Back Among the Living...Sort Of

Wow! We have all been sick from a bug that has felt like the Tasmanian Devil going through our systems. Uuugh. We are still quite beaten down and bleary. But, things are looking up. I am waiting for Isaac to get up so that I can take his temperature. If his temp is normal, I will assume that his coughing fit for an hour and a half last night was due partly to coughing and partly to panic. If he has a temp, I'll have to decide whether or not to take him to the doctor. He coughed so much for an hour and a half last night that he couldn't catch his breath and he was panicking which made it worse. I took him for a ride in the car with the windows down, on the advice of a friend who is a nurse, and it helped. He calmed down and fell asleep. I woke him up to come in the house and he started coughing again, but I was able to get some cough medicine in him. He slept fine.

Cross your fingers with me because...it is Friday and we must decide if we are all well enough to proceed with the usual Friday night follies.

If Isaac has a temp...no date night obviously. I think the kids will be sad too. They haven't really been out of the house all week and would really love to go see there Grandma. So, I think we are all hoping for no temperature.

I have never in my life seen, heard or been surrounded by so much snot. It is just overtaking us all! It is on pillow cases, blankets, shirt sleeves, gurgling in our chests, changing the tone of our voices and our ability to hear. We are being swallowed up by ooze kind of like a bad 50's horror movie. Too bad you can't use it for something...like fixing squeaky doors, lubricating the garage door opener or removing soapscum.

I got my very first rejection letter the other day. I submitted a piece for publishing and it was turned down. I was a little disappointed. However, I was really happy to have found the motivation to do it and to have gotten beyond that it only happens to other people. So, my primary goal was realized by submitting. Getting published is a secondary goal. It is a goal none the less. I think I will begin a whimsical little scrapbook of rejection letters. I think it would help stave off insecurities if I can have fun with it. I want to try to keep my attitude up and light about the whole process. I do believe you can repel things when you get into that whole cycle of grasping and striving. Besides, collecting letters of rejection provides another motivation for getting a lot submissions out there. I would have another secondary goal of needing material for my scrapbook. Just a little mental game to play with myself inside my head...ho hum. It passes the time.

I hope I can get some housecleaning done today. I ran out of energy after going to the store and making soup yesterday. I was wiped out. I mean I was shaking I was so tired. It was a wild rice, leek soup. It turned out very nice. I love making soup. I don't always enjoy cooking. But soup is a wonderful expressive form of cooking that is as much about texture, color, shape and balance as it is about warmth, nurturing, comfort and love. Now if I could just get confident about my bread making skills. Hopefully the soup I made and the vitamins I bought yesterday will help restore some balance. We are all on vitamins now! I usually don't really like to take supplements. I want to try to eat a well balanced diet. But, this illness has made me doubt my plan a little. Plus, it is difficult to insure that the kids eat what they should because they will only eat what they want to at the time which is sometimes determined by the amount of sugar something has in it or how much sugar they have had.

Enough rambling. I am still a bit woozy and not making much sense I fear. Off to start my day with cup of chai!