When sickies happen

Monday Peter woke up and was rather lethargic.  Being the good parents we are, we went to grab the thermometer...and couldn't find it.  I shrugged my shoulders and chalked it up to the time change.  The kids always drag around this time of year for about a week.  (I really hate the time change by the way - I don't know why we can't just fix the time so we've got daylight in the evenings and leave it be all year long!)

I went off to work and William took the kids to school.  While at the daycare, he had them check his temp.  101.3.  Oh - hey - he really IS sick!  So I stopped at the store to get some sick essentials (chicken noodle soup ingredients, popcycles, some Tylenol and a new thermometer).

I had this blog post written in my head about how I appreciated the fact that overall my kids enjoy pretty good health.  I didn't mind staying home, I was blessed to be able to work from home.  And praise God that Peter very rarely gets sick!

But at the time I wrote this post I had expected it to be a one day thing.  Whenever my kids do get sick, that is usually about how long it lasts.  They are up and running the very next day.

Here we are - day 3.  Peter is still running his fever (albeit I actually DID get a normal temp reading this morning - short lived but it seems like that is a step in the right direction?), Rebekah is home sick (and added puke to the mix yesterday) and now finally William has been laying in bed watching videos on his phone all day.

Have I mentioned that the Lord neglected to give me a good bedside manner?  I'd make a crappy nurse.  I can put up a good pretense for the short term...but after three days my pretense is fading....like last night when Rebekah asked for the SECOND bowl of chicken noodle soup, not eating it and leaving it for Ruth to get into (after I had just told her it needed to be put up - but she insisted she was going to eat it...yeah she didn't take a single bite). 

Smile!  Smile!  Clench those teeth if you have too but darn it - SMILE!

Or trying to convince the kids they need to drink something.  They liked Gatorade the first day so I went and bought a whole bunch more.  Now I have a fridge full and they won't touch it.  They won't even eat popcycles for goodness sakes!  And it is so hard for me to not cram it down their throat...ok...that really is an exaggeration.  But like I said - this taking care of whinny sick folks is simply not my thing.  And I truly mean that.

I'm sure there is a lesson here somewhere...I am grateful my children don't get sick much at all.  I am grateful I can work from home and so I don't loose my own sick time (which is piddly) or vacation time.  But I could be grateful for those things after just one day.

I'm ready for health to return to the family and I hope Ruth doesn't get it.  If so - William may be on his own.