When Life Hits a Speed Bump

I’ve been off the computer a lot lately.  It makes me wonder what you do when life hits a speed bump in your house.  Keep reading if you want to hear a bit of our crazy roller coaster of a ride since November!

My life literally became a game of operation in November.  Life with nine kids is never dull, but my life has been even more so with a surgery for me and Thanksgiving both in the same week!  Due to that we took the month of November off from homeschooling to prepare for my surgery.  We made lots of freezer meals and worked on organizing.

I had a lot longer recovery than we thought because the cyst on my thyroid had caused holes in both my trachea and esophagus.  Immense pain and a long time of drinking and eating only liquids finally became better for me.

Moving into December we again had a month off school for all the festivities and such.  We did do some unit studies on Christmas and Hanukkah though!  We also have some birthdays to celebrate in December!

January brought me back on track!  It was wonderful!  We were doing school on schedule and the kids were getting back into a good routine for chores.  Life was good.  And then. . . . 

Life hit another speed bump.

My husband got shingles at the end of January.  From there the kids all ended up with chicken pox.  Some had light cases and some were covered from head to toe.  It was an itchy time in our house.  Just as we were all getting over those our youngest had a seizure.  It was very scary for all the kids and I.  She went by ambulance to a local hospital where she was life-flighted to a special hospital just for children.

After many tests and lots of prayers 48 hours later we learned she had encephalitis.  She had the chicken pox virus inside her spinal fluid.  It’s a rare complication that is not seen much in the United States.  Initially they thought we’d be spending 21 days in the hospital but we ended up only being there for two weeks.  But that was the longest two weeks of my life!  And hers too I’m sure.  We were in isolation so we couldn’t leave our room.  The rest of the kids could not visit as all visitors must be 13 years old or older.  We were so thankful for loving friends and family who helped my husband keep the home front going and who called, texted, and visited our princess and I in the hospital.

Once she came home we enjoyed two nice days before having to take her back to the ER for some IV fluids as she was dehydrated.  And then that night the stomach bug hit our house.  Two weeks later we were finally getting over that.  It was horrible!

Here we are getting ready to start April and I am ready for some normalcy(not that our life could ever be called normal) but you get the picture!  We’re ready to get back on schedule and back to our daily crazy chaotic normal.  So, when life hits a speed bump you just have to keep on going.

Some things I did to help keep our spirits up and our thoughts positive were to diffuse essential oils in the morning.  I’d get up, put water in our diffuser, drop in some orange, or citrus, or an allergy blend we use and then turn on a CD in our DVD player with some praise music.  Our current favorite is the green WOW worship that I purchased through Family Christian.  I also was so thankful for my L’Bri products.  They helped me have little mini spas at home.  I love the smell of their lotion and body wash so using those in the shower helped me to relax and unwind.  Their facial cleanser and toner plus moisturizer helped to keep my breakouts at bay both at the hospital and at home thankfully because stress tends to make me eat unhealthy and then I break out all over my face!

Here’s to our speed bumps being at a minimum for a while!

Has your life ever been turned upside down for a few months?  What did you do?  Did you have support?  What do you do when life hits a speed bump in your house?   I’d love to hear your stories!!