Sick Kids, Warm PJs, and Homemade Bread

Adam and Grace have had a cold for a few days now. Cough, runny nose, and fevers. Nothing too unusual. I've done this A LOT, so I knew how to take care of them. Two nights ago, however, Adam woke up at 1:00am unable to breathe. I heard a huge "thump" in his bedroom, and woke up and went in there. He was laying on the ground, struggling. I knew right away he had croup (barking cough), so I tried steaming him in the shower, etc. After 10 minutes, he wasn't getting better, and his lips were turning blue, so I drove him to the hospital (nice, because it's literally a block away). He had a high fever and a low oxygen level, so they took a chest xray, gave him 2 breathing treatments, and gave him some steroids. They thought he had pneumonia, but the xray showed it was a severe croup attack. A few hours later, he was MUCH better, and they let him go home. I got home just as it was time for Mike to go to work and Grace was waking up. Isn't that how it always goes? :) We've had to do a few more breathing treatments at night and continue the steroids, but he's on the mend.

There is nothing harder when your kids are sick. But, nothing really makes me love them more. I'm not sure what it is-their being totally dependent on me, their more complacent attitudes, the cuddling, being up all night with them, holding their hand in a hospital... I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that it makes me that much more grateful to Heavenly Father for them, and makes me realize how precious every day is.

So, even though it's still FREAKIN' hot, when Grace got sick, I totally took the opportunity to dress her in her cute warm PJs. I always try to keep my kids warm when they are sick... however, it might have been too much, because she woke up from her nap yesterday sweating. Oh, well. She's too cute anyways.

We have a very tight food budget, so I decided to start making my own bread. I've never been very good with breads (for some reason I always have the water too warm or too cold or don't knead it enough, and it never turns out). ANYWAYS, a few weeks ago, I got my bread machine out of storage (aka my grandma's shed). We got it as a Christmas gift right before we moved to Flagstaff, so we never really got to use it before it went into "storage" (at the 450 square feet that our dorm was, EVERY inch counted... lol!). So, I finally took it for a go yesterday, and IT IS AWESOME! Is there any other invention better than this? It was super easy, inexpensive, and TOTALLY YUMMY and healthy! I'm pretty psyched about it. If only I can find a way to make it calorie-free, then I'm set. :)