Grey day. Steady rain. Coughing children. Tired mama. Doesn’t this sound like a great start to the week? I think the cold medicine I took last night knocked me out because it was 7 am when I glanced at the clock this morning, and all I did was turn over for a second and it was 9:30 am. Yikes! That’s pushing things a bit late, even for me.

Brainstorming ideas of how to get mom out of bed in the morning????

Despite the rainy and grey ["can't go outside and play"] weather, the coughing children, and the tired homeschooling mommy, we actually did accomplish quite a bit today. We did lots of school. Read our books. I finished a good portion of my BSF. Rachel made pumpkin, oatmeal, raisin cookies (with a few chocolate chips thrown in the mix) for a snack. Dinner cooked in the crock pot.

Most importantly, I discovered why Joshua is often found reclining on the couch known as Dough Boy. It is incredibly comfortable! Tim and I finished our movie and I would have been content to spend the whole evening in that cozy couch. So nice.

Tim, even with his pathetic, scratchy voice, read the chapter to the children this evening. I listened in a little bit. They are in one of the gospels. Sounds like John to me but perhaps it’s Matthew. They read out of the Picture Bible (I think) which is colorful enough to please Daniel and David, and meaty and true to the story to suit the rest of the group.

Here they are smiling for the camera. Sarah fell asleep before they started so I said I would PhotoShop her in. Of course, I don’t have PhotoShop so I guess we’ll just keep the picture the way it is.

Almost every night (less when the crew is all sick) Tim reads to the children from the Bible. He also takes the time to pray with them. I think he is awesome for making time to teach the children God’s Word and being so faithful week after week. Yay Tim! How many years has it been now?

I’ve already taken my nightly meds so I had better crawl upstairs before I pass out down here in front of the computer. Lovely.

Kathy

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The flu epidemic rages on. Can I call it an epidemic if our whole family has it and our whole family is larger than the average American family? Let’s see, dictionary.com defines epidemic as affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person. That sounds about right for us.

Daniel and David strategize the best way to beat this flu.

Actually it’s hardly raging. Most everyone is feeling close to normal (as if that ever meant anything in our family). The coughing, however, continues. This morning we were a family symphony of coughs. It was truly remarkable – harmony and everything. We could be the Von Duckabush Family Coughers. That’s a pretty catchy title. Of course, ‘catchy’ might be a little too apt with all the germs flying around.

“David, if we move the tissue boxes here, the cold medicine there, and the soldiers over here, this ridge would be completely impenetrable and the flu defeated!”

We stayed home from church today. The weekend feels very odd when Sunday is no different from Saturday. Where’s that adrenaline rush in the morning as we shove food down the kids’ throats while gathering shoes and Bibles; brushing hair, all at the same time? What about the pretty dresses with messy hair? It is so hard to find a brush or comb on Sunday morning – I think they all sneak and hide Saturday night just to watch me scurry on Sunday. And then there are the handsome boys in their nice outfits complete with dirty tennis shoes. Sigh. The dress shoes obviously hide with the hair brushes.

See what I mean? This girl NEEDS a brush. It’s a good thing her smile is so big – distracts you from the wispy hair.

We managed to sniffle and cough our way through a nice family church service. We didn’t sing – wouldn’t be pretty with all the hoarse voices – but we did read a chapter of Proverbs together. I LOVE studying Proverbs with the children. It has brought such a richness and, dare I say it, WISDOM to our family. Today we read Proverbs 15. I know, it’s the 18th and technically we should be reading Proverbs 18 but we’re behind. This darn flu! Tim thought we should throw caution to the wind and go back and read one of the chapters we missed. He lives dangerously even when stricken with flu/allergies.

You can see by the look on her face that Rachel is wondering if we are going to read Proverbs 16, 17, 18 AND 19 tomorrow. Yikes! That would be SOME catching up.

All of the children (even David and Sarah, ages 6 and 4 1/2) are wonderful pray-ers. They are unabashed (unless there is company present) about lifting their prayers up to the Lord. It is amazing to me to see how mature and faithful they are in speaking to God. Our family prayer time, however, usually consists mostly of thanksgiving and requests. Nothing wrong with this but it does neglect some other aspects of prayer. When I meet with my homeschooling Moms In Touch prayer group, we pray very specifically through the ACTS model.

Adoration - praising God for WHO He is
Confession - confessing to God our sins (commission and omission)
Thanksgiving - thanking God for what He has given us and what He is doing in our lives
Supplication - lifting our requests before the Lord

I love praying this way as it focuses me on the attributes of God, gives me an opportunity to open my heart up to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and puts my requests and wants last. By the time I finally begin asking God for something, my spirit is much more in tune with who He is and what He wants for my life and the people around me.

I have been wanting to try praying this way with the children for some time but, like many good intentions, never seemed to get around to it. The night time chapter/Bible reading is Tim’s special evening time with the kids and it would be a little heavy handed for me to charge in and tell them all we’re going to pray MY WAY. That, and I’m usually enjoying some well deserved peaceful, quiet time while Tim reads to the children. One of those explanations sound like I am being sensitive and the other lazy. Hmmm.

What an awesome big brother to push his sister on the swing (completely on his own initiative)!

Today I decided to seize the moment and explain the ACTS prayer model to the children so we could try it as a family (the younger two were upstairs playing at this point). Tim suggested going around and each person praying just one thing. We had a wonderful time of prayer. The kids all seemed to understand the concept of praising and adoring God (difficult to do as we tend to focus on what God gives us rather than who He is. I made sure everyone knew the confession time could be silent but both Tim and Rachel prayed out loud.

How kind of God to bless our sick Sunday with some special time reading His Word and praying with the children! He is so good to us.

In the afternoon I snuck in a workout at the Y with a friend. We ran all sorts of errands on the way home, ending at the produce store nearby. I LOVE going to this little produce store. It just makes me happy walking in and seeing all the fruits and veggies. My family think I am a bit addled in the brain this way but I can’t resist all the tables full of unusual and interesting produce. Plus, some of the prices are great. Healthy food and low costs – doesn’t that make everyone happy? Who needs chocolate? Don’t answer that!

It was so pretty when I got home that I suggested to the kids we go to the park. They were all VERY eager to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Daniel had some sibling trouble so he ended up staying home with Tim as punishment. The rest of us enjoyed the park although it was a bit crowded. I told David he had to stay with a brother or sister while I watched over Sarah. It was so fun catching glimpses of him chasing after Joshua and Rachel. He is NOT one who is going to be left behind.

This climb was a bit much for Joshua!

Tomorrow we do school and, hopefully, continue to recover. This evening at bedtime, I gave out cough medicine all around. Hopefully the children (and Tim) will get some relief and be able to sleep. I think I need a little cold medicine myself. Sniffle, sniffle.

Pass the tissues!

Kathy

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I’m trying to think of something interesting or amusing to write about the flu that has invaded our home. Maybe funny isn’t really the right way to approach the flu, but I try to make these blogs readable and entertaining if possible. Hmmm. Thankfully we’re NOT facing the stomach flu or the blog would highly unreadable, rather gross with nary a picture in sight.

Bunch of sickkos watching movies!

Tim (probably hit the hardest) told me I had better be kind in what I write since I’m sure to be sick next. He said there isn’t anything funny about the flu (can you tell he’s still in the throes of it?). Oh, he and Joshua finally decided if your enemy got the flu it would be funny.

In weak, rather pathetic voices, they discussed the idea of an enemy being sick. Not their usual animated selves. Normally Joshua would be on the floor, laughing, as Tim went on and on describing the plight of a sick enemy. It’s sad to see Tim in such a weakened condition, unable even to make real jokes.

Then Joshua, in a moment to make any homeschooling mom happy said, “But remember what Proverbs says about laughing at your enemy.” I tried, frantically, to remember what Proverbs says about enemies. Finally I gave up and nonchalantly grabbed the keyboard to hit my favorite Bible website, www.biblegateway.com, to track down the actual verse. Hey, he’s 13, his memory is fresher than mine!

Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him. Proverbs 24:17-18

Oooo, I don’t think anyone here wants God to disapprove of us. Thanks for the reminder, Joshua. Excellent job of paying attention during our devotional time. Warms my heart!

At some point I looked around the house on Thursday, sick kids everywhere, and declared it a Sick Day. I know when to give in to the inevitable. Tim stayed home from work and moved from the couch to bed and back, at a slow, rather pathetic pace.

Daniel was on the floor when I got up in the morning. He said it was the worst night of his life (how quickly we forget those nights in the hospital, last year, recovering from an appendectomy) and that he hadn’t slept at all.

Catching a few winks on the couch.

David looked up from his bed, cheeks pink and feverish, and asked if he could stay in bed a little longer. Uh, okay. Not your usual 6 year old behavior. Sarah and Rachel were also sick.

Rachel grabbed a laptop and had her own personal movie time.

Only Joshua and I were free from the flu yuckies. We resigned ourselves to suffering along with the others in an afternoon movie break. Nothing like watching High School Musical to cheer you up – all those fun songs.

I did some reading with Sarah and David and then let them watch another movie. I don’t want to think about how many movies they watched during their sick days.

Tim is sick himself so he’s HIGHLY sympathetic to the children’s woes and moans. He keeps telling me to take good care of them and bring them medicine and let them watch movies and play games. Nothing like feeling a bit ill yourself to increase your compassion.

I finally left the sick house and went to the Y for a workout. Sometimes a girl needs to know when to jump ship. Since everyone was ill (except for Joshua, who is old enough to fend for himself) there wasn’t a strong call for dinner. When I returned, it didn’t look like the children had budged from their movie viewing spots. I made myself a salad and handed out medicine according to age, size and symptom.

Tim says the flu is a good way to jump start a diet. I’m not sure that’s a diet I would particularly recommend, but he’s obviously trying to look on the bright side. Friends tell me the flu lasted 4 or 5 days in their house. Hmmm, when you have 7 people and the cases of flu are staggered out, overlapping here and there, how long does that mean we’ll be sick??

Kathy

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