A week with the Flu

Cuz, you wanted all the details, right? Sure you did!

Seriously, I've been wanting to post a little weekly "recap" of our schooling and have been trying hard to remember to take enough notes during the week to make that happen...and of course, the week we all get the flu is the week I actually remember.

Sunday, you know, the one before last- We had mass and PSR for the younger kids as usual, and this week they had the yearly "pot painting" at our parish...the kids get to have a pizza lunch and paint a terra cotta pot to take home and fill with flowers for spring. John was off and got to help with the Sunday Shuffle, which was great for me because Jack was a bit of a, um, handful during mass. I don't remember what else we did that day, it was so long ago and my notes are spotty. I know we stayed home as we always try to do on Sunday. Read "People" by Peter Spiers and "Frog and Toad All Year" to the boys, and Maria and I are reading aloud from "The Horse and His Boy", one of the Narnia books.

Monday- We did our usual morning school subjects...Kain did religion, math, poetry (he's almost done with "Windy Nights"), a phonics lesson and page from Explode the Code, read aloud to me from a Little Angels Reader,,,,Maria did religion, math, poetry (she's almost done with "George Washington"), spelling, cursive, grammar, Latin...much of this was on her own, but again, my notes are spotty...need to get better at doing these. She finished reading "Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt", which she said was "boring",,,she says this about all history reading. John was off work and entertained Jack for me. In the afternoon, Kain had an appointment with the psychiatrist, so we didn't get to afternoon school. Read "Dr. Seuss' ABC's" and "Alphabeasts" to the boys, and Maria and I finished "The Horse and His Boy". On to the next one!

Tuesday- Co-op day! I dropped off the big kids and Jack and I made our weekly trip to the library. He's still not interested at all in attending the preschool story time...it all seems a bit beyond him yet. Then we ran a few errands, including grocery shopping and hitting the Dollar Tree to scope out goodies for the bribe boxes. What are bribe boxes you say? Part of their religion lessons is memorizing catechism questions and such. They earn points for this that they can exchange for little goodies from my bribe boxes. Surprisingly motivating. Jack and I took a nice nap together in the afternoon and John picked up the big kids for me.

Wednesday- This is the day when it all turned tragically wrong. John was working, and we did our morning schoolwork. Maria had her vision therapy at 2pm, I had a midwife appointment at 4pm, and then we needed to pick up a quick dinner on the road to get Maria to choir practice and PSR at the church by 6. I brought the boys home until it was time to pick her up at 8. It was during that time that the chills started, the "uh oh, I don't feel so good" thing, and then by bedtime I had a fever...which explained, belatedly, why my pulse was so fast at the midwife's office.

Thursday- John was off and took the kids to our local Poor Man's Chuck E. Cheese for me, allowing me to take a long and lovely nap while they were gone. We actually like this place a lot better than the Real and Actual Chuck E. Cheese, which gives me a migraine. The house was so blessedly quiet. When they returned, Jack fell asleep on the couch, and when he woke up almost two hours later he was also running a fever. By dinnertime, Kain was running one as well. I sent John to stock up on fever meds and soup and all that good stuff, as well as a board game or two for the big kids who were already bored with their freedom of being off schedule. Jack would not take any medicine by mouth *at all* and heaved up what little I managed to get down him. I had John hunt up some Tylenol suppositories, which was a good thing since Jack's temp peaked at 104 that night. At bedtime, we kept him in our bed so that we could keep an eye on him.

Friday and Saturday- lost to me completely. Jack and I both had high fevers and slept most of this time, Jack peaking at an impressive 105.4. We had horrible, bone-shaking chills and drenching sweats when the fever would break temporarily. It was not a good time. Kain never got too bad this time. His temp stayed pretty low and he was happy to have free reign on the computer games. John was scheduled off Thursday and Friday, so that was a blessing. He did a great job of pinch-hitting for me, though he said by Saturday he was "tired"...indeed,,,being me is tiring, hehe. Friday night John did start running a low fever and seemed to have the lesser version of the virus like Kain was having. They had both had flu shots, I imagine that's why.

Sunday- John dropped Maria off at mass because she was supposed to sing and didn't want to miss. She stayed healthy through all of this, how I have no idea. She had no flu shot, never has had one. She also stayed well during the stomach virus we all had a few weeks ago. She should be studied. John called into work, still running a fever and not wanting to spread it around to the elderly people he takes care of. Jack and I kinda sorta turned the corner this day and slowly started getting better, though he was still very cranky and clingy. We came downstairs and read stacks of picture books and watched TV and just hung out. Jack's big activity of the day was to take his first bath in days, which was so sorely needed what with all the dried sweat and Tylenol in his hair. John still had his fever going off and on, though John was awesome about rallying the big kids to help catch up on picking up the house and doing their regular chores.

So that's the week, though now this week is half over as well...we have remained homebound until today because Jack continued to spike fevers and sleep badly at night because his asthma started acting up pretty badly. I even ended up taking him to the doctor on Tuesday just to make sure that he didn't have an ear infection or strep or anything else going on. Tuesday night he finally had his first night with only a low grade temp and slept well. Wednesday night, last night, he slept in his own bed until around midnight when he woke up crying and joined us again...we may have set a pattern here. But he was still without fever and slept well. Tuesday evening I took the big kids out to sign up for Upwards soccer, even though I could barely speak and still can't very well...laryngitis. Today we ventured out to the library, Jack's first post-flu outing, and it was a welcome change of scenery. Other than that, I have spent the day catching up on laundry and all in an effort to take life back full-time tomorrow. The kids have done little school this whole time, other than a few "on your own" assignments I threw at them and a couple of library videos, one on prehistoric life that is related to what we are doing in history and one Magic School Bus on bugs and butterflies. Maria started reading her next history book, Shadowhawk, and pronounced it as "boring". And of course they've been doing their free reading time and have been making lots of "Easter presents" for everyone they know. John went back to work today as well, and I do believe he was glad to go!

Some random pictures....


Traffic jam.


Jack's new obsession is "building roads"...in my dining room.


Sissy snuggling feverish Jack.


Indoor snow...am I not the coolest mom ever? It snowed several inches Tuesday night, and in true fashion for our area all the snow was melted and gone by Wednesday afternoon. Jack noticed, however, and wanted to play in the snow...but he still had a fever. This was our compromise. I kept trying to build a cute little snowman to take a picture of, but Jack kept smashing him before I could finish.