Mid April

 I love this time of year. So many flowering trees and newly budding plants and blossoms of all kinds. It is glorious.

This is our crabapple tree. It always flowers but this might be the most blossoms it has ever had. So lovely.

I like flowers and neat flower beds but I also hate gardening and digging in the dirt. Our flower beds look ok in spring and then as the summer wears on, and the weeds grow, it looks more and more wild.

One other thing I love about spring is that the chiggers aren't up and eating yet. In a few weeks I will have to start my two showers a day regimen, one when I get up and one when I go to bed. I am so ridiculously allergic to chigger bites that I need to try to wash them off before they can cause problems.

Anyway, yes, spring, gorgeous.

I finished my latest book yesterday! This is to say that I did what I need to do. Kevin still has a ton of work but my part is done. I wrote it, and I did a full second edit. Now it is in his corner. We are having an audio book made of it so that will push publication back into June. Which is fine.

I have ideas for my next book. I was going to have a character struck with polio in his 20's but apparently that would have been really unusual in the 1800s so I think I will just have him thrown from a horse and have a bad leg break.

I was thinking Franklin Delano Roosevelt had polio later in life but I looked it up and there is some thought he had something else happen to him. He was definitely stricken with something and was partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. Some people think it was Guillain Barre syndrome.

Anyway. I like this last book (the one I just finished) but it felt like it was really hard to get it done and I was writing slowly.

Well, I realized it has been less than 2 months since Ramsgate Rescue was published so I wrote it in about 2 months. That is not bad at all.

We have been busy with a lot of this and that but isn't everyone?

The kids are doing a lot because there are a lot of them. I want to be an attentive mother but also need to realize that the older ones are having to make their own choices and decisions and I can't fix stuff for them.

I am, in fact, not in control. Truth is, I never was. It is good for me to remind myself of that. I need to trust God with them, and pray for wisdom and health and direction for them.

Solar Eclipse

 From Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

3They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

4Yet their voice ^b goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

We were so incredibly blessed to be in the path of totality of yesterday's solar eclipse.  I was watching the weather anxiously for the previous week and the weather people kept saying that we would have a lot of clouds. I just hoped that the clouds would part so we could watch the eclipse.

When yesterday dawned, it was blue skies from horizon to horizon. Over the next few hours, clouds did show up, but they were wispy cirrus clouds and did NOT block the sun at all. So we were able to watch the entire show from about 1:53 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Not that we watched every minute. We kept running in and out as the moon ate the sun.

I called all the kids outside around 3 p.m. so they could see totality, which was at about 3:08 p.m.

They had their solar glasses!  We were super careful about that for obvious reasons!

Kevin wore his only astronomical shirt.

And then darkness fell at totality and lasted for like two minutes.

It was honestly awesome. Like as in I was full of awe.  I was watching as the last tiny bit of sun disappeared behind the moon and then took off my glasses.

I was expecting the night to be black as pitch. I did not expect a 360 horizon that was somewhat light, and the moon surrounded by the outside glow of the sun's outer bits. I guess not really the sun exactly. It wasn't dangerous to the eyes so wasn't the sun proper.

It was an amazing experience. We were all incredulous and happy.

The picture stinks. There are way better ones on line.

Anyway, yes, we loved it, and were so thankful for decent weather so we could see it.

I didn't know as much about solar eclipses as I thought. This one, the moon was close enough to the earth to completely cover the sun during totality.

There are annular solar eclipses where the moon is a little farther away from the earth and thus looks "smaller" to us and therefore the outer rim of the sun is still there as the moon crosses the middle.

It means that during an annular solar eclipse it doesn't get completely dark.

Very special day.

Great news, good news, and bad news

 The great news is that Joseph got an offer letter for an IT job and signed it and it is ON!

Both he and Miriam are now having to wait on background checks and stuff but it is happening!  We are so excited and thrilled for them!

I think IT is a good fit for both of them. Miriam picks things up quickly and is a problem solver. Joseph just "gets" computer stuff in a way that I certainly do not!  They (along with Naomi) get their IT skills from Kevin for sure! He has always done miracles with computers. I just want them to be black boxes. They should just work and when they don't I get fractious and irritable.

Good news is that the weather event we were expecting fizzled! Not for everyone, sadly; some people north and south of us got whacked by tornadoes, but Dayton somehow just didn't get much of anything. We had rain and we had some lightning and thunder, but no serious winds and no tornadoes. I am so grateful!

The bad news is minor, but it happened. Two nights ago I leaned over to pick up a basket of laundry and did something bad to my lower back side. I think I pulled a muscle. I was in a ton of pain instantly; it was like getting stabbed. However, I crept to a chair and sat down and that didn't hurt. The last two days I have spent most of my time sitting and my dear Kevin and my children have been running around serving me. It is better today, though still a long way from Ok. I still walk oddly but less oddly than yesterday.

It is improving and therefore there is no mental struggle with it. I am irritated but not terrified this won't go away.

A long time ago when I was pregnant with Lydia or Isaac, I pulled a muscle in my neck and couldn't turn it for a day or two. It hurt so much. This is like that. Weird but it will pass.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have been watching 600 lb life stories, though I usually check the people ahead of time to see if they accomplished anything. I don't like the "train wreck" episodes where the people don't lose weight. I like it when they do improve their lives.

I also read a book recently called Hungry: Lessons learned on the Journey from fat to thin by Allen Zadoff. He was a binge eater who crept up to like 360 lbs before managing to overcome his addiction to food and now is sitting at a little above 200 lbs.

I was interested because people in 600 lb life are absolutely miserable but they keep eating. It really does make sense. They are miserable, and they are addicts, so they eat to feel better about their miserable lives. Of course, eating a ton keeps them very heavy, which makes the miserable, which makes them want to eat more...

It isn't that different from an alcohol or drug addiction or even a shopping addiction.

It is very noticeable of course. People can hide an alcohol addiction for a time, but one can't hide being 600 lbs.

Anyway, I have been thinking about how when life is rough, it is hard not to escape into things. I have mostly overcome my own desires to escape. I think if I was in this much pain all the time, I would really struggle with the mental part of it. It is so much easier hurting when one is confident the pain will go away.

I wrote a lot about my back I see. It is not a big deal.

It is far more a big deal that Miriam and Joseph have been offered jobs! So happy!

Oh, I forgot to say that Moonbeam, our cat, is doing great and is recovered. I had to pour antibiotics down his throat for a full week and he didn't like it, but he is good now.

Early April

 The weather winkies are forecasting horrible storm this afternoon. We will see! At the moment, it is sunny and benign but the weather people are super excited.

We had some more exciting news on the job front. Joseph had an interview yesterday and it LOOKS like he'll be getting a Computer Security job, actually at the same place that already hired Miriam!  So that is wonderful. Of course, until he has the offer in his hot little electronic hand we won't 100% rejoice but we are 90% rejoicing.

Daniel is the only one of our 9 children who is at all on the hefty side. I have been reading about obesity and watching 600 lb life shows, not because I am worried about him, but because I am interested in human behavior.

 Daniel is a very healthy weight. Indeed, given how his older brothers grew incredibly fast during puberty and are on the edge of "too thin", I am happy he has some weight on him! He has started to grow quickly over the last six months and the coming year will be exciting. He is currently 5 feet exactly and in the next year I am guessing he will grow another 4 to 6 inches because that is what his brothers did at this age.

Well, this is a short blog post but there is a lot going on around me so I should sign off.

Last Week of March

We had some deer visit our back three acres last night! That is actually pretty rare.

Ok, what a week! Like exhausting and some good and some bad and all of it a little stressful. 

Let's start with the bad -- our poor Moonbeam is sick.

He came to us as a stray kitten a decade ago so he is pretty old for an outdoor cat. He developed some upper respiratory infection and I took him to the vet a couple of days ago. Mostly it is viral though we are giving him antibiotics and we have other stuff to try to help him feel better.

I think he is improving. I just saw him eat/drink some watered down tuna so that is a good sign.

It has been stressful, of course. Ever since we moved here, we have rescued/been adopted by various stray cats. We love them but they are not as high a priority as the kids, of course. It has been a balance to know how much money to spend on a cat. Anyway. He is doing better I think and that is wonderful.

So great news, but also stressful -- Miriam found an IT job! She has been hired to do computer support for a company here in Dayton. It is all very good but there is a ton of work that has to be done for it; filling out paperwork and getting fingerprints and all that. She won't start for awhile because she has to have some background check stuff done first by the company.

Joseph also seems to have a job! He is also pursuing an IT job but for now he is training at a sit down restaurant as a waiter. It is surprisingly exhaustive training. He has been at it all week.

So having two kids get jobs is very exciting but there has been a ton of running around and filling out paperwork. Again, good good good. Just lots of work.

It is Holy Week when Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yes, we celebrate his death because He died as a sacrifice to pay for our sins on the cross.

It is an important week for sure but life is life and there has been a ton going on. Also, I am not someone who gets really excited about holidays. I do think they are important. In the Old Testament, God directed the Isrealites to have a bunch of holidays to remember his blessing through the harvest, and the escape from Egypt.

I think since I have so many children, that holidays are not relaxing for me. That is less true now as the children are older, though. But sometimes my brain is still stuck in "I have all these little kids and we need to cook a feast and have an Easter egg hunt and I am tired" mode.

Anyway. I am so incredibly grateful to Jesus for dying on the cross and saving my soul. I have had a really busy week and have not contemplated Palm Sunday, and the events of Holy Week, much.

That is the awesome thing about salvation through faith in Christ. He loves me and I can and do rejoice in my relationship with Him during calm weeks and very busy weeks.

Also, we are very grateful and happy that two of the children have jobs.

 

St. Patrick's Day

 

We splurged on these giant magnetic tiles which can be used to make boats and little houses and all that. It is charming and the three younger kids are really enjoying it.

It is in fact St. Patrick's Day though we don't really do much about it. Veggietales has a little story about St. Patrick, who was definitely an amazing guy. He also had a really hard life. He was abducted and hauled off to Ireland as a slave, among other things.

We had a problem with our plumbing this week. 

Kevin had to replace a tank becuase it wasn't doing something right. So he put in the blue tank in the picture and also moved a bunch of water lines around. It was a big job and he worked on it for like 20 hours with only 3 hours of sleep breaking it up. We also didn't have running water for most of a day. It was "fun".

Well, it wasn't, but that's Ok. Kevin got it taken care of. He is now mostly caught up on sleep.

I have not gotten much writing done lately and it is annoying me so we are going to have a light week of school so I can spend extra time writing. 

A New (Used) Car!

 

Kevin managed to find a new used car for us last week!

This is great news as we have five drivers and now four cars.

Isaac has been hired part time at the Air Force base in addition to college, Miriam is working full time, Joseph is job hunting vigorously, so yes, having a bunch of cars is a huge blessing.

Books!

 I read a lot. A lot. I love to read. It is my favorite hobby.

The last few weeks I have read a few really good books and thought I would talk about them. 

Number 1: All Systems Red: the Murderbot Diaries

This one is science fiction, and I don't read a lot of SF. When I do, I like humor, and All Systems Red has plenty of it. It is an absolutely brilliant book about a self aware cyborg who goes through a bunch of stuff... well, let's just say it is very funny and also very moving. There is a little swearing but not horrific. I have read it twice because it is so much fun and I caught things the second time I didn't "get" the first time. Also, the first six books of the series (yes, there are more!) are on Kindle Unlimited!

Number 2: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout.

I have read this one at least five times before but it is so much fun. Nero Wolfe is a 285 lb brilliant detective and Archie Goodwin is his assistant. Archie is the "voice" -- the books are in first person. This one was particularly enjoyable.

Number 3: How We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich

This one isn't "fun" but it is thought provoking and helpful. The Yerkoviches are a Christian couple who work as therapists. They contend that most people have an "imprint" about how they relate to others, usually based on personality and upbringing and life experiences. It definitely hits the spot regarding me. I am an avoider, which means I tend to manage my own emotions and not reach out for help. I am very smart and have always been an intellectual, and talking about emotions isn't easy. I have learned how to in the last 26 years of marriage which is very good. It was still useful to read the book again, and think about the children and how they talk, or don't talk, about their feelings. Feelings are important, and if they are strong enough, they can cause a person to lash out in anger (when in fact they are feeling fear, or grief). So yes, interesting and good book.

Number 4: Unveiling Grace by Lynn Wilder

This one was recommended on some FB group of mine and yeah, the library had it!  It is the story of a woman and her husband who entered the Latter Day Saints faith (more commonly known as Mormon) and after thirty years in it, decided it wasn't true and they became evangelical Christians.

I am an evangelical Christian. I am confident the Mormon faith is wrong.  The book is fascinating and well written. One of the things that struck me the most, though, is how easy it is to get confused about meaning when people of two different religions are talking. Words that mean something in one faith journey mean something entirely different in another faith journey. Mormonism is largely a works based religion. In order for an LDS individual to achieve the "celestial kingdom", which is the highest and best of kingdoms, he or she has to do a lot of stuff. They need to serve and they need to have a temple ordinance and they need to do this and that and the other.

I believe that there are only two destinations after death, heaven and hell. Heaven is the dwelling place of those who trust in Christ for salvation. Ours sins were washed away by His blood on the cross. We do "good things" out of gratitude for his sacrifice and love, not because we are trying to earn our way into heaven.

These are diametrically opposing belief systems. There is way more than that; the LDS faith has a lot of very, very, very different beliefs. We can't both be right.

But yet, when an LDS person and an evangelical Christian person talk, they may well talk at cross purposes because what a member of the LDS means by "grace" and "salvation" is different than for an evangelical Christian.

Words definitely matter! Probably when talking to an individual of another faith, it is super helpful to define words in common which may mean something very different based on one's faith.

March

 Weather has been lovely today. Yesterday it was pretty nice too. Spring is sort of here, though I know from experience that we will still have some very cold days. Probably. It was a mild winter.

This isn't a great picture as it was taken through a window but the grass is getting green. Today it is mid 60's and feels fabulous.

Kevin kindly bought me some interesting wooden puzzles. The edges are not lines so it is easier to put them together from the inside out, which is weird and interesting and fun.

Kevin and I have a running argument (a jocular one) over whether we have enough blankets. He buys new ones for the children every single Christmas. It is a tradition. I claim we have enough blankets. He says you can't have too many.

Well, last week I pulled 13 or 14 blankets off of Rose's bed and carried them downstairs, and then ordered her to pick her 5 favorite and put them on her bed. She decided that a blanket pile was fun so she ran around the house collecting more blankets.

I am of the view that we have more blankets than we need.  Kevin is still of the view that more is always better :-).

In less amusing news, Lydia has COVID. She was sick all last week and came to visit yesterday. She was lying around and we were chatting and a few hours into her visit she mentioned that everything tasted funny.

I was like hmmmmm, maybe you have COVID!

And she said no, she never has COVID. She has never tested positive for COVID in 4 years and she works in a day care so maybe she is immune but no, not COVID.

So I tested her and the second line showed up very promptly. Poor thing!

She is doing Ok with it but she is prone to asthma so she is being careful. She is also taking next week off of work. 

It was a very busy week here. Miriam passed her driving test!  Hooray!  She can now drive herself to work!

She and Joseph had some interviews, and Isaac has some summer interviews this coming week.

My current book is an octupus. By that I mean there are many plot arms and I am working hard to make it so they converge at the end in a sensible way.

So yes, busy week, we are fine, except Lydia is not. Also we have been exposed to COVID again. We had it over Christmas (Lydia did not) so I hope we won't get it again so quickly.

Late February

 Our new book did launch. It is doing pretty well. Sitting at #734 in the Kindle store, which means that only 733 books are currently doing better. It isn't a really long book so we won't make as much on Kindle page reads but it should be moderately lucrative.

We had snow a week or two ago and this pic is from that storm. We got like 4 inches. It all melted last week and last night we got another inch or so. The roads were bad this morning but thanks to sunshine, most of the snow is gone now.

Pic of a pizza party. I enjoy it when the whole crowd is around and able to eat pizza.

Well, everyone but me and Lydia. I can't because of diabetes and she is still eating a very restricted diet. It is helping as she isn't sick much anymore.

Rose has bears.

I have been watching a video sermon series on Ecclesiastes. The speaker is talking about how Solomon was super rich and super wise and tested to see whether love or lust or marriage or concubines or building projects or possessions or gold or anything else would make him feel fulfilled.

And he realized that everything was meaningless without God.

He was in a weird position of being able to have anything that was possible in that day and age. (He couldn't have an automatic dishwasher because obviously not invented yet!)

Most people in our world can always yearn for more because most of us aren't super wealthy.

We are not super wealthy. We are wealthy compared to many people in the world. Food on the table, good roof over our heads, heat in the winter, AC in the summer, cars, a POOL!

When I was a kid, I thought only really really rich fortunate people had pools. And we have a pool!

Kevin and I both keep talking about managing our time and efforts during this season of life. The more books we publish, the more we make. But how much money is enough?

That is actually a tricky question! If I spent 40 hours a week writing, and Kevin 40 hours a week doing editing and marketing and all that, we would write books much  more quickly. But we would neglect the kids. And we definitely are not called to neglect the kids!

So it is a balance. Finishing books is very satisfying to me. Writing them is satisfying. I really enjoy writing. But it is vital that I spend enough time with Kevin and the children, that I talk to the children about the Lord, that I keep on keeping on with homeschooling even though I've been doing this like 20 years now and I am a little tired of it.

(Public school is NOT an option. I am way too cranky in my views about the right way to educate to be the kind of parent who should put her kids in ps. We felt called to homeschool for a variety of reasons, but one of them is being cranky about modern educational methods.)

Anyway, all this needs thought and prayer. I adore James 1:5.

 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 

Mid February

 Our new book, Ramsgate Rescue, has been released as an audio book and as a paperback. The ebook launches next week.

In an ideal world, everything would be released within a few days but hey, Amazon KDP is not the ideal world.

I am working hard on the next story. I don't quite know how it is going to work out but I have confidence I will figure out something. I often get stressed that I won't be able to finish a story but so far I always think of something.

It has been busy around here, but that is nothing unusual. Today we have some snow coming down, finally. The last week was warm for February. It has been a mostly mild winter.

I feel like I should have more to report but I really don't. We're doing well. Kevin and I are both feeling mostly recovered from COVID which is great. 

That's about it!

February

 So far it has been a mild winter except for a couple of really cold weeks in January. And now it is February! It is warmish -- like high of 40 something today.

Ok, busy week here. Health wise, Kevin and I continue to improve. We also are doing more, so increased energy input and output. I am usually super tired when I get to bed but that's Ok.

Miriam and Joseph have been studying for months to take an exam called the Comp TIA Security Plus Exam. The certification is a basic requirement for many IT jobs.  Kevin took Miriam and Joseph off to the testing center on Wednesday and both passed!  I was actually pretty surprised; it is a hard test and most people don't pass it the first time. Naomi did also so Kendigs are three for three on that test the first time!

So now they are job hunting! And I am praying. And Kevin is working a lot with the kids with resumes and all that. We have some connections in the IT industry (Naomi and some friends of Kevin's from his Air Force years). I am hopeful they will both have jobs soon.

We are going to purchase another car for the kids. We have a Toyota Corolla that Isaac and Joseph share. Miriam is taking her driving test in a couple of weeks an if she passes, we will have three teen drivers. Also we hope that M and J will soon have full time jobs.

Kevin is looking around for a used car. I don't know much about cars and he is handling all that, but I did request blind spot monitoring for the new used car. It really is very helpful and with new drivers -- well, I would like the new used car to have blind spot monitoring.

Kevin found a possible car yesterday and we decided on a "date" 90 minutes north to check it out in the great city of Lima, Ohio. Spelled like Lima in a lima bean, not Lima as in Lima, Peru.

There was a huge accident on I-75 North which slowed us down.  We ended up getting off the highway and driving through the less wonderful parts of Lima. It is a refinery city and there are giant tanks and smokestacks and fun stuff like that. We went through a part of town that was falling down.

We finally got there and checked out the car. The man showing it to us was very pleasant. BUT the car, erm, the car's heat was having opposite day. Not only was the heat not working, the air coming out of the vents was colder than the outside air, or at least it felt like it. It behaved as if it was permanently stuck on AC.

So yeah, no. Kevin also detected an issue with the suspension. Never mind.

It was a date. We got away for four hours together. We'll take it.

Kevin and I also toiled away this last week to finish the latest book. Don't have a publish date yet because we are also having Harry Frost do an audio narration of the book to launch at the same time as the e book.

It was definitely a busy week and we had homeschooling on top of it.

But we are both feeling better so are thankful!

Angry Alveoli

 I have to admit that the title of this blog post makes me giggle. The alliteration!!

Anyway, last Saturday was a bad day breathing wise so on Sunday I went to a Kroger Little Clinic. The Nurse Practioner listened to my lungs and said I was clear (hooray!) but given that I was still battling consistent breathlessness, she would prescribe a steroid pack for the angry alveoli in my lungs.

Either they helped, or my body healed further, but this week I have done better with breathing. Which is really nice.

My blood sugars have been bad, because steroids mess with the liver and tell it to release sugar, I guess? I hit 256 one day. UGH! But that only lasted an hour and then it came down.

I am only taking 2 steroid pills today and one tomorrow and then I will be done.

I am super tired today and don't know why. I have had some insomnia, which may be tied to the steroids. It is worth it to breathe better. It was also a busy week so far; I had a hair appointment on Tuesday and three kids went to the dentist yesterday. We had to get a new dentist because we changed insurance. The new one is really good and closer than the old one, so that is nice.

I am a red head again! I like red hair!

Speaking of insurance -- one of the reasons that it was hard to take the leap of having Kevin quit his job is that he had awesome benefits through the Air Force. We now have our insurance through the health care exchange.

There are lots of uncertainties about how much it will cost us BUT it seems good so far in terms of coverage. My steroids were FREE, which was nice.

I have probably mentioned this before, but when Kevin and I were in St. Croix last year, we had time to really talk and pray about his future with the Air Force. I don't pretend to hear God's voice clearly very often, but it did seem God was saying for him to quit.

Which was not a conservative thing to do. He was making a very good salary and the benefits were great. He was also not happy; there were reasons why leaving his job made sense from a mental health point of view.

The book business has been doing very well since he left his job. He has time now to do more marketing and publicity and we now have a seven person team of people who are part of the business.

He is happier than when he was working for the Air Force. And the last month plus has been so tiring with Kevin's mom hurting herself, and then a long stint of illness. Kevin and I have both been tired and struggling but we have been able to be good parents, I think.

If he were trying to work through all this, it would be way harder to keep the household rolling.

So yes, God knew what he was doing, as usual.

A new book is coming out near the end of next month. I am done with most of it, but we are having an audio book created to come out at the same time.

So yes, financially it was stupid for Kevin to quit his job. Emotionally, mentally, spiritually, it was a great idea.

Rubik's Cube

 

I managed to solve a 4 by 4 Rubik's cube yesterday.

I hope you are impressed. I am a 3 by 3 expert but the 4 by 4 is significantly more complicated.

There are some of the same moves as the 3 by 3, with a whole bunch of other ones mixed in.

I got lucky this time; there is a problem that can occur at the end which requires two corner pieces to be switched and I haven't figured that out yet. This time, the corners were miraculously still in the right places.

I like fussing with my Rubik's cubes, so this is fun.

Mid January

 

We have had a little snow; not a lot. There was a great deal north in Michigan.

Jet would like to come in, but he isn't allowed.

The seven kids at home. We often eat meals in shifts for one reason or another, so this was a fun pic.

Rose got a craft for Christmas which involves making sun catchers.

Lest you think we are being mean to the cats, they have electrically warmed houses.

In other news, Kevin and I continue to slowly improve. We are still tired and need to rest a lot. My breathing is slowly better.  I can't do a lot but I can do more.

So that is good.

Patience is a Virtue. So is Gratitude

 A friend of mine who is a little older than I am has been battling cancer for a few years. I got a message from her that she recently had a stroke as well. It breaks my heart. She is a wonderful person and this is hard.

Her faith in the Lord is inspiring and I keep praying for her, that God would help her recover from the stroke and the cancer, and will continue to comfort her.

Another friend got smacked with serious long COVID. She is recovering but it has been a long journey.

Both of these wonderful women have encouraged me as Kevin and I deal with the lingering effects of COVID. We don't have a lot of energy, and want to sleep a lot, and my breathing continues to be a bit off. I just want to be better!  But I am not yet. And I need to rest as needed.

I am so thankful that the children are old enough to run much of the household. In 2009, when we had 6 kids under the age of 10, we got swine flu and wow, that was a rough time!

So yeah, I think Kevin and I are improving, but it is slow going. 

The weather outside is currently frightful -- windy, snowy, and cold. We are only getting like an inch of snow; apparently up north a few hours, they are supposed to get over a foot!

So that's...fun.

We do not have to be anywhere today which makes me happy.

I do love getting things done and there are things I want to get done, but I also need to respect my own limitations.

Miriam is ready to take her driving test, mostly, but I want to do a little more driving with her. This coming week is kind of busy with various appointments so probably I will be using my energy to take people here and there.

I'm good. I'm thankful it isn't worse. 

Oh, I am also nearing the end of a book, a shorter one than usual. I honestly dislike it at this point. I am tired and my brain isn't firing on all thrusters and I look at it and think, argh, I don't like it.

I think it is actually a decent book. I always dislike my books at the end :-).

I just have to keep on, keeping on.

COVID marches on

 Kevin has it now. We THOUGHT he had it a week or two ago. He had a killer backache the weekend before Christmas. My experience with COVID is that sometimes it causes major backaches so we hoped that he had it with one symptom.

But now he is sick with more conventional COVID symptoms. Chills (major chills -- he is usually hot, and slept with 4 extra blankets last night). Major fatigue. Coughing. Isaac and Daniel are sick now. 

I tested myself again today and while it was positive, it was barely positive. So that is good news; I am presumably getting close to not being contagious.

Ten years ago I would probably be super frustrated that December and early January have been so difficult. But I am on Lexapro and I am older, so that is good :-).

I mean, I don't like being sick, and I hate having to sit around, and I hate having breathing problems. But I am not terribly bad. I am not in the hospital. I am relieved about that.

Moreover, the kids are old enough they can run the house as needed. They all keep getting sick too, but not all at once. Joseph and Miriam and Angela had it and are over it. 

It isn't ideal, but such is life. I am thankful that it isn't worse. I am thankful that we have a house full of food. I am thankful that Kevin's mom, who spent time with us the week before Christmas, didn't get it.

It is really a blessing to live in a time and place with over the counter safe drugs (tylenol and acetimenophen) and blood oxygen meters and stuff like that. Since I do have asthma issues, I have been checking my oxygen levels regularly and am doing great.

We even managed to get sick in the midst of down time in our calendar. We usually have lots of doctor appointments and dentist appointments and orthodontia appointments and stuff like that, but have had nothing scheduled since Christmas.

Except for getting my hair dyed, but that isn't a medical issue.

So yes, I am blessed in the midst of COVID. Thank you, Lord.

Third Time is Not a Charm

 I have COVID.

For the 3rd time.

Wow. Just wow. Seriously??

Anyway, I checked more than a week ago when I first got sick. So did Miriam and Joseph. And the tests were negative.

Monday I was feeling really awful and I checked again and the test was very, very, very positive.

I am fine. My asthma is flaring up because it always does when I get COVID or flue or even a particularly nasty cold.

The kids and Kevin can and are running the house.

Everyone is getting it, of course, but no one else is having breathing problems. Kevin had a killer backache for more than a week and that was his main symptom. Rose has it now and feels sick but not awful.

I have gotten every booster available and am thankful, since with my diabetes and asthma, I am at higher risk.

So yeah, COVID for the 3rd time but all in all, we are fine.