From then till now

After a long break, and after weeks of thinking to start again, till framing the post in my mind, I finally open a page to write. Since the last post in the beginning of October, a lot has happened. 

David George Daniel , our third son was born on the 21st of October, 2014. After a  3 day stay in the hospital to clear up the meconium aspiration, we came home. Two weeks, of experiencing a newborn and feeding brought back wonderful memories of our other two boys and David formed new experiences. We were back in the hospital with not enough weight gain and fast breathing which did not return to normal after our first discharge. Suspecting a heart issue, we were admitted and a NG tube was fixed to ease his feeding and to gain weight. The next week were filled with tests, and everytime they suspected something big, he was tested and then it was all normal. And then they found something in his brain which required us to go to another specialized hospital for the MRI. Our world was shaken.That trip in the ambulance was one of the many horrible experiences. Once the MRI was done, which was by no means just a test. He needed anesthesia, and it was an hour long MRI. Being a Friday we weren't even sure if we would know the results. And waiting a whole weekend , anxious and in pain was unbearable. Thankfully, after an hour or so, the neurologist came and gave us the news that everything was clear, and what they saw in the other hospital was probably an artifact. Bobby and I just broke down.Too overwhelmed for words, the doctor said he wanted us to know this and would discuss the details after the weekend.The following week, they were ruling out one thing after another. After the NG tube was put he just somehow stopped drinking from me or the bottle. End of the week we returned home and we were once again a family all under one roof. My mother was able to extend and stay until we got back, which proved to be of such a big help , for Benjamin and Elijah to have their usual routine of school and other activities.

When he turned 4 months old

I have summed up our two long weeks in a paragraph , but it has been too traumatic to write more. Even through this difficult time, God sustained us and provided healing for him one after the other. I am sure whatever these experienced senior doctors saw was there. And in time to confirm or label it, God wiped away any sign of harm in him. The support in prayer and people being there at the right time was God orchestrated. 

For the next few months, God healed him as much as he was healing us. It took a while for me to be "unstuck". I felt as though I was still in the first month. It took a while for me to regain my confidence in getting out other than church and school drops and pickups with David .

I have a habit of journaling and writing down prayers and things I would like to receive from God, for me and for other friends and family. And when they are answered, I highlight them. The list of healing I wrote for David is slowly filling up with more highlighted parts. 

Cheeky 5 month old David

Throughout , the only thing He asked me to do was "give thanks". Thats was a tall order to be expected from me , but with every small weight gain, with every smile, every spoon or sip he took, I learned to "give thanks". I learned to give thanks for the things He is yet to answer.

As the promise He gave my mother says " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17" , David is indeed that good and perfect gift.

Having fun with his brothers

With my family for his thanksgiving service

Benjamin's first Mini Marathon (And Bobby's too)

This morning Benjamin ran his first Marathon. His first Mini Marathon (2.5 km) in the Eindhoven Marathon.

He trained with his football team  for the past few weeks. Bobby also trained with him. there were just 3 other children from his football team. But he was excited and motivated to do it.

Among the thousands of people that ran just the Mini Marathon , Benjamina and Bobby ran , after a fun kids oriented warm up session with music and dance.

In 14 mins and 45 secs they completed the 2.5 km Mini Marathon.

Perhaps , next year they will train for the 5 km.

Proud you Benjamin.... and Bobby too!

Watch the video to the beginning of the Marathon.

http://bjd.smugmug.com/Family/2014/i-K7mZwTM/0/O/IMG_6708.jpg

The numbers and the name

Just before the race

The Football team

The rush

Key supporter

Getting ready for the start

The runners with their medal

Day 6: Managing mountain of clothes

Kids grow up so fast, sometimes I end up having clothes of different sizes in a drawer. Up in the attic I have boxes designated for different sizes.



Whatever fits in a box , stays for that size. Whatever is faded, frayed, worn enough and not worth it to pass on to the next boys, is put in a bag for the charity, or dumping clothes in the cloth bin. Same goes for shoes too.








To keep in check, for those small clothes that go back in the drawers, it's

 a good idea to sort them out in the wash itself. Once washed and ready for folding, its a good idea to check them for size and separate them immediately.


It is a constant process of sorting clothes and having just the right size, and the ones that kids will wear. This helps kids to also independently choose their own clothes without you telling them its too small, or hearing them say they don't like a particular one.

Day 5: Organizing Kids memorable school papers

A borrowed idea when my folders of the kids school papers were bulging and couldn't fit further that Group 1.

I borrowed this idea with free printables from Its always Autumn.
This is how the kids folders looked like.Already full and crowded.

And this is how its probably going to end like. I downloaded the cover printables to stick on the front cover of the folder.



I will select a few drawings, kids class diplomas, and reports to add to the file.












Hopefully, I can get these kind of  folder boxes here in the Netherlands or improvise with regular boxes and carton folders.









I find it really hard to throw away pictures, so I keep the best pictures (select few) in the folder and click a picture of the other pictures and save it in an App called Artkive. This gives me a chance to keep them, label them, date them and even have the option of making a photobook of all the pictures later on. Less bulky, all priced treasures available.
Who says we have to let go of every scrap of paper?

Day 4: Separating Library books

Living in the Netherlands, with kids attending the local Dutch school using the Dutch library and the International School library, means a lot of books lying around. How do I make keep my sanity and library fines in check?

By keeping them separate. I have separate baskets in the playroom for the library books with a list of books borrowed on my phone. Easier, most libraries have their own app where you can log into your account. This means you get to see the books you borrowed and  the due date. And also sends you a reminder of the date approaching. This means even if you can't get the books to the library before the date , or need more time with the books, you can extend them.

Currently, we have only books from the International School library, so I have a basket for each of the boys to have their selection in. The list lets me know how many and which books I need to return when the day arrives. (In case the books end up in different rooms). 

Day 3: An extra box in the freezer will save you one day

My boxes of doubles in the freezer

When you are making a dish , such as chicken curry or anything for that, it doesn't matter if you make one family of four portion or double it. I do this very often with beef, chicken, fish and veggies too. I make double portion and divide it into two or three (as per the quantity). We have one portion for dinner and I freeze the other.

So one day when I busy or lazy, and haven't got a chance to do grocery, or haven't had the time to cook, I can just defrost one of these boxes and tada a wonderful meal ready. Most of the time the sauces to the curry thicken and the flavors go deep into the meat. Yummy!

Day 2: Circle of Life: Laundry

Laundry is one thing I detest doing. There is no point to doing them especially when you have boys. By the time its washed, occasionally ironed and put in its drawers, its back in the laundry hamper in no time. Why bother?

For a while I used have four baskets and the most work I would do is separate them after wash into each family member and pick out clothes for each day from there. So I skipped the part of folding and putting it into drawers. It worked for a while. Then it got all mixed up with dirty and clean clothes and the boys looked and smelled wonderful (sarcasm).

When we bought our first home last year we had space for a proper system. I wanted the washing machine and dryer to be downstairs in the kitchen extension room we had(The Dutch call it "bijkeuken" , a room next to the kitchen). That gave me the opportunity to hang laundry out when the weather was good. Typical Dutch homes, usually have the provision for the laundry department in the attic room or corridor outside the attic. Many times I would be in denial, since I never saw the laundry. There were those smelly days when I would forget to take the wet clothes out and hang it to dry or use the dryer. Thankfully, I remember a week later. On wash cycle once again! With loads of nice perfumed softener to take the moldy smell out.

So, with the washing machine in the bijkeuken and the dryer on top of it, these two machines were nicely tucked away in the corner hiding behind the door to the playroom. We also placed a stand cum pull out shelf (the entire length and width of the machines) in between them. This gave me the opportunity to place the basket of wet clothes on the pull out shelf and load them into the dryer at the height of the dryer. And fold clothes immediately out of the dryer into the basket.No bending down.

We also bought a Trofast Ikea shelf with a single bucket in each section (three in total). This was going to be our solution to the laundry flow. One of the buckets would be used as dirty laundry, the second when the clothes are dry and I haven't had a chance to fold them and the third as and when I fold and iron them. This way I wouldn't have baskets of clothes on top of my breakfast nook table and that room looking like a mess. I have enough space to set up my ironing board and iron when I have time.

My breakfast nook

The laundry system on the bottom. The top boxes are for paper waste, plastic and bottles for recycling.

Also fixing a laundry day and folding/ironing day helps. So you know those are your days and you are not dealing with piled up laundry from two weeks at some point.

Now, this is a system that is now working. It might all go wrong later, perhaps. But for now, my family has clean clothes and the bijkeuken doesn't look like a outlet store disaster.