Packing a one-two punch

Easter was spent with one sick kid and when you have multiple children and one falls ill, you hold your breath waiting for it to spread.  We made it through Tuesday and Emily was almost back to 100%.  Rich was feeling ill on Wednesday (flu-like symptoms) and had to leave work early to come home to bed.  When the kids went to bed that night, they were absolutely fine.  I thought we had made it.  I was silently cheering.  And then Allie was up at 10:30 saying she didn't feel well and that was the beginning of the end. I know no one wants to hear details but the only reason why I'm writing this is so that when I say I was up almost the entire night, you'll understand.  For the next four hours, she threw up every 15-20 minutes.  There was a span of almost two hours where the time between vomits was 13 minutes.  It was freaking me out because I could time when she would be sick next.

So finally around 2:30, we had about 30 minutes between vomits but I couldn't sleep because she was rolling around and moaning.  In an attempt to save the bedding and allow Rich to sleep, I decided to sleep in Allie's room with her.  At 4:30, Anna joined the party by throwing up in bed.  I was a wreck at that point because I had been awake almost the entire night.  Thankfully Anna wasn't as sick as Allie and I only had to help her twice.  Rich came in at 6:30 when the alarm clock went off to ask me what I was going to do about work.  I estimated that I had slept for maybe an hour and a half and because I could barely walk straight, I did not see how I was going to be productive at work.  I was also not feeling well and didn't know if I was sick or if it was simply a product of being awake most of the night.

Let the stress begin.  This time of year is incredibly busy for me at work but because my group is down multiple people, I'm a bit out of control this year.  Having the flu a few weeks ago really messed everything up and I've been trying to keep it all together without having to work much overtime.  And now I had to miss yet another day of work.

On the bright side, thank god for Grammy.  She came over and drove Emily to school and then picked up some "sick" items at the store for us.  She watched Allie and Anna so I could take a two hour nap and then picked Emily up from school.
 
The past three weeks have been rough but I know it's only temporary.  This too shall pass.  We are all healthy and in the grand scheme of life, this is minor.  We've been witness to several slaps of reality of late and I hate those because it means that there's a family suffering the unthinkable.  Hell, we went through it when Abigail died so we know first hand what's important.

Sunday is coming to an end with almost all of us in some stage of recovery.  It seems a bit unbelievable but I am still not back to normal.  I need sleep, lots and lots of sleep. Tomorrow will be a fresh (but snowy) start.

Aaaaaand I've opted to scrap my Project 366, for a few different reasons.  I think if I had been in a different phase of my photography life, the project would have had a different meaning and/or been more beneficial to my growth.  With where I am right now, it became another item to check off my list and I wasn't enjoying it.  And this last reason may sound odd but when I was taking a set of photos, I felt like I had to have a photo of something completely separate for this project, otherwise I would end up with the same photo in different posts.  For example, when I took photos of a snowstorm I didn't want to post the same photo in my post about the snowstorm and then again in my 366 post.

Well, at least I gave it a try.