I was drawing a blank on an activity for the letter N last week, so I quickly looked it up on No Time For Flashcards & found this super-easy nunchucks craft.  Basically you tie two empty toilet paper rolls together.  Miles & Eliza didn’t even want to decorate them.

In keeping with the ninja/nunchuck theme, we watched a couple YouTube clips (check out this guy!) and then watched Ninjago while folding laundry.  Preeeetty low key.

I had thought that we should try to do something nice for a neighbor this week for the letter N, but we ended up being on the receiving end of neighborly kindness.  Thursday Eliza had a barky, croupy cough.  We kept an eye on her and she seemed to be mostly ok, but when we checked on her at night, her breathing sounded terrible and the skin on her neck was sucking in (retracting?) when she inhaled.  So I took her to the ER at about midnight or so, and finally got into a room sometime after 2AM.  They gave her a breathing treatment and a steroid and she started doing better, but we had to stay a few more hours to make sure she’d be alright.  We didn’t get home until about 5:30.  I managed to get a tiny bit of sleep on her hospital bed with her, but we were both totally exhausted Friday.

I crashed into bed when we got home and slept until about 9 while my amazing man fed and dressed the kids and got them to school.  But then he had to go to work, and I had littles to take care of and a prescription to pick up.  Also, I had to check the boys out of school at 1 (right at nap time) so Ben could make it to his 3:00 gymnastics meet an hour and a half away.  Luckily Devin was available so I wouldn’t have to take him (and all the other kids) to the meet, but that also meant I was on my own for dinner and bedtime.  This day was doomed from the start.

I texted a couple close neighbors to see if I could borrow some of their kid shows.  They both delivered and Miles happily watched movies all day while I held Eliza and napped along with her.  One friend brought me my new favorite Chick-fil-A salad for lunch and stayed with my kids while I ran to the school and the pharmacy, and another friend showed up with dinner and dessert.  We watched a couple more movies before the day was done and the boys went to bed without much fuss.

I can’t believe how well the day went, considering its initial outlook.  I feel incredibly lucky to have such great friends who were willing and ready to take care of us on a potentially awful day.  And of course I am so grateful for my one-of-a-kind husband who never stops loving and serving me.