Longest 2 Weeks Ever

Hello friends and family,

I would use the term "under the weather" to describe my situation, but it's beautiful outside every day this time of year.  I'm really under some form of flu bug or other disruptive sickness plaguing me.  Easton yacked a few nights ago and is mostly over it, but still coughing a bit.  Layla yacked 2 nights ago and was restricted to home all day.  Kendra is worn out physically, mentally, and emotionally.  I slept in until 10 AM, which is unheard of.  Then I slept through the afternoon and plan to get to bed early again tonight.

Kindergarten Readiness night
College friend dinner
Young adults party
Church building project (2 nights)
leading parts of the day-long church conference

Just to name a few of the areas where chunks of time were allocated.  As you can see nothing in the list is inherently bad or wrong, but it's easy to over-commit and end up in one of these cycles where everything hits at once.  We are going to dump some responsibilities as soon as we can.

OK, that's all of the whining and health talk I can stand.  I'm starting to sound like a grumpy 90 year old man complaining about health issues.  Anyway,  these past two weeks were the most productive and stressful of any 2-week period I can ever remember.  I sifted through memories of moving houses, juggling my Master's education, and caring for new born twins.   Hmmm....  Nope, nothing comes close to the last two weeks.

The most difficult aspect for me to tolerate is how the busyness is 100% our own doing.   In our marriage we have a continual assessment of whether we are staying within our comfortable balance of life and responsibilities.  These past two weeks we crashed through that barrier into the area of overload.

We finally found our boundaries of what is considered too much.  Easton and Layla were still a top priority, but the other areas that suffered most was time with Kendra and my work out schedule and the blog.  There were 4 days straight where I never even spent 5 minutes alone with Kendra.  If I had, we would have discussed upcoming plans.  At one point I stopped what we were doing after the kids went to bed and drug her outside on the back patio.  I set the timer on my phone for 5 minutes and said, "No talking, just let me hold you and rock on the patio sofa with no distractions."  How refreshing...

Even in the fight to take care of our commitments during the past two weeks I still shared a good amount of quality and quantity time with the twins.  We took another trip down the greenbelt to do some owl watching. Easton brought his binoculars and Layla waited patiently to go play princesses and superheros in the playground.

Our young adults party was a success.  I neglected to post the full crew of who all came over.  One of the guys mentioned how he was reluctant to gather as young adults in a persons home because the previous situations involved cramming into small living rooms unable to breathe.  After a few weeks holding at the Casa de Webb he felt comfortable enough to tell me he is happy to hold the events at our house because of the layout and space.  I'll take that as a compliment.

The cost of attending the off-road racing event at Firebird raceway for four people is somewhere around $150.  I won a drawing at work and was given tickets for the whole thing.  Entrance fee, parking, and food for two.  I invited my friend with a son the same age as Easton.  Kids under 5 were free so we made a day of it with zero expenses.    

OK, maybe it wasn't a day...  More like 90 minutes worth of racing before Easton and his friend were begging to go home.  We all had a great time taking in the sights and sounds and smells of the event.  I'd be upset if we had spent $150 for 90 minutes of entertainment, but under the circumstances we did really well.  Easton saw the race winners hold up their trophy (he called the Piston Cup) and their check.    

Layla was none too happy about me taking Easton for a Daddy date, but she enjoyed the one on one time with Mommy as a consolation prize.  I could have taken her also since she is under 5, but she is still not feeling well and I didn't want to hold the two of them on my shoulders at the same time to see the races.  Boy time is important!

Layla is my mailbox partner.  Each day I give her a piggy back ride down the street to the mailbox cluster.  She picks dandelions from our neighbors yard and we take turns making wishes while blowing the top off them.  I'm amazed by how quickly kids get into a routine and build expectations around it.  If we don't go one day she is quick to mention my oversight as I tuck her into bed.    

There is a free blood pressure machine at my work.  I have no idea what the numbers even mean because every time I go to the doctor's office they take my reading and then say, "you're blood pressure is great!"  For what it's worth, here are my numbers.

I spent one of the evenings with my college friend during our two weeks of stress.  I haven't seen him since the day I left college, but it was important and worthwhile to catch up with him.  He lives in Ohio.  That doesn't allow much opportunity for friendship.  Even so, he was a really good friend during college and I still consider him a friend even though we only communicate through FaceBook.  If we lived in the same town Bill would easily be my best friend.

I discovered a very useful list of "life hacks" here:  http://shialabeowulf.tumblr.com/post/33670447154/99-life-hacks-to-make-your-life-easier  One of the coolest ideas was to use a cell phone picture of stuff people borrow WITH their face in the picture.  I loaned two movies to Chris and took this picture to store away in my newly created folder for similar pictures.  I get tired of loaning things and then forgetting who borrowed it and when.  so much to learn.

Thank God these past two weeks are over.  This is certainly not the happiest, positive post I've ever done, but this is real life and we take the ups and downs together.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says “...My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This is why I brag about (boast in) my weakness.  The things I consider hardships are minuscule first-world problems when compared to things others in history dealt with and those around the world today deal with.  I pretended I didn't have any weakness for a long time.  Even when I was confronted with it, I still chose to hide it.  Those days are over and I am experiencing more freedom now than ever before because I not only admit to weakness, I brag about it.

See you soon!