That’s when life happens, right?

Last weekend, Brent had scheduled himself off for four consecutive days in a row! Saturday through Tuesday he was going to be home! My brain fluttered and scurried about composing to-do lists for both of us. There were stacks of projects in every corner that needed attention, school work to be caught up on, and ohmyword the amount of soap I could make! And of course, there would be some leisurely reading time in there for Brent.

It snowed that Friday (a week ago today) but the kids couldn’t play in it because they were starting to sniffle a bit. Mary the cat did get a nice spot on the window sill to watch the flurries all day though.

Friday night at 5:30 I was just getting to math lessons with the girls, but first I needed to clear a path on the table. In the midst of this, Charis slipped on the dust buster (that was sitting out in the middle of the floor) and let out a blood curdling scream. I knew without even looking that it was bad… and I didn’t want to look. She left a trail of blood behind her as she approached me, bleeding all over her new socks she had gotten for Valentine’s Day from Grammy. I promptly tossed my sober-minded-Mommy hat and thoroughly freaked out. She had split her chin open to high heaven. Mercy me, I couldn’t hardly look at it without feeling like I was either going to vomit or pass out and I was certain she was going to need stitches. On a Friday night. And did I mention that Brent was working that night? Oh yes he was. Because nothing interesting ever happens while Daddy is actually home.

I called everyone I knew a few people for advice and sent Brent a picture of the damage. The general consensus seemed to be that stitches were not necessary since it was a clean cut and also in an inconspicuous place (under her chin). Great. Now I had to… ummm… touch it? I called Natalie instead. (She is the oldest of 7 kids, with 5 of her own, so she’s more experienced than any emergency room goon anyway). She came right over. Three butterfly bandages and two regular bandaids later, Charis was good as new. (Later we changed to a piece of gauze over the butterfly closures,which FYI was a BAD IDEA because it stuck to her wound and pulled the scab off when we removed it.)

So much for my plan of having the house in order for our big weekend with Daddy home. The kids went to bed with dishes in the sink, toys strewn about, and me cowering in a corner.

And so our industrious four day weekend began.

Saturday I got hit with whatever virus it was our family was fighting, and we found out that another family at church had the same thing and their babies were in the hospital. I managed to get a couple of batches of soap done (all Chamomile Luxe fans can rejoice- we’ve got 180-ish bars curing!) and then I started to crash. And I watched all my plans of a wonderful four day Valentine’s weekend go up in flames snot mucus vomit blood …we’ll just stick with flames.

Since we believe wholeheartedly in NOT SHARING OUR SICK GERMS WITH OTHER PEOPLE, WE STAY HOME. Yes, I am shouting. And furthermore, I’ll insert a rant here, because this is my blog and I’ll rant if I want to.

PEOPLE:

• If you are coughing something OUT OF YOUR LUNGS, STAY HOME. Despite what you would like to think, you probably are contagious.
• If your child has snot pouring from every orifice on their face, STAY HOME. Just because he is two does not make it acceptable.
• If anyone in your family has vomited in the last 24-48 hours, STAY HOME.

Do you realize what happens when you take your sick self/child around other people? You risk spreading the sickness. Americans would not suffer from so many so-called “pandemics” or “epidemics” if folks would just STAY THE HECK HOME when they are sick. Is it so hard? Really? Just get in bed, curl up on the couch! Rent a movie…Relax a little and keep your germies to yourself. Furthermore, you/your child will get better much faster if you stay home and rest anyway.

End of rant.

So we stayed home on Sunday as a personal favor to every single family in our church. You can thank us next time you see us out in public where we’ll probably be picking up another virus. Oh yeah. My rant is ended.

Sunday morning brought terrible news that a loved one had suddenly passed away in the night. My family’s pastor’s wife had died after having some sort of respiratory illness, probably a lot like what we all are battling now. The funeral was set for Wednesday and I could only pray that we would be better in time to go. (SINCE WE DON’T SHARE OUR SICK GERMS WITH OTHERS.)

Anyway. The girls had worked so hard on Valentine’s cards for all the kids at church, but they didn’t get to give them out. And I was trying to keep my lungs intact as I coughed all day with intermittent tears of grief for the family that had lost their wife and mother.

Brent went to Whole Foods to pick up some supplies for the impending HELL we were about to go through (herbs and such) and came in the door with roses just in time to catch me sitting on the cough with a snot rag shoved up one nostril. Romantic, yes?

{Incidentally, you may be interested to know that you can get 16 really soft hankies out of one old receiving blanket.}

My wonderful man fixed a really nice meal of Blue Cheese Crusted Filet with Twice Baked Potatoes! I only had to help a little with the scooping and loading of the potatoes, but he did the rest himself…

And we all ate by candlelight.

We really don’t go “out” on dates very often because we put our kids to bed a couple of hours before our bedtime. If Brent is home, this means that we get to spend time together without the kids, and this night was no exception. We put those suckers to bed and broke out the chocolate cake! (In all fairness, the kids each got one cupcake earlier in the day)

Candlelight again. We’ve had dinner by candlelight every night since.

Monday I was stuck on the couch most of the day, getting sicker by the moment. Evelyn was developing a rather crazy sounding cough as well. I was trying not to be disturbed by the fact that everyone else we knew that had this whateveritwas had either died, been hospitalized, or was at the very least on antibiotics.

Normally our approach to sickness is very laid back. First we just watch and see what is going to happen. Then if the body looks like it needs assistance healing, we use gentle herbs (echinacea, vitamin C, etc). If the condition persists, we get a little more aggressive with some stronger herbs (goldenseal, olive leaf extract, osha root in this case, etc), and finally, if all else fails, we trust our lives to the doctor. And of course we pray a whole lot.

This is what our countertop looks like once we’ve launched our assault on the illness.

Brent ended up having to call into work on Wednesday and Thursday because he didn’t want to infect the rest of his team.

Wednesday I was trying not to be angry that I was missing the funeral and all of my family was mourning together with their church family and I couldn’t be there to support them. I was also trying to let go of all the plans I had for our wonderful four day weekend. And at some point, someone gave me espresso. I shoveled compost into the garden beds, did laundry, made soap all day, and finished off with the  most amazing from-scratch pizza crust ever. Then I crashed. Again.

This time was worse. Thursday Brent headed back out for stronger herbs and I spent the day in bed while my brain fried from my high fever. My hero appeared at some point to massage my aching body and spritz me down with Peppermint Oil to lower my body temp. It was a moment of bliss amongst all the misery. Charis wasn’t sick at all, Brent had a terrible cough, and the other kids were coping just fine. But I was just getting worse by the minute, although determined not to subject myself to antibiotics unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, I don’t even go to the doctor to have a baby! =D

So here it is, Friday again. A week has gone by. A very very eventful week in which not much got accomplished. I find myself (yet again) learning to be content amidst circumstances that I have no control over.

So, I’m thankful. I’m thankful that we have (so far) been able to beat this illness in holistic ways. I’m thankful that at least Brent was already planning to be home when this all happened. I’m thankful for the sweetest kids on earth. I’m thankful to be alive, quite frankly.

And when I can breath again, I’ll be thankful for that too!