That wonderful FASTING (i'm going to pass out from hunger and my husband took the morning off from work to take me) blood work I had done on Thursday was done for the WRONG THING!!!  I was supposed to be getting my cholesterol checked and they called and said they checked my thyroid and the levels were high.  I was like, "Um, my bloodwork was for cholesterol. I fasted for it."  They said, nope they did TSH levels...which is a thyroid test.  I have hypothroidism so it wasn't completely idiotic but TSH doesn't have to be done fasting.

So, I fasted for nothing and my husband took the morning off for nothing.  And my thyroid hasn't been liking the sporadic way I have been taking my medication.  Well, I've resolved to do better with taking my meds 1 hour BEFORE breakfast.  See it's very hard to wake up, take the meds and then wait an hour while watching my kids eat to not just indulge early in my breakfast.  Whatever.  They wanted to up my dose but I was like, "No, I've been taking it wrong..."  haha.

Yeah, so now I have to retake my blood test because the doctor's office FAILED to test the right things...Boo!

On top of all this, I couldn't get Josiah to take his medicine at all this morning.  He fought until I was sure I would either be wearing it or the house would.  I gave up.  He's having terrible diarhea from it too.  The doctors are "looking into" a better tasting, no red 40 dyed medicine.  Right. 

What are doctors for anyway??? haha.  And why do we need Red 40???  I don't, I'm sure I could live without it!

Ugh.

But hey, it's Friday so nothing that happens can mess that up right?

And I got my phone bill fixed so that totally rocks!

Best of all God is still God in EVERYTHING we go through in our lives.  And no matter how messed up things get, how sick we are, how high our phone bill can get, and how many crazy things can happen at once....He's always in control.  And even if tomorrow holds more trouble, I know that oneday I'll be face to face with Jesus and NOTHING can take that away!!

1 John 3:1-3

¹See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

 ²Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

 ³And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Josiah and Daddy got back from the ER at 6am.  He does have an ear infection in his left ear.  That's pretty much what Josiah told us and they were able to get him to the ER and diagnose him pretty fast.  He was so exhausted he wouldn't take the meds they tried to offer him in the ER and when he got home, he begged for bed.  He fell right asleep.  We went to bed at 6am and woke up at 11am.  Yeah, I've been up a grand total of 15 minutes since 6am but in total I've been up all night.

They gave him a perscription for amoxicillian but the problem is that they color it pink and make it taste like bubblegum for babies.   Most amoxicillian is colored pink.  Of course the only way to acheive the color pink is to add a little red.  Red 40 dye that is. Unfortunately, Josiah has been allergic to Red 40 since he was a baby.  So, right now the pharmacist is in search of a medicine my poor son can take.  Hopefully he sleeps until she finds a medcine.

My poor guy.  First he has to deal with a terrible ear infection suddenly in the night and now he has to suffer until they can find something he take so he can get better.  I must interject here and say I HATE RED 40!!  I hate dyes in general.  I don't care what color it is as long as it works!!  Please pray that they will find a medicine he take ASAP!!

Ok, now I am going to eat chocolate donuts and get dressed!  Keep praying, please!

"As you look at the beatitudes, as this blessed message is given it seems somewhat paradoxical. And Matthew is presenting a kingdom that doesn't really fit what most people would have anticipated. You see, happiness as Matthew outlines it here in the words of Jesus isn't exactly the way the world would do it. In fact, it says here that the happy people are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and the thirsty, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, the reviled.

Now you say, ‑ Wait a minute. I'm not sure I want that kind of happiness. Sounds like misery with another name. You've got to be kidding. Well, that's the point. There is a paradox because all the way down connected with happiness is misery and I'm going to say it right here and you'll see it as we go misery is the key to happiness. You say, ‑ Now, wait a minute; misery is the key to happiness? That's right. We'll see that as we go into detail but to most people the whole thing seems absolutely absurd. One writer said this, "It is as if Jesus crept into the large display window of life and changed all the price tags".

It's all backwards, what do you mean happiness comes out of misery? What are you saying? Why the world says man, look ‑ happiness is, we have books on that, happiness is ...... you know, we work on that a lot. Happiness is the go‑getter, the guy who can push everybody out of his way and the guy, who can get what he wants, when he wants, where he wants and how he wants, that's happiness. Happiness is macho. Happiness is doing your own thing. Happiness is grabbing all the gusto you can get. That's happiness. Happiness is acquiring the world's things. Happy are the rich and happy are the noble and happy are the famous and happy are the popular. But that isn't it. The message from this king doesn't really fit the picture. Matthew is so dynamic in his presentation because his message just devastates worldly attitudes even of the Jewish people themselves who would have read Matthew, first of all. Even Seneca, the Roman philosopher, tutor of Nero in the first century said this, quote, "What is more shameful than to equate the rational souls good with that which is irrational", end quote. What he was saying was any fool knows you can't fill up a man's empty soul with external things, you can't fill the rational need with an irrational object. That's what the world tries to do. Jesus comes into the world to announce that the tree of happiness doesn't grow in the cursed earth. Have to tell you that, folks, the tree of happiness doesn't grow in the cursed earth. But so many seek it. Think about Solomon. Solomon was the most magnificent king that ever lived. If anybody should of been happy according to the world's standard, he should. He had nobility.

Listen, his parentage was the royal line of David through which the Messiah would come the most royal, noble line in the history of the world. There was nobody with more nobility than Solomon. His palace was the paragon of the earth and. it was located in THE city, the city of God, the city of Jerusalem. His wealth was so immeasurable and his treasure was so vast that the Old Testament said that silver was as common as rocks. His pleasure was fabulous food, incredible stables. I was in Solomon's stable up in Megiddo, incredible literally thousands of the finest horses found in the world. He had the buildings and the servants and the vineyards and the fishponds and the gardens, women by the hundreds, his intelligence? Why he was the most intelligent man who ever lived. He had it all in the world's evaluation, he had it all. He should have been an infinitely happy man and all he had to say about it is this, "Vanity, vanity all is vanity", the word means emptiness. And the New Testament put it this way, "A man's life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses".

To be continued...

Excerpts from John MacArthur's sermons on the Beatitudes.  This particular piece is from "Happiness Is..."  You can find the full length sermon at: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/2197 "Happiness is" is only the first in a series of sermons on the beatitudes.  You can also listen here: http://www.gty.org/Shop/Audio+Lessons/2198  All downloads, mp3's, and podcasts from this site are free!  I HIGHLY recommend this series.  I will only be posting short tidbits because I think this is an amazing sermon series.  So, I encourage you to listen to the whole of it or read the transcripts!

It's early (for me) and rainy.  I'd love a cup of coffee but it won't do me any good because we only drink decaf around here.  I know some folks would be horrified by this news of no caffeine but it's just not good for  ya.  I get enough of it from sweets and get minor caffeine headaches.  If I had coffee it would be through the roof headaches.  I'm also a night person.  I drag most of the day but then around 7pm I wake up and can't seem to start going to sleep until near midnight.  Even then I have to force myself to sleep.  So, any added caffeine would probably just make this problem much worse.  But, it doesn't mean I'm not still wishing for a pick-me-up.

We will be starting homeschool soon this morning.  Any minute now, my guys should be awake.  They all went to bed by 7:30pm which is UNHEARD of around here.  Usually we're tucking and retucking them in until at least 10pm.  They are night owls too.  It's especially bad when Josiah takes a nap.  He's two and we pretty much can not give him a nap because he has too much energy to begin with.  Putting him to nap super charges him and he's impossible to put to bed at any decent hour!  This makes for a long day with him because he ends up with several fussy periods.  The thing is though, even when you try consistently to get him to take a nap he won't.  He will average one or two naps a week so it's barely worth the effort to try. 

As a whole this all makes for some very tired parents around here.  If it isn't the kids keeping us up late , it's my inability to get to sleep.  Then it's a 6am wake up call for my husband to get off to work.  In September I would get up with him and stay up but lately my inability to get to bed at a decent hour has worsened since September and I can barely open my eyes long enough to say goodbye before turning over and falling back into a deep sleep.  The good thing is the kids usually sleep in until 9am because the night before they wouldn't settle down until 10pm.  Which is bad for an early bedtime but good for sleeping in the next day.  I've found myself lately having to force myself awake at 8:30-9 because the kids are awake.  And I mean force myself.  I could probably sleep all morning because of the fact that I am a night person.  If I could be on my own schedule, I am sure it would look very different.  Stay up all night, sleep all day.  But, really that just sounds horrible.

I really want my kids in bed by 8pm and me drifting to dreamland by 10pm.  Doesn't happen.  I really don't know why I'm up late.  It didn't used to be so bad earlier this year.  No, I don't have lots of caffeine.  I do admit to some occasional caffeine but its few and far between.  I've even tried making myself get up at 6am and staying awake so I will be tired but it doesn't work.  The other thing is that I never feel rested anymore.  I feel like I am not even sleeping at night.  Ugh.  And yes, I am writing this post so that I will stay awake and not go back to sleep.  Pathetic as it is, it might be working.  Although I feel like as soon as I post it, I will be drifting back to dream land!

Any thoughts or suggestions on me or my kids inability to settle down at night would be much appreciated.  Otherwise, I feel this schedule we are having to keep just might be the end of Mama and Dada as we know them!  haha.  It is seriously draining.  I just want to sleep and FEEL like I actually did sleep!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

We're all a little under the weather around here.  The kids have colds but seem to be doing well today!  Me and Hubby are feeling run down and have headcold symptoms, yuck.  I feel tired but even sick kids have too much energy for sick moms, agreed?  We're trucking forward on homeschooling today even with colds and a late start because we chose to cuddle and watch a care bear movie in pajamas instead of starting the daily grind.  

My youngest is the real challenge.  He's probably the sickest but he's trying to open the back door and escape to play outside without shoes, socks, or a coat!  He was really upset when I announced we were not going outside today.  Very upset...

We had to stay home from church yesterday as well.  We didn't want to risk getting other kids/moms sick and Josiah woke up all stuffed up and coughing so I cuddled him in bed.  So sweet!  I didn't realize how poorly I was feeling until I tried to get out of bed and was prompty tucked back in by a loving husband. 

I think this weekend was the worst of our colds because I already am seeing a difference in the kids.  Josiah's fever broke on Saturday and the worst day for his head cold was yesterday.  This morning he woke up spunky and while I am pretty sure he's nearly better I am still not willing to risk a relapse by letting him outside, especially without vital clothing like socks, shoes, and a coat! :) 

Anyhow, the sun is shining and that just makes me feel better.  I love sunny days which are few and far between here in the fall.  Everyday is usually partly cloudy-cloudy. 

Today I can't see a cloud in the sky!