Normal - which I've only been able to do for a few weeks now since I was cleared for "normal" activity - meaning I canNOT paint or vacuum. A normal day - including all of schoolwork, a lot of laundry and a basically straightened up house. I was so excited at the success, that I decided to take the boys to the library. They know what that means. After the library, I nearly always hand them a quarter and we walk down to our local ice cream shop, Goodys.

Now, granted, 25 cents doesn't go very far there. But it's always just enough to try a little bit of some new candy while we walk back through our historic and used-to-be-sweet-but-now-it's-trendy downtown. I even found the cutest pair of Robeez on sale for little Si at the $178-per-dress childrens' store (which I wouldn't even think of shopping at normally! They have sharks on them.  I love them. http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/20561211.html So, I was looking forward to a quiet evening, putting tired and happy children to bed and working on a project, when all at the same time:

Husband calls from work / Baby screams nonstop at the top of his lungs in his crib / Tired 3yo tries to sleep while listening to baby screaming in his room and mommy frantically hunts for the "special monkey" / 6yo bounces around the house in the most inconvenient locations waiting for me to read him a book / 8yo (who was sent to bed) lays in bed, lifting the top bunk with his feet and manages to pop it out of the pins holding it into the bottom bunk.

Truly all at the same time. My arm goes completely numb from the stress and lifting baby out of the crib while on the phone with that baby's daddy. It's still numb.  It didn't end there. But it did finally end. As all things do.

Hey, you're no stranger to nights like that are you? I've been praying diligently for gentleness and sweetness ... to be devoted to my family and serving them ... to understand my mission and duty toward them. I didn't have my finest moments during this bedtime. But tomorrow is a new day. I know God is working His way in me and, while I wish it were faster, He knows what pace I can handle. So, I can trust Him to make me more sweet than sour. 

"seeing that His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness" 2 Peter