You know, generally I am a fan of seasons. I have always been okay with Winter. But the older I get, the crankier the prolonged season makes me. I guess that's why all the ole folks retire and spend their winters heading south. Winter is really fun for a while. BUT when winter lasts 4-5 months, it starts to get old. I think that by January, most people are feeling kinda "blah" about winter (at least here in Illinois!) It's just that kinda icky month. It's frigid cold, there's snow and ice and sleet. The car washes are frozen and you can't get the salt off your vehicle. Everyone seems to either be sick, be getting sick, or getting over being sick. Apparently our house is no exception.
Pretty much the DAY that Evan started to finally feel better, Ardyn woke up with a really throaty cough and a runny nose, that progressed throughout the day to end up with a raspy voice and finally a fever. By bedtime that night she was full on "sick" and just one day later while she alternated between happily medicated and drastically dramatic and feverish, Marek woke up with a cough which progressed into a low grade fever. He took FOUR naps that were at least an hour long. Poor guy. He was especially clingy and cuddly and I just spent the day laying on the couch with him and catching a bunch of movies on Netflix.
Of course, when Evan got sick, I was very upset, especially knowing that we could get sick next, and that he wouldn't be able to help with lots of upcoming things, and then we had such a busy week this week.... it's just a Murphy's Law kind of thing. So on Monday our kitchen got cleaned and we took the kids to Menard's with us and picked up the paint and stuff we would need to paint it. That was the day that Evan was recovering and Ardyn was catching her cold. Tuesday Evan started painting, leaving us without kitchen access. We had originally planned on going to his parents or even mine (by we I mean me and the kids) during the painting, but now that BOTH kids were sick, and I wasn't really feeling all that fabulous myself, we just stayed home. So Tuesday night I couldn't go to Breastfeeding group, and Wednesday we had to cancel our lunch with my friend Dorene. When we still had fevers and coughs last night, I canceled the playdate that we were supposed to be hosting at our house this morning. Ugh.
Of course then yesterday we had an ice storm, and so by nightfall it was pretty much worthless to go anywhere else, even if we DID feel good enough to go. The power flickred and surged all night, and then of course at about 2am it went out for good. I have a not-so-funny-but-oh-so-hilarious story with that one. I have been pretty anxious and on edge with everyone being sick, so I have really been lazy (by lazy I mean not doing anything besides caring for two sick kids and feeding them whatever I can get them to eat.) and just trying to chill out and lay around with them as they rest. My throat has been really sore, and I have been achy, so I have been taking it as easy as I can, hoping that I won't become full fledged "sick." Well, when the power went out, I had only been asleep about an hour, so I was in that zone of complete exhaustion and disoriented. Each kid was in their respective bed, and when Marek started crying, I thought that his fever was back up and it was about time to check him. When I opened my eyes, everything was black. And I don't just mean dark. I mean BLACK. No light anywhere. No clock. No moonlight. No Streetlights. It was so pitch black that the first thing I thought.... "Oh my God, I am BLIND!!!" Seriously. This is not an exxageration. I had that full on panic that I had somehow gone blind in my sleep. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and opened them again, still black. I tried to sit up in bed, and couldn't see my clock, or the electric blanket, or ANYTHING. OMG. I was freaked. Then my eyes adjusted a bit and I realized that I wasn't BLIND but the power was out. Talk about freaking scary. I yelled at Evan (who was of course in his own "bed"- the couch) and he knew it was out because it had been surging so bad that he got up to unplug some stuff. So then I had to make my way to Marek's room. I got him and Evan brought a flashlight to me so that I could check his temp in the dark. He didn't have one. I nursed him and he snuggled into bed with me where it was warm and I could be near him to make sure he was okay (since he can't have blankets or anything!) Evan checked on Ardyn again and we decided to just add more blankets and snuggle down and see if the power would come back on. Neither of us was thrilled with the prospect of having 1 hour of sleep, packing in the dark, and taking two sick kids out in an ice storm to get to a family member who had power. I do remember waking up a couple of times and snuggling in deeper because it was getting colder in the house, but it never got bad enough to chase us out. The last time I woke up cold, it was because the power came back on and I heard everything kick in... and then it surged off again and I remember going "ohhhh! Man!" and then around 4-5am it came back on for good. That was a good thing. I think that I will have to make a point to bring the coleman rechargeable lantern out of the camping stuff and keep in in the house for the winter :)
We are supposed to have more freezing rain and drizzle tonight, so hopefully we keep power. With the kids being sick and so much going on, I am so far behind on laundry it's ridiculous. I literallly can't walk through the laundry room. Every single diaper is dirty. And I mean EVERY single diaper. I have been using random inserts and things for the past week, and have exhausted my entire prefold supply (which I use as backups and with diaper creams.) I think I have something like 26 Goodmama Fitteds (all dirty) and all my PUL covers are dirty.... and I probably have nearly 8-10 of those. And then I have lotsa BGOS 3.0's and they are all dirty (maybe 20-22 of them?) and also about 16 prefolds.... all dirty. So, um, Yeah I am behind. Every wetbag is dirty. Both pail liners are dirty. I EASILY have three loads of diapers to do. Perhaps four. The GOOD news with that is that Marek's diapers are SO much easier to deal with than Ardyn's ever were (can you say SOLID!?) and that this will allow me to empty the hot water heater quickly, which is important.... because this morning we got a new Water Softener Installed! A very nice twin tank system from Culligan. I already adore it. Why- because lots of the guesswork is taken out of the management, it saves money on salt over a traditional unit, as well as water because it only regenerates when necessary, and because with the twin tank system, you are NEVER without soft water, because it switches between tanks and the other side regenerates.... which is awesome. We use alot of water, between dishwasher loads, baths, and to ever popular LAUNDRY. I am totally excited about this because our softener hadn't been working for a while, and it had caused lots of issues with buildup on our dishes. Also because it's easier to get diapers and clothes clean with soft water. Yayyyy! And of course we just got the new dishwasher installed on Friday. Sears FINALLY honored the warranty (after 4.5 months of trying to repair the damn thing) and we got a very similar model, but this time I opted for a stainless steel interior and it is also a bit quieter. And everything is CLEAN! yay!
Except the house is totally a disaster. I have the majority of my kitchen in the dining room on the table and chairs. I have a box full of party supplies for Marek's birthday on my mini-scrapbook table. the loveseat has a whole pile of clean clothes that need sorted, folded, and hung.... The excersaucer is stacked on top of the jumparoo.... both items that I asked my husband to take to the attic almost a month ago.... because Marek doesn't use them anymore. There are smooshed banana nut muffins and random cheerios on the coffee table, and Ardyn has turned the couch into sick camp, surrounded by pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, kleenex, and TV remotes. Marek's high chair is filthy and needs scrubbed. Marek shredded and chewed a bunch of paper on the dining room floor, and the kitchen is covered in drop cloths, cleaning supplies, and painting stuff. And I thought we were having a playdate this morning? Ha. Well, it would have worked. the kids could have still played in Ardyn's room no problem, and I would have put the moms to use folding my laundry. Ha!
So. That's this week in a nutshell. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment and a scrapbook night, so hopefully kids are feeling much better and mom can get out and get some much needed breathing done.
Is everyone else healthy?
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