The 3:00 Lull

How well I remember thee. The clock strikes three and the energy level plummets. I could just put my head down right now and take a nap. Can someone please explain to me why this only happens when you're working on the computer and not when running around after toddlers? This used to be my most productive time of the day.

The only thing that will do in such a crisis is chocolate. So glad I stashed away and completely forgot about one of the two boxes of fudge that my bro and sis-in-law brought back as a present from the Cayman Islands after their honeymoon (hey, Joanna!). It's calling my name right now. Must stay awake. Maybe if I close my eyes just for a second I'll feel like I'm sunning myself on a tropical beach. Hey, a girl can dream.

WAHM

It's my new title, WAHM (work at home mom). Without debating the reality that ALL mothers, regardless of the source of their income, work at home, I have now left the ranks of the SAHM (stay at home mom) and become a WAHM. The freelance writing was a first step back into the work world. A little part time work to get my feet wet, but I have now been offered and accepted a position with a start-up company for many more hours and much better pay. My new title is Marketing Manager, and since the company is a start-up, I'll be doing a little of everything -- advertising, PR, copywriting, and marketing. It all happened so fast and in such a serendipitous way that could only be described as God's smiling providence. I promise to write more about how I landed the job and what I'll be doing, including what this company is all about. For now, suffice it to say that my time to blog will be a bit more limited initially. It is, indeed, my first love, but I will have to figure out how to juggle all these aspects of my life through trial and error.

And to answer the burning question who will be watching the kids, the answer is Trey. He will be cutting way back on the hours he was painting to stay at home with our chillins, embracing his new role as SAHD. You can figure out the acronym.

Saturday we went to the birthday party of a friend's daughter. It was a gorgeous summer day, not too hot, sunny and breezy and lovely. Had we been in San Fran, we would've missed it altogether.

I got some great pictures of Evie, who just gets more smiley by the day. I think lately she's just tickled at her mad rolling skeelz.

Addison, not much on the smiles as he waited intently for his birthday cupcake. I swear he asked me no less than 647 times when he could have it.

Allow me to introduce our cooperative 2 year old, Davis, who pulled a Hollywood starlet style move as though I were some skulking paparazzi.

Rolling Along

Well, the good news is that the boys are finally healthy. Both of their fevers broke yesterday and no sight of them since. I subsequently canceled our follow-up pediatrician visit. It seemed unnecessary. We've been mostly laying low this week, recovering physically and emotionally from all that has transpired. In other much happier news, Evie rolled over on Monday, at exactly the same age that Addison did it. I told you they were physical clones. He was 6 days shy of 4 months. She was 3 days shy. And they did it the harder way -- back to tummy. This is how I found her during her morning nap yesterday. She slept that way just fine but wasn't too happy when she woke up and couldn't turn herself over.

So the 4th of July, which I've all but skipped over. We had one of the nicest days weather-wise that I can ever remember. 4th of July is notorious for being hot and sticky in these parts, but this year it was mild and sunny with a lovely breeze. Absolutely perfect.

The parade was fine but fairly forgettable. Except for this little gem.

Davis with Papa. Poor guy. This was before we knew he was sick. Look how pale he is. This was actually his first 4th of July in the US. All the others have been spent in a lovely land far, far away where they do not celebrate said holiday.

Hanging out on the blanket during the parade.

Addison.

We found this adorable chocolate lab puppy. The boys were ready to take her home.

The flag cake I made for dessert.

Evie's flag outfit. Not for consumption, obviously. Pretty darn cute though.

Flying Low

I won't lie to you. Today was a hard day. I try not to dwell too much on the negative on my blog. This is my happy place. Where I go to escape, decompress, revive.

But today that just wasn't happening. Without getting into a lot of detail about what has been going on lately, suffice it to say that today was the culmination of many recent disappointments and let downs. I look around me and ask a question that I know you have asked before too. "Where are you, God? Have you forgotten us?"

This is me. Me...of little faith.

I hadn't shared with all of you that Trey and I had planned a lovely vacation, just the two of us...oh, and Evie. We were going to San Francisco, a city we've dreamed of visiting most of our 10 years together.

Saturday, that grand holiday that we Americans simply refer to as the 4th of July, Davis came down with a fever. Sickness has generally been going around the Holloway house. First, Trey had a fever for 3 days. Then Addison got a variation with a cough and painful mouth sores. Then I got a mild version with nasal congestion. Now, it was Davis's turn. When we got home from the parade on Saturday he just didn't seem right, not his usual cheerful, vibrant self. And he felt pretty warm. I took his temperature. 103. Yikes. I had no idea it was that high. And thus began our weekend saga which I like to call the Fever Yoyo. He alternated between high temperatures which we would break with meds that would stay down temporarily only to climb once again.

Last night was the final straw. Davis's fever spiked to 105. And I got really worried. A quick call to the doctor alleviated my fears some. Apparently, wee ones are known to run high temps and they actually tolerate them pretty well. The doctor told me to bring him in the next morning if he still had the fever.

And then Addison started with one. Low grade, but a temp nonetheless.

This morning both boys were still running fevers. Davis's was 105.5. Motrin and Tylenol brought it right down, but still. That is high.

And so we were faced with this awful decision. Do we stay or do we go? And in the end, you already know what our decision was. We just couldn't go and leave them. Even thought the doctor said it would be fine to go and couldn't find anything at all wrong with Davis. No inflammation, infection, rashes, nothing. His body is fighting a virus. In a most aggressive manner, I might add. Addison did end up having an ear infection, the probable cause of his low grade temperature. Antibiotics should take care of it.

It feels like Geneva all over again, and in the midst of it all I just keep wondering why. Why elate only to deflate? And then I think about my own boys who have asked me "why questions" before to which there was no explanation that minds as young as theirs could wrap around.

And that is me right now before my Maker. My puny mind, mired in finitude and burdened with limitations, grappling with things too high for me. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55.9

Right now I rest with certainty on two things I know true. My Father is completely good and He loves me more than I will ever know. That has to be enough right now. I am left to wonder at His mysterious providence, which ironically was the sermon topic yesterday morning, and trust that though I may never have the answers to these questions, He holds me tightly in the palm of His hand and will never let me go. I need to take a cue from my guys and cling to Him with the child-like trust they put in me.

The Whole Truth

And nothing but the truth, so help me God. I was honored this week with the Honest Scrap Award, nominated by Stefanie at Lexie Loo & Dylan Too. She's a great blogger. Check her out! I appreciate the name of the award because the truth isn't always neat and tidy. Sometimes it's just downright scrappy.

Here's what you have to do: First, you have to tell your readers 10 things about you they may not already know, but are true. Second, you have to tag 10 people with the award. Third, you have to let the people you've given the award to, know that they've received this award from you. Finally, make sure you link back to the person who awarded you.

You've learned a lot about me and my family over the last almost 3 years that I've been blogging, but here are 10 tidbits you may not have know.

1. I literally said, "I will never live overseas," and then I did. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. My time in Scotland is the single most profound experience of my life. I miss Aberdeen every day, and I pray we have a chance to return some time as some of my dearest friends in the world still live there.

2. I know I have a novel in me somewhere and it's just waiting to come out. I really believe my time in Scotland helped to percolate and mature my ideas. Now, I just need some quiet time.

3. I can't stand coughing. Even my own. It is my absolute #1 pet peeve.

4. I have one ear that sticks out. Don't believe me? Check out some of the recent pictures from the wedding where my hair is pulled back. It's my left ear, which doesn't have that little extra ridge of interior cartilage to hold it back.

5. I have had asthma since I was about 8 years old but it is much better than it used to be and is well under control. I am also allergic to raw stone fruits such as peaches, pears, apples, cherries, plums, and figs. Cooking the fruits neutralizes the allergic response, so I can still enjoy them. It's a condition called oral allergy syndrome and is not uncommon in asthmatics.

6. I type between 95 and 100 wpm with more than 95% accuracy. I taught myself to type one summer during middle school by just getting a book out of the library and practicing the drills religiously.

7. I have been married for over 1/3 of my life and I'm only 28 (we celebrate 10 years in December). I was engaged for only 3 months. I got married at 18 to a man who was 31 at the time. The reality is though that only other people ever comment on how young I was or how many years are between us. As Trey likes to remind me, ever the historian, "At one time, such a thing was commonplace." For us it has never been an issue. When it's right, it's right.

8. I speak German. Not as well as I used to at University when I was fluent, but it's like riding a bicycle. You never really lose it. I actually double majored in English and German and wrote an Honor's Thesis (30 pages) entirely in German.

9. I was the first class of Phi Beta Kappa graduates from the Rutgers Camden campus. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most prestigious Honors Society in the US and includes such famous members as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and a few unexpected ones like Ashley Judd and Peyton Manning.

10. I am a self-taught knitter. Thank you, internet demonstration videos!

Laurel at Happy at Home
Rachel at Life with the Greens
Rachel at Mo and Ro on the Go
Emily at Bits & Bobs...tidbits Scottish-style
Linda at Being Green
Kate at The Granite City
Allison at Merrick Castle
Sian at The Continuing Adventures of the Draycotts
Kayla at Kayla in Korea
Amie at True Aim

Haddon Heights Public Safety Monument

Back in May when we rode the trolley in downtown Haddon Heights, Trey took some pictures of the public safety monument in front of Borough Hall. It has very special meaning for our family in particular because my dad designed the monument.

It was erected to honor slain Haddon Heights police officer, John Norcross, who was killed in the line of duty on April 20, 1995. I remember the day well. I was 14 years old, and we lived just a couple of miles from Sylvan Avenue where the incident took place. There was a stand-off between cops and Leslie Nelson, a crazed transsexual, who had stock-piled weapons inside her home and killed two police officers, one from Haddon Heights, the other from the county, when law enforcement attempted to serve a warrant for her arrest. You can read the details of the story here. It's a bizarre tale somewhere between Silence of the Lambs and Psycho except this really happened and in our sleepy little, suburban town.

The monument honors each branch of first-responders on its sides, and my dad was able to include a verse of Scripture immediately relevant to the great sacrifice that Officer Norcross gave: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15.13

The Bumbo Revisited

I'm off to the park this fine morning to spend time with an old friend who is actually young in years, just has been a friend a long time. She and I go back to our Rutgers days and though multiple offspring and, at times, thousands of miles have separated us, our friendship has remained rock solid. I love friends like that. Here's to you, Char!

Anybody who's read this blog for any length of time knows I'm a big fan of topics revisited. (Go ahead. Type that word into the search line at the top left of this screen and see what comes up.) It's a way for me to reconnect with the past. So in another effort to provide historical continuity, I give you "The Bumbo Revisited". Remember my first post on the topic? It's one of those baby contraptions that changed my life. OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but still close.

Evie is no clone of her brothers although she is possibly a physical clone of Addison -- if you were to create a skinny and feminine-looking version. (I'll have to dig up a good photo to show you what I mean.) To clarify, my children's personalities are all so unique despite the family resemblance, and Evie is no exception. Although so far the most petite of my children, she is by far the strongest. Her neck and back strength and control were remarkable in one so young. She could hold her head steady almost from the day she was born. Lately she's been entering a new developmental phase. You know, where they start noticing things and grabbing for them. This prompted me to hit up Babies'R'Us for a play gym (which much to my great delight required no batteries and consequently made no sounds) and to consider whether she were ready for her Bumbo. We had to say goodbye to Davis's blue one when we left Aberdeen, but aforementioned friend gifted us with one at my baby shower back in the winter. All so serendipitous.

Indeed, she was ready. I plopped her little body in it and it fit like a glove. Now she has a whole new perspective on the world, can sit with us at the table, play with toys upright, and generally rule from her very pink throne.

Bumbo, I am definitely still in love.