what's up weekly. (second verse, same as the first.)

In this week's installment of, "The Laundry Pile," I'm not sure if I'll need to even write much.  It was another week full of sickness and woe, so I may just let the photos do most of the talking.

Last week ended with the little girls all very sick with the stomach flu.  

I went to the library book sale on Friday and found a couple of Beatrix Potter treasuries and the Berenstain Bears treasury for $1 each - cheap sick day entertainment.

Then Rocco caught it.  Then Atticus caught it.  Then Lolo caught it.  Then the babies caught it.  And the little girls all still had it.  Everyone but Todd, Finneas and Penelope stayed home from church on Sunday.  Then on Monday, Penelope got it.

Another one bites the dust.

Another one bites the dust.

Trying to see Spongebob on a tiny screen from their posts.

Not too sick to chat.

After chatting, Lolo conked out at the other end of the mattress.

Musical mattresses.

It looked like the "Bring Out Your Dead" cart in here for a while.

Then Knox started barfing.

It lasted at least two days for everyone.  It lasted nine days for Oey, and nearly that long for Callista.   So far, Todd, Finneas and I have escaped (knock on wood).  Then at the end of the worst of it, we discovered Oey had a new spot of staph infection, so we're back to treating that again.

She stopped barfing and finally got out of bed a couple of days ago, but still wouldn't eat anything.  I was even trying to bribe her after a while ("if you eat one bite of eggs, I will give you an M&M") but she wasn't even interested in the bribe.  She got so skinny and transparent-looking.  She looked like steam, all wispy and gray.

Sunday night, I was feeling pretty exhausted and demoralized, so Todd went out and got some takeout so we could have an at-home date night, and he brought me the prettiest champagne-colored roses.  It worked wonders for girding up to start the week.

Before she got sick, Penelope helped out so much with the extra load.  I was so grateful for her help.

Monday, we tried to do a little school with the kids who were feeling up for it.  Tuesday, I didn't even try, because Eulalie's diaper rash was so bad that she just screamed inconsolably all morning while I held her.  Wednesday was the first day I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel - Oey started eating again, and Penelope, the last holdout, was at least up and around a little bit.

She finally started eating small amounts again on Wednesday.  She is still very thin and pale, and easily tired, and extra emotional.  I think it will take a while yet for her to recover.  But she's definitely on the mend.

Todd and I ducked out for a few hours on Wednesday night to do a little thrifting and grab some dinner that wasn't sick food.  (Finneas, the only kid who never got sick, told me that if he had to eat noodles for one more meal he was going to mutiny.)

And then yesterday it was Thursday already.  Time sure flies when you're having fun.

Trying to get back into the rhythm of reading aloud. 

Wednesday afternoon Family Read Alouds.  The barf bucket was there as a precaution, but was thankfully not necessary, and all the school kids were well enough to be present.  Glory be.

Math time - Life of Fred with Juni and Lissy, and Teaching Textbooks for Lolo.

And to top things off on a weird week, we started the week off with freezing temperatures and snow. 

Lolo and Lalie watching the snow

Knox felt like the weather reflected his poor, sick soul, deduced by the look on his face.

 

Today is supposed to be ninety degrees.  I guess the weather knew I needed some sunshine after all of that.  (And the laundry knew it needed a new excuse for attention, as I was forced to switch out seasonal clothes for all the kids last night and now the laundry is overflowing again.  Le sigh.)

One bright spot of a bunch of down time has been that the kids have gotten a lot of audiobook time.  They're working their way through the Harry Potter books - Finneas finished them, and Rocco is getting close.  Callista and Juni are making their way through the early books.

It's supposed to be sunny and warm today, and so far no one is sick.  Because the forecast is so hot, the pig butcher day we were supposed to participate in today was postponed, so I didn't have much school on the schedule.  I think I will try taking the kids to Walmart to get summer shoes if everyone is feeling up for it.  So it should be a nice change of pace and a nice day - I'm so grateful!