stages of sickness

Denial: The only reason your feeling queasy is because you’ve been cleaning up everyone else’s lost cookies, including the cats. Who wouldn’t feel rotten with those associated smells. Plus you worked out for only 30 minutes but your muscles felt like they had just finished that blasted half-marathon again. You've probably just been working out too long and your body wants a day off.

Acceptance: Can’t deny the fever any longer. You still have to wear three layers of clothes, and the only way you can stay warm is to curl up on the couch, under a blanket, with your feverish two year old. But acceptance isn’t all that bad. You can lay around in your P.J.’s all day long, sip fruit smoothies occasionally, cancel appointments that you really didn’t want to go to in the first place, only pull your self from a prone position to visit the bathroom to lose the smoothies or take a bubble bath. Plus you get to let the house fall apart and be too tired to care, or have guilt about it. Wow, and you can lose a couple of easy lbs without even trying.

Reality: Can also be Called the Sick and Tired phase – with more movement. Yes you still feel like something the cat dragged in from the local garbage dump, but your sense of smell is returning, and your eyesight improves to the point where you see the damage that can be reeked with mom taking a single day off. With that, the guilt comes back. And even if you still don’t feel like eating, the kids still need to eat. How is it that losing a couple of pounds to sickness makes you feel a hundred pounds heavier when you climb the stairs? Oh and I get to add another thing to my list of what brings on my tremors – anything, while sick. The girls still need school but I’ll hit them heavy with Signing Time DVD’s so I don’t have to do anything strenuous or actually use my brain today.

On the mend – O.K. Well I’m not there yet. I’m still in the Sick and Tired phase, but the good news is T-Rev, Princess, and Hope are all feeling a wee bit better. They just sound like barking seals now. Lea, Abner and I are still feeling sick and tired. Evo-man wants to be sick in the worst way but so far has avoided the fever, nausea, cough, and lack of appetite and movement that would make me keep him home from school. He even admitted to me that his cough sounded fake this morning. So far six family members contracted the dreaded flu-like illness. The jury is out on when and if the other two will catch it. As for me I'm going to go back and crawl under a blanket on the couch with Hope. Maybe I'll even try and feebly copy the signs we are learning.

I Wish I were an Enchantress

It seems that I have been more busy than usual lately. This week have had multiple Dr. appointments, emergency vehicle repairs that couldn’t wait, and neighbors that need help in the next minute kind of stuff. So in order to take advantage of the best time for me to teach my girls, which is morning, I’ve had to assemble a School-on-the-Go-Bag for the car. Usually I throw it together as we are running out the door but I’d like to take it to the next level and have some activities prepared ahead of time. Quiet activities, however have eluded me so far.
Lea does great with reading in the car, which amazes me because I am one of those people who if I glance at a book for longer than a minute, I have to roll down the window for fresh air or pull over and lose my cookies. In my case it would probably be a Chocolate, blueberry, Peanut Butter Protein Breakfast Shake. Rolling down the window in winter however might mean a face full of water, especially with all the rain.
For some reason Lea’s slow, though emotional rendition of her story fails to grab the attention of her two sisters. Princess points at passing signs and giggles with glee when she can spy the alphabet letter she is learning. Hope just babbles… constantly, I might add. If she is lucky enough to have a toy in her clutch, then it’s the toy she is babbling too. If she is pretending that the toy is talking, then her voice goes all squeaky high. If she doesn’t have a toy then she is trying to confiscate Lea’s reading book. And since she’s two, if she doesn’t get it then you certainly hear about it in a not so nice way. So imagine all three noises as the same time. I try my best to listen as Lea spells out a word she just can’t quite get. I help her sound it out.
“Mom, did you see the D? There was a D on that sign. I didn’t know McDonald’s had a D in it. Mom there’s a D in McDonalds.” says Princess about six times before I can say,
“Yes, honey, now see if you can find a J.”
“I forgot. What does a J look like?”
“An upside down candy cane.”
“I want a candy cane.”
“We don’t have any right now, maybe closer to Christmas”.
“M, Y, S, T, E, R, I, O, U, S, what does that say?”
“When is Christmas”
“Next month, sweetie. Mysterious”
“Why is Christmas, Mysterious?”
“It isn’t honey, I was just helping Lea with a word”
“Waaaaa”, from Hope who is trying to get out of her seat belt again and has her arm caught.
“Are you stuck?”
“I suck” says Hope who obviously doesn’t know how to pronounce the T sound.
“Hahahaha,” from both sisters,
“Don’t laugh. It’s not a nice word.”
“I suck, I su…….(well you know what Hope keeps repeating until I can pull over, re-belt her and try and get Lea and Princess back to their activities. It takes some patience and a change of subject, by then Hope is squeaking at her toy, Princess find a J on the Jiffy Lube sign and Lea is spelling E, N, C, H, A, N, T, R, E, S, S. Sometimes I wish I were an Enchantress and could make sense of it all. It is still fun and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And they say that driving with a cell phone in your ear is distracting. Try driving with kids.