My “allergies” were giving me a terrible time yesterday evening. I went from coughing to having a sore throat. Then after having a hard time sleeping last night, I woke up with a headache. Then I started sneezing and finally succumbed to taking my temperature today. I am now taking my turn with a fever. Needless to say, I’m not too happy about it. Everyone else is feeling fine, why can’t I? Oh well, I’m going to try being as gracious as possible, and rest as much as the kids will let me. Maybe tomorrow will be another pretty day.
LikeCategory: Illness
To Be or Not to Be Sick…
I have found in the course of this week that there are different ways that people endure their illnesses.
First there is the Groan and Moan sufferer. You definitely know that this person is not feeling well. You can hear his groans and moans clear across the house, and all you can do is pray that everyone gets feeling better, SOON!
Then there is the Royal Treatment sufferer. This person thinks that since he is sick that he should get everything that he wants. He requests to watch movies and eat cake, when asked if he feels like eating anything.
Then there is the Silent Sufferer, who doesn’t say much but endures the illness with as much grace as possible. You can only tell that she is sick by her silence and the fact that she is shivering while everyone else finds the room a comfortable temperature.
Then there is the I want the Royal Treatment even though I’m not sick anymore child. The attitude for this “sufferer” is if they get their temperature taken, I need mine taken. If they get medicine, I want medicine. If they get to lay on the couch, I want to lay on the couch. You might can guess which of my young’uns that might be. 🙂
Then of course the baby just wants to be held the whole time he feels bad. The baby doesn’t know why he feels the way he does, but he feels like he is being totally rejected if you set him down for even one minute to help someone else.
Then there is the Denial Sufferer. I’m not sick! I’m not going to get sick! I can’t get sick! I’m not even going to take my temperature, because there is no way I can get sick! I have too much to do to get sick! I’m only coughing because of allergies. Never mind that everyone else is coughing in the house! I have to be immune!
So there we have it folks! There are six family members in our home and those of you who know us well, can probably guess which one of my descriptions is which.
Scott is doing better now, besides his congestion. Joshua and Ruth were running a very low grade fever this morning, and should be completely well in a day or two. Hannah is feeling quite fine and not sick after resting a couple days. Jonathan also is back to his old chipper self.
And as for me, well, I CAN’T get sick! I can’t afford to get sick! I REFUSE to get sick! *Cough, Cough* Sorry, my allergies again! I better go check on the kids.
LikeBe careful of what you ask for!
I planned to give an update on everyone’s health sooner, but I allowed myself to get busy and not get around to blogging these past couple of days. Even now I should be sleeping, but had to tell this story first.
On our way to feed the horses and gather the eggs for our neighbors, Joshua was all excited. He said, “Maybe the rooster will attack me this time. ” Thursday, I had taken Ruth by herself and Joshua offered to stay behind and help watch Jonathan, who was sick. When we got back Ruth told Joshua about the rooster attacking her. Thankfully it hit her boot and not directly on her leg. Joshua was intrigued for some reason by her story and was saying that he wanted the rooster to attack him today. I told him, “Joshua, you better be careful what you ask for. You might just get it.” Joshua wasn’t too concerned and for some reason I knew he would get attacked. I wasn’t worried about it though, I figured he might learn a valuable lesson.
Sure enough, the main rooster was in no mood to be trifled with. I had to use a shovel to get into the chicken pen. The rooster attacked the shovel three times before I could get in to throw the feed to it. The feed I threw out was the only thing that kept him from attacking the shovel a 4th time. Now if I hadn’t had that shovel that would have been my leg attacked that many times. I thought Joshua would have been less excited when he saw that, but it only seemed to excite him more. He said, “Wow, I saw his neck feathers get all raised!” The rooster finally left the pen while I gathered the eggs. I turned and saw him challenging Joshua. Or was it Joshua challenging the rooster, it was hard to tell. Joshua was trying to scare the rooster away from him but was only angering him all the more. So the rooster attacked him, and I heard Joshua say, “Ow! Hey!” The reason for these exclamations were because he expected the rooster to quit after he showed the rooster that he wasn’t scared. So he wound up running from the rooster. Meanwhile, Hannah is in a panic over every chicken in the yard. I had her standing safely out of the way but she was still in a panic. I explained that it was only the rooster, she had to watch out for but in her mind every chicken was the same. So I armed her with a stick and told her to hold the stick and the chickens would leave her alone.
After we fed the horses we called the chickens all back to their pen. This time Joshua was a little more respectful of the rooster’s position in the yard.
Now for a health update. Scott, is feeling quite a bit better, except for some congestion that hasn’t completely left him yet. Jonathan was feeling better by Friday evening. Hannah just has a tired look, but never ran much fever. Ruth threw up Saturday morning, and that evening was running 103 degree fever. I gave her some medicine and sent her to bed. Then Saturday night before bedtime, Joshua was running a fever as well, his was 102 degrees.
Sadly, I think we will be missing church Sunday morning. This will be the first service for me to miss, since Jonathan was born. He was born on a Sunday morning. I don’t remember missing a Sunday, since. We will see tomorrow how everyone is feeling. I just don’t want the kids to get everyone at church sick and I don’t want to leave them by themselves while they aren’t feeling well. I plan on having them rest and do a small devotional lesson with them. I may even let them watch St. John in Exile performed by Dean Jones. I’m hoping they start feeling better soon. So far, thankfully, I have not gotten sick yet. I told Scott that a mother can’t afford to get sick. I have no intention of getting sick if I can at all help it. Of course, if Scott realized how late I’m staying up in order to write all these thoughts down, he might think I were asking for it. So I better be careful what I ask for and get some sleep, so that I not get sick myself.
I’ll try to write more tomorrow.
LikeA Substitute for the Substitute…
Scott finally took my advice and called the school he substitutes for to let them know he was sick. I couldn’t stand seeing him go into school not feeling well and then come home feeling worse. I also have to thank my Dad for suggesting that it might be the flu. Something about the word flu makes it seem a little scarier and the fact that if he doesn’t take care of himself he might be feeling like this for ten days made him realize that he should stay home. It’s hard for him to admit he’s sick but to have to be this way for that long sounded like misery.
I think Hannah has finally decided that she likes being a girl. This morning she had watched a Strawberry Shortcake movie and said that she wanted to be Blueberry Muffin who is a boy. She gave me the normal because she never got to be a boy before. Then I suggested, “Why don’t you want to be the kitty, you never got to be a kitty before either.”
This of course was an exciting idea. She said, “I can be Pupcake. I never got to be a puppy before either.”
Now she may want to be a Puppy or a Kitty when she grows up but at least she likes being a girl again. I tried to read her the story of Deborah out of her Picture Bible. I told her that she would probably like Deborah because she led an army into Battle. She decided that she didn’t want me to read that one though, because she didn’t like the blood from the battle. So thankfully, Hannah won’t be a Joan of Arc. And she is still proud that her finger nail polish is still on her fingers. So I think I’ve convinced her to enjoy being my little girl.
Of course, Joshua dropped his guard over Jonathan today. Ruth had dressed Jonathan up in her pink sweater. When Joshua found out he shook his head and requested, kindly of course, that it be removed. I asked Joshua if he was glad that he was the oldest and didn’t have older sisters dressing him up like a live Baby doll. He is definitely glad.
I’m afraid Jonathan may be catching a little bit of what Scott has though. He has been acting tired all day. I am hoping a good nights sleep will help him feel better. I hate it when Babies get sick. They can’t really talk to tell you what hurts. They just want to be held all day long, and all you want to do is hold them. Ruth and Joshua have been a big help with Jonathan on that though. If I need to do something, I can pass Jonathan to one of them and they will rock him for me. They are such big helpers.
I’ll try to blog more tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have better news on everyone’s health.
I want to end this blog with a thought I find interesting about Deborah. It’s relating to the verse which states.
The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
(Judges 5:7)
She specifically mentions herself as a mother in Israel, not a soldier, not a judge but a mother. Of all the amazing things God allowed her to do, she still sees herself as primarily a mother in Israel, that God used for his honor and glory.
God can do amazing things even with someone as simple and humble as a mother.
LikeBad weekend, good week-beginning!
Well, I would like to say that I had a good weekend, but I did have a great week beginning. Scott was sick last week and had to come home from work and stay home the next day. He was feeling better by Wednesday night. He went back to work Thursday. He fell better by then and I took the kids to a Planetarium and an art museum with a homeschool group. That night I drank some water from Scott’s bottle thinking he wasn’t contagious anymore. Well, I guess he was.
I got sick Friday. Ugh! I felt horrible and thought I wasn’t going to make it to y sister’s shower that my cousins and I had worked hard to plan. After a broken nights sleep, I felt somewhat better but very tired. So I went ahead and went to the shower. I just wasn’t going to get too close to anyone. Ok, that might have been a mistake. We did have fun though and I was feeling better. I did go home tired and with a horrible headache but I knew we would be driving for a while and would get some sleep. That seems to be the trick with that virus, sleep.
I felt so much better after I was able to eat the best tasting burger I had eaten in a while. The reason it tasted so good was that my appetite was back! Sunday I was back to normal without even a headache. My husband accepted the call to the church that we visited. And everyone was feeling great. But it looks like my dad may have caught it! Oops! Sorry, Dad! I hope no one is sick on Saturday or my sister may never forgive me!
LikeJonathan Rolled Over!
Last Saturday Jonathan rolled over for the first time! I laid him down on the floor in the parsonage we were staying in for the weekend. I laid him on his back and I turned around for just a second and he was on his tummy looking around. I wish I had a camera! I told Scott about it and he turned him back over a little later and sure enough he rolled back to his tummy again. That time we saw him do it. They grow so fast! He’s even smiling at me right now. He’s too cute! I’ll have to put some more recent pictures on here.
We enjoyed our trip to Florida. We took a supposed short cut that Scott’s coworkers suggested but it took way too long. I think they had to have been speeding to go that route. We had to go 55 mph most of the trip because of the road we took. Although it was scenic it was dreadfully long. On the way home we took the Interstate and it was 70 mph the whole way. It was a lot quicker or at least seemed quicker since we were able to drive faster. It also helped on the ride home that Scott was able to drive more. He had caught a Virus and was not feeling well Friday, so I drove and let him sleep most of the drive. Thankfully he was better by Sunday.
Of course like a regular virus Joshua had to catch it as well. I thought of my mom the other night, while I was sitting on the floor scrubbing the carpet that Joshua threw up on. I thought about all the times my mom helped me when I was sick. You feel especially close to your mother in those times. Other than that we had a wonderful time in Florida. The members of the church were real nice. Of course I say that about everywhere we go. It seems like most everyone at our churches are especially nice. I’m looking forward to our visit in Oklahoma this week. The kids enjoy all these trips as well.
I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. They learned a lot. I had them read most of the signs themselves. They practiced following the zoo map. That was real good for them. They had to tell me which way we needed to go to see whichever animal we were wanting to find. So it turned out being a great learning experience for everyone. Joshua and Ruth got to participate in a class that the zoo had for homeschoolers. Ruth’s class learned about animal senses. Joshua’s learned about animal survival. Jonathan, Hannah, and I stayed outside with some other mom’s with toddlers and enjoyed visiting. Hannah even made some new little friends.
I guess that catches me up a bit on my blogging. Now I need to help the kids with their lessons and do the laundry I didn’t get done yesterday. I’ll try to write again soon.
Luk 5:31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
LikeThe weather is finally starting to warm up. The cold front kind of caught us by surprise last week. All three of our children became sick last Wednesday. I was hoping it would be just a 24 hour virus or something. But they continued to be sick on Thursday as well. I didn’t get much sleep either of the nights and Thursday night, I decided that if they didn’t improve then I would take them to the doctor the next morning.
Well, after very little sleep, one hour before the Doctor’s office opened, I was praying that the kids could hold themselves together for one more hour. Well, they did and I loaded them all up into our 15 passenger van, and took them to the clinic. Of course, since it is a walk-in visit, we had to wait for a while. While we waited, we looked at magazines, I cleaned up after my middle daughter who spit up. Then I directed my son, to where he could go to the restroom.
Finally, their names were called, and after Joshua returned from the bathroom, we were able to see the doctor. Joshua’s fever had already gone down, he was now left with a throat infection and diarrhea. Ruth, had throat infection and a high fever (103 degrees) and congestion. Hannah had a high fever, an ear infection, and congestion.
The Doctor called in prescriptions for each of them. We then stopped by the laundry mat to see my sweet husband, who knew I hadn’t had time to do laundry all week. So he had gotten up early enough to go to the laundry mat, before he had to run off to work. I then took the kids to the house to let them all use the bathroom, get something to drink, and a light breakfast. Then we went back to the laundry mat to pick up the clothes.
On our return trip to the laundry mat, I smelled the van was overheating. So, I called my husband who had left for work and told him about the smell. I still needed to go to Wal-mart to pick the kids’ prescriptions. He said for me to just drive slow, and not push the van too hard.
While I was paying for the medicine at the pharmacy, my son, suddenly shrieked that he needed to go to the bathroom. Too late, it was already coming, the pharmacist’s assistant said that she would hold the medicine for us, and I rushed off with the kids to the bathroom, grabbing paper towels I found along the way for my desperate son. I felt so terrible for him. I’m not sure how embarrassed he really was, but I was embarrassed for him. He ran into the bathroom and I posted Ruth, at the door, to let him know, if he came out before I got back that I was getting him a change of clothes. She was a very willing guard. So I took the youngest with me to the van, I was so glad that we had just picked up clothes from the laundry mat.
Thankfully, my son changed, and we bagged up the dirty clothes, and went back to the pharmacy. The pharmacist gave me a run down of all the medicines, and I finally took the kids home. I have an index card system of who took what when. A tired pregnant mother can’t rely on her memory all the time. The system has been working and each child has been getting the right medicine at the right times so far.
Who says, being a mother isn’t exciting. Thankfully, after much prayer they are now feeling much better, and I’m finally getting some sleep.
Luke 5:31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
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