Not My Week

This week has definitely not been one of my bests.

Monday was normal enough. In fact it felt like the beginning of a good week. The kids had all their homework completed and ready to turn in on Tuesday (which is quite the accomplishment. We usually spend all day on Monday working on homework). I had already made a remarkable dent in my to do list, and we were all happy and well.

Then the rest of the week happened.

Tuesday:
I was excited because our weather has been really good and that meant that I could start working on our property. I told my mom she could have free rein on the yard, so I decided to make our field my project. This field is about 1/4 of our total property, making it just under 1/4 of a acre. Right now it is covered in weeds, dead stocks from last years garden, and a couple of huge piles of yard debris. Burn season just started at the beginning of March so I decided I would start by burning one of the piles of pine needles. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it took off. I was keeping the fire small and playing it cautious, just to be on the safe side. I had my gloves on and my pitch fork handy. I looked just like the country bumpkin I always dreamed of being :). In all honesty, I really was having a good time. I love working outside and seeing the fruits of my labors. Not to mention the state of the field has bothered me all winter, and it felt great to finally be working on it.

So I was standing there watching it burn when out of the pile burst a huge burning coal. It flew towards my face and landed inside my mouth. I spit it out as quickly as I could but not before it had burned the inside of my upper and lower lips and also my tongue. I think I was in shock for a while because it didn't seem to cause me to much pain. It wasn't until several hours later that it really started to hurt. And then it kept hurting for a couple of days.

Wednesday:
Driving home from school I hit a garbage can that was to far out in the street and totally ruined my passenger side mirror.

A few hours after that I noticed that my left breast was really starting to hurt. I figured that it was probably a plugged duct (which has happened a few other times since I've been nursing Michael). I hoped that it wouldn't develop into mastitis.

Well today is Friday and I have spend the last two days lying in bed either burning up or freezing to death. My whole body aches and I barely have the strength to walk around. Then on top of that nursing is so painful it brings tears to my eyes. Mastitis it is indeed. This is the second time in three months that I have had this. It's interesting that I never got it with any of my other kids.

Needless to say this week hasn't been the best. However a few very good things did happen in the middle of all of this. First, I got to talk to one of my friends who I haven't spoken to in a very long time and second Daniel had his annual review at work and they told him that he was doing an excellent job. Then they gave him a raise and told him that within the next little while they were going to be expanding his group and that they hoped he would consider being a manager of the QA department. What a blessing.

It has also been a blessing having my mom here so she could take care of the kids while I've been down. Really, now that I look at it, it really has been a week filled with blessings. I guess the tribulations just bring those blessings into sharper focus.