The fun seems to never end

I should be writing my sacrament meeting talk for next week (on marriage--what a lousy topic! Not much in the scriptures, can't use personal examples without sounding prideful or without airing our dirty laundry, etc. etc) But anyway, instead, I need to finish this blog post. I uploaded the pics last Sunday but didn't have time to add any text. The text, however, is crucial because the pictures by themselves don't come close to telling the story of our past few weeks. From the pictures, it would seem that the fun never ends around here. We have had plenty of fun: 

We've gone to Seven Peaks twice with different sets of cousins and once by ourselves:

We've spent time up the canyon, which is only 3 minutes from our house:

My mom took me, my sister, and our daughters on a fun overnighter to Tuacahn to see Mary Poppins. We ate good food, swam at the hotel pool, shopped a little, and of course, enjoyed the production. Such a fun trip.

We went with cousins to the zoo.

We joined the neighbors in a bike parade on the 24th and then joined family for a rockin' BBQ, pinata, and fireworks show.

And the kids have been roaming the mountain, building forts; creating cities out of the boxes in the garage; making treats with friends; having airsoft gun wars with friends; and playing night games.

We have worn ourselves out with fun:

Despite the fun, these past few weeks have been terribly hard for me--hard and exhausting.  The week beginning with Grandma's Girls' Trip to Tuacahn, J had a once-in-a-lifetime golf trip opportunity. He didn't feel great before he left, and by the time he returned at the end of the week, he was beyond sick.  He moved into the guest room in the basement with a terrible virus, sinus infection, hacking cough, fever, and so on. He hardly emerged for 2 weeks, during which time, I single-parented.  And during that time, Little Zelly decided to start waking up 3-4 times a night, H had nightmares and blanket issues every night, Sweetie had the stomach flu (2 nights of cleaning up throw-up episodes and other unmentionable episodes at night), and H got sick with a high fever for multiple days. I hardly slept. I was completely disconnected from J and I was lonely. After 10+ years of parenting, I have learned to function with hardly any sleep, but I also recognize that, even though I can still make food, clean the house, care for kids, schlep kids around, and even exercise fairly regularly with only a few hours of sleep a night, I become an emotional mess, liable to blow up frequently and at random times or sob in the kitchen or speak in monotone to my children for hours and then feel guilty about all three. So, while the pictures seem to show that the fun never ends, it's been a very difficult few weeks. I hope we've come out of it now and that the next post will be a little more cheerful. Now, onto thinking deep thoughts about marriage for my talk next Sunday . . . .