Books for the Sick Bed

Since we are (fingers crossed) back in the land of the healthy, I am going to have pity on your poor, miserable, sick souls and give you some reading suggestions so that you can be entertained while you lie on your couch/bed/bathroom floor feeling like death. But please don't breathe too hard on whatever screen you're using to read this because I don't want you to transmit the flu back to us via the Internet. It's possible, I'm sure.

First, you should continue reading The Long Winter out loud as a family because nothing will put the flu in perspective like the Ingalls family simultaneously starving and freezing to death...and still having a good attitude about it.

Then, you should read a selection of light novels so that you can be entertained without actually having to turn your brain on. Some suggestions include: the Cecilia and Kate novels by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (because snarky, letter writing cousins who dabble in magic help keep up your spirits) or, if laughing too hard is setting off coughing fits, you could try Patricia C. Wrede's Lyra series (world building fantasy with some fun twists but not as much hilarity) or, if fantasy is not your thing, Ally Carter's Gallagher Girl series (although some would claim that a bunch of sixteen year old girls attending spy school and saving the world is pretty fantastical). If you are male and none of these options appeal to you, Naomi Novik's Temeraire series might interest you with the Napoleonic Wars reimagined...with dragons.

Twinkle would like to remind you that an apple a day
keeps the doctor away. The picture is blurry because she
never stops moving. Ever.

Then, when you're just starting to feel well enough to begin thinking real thoughts again but not well enough to process thoughts past "We've run out of juice. Thank God for curbside pick up." or "Someone really needs to sanitize the house. Is anyone here named 'Someone'?", you can move on to Katherine Reay's The Austen Escape, which was--to my relief--not just a rewrite of Shannon Hale's Austenland, but actually a good read in its own right (I love how Reay consistently provides characters whose brains work differently than mine). For only $1.99 on Kindle, it was a great way to get through the last few days of real sick (fine: I read it in a day, sue me), although not my favorite of Reay's books, partially due to the frequently bubble gum references, which is purely my own pet peeve. My skin crawled just writing that.

Finally, when life starts to seem like more than just surviving the flu but you're still rebuilding your arsenal of energy, grab a copy of Helen Simonson's The Summer Before the War (I laughed, I cried, I sent dozens of quotations to my sister via text message) or, if you're up for a real challenge, Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. The Summer Before the War is set in a small village in England during the lead in to WWI and subtly covered more depth than I anticipated (and that was after having already read Simonson's Major Pettigrew). As to Quiet, I'm only halfway through because nonfiction evidently uses a different part of my brain that has not been as well exercised, but wow...so much food for thought. I texted the Man about ten pages in and told him to immediately add it to his To Be Read list. If you are an introvert or have an introvert in your life, Quiet is worth the time. It's helping me think through cultural values and personal strengths, while also encouraging me to see the value of extroverts who help balance things out. I've been reading Quiet lately while washing dishes (our dishwasher has been broken) and taking the time to really think about what I'm reading while I dry off enough of a finger to swipe to the next page on my kindle app.

If apples aren't your style, eating bubble bath might
manage to kill off some of the flu germs.
Just a suggestion.

So, here's to your health and your reading life. May they both live long and prosper. And may the flu season make a permanent exit at the end of January this year instead of petering out some time in March. I believe!

Birthday Sick

It's been the season of sick for us. We've had a few weeks here and there with just coughing, but for the most part, we've been battling germs since the beginning of November. That's why I was so excited when we managed to emerge from our self imposed quarantine this weekend. At last, we were fever free for a few days, and I'd even managed to get the house sanitized! We had made it to church and people no longer thought we'd just moved without telling anyone! I'd started making actual plans with actual people! The excitement was unbelievable.

I was so sure we'd turned the corner and then this morning, BAM, Bee starts the day with vomit and a fever. The desire to bang my head against a wall repeatedly was strong, but I resisted the urge and instead called my sister and wailed over the phone about how I am the worst mother ever, because, of course, having sick kids is obviously my fault. Now that the kids are all in bed, I've stopped fruitlessly blaming myself for the fact that our home is a gigantic petri dish and instead put my mind to good use thinking about what I've learned through these last few weeks of fever, coughs, snot, vomit, and exhaustion. This was inspired by today's realization that Bruiser not fully occupied by his twin is like a pinball rocketing around the house, knocking over everyone's sanity at top speed. It made school a little more interesting than I bargained for.

Anyway, other things I've learned through the season of sick:

• Momming sick kids who now know how to throw up in a trash can is way easier than momming sick kids who have no concept of what in the world their bodies are doing and so let the vomit fall as it pleases.
• If you have to get the flu while your husband is gone on a work trip, make sure that you time it so that your most responsible eldest child has already finished his round of three day fever so you can foist off all the parenting (by which I mean, the making of PBJs) on him while you lie on the couch comatose.

• Friends who leave soup for you on the porch are amazing. So is Walmart curbside pick up when you've run out of Children's Tylenol but don't want to drag all the kids through the grocery store for it.
• You will feel guilty for threatening to spray your son with vinegar water if he doesn't get out of bed when, one hour later, you discover he's running a fever of 103.

• When the kids all insist on their own birthday cakes during birthday week (technically the twins shared a cake, but they are one in their own special twin bond) and then get too sick to eat the massive amount of cake you lovingly prepared, you will not be suitably upset when you discover that the dog and cats managed to get under the foil and eat half of Little's sheet cake.
• Some sicknesses you can rally your way out of. Then there is the flu. Accept defeat and go back to bed. 
• Littles will be so happy to not be sick that he will insist on celebrating every meal with birthday candles. This will not entertain Tiny, who is still sick. It will also backfire massively when breakfast is fresh from the oven blueberry muffins. Good thing a little wax never killed anyone.

• The sight of your baby without a snot slug sliding from her nose for the first time in weeks will so endear her to you that you will barely be able to keep from kissing her all over. You will also be shocked to discover how much happier she is when she's not sick. It's almost miraculous.
• Your kid might be sick if they a) curl up in their kitchen chair at breakfast, b) lie down at the top of the stair landing for no apparent reason, c) spontaneously nap on the love seat, d) put themselves to bed without parental supervision, or e) skip out on birthday tacos. You might be sick if you can't even drink your coffee in the morning. Your kids will, at that point, be convinced that you're dying.

At the very least, this season of sick has been incredibly educational. And, of course, fun for the whole family. And while it seems that we may not be quite as through with germs as I had wished, the important things remain the same: this too shall pass, God's mercies are new every morning, and a good book can help you weather any storm. Even a snot storm. But more on that one later--depending on who gets sick next.