Raining and Pouring

So you know what was NOT on our list of fun summer activities? Getting sick. Phooey on kids getting sick! Monday morning Maddie had a fever and by noon Reagan had one as well. I did something I have never done before - called Brian and asked him to come home for lunch so that I could get two sick kids fed and put down for badly needed naps.

When they woke up their fevers were still raging and neither one of them wanted to do anything except lay around and cry intermittently. It was so sad and pathetic. So I rocked with Maddie while Reagan flopped around on the floor in feverish discomfort. They did not sleep well Monday night. Reagan begged me countless times to take her to the doctor. We medicated and soothed and forced them to drink their fluids. By Tuesday morning, Maddie's fever was pretty much gone and she was returning to normal. Reagan's fever came back after her afternoon nap, but seemed to fade in the evening. They slept better...but not great. Violent thunderstorms with constant lightning strikes, incidentally, do not help children sleep well. But I feel they are on the mend. It wasn't a particularly "messy" illness, just a miserable one.

Now we are dealing with the lingering effects of kids being sick - namely their attitudes leave a LOT to be desired. The same is true for me, I am afraid. I am trying very hard to be sympathetic and patient. But it is HARD when you are low on sleep, haven't properly showered in days, and are just plain worn out. So things are improving and I am doing massive amounts of laundry just to wash the sick out of this house.

It goes without saying, I suppose, and that means I should probably leave this cliche phrase out of this post - but I'll include it anyway - you just don't know how good things are until something goes wrong. The big picture tells me that non-life-threatening illnesses are nothing to get worked up about. I know I need to be more thankful for healthy children...all the time.

We are trying to pull ourselves back together here but the dreary weather is making that a challenge. So far the only thing that seems to calm the waters around here is large doses of coffee (for me), puzzles (for them) and public television (for all of us). Needless to say, this has put a little wrinkle in our summer fun plans. We'll just have to make next week EXTRA fun :)