March Madness

The cloud of illness has yet to lift itself from over my house. This month has been so crappy ~ it seems we have moved from one illness to another. I was able to evade the stomach flu but I have gotten caught by the cold and chills, cough and sneeze bug. And it sucks.

Not only do I feel crappy, but because of the pregnancy I can't take anything to feel less crappy. I can take Tylenol, which is alright but there is no option to make myself drowsy with meds so I can sleep at least. The fact that sleep evades me is the worst part of the whole deal. I found myself thinking delusional thoughts yesterday...may be it was the fever but when I caught myself wondering, "What is the difference between a beret and tam-o-shanter? Is it the pom-pom?", I started questioning my sanity.

The thing about being sick in my home is that it highlights the difference between men and women. Yesterday was Sunday -- it's always a busy morning in our home trying to get everyone up, looking nice, fed and out the door for church. Usually, I'm up first, showered and getting breakfast for the gang. Then it's a strict schedule of eating, showering, doing the kids hair, ironing any wrinkly "church clothes", doing the dishes and getting out the door.

But not yesterday. When Daddy is in charge (cause mom can't get out of bed), Sunday mornings are a whole different thing. So here's a Dad version of a Sunday morning...
-Get out of bed
-Play a little game of UNO
-Play another little game of Scrabble
-Tell everyone to get dressed (no ironing involved whatsoever)
-Eat something for breakfast
-Get out the back massager and everyone gets a turn getting and giving a massage
-Fill the sink with hot soapy water
-Wrestle
-Brush teeth

And the list goes on. It's a much more fun way to start the day, but as I was lying in bed, listening to all of this, it was driving me CRAZY!! But because my voice was croaky, no one heard me mumbling to myself. And really, what difference did it make? They all got to church on time and actually looked pretty decent when heading out the door.

The other part of being sick is that mom's should just not be sick at all. We should be immune to every illness on the planet. After the gang got home from church, Nate brought me lunch in bed and left me to nap for the afternoon.

I was just dozing off when I heard a banging at my bedroom window. And there, peeking in was a happy little face smiling and waving at me. One of my kids just wanting to make sure I was okay. Only moments later, another of my children comes barging in my room wanting help putting his coat on. By the time I knew it, I'd been in bed for a couple of hours without a wink of sleep. Kindly, Nate decided to take the kids out for the afternoon to leave me in peace...all kids but one. Thinking I had peace at last, I was ready for a snooze...and then one of my delightful children comes in with this important bit of information:
"Hey Mom, did you know the population of Toronto is 2.54 million people?"
It was then that I got a little testy. My response: "No, NO, NO!!! I don't want to chat. I want sleep, SLEEP! I want you to go to another room and watch a movie (a big treat at our house) and let me rest because I'm sick!"
The door to my room quietly closed and I didn't hear a peep from anyone until about 7:30 pm.

I think they got my point. And sleep did come, eventually...despite my dilemma over berets and tam-o-shanters.

Getting The Diamond

I like traditions -- a lot of the things in life that are truly meaningful are traditions. Think of Christmas, and other special occasions. Memories are made of this stuff.

When my grandparents decided to down size a few years back, they allowed us to come into their homes and pick through whatever we wanted. It was funny to see what each of the grand-kids picked -- not the Doultons or the good dishes but the simple, every day things that we used at Grandma and Grandpa's. Things that brought back memories of sweet times with them.

One of the silly traditions that we used to do at my Grandma's was at dinner time. We would all sit down, say grace for the meal and immediately all the kids would pick up their knife and shake it. We were checking to see if we "got the diamond." One of Grandma's table knives had a small piece of metal inside the knife handle that would rattle when we shook it. Somewhere in our family history somebody mentioned it was a diamond....and since that day, it was good luck if you sat down and got the diamond.

When Grandma asked us what we wanted, one of the things I chose was her silverware -- not the good silver at all. The everyday stuff that had the knife with the diamond.

This week we had company for dinner. It was the second time these friends had been over for dinner since I acquired Grandma's silverware. I laughed aloud when, on Tuesday night, they came in, sat down for dinner, looked down at their plates and both of their kids immediately picked up their knives and gave them a shake.

The simple things in life are the most pleasing, wouldn't you say? When it comes down to it, the day in-day out stuff is where we really make our memories. My Grandma's household tradition lives on in my house and it makes me smile to think about it -- I think she'd be pleased.

ALIVE!

Yes, we made it. We are all still alive and almost well. I cannot believe how long this bug lasted in our home DEPSITE the Lysol and other cleaners that I used to disinfect our home.

Anyhow, the worst is over and better, healthier days are ahead, I hope.

Time is flying by -- I can hardly believe next week is March Break. It always seems to me that once you hit March Break, spring is around the corner and the months of April and May fly by. This pregnancy hasn't been an easy one, but it certainly has been fast so far. I think I'm 30 weeks as of tomorrow ~ how did 30 weeks pass that quickly? I'm as round as a barrel and feeling like I should be more like 36 weeks by my size....but despite that I seem to keep moving. The typical symptoms of a sore back, trouble sleeping, indigestion/heart burn and a serious inability to tie my own shoes are all here...but so are the good ones, like feeling the baby kick, and.....oh dear, what are the other good symptoms of the last trimester of pregnancy?? Anyone??

Oh yeah, that I'm that much closer to being done ~ and I mean really really done.

Dropping Like Flies

Oh, this will be a blog you want to read about FOR SURE. This week at home is nothing but illness...and when I say illness, I mean Barf.

On Monday night, little Jack started tossing his cookies at about 10 pm and did so every half hour (you could set a clock to this kid) until about 2:30 am. He and I finally got some rest after that although the laundry pile had exceeded my height by that time...his bedding, my bedding, etc.

On Tuesday, he barfed a couple of times. Once on our couch. Not on the leather chairs where you can wash and wipe easily. At least it was a sunny day and the cushions could dry out on the front porch. I also came home very late from a meeting and found Jack fast asleep in his bed...which he had barfed on and hadn't even bothered to wake himself up. So I peeled the gross jammies off him, cleaned him up and started the 12th load of laundry for that day. I plopped him in my bed again, and decided to lay a thick blanket underneath him, just in case. About two minutes later he barfed on that. At least I had the forethought to lay it there.

Today, we have completely lost the battle. Kylie went down first in a less-than-dramatic way. My ten year old son however, put on a great show. He is never sick and I really think he has no recollection of ever barfing. So he was like the deer-caught-in-the-headlights, shocked by this terrible thing happening to him and barfed all over my bedroom floor (hardwood, thank the Lord.) He never even made a step to the washroom, it caught him so much by surprise. However, the sound of his sickness was just too much for Kylie and she started again.

Now, my ten year old son is still in shock by being assaulted by this nasty bug and every so often I hear him calling out a play-by-play of his feelings, just to alert me of any strange going-on in his body. I'll hear a "...there's a bubbly feeling in my stomach now." or "...my muscles are tightening up!" His voice sounds a touch panicky and I feel so bad, but it does brings some humor to me....I know, I'm a bad mother.

Nolan was not able to last very long either -- he was last to give in and did his darndest to stay strong but he was overtaken just a while ago. His was less dramatic as I have given each child the gift of a bucket and a box of kleenex in their beds. They are currently resting and listening to CD's. Jack is fast asleep.

What a day. I feel queasy. I am praying, and I mean REALLY praying that Nate and I are able to steer clear of this. I know this is a totally gross blog, but this is the stuff motherhood is made of. Betcha Angelina never has a day like this...