Cootie Invasion

I have not updated this blog in almost two months and there is a good reason for this.  Invasion.  Our family has been invaded by cooties.  I am not exagerating when I say that one or more of us has been sick since September.

Currently my husband has a fever, cough and congestion.  He has been in bed all day hacking away.  And anyone who has a husband can tell you, men get particularly grumpy when sick.  So he has been in bed, and I have been avoiding him, while my 5 year old coughs all over the hard surfaces of our home and my baby wipes his snotty, green nose all over the soft surfaces. Yes, that makes one half of the members of our household invaded by the crud.

Last month it was my three school age kiddos who caught the cooties.  They were vomiting with chills and body aches.  My 8 year old got sick as we were leaving in the van for our fall vacation. So we had 6 hours to travel in essentially a big incubator.  We stopped at Walmart and bought hand sanitizer, Lysol spray and surgical masks.   We made Cael don a mask and relegated him to the back seat.  With tears in his eyes and on the verge of vomiting he says to us, "I am humiliated."   But victory- no one else got sick- on the trip anyway.

Cael reenacting his humiliated face.

I am not fond of sickness.  It makes me irritable when my family is sick.  I get irritable because I can't control it.  No amount of hand-washing, hand-sanitizing, medication, isolation or good old-fashioned pleading with God seems to keep sickness away.  And when my kids are miserable, I feel powerless, which essentially I am.  All I can do is love em, hug em, spray em down with Lysol, hope for the best and thank God when its over.  Please God, can this be over soon?