Be careful what you wish for

You know, I’m always saying that I ‘keep waiting for things to slow down around here.’ Well, I guess the Lord finally answered my prayer. With three of us down sick, I guess it’s going to slow down around here! I’ve been feeling bad for days, but attributed it to the high ragweed, since I didn’t have hardly any fever, and that just spotty, and I felt better one day, then worse the next. I’ve had an ‘achy day’ about every two to three weeks from allergies and exhaustion, so the achiness didn’t even worry me. However, Luke started getting my headache and sore eyeballs yesterday, along with a croupy cough, and woke me up with a 103.5 degree fever last night. (My sincerest apologies to anyone with whom we’ve been in contact in the last few days. If I’d had an inkling it was contagious, you KNOW I would have stayed home!) The fever has only gone down with Tylenol, and then only a few degrees, and his chest sounded terrible. Craig stayed home with us today, knowing that I still don’t feel well enough to tend to the sick kids and continue recovering myself, so we took Luke in to the doctor this afternoon, worried more about the chest congestion that he wasn’t moving, than anything. The doc did a strep culture, chest x-ray, and a flu swab, and the only thing positive was the flu. Type A, nonspecific flu. GREAT! Of course, we turned down the Tamiflu, as the doc even confirmed that of the kids he’s treated with it, there hasn’t been any shortening in the duration of sickness. And, we turned down the flu vaccine for the two family members still well. No need to add mercury toxicity to everything else we have to battle. But, we found out for sure that it’s the flu, so we know more of what to expect. Levi had a good fever and felt pretty bad by the time we got to the doctor's office, so now he's joined Luke in the fight.

We often go to the doctor just for a diagnosis and turn down the treatments he offers. Sometimes it’s just for a head nod to what we already expected, but we need to be certain before we treat them at home. Sometimes we go ahead and fill the antibiotics or whatever and keep them on hand, just in case. Usually, we just go on with what we were doing, but with a named enemy to fight. That’s the perfect balance between allopathic and natural medicine, I believe. We use their technology to diagnose, and sometimes treat, but use our natural medicines from God to strengthen and let the body heal itself. If I could, I’d do the strep culture and flu swab here, but until then, I’ll keep going to the doctor and paying him to do it. Thankfully, we have a doctor who understands and appreciates the balance we try to preserve by using natural medicine. Some of them are so condescending and even downright hateful, so I’m glad we’ve found a few that are supportive.



In addition to being sick, we had to postpone the big ‘Fall Ball’ sleepover party we were supposed to host this weekend. It worked out fine to move it out two weeks, though, so it’s not that big of a deal. Just two more weeks to chase dust bunnies that have been harbored without threat for much too long, finish cleaning up the garage, and maybe get a few dry days to mow and weed eat the yard. It was going to be a crunch, so it will be nice to have the extra time. I had already planned for us to be on a break from school this week, as we had a lot to do, but it turned out that we couldn’t have done it, anyway, with me down, and now the boys. Hopefully, Lord willing, Jake will stay well, and we’ll be back to work next week. I’d hate for us to lose two whole weeks to the rotten flu!

Craig has been a pretty good caretaker for us, but we have our moments. He thinks I’m a little too demanding and bossy of a patient, and I think he’s a mean nurse, so we’re about even. He’s really not mean, he just doesn’t like me telling him how to make my soup, or what to get and not get at the store, and what I need, and what else I need, and, oh, one more thing…. I can see how that would get annoying, as it does when the kids are needy, but I’m the MOM. I know exactly how to make the soup you need when you’re sick, and how much herb to put in the tea, and WHAT the patient needs. That’s my job. When I have to sit on the couch and be nursed myself, it’s only natural that I try to orchestrate it. It would be different if all he had to do was open a can of chicken noodle soup, add a little water, and heat it up. But, we haven’t used a can of prepared soup in our house for about 4 years, and he can’t just MAKE UP Thai coconut soup, which is what I wanted. I wrote down the recipe for him, and he changed a few things, just to make it his own (or spite me, whatever you want to call it). That’s a man, I guess. He can’t be in charge if someone’s telling him what to do! Well, honestly, I’m glad to have that, instead of one who is happy being led. I’ll thank the Lord for my manly man, even if he did use EVOO at too high of a temperature. I don’t think he can argue the fact that he does enjoy being home, even if it’s to take care of sicklings. I think we’ll have watched 7 or 8 movies between us all by tonight, some for him, some for both of us, and some for the kids. And I don’t think our local movie renting friends mind it, either! He’s napping beside me at the moment, which is what I’ll be doing as soon as the Tylenol kicks in enough for my back to stop aching. Levi and Luke are crashed on the couch, and I think Jake has taken to playing Wii without volume while there is no movie going. It’s a sad state of affairs. I even have a brand new computer waiting on my desk to be unpacked and set up, but haven’t felt good enough to do it. Looks like I’ll get to it in the next few days of quarantine, though. Oh, it’s funny how things work out.

On another note, I’ll be 32 next week. I’m not sure which is worse… the flu, or 32. It just sounds so old! No offense to those who are older, and much older than that, but you remember what it was like… even now, looking ahead to the years you haven’t yet reached. They seem so far away, until you get there. As Craig’s mom was saying just a couple days ago, the older you get, the older OLD is! Well said. Birthday time should be a time of self-evaluation. I would say I’m very happy with where my life is now. The Lord has blessed me with a beautiful family, the ability to stay home and teach the kids, health (for the most part), wonderful friends, and a comfortable life. If I had tried to guess where I would be now, 15 years ago, I don’t think I could have had any better aspirations. Well, I would probably have imagined that I worked out at least three days a week so I didn’t have a prematurely low-riding rear end, and maybe that I had more time for sewing, or gardening, or something like that. But, overall, I’m exactly where I want to be. That doesn’t mean that I’ve been entirely successful in accomplishing my personal goals, or that I have in any way earned or PUT myself in this place, just that the Lord has blessed me tremendously by leading me down the right paths, and opening the right doors for me, even if they didn’t seem right to me when they were opened. Even at the actually young age of 32, I can look back and see how much I’ve learned and grown from the painful lessons and events in my life. And, the ones from which I haven’t. 32 really is young, though, but a third of a normal life span, Lord willing. Hopefully, I have a good 50 or so more years to enjoy with Honey, the kids, and the grandkids someday, and plenty of time to learn the rest of those lessons and pass them on.