Running on Empty...Full of His Grace

Yesterday, I was seriously shouting for joy because of an amazing occurrence: the boys napped at the same time. It was a happy accident and I was super excited. And what did I do with my time? Read? Sit? Enjoy a cup of tea? A nap? Nope. I CLEANED!!! This is a crazy thing because 1. I don't like cleaning 2. I was actually excited to clean 3. I was so excited that I cleaned 3 bathrooms, the kitchen, swept, mopped and did some laundry in the hour that was gifted to me. Isn't it amazing what we can do with our time when we just focus and commit?! And then I took a deep breath, because the mess that I had been wading through was gone and things were sparkly. Yay. I was so grateful for this little window of opportunity!

Fast forward about 6 hours, and this was my reality: 10:30 - lay down finally and get super cozy, 10:45 - J-man starts "crying". He has think fake cry that he does sometimes - it's like he wakes up confused, hot, snotty, who knows and his reaction? Screaming tears. So frustrating. I'm talking screaming in mama's face as she's trying to help. Not cool. Finally, calms down only to say, "my leg is itchy." Oh my. Prayers are lifted for calm. And then he's snuggled and happy and lathered with lotion to stop the itchy. And I'm back in bed. 11:45 - J-man starts "crying". Same story. Only this times it's a booger and to J, booger=tragedy. Prayers are lifted for control. Resettled. Back in bed. 1:20 - J-man starts "crying". This time. Literally, after he clams down: "J, why are you crying?" "I don't know." Praying for clam, control and to keep from screaming and storming out of his room, like a 3 year old. Oy. Finally - he sleeps.

3:00 - "The Duke" wakes up crying. Peed through that stinkin' diaper again. Had to use a size 3 because we ran out of 4's. (Yes...my almost 11 month old is wearing a size 4 night time diaper... the same size J was wearing when he was potty-training.) The Duke then thinks it's time to play. And I laugh because he's so cute. But then I realize he seriously thinks it's time to play. So we rock and sing and I attempt to have him snuggle with a fake snuggly - his "Grr-Baby" is soaked with urine. He drops the fakey and stares up at me-seriously, Mama? And so we rock and sing and finally I just have to lay him down. Then he cries. I clean things up in the kitchen while he cries. I check on him. He cries. I fold laundry. I check on him. He cries. I fold more laundry. I think, if he keeps this up I'll be able to tell McSweety "good morning". 4:30... McSweety stumbles out of our bedroom: "What's going on?" (Yes, he slept through all of this. I hoped he had - he's the one who has to keep patients alive on this ICU rotation. I just have to keep our sons alive.) 4:45 - back in bed for two hours of undisturbed sleep. 6:45 - up and at 'em.

So, I was running on empty from the moment I awoke. I prayed my way through this day. We amazingly had breakfast, danced to "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" three times, met friends at the library for story time (Nashville Library = amazing), took a trip to Costco, had naps...AT THE SAME TIME AGAIN!!! Happy accident. This time I did my Bible study...I needed to be sustained. We played with our neighbor, I made dinner for the boys & I - which we ate at the table, at the same time - cleaned up the kitchen, picked up the play area and made it upstairs  in time to clean up rooms before getting ready for bed... and then, McSweety came home in time to help with bedtime. Hooray. And there were no tears ALL DAY. Now that is some serious Grace. And I am grateful. Only through His Grace did we conquer this day. Thank you, God! Thank for you for giving me just what you promise: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Otherwise, we would not have survived this day.

And now...Here's to sleep.