Where is the Grace in Puke?

We have been missing in action recently. For that, I apologize. Caught up in a series of stomach bugs (how many can there be out there, for crying out loud?!), legal issues and simple unpacking (is anything simple with 4 children?), I have not had much time for gracefulness these past few weeks. (Picture the chicken running around headless in the last few moments of firing nerve signals....that's been us as of late.)

Finally, yesterday, something snapped. (No, not my sanity, that's been long gone.) It was a conversation I had with Lily on the ride home from taking Kurt some lunch.

Out of the blue Lily asked: "Mom, what is the Holy Spirit?"

"Well, the Holy Spirit is how God talks to us and lets us know the things God really wants us to know," I said, hoping not to have to explain Pentecost or the trinity to my 3 year old at that moment.

"Well, God talked to me," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah? What did He say?" I curiously inquired.

"He said (using the deepest voice she could muster) 'Lily,' I said 'What' and He said, 'Don't say the word poop, heh heh.'" (And yes, that was a laugh straight out of Beavis and Butthead in case you were wondering.)

"Really?" I asked, trying not to laugh. "What else did God tell you."

"Nothing, that's it: (Insert God voice) 'Don't say poop, heh heh.''"

And in that moment, I was snapped back to the present. So, even when Aidan came running in this morning to tell me:

"Mom, I think you need to come see what Liam did in his crib last night."

And upon following him to their bedroom, we found a smiling (laughing even) Liam covered, and I mean REALLY covered, in purple vomit (seriously, who feeds their kid THAT many blueberries and do they ever chew them before swallowing? ICK!) it only phased me while in the act of cleaning it, and bathing the baby and fussing at Kurt about something or another that was not even remotely his doing....this too shall pass. (Perhaps just not with flying colors, other than purple anyway!)

So, I feel the need to get this out so everyone is on the same page: You know what Mr. Stomach Bug? We don't like you. And no matter how many different ways over the course of a month you present yourself...we will never like you! Please exit the building before I call Terminex and have my house tented. (You'd think they'd have something like that for these yucky bugs.)

Now, I am off to find my Clorox and Lysol and any other toxic chemicals we might have with which to start spraying the entire house down, again, and again, and again. And to all my "greeny" friends out there: The Holy Spirit told me to!