a few skirts and it's been so cold that we've been telling her for months that she has to wear leggings under her skirts. She fights it every time, so it's funny that now she's all excited about having that very thing.

Spencer's mouth is completely stuffed full of marshmallow. They polished them off before the campfire had even been lit. Haha!

It was a smokey fire, but we still had fun. I could wax poetic about how much I love the yard in our house. I don't know what the bugs will be like this summer, but for now sitting out in the evening is pristine.