Happy New Year, Flu


 

Eden rang in the first week of 2024 by succumbing to the flu. She has been in bad shape for 7 days; feeling bad, then better, only to swing into worse, then slightly better again. It's been somewhat of a roller coaster; we even thought she was recovered enough to send her to school the next day, only to have her crash again a few hours later. Some days she eats almost nothing (a few grapes, maybe) and others she's hungry for something, but can't tell me just what. Cheese Quesadillas have come in clutch. :) She's been lying around on a mattress in our dining room (I've found that extroverts, even when sick, "want to be where the people are," to quote Ariel) dozing and looking at books by turns.  If I thought a doctor would tell us something other than "rest, and get plenty of fluids" I'd take her in. Thankfully, the rest of us are fine so far!

A friend and I have begun reading "Choosing Gratitude" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and we meet once a week to talk about it and life in general. They are about to welcome their first child in March, and I am in my parenting all-the-ages years. It has been good to remember that God wants us to be thankful in everything. Even just having thankfulness front-of-mind as I've been taking care of Eden this week has been so helpful.

Tonight we are hosting Grace Group in our home, so depending on how Eden is today, I may have to keep her in her room or mine while everyone is here. This is one thing that has been difficult to surrender and be thankful for this week: Josh and I have such different opinions about how sickness should be handled. I am at one side of the pendulum (the quarantine side) and Josh is on the other (the "buck-up, bucko" side). It drives us to pray that the Lord will help us make the right decision about things like this and not view our disagreements as personal affronts, but as what they are; a difference of preference based on how our parents handled sickness with us. It's been good for us. 

I made beef stew last night for the very first time. It was just okay-ish, but that was because I wandered into the kitchen at 3:45 to prepare our Beef Stew dinner that needed to be ready by 4:45. I opened up my computer to the recipe I wanted to try, and read the first line. "Prep Time: 3 HOURS 45 mins." And I don't own an Instant Pot. Thankfully (I'm trying to be thankful a lot here, folks!), the beef I was using was Prime Rib that was already cooked, so I had that going for me. Like I said, my attempt was okay-ish, so I'll have to try again when I have all the things I need (did you know beef stew calls for red wine???) and the proper time to devote to it. 

And speaking of devoting time to something, my time for this is up. I've decided that some blogging is better than no blogging, and that I should just get down thoughts in whatever order they come. Something is better than nothing. I can save my word crafting for the good stories. :)

 




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