Sickness

 At the very beginning of the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, there is a dramatic scene wherein the narrator talks about how Sauron and the One Ring took over Middle Earth, almost, until an army came up against them and managed to temporarily take Sauron out of action.

The sentence that comes to mind is "One by one, they fell to the power of the Ring."

We are falling, one by one, to the power of a cold.

Which is totally normal. This is life with a big family. We get sick, and it takes its sweet time working through the whole family.

Unfortunately, we can't cast the cold into the depths of Mount Doom and destroy it. We have to be PATIENT.

When I realized we had a respiratory illness flowing through the house, I prayed fervently that I wouldn't have breathing problems. When I start having asthma issues, it is often a multi week affair that ends in steroids and I really hate the whole thing.

By God's grace, I have no breathing problems! Hooray!

However, two days ago, I had a massive nosebleed that lasted more than two hours. Not sure if it had anything to do with being sick. Maybe it is just dry air. Anyway, it was kind of scary and I didn't feel great yesterday. Thankfully so far yesterday and today I have been fine, and I have been using some nasal spray and other things to get my nose happier.

Almost all the kids have been ill, with Isaac the sickest. I did test him and me for COVID and the tests were negative, so this isn't COVID, praise God!

Isaac had finals last week and he was healthy through them and then after his finals, he got pretty sick. He is a miserable puppy. Not like dangerously sick, but not feeling well at all. I remember after finals I would often be incredibly tired and sometimes I would get sick too. My body and mind were pushing really hard and then when I could relax, I was incredibly exhausted. So maybe that is it?

Anyway, it has been a kinda miserable season of illness but it isn't dangerous, just annoying.

Oh, we also have been down to one car most of the week. Kevin's car has a crack in its fuel line and the auto place we took it to is waiting on a part. Of course, two of the kids have cars of their own, but they have been using them most of the time.

It is fine. I stayed home all week and it was actually nice seeing as I wasn't feeling well and also was looking after sick kids.

Rose with the finished puzzle. She has a remarkable eye for finding the location of puzzle pieces.

I have also been a low key decluttering frenzy, organizing and throwing things out because here comes Christmas and three birthdays, with all the presents that come with it!