If You Give A Mom A Saturday

If you give a mom a Saturday

She'll be woken up by the baby at 5:45.

She'll decide to get up, so she gets dressed, then gets him a bottle.

She hears the sound of a mouse which is caught in a trap, but not killed. :(

She knows that she NEVER, EVER touches a mouse, alive or not, and therefore must sacrifice the only quiet she gets, and goes back to bed, since her dear husband needs his sleep.

And if she goes back to bed she won't wake up until 9:3o.

She'll read her e-mail, and drink a cup of coffee while the children do their Saturday morning chores.

She will then start sorting the 7 gallons of blueberries waiting to be made into jam, and frozen for baking during the winter months.

The Mom's wonderful husband will decide to take the moment of peace as a sign he can safely cut his hair and take a shower.

And when he starts that, the children will finally be done with their chores and ready to eat breakfast. (Cold Cereal on Saturdays).

And if they want to eat cereal, they will need milk. The Mom plus three children will all be in the kitchen, and the 1 gallon jar of milk will be dropped on the floor, spraying milk and shards of glass everywhere.

And all 4 will be barefooted. Two will get cut, one will shriek loudly, and one will jump into the fridge entirely (I leave it to you to guess which one was the mom).

And the father will come running out of the bathroom with hair all over, to be a hero and rescue the family from impending doom.

One child will go get the shop vac, and 30 minutes later the kitchen will be vacuumed, swept, and mopped for the second time that day.

And when the milk is cleaned up, the shop vac will need to be emptied... which will be done on the grass, forgetting about the shards of glass which will then be deposited in said grass.

So someone will need to mow the Glassy Grass catching the glassy grass and emptying it into a garbage bag so there would no longer be glassy grass and only grassy grass.

But I digress.

So the mom will then see that it is almost noon and no blueberries have been processed. And if she starts to get out the canning supplies she will need to search for the rack insert to put in the canner. She will mutter under her breath (and somewhat over her breath too) about the fact that the children never put things away in the right place.

And then she will look for the sugar. And not find any.

When the Mother sees that there is no sugar she grabs her car keys and heads to the local bulk food store to buy 50 pounds of sugar. And some cinnamon. And sees someone she has been wanting to talk to for years.

Then gets back and starts the Blueberries. Again.

At 3:30 she sits down to have lunch and a little break... 20 quarts of blueberry jam are on the counter, and 6 quarts of berries to go in the freezer.

And if you give a mom a break she will get back up and head to the garden to continue to stake up the tomatoes.

Where she will sweat a ton, and pick some produce... a half gallon of beans, 6 banana peppers, and a bunch of lettuce. And 4 kohlrabi. She won't know what to do with the kohlrabi, but it was a pretty plant. (Does anyone know what to do with a kohlrabi or 4? Anyone? Anyone?)

And when she has finally started staking up the tomatoes, her husband will arrive stating that the little ones are melting down, the middle ones are making Bean and Bacon Soup for dinner, and does she have any plans on coming in too?

So she will dust off her hands, wipe the sweat from her brow, and head inside. Where she will eat, shower, spend time with her family, and wash all the produce before sitting down at the computer to record the day.

Because someday this mother will wonder how in the world 3 decades of parenting can be over in a flash and will need to be reminded that every day, is like today. And it is wonderful. Except when it's not. But that's a whole other post.

Mercy: Before and After

Many, many, many of you are interested in our sweet little Mercy... and finally the swelling is down enough to show some photos.

Here she is front on the night before the surgery.

And sideways, again the evening before the surgery.

One the way to Cincinnati she was so excited. She exclaimed, "Now I will look like Bizzy (one of her friends) and Bethany (her sister). "

My heart broke. I had hoped to be done with this before she realized how different she looked. I said, "Well, you will look just like Mercy. Which is the best thing for you to look like." I spent the rest of the day trying not to cry.

Then on the way home the next day, she caught sight of her swollen little face in a mirror of McDonald's and burst into tears. "He didn't take it away!" My heart shattered.

But now that the swelling is down (mostly... I am still hoping that some of the deepness that remains is swelling and not hemangioma), I am willing to post some photos of our little girl.

I am not sure why it is green... and really didn't have the time to figure it out... but here you can see the incisions. He basically did two face lifts... one to make her eyes symmetrical... and one to remove as much of the hemangioma in her cheek as possible. Also to take away as much of the scarring as possible.

Remember... Before...

And after...

It still looks rough, but you can see that a lot of the cheek scarring is removed. In this next photo you can tell there is still some swelling, but you can see it is better.

And you can see that the eyes are symmetrical.

With bangs and hair, very little will be able to be seen. As far as if this is as good as it gets, we have to wait and see about that also. Dr. Elluru will do a process this fall called a "Derm Abrasion", and then we just wait. Maybe it will be better. Maybe a better laser will be developed.

But for now I thank God we are here. I thank God that we got as much as we did. Because a year ago this is what Mercy looked like:

And this is today.

Just beautiful. No matter what scarring remains.

Just Playin' Around

I Heart Faces is having another theme week... this time it's "Playing." I did have a photo I was going to use until last night. Then I went outside to call my parents. And saw the light was good. So, as any good photoholic would do, I grabbed my camera and got photos of the kids on the trampoline, the swings, the hay bales... etc.

Needless to say, I never made the phone call. Sorry Mom and Dad.

Head over to I Heart Faces to see the other people and their playin' around...