Horrible

horrible mess.

That is how my house is today.



I haven't been gone.

I haven't been shirking the endless duties of a mother of five.

I have a chest cold.

A very painful, hard to breathe, sucking all my energy, head-wanting-to-explode-from-lack-of oxygen-chest-cold.


It came on suddenly on Monday, although at church I didn't feel right and knew something was wrong with me. I'm sure those little germs were hanging around me for weeks, since my own kids had this terrible sickness not to long ago. I do disinfect, but I guess I missed a few because they finally got me.

It hurt to breathe.
It hurt to cough but coughed I did.
It hurt to stand.
It hurt to sit.

All I could do was lay under a blanket, take something for the headache and fever, and drink water.

My poor happy healthy children had run of the house.

For two days I scraped enough gumption together to make some food.


My children are perpetually hungry.


For two days I did enough dishes so that I could make more food, and my children could have clean plates and utensils. The rest waited.

The kids still changed clothes, and the mountains of laundry that await me now are a bit frightening, and very discouraging.



However.

All I do is to serve my God, and my family. And I'm trying to do this catch-up game with joy.

I'm thankful that I can take a deep breathe and not want to pass out from fits of coughing.


And my kids are thankful that I had enough energy to make pancakes for breakfast.