So Christmas Was a Month Ago. . .

Yeah, whatever!  I meant to post some Christmas videos of the kids back at the end of December, but it never happened.  Here's a fun one of the twins playing with their only real present from us.  

Healthy For the Moment

I feel like I've been on a nursing sick kids to healthy marathon.  Thankfully, they are all better, for the moment, at least.  Seriously, what a pain!!!  In four days, Jameson had almost an entire container of Children's Motrin.  I'm not one to medicate quickly, but 24/7 fever is unbearable.  It's really strange too how when he's running a fever, he seems to have stronger responses to his dreams.  Anyone else seen this in their kids?  If I sat outside his room when his fever was returning, I could hear all the nonsensical things he was saying.  It was cute, but I felt bad for him.

Truman kicked off this virus round with 4 nights of the worst sleep I have ever gotten.  I think on the last night, we just gave up and let me scream his head off for a couple of hours.  This is not normally our style, but we were both deliriously tired.  I was cursing everything in mind and sight a couple of those nights.

Amelia was, as usual, our good sleeper despite her fever.  She got the least amount of Motrin and did the least amount of complaining.  I guess that just goes to show you that men are wimps when it comes to illness.  Then again, I didn't need my daughter as evidence to confirm that men are the weaker sex.  Sorry, guys, you have your strengths, but toughing it out is not one of them.

I am now cringing at the thought of sending Jameson to the virus cesspool that is daycare tomorrow.  He doesn't go every day, but I know every day that he goes is another day he is likely to pick something up from some other snot-nosed 3 year old.  Well, wish us luck that the rest of the cold and flu season is, at least, tolerable.

Too Sick For Blogging

I've been meaning to blog all week, but we've had our hands more than full with sick kids. I finally seem to have found a few moments of peace before the next kid needs his/her dose of ibuprofen.

Truman kicked off the week with high fever in the middle of the night and continued for about 3 days. He is a bear at night when he's sick, so nobody got any sleep. Amelia followed him a few days later with the same symptoms, and continues with her fever. Jameson just started with fever yesterday, so he is eager for the "purple medicine" every 6 hours. Not to be outdone, Truman suddenly broke out in hives last night, so all eyes were on him again last night.

It's no fun with a whole house full of sick kids, but it's one of the ugly necessities of parenting. Congratulations, Jim & Liz! Enjoy the "honeymoon" of parenting.

Work For It, Damn It!

Driving home from work yesterday, I saw a truck for a rent-to-own furniture store, and on the side was written, 'because everyone deserves nice things'. At the time, I didn't give it much thought other than noting that companies with mottos like that are just what our entitlement culture needs.

The thought came back to me tonight while doing dishes because I had read a blog earlier about socializing health care. I thought, 'Is there no limit to what we expect the government to provide for us?' What is the lesson here for my children (since this is a blog about family)? Something like 'Hey, don't worry about working hard because the government is going to take care of you'. I don't subscribe to this idea, and I want to raise children that believe in the power of freedom and self-reliance.

As I thought some more, while loading and unloading the dishwasher for the 2nd time today, the movie The Pursuit of Happyness came to mind because I remembered something that had really struck me when I watched it. I remember that Will Smith's character (Chris Gardner), during one of his struggles between poverty and homelessness thinks of Thomas Jefferson. According to the IMDB, the dialogue goes like this:

It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?

At his wits' end, Will Smith's character begins to doubt he will ever find happiness. What I love about the movie - he perseveres! Despite all the difficulties he has faced, he doesn't just give up and expect the government to take care of him, instead, he uses his unhappiness with his current situation as motivation to work his way out of it. I know, it's just a movie, but if you listen to the real Chris Gardner on YouTube, his life was, in fact, worse than the movie portrayed.

Having the freedom to pursue happiness - that is truly freedom. Our freedom and entrepreneurial spirit is part of what makes me feel blessed that I get to raise my children in this country. I hope they will never think they deserve something because others have it. I want them to grow up firmly believing they are masters of their own destiny.