consider the lilies of the valley...

whew. folks. yesterday was one of those days. and not in a good way.
if you are my FB friend i apologize for revisiting that which already know.
-one child was very crabby
-one child was very disobedient
-one child threw up
-one child peed on the carpet
-Joel got more xrays and found out his radial head is indeed fractured
-Joel found out he will not be able to return to work until it heals/cast is off
-I had a small heart attack considering how we will pay our bills

thats the big stuff, we'll leave out some of the other nonsense.

Because Joel's arm had been hurting and he was trying to take it easy so it would heal, and also because of the extreme heat/humidity we have ignored our yard for over 2 weeks.
in some places it wasn't so bad, and in others it was terrible.
so last night i started on it. we have a pretty large yard so it takes forever when its thick and tall. we basically have a whole extra lot for one side of the yard and i got about 3/4 of that side done last night. the lawn mower kept dying and i was over it.
this morning it was actually cool out so i thought i'd finish the whole thing before it got nasty.
since Joel can't work i put him on baby patrol and headed out.

it was much worse. it kept clogging and dying so Joel came out and flipped open the flap on the back so that all the grass could fly out instead of clogging it. but of course, it all flew right into me.
i only got hit by two sticks and luckily not in the face.
seriously, the grass was so thick i still couldn't go more than 4 feet with out it dying again. then i'd start it again, then it would die again... and so on and so forth.
i finally quit. so the lawn is 3/4 done and it will stay that way. at least for today.
i came in and Leland asked me why the grass attacked me. i took the coldest shower possible and scrubbed that grass off for at least 15 minutes.
blah.
i'd say at least it's done, but it's not.

so.... i really have no idea what's going to happen with Joel's elbow. He has an appointment with orthopedics tomorrow for the cast/info about how long it will take to heal. his employer basically told him they can't find anything for him to do until it's healed. no light duty or office work available.

i'm going to do twice as much cleaning on the weekends so that will be a little bit more $... we signed him up for Delve and another STL company that does product trials and publicity.... and he has a week of paid vacation that is available starting on his birthday (aug 31st). that's about all i can think of at this point.
any prayer would be greatly appreciated.

we were listening to Denison Witmer, Are you a Dreamer last night. Emmy was having a really hard time going to sleep which is very unusual for her. i ended up sitting next to her crib and playing with her hair while we listened to the cd.
its such calming music and these words helped my breathing slow and my heart beat true-

...consider the lilies of the valley, neither do they toil nor they spin...still a quiet hand, is watching over them...

so today i've been praying and working on my attitude.

in other less dramatic news, we've been having an awesome time on our Fun Friday trips!
the first week we went to the Children's Museum in Edwardsville with Alisha, Bella, Xavier and Jude Rose.
we had so much fun!!! here are a few pics. For $4 it was a great deal, especially since Alisha had a few free passes.




the second week we went to the Magic House with Christin and Jack Mueth.
Again, it was loads of fun, but Christin and i were exhausted in no time... either we are getting old or we have very active kids.... or both.

and now this week we are going to the STL Zoo with Annie and Emilia Warren, and Jessica, Brooklynn and Letty Leeper!!
we were going to go to the botanical garden's but after Joel's news i decided fun friday was off. Last night Anne asked me if we'd like to ride along to the Zoo and we just couldn't say no.

Because daddy was home today Leland and i got to run to the library and the park while the girls were all napping. It was really nice to get out with him and give him some attention. He was very well behaved- much much better than yesterday.

hoping for a better thursday and good news from the orthopedics dr.