Things for which I am thankful:
- tissues with lotion
- Smart Wool socks
- peppermint tea
- central heating
- hot water
- my sweet kids
- Paul, who works so hard to keep all our ducks in a row and is CONSTANTLY picking up
Why we have a king size bed:
Of course, I’m on here too and Jackie Boy is lying on the floor beside it. Christopher has thrown up twice this morning. Paul HAD to go to work this but is coming home at lunch. I didn’t sleep well last night and the girls seemed to cough non stop. I still feel really terrible, but I managed to get water and toast for everyone, dole out medicine and feed the dog.
This sickness just sideswiped me. It seemed to come on so fast, or I wasn’t paying attention. And I haven’t been sick this long in years.
Eden is drawing now, Lydia is reading Little Women and Christopher is doing a word find, but he’s pining for my laptop. I wish I felt better, so I could pamper them more. As it is I am just using gentle touch, when I get them things and smiling. That’s what I’ve got.
I’m still sick. Today was actually the worse. I know now, that I haven’t had a “bad cold,” but the flu. Paul stayed home from work today to take care of me and the girls. He and Christopher are flirting with feeling poorly.
I went to the doctor and didn’t have the strength to get dressed. I pulled on jeans, but wore my pajama top under a sweat shirt of Paul’s. I had come in to discuss my insomnia, with the hope of getting some sleeping pills. Only a person who has been waking at three every morning would think that you can just waltz in and get drugs, without all sorts of procedures. I had actually hoped the doctor would call in a prescription, without needing an office visit. Obviously that didn’t happen. But it worked out well as I awoke today the sickest I have been. The doctor did get me hooked up with a plethora of things to get me through this illness and then recommended I do a sleep study when I’m better. She said that anxiety and depression can be an underlying cause of sleeplessness and those would need to be considered and addressed if necessary.
She looked at me with wide eyes as did the resident who accompanied her. I always feel so vulnerable perched on the table and today I felt especially so. I had taken no pains with my appearance and began to feel like the stereotype of the beleaguered housewife. I had to reassure myself that it was OK to look like total crap because that’s how I feel and it was all I could do to get there. Being a human is so humbling.
Eden was running around and dancing tonight before bed. It was so good to see her like that. She has been so sick. Lydia is still feeling poorly, but better than this morning.
We are praying that Paul and Christopher don’t get sick and that we all have good, long, restorative sleep.
A dispatch from the Wilds:
I have been up since four or three, I can’t remember which, it’s been one or the other almost every morning. My head aches and I am snuffling constantly when not hacking up…I’d rather spare you. We did school on my bed and I am still marooned here, wearing my pajamas, which have served as a tissue more than once when a sneeze has taken me by surprise.
The dog has lost his mind. He has chewed a roll of toilet paper, a small heart-shaped cardboard box (fortunately devoid of chocolate) and only he knows what else. He likes to stand in my doorway and bark loudly. No one can figure out what he wants or needs.
The big kids have been educated and now have turned to the loving arms of the DVD player and the Wii. Christopher has been begging me to use my laptop, but I am reluctant to give up my last link with civilization. He and Lydia are both dressed and, as I mentioned, finished with school, so I would hold my head up, if I could.
Eden has been my constant companion. She too is still in her pajamas and her face is covered with smears of chocolate. She has had a running dialogue with me or one of her stuffed Chihuahuas for hours. She tucked herself in for a nap because her body was feeling “kind of owie” and she was very tired. Before she drifted off she told me “I’m thankful I can breathe.” Later she said, “I’m glad that I can breathe and that my heart is beating.”
That helped. It’s been a hard day, I am crazy tired, my body aches and Paul and I had a stupid misunderstanding, but it’s also been sweet being so close to Eden and talking with her all day. I have been making a point of expressing my gratitude daily, of looking for ways to acknowledge my thankfulness, but in the exhaustion and discomfort today I forgot that.
Thanks to my sick, sweet girl, I’m taking it back to the basics: I’m thankful I can breathe, I’m glad my heart is beating.
What’s not to love about post nasal drip? The incessant snorting? The queasy stomach? The constant swallowing, quickly followed by the incessant snorting?
It’s all great.