I know I have sung the praises of our local library a lot, but really, it’s amazing. I’m hooked on a British show called Poldark. The third season aired this past year, but I didn’t get the chance to see it and I was waiting for it to stream on Prime. Waiting… and waiting… and waiting. Then I saw it for sale on Amazon, and I was so tempted to buy it, but that’s a waste of money so I didn’t. Then someone reminded me of my blessed library and I went online and voila, there it was!! So, all I had to do was put it on hold and wait for it to ship from a neighboring library to mine and it arrived today!

And while I totally wish I could binge watch it right now, I can’t. However, there’s nothing stopping me from doing just that tomorrow night! Woot!

I was greeted this evening with a broken hearted girl. Her friends had once again abandoned her on the playground, and as her heart poured out the pain of the encounter, mine simultaneously saddened. We stood in the daycare parking lot, as I listened to her tale, trying to follow her story as she jumped from one injury to the next, and I held her as she cried.

Growing up is a hard business.

To cheer her up, we headed to the beach, for as you know the waves often call us there. The sky was overcast and small drops of rain fell around us as we walked down the road to get there. We were greeted by a hungry bay that had eaten away much of the beach, leaving only a sliver to explore. The wind off the water and the sand between her fingers seemed to do her well, and her spirits lifted. I turned to see her lying on her back, head in the sand, staring at the sky. Sometimes we just need to escape.

So we dug, and played, and explored. The cold water froze our fingers, and our feet flirted with the small lapping waves. Big E searched for sticks to feed the sea, while Baby E hurled ‘beautiful’ shells and stones to the tide.

Nothing incredible happened- nothing anyone would consider special, but we were revived. After a bit, the fresh air and exercise reminded us of the hour and the want for dinner, so we left our retreat and headed home.

We left the new house last night around 6 pm. We hadn’t wanted to take the time to eat dinner before leaving, figuring we’d grab something on the way. We didn’t take into account that yesterday was Easter and everything worth eating would be closed, so we found ourselves the only patrons of a very lonely Burger King. The kids didn’t mind, but Tim and I had a hard time stomaching the food. We got home and brought the three kids into the house. Baby E was wide awake, but the other two were asleep. Upon getting inside, Big E woke up and almost immediately started complaining about pain in his stomach. I tried giving him some apple sauce, thinking perhaps he was just hungry, and he devoured it. But a few minutes later he was complaining again, and was starting to get himself worked up. So we got him a bowl and set him in a comfy chair and encouraged him to get some sleep. Not ten minutes later he threw up.

As you know, I can’t stand vomit. Even the thought of it makes me gag, and there were were, the basement reeking of it. But Big E smiled a faint smile and said he felt so much better. He settled down and went straight to sleep. I kept him away from the day care today, but I really think it wasn’t a stomach bug, but rather his stomach refusing to digest our sketchy dinner. He woke up this morning feeling great.

In fact, I woke him up at 5:15 this morning to let him know he was going to work with Daddy. His eyes got huge and he jumped out of bed with a huge grin on his face. He got dressed as fast as he could, found his backpack, and quietly stuffed it with all the toys he could think to bring. When he learned he was the only kid going with daddy, his excitement increased. The thought of spending the day in a boring office would have turned me off, but he couldn’t have been happier, and I sent him off this morning with a bounce in his step.

When I picked the other two up this evening from day care, we decided to take a short walk on the stinky bridge, and a visit to the beach. It was cold and windy, so we didn’t stay out long, but we enjoyed it immensely. C drew pictures in the sand, Baby E spent him time finding ‘pretty’ things he could throw in the water (shells, stones), and I found a few sharks teeth.

We came home to a quiet evening, dinner, and bedtime.

It wasn’t the Easter we had planned. There was no big dinner. There was no cousin time. We missed services at our home church. We did a hastily thrown together egg hunt and some last minute Easter baskets. We got home late this evening with a few complications. And we are all getting to bed very, very late.

But in the end, none of that matters. Today wasn’t about baskets, or eggs, or a big dinner around a large table with family.

Today was about an empty tomb. It was about the redemption of sin, about God becoming man to carry our sin and folly, to feel the full wrath of judgement so that we could be spared. My sin held him on that cross, and likewise my heart was redeemed that blessed Sunday long ago.

Baby E woke up this morning still without a fever. Keeping him in solitary was harder today, as he felt so well and kept arguing that he didn’t have ‘the flu’ and that he wasn’t sick. Tim took the big kids out so that we wouldn’t have to try to separate them quite so much. Baby E watched tv, took a bath, and we went for a walk and played with bubbles. We are pretty bummed that the flu fell during the Easter weekend as it means that we are missing out on a lot of family activities. The kids missed a cousin’s birthday party this morning, and it looks like we will probably miss celebrating Easter with all the cousins tomorrow.

I made a trip to the store this evening and got a few things for their Easter baskets and I am looking forward to putting them together once the kids are asleep. I’m actually typing this in my bedroom because Baby E will not let me out of his sight. He has been clinging to me constantly since he got sick, and especially today.

I wanted to give you a heads up with the situation with C. The school counselor called me the other day and we got the chance to discuss what had happened. There was a little girl at school that thought C was being mean to her one day. C said she wasn’t trying to be, but I don’t know the exact circumstances of what happened. However the little girl told C that she was going to go home and tell her mom about C and that her mom was going to kill C. This is a girl that C is friends with, but often has problems with the girl treating her badly. Anyway, C honestly thought that the girl’s mom was going to kill her and was worried about it, until one day when the girl’s mom came to school and C figured out that she was nice and wasn’t going to kill her. Naturally we as adults know that is a metaphor, but C didn’t and it breaks my heart that she was scared like that. The counselor talked to both C and the other little girl and I am waiting to hear what the outcome is. Apparently this happened awhile ago, and I stressed to C the importance of telling us things like this so that they can be dealt with immediately.

Baby E woke up from his nap shortly after noon today with his hair plastered to his head and sweat droplets on his face. The fever was gone.

I didn’t get much sleep last night. I spent half the night worrying about him and everyone that had come in contact with him. Around midnight I gave him Tylenol and throughout the night I checked on him and the other kids. When Tim got up for work before 5, I was up as well.

When Baby E woke up this morning he felt a little warm. I gave him his meds and let him watch TV pretty much all day. When he woke up sweaty from his nap, I think that’s when the fever broke. He was fever free the rest of the day. I gave him some Tylenol before bedtime to help him sleep, but he didn’t feel warm.

I’m praying the worst is over for him, and thankfully it wasn’t bad. As I laid awake in bed last night I researched what Tamiflu actually does. When a virus is in your body it begins to multiply, making you sicker and sicker as it does so. Anti viral medications slow down the multiplying virus, so the sooner you start taking them the sooner that process begins. Since Baby E was only a few hours into his symptoms, the Tamiflu worked as intended, keeping the virus from multiplying like it otherwise would have, meaning his reaction to the flu was less. At least that’s what seems to be happening.

I’m still quarantining him and keeping an eye out for symptoms in anyone else, but I’m so very thankful he’s sleeping peacefully on a bed on the floor in our room. Thank you for your continued prayers. ☺️☺️

“I’m so sorry, this is probably a case of me clearly overreacting,” I said to the pediatrician as he walked into the exam room. “Baby E woke up this morning with a fever. I’m not sure how high because I couldn’t find the thermometer, but his cheeks were red and he wasn’t acting right. I gave him some medicine and called and made an appointment. But as you can see, he seems completely fine right now,” I said as I gestured to a very happy Baby E sitting on the exam table. “It’s just that I know he was exposed to the flu on Monday by a kid at daycare, and since Baby E has the seizures, I decided to bring him in.” The doctor politely listened to me as I rambled through my excuse.

“I’ll take a look at him.” He did the routine of listening to his lungs, looking in his ears, and down his throat. No fever. No signs of anything. “He looks great. No concerns that I can tell. I’ll run a flu test just in case, but he looks fine,” he said in a tone that indicated he was running the test more for my peace of mind than anything else.

I sat there with Baby E as we waited for the results. He was playing games on my iPad, laughing, and talking up a storm. He had been talking almost nonstop since we had left home an hour earlier. For all intents and purposes, he was acting normal.

After about ten minutes the doctor came in with a slight look of surprise, “Well, he tested positive for the flu!”

“What?!?” I really hadn’t expected that at all. The more I had been around him, the more I imagined if he really had the flu he would be miserable. The doctor prescribed Tamiflu and I asked him what I should be expecting over the next few days. He said, “Well, you caught this very, very early, so that’s really good. He might not get much worse than what he’s dealing with now. I thanked him profusely.

Since I knew Baby E had been exposed to the flu earlier in the week I had spent the past few days hovering for symptoms. When he crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night last night I knew his temperature was fine, so when he woke up with a fever I knew it hadn’t been there for long. I’m grateful they could see him so quickly and that I didn’t have to re-enact the great Tamiflu hunt of 2017. The first pharmacy had it, and since Baby E has taken it before, I knew he would tolerate it just fine.

Throughout the day he was been alright. Towards the end of each dose of Tylenol/Ibuprofen his temp raises a little and he acts slightly uncomfortable, but for now the meds are keeping it at bay.

I would greatly appreciate prayers that he recovers quickly and that, Lord willing, no one else gets it. I was all up in his face last night with cuddles, so there’s that. We decided to let him recover out at the new house, so I drove the kids out after school this afternoon. He’s asleep now, but I’ll check on him throughout the night. Please pray also for no febrile seizures with this illness. Those things really, really freak me out.

Thank you so much dear friends for your prayers!! Sleep well!.

When we lived in the townhouse, it was a very easy thing to go for a walk. The stinky bridge was only a short distance, and we were often outside on pleasant evenings. The grandparents live off of a side street from a very busy road with no shoulder, so going for long walks around here just isn’t an option. This evening, however, I decided that we would at least venture to the nearby cul de sac. After dinner, we got our shoes back on and headed out. The weather was a little chilly and slightly drizzly, but it didn’t keep us from walking up the hill and to our destination. When we got there, the kids enjoyed running around and having fun. They started re-enacting scenes from Mario Odyssey, a sure fire sign they’ve been playing too many video games at the new house, and Baby E did his rendition of Moana… again.

As I stood there watching my children it occurred to me that it was the exact same cul de sac their father had run around for the majority of his childhood. I imagined him there with his siblings, and I smiled that my kids were doing the same.

They ran hard until they were exhausted and we headed home for homework and bedtime. Little did they know what a special thing had just happened. 🙂

C came home this evening after a rough day at school with some of her ‘friends.’ She’s had problems with these friends on and off all year. They are the kind that are nice when they feel like it and cruel in their turn. As we talked to her this evening we realized that things have escalated since the last time she mentioned these girls and we found it necessary to involved the teacher, so I emailed her this evening. Hopefully it will be resolved quickly. In the meantime, it breaks my heart that there are mean girls in the world and that they have crossed paths with my daughter. It was bound to happen, but seeing her tears, and feeling her body heaving with the sobs made me very sad indeed.

I survived day 10 of this irritating sickness and I am quite ready for it to be over! Despite feeling incredibly overtired the entire day, I thought I was making some progress- I could even smell my coworker’s lunch! Yay! But as the sun started going down, I started to feel worse again. Why is that? Why are nights always the hardest when you are sick?

This evening was a little bumpy with the kids. My commute was super long and by the time we got home everyone was cranky, mommy included. 😦 It wasn’t in me to settle arguments, wipe bottoms, and referee bedtime. I was annoyed that they were begging me for food every 30 seconds as I prepared dinner, or that I was washing a poop mess out of underwear. But no matter how my kids misbehaved this evening, I didn’t do a good job at how I reacted to it. I snapped a lot. I was angry. I was impatient. So after they were tucked in bed, I made a point to get their attention and apologize. It’s always been important to me that my children understand that even grown ups need to say “I’m sorry” sometimes and tonight was one of those nights. 😦