Slicing More Than Strawberries

We were very excited for 14 days of Christmas break. So excited we invited Murphy's Law into our home to damper our plans. I allow my kids at a young-ish age to handle knives, mostly butter knives or my small paring knives. Everett was cutting the tops off strawberries in the kitchen. I went into the living room to watch Amelia and Phillip's pillow pet parade and take a video. The video is really cute until the end. Everett handed me the knife to put away. I grasped it on the flat edge when Everett suddenly decided he wanted it back, turned the blade into my thumb and yanked with all his might. He cut a deep incision about 3 mm deep, 4 wide. The knife sliced an artery (or two) which cause a fountain of blood to pump out of my thumb. Nothing could prepare me for the scene of my thumb dangling open spurting blood. I was a little slow on the uptake, finally realizing my thumb was in trauma I grabbed it with my other hand and squeezed it hard to stop the blood. I ran to the sink and yelled for Amelia to call Dad. She did, only telling him "mommy is bleeding on the floor! Come home quick!" I hear Justin tore out of his work building and was home in less than 4 minutes. I was really close to fainting from watching my blood pump out of my thumb, I laid down on a pile of dirty laundry waiting for Justin. He burst in and tried to pick me up, his work badge got stuck in my hair. I told him to find me some shoes and a coat since I was still in my PJs. He called our neighbor, Kelly to come over and take care of the kids. We rushed to the ER for some assistance. The Dr on call stabbed my thumb (which hurt more than the actual cut) with a mixture of epinephrine and numbing agent. Justin and I got queasy watching her stab my thumb while blood was squirting out. After the shots (five shots total) the blood flow slowed down enough for the Dr to take a look. We could see the tendons and a glimpse of bone, grisly and cool at the same time. Justin left the room while the Dr sewed up my thumb, two dissolvable stitches and 8 surface stitches. As quickly as the trauma happened it was all over. I went home with a comically bandaged thumb and finished the day filled with laundry, cleaning, lots of errands, cookie making, and FHE. I am so grateful to Amelia for thinking on her feet, to Justin for saving me, and Kelly for watching my crazy crew.

My thumb started to hurt after dinner. It was very numb before that time. We enjoyed a lovely family home evening with the Rognon family. I usually make doughnuts to take around to our neighbors. Those plans were nixed with my lovely thumb-cident. The kids and I made sugar cookies the evening before so we just decorated those with sprinkles and frosting instead. Our 8 kids enacted the Nativity story, two or three times. Phillip made a cute donkey...he sure sounds like one sometimes. Elena dressed up as Mary, Amelia as the angel. The boys kept morphing between characters. I think Everett was a shepherd sheep the entire time. Even with all the crazy going on the simple and miraculous nature of the Nativity touched our hearts. Justin showed the bible videos of the birth story after the kids acted it out. Then we got dirty! Soon four bowls of frosting lay rocking and rolling as kids licked butter knives and tried to focus long enough to frost the cookies. Soon piles of sprinkles and oodles of frosting graced sugar cookies. Yum. I think Phillip ended up with frosting cookies.

Tuesday it snowed. Tuesday it was windy...I mean blizzard windy. What do my crazy kids do? They run outside in PJs, robes, socks, and a blanket to frolic in the snow. Amelia said it was AWESOME. She keeps talking about it so the experience must have been impressionable. I sent the kids out later appropriately dressed to play in the snow. Amelia roped me into painting faces again. Phillip had a cool lion face that lasted about 5 minutes. Amelia chose a cute fairy mask. Everett asked for creepy carrots on his face. Justin keeps finding carrots on the floor around the house. Instead of throwing the carrots away he sneaks the carrots into Everett's bed. Everett is totally delighted each time he finds a creepy carrot in his bed. The kids are convinced Ynnej puts the carrots there.

Evelyn and I braved the snow after dark to collect a couple crucial items from Walmart. Course our Walmart did not have what I needed.

***Sad, Sad day. Evelyn is completely weaned. She weaned herself last week. Now she carries around apple sauce packets like a lost soul instead of nursing.