It takes a village (with coffee)

Hello… is this thing on?

I have been MIA from pretty much everything lately because 2016 has been sickity-sick-sick.  These poor kiddos can’t seem to catch a break… strep, croup, viral infections, colds, 5 infected ears, flu and many more Mitchell pass-out episodes.

There have been many nights where Denny and I looked at each other with the what the heck are we going to do look that all you parents out there know so well.  The look that asks, “How high is too high for a fever?… “Who’s going to miss work again this week?”… “How can we possibly go another night without sleep?”   This year has included lots of looks.  Looks of concern, looks of frustration, looks of exhaustion.

 

The look of an ear infection 🙁

The look of a tired boy (dino jammies rock!)

The look of a little girl with strep.

 

But just when we thought we couldn’t juggle one more schedule, or squeeze in one more trip to the doctor’s office, we realized all the support around us.  And we realized we are incredibly lucky!
Our pediatricians have squeezed us in over a dozen times, our parents have driven hundreds of miles, our bosses have understood, our co-workers have done favors, our favorite Timmy’s drive-thru employees have kept the coffee hot, our neighbors have kept the thoughts positive, and the EMT’s have kept us calm in the most unexpected of situations.

And now that spring is getting closer, we’re hoping the season of sick is getting further away.  We’re ready for healthy kids & happy outings.   But before we get back to normal we owe a few Thank you’s to some of our favorite people.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to our awesome village!!  Thanks for all the good thoughts & thanks for all the hot coffee!

xoxo

Erin

PS  Does springtime = blog time?  Let’s hope!

The look of Better days! 🙂

 

The truth behind Mother Nature’s cold front

::  Buffalo, NY  ::

Many of you are cringing right now thinking about the snow and blustery weather.  I did the same thing about 9 years ago.  That was before I moved here.   I picked up and moved to the 716 area code because of a boy I loved.  And fortunately that move turned out to be a good thing because that boy I love is now my husband I love.  But enough of the mushy stuff, let me tell you about my city.

During our eight years here in Buffalo, we’ve come to call this town home. Buffalo, NY is a big city with an even bigger heart.  Buffalo is a place where you celebrate when the skyline has a new crane (or five) because it means new opportunities and new jobs.  Buffalo is a place where the owner of your favorite pizza not only knows your favorite toppings but also knows your daughter’s name.  Buffalo is a place where you can rely on your neighbors as if they’re family.  Buffalo is a place that is nice to call home.

Buffalo is also a place that gets some occasional snow and blustery weather.  Okay, by occasional snow I mean a LOT of snow.  In fact, this week we’ve made headlines because of the 84″ inches that fell in the suburbs of the city.  One of the suburbs hit hardest is the place that we call home… cute little Lancaster, NY.

 

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Lots of the white stuff!

 

Downtown Lancaster

Lancaster, NY, a good place to call home.

Thank you to all of our friends and family for your texts and messages but we’re doing okay.  In fact we’re doing better than okay.

There’s no doubt that this storm has caused some very serious situations, but overall, this cold has made life quite warm and cozy.  Here is how this natural disaster has affected our little family…  We’ve had some unexpected weekdays of not setting our alarms.  We’ve had lots of games of hide n seek.  We’ve had story time, nap time and bed time together.  We’ve had fun times with our neighbors.  Sure, we’ve been trying to balance two careers from the confines of our house, and yes, we’ll probably have some long workdays to compensate for this BUT it’s hard to be upset with an unexpected little chance to just slow down and be with your family.

In this stressful world we live in, a four-day staycation rarely happens.  Aside from some shoveling of snow, some juggling of schedules and some thawing of food from our freezer, we’ve been very grateful to make some memories that could have otherwise been lost in the shuffle.

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Some snow day crafting

Perhaps Mother Nature isn’t really as cruel as she seems.   She’s a mom after all, and it turns out that Moms are pretty smart ladies.  And after this week I’m fairly certain that behind Mother Nature’s cold front is a warm heart.