The Joy of the Stomach Bug

OK, I know, there you are looking at the title and thinking "Uh oh, here she goes", ready to read a long and winding complaint about sick kids..."( I mean whew, what could be more exciting than listening to a person discuss various bodily fluids and how they might arrive in the toilet) well SURPRISE! I am actually going to talk a little bit about the joy (oft overlooked) of the stomach bug.

First, a little background. I took the kids to Chuck E Sneeze last Friday, trying to be a good mom and reward them for doing well in school (and by well I mean being present in the house). I had mentally prepared myself that we might get a bug or germ as a result of this visit (I even brought the hand sanitizer and placed in prominently on the table in a vain voodoo attempt to bluff the germs). I cautioned the kids to try no to touch their noses and mouths. I said a prayer. I was prepared. What I was not ready was the blood coming out of my child's mouth when he rounded the corner and tripped, crashing into the climbing tower you scale to reach the tunnels. (yes, of course it was Nate) One look and I knew: ER and stitches. We had only been at CEC enough time to get coins, order pizza, spend a few, and eat when it happened. Having brought 2 hours of planning work, my computer and a novel, we had to pack up everything and haul out to the hospital to get three, awful, black, harsh stitches on my sweet boy's lip.

(BTW, he got the stitches out yesterday and it looks pretty good. The doctor did a great job and he never cried at all during the sewing, they numbed him topically, and it was actually a rather positive experience...um...if you had to go through it).

SO,
The stomach bug was brought home that night and it started the next day with poor sweet Jenny, moved to Ben, me, Nate and then Perry, ( as of this typing Matthew remains healthy and seems...knock wood...to be the one who avoided it ) Jenny got the sickest, Ben shrugged it off in 12 hours. I was down for a while almost 2 days, and Nate managed to throw up and not damage his stitches. (whoops am I getting too much into body fluids?)

OK, so my main amazement and awe about this wondrous bug is that it MUST be smart. (and I meant smart as in thinking and planning smart) because when these things go through our house, we always take turns with it. We are so nice about it, like it is a precious gift to be carefully shared. It is not fun to deal with a sick kid but it is really not fun to deal with two at the same time and that almost NEVER happens. Just like clockwork one of us emerges form the depths of illness and begins to get back to normal and the next is felled. Granted, we have so many people in this house a 24 hour bug wipes a week off the map but it could be worse. ( I won't discuss the January a few years ago where I was home with a sick one for 29 days STRAIGHT....I went a little bonko, I admit) Anyway, I wonder why this phenomenon is not better studied. It does not seem to matter that we were all exposed at the same time, nor how much scrubbing and washing and cleaning and sanitizing and quarantining, almost with precision, it strikes us only one at a time. You have to appreciate the consideration in that, never are the two parents struck down at the same time, nor do we have to divide our love and sympathy among the sick, one child gets it all ( and face it we only have so much on any given day).

My second appreciation is that PapaSchnuck became MamaSchnuck for a day (OK, a day and a half) and did a GREAT job. Laundry folded, kitchen cleaned, kids fed, kids schooled ( YES!) house managed, you name it, DONE. DONE. DONE. All while I languished in my sick bed, sleeping endless hours of undisturbed rest. I haven't slept so much since college. Besides having to cancel the teaching in my co-op class and rescheduling my home school review, all in all I took a serious chunk out of my sleep deficiency total.

Finally, an appreciation for my kids, besides being understanding and invaluable during the Nate lip incident, they also were good all week. We managed to get out during the reprieve of PapaSchnuck taking the sickness from us, and still got work done and helped each other out. Especially when I was sick and really out they stepped up and behaved and did as they needed to. I thank the Stomach Big for helping me see and appreciate them in a different way.

It has been over a year since we have all been sick like this, probably closer to two years, and we were due. I am happy its over and hope it does not come back anytime soon, but I dread having to return to Chuck E Cheese to actually let the kids enjoy their earned reward....hmmmm I wonder, do you think the movie theatre is any less germy?

The Bad and The Ugly

Well, I certainly spend a great deal of time bragging about the joy of homeschooling. Boasting of all the fun and joy we have all day long, laughing and playing, learning and loving. Hey, whats the down side? Well, there is no down side............ Yeah, right. There are plenty of downsides to homeschooling, but none that are so terrible ( at least for me ) that it makes me want to stop. So I decided that I really ought to list a few realities of homeschooling to all you (OK, the two or three) who are reading in case you want some balance.

First, and becoming more and more noticeable the longer we homeschool, interrupting children. (I know, it sounds like a bad joke...Knock knock...whose there? Interrupting children. Interrupting chil....MOM!!!) But seriously...my kids, whose every word I treasure, each wise and fascinating nugget of info they wish to offer while we are in lessons... become crazy self absorbed, blindly egotistical creatures who then expect that there are simply no boundaries that cannot be breached. I mean, you are going into the bathroom, well, no big deal, they are certain that you would immediately want to hear about a leaf found in the hallway that looks EXACTLY like a stink bug, it absolutely can't wait until hands are washed, no. Deep in conversation with Dad about the schedule in the morning? no worries, It is assured that the snack you want NOW, simply cannot wait for little things like FINISHING MY SENTENCE BECAUSE I AM TALKING TO YOUR FATHER!!!! ahem, sorry, but it is gotten quite out of hand and we are attempting to address it post haste. There is definitely a benefit for kids to learn to sit down, be quiet, and I don't care what you have to say at this moment, I am busy. I think they learn better in public school that their every thought and experience is not welcomed with wonder and awe.

Second, planning, planning, planning. It is worse than housework. I mean going on an awesome field trip to say...make glass, FUN FUN FUN. Creating a knowledgeable lesson to be able to squeeze that mind around some learning that relates to tings done during the day in a broader sense like ancient glass making or the effect of factories and automation on the industrialized age... Sigh, sucks the life out of the joy, I confess sometimes we just go and have fun.

Third Humbleness. There is nothing quite so ego shattering as a your 6 year old daughter correcting your mistake while teaching a lesson. Or your 8 year old son fixing a math error you made. Listen, I hear a lot from people who claim there is no way they could ever teach their kids as they lack the knowledge. Well, evidently I am right there as well ( even though I DO have the pre-school agenda mastered. I make it to about late elementary school but overall, it is ridiculous how little I know sometimes. I am learning so much but the trick is to try to keep that to myself, at least as long as possible. Learning in order to teach, I suspect is common for all teachers. ( Besides how many of us really could remember all those prepositions without a little cheat sheet??)

Finally, Dirt and clutter. The house is a mess. No, really, a mess. It is hard to keep up. Should I teach grammar today or trade a lesson to get the bathrooms cleaned? When they were in school and out of the house there was only so much they could get into, now they are home, ( I mean we DO go out, actually a lot but you understand) we are home for most every meal, ( yeah, 6 breakfasts, 5 lunches 6 dinners every day-I am running the dishwasher twice a day sometimes.) We are together all the time (ALL.THE.TIME) and trying to clean the house is like bailing a sinking boat, it is a losing battle. There are days I throw my hands up and do the ostrich, only in my bed, not the sand. The mess is a tidal wave that threatens to sweep me away at times.

So, there you have it. Not too bad and I have omitted a few hundred but today, these are the ones that bother me. Would I trade it in for a clean house, un-interrupting kids, retained knowledge ( or at least ignorance of my limitations) and weekends free of planning?....Nope, not a chance,

(turn head "WHAT? WHAT? could it not wait another second when I would be done blogging?")

sigh

gotta go.