Winter has arrived, Advent has begun:

It snowed last night!

Photo credit: http://blog.clearcompany.com/recruiting-in-a-winter-wonderland

Today, MN is a lovely, snowy, winter wonderland!  This means that it took Jonas an hour to get to work, and I had a few minor heart attacks on my school drop off route for Layla, but other than that it is LOVELY around here.  :)

We are starting our Advent traditions (as of yesterday) and loving the slow, intentional preparation of the heart to celebrate the birth of Christ.  

AND, to be the little cherry on top of the season, gas is $1.95 around here these days, so the little that we do drive shall be nice and cheap.  Hurrah!

Phew.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp.

It's been a doozy of a few weeks over here, folks.

We are juuuuust beginning to come out of the woods, so I'm getting everything back in order and up to speed (mercy...the kitchen floor...wowza), including the blog.

For the last 2 weeks we have dealt with croup for all 3 kids.  I'm not sure I have the words to express how annoyed and sad I am that croup is our "family illness."

An update:

Number of sick kids:  3

Child sick the longest:  Cora

Number of sick days: 12-13 now?  I have lost count in some respects.  Layla was the first, at least I remember that!

Number of trips to Urgent Care:  2

Number of trips to the ER:  3

Number of trips to the regular doctor:  0.  Because that costs less money, so obviously my kids only get sick at times when the ER or Urgent Care are our only options (but it wouldn't have mattered anyway...the regular DR is not equipped to help with serious breathing problems...sigh).

Child with the most trips to the ER this time:  Cora, with 2.  One last Sunday, one last Tuesday.

Child most miserable at night:  Cora

Child with most dramatic breathing problem this time around:  Finn

Child with the fastest recovery this time around:  Finn (24-48 hours for him, days and days and days and days for the girls...)

Child who won the most cute points in the ER:  tie between Finn and Cora.  Finn's hat and sweet talk to the Drs were a big hit, but Cora's smile and cheeks came up out of nowhere for the tie.

Child who wanted to milk this illness for all it was worth:  Layla.  To be fair, she WAS truly sick, hands down, and she came down with it first.  But she now clearly knows the link to illness and staying home from school, which doesn't help us much in our quest to make school her happy place in the mornings.

Child who is the worst at taking medication:  Layla

Child who is the best at taking medication:  Cora

Child who is the best at taking a nebulizer treatment:  tie between Layla and Finn

Child to FLIPS OUT over any nebulizer treatment:  Cora  (Cora hates the sound of the nebulizer machine or the humidifier.  Steam?  Steam is scary?)

Child with the worst sounding cough right now:  tie for all 3

Most expensive child this time around:  Cora, with her 2 ER visits, and also our poor baby Van, which decided to have the transmission crap out and need a totally new one 2 weeks ago.  Cora and the transmission cost us about the same amount of money in the past 2 weeks.  Mucho, mucho dinero.  So, so painful.

Amount of time we will be paying off the bills for the last 2 weeks:  about 4 years

Parent who is currently getting sick:  Lisa.  This is a no-brainer, as she is the one who has had each and every child cough directly in to her mouth, repeatedly, for the last 2 weeks.  Lisa is a fan of drugs, though, so she'll be fine.

Amount of pictures taken by Lisa in the past 2 weeks:  0 on the real camera.  I think I took a few with J's phone camera for him, though...so I'll see if I can get him to send those to me, and we'll update with something you actually want to look at or read soon!  :)

8

As of today, Jonas and I have been married for 4,204,800 minutes!  Well, in about 2 hours we'll reach that, so just subtract a bit for the next few hours...

We decided to celebrate this past weekend, because who wants to celebrate on a Monday night?  Ugh, not us.  Mondays are gross...NOT for celebrating.  ;)

My Mom watched the kids on Saturday afternoon, after ballet for Layla (and then we brought Cora over after her nap), and we went out to eat at a place called Public Kitchen and Bar in downtown St. Paul, right across from Mears Park.  It's new, trendy, hip, great atmosphere, and very good food.

Then on Sunday (8 years deserves a two day celebration, no?) Renee and Jon took the kids after church (and Cora after her nap again) while we went for a short walk by Lake Harriet on gorgeous November day (high of 58 degrees, sunny, breezy, stunning around here!), and then went to a restaurant called Tilia in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis.  We had some to DIE FOR food there...including this butternut squash soup that I will be dreaming of forever.  Sigh.  Then we went 2 doors down to Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream for some great stuff...I think it's been about 18 months since I had some good ice cream, so that was heavenly too.
* Side Note:  Cora took a long nap on Sunday, so Jonas and I watched a movie at home before heading out to Renee's house.  We watched "Mr. Holmes."  Oh.my.word.  It was sort of lovely, but it was the slooooooooooowest movie I think I have ever watched.  Wowza.  I was practically asleep when it was over.  I felt somehow ripped off as we watch so few movies over here, and I wanted that one to be worth the time!!  

Tonight, on our actual anniversary, we're doing the whole "kids/family" stuff...haha...and then we'll be getting take-out from our favorite restaurant, Everest on Grand, thanks to a Groupon Sue purchased for us when she was out here this summer.  Thanks, Sue!

Side note about anniversaries:  I don't expect ANYONE, ever, to remember them.  You don't need to text me, FB me, call me, or email me.  I am never offended if anyone forgets anything important about my life, other than Jonas.  ;)  You are all off the hook forever!  

Layla at school again:

Layla's teacher sent me this today.  We have somehow lost Layla's "Mama necklace," and for the life of me I can't figure out where it went.  But it's my own fault...I didn't start putting it in the same place every night, no matter what, so it's only logical that it got placed somewhere random and then lost, I guess.  Sigh.

Because of THAT, mornings have been a bit rough for Layla again.  She cried this morning as I left, and I seriously about went home and ordered another necklace, but November and December are not "easy" budget months, so we'll see how she does and give it a bit more time.

I guess Layla decided to spell out the names of her family members at school, to help herself feel better when missing me this morning...or at least that's what her teacher said.  :)

Layla also had swim lessons tonight, and she graduated to the next level in FOSS, so next time she takes classes she'll be doing some pretty serious swimming work!  I'm excited to see her try it...but we're taking a break for the winter session, so we'll start up again and do spring/summer/fall like this year.  Good times!  It's a delight to watch her do something that she enjoys every second.  What a gift!

From Layla, yesterday:

Using the "Bloomz" app, Layla's teacher can send work that kids are doing in class directly to their parents throughout the day.  It's a great thing.  :)  This picture came to me yesterday with the title "Layla is thinking about Mom today."  The picture is me, Layla, and Cora...as you can clearly see, we're all wearing dresses.  She says she just *learned* how to draw dresses last week, and is so excited.  Jonas tried to show her how to actually draw a dress last night, and she said nope, that's not how you do it, and then wanted to help correct his ideas on how to draw a dress.  Pretty cute.  

It has been amazing to me, since she started Kindergarten, how much more she loves to draw and color and write now!  Really.  Amazing.  She NEVER wanted to spend her time doing that in the past, and now she's all about it.  Jonas gave her a sketch book, and she treasures it, works in it all the time, and sleeps with it next to her bed.  

November

November

The stripped and shapely

Maple grieves

The loss of her

Departed leaves

The ground is hard

As hard as stone.

The year is old,

The birds are flown.

And yet the world,

Nevertheless,

Displays a certain

Loveliness--

The beauty of

The bone. Tall God

Must see our souls

This way, and nod.

Give thanks: we do,

Each in his place

Around the table

During grace.

-John Updike, A Child's Calendar

Selfie child:

Jonas sent me this compilation of photos he found on his phone.  :)

Clearly, Layla is a huge fan of selfies.  This mama?  Not so much.  I can't stand the narcissistic, "selfie-culture" and all that goes with it, but as this is my own child, it's totally cute then, right?? Haha.  I love that her lunch, and a crying Cora made the mix, too. 

Both kids love to play with J's phone.  Finn would always prefer to play a game if he could, so that's probably why Jonas has none on it...haha.  Layla, however, is all about the camera and taking pictures.  

And thus, you get to enjoy these!