March Madness

Ah the craziness of March!  For those who who like college basketball (aka my husband) March Madness means one thing, but today it seems to sum up this past month for us.  It has been a crazy whirlwind of celebrations, sickness, gorgeous weather, and lots and lots of meetings and events!  I wanted to give a brief summary of the madness.
We started out that crazy month by dropping our kids off at Grandma and Grandpa E's house and heading to Pennsylvania for the annual youth group retreat.  It was an amazing weekend and I am so grateful that they invite me to come with.  This year's theme was Remade and it was very appropriate and applicable to our lives right now.  Shortly after getting home from the retreat Caden began running a 103 temperature which landed us at the doctor's the next day.  Another ear infection.  Added to that Brian in Virginia for a Classis meeting for 2 full days, meaning 2 long days of 2 overly tired children and 1 sick little boy.  I was so relived when I woke up on my birthday to have Brian home and Caden finally feeling better.  The day was lovely, beautiful weather, a walk to the park with the kids, awesome Mexican take out for supper and some fun gifts from Brian.  We then enjoyed a surprise birthday party for my brother and a service auction for our church to finish up that week.  The following week included Mikayla getting the stomach bug which cut down on our meeting responsibilities but required a lot of laundry and cleaning.  We spent some time in quarantine and surprisingly no one else got infected.  Thankfully she was recovered enough to then celebrate Caden's birthday.  This past Saturday we enjoyed a pancake breakfast at my dad's firehouse, an Easter egg hunt in Prospect Park and a birthday party for my grandpa.  All good things.  Multiple weeks had at least one of us out every single night.  Council meetings, small group, youth groups, praise team practice, and Financial Peace University took up most nights, with a few extras in there for good measure.  We have had incredible days with the kids.  Days where the kids smile and laugh most of the day.  There are "pleases" and "thank yous" and sharing and listening and new accomplishments.  There have also been days at a time where there are no naps or only 1 little nap.  There has been mean molars that keep hurting my little boy and yet refuse to break through.  We have had awesome play dates and a day at the beach.  We've been so excited for Caden walking and then we've almost taken him to the ER for stitches due to his walking (we just taped it instead).  We've struggled with our budget and we've felt empowered with our new outlook on life and my recent success at second hand stores and simply saying no.  We've spent countless hours with family members and we've longed to be closer to others.  There have been moments of peace and moments of complete frustration and unrest.  I have spent some weeks completely overwhelmed by my household duties and then this past week feeling energized and ambitious to do major spring cleaning.  And there has been a LOT of basketball.  Madness :)
So as I reflect on this past month, I both smile and cringe, I laugh and I want to cry, I look back and wish to do it again and yet I am so happy to start a new month.  Start fresh.  I sit here typing, Mikayla watching a movie and Caden playing in box of erasers and Brian at work, I smile because I am so grateful for this past month.  I'm thankful for a month of madness and yet I do look forward with anticipation to see what April has in store for us.  I'm excited about celebrating the blessings of Easter.  I'm excited for Brian's parents to come visit.  I'm excited for meetings and events.  I'm excited for play dates and hopefully more beautiful weather.  I'm reminded that God is truly good.  Whether we are overwhelmed or overjoyed, exhausted or energized, even if we're in the middle of the madness.