Man Down! Man Down!

I need to add about three "men" (or women or girls) to that count.

I have been feeling a bit ill all week. But it hasn't been bad enough that it has really stopped me, just slowed me down a bit. Then child 4 was sick on Wednesday. But that passed fairly quickly. If only that had been the end...

I am a deep sleeper. But for some reason, I can always sense the presence of a child moving in our room during the night (which is very rare around here). Sometime in the wee hours of the night/morning, I "felt" one in our room. I sat up as I heard the words, "Child 3 just got sick in the hallway." At that point, I was feeling worse than before, so Mark got up to take care of her. (If child 1 hadn't alerted us, I am not sure that she would have let us know until this morning) About that time, he started feeling bad. Uh oh. However this morning, we woke up thinking at least some people would be raring to go. Well, one person. Both of the big kids started complaining about their stomachs, and things went downhill after that. The only person who seemed to feel well...child 4.

I try to keep the youngest with me if I am not in school. I feel guilty otherwise. But today when Mark said, "Should he go to school?" I said, "Yes" right away. I didn't think any of us had the energy to watch him or try to keep up with him. I am thankful for that decision. We all dozed on and off all morning and other than trips to the restroom, we were completely immobile. I kept the t.v. on most of the day (a very rare thing around here), but nobody even seemed to notice or care what was on. Mark was a trooper. He got out, took child 4 to school, delivered pretzels and Sprite, and did some work. He came home partway through the day pretty ill but got out for one more meeting and to pick up child 4.

So here we are a few hours later. Child 3 seems to feel good though she is running a low grade fever. The older 2 do not have fevers, but we are keeping their food intake to a minimum. Mark is possibly the sickest. He has a fever and has slept most of the time since getting home. I am eating lightly (starchy foods which sound good to me) and maintaining with just an occasional fever, LOTS of body aches, and a slight headache. The youngest...well, he is going ninety to nothing. Of course, I think he is enjoying taking full advantage of the situation...he knows that it will take us a while to get to him. :) He has had some sweet moments though. He keeps saying, "Daddy not feel good, Mommy?" And this morning he just hugged my neck for a long time.

We had a lot of plans this weekend. We were supposed to be at the Square to eat pizza and walk around looking at the lights tonight with one of child 1's friends. Then tomorrow morning, child 2 had a ball game, Child 1 had a swim meet AND team pictures, then we were going to have our family over for a birthday lunch. Tomorrow night, Mark and I had a Christmas party to attend. In one fell swoop, all plans gone. I am hoping one of us feels well enough to take Child 1 to his team pictures tomorrow. Right now, that isn't a huge possibility. But we will try. :)

I am attempting to quieten things down (mainly the two little ones) with a video. It isn't working. :) I see an early bedtime for all of us...

Reba
P.S. I originally thought we might have food poisoning because we ate chicken last night. All of us ate it except for the youngest, the only person who doesn't feel bad. But with the other symptoms, I am leaning more toward a virus now. I can only hope this is short-lived. :)
P.S.S. Please pray for the Crumby family. Tomorrow they bury little Hannah Grace. :(