The title of this post is a bit misleading – it’s actually a summary of our Wednesday.

Mom (Jo) is over by the window stitching her heart out. She has been stitching ALL DAY. She had to go back and rip a seam or two out but other than that has been working very hard on her “love” cross stitching. I was teasing her and said it should be “perseverance” based on how many times she’s ripped out stuff up on hoop today :) I would for sure have given up by now.

So anyway, this is Kalissa giving an update from Dad’s hospital bed (Dad insists he is more comfortable in the recliner). I’m passing the time until our pizza and my husband Craig comes. He should be here in about a half hour.

Mom and I woke up – our hotel is SO nice. We got a ton of snow in Northeast Iowa this morning and it’s so nice – we haven’t had to go outside in days. The hotel is connected to the hospital in underground tunnels. We got an AMAZING continental breakfast. Continue reading →

A post from Kelli–

Normally when I work my weekend as the hospital as a nurse, I work Friday, Saturday, and Sundays on the day shift side from 7am to 7pm.  Due to a status change, the night sides 7P to 7A were open that weekend as well.  I ended up talking to my supervisor and switching to the night side rather than working the days.  With a few extra bonuses for picking up and working overnight weekend, I ended up with a pretty nice “extra” for my hourly wage.  I also know that it’s easier for her to fill the days than the nights and while my current family responsibilities can handle it, I figured I might as well jump at the chance.

You can imagine my surprise then when Kalissa messaged me on Sunday night/Monday morning at about 1:30 AM.  She sent me a video of Carver telling me that he wasn’t feeling the best.  He gets croup pretty often and it had decided to get him again.  He was too sick for daycare and said that Craig was able to take half of a day off of work, but was wondering if I’d be able to watch him in the afternoon.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, I love that my job lets me be the Auntie and fill-in on days like this.  We made a plan that Craig would stay home with him until about 1130 and then bring him over to my house at 1200.  I’d feed him and we’d nap and then Craig would come pick him up.

By the time he got to my house, he was feeling way better which was a bonus.  We had a little lunch and settled in with one of the Disney Cars movies.  Before I knew it, we were both sleeping.  I woke up at about 3, but knowing Carver wasn’t feeling good, I let him sleep until about 4:15.  Once he got up he pulled up the chair he sits on at my house and I got him a snack.  I told him I was going to go to the bathroom quick, but to yell really loud if he needed something.

I came out of the bathroom to find this–

He had grabbed his crackers and crawled over to the large window in my kitchen.  As it turned out, Jason was out fixing the manure spreader and he wanted to watch.  After we watched Jason for a bit, we had to talk about all of the “things” in the yard.  While he was watching and learning, I was able to get a few things done around the kitchen to get things cleaned up some.  It turned out to be a very productive afternoon!

Sometimes I get nervous that I won’t have enough activities planned or do enough creative things as a mom did.  Moments like this remind me that sometime the best thing is to step back and let kids learn on their own.  Guide them and answer questions that they might have, but let them be curious and learn by watching and observing.  It was definitely a reminder that I needed!

And of course we had to get a selfie!

Carver days are always good days.