Samantha Sick with the Flu, Big Milestones for Foster Daughter, and Inviting Friends Over

Samantha: 104 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 70 Months, Week 5
Owen: 28 Months, Week 2

Samantha woke up Sunday morning still not feeling well. She had a low temperature that morning and decided to just sit next to us in church in case she felt any worse. She spent the entire service with her coat on because she was too cold to take it off, and I could tell her fever was coming back. I felt so bad for her. It's so sad when one of your kids is sick.

After church we had to go pick up our two new little ones from their parents' house. Their house is about fifteen minutes from the church and then another thirty minutes back home. No one was much in the mood to ride in the car for that long when everyone was hungry and tired, but it worked out okay.

Once we got home, we got everyone lunch and got the little boys down for naps. We gave Samantha medicine and then encouraged her to rest and drink fluids as much as possible. Aedan and the little girl played in separate places so we could all have an afternoon of quiet play time. It was a gray, rainy day outside, and everyone had colds and coughs, so I don't think anyone minded too much.

Here is some work the kids brought home from school on Friday. Aedan got a 90% on his Math Test and is working on the letter Kk and sight words.

I spent a lot of my free time over the weekend going through pictures for our photo calendar that I make each year. I go through each folder I have on my computer and copy any that are cute. Then, I usually rope Ben into going through the pictures with me to choose the ones we like the best. Not only do I use it as a calendar in the kitchen, but when that year is done, I take the book apart and add it to my binder so that I'm basically making a photo book as well. It takes quite a bit of time, but I have gotten better at it over the years, and I really enjoy doing it. 

However, looking at these pictures of Owen from when he was 7 months old to 18 months old, and Samantha and Aedan when they were so much younger, made me feel very sad and nostalgic. I was just blown away and saddened by how fast time goes and how fast kids grow up, even though it doesn't feel like it in the moment. I just kept thinking, "Time, can't you just slow down for a little while?" It also doesn't help that I have been feeling a little baby bug lately. Ben is not at all interested in having a fourth child, but I've never been totally sure about being done at three. Four is a lot, but it makes me sad to think that I won't experience being pregnant again, feeling a baby moving inside me, snuggling a newborn, or seeing a child learn all the new things from rolling over, to crawling, to walking, to talking. Owen has just been in such a cute phase lately, soaking up so much information and growing in so many ways. I am lucky that he is still a pretty cuddly little boy, but I know that won't last for too much longer. Plus, as they grow up they just don't need you as much or want to play with you as much anymore. And I know I am still needed and loved by my kids, but it's just a different way than when you have babies and toddlers. Part of me is just not ready to be done with raising babies and young children part of life. It's been what I have done for so long. I have been home with my kids for as long as I taught full time (7 years and almost 7 years). I know there are so many reasons to be done with having babies, especially when you look at the freedom that you gain as your kids get older and you can go out and do more things and not worry about naps and feeding and fussiness. It would also be nice to go back to work at some point and be a family with two incomes so we can actually start saving some money back and feel more free financially. However, I also know that this period of time in having babies and small children will really be so short in the grand scheme of things, and once we close this door, that really will be it. I am 35, turning 36 in July, so I am reaching the age where it becomes riskier to have another baby. Also, I have no idea if I would even be able to get pregnant again since it took almost two years of trying just to have Owen. Part of me would love to have another little girl. Part of me wants to just try one more time, maybe over the next year, and just see if something were to happen, and if I were to get pregnant again. It's really hard for me to make big, important decisions, and being officially done having children is one of those decisions. I am very unsure about what I think, but I also know that Ben is very much done and does not have the faintest interest in having another, so I don't want to disrespect his desires either. Who knows, it's probably just me feeling sad from seeing all the pictures and Owen getting older, but it is definitely a feeling stirring deep within me that I haven't quite sorted out yet.

Since Samantha still had a fever on Sunday afternoon, she had to stay home from school on Monday. She was coughing quite a bit that morning, too, and only wanted Rice Krispies for breakfast. She did not have much of an appetite, and that is not like her. Mondays are our grocery days, so she rode in the car with the little boys and me as we drove out to Walmart to pick up the groceries. It was easy to pick everything up, and then I took the little boys in the store with me for a few minutes while we got our produce. Samantha just stayed in the car and read on her Kindle. She didn't feel like walking around, and I didn't blame her. I felt bad that I had to drag her along, but we had to get our groceries.

Another thing I have been working on over the last week is my applications for being a substitute teacher at both Lake Lehman and Dallas Schools. The Dallas one was all electronic, but the Lake Lehman one I had to print off, along with a lot of other paperwork, and after getting all the information and finishing writing the essays, I was finally able to get it mailed off on Monday on our way out to Walmart. I'm excited to be able to start subbing when I am able to on Tuesdays when Ben doesn't teach classes, so it will be interesting to see how long this whole process takes.

Our little boy is always very tired when coming off a visit with his parents, and this week was the same. He was such a lifeless blob all morning, not interacting much with us in the car or in the cart at Walmart. He ate two waffles for breakfast, but then wouldn't even touch his lunch. I didn't know if he was tired or starting to not feel well, or what, but I decided to let him take a little bit longer of a nap that afternoon instead of waking him up. I wanted to let him get the sleep that he needed, while also still making sure he would go to sleep that night. I don't think they give him naps when he's at their house, so he is always extremely overtired.

Here is some work Aedan brought home from school on Monday. He has a snowman craft, math papers on counting 11 and 12, work with the letter Hh, and a paper practicing basic addition facts.

With Samantha's fever not going away, and her having to miss another day of school on Tuesday, if not even more if the fever continues, Ben decided to take Samantha to the walk-in clinic on Monday night. In addition to the fever, she had chills, fatigue, low energy, little appetite, and a dry cough. We thought maybe she had caught strep throat from Aedan, since he had it last week. But her throat and everything else was fine. The doctor said that it was most likely the flu, and since it was more than 48 hours, they couldn't test her or give her anything for it. She just had to wait until it passed, and they said for others that it has taken 5-7 days for the fever to pass. I just felt so bad for her because she hates missing school, and she really was feeling lousy. Every time the medicine would wear off, she would get lethargic and cranky. However, we were glad that we were at least able to get a doctor's note to excuse her from any days that she still has a fever. We didn't want all these days to be unexcused.

While Ben was with Samantha at the doctor, I put the other kids to bed at home by myself. As I was brushing the little girl's teeth, I noticed one of her bottom front teeth was very loose. I talked to her about what might happen, and if it were to fall out during the night, to put it on the shelf next to her bed in a safe place so we could find it in the morning. I even showed her Aedan's mouth where he lost his last tooth so that she would know what to expect and not be scared if she saw a little blood. Sure enough, the next morning she was missing a tooth. She wasn't able to give me a straight answer about where she put her tooth, so after everyone left for school, I went into her room to see if I could find it. I eventually found it on the floor under her bed, which was good because her mom wanted to keep it.

Since the little boy was acting so off on Monday, I wanted to give him the chance to sleep a little longer that morning. He is just always so tired coming off an overnight visit with his parents. I decided to wake him up at 9:00, and he was still passed out. I am amazed at how much that little boy can sleep. Just to be safe, I took his temperature and it was normal, so I decided to carry on with my plans to take the boys to play time at the gym. Here are the boys enjoying the stick tapping song. Owen does a really good job of following the directions how how and where to tap the sticks, and I tried to get a video of him doing it, but as soon as I started recording him he just wanted to see himself, so I didn't get a true video of how he does the song. We always have a good time here singing songs, playing with the parachute, and then enjoying the free play time with the push toys, ball pit, slide, and ride-on cars. Plus, I have a little bit of a chance to talk to other moms when the boys aren't wanting me to directly play with them.

Since Samantha still had a fever that day, I dropped her off on campus with Daddy, and she worked on her math and science work that she had missed the last couple of days. It's definitely hard being absent from school and having to make up all the work. They do a lot during the school day! And I'm glad they keep the kids busy and have high expectations for their work. I feel like in Samantha's previous school she could be out sick for several days and never really have anything to make up. It always made me wonder what they actually did all day sometimes. Anyways, I am very grateful for the kids' school. I am grateful for the house that put us in that school district, for Samantha getting into the gifted program, and for how much the kids have learned and grown this school year. And, it's not even over yet!

After picking Samantha up from Daddy, we all went back home. I got lunch ready for everyone, but Samantha wasn't interested in eating anything. I took her temperature and it was 101.3 again. As soon as her fever starts coming back she gets very cranky and mean, talks back more, and is just not able to think clearly. However, I have to let the medicine wear off a little bit so that way I know what her temperature is and if her fever is going down at all. I gave her some more medicine and decided to have her try and nap as well after I got the boys down for their naps. She laid down for a little while, and she said she fell asleep, but she was only in her room for a total of about forty-five minutes. Either way, at least she rested her body and her mind for awhile. We were really hoping she could get this fever soon, but this fever in the afternoon meant that she wasn't going to be going back to school on Wednesday either. Poor girl, having the flu is no fun, especially when you feel miserable.

Ben was able to pick up the little girl's new glasses that day on the way home from work. She was so excited to try them on. She desperately needed these glasses in order to see, and you should have seen her reaction when she put them on. She just looked around with a look of amazement on her face. We told her her how important it is for her to take care of them and how only an adult is allowed to take them on and off, otherwise she needed to leave them on the rest of the time. At dinner that evening, she was looking out our patio door saying, "Wow! Look at all the trees!" It never occurred to me that she was never really able to see the trees in the back of yard. It made me wonder what else she was unable to see, and I was so happy we were able to get these glasses for her. I couldn't include her whole face, but you can see the sides of her glasses, and underneath that heart is a huge smile.

Here is some work Aedan brought home from school Tuesday. He is working on the letter Hh, completing sentences with sight words, reading and matching color words, and counting and writing 11 and 12.

On Tuesday night there was a Mom's Night Out event through MOPS at the church. There were people coming to give massages and do nails, along with just eating good snacks, hanging out, and watching a movie. Anyways, I feel like it's always a little bit crazy trying to get out of the house, and I always feel guilty leaving Ben with all five kids, even though he wants me to be able to get out and go to MOPS. Well, this particular Tuesday night, Samantha noticed her fish was not doing well. It was swimming around in a crazy manner and definitely not acting normal, so she was very upset and those feelings were escalated by the fact that she was still sick, tired, and her medicine was wearing off. She just kept crying about Essie dying, and she couldn't even come into the room where the fish was because she was so upset about it. I felt bad for the little girl, especially because we didn't really know what caused her to be like this or what, if anything, we could do to help. This was Samantha's first pet that was dying, so she was understandably upset about it.

We spent Wednesday morning at home, since we didn't have anything to do, and Samantha was home sick again. She could just not kick this fever. However, it was becoming difficult having Samantha at home. I tried to have her sit down and do some work that morning since the amount of work she missed was certainly piling up. She was being a little bratty that morning, was taking forever to do any of her work, and was only really working if I was right with her, which was difficult to do when I had the other two little boys to watch and other things to get done around the house. She was talking back quite a bit, even though I was just trying to help her. She kept touching her mouth and coughing all over and not covering it very well, which was making me upset because I didn't want the flu to run itself through our whole family. This is a little too much information, but Owen pooped three times that morning and gave himself a bad diaper rash, so he was whining and grumpy all morning. And then the little boy refused to eat his lunch again that day. It was one of those mornings where I couldn't wait until everyone got to bed for nap time.

Aedan was a good little brother that week and brought Samantha's homework home for her every day. In fact, Samantha was worried on Monday when he went to school without her because she was afraid that he wouldn't know where to go or what to do without her, that he wouldn't know how to get to his classroom and then back to the van at the end of the day. It was sweet how much she was concerned for him and how hard it was for her not to be there for her little brother every day. They certainly do love and look out for each other, and it warms my heart.

Here is some work Aedan brought home from school on Wednesday. They continue to practice their basic addition problems, number words, the letter Hh, and counting and writing the numbers 11,12, 13, and 14. I like being able to see what he works on at school and how his skills are progressing through the school year.

Samantha and I decided to give her fish, Essie, one more day to see how she would do and if her behavior would improve at all. The fish tanks were pretty dirty since I have been too busy to clean them like I should be, so I took her out of her dirty tank and put her in some fresh water (with plans to clean the tanks together after school on Wednesday). However, it wasn't looking good. She was acting like she couldn't swim and once she got up to the top, she would just sink back down to the bottom and lay on the bottom of the tank. Samantha was much more calm about it that day though, and she even picked up a little box to bury her in when she finally died. I felt bad still, though, because I felt like it was a lot my fault that she was dying because I wasn't doing a good job of cleaning their tanks. I just felt like I couldn't keep up with everything lately, and taking care of their fish was not high on my priority list.

Samantha still had a fever that afternoon, so she couldn't go to AWANA with the boys. However, I had her come with me when I dropped them off so she could say her verses and get them signed off for the week so that way she wasn't falling too far behind. Then, as a surprise to her, I took her to a local pet store that sold betta fish so she could pick out a new one. The owner of the store was really helpful in talking to us about how to take care of the fish, helping Samantha choose a fish that was "healthy," and even pointing out a better type of food for us to feed the fish. He said that the stuff we were feeding them before was like we were giving them potato chips every day. Samantha picked a beautiful blue and purple fish, and even though it was a male betta fish, she named it Sapphire. She was really nervous about carrying it home carefully in the car, and Ben and I helped her get the fish acclimated to the water and put in her new tank that night before bed. She was so excited to have another fish. She just kept thanking me over and over again that night. I was glad she was so happy, and it perked her up during a week that was otherwise pretty sad and hard for her.

On Thursday I had Bible Study down at Abide, and Samantha didn't have a temperature that morning, so I was hopeful that it might finally be breaking. I brought her with me to Abide, bought her a hot chocolate, and got her settled down in a comfy chair for her to work on homework and read. We didn't have anyone to watch the kids that morning, so all the moms went into the childcare room with the kids. It was nice to still be able to meet together, but it was a little difficult to talk and discuss anything with all the kids running around, making noise, and needing help and redirection.

After Bible Study we all went back home for lunch, and I took Samantha's temperature again. It was 100.9 at noon and then 101.8 at 12:30. I felt so sad that her fever was back again because I was really hoping that it was going to break after being gone all morning. With this spike in her temperature, it meant that she was going to have to miss school on Friday as well, making it be the whole week that the was out sick. They said it could last for five to seven days, possibly with symptoms up to ten days, but they said if she still had a fever after seven days to bring her back in, but I didn't really know what they would be able to do for her. Poor little girl. We have never had a child sick with a fever and the flu for this long before.

Here is some work Aedan brought home from school on Thursday.  They are working on counting 13 and 14, continuing with the letter Hh, and continuing patterns.

Fridays are also mornings that that I stay home so that I can get things done like laundry, changing sheets and towels, and just general house cleaning. Samantha went the whole morning with no fever again and was acting like herself again. In fact, she was even able to sit and play Paw Patrol with the two little boys for awhile that morning. I know they really enjoyed having her attention. Here they are all playing together in Owen's room that morning. It was so sweet to watch.

I could tell that Samantha was fading again that afternoon, so I took her temperature again at 2:45 and she had a 101 temperature again. It's been such a rough week for her, and I didn't know what to do with bringing her to to the doctor. Luckily, no one else had anything more than a runny nose, so I just hoped it stayed that way. I hoped that I wouldn't catch anything from Samantha because she'd been coughing in my face all week. I didn't know how I would take care of the house and the boys if I felt like her and had the flu and a fever for that long. I felt frustrated and behind that afternoon because I hadn't gotten as much done that week with Samantha being home and Owen not napping for very long in the afternoon.

As I was cleaning up the house that afternoon, I decided to take a couple pictures of our wood floors that seem to be curling on the edges. It's just in this small section at the top of our basement stairs between that doorway and the kitchen doorway. It's definitely a noticeable difference when you walk on the floor. I looked up a little bit about it, and it seemed like there really was not much we could do about it. I didn't know if it was because of the temperature difference between the basement and the main floor or what, but it's always kind of frustrating when things like this start happening to your house.

On Saturday morning Ben made us some wonderful french toast for breakfast, switching it up from our typical pancake breakfast. He is such a good cook and such a loving husband to make breakfast for his family every day. Owen often likes to watch Ben make breakfast, and he asked what he was making. He said french toast, but Owen didn't know what that was. So Aedan, who was sitting at the table drawing, explained that it's like toast with French on it. Owen thought that sounded yummy. Oh, the wisdom of older brothers!

Ben then took our two new little ones down to their parents' house for their overnight visit and dropped Samantha off at play practice while I hung out and played with Aedan and Owen. 

We invited Andrew and Alysse over for dinner that night, so we spent the afternoon making our classic lasagna recipe and getting ready for their visit. We are going to be more intentional about inviting people over to our home for dinner because we really enjoy having people in our home, making food for people, and spending time getting to know people in a relaxed environment. It was wonderful to spend time with Andrew and Alysse. They were easy to talk to, and they were totally okay with noise and craziness of our kids, even though they don't have any of their own quite yet. In fact, as we sat at the table eating that night, I found myself feeling so proud of our three kids. They were eating well, they were respectful in listening to others talk, and they were able to carry on conversations with other adults with ease. After dinner we talked some more while the kids ran off to play, and then Andrew and Alysse even stuck around while we put the kids to bed so that we could play a game together once the kids were in bed. We played Ticket to Ride Europe, and it was such a blast. We haven't played games with people like that for a long time, and it reminded us of our days going over the Brashers house for dinner and game night in a similar way to the Fillers coming over to our house. After the game they stayed and talked even longer, and I know Ben really enjoyed the intellectual conversation he was able to have with Andrew. We talked until 10:30, and honestly, we could have hung out for much longer! I'm so glad they were able to come over, and we will definitely have to do it again sometime soon.

(Blog about January 26-February 1, 2020)