I got out of bed around 8:30am for gift opening, but it took all the strength in me to not vomit while I lied on the sofa and watched. I did that as soon as it was over and I was back in my room. Terrible.

Right now, I have a killer headache and feel really tired, but my fever and joint pain are gone. I’m sure water will take care of the headache, although I’m about halfway through a glass and it is making my stomach hurt.

Hopefully today I can try to squeeze in all that Christmas cheer and do all the other things I need to get done before I go back to work on Monday. Given how drained I feel though, Sunday cooking for the week will likely not get done which means we’ll be winging it next week. Plus, food? No thank you.

The kids are enjoying the new loot. Ada has been taking photos of everything with her new camera. Now that I’m actually out of the bedroom, she wants me to make cards with her using her new Hello Kitty stamp set, paint her nails and teach her fractions using her new game: Equate.

*AKA–The Puking Hour in our house.

Jay has a virus infection. He had some bumps on his back that looked like they could have been small bites. He woke up this morning and it was spread to his stomach, arms, neck and face. I took him to the doctor to look at it and got a diagnosis of it looking like a classic virus infection on his skin. The course of action would be to just wait while it runs it course. Oh, and yeah, he’s contagious.

The good part: he’s acting fine. He says it doesn’t itch or hurt. He isn’t scratching or acting like anything is bothering him, so I’ll believe him. He has no fever or runny nose or anything. Just a nasty looking rash.

The bad part: This is the only thing that makes it stressful. I have to go to work on Monday. Monday and Tuesday would be the days that I have no back-up sick care. Fabulous.

My plans for the next two days are cancelled while I keep Jay isolated here. Let’s just hope that it starts drying up and scabbing by Monday morning–the signal that he is no longer contagious. And let’s also hope that it doesn’t spread to give him that lacking fever or runny nose or sore throat. And let’s also hope that none of the rest of us get it.

I really, really need him to be better by Monday.

And I apologize to the Blond Family who was over here last night for pumpkin carving. It isn’t any sort of deadly disease. Jay isn’t even acting remotely affected by it. I still feel enough compassion to other parents that I feel the need to not pass on illness to their children.

Ada and I made a late night grocery trip^*. My fridge is now full of yellow onions, shallots, scallions, spinach, kale, carrots, celery, corn, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, broccoli, lemons, limes, cherries, mango and strawberries. And there are avocados and bananas on the counter. And I refilled my missing yogurt, block of Parmesan cheese, eggs and the two empty bottles of Iwig milk^**. And popcorn for our movie night treat. I’ve always been a fan of pretty plain popcorn–not too much salt and never soaked in butter. I hate movie popcorn. However, I discovered putting one of these Penzey’s seasoning on my popcorn: Brady Cheese Street Sprinkle, Mural of Flavor, or Florida Seasoned Pepper. It’s really yummy, and now I want popcorn more often than I used to.

Ada and I got home after 10:00. I washed dried and cut veges and placed them in their green bags, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and then I mixed together this egg casserole for breakfast this morning. My differences, I cut up a few scallions–including the green part–and a clove of garlic. I left out the bread and bulked it up a bit with more squash. I cooked the onions in about a teaspoon of butter until they were soft, then I added the garlic and cooked until I could smell it. Then I threw the shredded squash into the pan and tossed it around until it was all coated and mixed. Then I turned off the heat and let it cool a little while I mixed the eggs and cheese. Then I mixed it all together.

I also used canned tomatoes because I don’t do grocery store tomatoes if I don’t have to. They are flavorless. I’ll be full of farmer’s market tomatoes soon enough. I wish I had canning equipment. And skills. Because I’d get a bunch of glass and can my farmer’s market tomatoes for later use.

The casserole was good. I’d make it again, but she isn’t kidding when she says squeeze all the water you can out of the tomatoes. I think it is what contributed to the slightly watery texture, even though I did squeeze them.

Not food related, I mowed the yard today. It took me about four hours. Why? Because it is 105 outside, and my fever came back and is over 100, and I took a lot of breaks because I’d get overly hot and dizzy. I came inside a lot to sit in front of a fan and cool off. Ada even filled a washcloth with ice and gave it to me to help keep me cool. I did not need to add heat exhaustion to my list of ills, but the yard needed mowed, so I did it. Now it is done with.

The viral infection, and fever to go along with it, can last 3 – 7 days, so I’m told. It first struck around 3:00am last Saturday. That means it had better be gone tomorrow. I’m the type where if you took my temperature during random parts of the day, it is rarely even 98.6. I usually hover around 98. These last almost 7 days of having my temperature constantly be 99.5 – 101.9 has been strange. It is strange to be so hot inside my own house all the time.

*Ada is out of school this week on break. She can sleep in, and thus, stay up late. I was thinking out plans for things for us to do the week before. I was even contemplating taking the kids on the road trip to Colorado so they can see mountains. Mountains! Guess what they did. Entertain themselves in the house why I tried to not die. Suckiest vacation ever for not being a member of the Griswold family.

**The Iwig farm got enough investors to keep doing business. Thank goodness! Now I don’t have to go to KC for Shatto.

I slept for 9.5 uninterrupted hours. Really. No kids woke me up during the night, or they tried and failed. I didn’t hear Mac wandering the house and leave for work. Sleeping the last five days has been terrible, so I guess I needed it.

I woke up without a fever. Finally!

My throat pain is gone. Completely.

I made brunch, cleaned up that effort and loaded up the dishwasher without any feeling of exhaustion or dizziness.

I made up a grocery list and was excited to get out of the house and finally get food.

The Bad
Jay, who threw a gigantic fit last night, woke up and cried about biting his tongue. It is swollen either because he bit it or he bit it because it’s swollen. He’s talking sounds muted. He felt warm, so I took his temperature, which came out normal. Not surprising. He gives off a lot of heat, just like his dad. Then he lied on the floor and wouldn’t move. I picked him up and put him in the recliner. He fell asleep while I was cooking brunch. Then he came to the table, ate a little bit and then threw it up. Then he lied back down.

So, nix the grocery trip until Mac gets home. Two of the squash from last week’s farmer’s market looked okay on the outside. I’m hoping they will be the same when I shred them up for fritters for dinner. Those are the only two vegetables left in the house. I also took out some frozen leftover meat concoction from the freezer^*.

Oh, my house. Me being out of commission for five days wasn’t good for my house, and I did drag around to do some things. Finally having a clear mind has put me in the mood to do some programming today, however, my house! At least not going to the store means I can spend my efforts cleaning. Ada last night helped me unload dishes, sweep the kitchen floor and water the neglected flowers and herbs. Also last night, I cleared out one shelf in the hutch so Ada could store her glasses and bowls and plates. She’s so excited. She took her stuff out of the dishwasher and put them away in the hutch. She got out plates and glasses for both her and Jay and poured them both juice. Then she helped me load the dishwasher. Also, my yard needs mowed in a bad way.

Yesterday, I felt like everything was moving from my neck to my chest. And I started coughing. And I’m still coughing. It is annoying, but I’ll deal. When I get a cough, it lasts for almost a month, and there hasn’t been a cough medicine yet that has stopped it, even prescription stuff with codeine. I don’t even feel the least bit drowsy with that codeine stuff that my doctor claims may knock me out. Whatever.

*One of these days I’m going to buy some dry erase labels. I freeze the leftovers in bowls, and I really don’t want to keep adding or removing tape. I can’t really tell what’s in them after they have been in the chest freezer. I want to label them easily. I could wrap the bowls in freezer paper and label that, but I use bowls so I’m not wasting stuff. Although I could just cross out and relabel and then throw the paper out when there is no more room for writing. However, the dry erase label just requires me to put on one label that has the ability to just clean off the writing for labeling later. I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.

However, I still have a fever and feel like crap. I took a shower, and I almost passed out when I got out. One glance in the mirror revealed that I looked ghostly. I got dressed as fast as I could, and planted myself back down on the sofa.

Here is the best part of the morning. I was lying there with my pillow smashed over my face trying to ground myself, and Ada tapped me on the shoulder. I moved it to look at her, mentally telling myself to not snap at her for bothering me because it isn’t her fault that I feel like death, when she handed me a cold wet wash cloth. Then she walked away and came back a couple minutes later with a cold glass of milk for me. Then she walked away and came back later and put four corn chips down by the milk for me to eat. So, I’m glad that I didn’t snap because her goal was just to provide me things to help me feel better. The amount that Ada has emotionally matured in the last year is phenomenal.

Jay on the other hand, did end up getting snapped at because he jumped on me because he wanted me to get him another drink even though I got him orange juice about 30 minutes earlier. Then he wanted me to let him play Super Mario for the Wii. Then he wanted me to help him go to the bathroom when he is perfectly capable of doing it himself, and so on. Then I tell him that Ada can help him, and he cries and says, “That makes me sad. You made me cry.” Then I say, “I don’t care.” Then he says, “Ohhhh, I want you to do it.” Then I say, “If you don’t want Ada to get you a drink, then you’re not that thirsty. Go play downstairs or go to bed.” Then he cries some more. Then I say, “GO AWAY!” That’s why I sent him to preschool yesterday. I know he’s only a three year old, but I’m ready for him to act like a five year old.

I wanted to make me some vegetable soup for today, but since I’ve been out of commission since early Saturday morning, the only vegetables I have are a couple of summer squashes that I picked up at the farmer’s market on Thursday, and they are looking iffy. And I don’t like to eat summer squash in soup form. I have no food^*. The fridge is bare. I need to do a grocery run to stock back up on produce in a bad way, but everytime I get up and walk around, I go deathly pale again. I do have eggs and milk though, so if I feel better, I’ll try to make some squash fritters. It doesn’t sound too appealing to me really, but it is better than corn chips.

Tomorrow will be better.

*Appropriate food. I have jelly. And cheese. And peanut butter. And I caved and had Charity pick up a loaf of bread to make the kids sandwiches. And there is lunch meat that Mac picked up. I just don’t eat any of that. Except the cheese. I just don’t feel like cheese right now. All I want are veges. And I’m OUT. And I have no bacon. I looked in the freezer last night.

My throat is better. It is not as swollen. Talking and swallowing are easier. It still hurts. I am still running a fever, although it is now below the 100-degree mark for the first time since Saturday around 3:00am.

I took Jay to preschool today because I needed a Jay break. Ada is easier to handle. She’s less dramatic and entertains herself so I can nap. She can even get her own food and drink. So this afternoon, I napped. It made me feel terrible, like usual. I hope my body got something out of it.

I must be at least a little better because I dragged my butt into running a load of dishes, sweeping, doing two loads of laundry, taking out trash out of the house as well as taking the trash bin out to the curb and checking the mail. But I do mean drag. As in I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to make it back up the driveway on my feet.

But, I wanted that strep test just in case. The quick one came back negative. It did the last time I had this, and the culture ended up growing strep. So, I’ll wait for that. In the meantime, I painstakingly swallowed four ibuprofen, per doctors orders, to see if adding a bigger dosage will help with the inflammation in my throat. Between being swabbed and poked and having to down the ibuprofen, my throat is killing me.

However, not eating for 64 hours does great things for the fit of my jeans. They even feel lose in the thighs. It has been a craving shock treatment. I’m actually hungry for the first time since Friday night. Perhaps when I binge once I can finally eat food, I’ll avoid all my craving triggers. Smoked chicken breast sounds really good right now. You know, if I could swallow it without crying. In the meantime, I will continue to painfully suck down Pedialyte to avoid dehydration.

Then I got up early Saturday morning, and felt terrible. And feverish. And my throat hurt. Now my throat hurts, as well as my ears and my head and my neck. And my legs. And my back. And I haven’t eaten for two days because it hurts to swallow, and I’m not even hungry.

It has knocked me down, and luckily it is the weekend so Mac is home to take care of the kids. Tomorrow he goes back to work. And Ada is off of school. My SIL will be around to help, thankfully. Hopefully at least long enough to let me get to a doctor if my throat is still in this much pain.

ETA: Now that it is officially tomorrow, I can say that it hurts worse. I really hate to spend the extra money for an ER trip, but if I can get into my doctor office, that’s where I’m heading. I can barely swallow water. I may have to switch to Pedialyte to try to head off getting dehydrated.

Adding Even More: Appointment at 10:00. I can barely swallow my own saliva. And you can see the lymph nodes sticking out in my neck. And my tongue is completely white. I’m betting on strep. Even though strep symptoms can also be caused by a viral infection, the sign at my son’s preschool that said, “We’ve had two confirmed cases of strep throat.” points my educated guess to strep over all others. That’s why I blame my children anytime I’m sick.

I had to go pick up Ada from school because she got sick again. She’s convinced that she just wants to be grumpy and cry and sit on my lap the rest of the day.

Here’s hoping that I get a full working day on Thursday^*.

*Actually, if I can get her to calm down or take a nap, then I can continue onto the rest of my day’s plans.

Ada spent this entire morning whining and crying. She cried because there was a bubble in her oatmeal. She cried because she put on her dance outfit this morning and I told her she had to go to school first, and no, she couldn’t wear it. She cried because I told her crying will not change the time that her dance class starts. She cried because she couldn’t see her face because of the location of her eyes^*. I assumed that it was because we both woke up a little before 4:00am the morning before and never went back to sleep. I ended up with a migraine and went to bed before 7:00pm. The kids ended up talking Mac into having a slumber party, which means they make beds on the living room floor and watch a movie before going to sleep. So, I diagnosed her with overtiredness and made a note that she will have to take a nap before dance class and a park meet-up tonight. Then she crawled on my lap while I was trying to eat my breakfast. She felt warm, but I was feeling warm because it was already in the upper 70s in my kitchen and I assume getting warmer as outside gets warmer^**. Still, she felt really warm. So I took her temperature: 101.6. Then she cried because I told her she wasn’t going to school even though she was crying because earlier I told her she had to go to school. Honestly, I think I’d rather have the puking.

Mac turned on a movie for her after I put her in our bed. I just started another one. Unless she sleeps, I’ll use tv as her misery relief and my misery loves company relief. There is only so much trivial crying I can deal with.

I really have to mow today while we have a break in the rain, but the grass is still pretty wet from yesterday. That means I’ll be mowing when it is really hot outside. Yippee. I checked Ada’s temperature because she still felt warm, and she still has one, but it has gone down over a degree. I again thought “well, it does feel warm in the house” before I took her temp. Then I had one of those ah-ha moments that prompted me to take my temperature. I have a fever as well. I probably had it this morning. Hopefully the 30% chance of storms this afternoon will result in no storms so I can mow tomorrow.

Oh, and this pin-up calendar is awesome.

*I’m not making that up. Mac and I assured her that we can’t see our faces either, not without a mirror or a camera. I could, however, see the side of my nose.

**My kitchen retains some wicked heat in the summer. It easily gets in the mid 80s at the hottest part of the day, and that is without actually using any heat producing appliances. Dinner time can get really hot, which is why I usually use my grill a great deal. When it doesn’t have cancer, that is. Sigh.