On the Mend

Wow! What a week we've had! Three with flu, three without, me running around the house armed with Lysol in one hand and a thermometer in the other. But, we are finally getting better around here. John is over his fever, but he still has some congestion and coughing. Jared made it through is 104+ degree fever yesterday, and broke his fever during the night last night, and Jenna is getting her sparkle back as you can see in the picture below. She still hasn't broken her fever, but it is low and should break any time now. We may actually be able to rejoin society very soon!! WooHoo!!

I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy!

From the SICK house...

It is official! We have been bit by the flu bug!! John woke up during the night Sunday night feeling achy and sick, but still flew to South Carolina for work on Monday morning. He is dealing with his flu by himself there. Although, I get text messages from time to time saying, "please, please pray for me, I feel like crud." Praying is really all I can do for him right now.

On the other hand, I have plenty to keep me busy right here at home. Jenna woke up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning shaking and shivering and saying she had a headache. After a long morning of trying to get her into a new pediatrician, we finally found one who would take a new patient and see her today. She tested positive for the flu. She is so sick now, though, that she can't keep any medicine down. Every time I try to give her medicine, she "gives it back" so to speak. So...needless to say, without motrin in her system, her fever tonight got up to 104.8. At that point, we took a luke warm bath, and put a cooling strip on her head. I then attempted more motrin and put her to bed. As of this moment, everything is staying put. Here is what she looked like when I put her to bed tonight. Doesn't she just look so pitiful?!!



Oh ya, and that is not all, Jared is now running a temp of 102.2 with body aches. Needless to say, steer clear of the Holland family for a while!!

He Made Me Glad

I just came across this song again. I haven't heard it in a while, but I LOVE it! In the year before my brother died, I was trying to break some major strongholds in my life. Joe walked beside me step by step and encouraged me and prayed for me and with God's help, I broke those strongholds. Joe also gave me this song to listen to over and over as I walked that road.

Happy Birthday Jacob!!

We celebrated Jacob's birthday a day early today. He is turning a whopping 14 years old tomorrow (23rd)!! We are having a conference at our church on Friday night and Saturday so we got our celebration going a little early. We grilled hamburgers for dinner because that is Jacob's favorite and then it was time for gifts or just gift really. Here is a picture of when the gift starting making a strange noise:

Hmmmm....what is that noise???

Lookout world!! It's another teenager with a cell phone!!!

Jacob is so excited that he FINALLY got a cell phone! He has wanted one for so long, but we had him convinced it would still be a long time before he got one so he was totally shocked!!

Here's a picture of Jacob on his 13th birthday last year so you can see just how much he has grown and changed over this past year. He has grown in maturity just about as much as physically. He has really come into his own since we have moved and absolutely thriving!

Happy Birthay Son!!!

A True Friend

The kids had a day off school today, but the teachers had to work so...Joy and Jenna's friends, Kensey and Karis spent the day with us because their mom is a teacher. We had a great day and even braved the insane crowd at Chick-fil-A for lunch. I think the whole world decided to go to lunch with us today! LOL!!

At one point this morning, Karis (who is 8 years old) came looking for me all excited with great news to tell me. She had told Jenna all about God and Satan and sin and how Jenna needed to have Jesus in her heart so apparently, Jenna must have agreed and Karis led her to pray and ask Jesus to come live in her heart. She wasn't sure if she had covered everything, but she shared all she could remember. Now don't get me wrong here, I know that my five year old does not really understand sin and the consequences and her great need for Jesus to be her savior and all so we are certainly not ready to walk down any aisles yet, but I do know that Jenna loves Jesus and Jenna LOVES to pray and talk to Jesus. But, it will still be a while before she is really ready to surrender her life to Jesus, and hopefully, I will get to be the one who prays with her the next time!! :) From the best that I can understand, I think Jenna and Karis ended the whole thing by sticking their tongues out at Satan and "showed him!" I just had to hug Karis tight and tell her how much I love her and what a sweet, loving friend she is to Jenna.

So...following in the giant footsteps of this sweet little eight year old girl, I have several friends who need to know Jesus as well, and I need to be more persistent in sharing Jesus with them. (And, like Karis, I don't have to know everything, I just need to share what I do know...what Jesus has done for me.) What about you?

things my kids said this week that made me laugh

This week my kids were cracking me up almost constantly with the crazy things they said. Here is a sampling.

Jenna (when climbing into the car after school on Tuesday when Joy had stayed home not feeling well): "Mommy! I made it all day at school all by myself!" Apparently, just knowing that Joy is somewhere in the same building brings great comfort to her at school every day. She was very proud and felt very grown up. Now if we could just get her sleeping in her room in her own bed again.

Jenna (reaching her arms up for me to carry her when I was getting her
out of MY bed one morning): "Mommy, my legs aren't awake yet." hmmm...okay...

Jacob (while unloading the dishwasher with uncharacteristic speed): "Hey Mom, I just figured out that the faster I get the dishes done, then the sooner I might get to go play video games!" Wow! I wonder where he came up with that idea? Have I been talking to a brick wall for the past two years??

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Doesn't my blog look great with its new non-Christmas look? Thank you, Valinda, for your hard work and persistence to figure out how to get past all the "issues" we were having trying to change it. It looks so awesome and now I know how to do it all by myself! I feel all grown up like Jenna now!!

Oh yes, I just remember one more of Jenna's sayings. When she wants to play games on the computer or watch something on TV, she always butters up the question by telling us that it is "edestacocational". That is "educational" for those of you who might need an interpretation.

I have way too much time on my hands!

Which gives me lots of time to think and reflect on things.

WARNING! WARNING! YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER JILL'S BRAIN!!!

So anyways, this morning was the first week back for the women's bible study at my church. Yipee!! I will confess, though, that I hadn't been too excited about it because it is not the kind of study we normally do and there isn't any structured "traditional" homework which I tend to thrive on. You see without structure, I am just pretty well lost and scattered all over the place (I know you find that hard to believe, but really, it's true.) and I just really hate that when it comes to daily bible study. I need a plan!

Anyways! That is not really the point of what I am trying to say.

This morning as I was getting ready to go, all of a sudden this excitement began to well up inside me, and I began thinking back to the first day of the last bible study we did in the fall. I was still pretty new to the church and didn't really know people. I walked in and got my book and went over to a table and sat down by myself. I just sort of sat there watching the other ladies talk and stuff and wondered if I was ever going to get to that place again. Well, only a few months later, I have gotten to know quite a few of these ladies and they have truly become my friends. I absolutely love the women of our church! They are wonderful and sweet and caring and love Jesus so much. I feel so very blessed!! So today when I walked into bible study, I picked up my book and my already printed out nametag and went and sat down by a friend and she began to share with me some major concerns in her life, and I was so honored to be able to be that kind of friend. I am so very blessed.

Also, the bible study, "The Truth Project" is really good. My brain was spinning and felt like mush by the time it was over, but it was really good, and I look forward to what God wants to teach me through this study. Also, I have more than enough information and scripture references to keep me busy in my quiet time all week. Does that make sense, "busy in my quiet time"??? Seems like an oxymoron to me.

On another note, Yes my blog is still all Christmas-y. I'm just getting a head start on next Christmas because you know that it will be here before we know it! Just kidding. I have no idea how to change it. I have started digital scrapbooking, but I am no where near advanced enough to figure out how to change my blog yet, so it will stay this way until A) my very creative, talented, sweet, wonderful, dear friend, (Valinda) either gets so tired of my Christmas blog in July and changes it for me or B) just really feels sorry for me because I am talking about summer and swimming and vacation on my Christmas blog and decides to change it up for me or finally C) she teaches me how to change it myself because you know, I have way too much time on my hands.

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Wow! Has anyone else noticed how self-centered my blog is?? I mean the title is "Holland Happenings" and you'd think by the posts that I must be the only Holland. I'm definitely not that for sure! So, here is an update on the happenings of all of the other Holland's in our house.

First, speaking of Holland, John is again in Amsterdam this week on business. He called today and has changed his flight to arrive back home on Friday instead of Saturday so we are excited about that. He did say, though, that he will probably be out of town for the next couple of weeks so that is a bummer. Also, he has started a new and very exciting challenge in his life so keep him in your prayers that he will meet his goal. I don't have his permission to tell you what the challenge is, but hopefully over the next few months, I will be able to post some great news about it. In the mean time, just pray for him.

Next is Jared. We are still working on driver's ed with Jared. It is taking way longer than I would like because we are so busy with school and all the other activities and we only have the weekends to do it and you can only do so many hours in a day. He is finally getting better which I am very glad about. He was pretty scary there for awhile. I have definitely decided that though he may get his license in April, he will not be getting a car and have driving freedoms just yet. He still needs a lot more practice.

Jacob...oh Jacob...he is uniquely Jacob. He is really doing so well in school this year that I still can hardly believe it. He reminded me the other day that the writing TAKS test is coming up in February. I almost had a heart attack that it was already so close! I asked him if he planned on writing anything on it this time, and he laughed and said of course he was. He was going to write a lot. Awesome!!! I honestly do not even care if it is any good or what his score turns out to be. If he writes a composition at all on his TAKS, then we will celebrate great accomplishment. He has really come so far this year, that it is unbelievable. Jacob is the laughter in our house. Either he is always laughing, or he is making all of us laugh or both. I love seeing him so happy, and I love that we so rarely ever see problems with anger anymore. He is really growing up and breaking out of his shell.

Joy is still madly in love with gymnastics. It remains her biggest passion. She is now in level four and is doing really well. Her coach told me when I picked her up tonight that she had mastered her handstand on the beam and was really doing well. I think her coach is really amazed at how quickly she is learning her new skills. What can I say, she is dreaming of the 2016 Olympic games!!

Lastly, Jenna is just growing up way too fast. She will be 6 in only two months! I cannot believe it! She is now learning to read and still loves kindergarten so much. She has made lots of friends both at school and at church. Jenna even invited a little girl in her class at school to come to Christmas at the Barn and her family came. Now that family has visited our church for the last two Sundays. That is a lesson we could all learn from a five year old! Jenna is also going through a phase right now where she is afraid of everything. She is afraid of being upstairs by herself, she is afraid of the dark, she is afraid of every noise she hears. It doesn't help that the north wind we have had so much of lately causes all sorts of noises outside her window at night. So, she has wound up in bed with either mommy or Joy for the past couple of weeks. This has not been much fun, but I am a push-over and she will only be little for a little while longer so I have a tendency to cherish getting to cuddle with her more than get aggrevated at her.

Well, on that note, I am heading off to go crawl in MY bed next to JENNA and get some sleep. Goodnight.