Order my days, O Lord…

These are not the days I had planned on having.  With two weeks left in my pregnancy, I had planned on staying at home as much as possible and working hard as a family to get as much of our homeschooling done as possible so we could all enjoy a well-deserved rest.  In an uncharacteristic-for-me move I had even arranged for others to take Mavis to both of her doctor appointments this week so that I could concentrate as much as possible on my kids.

And then yesterday hit.

The visiting nurse came to check in on Mavis and was worried about her blood oxygen levels.  (They were 88%) She called the doctor who said to check them again next week when she came to visit.  That’s when everyone turned to me.  This is part of the frustration for me of caretaking.  I do not have a medical background.  I barely got a “C” in science classes.  I specifically set aside my dreams of being a nurse because science and memorization are so difficult for me.  That said, I know that blood O2 levels below 90 are not good.  One picks up that sort of thing raising a child or two with asthma and taking care of one’s elderly in-laws.  So I called the dr. back and told him I was really uncomfortable waiting until next week to check those levels again with no way of monitoring them over the weekend.  To make a long story short (if that’s possible at this point), I ended up taking her in to see the dr. (1 hr. chunk out of our school day) and by the middle of the afternoon the medical supply company was at her house setting up the O2 tank. (1 1/2 hr. chunk out of our school day).  It seemed like every time my kids asked me for help with their schoolwork, I was being pulled away to take a phone call, make a phone call, go somewhere or be somewhere.

Today has not been much better, although thankfully, my distractions have been happy ones instead of medical ones.  There is a family birthday party to celebrate March & April birthdays and Nathan has asked me to make him a cheesecake since he is one of the honorees.  So today I am a bit distracted with shopping for missing ingredients, baking the cake, wrapping the presents and since it is Friday, paying the bills :oP

“Can I help you mommy?  I really want to help you make Nathan’s cake!”  Sigh.  It is Anna and I know I could do this much faster alone.  My conscience nags at me.  Hadn’t John and I wanted to include her more in my household duties?  teach her how to do these things for herself?  So together we bake the cake and she delights in the all important duties of stirring the melted chocolate and the cream together and running the mix master while I add ingredients.  Surely the world will not come to an end if we put math aside for a little while.

No, these are not the days I had planned on having, but I am quite sure that these are the days the Lord has planned for me.  And as for math?  There was plenty of time to finish that together while the cheesecake was in the oven :o)