So apparently a typical tradition for most school-age kids is that about two weeks after school starts, they bring home some kind of sickness and share it oh-so-generously with their families (after all, isn't sharing a good thing?) Since our family is always looking for new traditions to keep up, we decided this year to start this one, you know, in honor of our eldest starting kindergarten.
Joy.
Jack was the first one to get sick (luckily, it happened over a weekend, so he didn't miss any school) and since then, we've all taken turns sharing this lovely gift with each other over the past two weeks.
As we've had a LOT of days of sitting and snuggling, I've decided to document it with pictures! And now I'm sharing them with you! Aren't you so happy? (cue: "Yes, Miss Hannigan!")
This day was when Maggie (despite her fever and yucky tummy) was managing to have a cheerful moment and I captured it (note the obsessive lap-sharing these two are still involved in):
One of the nights after Jack and Maggie were feeling better, I decided to serve spaghetti (which the kids all love) in order to celebrate. Clark, especially, went to town, eating no fewer than THREE platefuls: (ignore the skeleton costume he's decided to wear on a daily basis for the past two weeks, thinking that it's almost Halloween...)
And then kept me up till 4:00 the next morning, throwing up and watching Thomas. There are certain kinds of vomit that are worse to clean up than others; I have to say that in my humble opinion, spaghetti is the VERY worst kind.
In order to help Steve feel more included as he was working that night, I continually took pictures of the progress (none of the actual puking OR the puked-on laundry, though) and sent them to him. I'm a good wife.
At one point, Jack grabbed my phone and decided to take his own selfies (not too bad, I might add):
And so I figured I'd get one of the two of us together:
You know it's been a rough couple of weeks when if you come out of your room in jeans and a T-shirt, your kids automatically ask you where you're going... as you can see from the previous pictures, I've pretty much foregone any semblance of make-up/hair-doing/dressing in anything remotely presentable for the majority of this time (what's the point of putting on nice clothes when they're more than likely going to be covered in vomit moments later, I'd like to know?), and so today, when I had Annie rehearsal, I got dressed and actually got ready. Big day, I know.
Since I was feeling so cute and fancy, I snapped a selfie while I was having a break during rehearsal--bonus, you get to see my super-cool shiners from my broken nose:
"Hey, Audrey--where'd you get that shiner?"
"Shinah?" (If you can name that quote, you're automatically awesome--if you can't, you're still probably awesome).
To be honest, even though it's been yucky as we've all been taking turns with this illness (I'm the one currently undergoing digestive distress, in case you wanted to know--hopefully it won't last much longer), it has been SUCH a blessing to be able to have the kind of slower, easygoing schedule we've all needed to heal (Steve being excepted, poor guy). Last year, at this time, I had 24 piano students, and when we got these kinds of illnesses, I was still running ragged, trying to keep sick kids happy while teaching for several hours each day at the same time. Not having to teach this year has been a huge blessing for me thus far, and while I miss my students, I'm grateful to be focusing on my family right now.
Sometimes I think Heavenly Father throws a little sickness or an injury (like a broken nose, for example) our way to remind us to slow down, take time to be still, to snuggle, and to heal.
So today, I'm grateful for blessings in disguise. Like pukey families.
And Netflix. I'm always grateful for Netflix.
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