This past week started out like most of the others: the boys were sick with something or other (an ear infection for J, an eye infection for E) and after we got them started on some meds to help, I came down with something myself, nasty sore throat that escalated into congestion and a killer cough but I wasn't too worried because it wasn't supposed to be a very busy week for us...hint: foreshadowing.
However, E was acting very strangely at school, cranky and aggressive with his best friends and finally one morning about midweek he came in to our room and said, "My ear hurts." The husband took a look and it turns out he had an ear infection so severe the outside of the back of his ear was inflamed and hurt to the touch. Umm, yes, no wonder you were cranky; you were in a ton of pain! Thanks for the head's up, kid! Fortunately, we had a bottle of antibiotics ready to go (they give it to you dry, in powder form here, to mix as needed) and got him started on his own round.
That same day, I had my once monthly volunteer session at a private children's library, which is usually a breeze but this day we ran into all sorts of issues: damaged books, missing memberships, overdue fines, research paper on the Titanic, and various other things I have never done before, so I spent the morning basically guessing and hoping I was guessing right. That night, someone from church called with a last minute request: could we host the Single Status dinner on Friday after church? Once a month, someone from the congregation here feeds all the members who are here without their families, usually men from the Philippines and various countries in Africa. This group can be anywhere from 10-20 strong, depending on the week, and the folks who were scheduled to do it had a conflict no one had remembered so they needed a substitute. Could we step in? Sure! I wondered why our name was on anyone's mind in the first place, which is surely a dangerous sign: when people think you can do things at the last minute, they are sure to come looking for you again and again. But at that point my voice was pretty much gone but I felt more or less fine and there really was no one else, so we jumped in. After a few panicked moments wondering what in the world I was going to feed that many people given the state and cost of groceries here, I decided on crockpot chili and rice (very Hawaii to serve those together, by the way) and some sort of crockpot fruit dessert with carrot sticks and cucumbers on the side. Only I don't have a crock pot any more because we sold them all before we came! Sometimes I cannot believe that after walking away from our wedding reception with 7 crockpots we do not have one to our names! Anywho, I sent out an SOS to the church's Facebook group here and wrangled up a few (thank you, ladies!) and started to feel fine about the whole thing.
That was Tuesday, I think. It's all a bit hazy! By Wednesday morning, I was feeling very, very bad. Really, really bad. Coughing all night left me sleep deprived and headachy and E had been coming in during the night as well because he wasn't sleeping either, plus J had been having a rare round of sleeplessness himself, so it was musical beds and coughing fits, which was just as much fun as you might imagine. And I had a fever in 115 degree heat, which was pretty much torturous! But I had grocery shopping to do and crockpots to borrow and all the other things of my life life picking up other kids from school with my own and watching some of them after school for their parents, so I got to it. That afternoon, it was also our turn to clean the villa where we meet for church. You get randomly assigned a date and that day was unfortunately our turn. So we picked up the husband after school and went over and vacuumed and swept and mopped and cleaned toilets and set up chairs and emptied the trash for a couple of hours and by the end of all that I was ready to faint.
The next day I felt worse still, though the boys were practically back to 100%--hooray! The husband said his throat hurt and I willed him not to get sick because we can't both of us be down at the same time. Disaster lies that way! That day was more of the same, with more errands to run and more kids to watch, and then we were supposed to go over to a friend's house for dinner. Last week, before all this, I had said we would love to come and volunteered to bring a veggie tray. Thank heavens I didn't sign up for something more complicated! I pulled together the tray, made a dip out of one of the awesome ranch dressing mixes the husband brought back from his last trip to the States (honestly, living here with my ranch-obsessed E, ranch dressing mix is really a romantic gift, I promise!), and got us all out the door and to their house on time. In the meantime, I was coughing so much there I thought I would hack up a lung, so I made the boys leave their Xbox Kinect playing, much to their chagrin, and go home a bit early, so I could crash before getting up in the morning for church and cooking chili for the five thousand (or so it felt).
Friday morning I was slightly, slightly better, in that I was coughing a tiny bit less, but the husband insisted I stay home from church and rest, after helping me with the food prep before he took the boys. Pounds and pounds of chili, carrots, cucumbers, and Tang later, I fell asleep again once they took off and got up in time to whip up a batch of cornbread and turn on the rice cookers. Sadly for me, I was so congested I couldn't taste anything but texture when I tried the chili, so the husband had to correct the seasoning at the last minute when he got back. Even sadder, I used up the last of my chili powder on these batches, but fortunately it's only one month more until we go back to the US, so hopefully we can survive without more chili powder for that long (though I am not at all sure that is actually possible!). Less sad, the 7 men who did show up kept saying how much the chili tasted like African cooking (???) and ate pounds and pounds of it, finishing off at least 10 cups of uncooked rice, but there was still enough to send them all home with many leftovers. (When they arrived, one of them asked the husband if it was his birthday and when he said no, another clarified that the spread looked like the kind of meal you would have only if someone were celebrating a birthday!). After they all left, I halfheartedly cleaned and then went upstairs to take a three hour nap, after which I fixed nachos for the boys and helped get them into bed and then fell asleep again, still exhausted. Luckily, the next day I finally felt close to my normal self, with only a little lingering cough and cold.
Whew. This week should be easier...right??
However, E was acting very strangely at school, cranky and aggressive with his best friends and finally one morning about midweek he came in to our room and said, "My ear hurts." The husband took a look and it turns out he had an ear infection so severe the outside of the back of his ear was inflamed and hurt to the touch. Umm, yes, no wonder you were cranky; you were in a ton of pain! Thanks for the head's up, kid! Fortunately, we had a bottle of antibiotics ready to go (they give it to you dry, in powder form here, to mix as needed) and got him started on his own round.
That same day, I had my once monthly volunteer session at a private children's library, which is usually a breeze but this day we ran into all sorts of issues: damaged books, missing memberships, overdue fines, research paper on the Titanic, and various other things I have never done before, so I spent the morning basically guessing and hoping I was guessing right. That night, someone from church called with a last minute request: could we host the Single Status dinner on Friday after church? Once a month, someone from the congregation here feeds all the members who are here without their families, usually men from the Philippines and various countries in Africa. This group can be anywhere from 10-20 strong, depending on the week, and the folks who were scheduled to do it had a conflict no one had remembered so they needed a substitute. Could we step in? Sure! I wondered why our name was on anyone's mind in the first place, which is surely a dangerous sign: when people think you can do things at the last minute, they are sure to come looking for you again and again. But at that point my voice was pretty much gone but I felt more or less fine and there really was no one else, so we jumped in. After a few panicked moments wondering what in the world I was going to feed that many people given the state and cost of groceries here, I decided on crockpot chili and rice (very Hawaii to serve those together, by the way) and some sort of crockpot fruit dessert with carrot sticks and cucumbers on the side. Only I don't have a crock pot any more because we sold them all before we came! Sometimes I cannot believe that after walking away from our wedding reception with 7 crockpots we do not have one to our names! Anywho, I sent out an SOS to the church's Facebook group here and wrangled up a few (thank you, ladies!) and started to feel fine about the whole thing.
That was Tuesday, I think. It's all a bit hazy! By Wednesday morning, I was feeling very, very bad. Really, really bad. Coughing all night left me sleep deprived and headachy and E had been coming in during the night as well because he wasn't sleeping either, plus J had been having a rare round of sleeplessness himself, so it was musical beds and coughing fits, which was just as much fun as you might imagine. And I had a fever in 115 degree heat, which was pretty much torturous! But I had grocery shopping to do and crockpots to borrow and all the other things of my life life picking up other kids from school with my own and watching some of them after school for their parents, so I got to it. That afternoon, it was also our turn to clean the villa where we meet for church. You get randomly assigned a date and that day was unfortunately our turn. So we picked up the husband after school and went over and vacuumed and swept and mopped and cleaned toilets and set up chairs and emptied the trash for a couple of hours and by the end of all that I was ready to faint.
The next day I felt worse still, though the boys were practically back to 100%--hooray! The husband said his throat hurt and I willed him not to get sick because we can't both of us be down at the same time. Disaster lies that way! That day was more of the same, with more errands to run and more kids to watch, and then we were supposed to go over to a friend's house for dinner. Last week, before all this, I had said we would love to come and volunteered to bring a veggie tray. Thank heavens I didn't sign up for something more complicated! I pulled together the tray, made a dip out of one of the awesome ranch dressing mixes the husband brought back from his last trip to the States (honestly, living here with my ranch-obsessed E, ranch dressing mix is really a romantic gift, I promise!), and got us all out the door and to their house on time. In the meantime, I was coughing so much there I thought I would hack up a lung, so I made the boys leave their Xbox Kinect playing, much to their chagrin, and go home a bit early, so I could crash before getting up in the morning for church and cooking chili for the five thousand (or so it felt).
Friday morning I was slightly, slightly better, in that I was coughing a tiny bit less, but the husband insisted I stay home from church and rest, after helping me with the food prep before he took the boys. Pounds and pounds of chili, carrots, cucumbers, and Tang later, I fell asleep again once they took off and got up in time to whip up a batch of cornbread and turn on the rice cookers. Sadly for me, I was so congested I couldn't taste anything but texture when I tried the chili, so the husband had to correct the seasoning at the last minute when he got back. Even sadder, I used up the last of my chili powder on these batches, but fortunately it's only one month more until we go back to the US, so hopefully we can survive without more chili powder for that long (though I am not at all sure that is actually possible!). Less sad, the 7 men who did show up kept saying how much the chili tasted like African cooking (???) and ate pounds and pounds of it, finishing off at least 10 cups of uncooked rice, but there was still enough to send them all home with many leftovers. (When they arrived, one of them asked the husband if it was his birthday and when he said no, another clarified that the spread looked like the kind of meal you would have only if someone were celebrating a birthday!). After they all left, I halfheartedly cleaned and then went upstairs to take a three hour nap, after which I fixed nachos for the boys and helped get them into bed and then fell asleep again, still exhausted. Luckily, the next day I finally felt close to my normal self, with only a little lingering cough and cold.
Whew. This week should be easier...right??
I feel tortured just reading that account. Sheesh! David and I also try very hard to never be sick simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteYes, I feel pretty tortured about it myself. I am running on empty but hopefully we will all be better soon!!
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