Snot and giggles

There's been a lot of snot in our house. A lot of coughing. A lot of getting up in the middle of the night. A lot of prayers heavenward. A lot of grace being showered on a weary little momma. A lot of napping. A little bit of throwing up. A few breaks to the woods, for Daddy. A little coffee break for momma. A few tears. A few meltdowns. A few days of high fevers. 

All in all it's been a week of snot, with sunshine and giggles thrown in.   

I read a blog the other day about one mom's Unthankful Thankful List  for the "unthankful" things in life and I loved that...and needed that reminder- to count my blessings and be thankful, even in the midst of a snotty, coughy, cranky week :) so, here's my un-thankful, thankful list:

for being stuck at home, because it give the perfect excuse to make some quick and easy treats to lift a momma's spirits :)

for endless showers, because clean half naked babies are so cute...and we have hot water to give them showers in and money to pay the electric bill when it comes (yes, I have been draining the hot water heater a couple times a day for them) :)

for kiddos that aren't quite themselves...so "playing" in water and helping mommy scrub the floors and do the dishes is about all the excitement that they can handle before naptime!

mostly and above all else, I'm really truly thankful for giggles and cuddles that come with snuggly sick kids. Our kids aren't the most snuggly and they rarely want to just sit and cuddle, but when they're sick they all want to be on their momma's lap. It gets a little tricky to figure out how to get four kids on my lap at one time without having too many meltdowns about who's touching who and who can't see the story and who wants to be on my lap, but has to sit next to me...but it is kind of fun to be able to all pile on a chair and just have legs and arms and heads all over the place! I know that it's a memory that I don't want to soon forget! 

I'm thankful for crabby kids so that I look forward to bedtime and start the routine early...we've been remembering to do a lot more teeth brushing :) 

I'm even thankful for squabbling siblings...because someday I'm gonna use this picture as blackmail :)

(that's just how mean I am...I made them link arms until they could be nice to one another...took a few minutes of crying to get there) :)