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We could escape the sickness no more. I have been hearing such horror stories from friends of mine who have been sick. Up until last week I could safely say that it had passed us by. And then..

Friday:

A week ago, Friday, Julia and Emily both came down with a stomach flu bug. The poor things got sick for over 12 hours. By the time they were feeling better, I was feeling sick and had a fever. I was down all day Sunday.

Monday:

By Monday, we were all better. It was a good thing too because, I had to drive my Mom out to San Francisco, to the airport. She and I had been taking care of my sisters dog and cats for the last 2 months. My sister and her husband were relocated by the military from Tucson to Hawaii (lucky ducks) and their pets weren't able to go yet. If they would have taken them, they would have had to be in quarantine for 8 weeks,and it would have cost a fortune. There hadn't been enough time since their last shots to be able to avoid quarantine. Once they were to that point, we sent them on a plane. That alone actually cost them a small fortune. We were all sad to see Buster (the dog) go. He was here nearly everyday and we all fell in love with him. Emily, especially. He had never been around kids before and he loved it. He is a fabulous kid dog.

Thursday and Friday:

Things were going well until Thursday. Julia and I both started having a sore throat, then the body aches came, then the fevers and finally the torturous headache. Oh man. It was terrible. Julia started coughing. I made some of this Natural Cough Syrup that Zsuzsanna had posted on her blog last month. It surprisingly tasted pretty good, sort of like, teriyaki. Kiley and August helped out so much and cooked dinner for themselves, Emily and Daddy.  By the next morning, it was worse. Julia was running a really high fever. I don't like to give them medicine (but will if absolutely necessary), so I was searching for natural fever reducers. I didn't want to take her fever away completely because obviously it had a job to do. I was just a little stressed about it being 104. Julia, does tend to get fevers often and they can run high. I got two small wash cloths and soaked them in Apple Cider Vinegar and placed one on her chest and tummy and the other on her forehead. The smell is not very pleasant but she didn't seem to mind. Within an hour her fever was down to 100. I was actually quite surprised. After another half-hour she was down to 99 and up and playing with her sisters. I spent the entire rest of the day in bed with the worst headache ever. It had several migraine characteristics, which led me to take a migraine pill. It did absolutely nothing. I could hardly move it hurt so much. Again, Kiley and August were such a huge help. They took care of their sisters all day.. I'm not sure I physically could have done anything at all. Adam stopped and picked up dinner on the way home. By the next morning, Julia and I were much better.

Saturday:

Saturday afternoon we all went to Haley's two volleyball games. It was a fun time. She sure has a mean volleyball arm.

After the games, we took all of our girls to Adam's parents house for the night. My in-laws were having all of their grandkids over. I got to hold a sweet tiny baby while I was there. I love holding bitty babies. It is always amazing that a human being can be so teeny. I love baby smell and how soft their hair is. Ahhhhh.....

Adam and I took advantage of the "kid free" night and went out to dinner. It was so nice, and the food was so yummy. We got to just sit and talk for an hour. As we drove home we laughed about how "old" we were now. It was only 9:30 and we were ready to be at home sleeping. We had talked about maybe going bowling or something, but our oldness kicked in. Oh well.

Sunday:

Sunday morning I got up and headed to church. I picked up one of the teenage girls who attends and brought her with me. She lives right around the corner from us and doesn't drive yet, so she likes to ride in with us. I almost didn't go, since I didn't have the kids and didn't feel like going by myself. But, I'm glad I did. The message was for me. Funny how things happen like that.

After church Adam and I went shopping for Emily and Julia's birthday presents. It's hard to believe they are going to be 5. Time has sure flown by. We got them a box of "girl" Lego's and a new pair of earrings each. They had their ears pierced a year and a half ago and have only been able to wear their original earrings. We've tried cheaper ones but they make their ears bleed. We got them each a really nice little pair. Julia got sparkly dragonfly's and Emily got sparkly pink flowers, as she requested. I can't wait for their birthday now.

Adam and I spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning our house. I hadn't cleaned it in about a week because of all the sickness. It took us a couple of hours but boy did it look good when we were done. I was so grateful for his help. It would have taken me all day long by myself. It helped that the kids weren't home.

Late Sunday night my Pastors wife stopped by to give us a card. After she left I opened it and they had enclosed a gift card for gas for me to be able to drive to church. I've had to miss a few services because we moved about 30 minutes away and the gas is crazy expensive. That was so very sweet of them.

Bible:

I'm reading through the New Testament, first book to last book. So far I'm at Luke. I've never read it straight through from Matthew to Revelation. I love how I learn something new each time I read a part I've read before.

I also told the older girls I'd give them $20 upon their completion of  reading the NT.

Emily and Julia love their Bible reading time too. They will choose a story and I'll read it to them. I was listening a sermon by Pastor Anderson, and he was talking about how they have never read Bible stories to their kids from a book other than the Bible. Hmm what a concept huh? I really never thought of that, but it makes sense why people think that Bible stories are just fairy tales. The cartoonish colored pages were read to them as children just the same as their fiction books were. I began  to read E & J Bible stories ONLY from the Bible, and I was floored by how much they could understand, retain and recite back. Currently their favorite stories are "Daniel in the Den of Lions" (Daniel 6) "Jonah" (Jonah 1 & 2) and "David and Goliath" (1 Samuel 17).

Homeschool:

We are nearing the end of our school year. Kiley and August have about 7 weeks of school left and then we will break for summer. It's been a great 7th grade year. I was able to learn a lot too. Having to re-learn 7th grade math was exciting. It's more exciting to see them learning and understanding.

 Emily and Julia will be starting their Kindergarten year at the end of the summer. I am still trying to decide which curriculum to use for them. They are currently learning how to do letter sounds so that they will be able to read.

I really enjoy homeschooling them. I am just in love with this season of my life. Motherhood is the most wonderful blessing. Nothing can compare.

That's it for now.