Mom & Pop Home School

Saw the doctor today. It’s probably bronchitis. Again. Possibly pneumonia, but since he’d prescribe the same thing either way we opted against the chest X-ray. Either way I feel pretty darn crummy. Evidently I’ve gone the same route with this flu as last time–started out with a viral infection, which did a number on my lungs, probably due to my asthma, and invited in a secondary bacterial infection. I have antibiotics. And cough syrup with codeine. Yummy.

Hopefully it’ll go away fast now. Pop’s doing the viral portion of this month’s entertainment, and is annoyed because he can’t really “be sick” due to the fact that I’m sicker. It would really be nice if at least the dizziness, weakness, and trembling would go away so I can get some dishes and laundry done. Plus I’m tired of my teeth chattering when I’m not even cold. Blech!

This is getting SOOOOOOoooooo OLD!

Whine.

Grump.

Complain.

Thanks for listening. I’m going to go pass out on the couch. Again.

Been down with the flu. Or whatever it is. The fever seems to be mostly gone, but every joint in my body still aches and my throat is swollen. Can’t talk. Can’t move. Feel like I’ve been hit by a train. Stepped up the asthma meds so I can breathe. Trying to rest. Wondering why it is that everyone around here thinks Mom should take care of them when they’re sick, but when Mom’s sick they still think Mom should take care of them. What are they, children or something? Oh….yeah….

Pop’s coming down with it now too. Cricket seemed to have it yesterday, but his legendary iron-clad immune system (and some heart-felt prayers along with a blessing from Pop) stepped up to the plate, and he’s looking pretty alive today. Even AFTER the party he went to at his Primary (children’s Sunday school) teacher’s house this afternoon. Yes, I let him go. Yes, the entire neighborhood will probably break out in flu tomorrow and it will be all my fault. (Actually, it’s been going around, and if they haven’t picked it up at the NEIGHBORHOOD school or the NEIGHBORHOOD church, then they probably won’t get it from Cricket.) The thing is, this is my ASPIE child. The anti-social hermit child. The one who goes into sensory overload in three seconds flat if there are more than three people in a room at once. In an odd alternate reality sort of turn of events, he was lamenting loudly yesterday when he realized he was getting sick and that would probably mean he wouldn’t be able to go to the party today. Not only did he lament, he VOLUNTEERED to take a nap. (I know!) He also voluntarily went to bed early, though he came down a few hours later to report that he’d been praying hard, and that Heavenly Father evidently wanted him to go to the party too, because he was feeling much better already (and looking it too). Then he went in and dragged Pop away from his Guild Wars game and requested a blessing, which of course was gladly given. This morning he reported a slight sore throat, which mostly went away after drinking some water. He watched the clock himself, and enthusiastically got ready to go when it was time. So I let him go. But I made Pop drop him off. He’s not as sick as me. And when he came back, he reported that he had a very good time. Yay!

Went to the dentist today. It was indeed a nasty abscess in Sunshine’s mouth. She was NOT happy. Thrashing and screaming through clenched teeth the entire time. This from my child who LOVES going to the dentist. I was having flashbacks of when her brother was five–especially the three or four times when she almost ripped my shirt off or tore out a handful of my hair with those panicked grabby little fingers. We couldn’t get any X-rays, but we pinned her down enough to get a little bit of cleaning done and a check of the rest of her teeth. She could really use some fillings, but they can wait awhile if necessary. The abscessed tooth needed to be extracted, and they wanted me to schedule it for later. I told them I’d really rather just do it while we were already there, and they numbed her up and gave it a yank. It broke a little, but it came out. She hates me now, but that will wear off. We do need to go back next month to get a spacer crown put on the lonely little molar behind the pre-molar that was extracted so the gap stays open for the adult tooth to grow in, but for now it’s over with. And interestingly enough, the pus has already drained from the sore, and her fever is gone tonight. I think we have found the “root” of our problems there. She even ate more dinner tonight than she has done for a while. (Doesn’t hurt, my FOOT!)

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a stuffy head, and tonight it seems it’s my turn for a fever. Luckily I have this wonderful husband who ordered a pizza for dinner, and I had a short nap on the couch, which seems to have helped some. Sunshine ate all the toppings off her slice of pizza, and ate her entire serving of the mac-and-cheese-from-a-box (as opposed to the homemade kind) which is her FAVORITE food, and which her BROTHER of all people insisted that she be allowed to eat. (Who says Aspies have no empathy! Happy dance!)

On a happier note, it was a sunny day and the children and I went out to work in the yard for a while. The first crocuses have officially bloomed. (They’re yellow. The package said assorted, but the photo showed assorted purples and whites, which is what I was after. But they’re pretty anyway, and they won’t last long.) We planted some asparagus crowns where the ferns will shade the front porch a little in the summer. The garden beds aren’t ready yet, but I was itching to get some salad veggies started growing, and there’s plenty of room in the front flower beds still so we planted some radishes, lettuce, onion sets, spinach, and little carrots. And we started some more fun things in some little peat pots indoors.

I love spring! There’s just something about the cool breeze and the warm sunshine, and all the little sleeping green things starting to send up shoots that just plain makes me happy. Maybe it’s my dad’s botanist genes coming out.

The weather here has been LOVELY the last couple of weeks.  I love spring!

Life keeps on a-keepin’ on. Sunshine was back in school all last week, and had a grand time of it. Except that they now have a brand new student teacher, and Sunshine is shy and clingy again. And then Saturday night she started up with another fever. She still has sniffles and a little bit of a cough, but it still seems like mopping-up from the flu rather than a new illness. Last night (Sunday) she said her tooth was a little sore. I went to help her brush and floss, thinking it was probably an inflamed gum or something–you know, stuck popcorn hull or whatever. She would NOT let me look, but after a minor wrestling match I discovered that no wonder it hurts, she’s got an abscess. I suspect that’s what’s causing this fever too. I called the dentist this morning, but he can’t see her until tomorrow. In the mean time, she’s still got the fever, but she’s VERY chipper, (you know, the kind that makes you want to tape the kid to the wall?) and insists that her tooth doesn’t hurt anymore. Yeah right. Nasty pus filled sore and it doesn’t hurt?  She just doesn’t want to go to the dentist. I wonder if this is why she wouldn’t let the doctor look at her throat when we went before. Didn’t want anyone to find it? It looks like it’s been there at least that long.

Cricket is enjoying spring. He’s even been outside to play a few times (yay!). His new challenge is that his mom has signed him up for one of the Friday Fun co-op classes offered by our homeschool group. Well, sort of. What I signed him up for is a game group for the older kids who don’t want to be in choir during first period and need somewhere to hang out until second period. He likes games, and it’s not a huge group and I thought it might be a good chance to practice being around other kids. He had a really good time the first week–for about 20 minutes. Then they were playing a tag type game that required quick physical reaction, and involved a good bit of noise and motion, and he bolted. He spent the rest of the time sitting out on the steps and afterward insisted that he was NEVER GOING BACK THERE AGAIN!!!  Fortunately he relented on the way home after he calmed down a bit, and we did go back again the next week. We spent the whole time over on the side playing board games, just him and me, but he STAYED, and I call that progress. We’ll have another go at it this week and see what other progress we can tease out of him.

Pop has finished up some work projects that have been dragging on and on, and is glad to not have any new projects with that particular client right away.

Mom is happy to finally have rearranged furniture all over the house sufficiently to enable new beds to be installed in the children’s rooms. Now I just need to make sure all the meds, cleaners, paints, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. ad nauseum are under lock and key and we can have ourselves an inspection and be officially licensed as a foster/adoptive family.

And we just found out that we’re expecting a new niece or nephew in late summer. Woo hoo!

So life goes on. But for those of you who are still hoping for more election pages, I have to confess that there probably won’t be any more for a while. I think the primary season is pretty much wrapping up. I had toyed with the idea of doing some pages about things like political party background info and election history stuff, but I think I need to focus for a while on family things like getting licensed and getting the house a bit more in order. So check back again closer to the election. I’m not making promises, but I do have some tentative plans for more. In the mean time, feel free to hang out and follow our ongoing adventures.