A Newborn Baby & Taking a Sabbatical From The Blog!!

Hello friends and welcome to January and a brand new year in the making! Let me begin by wishing all my readers a Happy New Year and I hope that you prosper in the Lord as we owe all things to Him alone. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23 to 24, KJV).

It is bitter cold over here in Chi-Town (slang for Chicago)! It is the first major cold day of the season. The photo below does not even begin to portray the amount of snow we get over here. That is just the beginning! As I write this post, it is about 3 degrees outside. We went to the Pediatrician today and the temperature in our car registered at 0 degrees while we were driving. Ouch!! When we returned home, my kids wanted to play in the snow for a while. Needless to say, that play was the shortest snow play I have ever seen. It was so cold that their little noses began to turn kind of “red” and they headed right back inside (yea, I was so happy to be inside). In fact, I am looking at the news now and they are putting fire on the train tracks so the tracks won’t freeze. Also, a snow storm warning is in effect for tonight and tomorrow. The temperature is supposed to go down in the negatives (something liked -9). And if you know Chicago as the “windy city” you know how colder the windshields could get in comparison to the temperature. Tonight, the added wind is supposed to make -9 feel like -25! My hubby declares that we would move to someplace warmer someday – Florida, California, Texas – who knows:) Meanwhile, praise the Lord for a warm, cozy home to shelter us from the storms. But it is these times when I think about the poor man/woman on the street – who “for a good reason” has no family or home to go to:((((

So how did you begin your year? Did you make resolutions and hope that you could keep up with them? Personally, I have not made any (at least not a long list). Not that resolutions are bad. There are a few things I would like to do better, of course. But for me, I realize that making a bunch of resolutions and setting high unrealistic goals could be so daunting on a person’s mind and they do have the tendency to make one feel high guilt when he/she cannot obtain what have been set. My desire is to trust in the Lord and just depend on His strength to help me do what He wills daily.

Furthermore, I think I have lost track of the days as they rolled out of the old year and rolled into the new year. Our January began differently this year as our our little bundle of joy who was due on January 5th, 2015 decided to show up on December 30th, 2014. What a great blessing he is to us already! So I spent December 3oth to January 1st in the hospital. And as those of you who had your kids in the hospital know that these nurses do not leave you alone for a moment. They are in and out of your room for what seem like every second of the day and night. One said they are required to check every hour. Not much rest there and time to meditate on the new year, either, even though they claim you can get rest there for the few days stay. I was so bummed out with a nurse on New Year’s Eve when she came in around 11:00pm. The baby had just dozed off and I was so happy to jump into bed, read my bible, and reflect a little before going to bed. She popped in and kept on talking and talking about all kinds of stuff and updating stuff in the computer system for about an hour and a half even though I told here I needed to rest! I guess I should be easy on her….she wanted to come earlier but the other nurses told her to let me get some rest. And all that time, I was up with family members and the baby while they thought I was asleep.

Isn’t he sooooooo cute:) And look at all that hair! I guess cute kids “run” in the family. LOL. See his sisters here. Funny, I posted late last Monday night into Tuesday morning about our Christmas Happenings, 2014 and included a photo of me beginning week 4o of pregnancy (just one more week before the baby arrived) and then had the baby on Tuesday! These babies have a mind of their own and when they want to show up, I tell you:)

With that said, Flourishing At Home is taking a Sabbatical (Sab. bat. i. cal). No, I am not a teacher on paid leave. And I am not making a salary from this blog. Although, I do have a state teaching license, I have not been out in the field for a while. But I do like the term Sabbatical as referred to in this post because I am indeed a teacher of 3 little ones entrusted to my husband and to me by the Lord. And our pay is not what man could really give to us.

In any event, I am NOT planning on posting on the blog for a while – not sure how long. It is amazing how little those babies are yet their needs demand so much from us as they are so helpless for themselves. I am up all day and all night trying to help a new baby adjust to life outside the womb, trying to balance and split the love between two other siblings, and one that just hit me today – my laundry loads have just quadruple! Oh help – laundry has been a challenge for me and I just cannot seem to get the thing put away in their rightful places as soon as they are washed. But I always do kids loads separate so babies clothes will definitely be washed and put away quickly. In addition to the baby becoming adjusted, mom is trying to recover from 9 months of “who knows what” goes on in the body during pregnancy. But we will make it. We have already had friends come by who were such an encouragement to us. And after all, there are folks out there who have 18 plus kids – and counting!

On the bright side, we have not had to cook much at our house over the course of this past week and this new week. Our church family has been wonderful and usually has a team that prepares meals for people in times like these. They provide a total of three dinners plus I have had other church members bring over meals. So we are covered with dinners for a little while. On Saturday morning, while hubby was home, I made a bunch of freezable breakfast items (pancakes, waffles, blueberry bread, banana bread, and blueberry muffins) to hold us through for the next few weeks. Plus we will add yogurt, fruit, smoothies, oatmeal and so forth if we need to. (At least for the rest of the kids and for me; hubby usually leaves early in the morning for work). By the way, the Lord worked it out that he was home with us for 2 full weeks – one for the Christmas and then straight into another paid leave for the baby. What a blessing it was to have him help us out for a while. He returns to work tomorrow (January 6th). So I definitely covet your prayers as I try to balance three  little blessings and we all try to adjust to this new baby!

Anyway, thank you my faithful readers. You can always follow on Instagram to see our photos and updates. And I always follow back. I may pop in by your blogs occasionally to see what you are up to as time allows and I do love reading your posts. Once again, I do hope you have a Happy New year in the Lord.

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:27, KJV).