Taking Back the House

We had a nasty visitor this past week - a stomach virus. It crept in unnoticed and hit Colin first, then Caleb, and then finally penetrated my incredible defense system. It also leaped to my mother's house (who had generously come to help out while James worked and the rest of us were ill).

It was five long days of tears and naps and being sick and sipping ginger ale and breathing stale air and calls to Telehealth and trips to the Emergency Room and the household chores falling behind and 3am laundry runs. I am ever so grateful for the health I have nearly all the time. (The last time I was sick was four years ago).

It was a pitiful time here. I now have a good way to describe what it is like for me to be pregnant (yes - I generally feel as though I have a 9 month stomach flu!). It was also a terrible thing to watch my children suffer in such a way. The nurse asked me if Colin was "less active than normal". If Colin is still more than five minutes, I know he's sick. Last week, he spent two days with arms draped around my neck, eyes staring in the distance, barely moving. And then to see a tiny 4 month baby sick - I pray you new mothers do not have to experience it. Caleb would be sent into these little crying fits, followed by several spasms of vomiting. He would gaze into my eyes with a woeful look and I could hear him pleading with me to make it stop.

And now I'm taking back the house. Be gone, you virus! I will mop you from the kitchen floors, wash you from the sheets, wipe you from the counters, and banish you out the windows as I let in the fresh air!

The usual doldrums of chores finally hold some excitement for me as I take the reins and get my house back in order. If it weren't snowing outside, I might have been in the mood to take on some "Spring Cleaning". However I think our calendar needs some readjusting, as clearly a snowy blizzard doesn't equate with our current season.