I don't kcow if that title quite describes it well enough-maybe I should have titled it: "The winter we wanted to forget!" Seriously-healthwise, this has been the toughest season we have had........ever..........in our entire parenting careers. Since Thanksgiving, there has always been someone sick at our house. I'm not kidding. The only one who was spared was our 17 year old son, but that is only because he works a full time night job and sleeps during the day, so we don't see him enough to infect him! The rest of us got sick at least 2, 3, or 4 times over the past two months. Colds, congestion, fevers, vomiting (that was fun!), sore throats, coughs, and our latest.....bronchitis and pneumonia.
I spent last weekend at the emergency room with my 11 year old daughter who was throwing up 10 times a day, unable to keep anything down. An x-ray, several tests, and a long wait later....they told us she was in the beginning stages of pneumonia. She spent the entire week home from school, recovering and slowly getting back her strength. Besides a little wheezing and some coughing, you'd never guess she'd been so sick. She's continuing with breathing treatments, so we anticipate a full recovery!
Just after she started recovering, 3 more of us developed the same awful, uncontrollable cough (yes-I was one of the lucky ones!) When things weren't improving and mom wasn't getting more than 3 hours of sleep a nite (!), off we shuffled to the doctor to get our own round of antibiotics and steroids to cure what we had.....bronchitis. We've nearly finished our meds and things are improving....slowly. There are still many coughing fits, but they're not as often-and we're definitely sleeping better at nite.
If there ever were a time I was excited for spring to come, that would be now. It can't arrive soon enough. Being able to be outside in the fresh air, instead of closed up inside with all the germs will certainly improve our chances! Plus, it's a nice mental boost, too. Yes, this was a rough winter...but I can't say it wasn't memorable! The winter of '12 will definitely go down in history for us!
Monday, January 21, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
A fun outing!
Today we took a special field trip to a special place my 8 year old son had been waiting an eternity for-the Lego store! Fortunately for us, there is one here in Houston only a half hour away, but since we're never in that part of town, we just never made the trip there. We picked the perfect day-nonstop pouring rain all day-and headed down to the mall. He and my 4 year old son were in awe when we finally reached the store. So many legos in one place!
There was a huge selection, yes, but given that Legos aren't exactly cheap, we would have needed to take out a small loan to please these little guys! We finally settled on a small minifigure pack, which he paid for, and mom splurged for a lego shaped bank for big guyand a spiderman keychain for little brother.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Back to the usual routine...
After a long and refreshing 2 week Christmas break, it was back to school for some of my kiddos and back to homeschool for the others. It's hard to believe that these are the only two still at home during the day!
Well,actually I still have my preschooler home, too, but he wouldn't sit still long enough to be in the picture. Though I know it's good to get back to the normal routine, it was nice having everyone home together, getting to spend more time with them. As it is, most of them are gone from early morning until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, so the only time I really get to see them is in the evenings. We didn't plan a lot of activities and stuff to do during this Christmas break-to be honest, were actually sick most of the time. But we did spend a lot of time just hanging out, enjoying eachother's company, whether it be watching a movie, reading a book, doing an errand, or playing x-box! So when the buses came early this morning, I was happy they could get back to their studies, but was sad to see them go.
We had an unusually calm homeschooling day and even made a run out to the store....in the pouring rain.....to replace a popped balloon for a sad little 4 year old. Yep....$1 spent on a new one and I'm supermom! Made me feel great.
The kiddos helped with the dinner prep-meatloaf and potatoes-they love it. I hate peeling potatoes, but my little helpers don't mind, so it works out great. The wrench thrown in all this is my 2 (yes two!) diehard vegetarians in our house. No meat shall pass their lips, so I find myself getting creative with their meals while trying to keep them similair to ours. Enter the veggie loaf!
Completely vegetarian. Baked up great, held its shape and was pretty decent. If you expected it to taste like meat, you'd be sadly disappointed-it's not supposed to.
Well, time to get on to homework, showers, lunch prep for tomorrow, and the cycle starts over again! Can't wait till spring break!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
What would you pay for a nap?
Sunday night was date night for hubby and I-something we try to do consistently about every 6 weeks or so. We need the refreshment and adult time to talk about something besides kids! Actually our date nite was Saturday, but he was sick so we switched it to Sunday. Fortunately, our babysitter
(our oldest son) had off both days, so it was fine. Problem was....I was sick. Sick with this awful, yucky, head cold/sore throat thing I received on Christmas and does not want to let up. Fearing it would be way too long before we got to do it again, and knowing how much he wanted to go see a particular movie, I decided to buck it up and push through. I wasn't trying to play the martyr role and hubby was not making me feel guilty if I didn't want to go, I just figured maybe I'd start feeling better once I was out and about. Well....that was a wrong guess.
We got to the theater and bought our tickets for the 3 hour (yes, 3 hours!) movie and hunkered down. I stayed with it for much of the first part, but my body took over after that and I snoozed...out cold for the last 2/3 of the movie. So if you're going to see the Hobbit, don't ask me if it's a good movie-I don't know! Though it was a bummer to miss a movie you paid good money for, I got to thinking that actually, it was money well spent, considering the circumstances. I mean, I would never have gotten over 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep in the middle of the day like I did there. No one waking me to ask for something, no loud voices keeping me awake (okay-the movie volume doesn't count), and it was nice and dark. Ahhhhhhhh....it was actually....nice! Hmmmm..maybe I should do this more often!
After the movie, we drove to dinner and, despite having a server who was shockingly inattentive (okay-actually completely absent!), we were able to enjoy a good meal, but more importantly, some good conversation and time spent together. And we got a good laugh about the server. When we got home, I promptly put myself to bed and rested, which is what my body was screaming for! Should I have gone out that nite? Probably not-I would have done better nursing myself back to health. But was it worth it? You bet!
(our oldest son) had off both days, so it was fine. Problem was....I was sick. Sick with this awful, yucky, head cold/sore throat thing I received on Christmas and does not want to let up. Fearing it would be way too long before we got to do it again, and knowing how much he wanted to go see a particular movie, I decided to buck it up and push through. I wasn't trying to play the martyr role and hubby was not making me feel guilty if I didn't want to go, I just figured maybe I'd start feeling better once I was out and about. Well....that was a wrong guess.
We got to the theater and bought our tickets for the 3 hour (yes, 3 hours!) movie and hunkered down. I stayed with it for much of the first part, but my body took over after that and I snoozed...out cold for the last 2/3 of the movie. So if you're going to see the Hobbit, don't ask me if it's a good movie-I don't know! Though it was a bummer to miss a movie you paid good money for, I got to thinking that actually, it was money well spent, considering the circumstances. I mean, I would never have gotten over 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep in the middle of the day like I did there. No one waking me to ask for something, no loud voices keeping me awake (okay-the movie volume doesn't count), and it was nice and dark. Ahhhhhhhh....it was actually....nice! Hmmmm..maybe I should do this more often!
After the movie, we drove to dinner and, despite having a server who was shockingly inattentive (okay-actually completely absent!), we were able to enjoy a good meal, but more importantly, some good conversation and time spent together. And we got a good laugh about the server. When we got home, I promptly put myself to bed and rested, which is what my body was screaming for! Should I have gone out that nite? Probably not-I would have done better nursing myself back to health. But was it worth it? You bet!
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