In this busy, sometimes chaotic, season of my life... I am constantly rehashing and thinking over everything.  Of course, part of that can be attributed to my anxiety.  But sometimes it actually does me well.  It reminds me to be thankful and to remember it could be worse.

A few weekends ago the girls and I were loaded up in our van, headed out to spend the night in my mom's hometown, where my husband was on a hunt trip.  We were not even 45 minutes into the almost three hour trip when our weekend plans changed drastically.  I was on the phone with Rob giving him an update on our plan once we got to town when a deer darted into the side of my van.  I don't remember a noise, but Rob heard it and the silence that ensued. Then "I just hit a deer".  All I saw was the antlers before it hit us at 2 in the afternoon.  I know the rut is upon us, but the middle of the afternoon is usually fairly safe for driving without having to be hyper aware.  Thankfully our van sustained all of the damage, and all three girls and myself were completely unharmed.  Emily slept through the entire thing.  Rob immediately grabbed all of his gear and started the drive back to us and my dad dropped everything in Kansas City to drive out to us.  While the van was drivable in that it moved on all 4 wheels without sustaining more damage, the glass was majorly busted and the safety compromised.  So I transferred all of the kids carseats into my dads vehicle and we got the van home.  Our insurance company decided to fix the $15,000 in damages rather than total it out, so we are without our family hauler for the next month.  But we are all alive and that is without a doubt the most important thing.


Just the day before we were hit by a deer, we took Emily into her follow up appointment for the lump on her head.  We were sent into Kansas City to see a pediatric plastic surgeon at KU Med.  I was feeling all sorts of anxiety as the first available appointment was not until the end of November, but for our girl they made an appointment available for the following week.  Luckily, our plastic surgeon was very confident that the lump was being caused by spinal fluid bulging out of her soft spot when she lays flat.  So good news in that no immediate action will have to take place.  There is a chance that when her soft spot closes there will be residual spinal fluid that forms a cyst.  So we do have one more appointment scheduled for after the first of the year.  Until then we just soak up all the snuggles with this little gem and thank God she's a healthy, thriving baby.


For the better part of a month now it has felt like one thing after the other with our life.  Then the season change hit and everyone became sniffly and congested.  All 3 of my girls and myself are on the upswing.  Earlier this week Rob spent two days at home with the same sort of nonsense and minus lysoling the living heck out of everything... we are just riding it out.  Hoping that this isn't a set up for a rough season of illnesses.  Fingers, toes, and everything else CROSSED.

With all that aside, we have a roof over our heads, a working furnace with a clean bill of health, vehicles that safely get us from point a to point b, three beautiful baby girls that keep us on our toes and distracted, and the greatest village ever.  I could not be more thankful that the rough times are safely sandwiched by all the high moments and the realization that it could be worse...

Here is to the weekend, my friends.  May it be a good one.