Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

Lice Patrol – It has been a crazy, busy week here and a certain event made it even crazier. That is why I haven’t posted anything for days. I was going to skip today as well but I seriously need a little break to just relax and write. The first item of news is that we’ve been bitten by the lice bug. Just typing that is grossing me out and making my head itch.
On Wednesday evening we got an email from our school saying that we may have been exposed to someone with lice, so check our kids. I checked Bella and she had some white flakes in her hair and I thought perhaps it was just a bit of dandruff or dried hair product. I told her to take her shower and wash her hair then I’ll recheck. Meanwhile, I go online and look up more info on exactly what lice and nits look like. Then I hear Bella call me from the bathroom. She said her hair was itching and when she scratched she found this thing in her hair. There it was. The tiny, sesame seed sized lice. Nooooo!!!!! I then check the boys. Andrew and John-Paul are infected too. An even bigger Noooooooooooooo!!!!

I Can Do This – I sigh. Then I freak out. Then I calmly told myself, “Okay, I can handle this. It’s not the end of the world.” I texted Brian, who was at a late meeting, and asked him to stop at the store and buy some lice treatment when he was done. In the meantime, I thought about how I needed to wash all the sheets and bedding. As God’s providence may have it, the night before we had one kid with a bloody nose that soiled the sheets and two kids with potty accidents (including in my bed) so I had already stripped everyone’s beds and washed all the sheets and blankets, including my own. (I was never so happy someone peed in my bed!)

The Battle Begins – Finally, Brian came back from his meeting by 7:30 PM with the stuff I needed. I started with the boys. By 11:00 PM I had them treated, bathed and put to bed. Bella said she was still wide awake and it wasn’t too late to start her treatment. Brian went to bed and at 11:30 PM Bella and I started the countdown. Four stinkin hours later, we were finally done. (I think we watched the whole second season of Good Luck, Charlie.) I dragged myself to bed at 4:00 AM and was able to sleep 2 hours and 50 minutes until the Matthew was jumping on my head, ready for breakfast. Yep, it was going to be a loooooong day.

I’ve Still Got the Heebie-Jeebies – Two days later, things are looking much better. I am still washing the last of random throw pillows and stuffed animals and checking the kids’ heads obsessively but it seems like we are nearing the end. Although, all this lice stuff has me paranoid. If I see the kids scratching, I run over to check their heads. I ask Brian over and over to look through my hair and make sure nothing is there because I could swear I feel little critters running around my scalp. He checks and finds nothing. It doesn’t help that I’m a bit of a hypochondriac and I think it is rubbing off on the kids because they’ll run over to me saying, “My head itches here, Mama!” I inspect and double check until I find a bit of dry scalp. We then cheer and do a happy dance in honor of finding a speck of dandruff and not a bug.

Good bye, Dear Francis – All this lice drama overshadowed another sad event that took place earlier this week. We lost Bella’s pet fish Francis. I knew his end was near because his coloring was changing and he wasn’t eating well. After I told Bella and she had her cry, she told me that a weird thing happened. When she had her first fish Blueberry, she had a dream that she died. The next day, she did die. Earlier this week, she had a dream that Francis died. The next day, he did die. Creepy. I told her that if she has a dream that I die, do not tell me. On second thought, do tell me so I can say my goodbyes.

Putting Life in Perspective – This morning I was thinking about the crazy week we had and the inconveniences we were going through. The Holy Spirit kept whispering that word in my heart. “Inconveniences.” That’s all this really is. In the grand scheme of things, at worse it is a bit of a hassle. At best it is a funny blog post and a lesson learned. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about a local mom that used to have her daughter in the kids’ preschool. Her daughter is now 8 and she has a baby boy who is 1 ½. This mom was just diagnosed with extremely advanced colon cancer and only given a couple weeks to live, perhaps longer with treatment. I couldn’t believe it. My heart breaks for her and her family. All my little trials are nothing… nothing… compared to the cross this mom is carrying.

Join in Prayer – So join me and the next time you are about to lose it or complain about something, stop and thank God that you have such a little cross to carry in comparison to others. And please say a prayer for Kimberly and her family. Although I haven’t met this mom personally (my friends know her) I feel like I need to do something for her. I’ll see if I can cook a meal for the family or something but I know I can at least pray. I thought I could send her a spiritual bouquet of prayers. If you’d like to add your prayers for this fellow mom, just leave a comment or email me at rol@revolutionoflove.com by May 31and I’ll make up a card for her and send it.
That’s it for today. Have a wonderful weekend!!