The Deep Freeze and Big Thaw

The freeze....

The family have passed some kind of nasty bug around to each other.  Zack got it first.  He woke up on Saturday, a bowling day, with a sore throat and he was weirdly cold.  Zack is never cold.  He's Always hot.  When it's 20 degrees outside, he wants to ride with the car windows wide open.  He's a teenaged boy.  He's naturally hot.  He also lives to bowl!  So, when he should be getting dressed to go bowling but is instead laying on the couch wearing a sweat jacket with a heavy quilt pulled up over him, I know he's sick.    He never looked feverish - his face always flushes and his eyes get very glassy with the slightest fever - so we never bothered taking it.  By the next morning, he was feeling much better although he had some serious head congestion going on.

That night, Sarah announces that her throat and one ear hurts.  An hour or so later, she's under several quilts and shivering.  We did take her temperature but it was within a few tenths of normal.  The next morning, the thermometer was registering 95 point something.  Well, she must have just drunk something or something.  It can't be 95.  Maybe the thermometer's battery is dying.  She went back to bed & six hours later, her temperature was registering 96 point something.  Well, she's been asleep.... your temp is always lower when you first wake up.  She ate a little jello, the only thing she felt like she could swallow, took some sinus congestion medicine and went back to bed.  Poor kid, I thought - she'll never sleep tonight.  But she did.  And the next day and the next night and the day after that.  She basically slept and shivered for 3 or 4 full days.  Her ear had stopped hurting though and her throat was getting better & her temperature was slowly coming back to normal so I figured she was sleeping off the sickness.

Friday rolled around and I blew off my afternoon run.  Just didn't have the motivation to put on the running shoes.  I should have known then that I was getting sick.  I'm never not motivated to run!  But it didn't occur to me at the time.  Later that night, my head suddenly filled with snot.  Suddenly as in one minute, I'm fine.  Two minutes later, I think my head is going to explode!  I took an Advil Congestion pill and immediately felt relief, but I was also starting to feel cold.  Really, really, painfully cold.  I already had on a sweater & sweat pants.  Yeah, I know.  Such a nice look!  I added a sweat jacket and pulled a quilt up over me.  A while later, I put on a second pair of socks and got 2 more quilts.  Boy, I am so cold!  And so tired!  By 8 p.m., I was asleep and stayed that way until the next morning.  

Saturday, I woke up feeling pretty good except I was still weirdly cold.  Got dressed, took Zack to the bowling alley and started feeling like I might fall asleep at the table.  Ok, if I can even consider sleeping in a noisy bowling alley after sleeping 10+ hours the night before, I must be getting sick.  And boy, was I cold!  I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a sweat jacket and ended up going out to the car and putting on my ski coat that happened to be in the car.  Sat in the bowling alley wearing the 2 coats, both of them zipped up to my chin.   Wished I had gloves.  And a pillow.

Zack ended up driving home because I didn't think I could stay awake.  He either did great, or I was too drowsy to notice his errors.   We got home & I took my temperature.  95 point 3.  Good grief!  I took the 2 coats off, put on a sweat shirt over top of my normal shirt, put the sweat jacket back on, crawled under 3 quilts and went back to sleep.  About 4 or 5 hours later, I woke up for about 30 minutes then went back to sleep.  Hubby came home and the dogs barking at him woke me up.  I lay there for a few hours wishing I could go back to sleep then finally drifted off.  

Slept straight through the night and woke up Sunday morning feeling fine.  Felt so good I was considering running that afternoon.  Our weather was having a warm up and it was supposed to be in the upper 50's.  It would be so nice to run without gloves!  But, a run was not to be.  Just doing the dishes left me exhausted and gasping for breath.  I figured if the dishes wore me out that much, I probably shouldn't try to run.  

Monday rolled around and OMG!  It was 64 degrees at noon!  Spring!  It hasn't been above the mid 30's in forever.  I am not missing such a glorious day!  I'm going running!  Too bad the warm, balmy breeze  turned into a hurricane force gale.  I was running along and tree limbs and occasionally whole trees were falling.  Believe me, those falling trees helped me pick up the pace!  I was trying to run slowly.  I was still a little congested and after being sick....  but those falling trees had me running at race pace!

Today, the forecast is not quite as warm as yesterday, but by the end of the week, we are supposed to be up into the upper 70's!  Woo-hoo!!  Spring!

Boring!

Wow.  My last post was titled Procrastination and dated January 23rd.  Today is February 8th.  I'd say I definitely know how to procrastinate.  Good grief!

I also just realized that I'd promised to post a photo every day for the month of February.  Obviously I forgot about that promise.  Early Onset Alzheimer's.

So, what's this post going to be about?  Umm, I have no idea.  I just felt guilty for not posting in so long and the blog was feeling a bit lonely.  The blog tells me that boring company is better than no company at all.  So....

Ok, so why haven't I posted anything in so long?  Because there's been absolutely nothing going on in my life to write about.  Nothing good, nothing bad.  Just same old, same old every day.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  Boring can be a good thing.  Boring is way better than overly stressed.  But boring does not provide blog fodder.

So, how have I been spending my time?  Well, there's the homeschooling stuff although that really doesn't take up much of my time.  I plan it, write the kids' to-do lists and they do it.  Pretty simple now that they are old enough to function on their own.  There is the matter of math.  Math, they need help with.  Too bad I can't provide it.  Math is NOT my subject.  But, I am quite proud to say that I'm actually understanding Algebra this time around.  Only about 35 years too late.

I've also been spending lots of time knitting.  I'm a bit of a yarn snob and had bought some "cheap" yarn from Michael's or Joanne Fabrics or one of those craft stores a while back.  Really don't remember now and it makes absolutely no difference to the story other than for the fact that I don't use "cheap" yarn from craft stores. I prefer "real" yarn from "real" knitting stores.  Or web-sites.  But I guess I liked the color or something because I bought the yarn.  Patons Kroy Sock yarn to be exact.  http://www.patonsyarns.com/product.php?LGC=kroysocks
Oh, my gosh!  This yarn is awesome!  Or at least it is to knit with.  I hope the finished product will wash & wear well.  That remains to be seen.   The yarn is cheap, at least compared to what I normally buy and it knits up beautifully.  It creates a nice thick, dense but soft fabric.  I finished the first pair of socks a few weeks ago but haven't stitched up the toes yet.  I'll post a picture once that happens.  Might be a while though.  That Kitchner stitch takes a bit of concentration and I have to have total silence to accomplish it.  Which means, the kids and husband all need to be out of the house for a while &  the TV & cell phones turned off.  And that just never seems to happen these days.  But anyway, I liked the first batch of yarn so much, I bought more.

I've also started knitting a few Easter Chicks.  They are no where near finished and aren't photo worthy yet, but one of these days.  And I guess one of these days better hurry up and get here because I'm hoping I'll be able to sell a few of them.

I've been spending a lot of time reading but I don't seem to be making much progress in either of the two books.  They are both from my 101 Goals list and well, let's just say that goals list is the only reason I'm pushing through them.   The first book, Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire is supposed to be an excellent read but I'm struggling with it.  Maybe I just haven't gotten far enough into it yet.

And then there's Joseph E. Johnston, A Civil War Biography written by Craig L. Symonds.  General Johnston was my great, great uncle and I'm interested in learning about him, but....  The book's writing is kinda dry and it turns out Old Joe was a bit of a stuck up whiner.  But still, it's interesting to learn about a family member.  And, as my dear husband points out, the writing probably isn't dry, it's just that I'm used to reading fluffy trash, not Civil War biographies.

And then there's the weather. I've spent a lot of time complaining about the weather, although I'm not really sure why.  Just seems like the popular thing to do.   Here in Virginia, we've been extremely lucky weather wise this year.  While it's been cold, it hasn't seemed all that cold.  Not compared to the rest of the country.  And it is winter.  And as for the snow, we've had weekly predicted storms but they've almost all fizzled out before they get here.  There have been several times where they've been predicting a blizzard for over a week then the day before it's supposed to hit, they say it will only rain and then the storm fizzles out completely or moves off shore or something and we don't even get rain.  So really, the weather has not been complaint worthy.  Specially not compared to the rest of the country.

Then there's the running.  That was going down hill fast.  My speed was getting slower & slower and my perceived effort was getting higher and higher.  I was getting pretty frustrated but cut my mileage back a bit and have made progress since.  I'm starting to think that I may have to cancel those marathon plans.  My body just does not seem to enjoy running long distances.   But, maybe if I could loose the rest of the weight my running would improve.

And that brings me to the other thing I've been spending a lot of time doing.  Eating.  Good Lord!  I have been eating.  Every single thing in sight.  Well, not EVERY thing - I'm still doing the vegetarian thing.  But other than meat, I've eaten everything in sight.  Specially cheese & crackers.  At least I'm eating relatively low fat/sodium crackers, but still.  Which low fat/sodium crackers you ask?  Triscuits Cracked Black Pepper crackers.  O.M.G.   I love these things!
http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Brands/ProductInformation.aspx?BrandKey=triscuit&Site=1&Product=4400001317

Oh, and bread.  I've been eating lots and lots of bread.  Remember my blog post about learning to bake bread?  No?  Here you go...   http://wearethepeople-jeannie.blogspot.com/2010/12/trouble.html
Well, I have learned!  The entire family is enjoying having fresh baked bread almost daily.  And it's incredibly easy and incredibly tasty and my waistline is probably suffering for it but oh well.  It's too yummy to give up.   It's also helped the family not complain so much about how frequently we've been having soup and/or beans for dinner.  Fixing dinner has become a bit of a nightmare now that half the family doesn't eat meat.  The solution has been lots and lots of vegetable and bean soup.  And of course, bread!

Aack!  I should never have mentioned food.  Now, I'm hungry.