…I hear you. I understand.
My daughter Rebecca was supposed to write an epic post for me today on why sometimes Christians paint childhood too much like “children are inherently evil and need to be taught to obey” rather than “children are fun but need guidance.” When you look at how Jesus treated children, he embraced them and praised them. And I think sometimes our focus on making kids aware of sin may be off by a few years, given the age at which moral reasoning develops.
It is going to be an epic post.
But currently Rebecca is sick as a dog.
Well, actually, her dog is quite healthy. But she is not. Here’s her dog:
And here she is. When the Kleenex is gone.
And yesterday, as I was trying to clean up the blog and delete some superfluous posts, I ran across a post that I wrote way back in March 2009, right before the SARS virus broke out in Ontario (I still think we were the ones who brought it here). And it just made me laugh.
So I thought I would post it again, for all of you who are feeling lousy to hopefully chuckle at, too. I know it’s that time of year, and I hope not too many of you are down with the flu. But if you are, I’ve been there (and I’m very glad Rebecca no longer lives near me so that she can’t give me her germs! 🙂 )
Once upon a time there was a nasty bug. He was green, and mean, and very, very strong. And he saw Katie, and he thought, “she is the perfect tool. I shall invade her body, and through her, I shall conquer that family.”
And the virus began its work. Katie started hacking. And as she hacked, she hugged her mom. And she asked to cuddle. And she shared airspace. And she shared that virus.
And then I started hacking. And hacking. And hacking. Husband, who is a doctor, said, “it is only a virus. You will get better.”
But he did not know the virus’ powers. The virus invited bacteria into the lungs, and the doctor said, “my, you have pneumonia.” And she gave me drugs. Good drugs. And I loved her.
My husband laughed. “Those will do nothing! It is only a virus!”, for he did not see the bacteria that was invading my body, and surreptitiously invading his.
And finally, on Saturday, he succumbed. His fever was dangerously high. His oxygen saturation was dangerously low. And after some time in the hospital, he emerged with drugs to fight the double pneumonia which the initial virus had caused.
But the virus was not done. For it said, “there is still one more member of the family. We shall get the older sister, too!”.
And so I slept in the spare room Saturday night, checking on one child with a high fever in one room, and one husband barely breathing in the other. The child slept for 36 hours straight. The husband went into work today.
But I still feel like crap. My cough is better, but the flesh and the body and the Kleenex are weak. And they are warring against my spirit, saying, “it is better just to die.” The virus wants to win.
My spirit says, “No! There are good things in this life, like chocolate, and I must experience them some more!” But the body says, “Aaarrrrrghh, cough cough cough, aaarrrrgh.”
And hence, blogging may be light. I think I shall go die now. Hopefully I shall be resurrected soon, and will be back to my normal self.
Sheila Wray Gregoire has been married for 25 years and happily married for 20! She loves traveling around North America with her hubby in their RV, giving her signature "Girl Talk" about sex and marriage. And she's written 8 books. About sex and marriage. See a theme here? Plus she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.
Oh Dear.
That was us two weeks ago.
I hope you’re all better soon and that someone does a kleenex run for Rebecca. 🙂
Yeah, she’s supposed to lead worship this weekend at a conference! So pray that she feels better over the course of the day.
I don’t understand. I thought when a man was sick even the tiniest bit, he was supposed to be helpless, weak, and turn into a big baby.
At least thats what I hear all the women say. Right after they compare whatever he is sick with to childbirth and that its no comparison.
Yeah, that man cold thing really bugs me! Keith’s great when he’s sick. I’m a mess.
I don’t get it either. I think its a TV thing – all the men on TV are like that and now its a sterotype.
I’ve never seen a real man do that – in fact, we have to kick them out of work and send them home – they are usually walking around like zombies infecting the rest of us. And they fight us the whole way (“I’m not that sick, I can still work!”)
though admittedly I am the same way. last time I got sick (and I literally get sick once a year or less), I still came into work, and passed out in the bathroom and got a concussion on the tile floor.
John, I have the same issue at my work as well. I have had to send men home too.
She might not have tissues, but she DOES appear to have knitted socks! Knitting (or crocheting… 😉 ) are like chicken soup for the soul. Feel better, Rebecca!
Oh, I absolutely hate it when I’m too sick to knit! Sometimes that happens to me. It is not fun. 🙁 I need my knitting!
Load up on vitamin C! When medication doesn’t work for me, vitamin C does. Naked Juice (do you have that brand in Canada?) has a Vitamin C boost juice that has something like 1,700% of daily vitamin C in one bottle. It’s knocked colds out of me in a day! Hope your daughter gets to feeling better 🙂
My children have been sick for almost a week. 😭 They finally seem to be on the mend. We always fight illnesses tooth and nail in our house because our oldest has a history of respiratory viruses turning much more serious and landing him in the hospital very quickly. All the meds, all the vitamins, all the natural remedies. I’m exhausted and the kids have serious cabin fever. Mama needs a date night, stat!
Is it wrong that I chuckled all throughout your witty post while your poor family is suffering so? 😉 I do hope you’re all on the mend soon. Prayers going up for you and the fam. Thankfully, my family has been spared the worst of whatever has been going around for the past few months. Then again, spring isn’t here yet …
I also have a doctor husband and that description of him in denial until he was totally incapacitated sounds familiar.
I wonder if you guys had H1N1 (swine flu)? I think that was the one going around here in 2009 – SARS was 2003.