Grace Day

We started school yesterday.  The chaos of summer was getting to me, and I was sick of just sitting here, being painfully aware of what I can’t do since the accident.  I can teach, though.  So I decided we should just start school, and gain a lot of random ski and/or Christmas days this winter when I hopefully will be feeling better.

It went pretty well.  The kids seemed to relax as we fell back into routine.  We had to pause school so I could make my chiropractor appointment, but we didn’t lose much because I just packed along our music lesson and we listened to Gershwin there and back.  I felt very on top of things.  So organized, etc.

It was a great day, until the end.  Ingrid was just not going to sleep.  She’s been getting to the point of going down sometime between 8:30 and 9:30.  Last night she settled down around 10:45, but only for about an hour.  She was up nearly all night.  She didn’t want to be laid down.  I think her top teeth were bothering her.  Around 2am I felt her temperature rise a bit.  Yep, classic teething.

Solveig slept pretty bad too.  She’s started doing that again.  So I spent the evening trying to manage Ingrid, and Knut spent the evening trying to manage Solveig.  By morning, we were both running on empty.  Like the good man he is, though, he took his usual morning shift and got all the kids breakfast and let me sleep a whole hour by myself before he headed off to work.

As he was watching the kids in the kitchen, and I was in our bedroom above, trying to catch a little more sleep, I just kept praying “Lord, we need some more grace today.  Jesus shower this house with grace.  Let us just be swimming in it.  ‘Cause I just can’t do this.”

I walked downstairs finally, and grabbed the coffee waiting for me.  Solveig was whining so instead of scolding her for her unkind words I hugged her for quite a bit.   Silje had a bit of a headache from all the crying the little girls did in tag-team precision the night before.  I’ve been looking into aromatherapy, so I started mixing up some batches of essential oils to perhaps give in a little massage for Ingrid to help her relax.  Silje watched and we talked about what each oil did.  She wanted some peppermint oil for a headache, as she’s been looking over my shoulder as I’ve been studying this.  Silje just wanted to rest then, so she laid down on the couch.  Before she left, I said, “Let’s just have a grace day today.  Let’s just give each other and ourselves a lot a grace.

So Silje is sleeping.  Elias and Solveig are playing, and David wanted to do some worksheets.  Ingrid is still fussing on my lap.

So that’s our modest goal for today: grace.  Get it, give it, live it.  When we are weak, He is strong.  We’re weak today, so time to open up our eyes and see God at work.  I don’t feel a bit bad for not getting our school schedule done today.  This is a much more important lesson anyway.

Oh look, Ingrid just fell asleep.  Her lavender and chamomile massage a few minutes ago is getting to her.  Must be time for breakfast.