Sick of being sick!

It's the hardest part of being a large family. Hardly ever does one get a bug of some sort and keep it to themselves! This season, however, has been our worst ever! It started out with a flu bug, short lived, but still required a review of our vomit 101 class! It thrills my heart when kids get old enough to hit a bucket! Cheers! Then we had ear infections and colds, to wrap it up with another round of a respitory flu that ended up turning to pneumonia for the younger 4.

Out of pity our Dr. even quit accepting our co-pay because we were going there so much. By the time a kid was better he was being reinfected by someone else. I have medicine bottles all over my counter. To get the right dose in the right mouth at the right time is a part time job!

We even took in another older friend who was sick and by herself, so she's been staying with us for the week. It's been such fun to have her, but I know she's praying to heal quickly so she can get back home!

Lydia had it the worst, she had a 103 temp for about 30 hours! Tylenol and Motrin every 4 hours, baths, cool cloths, nothing would bring it down. Her tummy looked like she had just taken a hot shower and was red and blotchy. Her lips blistered as if burned. In all my parenting years I'd never seen anything like it. She would say to me, "Mama, will you love me?" I'd answer, 'Ofcourse I love you all the time!'. Then she'd say, "Will you love me sitting down?" so we'd have to go snuggle.

Then there's Jeff. He had kidney stone surgery on February 1st. I keep track of him pretty good in our makeshift hospital ward! ;-) He's still in a lot of pain trying pass the remaining stones. He hasn't done anything in the past 2 weeks so any little bit of exertion wears him right out. He can't handle the pain medicine so he's just taking Motrin and that doesn't come close to managing the pain. I feel so bad for him! He did preach on Sunday and it wore him right out. It's exciting though that he said it's given him more compassion for those in pain and a drive to further the gospel even more because he can't imagine what hell would be like because this is...well...miserable! ;-)

And then there's Daniel, who has miraculously remained healthy! I told him it doesn't pay to be so because we work him like a horse trying to keep up with meals and laundry! It's much better now, but there were a couple of days I thought for sure I was going to turn green and grow one eye!

But by God's grace we're still counting our blessings and playing a lot of games and puzzles! I think we're on the up side because last night I was only woke up 3 times! We're back to getting a full day of school in. I'm not complaining by any means, I love taking care of people! A much better option than to be the one to be taken care of!