Little Piggies Have Piggie Flu

The last seven days started out great. We were just getting on top of some things, enjoying full implementation of theme nights, and pay day was on it's way. We even had babysitting scheduled for a date evening. Alas.. these little piggies got swine flu.

I was not sure what it was for most of the duration of Superkid's spell with it. Thursday a fever hit him in the afternoon and by the middle of the night he was at 104 and I could barely keep it down to 103 with meds. He was crying with body ache and even convulsed a tiny bit at one point. I stayed awake most of that night worried about him. The next day he slowly went down and by Saturday he wanted to go out and play. I let him thinking he was fine. He came in and spiked back up to about 102 and we said "well, no church for you tomorrow baby!" Rick stayed home with him because I had to teach Sunday school. He was fine again by the evening or at least we did not take a temp that night because he seemed fine.

Monday Lilo and Princess got the wonderful opportunity to go to the fair with some friends. They were very excited because we could not afford to go at all this year. I dropped them off with the mom at a MacD's so that Superkid would not have to know what he was missing. I did not want him going out to something that draining yet. I took him out for a happy meal and we hit the goodwill for a bit. We had just returned home when my phone rang and the mom said Lilo was not feeling well. Her stomach hurt and her throat. I ran back into town to pick her up. I felt so bad she had to get sick on such a day. She climbed up to 103 by the evening but Superkid seemed fine so I let him go on a short playdate while I was at my TOPS meeting. He sounded real dry and raspy in the throat but insisted that he felt fine. I should have known better. By the time he got home he spiked up to near 102 AGAIN!

Tuesday morning I just felt something was not right. He had a 101 when he woke up and Lilo was staying near 102. I called and made an appt. Rick was off so we all went down.

The Dr. checked them both out completely and ran a mucus test from just Lilo's nose to check for swine flu. He said they had all the exact symptoms. He came back and said the test never had false positives, but it was having false negatives. Ours was negative but he felt they still had it. He said the flu had changed from a 8-9 day fever to 4-5 day. So we were sent home to watch them and wait it out. They are not allowed to be around anyone till a good 24 hours from even the lowest temp.

We opened up the couch bed in the living room so they could rest and watch movies if they needed to. Before even watching they took a three hour nap. They really looked like they needed it. The kitties took long naps too.

Lilo's like me though, she prefers her own bed for real sleeping.

The other kitty (and I'm not sure which one this is, they look so alike you have to stare at their faces to know who is Bruce Wayne and who is Clark Kent. maybe I should make them little capes so we know:) took up nap time with Sterling who peeks to see what I'm up to.

Princess and Shasta were the only ones awake besides me. Princess was doing her favorite pass time making bead creations.

But like I said, before this hit, the kids were really enjoying theme nights. Sunday was no electricity night and it was wonderful. I brought nearly every candle we had to the table and lit them all. Then we disperse them through the house and enjoy the quiet. Stories were read, Princess wrote in her journal, Lilo read poems from Shel Silverstein and Daddy wrote a note to his folks. I shared with the kids somethings I thought were amazing from my Sunday School lesson for the 2 and 3's that day. (I hope to Overflow that soon) I was amazed the power of the quiet and the lack of electronic distractions, and we don't even have near as many as most families have. It was well worth taking up. Superkid and I found some bags of candles at the goodwill so we are stocked up for a while. He was excited to find another old fashion brass tapper holder like the one I all ready had and was letting Lilo use. They look like the ones in old story books. Like this:

Once he found it, he asked me how many more days till Sunday. I think this tradition will be wonderful when school starts and we can quietly reconnect before the week.

Today they are feeling better but I have a bad head cold. I felt it coming on last night but I was pushing myself to get those free school supplies at CVS and boy am I glad I went! Free notebooks (again, now I have four or five), free pens, free tacks, free clips, free staplers, free sticky notes, free erasers, free rain checks for index card organizers. Glad I did it. Between the CVS week specials I've got nearly more than what they need and hope so have some to share with the teachers.

I have been resting this morning and they have been too but I plan to take some day time cold meds and get back in that kitchen because I have a box of apricots to jam and I'm excited to get that done. My friend gave me the heads up that there was a tree in the country that had a sign to take as many as you want so Rick and Princess went yesterday to pick. We also swung by the field of blackberries in A-town. when we were done with the Dr. just to see if they were ready and they are. It's an open field next to a gas station and there are tons! Rick loves blackberries to I plan to gear up for a few hours of picking soon and want to preserve some of those too. I was worried I did not have enough jam jars and knew I had little money for supplies so I went out to the shed to see if I could fine a handful among the large canning jars. Oh, my, word. I found I had three boxes full! Yeah! It's been years since I jammed.

Oh, and one last "yeah, God" I have to tell you! We were nervous about the kids going into the Dr. because it's 50 dollars for two of them to go in. I got there and asked the lady if I could be billed for part of it. She said they prefer you pay all of it then and there. I said a sheepish okay and then she said "oh, but you have 40 dollars credit!"

What? Who gets credit at the Dr.? She said our insurance over paid something. When does THAT happen?! I only had to pay ten dollars. I could just feel God delightfully smiling and saying "I did that". There is truly nothing he cannot do when our needs need providing from the greater resource of HIS riches and glory. That verse is beginning to take on a new meaning for me.

God is good.