Sunday Tea - November 6, 2022 - LocaLeben Magazine

Sunday Tea – November 6, 2022

I woke up this morning with no voice. While I would prefer to be able to speak, I’ve been enjoying the opportunity to be silent and listen to what’s going on around me. It’s especially fun to listen to the things that come out of John’s (age 2) mouth. As they say, kids say the darndest things. We are so fortunate that he also says some really kind things.

We enjoyed a visit from my mom this weekend. Because we were parked behind her in the driveway, Ben and John went outside with her to move our car when she was ready to leave this morning. A half hour later, John came running back inside shouting “mama! Got you tea and honey! For your throat!” So, while sipping tea in my forced silence, I am taking the opportunity to reflect on the last week.

Life has been a bit chaotic around here since Ella arrived three months ago. Our days, nights, weeks, and weekends have been a bit of a blur. Slowing down today may be just what I needed.

Our week started out on a low. Our cat, Wicket, began experiencing some unusual symptoms on Tuesday. She had lost all sense of balance and was not able to walk without tipping over. We were finally able to get her into the vet Thursday and began treatment for an ear infection. Wicket had been confined to the dog crate most of the week. We were able to let her out on Saturday and are happy to report that she is able to walk on her own and is showing more interest in eating. We still have four more weeks of treatment (2 more rounds of antibiotic shots), but are hopeful that the improvements we have seen over the last couple days will continue. John has been very loving towards kitty this week. He pets her gently and says “it’ll be all right kitty.”

Uncle Erik and Aunt Karyssa visited us this week to take John to swimming lessons. John’s swimming skills are progressing, but to move on to the next level he needs to be more comfortable in the water without mom and dad. So, enter Erik! John had a great time swimming with Erik…until he dunked him under water. And things went downhill from there. We are still counting the experience as a win and are so proud of John for being so brave! We’re also so thankful John and Ella have some amazing aunts and uncles who are so willing to help them learn and grow!

We celebrated three months with Elliana on Wednesday! We are so proud of her and are having so much fun watching her grow! Little Miss Ella is showing off her smiles every chance she gets. She’s also “talking” a lot and trying really hard to roll! Ella loves to watch her brother and he loves to help take care of her.

My new obsession with baking has been giant cookies (you know, like the ones you can get at Crumbl). Last month we experimented with chocolate chip cookies. They were probably the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. In Jim’s words, they were “stupid good.” So, following my initial success in cookie baking, I decided to try pumpkin spice cookies with caramel cream cheese frosting. They’re amazing! Seriously, stop reading this and go make them.

Our Thursday game night plans were foiled by illness and exhausted littles. But, we got a new game! The Holderness Family game Family Face Off came out this week and Ben and I enjoyed checking it out!

We made it to the library book sale Friday and came home with a whole bag of books for $1.00! It’s been a while since I’ve sat down with an actual book; recently I’ve been reading on my iPad or listening to audio books. It feels nice to hold a book again though. I am currently reading a book sale find: Spinning Forward by Terri Dulong. I’ll admit it, I chose the book based on the cover.

This weekend has been rainy, windy, and lazy days. We, unfortunately, did not win the PowerBall on Saturday. We did, however, have fun talking about what we could do if we won! My mom and I did our nails (thanks Awe-Inspiring Nails by Andrea) and hung out with the kids.

We brought out the baby sign language book today and have been working on different forms of communication (Ben’s getting lots of texts from me even though we’re sitting in the same room). John is relaxing on the couch eating a popsicle. Ella is kicking away making her chair rock. Ben is making us pizza, and I am sipping my Sunday tea.