Chills and Fever

Oh, boy! Had some fun yesterday.

Wednesday afternoon, I started feeling like I was starting to catch a cold. By evening, I was feeling feverish and having trouble getting to sleep. So I wasn't surprised when I woke up Thursday morning feeling completely exhausted, cold and weak. I decided to work through the yuckiness and see if it was just early morning I-don't-want-to-wake-up feelings, or if I was really sick. So I put Keva on the bus, read the local paper (This takes about 15 minutes), listened to the kids rustle around the kitchen getting their breakfast, and then went on back to bed where I stayed wrapped up in my comforter for nearly four hours.

I woke up hungry and hot. Not feverish, just hot, as in I've-just-woken-up-in-the-middle-of-the-day hot. Normal. What a relief! I was still tired, but not sick and weak. I made myself some breakfast while the kids rummaged around the kitchen finding food for lunch. I was so relieved to have the big kids back to help the little kids while I took care of myself.

We all got comfortable in the family room and watched one of our Netflix movies The End of the Spear. If you haven't gotten a chance to see this movie in theaters or as a rental, I highly recommend it. It's based on the book Through Gates of Splendor. I had to fast forward through some of the more violent parts for the sake of the little kids, and then when they left to go play outside, the rest of us watched the whole thing again. I cried through it twice. There's a particularly sweet scene where one of the tribe members who escaped the violence of her people to live with the missionaries boldly tells her murderous brother the truths of John 3:16 using the imagery of their culture. There's no getting around the grace of Jesus, even for a murderous tribesman.

I ordered pizza for dinner. Thank you, Dominos, for returning the 5-5-5 deal! Two pepperoni, one sausage/olive, one ham/pineapple. Since the kids had essentially fed themselves all day, they were STARVING by dinner time. Kade was doing his impression of The Starving Boy by clenching his empty stomach and moaning. This irritates me so much! Especially since he's got these big meaty arms and chubby rosy cheeks. It didn't help that Dominos was taking an hour and 45 minutes to deliver the pizza. And it was no surprise that the pizza came a little on the cold side. Frankly, I didn't care, because I didn't have to cook! The pizza guy got a nice tip and we commenced eating.

Dinner became a contest. Who could eat the most pizza slices. And then there were arguments about who ate more than the other. Kristofer, for example, ate five slices but didn't eat the crusts. Konner ate two slices in, I'm pretty sure, 30 seconds. Kade ate the crusts, declaring, with his mouth full, "I LOVE the crusts, Mom!" Kathleen was trying to eat demurely, but told Kristofer that, since he wasn't eating the crusts, he wasn't eating as much as she was.
I served the pizza on our "fancy plates". Fancy plates are paper towel strips. No fuss. No mess. (Have I mentioned how much I love pizza?) The big family joke is that everyone needs to take good care of the fancy plates. When company comes over and we're having pizza or sandwiches or hot dogs -- whatever strictly doesn't need a plate -- we break out the fancy plates and tell our company to be careful with them.

Well, this time, Konner TORE his fancy plate. Kristofer and Kathleen set up a court session to determine Konner's guilt or innocence. (This is how I can call this rather pathetic day a school day!) We had the defendant, the judge, the prosecuting attorney, the defense attorney, and a witness. Then, of course, because the American legal system is just, Konner was declared guilty and sent off for a tickle torture. They all thought the court great fun and proceeded to run about a dozen trials right there at the table.

Once the younger kids were down, Keri Lynn and Kristofer joined me for another movie. We watched the first of three discs of Dune. It's the most recent version of Dune that has William Hurt in it. Anyway, I spent most of the movie time worrying about whether or not Keri Lynn and Kristofer should watch it with me. Kristofer thought it was the best movie ever since it has all kinds of great special effects and fight scenes and mammoth worms. Kristofer was ready to go right off to the post office to put the disc back in the mail so that we can get the next one that much quicker. Good grief!

I'm not sure how this day is going to turn out. It' 9:26, and I haven't seen The Big Three up yet. Kathleen is probably sick with the thing that took me down yesterday. When I woke her up to take the dog out, she said it was too cold to get up. So I let her sleep. If they others are down with the same thing, I may need to keep us all home from the homeschool park day that we attend every other Friday. I hate to miss it. Today, Keri Lynn is supposed to meet with another homeschooled 15-year-old girl, but I don't think the girl is going to appreciate a little flu bug.

Ah, the joys of a large family.