Three guesses

 

It's Friday! Let's play a game. I'll give you clues and you guess what's going on at our house. 

                                                                               Clue #1:

Clue #2:

Lest there be any wild rumors flying around, those are not pregnancy tests. Those, my friends who may yet be uninitiated, are covid 19 tests and they read positive. 

Those are the final two of the five in our household. Full house. What do we win?

Damon reported feeling sick to his nurse at school last Friday. She called me and said he should come home. He spent the weekend coughing and sleeping. Upon taking his covid test, he started off the chain of positives.  Friday the right side of my sinuses were blocked up and annoying, and I'd started to sneeze. Our winds all weekend were around 20+ mph so I assumed the wind was bringing whatever from wherever and the dogs were bringing it inside for me to be allergic to more conveniently. We watched church from our couch and stayed in, going through our stock of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup (the kids) and the homemade soups I'd made (grownups- the kids refuse to try them). We should purchase stock in Campbell's... maybe we'd get some of our money back.

Liam succumbed next, but only because he tested before Dada, who also left work early on Tuesday because his boss didn't want him contaminating anyone. Love her. Five stars. Highly recommend. 

Finally, the last two of us standing gave in and received our positives. Joined the club, as it were. My sinuses had gone from feeling solid on the right side to doing the Cha Cha Slide anytime I rolled over: "Sliiiiiiiide to the left. Sliiiiiide to the right." God forbid I attempt to bend over. 

Dada and Thing One take the awards for worst coughs. They both sound like a kid named Jeremy from my neighborhood growing up. I commented that to my brother and he guffawed and said that kid should be The Example for horrible coughs, that you could hear him along an entire quadrant of the neighborhood. Since that was 40ish  years ago, the kid made quite an impression!

Needless to say, we are drinking tons of water and taking our meds and sneaking in naps and taking it easy. We held off until Year Three before succumbing for our first round, but apparently the Borg were right: resistance is futile.

In all seriousness, we are doing okay. We've had offers of help and with all the delivery systems in place we certainly won't starve to death anytime soon. Damon went back to school today after morphing back into his mostly cheerful, squirrely self. His nurse said he could report back on Thursday but I felt he needed another day to rest. I figured one school day and then a weekend ought to be just about right. Here's hoping he remembers to bring home everything he needs to catch up on, and thank heavens there was no school on Monday so it was a short week. 

I felt less sick with covid than I did with the flu (also in February, several years ago), but I did have moments of chemo-like brain fog and energy drain. I felt like someone had dialed my energy level way down, but noticed that, as usual, I felt better with movement. We haven't been going for our walks and I miss that, but I know enough to take it easy until we are fully back to ourselves. I figured if we'd all been healthy, it would have snowed two feet and there wouldn't have been school anyway to it all evens out.

I also noticed that I didn't have a muted sense of smell or taste until about Wednesday night even though my sneezing and sinus issues started last Friday. Really couldn't taste much this morning. Fireball candies are still hot but less... zesty? Zippy? Cinnamony? At least they didn't fry my mouth and sinuses like they did during chemo, haha!

The real question is: where are we booking a vacation next February so we can get away from this ridiculous weather and these germs!?

Golden pond

I love light on our neighbors' pond in the morning. It was glowing and golden this morning, even though it "feels like 14" outside. Even the resident twelve year old noticed this morning and was amazed at the difference in the light since a week ago. 

Sure doesn't look like February, does it?

 

Winter weirdness

Um, how does this work?

We seem to be experiencing technical difficulties: it is indeed winter in Ohio, but Ohio doesn't seem to know that. We've had rain and high fifties and low sixties and wind. And more wind. And more wet. And I've seen two bluebirds. 

Not a lot of snow. I'm trying to decide if I mind.

I've restarted as a substitute teacher, and was speaking with a colleague from Virginia. He was a little puzzled about how similar the weather has been to what winter is like in his home state and confessed he expected more cold and snow. I confided that the only predictable thing about Ohio is its unpredictability. I'm sure there will be more Weather. I only hope it's not saving ALL of it until March. In the meanwhile, I'll try to not let any school kids blow away at recess and I'll savor not freezing to the ground at the bus stop!

 

Thank you, God, for food.

 I do believe we have a herd of Cookie Monsters loose in the house. I made chocolate chip cookies last week and I swear the next time I turned around there were three left.

I baked Monday Morning Muffins yesterday. Don't get excited- they're just blueberry muffins out of a box, but I figured they'd work some magic to kick off the week. I'm debating freezing six of them so they last until next week's Monday, haha.

Dunno if you've seen these, but they make edible glitter and put it in chocolate chips. Woohoo! Had to try some. I made another batch- my first with glitter chips- since the first batch of cookies didn't stick around long. I figure it's because we've been out of ice cream *gasp* for several days now. I'm not sure this batch will last long enough for anyone to notice the glitter, but I had a good time making them so that's enough.

Last weekend I made pork bone broth but this weekend it was chicken. I can't even tell you how good my house smells with this simmering overnight. I'm sure it had nothing to do with why I couldn't sleep. That's not drool on my pillow...

Shattered sleep

You know it's going to be a long night (or a very short one) when your brain is busy constructing limericks when you're supposed to be asleep.  

There once was a fellow called Pop

whose snoring at night would not stop.

His wife meant no ill will

but went in for the kill;

her pillow gave him a big THWOP!

Honey (AKA That Awful Dog) was barking for no discernible reason, Thing Two was up way later than he should have been, and a certain someone who shall remain nameless snored, it seemed, no matter which sleeping position was utilized. I hate nights when I get ganged up on, though I am well aware how good I have it most nights. We are in our own home, most of us in our own rooms even, not stuffed in a tent in a refugee camp somewhere. I can't even imagine. Talk about there by the grace of God go I. So blessed. Even on a Monday, even after shattered sleep. Let's hear some limericks! (Keep it clean, people; my kids read this!) 

Have a super week!

Puzzling times

Since Christmas vacation, we've been doing jigsaw puzzles. Yesterday we finished this 1000 piece one and now guess what I want? 😏

 

Dreams, dreams.

 Yesterday Dada made it downstairs before the Damonater left for his oh-butt-ugly bus time and announced, "I had SUCH a weird dream last night. I was cutting my toenails..." He proceeds to tell the story about a gecko coming out of a hole in his toe. Way too much weirdness for me pre-coffee. Then this morning I awoke from a dream that our superintendent called to announce a delay due to freezing cold temps. Imagine my dismay when, upon checking the news and my Twitter feed, I discovered no such declaration had been made. Bah. It's past cold out there and solidly in the category of "friggin' ridiculous" but we got Thing Three on the bus on time just the same. The small dog is whining to go out. Fool. I tried to keep them in as long as possible to give Mr. Sun a chance to help a bit. Alas, it's time to get on the stick! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and stay warm and toasty and safe!