A Week, Briefly (In Which We Are Sick)

Monday
I was sick.
Lola was running a fierce fever and fighting pink eye to boot.
Baymax was finishing up being sick.
Pixie said her "whole body hurt."
Various other small people were sneezing and/or coughing.

We did not start school up again.

Instead Rose Red went on a date with a very nice boy who makes her heart beat a little faster than usual.

Pixie napped, took some ibuprofen and joined Super Star and a church friend at the roller skating rink.

I did 8 loads of laundry and mapped out a new daily schedule for the upcoming semester.

We chose Madeline for our preschool book of the week.

We updated our Morning Meeting routine for the new year:
Continue with Egermeier's Bible Stories
Follow the 2017 Primary schedule for song/scripture of the month
Continue memorizing New Testament scripture passages
Continue reading The Book of Mormon
Review The Family: A Proclamation to the World and The Living Christ on alternating Mondays
Memorize the Articles of Faith (this is new for the 6 and under crowd, review for the rest of us)

Pixie came home from roller skating, admitted she'd overdone it and collapsed in a weeping heap.  She slept and wept off and on for a while.  I administered hugs, ibuprofen, and herbal tea and sent her to bed.

Brother had a melt down of his own.

Once most of the family were in bed, and we were just waiting for Sir Walter Scott to bring Rose Red home from work, I pulled Belle over and showed her some instructional videos on needle felting to help her get started using the wool and needles she got for Christmas.  She's pretty excited to get started on some projects.

Sir Walter Scott and I sat up discussing the needs of various children for a while.  It is such a blessing to have him as my partner in this work of raising our family.

Tired though I was, it was hard to sleep with the needs of our children pressing on my mind.

But prayer is a gift, and Heavenly Father answered mine with peace.

Tuesday
The day began too early with Mister Man waking from a nightmare at 4:00 am.  Then Brother and Little Brother threw a party at 4:30 am.  They were so loud they woke up Nature Angel, and Sir Walter Scott had to move Little Brother to a couch downstairs where he promptly fell back to sleep.  Brother and Nature Angel slept again, too.

We have a ginormous house.  We should be able to arrange it so that children's sleeping needs are met, but we have enough special circumstances to make bedroom arrangements hard!  We've made physical changes and mapped out other changes only to run into obstacles.

I guess it's time to return to prayer.

The highlight of the day was picking up Belle's (late) birthday present--a puppy!

Meet Theo.

Belle cried when she saw him.  She is happier than I've ever seen her, and though Sir Walter Scott and I don't really want a dog (our previous dog died late last spring), we felt strongly that Belle needed one.  All through our journey of trying to decide whether to go ahead and do this or not, we kept trying to back out, but Heavenly Father would open a door or reconfirm that this is important for our girl.

And He, of course, is so right.

Belle just shines.

Theo has woken up something in her that was dormant for lack of light.  I've worried and prayed long over her needs, and Theo is an important answer for her development and well-being.  (The needle-felting will probably sit on a shelf for a while 🌝)

It doesn't hurt that Theo is too cute for words.

Wednesday
We were really, really sick.

When the girls texted their church leaders to let them know they wouldn't be at activities that night one of them spent the day making an enormous pot of homemade chicken soup then packed up her kids and drove 15 miles to our house to deliver it just in time for dinner.

I'm positive there's a place in heaven for her.

Thursday
Another really, really sick day.  More of us are down.  The only healthy ones were Sir Walter Scott (he was at work), Ladybug, Mister Man, Brother, Little Brother, and Little Princess.  Super Star was kind of okay--at least enough to help pass out some food here and there, but we were in a bad way.

Sweet Belle felt terrible, but she held herself together to take care of Theo.  At one point Nature Angel and Little Princess watched him so that Bell could nap for a while.  But poor Nature Angel was a wreck by the time Belle woke up.

Friday
Mister Man is down now, and Sir Walter Scott is sneezing suspiciously.  He says he's okay, but I suspect he's on his way down.  Little Brother said his "froat hurt" last night, so I have my suspicions about him, too.

The fevers are terrible--nearly 104--and the aches are horrible.   No one is going to die of this, but we are pretty sick.

Sir Walter Scott is home today, and he's a nurse by profession.  I'm going to leave him to nursing duties while I go back to bed (I got up with the babies for a while so he could get a bit of sleep--I think he got up every half hour last night with someone) and try to recuperate enough to take back over care of the family before he falls prey to this illness.

I'm thinking we're not going to resume school for a while.

I'm so thankful that we're usually healthy!!!!

(Linking here)