and then. . .

(for my Mother, my sisters, my sister-friends--I'm sharing the whole Story of the Last Weeks in case you are interested.  If you are not, no worries!  I hope to be back to blogging more regularly, so there might be something more of interest coming up than the minutia of my days.)

To pick up where I left off. . .

The crud we had picked up was one of those that lingered. So when we woke up back in our own home Tues. morning we called it another sick day, and even DH worked from home just so he could take it easy.  Weds. I had to cancel our regularly scheduled classes--the three girls had gotten really growly in both their coughs and in their temperments, so were clearly not recovering as quickly as I thought.  So we spent that day and Thurs. also at home, schooling and recovering.   And that crud lingered.  And then it morphed, so that just when I thought we should be almost better (well, I was still not feeling great, sore throat and cough lasting, but I was mending slowly and the kids seemed to be almost over it and DH hadn't gotten it, so things were looking rosy), Smiley spent Fri. throwing up.  The first time in his life he's been sick like that, poor little guy.  And then Happy spent all of Sat. throwing up.  Seems whatever Sunny had Sunday had been incubating all week, and had finally decided to

[oh my goodness, I can't finish this sentence without running into the most terrible inadvertent word pictures!  "had decided to run its course. . . " ewww. Um, "had come to a blow. . . " ewwwww, no!  Better just move on. . . ]

ANYWAY, we spent another quiet weekend resting and caring for sick kids.  Once again I was so aware of my blessings:  that we are homeschooling, so a week at home is so stress-free; that we have wood floors which are easy to clean; that DH remained healthy and is so generous with picking up food for us when I don't feel up to cooking; that while I was still struggling to breathe well, every night the Good Lord blessed me with one good nostril, and thus I slept, feeling wrapped in His love. 

from Positivity Toolbox on facebook

Then once again it was Monday, and another week up and running!  I was so glad that we were all on the mend, because it was a huge jump from being quiet and physically inactive all the previous week to having to make three important events on Monday.  First, it was our scheduled day for the monthly "Old School Mondays" homeschool gathering at church, and it was good I felt as well as I did, because a) I was in charge, and b) I had people coming to hear me give info about some upcoming homeschool art and writing projects we will all be doing.   (In fact, I spent two weeks doing LOTS of planning and writing and emailing and wrangling of details--anyone who wants to know what we are up to is welcome to visit The World is Our Classroom, linked on the right. Exciting stuff!  And also helps explain why I've been so quiet over here.) 

Then after OSM I had to rush home for a phone meeting--I'm on the parent board of our public homeschool charter, and I was scheduled to be interviewed by the People from the State who are in the process of deciding whether or not to renew the charter.  And then after that I made dinner and then rushed back over to church for this:

Yes, it was the last week of our Spring Conversations (which I had missed the previous week for being sick)--and I was well enough to be the kitchen lady like I did the last two series.  The ladies speaking did a great job and God whispered some really important things into my heart, which maybe I'll get a chance to write about one of these days. 

THEN a few days later I did something wrong and threw out my neck again (old recurring injury).  So that meant I spent the good part of a week gingerly just trying to get through mommying and homeschooling--which by the way had been going full steam this whole time.  If there is one thing I can look back on with satisfaction over the past month, it was the schooling we completed.  We had big important deadlines, like finishing our portfolio of samples for the State, and writing the school-required annual essays, and preparing for the first rounds of STAR testing (patooey!).  We have more deadlines coming up, but I'm feeling good about where we are--this school year is ending like a long-distance marathon, that's for sure, so I need to watch our pace and just keep moving.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, hmm hm hm hmm. . .

ANYWAY, my neck and shoulders hurt so badly--and remember the state of my house in my last posts?  Cobwebs everywhere (in my own defense they spring up overnight. Literally!), piles of stuff everywhere (we still had Christmas presents I had not found homes for that were just sitting out and about!), and nothing could be put away properly until I finished going through all the closets and cupboards and shelves.

And I did.  I just went slowly and carefully, and tried not to lift too heavy things or turn my head, and finished almost all of the deep-cleaning projects on the Big List. 

BECAUSE my in-laws were coming for a 4-day stay!

And now I'll stop--make this post a cliffhanger ; ).  But the last thing I want to say is that my three girls were so helpful that week while I was in pain and trying to get so much done.  I entrusted more cleaning chores to them than I normally would--perfectionism has to be set aside, even with a MIL coming, when it comes down to either letting the children do it or not have it done at all!  It was good for them and good for me.  And besides--I figured what a perfect excuse if my MIL happened to say something about the housekeeping not being done ideally.  I would be able to praise the children for their efforts, and defuse the criticism! 

I think I'll go ahead and see if I can wrap up the backstory tomorrow, for anyone interested.  Until then, hope you all are having a good weekend, wherever you are!