I can not tell you all how much I hate being sick.  The sickness has been in our house for over a week now and it’s time for it to go away!

Stan came home from his business meeting last Tuesday saying his “allergies” were kicking his butt.  I had to correct him and said “you don’t have allergies you have a cold.”  And a mean, nasty one at that.  The mean, nasty cold turned into bronchitis and he spent all of last week feeling like he was hit by a truck. 

Enter Sunday…

I started feeling a little tickle at the back of my throat but thought it was just because the air was dry.  I went about my day and continued on with my night.  Monday I felt exhausted but OK…something about staying up until midnight and then getting up at 5:45 just doesn’t do it for me.  Tuesday morning dawned and I got out of bed feeling like I had 100 mad-men banging away on the inside of head with tiny, little hammers.  I felt like shit. 

Moms don’t have time to be sick.  I still had so much to do, so many things to accomplish, so many people counting on me to be here or take them there.  I didn’t have time to be sick but sick I was. 

I got the kids off to school and crawled back into bed where I slept soundly until 11.  I got up for an hour or so, ran some errands that couldn’t be put off ~ picking up kids meds, lunch supplies, etc…I came home and crashed again ~ hard.  I slept until 4 and even after that I still could barely keep my eyes open.  By 8:30 I was sleeping again.  I woke up at 9 this morning and am still not sure how I feel.

But I know I was “out of the office” yesterday.  I can look around the house and tell that I was not on top of anything.  The kitchen counters are littered with crumbs from dinners last night and breakfasts this morning.  The espresso machince leaked all over the counter with just a paper towel to soak up the mess.  Beds aren’t made (not even mine which is a horror and disgrace, I know!).  There are dishes in the sink.  The house isn’t too bad, really.  I just hate being sick so I’m going to look for more stuff to complain about on top of being sick.

Today I am spending the day in recovery mode.  I am sitting quietly, writing, catching up and waiting for Zach’s crested gecko to arrive.  I have two notes from Zach telling me make sure NOT to pick the gecko up by his tail or it will fall off.  Wouldn’t want a tail-less gecko, now would we?  I guess it’s a good way to spend a recovery day…waiting for the gecko. 

Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that this is the only illness we have in the house this year.  I so hope whatever this is passes right on through and doesn’t touch the kids. To encourage this bug to move out of our house I have my box of tissues next to me for when I sneeze. I have my handsantizer for after I blow my nose and I have the clorox wipes ready to wipe down the computer and iPad when I am finished using both.  I don’t want anyone else sick.

At least now the kids are old enough to not require so much time and attention when they are sick. When they were little it was painful.  Lucas had constant ear infections from the time he turned two until he was eight or nine.  When he was little he would wail in pain from the pressure in his ears.  Stan and I would feverishly rock him to help ease his discomfort until the anti-biotics kicked in.  Zach was the interesting one when it came to being sick.  Stomach bugs were the worst for him.  I could always tell when he was getting ready to throw up but he would deny it and deny it and deny it.  He would run around in cirlces saying “I’m not gonna throw up, I’m not gonna throw up…” until he threw up, whirling dervish style all over the place.  That was always fun to clean up.  Luckily, Claire was the easy one when it came to being sick, I could rock her and put her to bed where she would sleep until she felt a little better ~ we would just repeat the rocking and sleeping until she got better.  Even though they are older now and easier to take care of when they are sick, I still don’t want them to be out. It takes so much time and energy to back on top of it all after being held down with a cold, the flu, strep throat ~ whatever sickness it is that knocks someone on their ass.

So, sickness, just pass right on through….I don’t want you here.

Oh, for the love of my children….