When You're REALLY Down and Out

What was strep throat and resolved

TURNED INTO

What was some colds and possibly a touch of influenza and

TURNED INO

A good dose of mono!

We've been down and out for about a month, but REALLY down and out the last couple weeks. When one, or even two kids are out, life still goes on. BUT when mama's down with mono... life comes to a screeching halt! 

School.

Dishes.

Cooking.

Shopping.

Laundry.

Disciplining.

Wiping the boy's 4-foot pee radius off the floor.

Sweeping the rice from dinner... two nights ago... off the floor.

Yes, it all stops. 

Praise the Lord I have a husband like I do! 

He's so great! 

He cooked, attempted to cleaned, did laundry put clothes in the washer machine and really tried to remember to move them to the dryer I believe, and did some of the kids schooling. 

But here are some tips on being SERIOUSLY down and out with lots of children (especially little ones):

(1) Get Some Natural Remedies in Your Medicine Cabinet! We desperately NEEDED some corn-free cough drops, cough syrup, immune boosting elderberry syrup, raw honey, vitamins, and teas. You can also get some all-natural chest rub that includes some eucalyptus oils to help with coughs, or you can make some. 

(2) Run a humidifier! In the main living area during the day and in the bedrooms during the night. It helps with coughing fits during the night and it helps to prevent germs from spreading.

(3) Stock up on Real Food, Snack Style! I really think the worst thing you can do is eat processed foods when you're sick. Apples, oranges, bananas, lemon water, kefir, dried fruit, carrots, hummus, organic cheese, organic beef log, boiled eggs, ect. Simple things you can give to the kids until your husband gets home to cook.

Bad picture. My reclined feet under the red blanket, Alex sick and sleeping under the recliner, Alyssa sick on the couch, and the kids all crawling all over Alex while He sleeps. 

(4) Listen to Messages: I don't know about you, but the LAST thing I want to do when I'm sick is read. I would rather watch endless television then pick up my Bible and read (just being honest). So I've learned I can listen to messages instead of watching endless hours of television. I'll even give the kids a pillow, blanket, and a book or notebook, and they can listen with me. 

Mariah asleep on the floor sick also. 

(5) Once you Get a Burst of Energy, Do What's Most Important: I try to wash dishes, sweep, and pick up the living room... that's it! Then I rest more! This is the main living area and affects your family all day, several times a day. Thankfully, I've trained my children in such a way they did MOST of the cleaning when I was really sick. But, when I started feeling better these were the main areas I focused on. 

(6) Take Note of Where Your Kids Need Training: When you're sick, you can't get out of a chair, and you can't get involved in situations around the house, you notice how your kids speak to one another; you notice how they're lazy in certain areas and you've been picking up their slack. You notice how one child sits in the corner and pretends to "clean" while the others actually do the work. These are all things I mentally took notes of while I was sitting, observing. These are character traits I am going to strive to address now that I am starting to feel better.

(7) Remember and Ask the Lord What He has Through This Time: For my family, we've been sick for so long, we had to cancel so many plans we had. :( Dinner meetings, me going to women's Bible study, me leading worship, ect. My husband even had to miss a day of school because I was too sick to get through the rest of the day without him.

It's been so sweet though!

We have a conference this coming up weekend. We exhausted majority of our resources trying to find a sitter for the kids so we could go alone. However, each one we asked, prayed about watching the kids, and each declined. We realized that the Lord was pressing on our hearts to make this a family trip. Then we get sick and the Lord's been showing us character issues in our children and in our marriage that He wants to work on. GREAT! We just had to cancel a lot of things and now we're taking our kids with us! Lots of time to pray and allow the Lord to work in us!

 So Praise the Lord we're finally feeling like we're getting better for the first time in months! My dad, step-mom, and two little brothers will be coming into town this week and staying about 3 weeks, and we will be leaving for Appleton Thursday morning for the weekend. 

We enjoyed the restful month and we're excited to get back into things!