Thank you for all the kind thoughts and prayers–
A’s home from the hospital with two antibiotics, breathing exercises, a bad cough, and still not much of an appetite. But he got a lot of IV fluid pumped into him and he won a very bouncy ball playing Bingo at Primary’s this morning. He’s in good spirits, though still weak. I think I’m more traumatized from the whole ordeal than he is. But at least we’re all home together and back to the (what’s normal for now) routine.
C and D are still camped out on the living room floor every night. They think this is great, and as long as they stay symptom-free, I’m happy.
Except now my body’s rebelling on me. I’m taking Zofran to quell the nausea and vomiting from morning sickness and now I’m on Tamiflu, the principle side effects of which are nausea and vomiting. My body’s yelling at me to make up my mind what I want it to do. I feel so crummy and will probably spend most of tomorrow on my bed (again) catching up on some more sleeping and reading. Getting lost in colonial America helps keep me from worrying. Too much…
I’m already tired of it. I’m mad at the world and feeling frustrated and kind of helpless at the moment.
Apparently A does have swine flu. He’s had it since last week. There was a miscommunication or something between the doctor and DH or the nurse or somebody. I don’t know, I wasn’t there. I’m getting all the information second-hand. I guess they meant to convey that he didn’t have the regular influenza, but with all the flu symptoms, it had to be the H1N1 virus or swine flu because that’s the only flu that’s going around right now. And regardless of what the test said because the tests are not terribly accurate.
After DH took A back to the doctor with a much worse cough and sore throat yesterday, now they have decided the entire family should be taking Tamiflu so we won’t get infected or at least won’t get it as bad. Particularly me since I’m pregnant. Even though we’ve already been hanging out with a child with swine flu for the past eight days! We’re back to being quarantined in this house with each other. I think I have a small inkling of what it must have felt like in the middle ages to be boarded up inside your home because someone else inside had the plague and the people outside didn’t want it to spread.
Except now A has pneumonia developing in his left lung and is up at Primary Children’s Hospital with DH for the night, and who knows how much longer after that.
And I feel utterly helpless.
I spent last night in and out of sleep listening to A cough his lungs out, and I couldn’t be the one to go in and comfort him. To protect my littlest one, I’ve had to step aside all week and let DH comfort and care for our oldest one. That has been the hardest thing for me to do. I’m the mom. I’m the nurturer. I want to be there for them. It’s so hard to let go and let someone else care for, and comfort, and soothe.
Now I’m just trying to hold it together for the other two here at home with me, and praying that A gets better and that nobody else gets sick, and that we can get beyond this.
This is one nasty bug we’ve got here. A’s fever finally broke tonight. Of course we thought that last night and it returned this morning. But he feels really cool. Or so DH says. He won’t let me anywhere near the kid. A’s spent the past four days in his room quarantined away from the rest of us except for brief forays to the bathroom and kitchen when we’re not in them. Surprisingly he’s been really good-natured about it. He’s watched way too many movies on DH’s laptop and has started reading Harry Potter. He’s getting kind of bored though. Tomorrow we decided we’ll set up the card table and he can do a big jigsaw puzzle all by himself without worrying about little brothers’ “help” and I printed him off some long dot-to-dots. What a way to spend the holiday, huh?
But so far it’s working. None of the rest of us seem to catching whatever it is. And we don’t even know what it is. DH called the doctor’s office again because A was on day five of the fever, but though he has symptoms of swine flu and strep, both tests were negative. They said there’s another particularly nasty viral something or other going around right now and it could probably last another 3-5 days. Oh, and they’d love it if we didn’t infect anyone else. So I’m not sure if that means none of us are supposed to leave the house or what.
I’m already starting to get cabin fever. DH has been home the whole week because they don’t want his whole department infected with anything. We’ve been lounging around, watching movies, playing with toys, reading, and doing nothing terribly important in no kind of routine. And it’s different not having A out here interacting with us and talking to us. I really miss him. It’s a completely different dynamic with just C and D around all day. I’ll be so glad when this runs its course and we can get back to some sense of normal.
My summer school plans went out the window for this week, although we have watched a video on Galileo and C finished reading My Father’s Dragon and two other books I picked up for him at the library. He’s been resisting reading more challenging books because of the smaller text and fewer pictures even though he knows all the words. Then yesterday he brought it to me and said, “I read the whole thing silently!” So he’s really taking off with his reading.
He’s also been very interested in Pearl Harbor since Grandma and Poppa returned from Hawaii. He asked if he could watch Pearl Harbor. We said no…but maybe Tora, Tora, Tora would be a good choice instead. I don’t know, what do you do with a 6-year-old who wants to learn more about World War II???
We’ve also discovered that if you turn the car mat over (you know the kind with a town with roads and buildings on it), it functions nicely as a desert airfield for your B-17 bomber toys. I also heard them talking about building siege towers with their legos and a few days ago C turned to me in all earnestness and asked, “What’s the name of that island where the evil king with the Minotaur lived?” I suppose a little review of ancient history could count for history this week. And for science they’ve been devouring some new dinosaur books I picked up at the library.
As for me, I’ve been waited upon hand and foot practically by DH which has been really nice, except for the fact that eventually he’ll have to go back to work and I’ll have to start being responsible again. But I’ve been enjoying reading the entire newspaper every day, also reading The Five Thousand Year Leap, and spending way too much time surfing the internet when I don’t have the energy to do anything else. I also tried (and finished!) a 16×16 Sudoku puzzle just to see if I could remember how when I felt my brain turning to mush a few days ago.
And I had a successful doctor visit yesterday. Everything is normal and I’ve gained four pounds which is amazing, but very needed. And it was reassuring to hear that quick little heartbeat. I’m also on Zofran now (one very expensive drug, thank goodness for insurance) so I’m not nearly so nauseous at the moment although I really really hate taking drugs for anything. I was just so tired of being so sick for so long. Now I just feel weird. And tired.
So I’m going to bed now.
Topic for the day: Virus and the human body
Vocabulary Word: Quarantine –noun 1. a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease. –verb (used with object) 1. to put in or subject to quarantine. 2. to exclude, detain, or isolate for political, social, or hygienic reasons.
Practical application: A is sick. With what, who knows. He developed a fever late yesterday afternoon and has a bad cough and sore throat, aches, pains, chills, fatigue. All of which could indicate swine flu. Can I say we’re not excited? DH stayed home from work because he’s not feeling so hot either and took A to the doctor. Diagnosis–not swine flu and not strep throat, but try to keep him quarantined from pregnant Mommy as much as possible.
Well, that made our day fun. Poor A has basically had to stay in his bedroom all by himself all day to stay away from me, plus we don’t want the other two to catch whatever it is either. Of course they spent the whole day together yesterday and all of them went to Primary together on Sunday, so we’ll just see.
I’m not feeling sick, but I sure am tired. C and I were going to do some math and reading together this morning, but he wanted to listen to a book on tape first so I sat down and went in and out of sleep for a couple hours. I took another nap after dinner on the couch and now I’m wiiiiiiiide awake. C and D are now asleep on the living room floor while A is quarantined in his room.
So much for being more energetic this week. It should be interesting.
I feel the need to let school just slide this summer so I can concentrate on finding a new house, packing up this house, scrubbing 5,673 fingerprints off the walls, and continuing to grow a baby (which now that I’ve hit the 2nd trimester I’m really hoping some energy comes back even though I’m anticipating another month or so of “morning” sickness.)
But if I don’t have some kind of planned structure, even minimally, I’m just not that effective with my time. The past two summers we’ve taken four weeks or so to do a unit study (trains one year, airplanes last year) but I’m just not up to planning that much this year. So the plan is to do math every morning along with quiet reading time. Then
- Mondays are field trips and/or projects with Daddy
- Tuesdays are for science, we’re still finishing up our astronomy studies
- Wednesdays are for cello lessons every other week, the off weeks I haven’t decided on yet although A wants to learn to cook
- Thursdays are for history and reading aloud Birthdays of Freedom which will lead us up to the founding of this country next fall
- Fridays are for art and homeschool park day (every other week)
It’s been interesting to watch what the boys have done over the past two weeks. After a few days of nonstop train track building from one end of the house to the other, they’ve turned to other projects and been pretty creative on their own, although we still need more structure.
A enjoyed two days of cub scout camp and really liked the archery and the shooting. In fact, DH was with him that day and said he nailed every one of his targets. It was a proud Daddy moment even though they haven’t really practiced shooting. He said it must be in the genes. After working on the computer with me to make a healthy habits chart for his wolf badge, he decided he wants to learn how to type.
C has expressed an interest in learning to draw, so we’ll be pulling Drawing with Children back off the shelf. Both C and D want to study dinosaurs. If I can dredge up the energy to go to the library this week, I’m going to teach them how to find books they’re interested in and let them check out their own books on the topics they want to study so we can practice more self-directed learning than we’ve really been doing. Again, I will need everyone to be a little more self-sufficient this next school year.
So that’s the plan for the boys. For myself, I’m finishing up listening to the Teaching Company’s Late Middle Ages lectures and continuing to read. All the books I’ve had on hold at the library have all come in at the same time so I’m trying to get through the pile before they’re due back. I’m also starting to pack up our own books, I think I can handle packing a box or two a day. I have some massive amounts of shredding to do as I declutter and the dining room table is still covered with vestiges of 2nd grade school work that needs to be taken care of.
And I foresee banana bread in the near future. Bananas are about the only fruit I can stomach so DH bought a lot of them for me. I only eat green or barely ripe bananas (I have as many quirks as our house does.) I cannot stand even the smell of overripe bananas. But banana bread is sure yummy.
OK, this week is all about getting back into some routines. Two weeks is about the max for unlimited play time before we start getting grumpy with each other and not wanting to pick up anymore. I myself really needed a few weeks to do nothing (and believe me, I’ve done nothing!) and everyone is needing a little more structure in our days now.
As DH is off on Mondays, those are the new field trip days with Daddy. Today he took the boys to see some World War II aircraft down at the Provo airport (hopefully they’ll remember to take pictures for me) and also planned to catch a movie together. I’m here all by myself where I’m supposed to be getting myself organized. It’s not going so well, although I did wash my hair and put on some makeup for the third day in a row. I think that’s some kind of record for me lately.
I still wonder why I have 8, 6, and 4-year olds and we just can’t seem to keep the morning habits going. I mean, how hard is it to remember you get up, pray, make your bed, get dressed, comb your hair and brush your teeth? You’d think we’d have that little routine down by now, but no. We don’t. So we pulled the morning routine chart back out and nothing else (technically) happens until the cards are all turned over. (I say technically because right now, they get up with the sun which is way earlier than I feel up to making an appearance in the morning. Mornings are not my best time. Not that I feel fabulous in the afternoon or evening either…) Anyway, they often find ways of entertaining themselves if I’m not right there to nag remind them of what they’re supposed to be doing. My main goal for everyone in the next six months is to be more self-sufficient as Mommy will have a lot on her plate come 2010.
I tried sticker charts and check-off charts and those just didn’t ever work very well with little hands. I finally bought a pocket chart at the teacher supply store and made cards for everyone in their own color. All they have to do is flip the card over when the task is completed. Even D can handle it. 
Last year I would put in individual cards for their morning chores as well, but I didn’t do so well keeping track of all the cards. Now I have a separate chart that just lists who does what on what day of the week, and it doesn’t change often. In fact, I need to redo the lists now that everyone is older and now that DH has been having them do more work to help me out while I’m pregnant. They’re capable of a lot more than we give them credit for!
The pink cards are dinner time kitchen cards that rotate on a weekly basis so those that just “Haaaate to sweeeeep!” only have to suffer through it until the next Sunday.
Our major focus is perseverance, and the ability to stick to a task until it is finished. We’re terrible at this lately. Anytime someone feels like not doing what they’ve been asked to do, they wander off and start something new. We had a long talk about this last night with Daddy. I feel bad, because I have not been the best example lately. I get tired frequently and sometimes just have to stop what I’m doing to sit for a while. And I’m also not always there to keep at them until they finish a task. But that’s life at this moment. A is actually pretty good. C and D need some serious help though. I need some help with incentives.
We’ll add to this our school plans too, but I will save them for the next post. I got extra wordy today.
We finally had to break down and turn on the air conditioner. It’s been such a nice rainy June! I’ve loved it. I love leaving the windows open day and night so we can smell the cool fresh air and having it wafting through the house. But no more. Summer is here and with it are two quirks of this house that I most definitely will NOT miss.
First, our bedroom has no vent. It’s an add-on to the original house and they didn’t put a vent in it. So it’s cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Flannel sheets, two thick quilts, an electric blanket, and sleeping with socks (which I really hate) get me through the winter. Summer is somewhat bearable if I turn off the A/C at night, open the window, and turn on the ceiling fan. Somewhat.
DH would prefer to leave the A/C on at night and sleep on an air mattress in the living room.
We open the windows. Air mattress or my memory foam? That’s not even a choice. It also helps the other quirk I hate about this house.
We live in an 1896 bungalow which was remodelled sometime in the 1950s by this sweet little German couple who sold it to us in 2002. We have been amazed at what they did with what little they had. The house is quirky though. I know there was a root cellar to the original house, but we’re pretty sure they dug out the rest of the basement by hand. And didn’t put in a drain. The laundry and bathroom are both upstairs, so who needs a drain in the basement anyway? Well, we do. The A/C unit drips water from a PVC pipe into a bucket in the basement any time it’s running and all we have to do is remember to empty the bucket 1-2 times a day. Remember being the operative word here.
If you don’t empty the bucket, it overflows and without a drain, you just have to wait for the water to evaporate. Luckily the floor is uneven and it just trickles over and pools in the corner underneath my food storage shelving.
I can’t even carry a full bucket of water up the stairs to empty anyway. So I have to remember to check the bucket even more often. For that alone, I can’t wait to move.
Speaking of moving, house hunting is just so much fun! And so full of questions.
How many bedrooms do we need? Well, we have two currently and could fit the bunk bed, trundle bed, and crib in there. But having four children in one bedroom might be a little much for our sanity.
How many do we want? Well, I’d really love 5 bedrooms. We could actually have somewhere for the grandparents to come stay without them having to pull out the air mattress and sleep on the dining room floor. They’ve done it before, but…
Would we rather have 5 bedrooms and an ok yard, or fewer bedrooms and a huge yard?
Then there are the houses with 5 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, family room, and several bathrooms in about the same square footage as my house. How is that even possible?
Then there is the gorgeous house with the gorgeous view, unbelievably affordable…oh, tested positive for methamphetamine use. Nevermind…
And all of these are really irrelevant at this moment as we still haven’t even applied for a loan so we know exactly how much we can afford. Although we have a good idea that the houses we can definitely afford are probably in neighborhoods we’d rather not live in.
Then there is the question of whether we should try to fix up this house enough to sell it now, seeing how its current curb appeal is pretty low, and considering we’ll have a prepayment penalty on our mortgage if we sell before November. Or if we should rent it out, which would be great if we could find a renter soon, so we wouldn’t have to pay two mortgages for a while. Been there, done that with our rental house up in Weber County and I don’t care to repeat the experience.
Bleh…
What a way to spend the summer. I’m just dying to put all my school books and things in order, and there are some bookcases I really want to buy, but it would be pretty silly to buy furniture for a house that you haven’t even met yet.
And he is sooo excited!
He noticed it was wiggly last Wednesday at Grandma’s house and was so surprised. He wiggled and wiggled and wiggled it all day long. After dinner he could almost lay it over horizontally. I told him he should just pull it out and be done with it. So he did!
And that is the difference between my oldest two boys. Whenever A has a loose tooth, he’ll play around with it for a little while, but resists all efforts to have it pulled out–”It might hurt, Mom.” He’s happy to just let them fall out on their own, weeks later, sometimes after his big teeth have already come in, which is why he spent the majority of last summer and fall with three front teeth.
C is so thrilled to lose more teeth, especially after I assured him we could cut corn-on-the-cob off the cob if his front teeth should come out before corn season is over.
In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.
In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.
He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.
He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door.
As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.
As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, “What happened here today?”
She again smiled and answered, “You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?”
“Yes,” was his incredulous reply.
She answered, “Well, today I didn’t do it.”
This is one of my all-time favorite jokes. Sadly, it’s a little too true to life at the moment. I don’t think I really notice how many little things I do around the house each and every day until I am…not doing them. And I have not been doing them for about the last six weeks. And the house looks it!
I will say that DH knows how much I do around here on a daily basis and he has been fabulous lately since I’m just not up to doing it all right now. He cooks a lot. He’s taken over washing the dishes for me (which he hates to do), he helps the kids pick up their stuff, and helps them fold all the laundry and get it put away. Eventually. But he still has a full-time job to do outside the house and there are just so many little things that don’t get done every day.
When I’m feeling normal and well and not worrying about what to eat next and whether or not it will stay down, I’m constantly in the habit of walking through the house and picking up this, and straightening that. I do it mindlessly and they are really small things, but by the end of the day, they really add up to a nicer, neater home. On one hand it drives me crazy to see all the clutter that is slowly taking over while I expend what little energy I have on growing a baby. On the other hand, it has made me realize that we need some better habits and routines in place for everyone so that when Mom just isn’t functioning, the home doesn’t fall apart.
On a happier note, one of our inner-city service missionaries dropped by last Friday out of the blue to see if she could cut the boys’ hair, saying she felt prompted to throw her hair things in the car when she had to come downtown on some church business, just in case we would be home. It was 1:00, there were toys from one end of the house to the other, the kitchen looked awful, I had just gotten out of the shower, and was about to eat lunch. The boys hadn’t eaten yet either, but weren’t particularly starving so she came in and cut their hair while I ate. She hadn’t heard I was pregnant, but after chatting with me, she said I must be overwhelmed, so she stayed another hour and cleaned my entire kitchen for me. I must say, it has not been that clean in weeks. The dishes are never quite all done so the entire drainboard and sink don’t ever seem to get scrubbed. People cook, but the stovetop never seems to get cleaned everyday. It was just such a blessing for me to see some shine and sparkle in the kitchen for a change.
Now I’m trying to figure out how to keep going on the rest of the house. We started our old morning routine chart again today (pictures to come). We’re on summer break, but I can see that we need more routine around here, including more housework for the boys, as they are already starting to pick at each other and argue more. I’m still trying to decide just how the rest of the summer will go, but for now, I can only seem to take life one day at a time. Unfortunately my head still goes a million miles an hour and I’ve had many thoughts I want to blog about, but my body just doesn’t have the energy to convert them into typed words. We’ll see what happens next…
Off to eat more Haagen-Dazs…
