The weekend before last I babysat our friend's three year old. He is a splendid little guy, but he also was sniffley and coughed in my face at random intervals.
While I babysat him, I also was tending to my down for the count daughter, who navigated her cold like an Arctic explorer, head on and with copious amounts of soup.
Then, a couple of days later, in spite of mainlining all manner of whole foods and supplements, my son succumbed right in the middle of basketball tryouts.
And still, I did not heed the call. I steeled my mind and body against it, I did not want to get sick.
All of the kids weren't sick for long, about three days total, with some lingering sniffles. However, while podcasting with my crew Sunday, I noticed that I felt a bit, meh.
By the following morning I was fully in the grasp of a congestion symphony. My ears were on fire, my sinus cavities were more packed than the 405 during a Cali rush hour, and my throat felt like I had bathed its lining in a Carolina Reaper pepper cocktail.
Sigh.
The thing is, when you have a homestead, you really don't get a day off. I am in the process of reducing the amount of souls I have to tend too, but I still have ducks, pigs, a steer, cats, dogs, oh yes, and a hubs and two teenagers.
That means every day there are waterers to check, animals and humans to feed, meetings to attend, laundry to do, and the list goes on. Like all moms who are struck with a full on immune battle onslaught, I knew I needed to rest, but it's just so dang hard.
Part of the problem is I just knew if I sat down, I wouldn't want to get up. So I did my best to ingest quality food stuffs, mainlined a lot of herbal tea, and requested frequent mood stabilizing hugs from the hubs.
Even though for the past 48 hours I have felt like what comes out of the back end of my steer, I soldiered on and had a fairly optimistic outlook as I thought I was beating the stuff.
Until 3:17 AM last night.
I awoke and bolted upright like a dog who touched their nose to an electric fence. I am not going to go into the mucus-tinged details of the nose-flowing, throat-burning awfulness that followed for the next couple of hours, suffice it to say that I was miserable and could have used an inflatable kayak. Or something.
Anyway, I survived the flare up of said immune system vs. contagion battle and finally passed back out around 6AM. One nice thing about having teenagers is that I don't have to get up and get them off to school, they are completely self-sufficient in that department, and the hubs, knowing that I am off my Kat game, has been feeding the critters the past couple of days, so as I drifted back into a sick slumber, I thought to myself, maybe I will just rest a bit.
Nope. You see, we have two dogs and about nine cats that hang out in the house. I don't let any critter in my bedroom save my Cowboy Corgi, Cora, mainly because she sleeps for twelve hours a night without moving (I admire her commitment to slumber). However, we refer to her as the Emotional Support Corgi, because she has this intuitive ability to know when something is wrong.
And apparently my current lack of internal homeostasis really bugs her, because she started talking up a storm at about 8AM and woke me up, nosing me like I was dead.
To be fair, I am usually up and giving her breakfast way before that time, so I get it.
But the weird pet behavior didn't stop there. As I shuffled out to my nook next to the woodstove, wrapped in a fleece blanket like a plague ridden burrito of misery, I soon found myself covered in the Corgi and kittens.
My daughter's big German Shepherd Hound mix sat and stared at me with a look of concern.
*It's okay," I told them in a craggy tone, "I'm only partially dying."
Apparently none of them liked that answer, for then the Corgi threw herself upon me like a errant baguette and another cat tried to crowd onto my lap.
"This is getting ridiculous," I murmured.
The hubs came in with an armload of wood, took one look at my pet covered form, and started laughing at me. (He does this a lot, like daily. I'm offended).
He removed the excess critters, gave me a hug and a steaming hot cup of coffee, and told me to "Just sit there and rest."
"I'm trying!" I whined like a petulant influencer who didn't get a free meal just for existing.
He looked at me with his eyebrows aloft, in that amused way he always does, and at that moment, as if to prove my point, Yaga, Munchkin, and Peaches all jumped into my lap.
I sighed, blew my nose, and leaned back against my chair. Perhaps with plugged ears and insulated by concerned pets I would not be able to hear the call for much longer...
And on that note, I am going to try to go rest now, hope you are all healthy, happy, and realtively excess mucus-free!
I hope you recover soon! My older daughter, her husband, and two little kids were all sick with some gunky germ at the same time. Fevers, headaches, body aches, snot, endless cough, the whole nine yards. I think some of them even finished it off with the runs. (Feel free to skip that part.) The 7-year-old is still coughing, 11 days later, and coughed all over me yesterday. I hope it was a now-germ-free cough.
It's nice of the pets to be concerned, but I know that feeling of too much furry help.
Oh, having littles and both parents down at the same time is the worst! I am so sorry for your daughter and her family! At least with being older and having teens I can somewhat allow myself to convalesce, that doesn't happen with littles around.
And I hope the cough was just a leftover and not a spread, we don't want you dealing with that either!
The pets were sweet, but eventually I had to go hide in my room because it was a little bit too much attention lol!
!PIZZA
Lol!
Your pets look lovely! That cat picture, aw!
Aww thanks! They are pretty great, but there are lots of times I don't use lovely to describe the heathens lol!
!PIZZA
I know that feeling. I have used many choice words to describe mine that are the opposite!
So I might have used some of those choice words to describe some of the feline bastages for licking the frosting off of three cookie bars I had on the counter last night. Good thing they are cute😆
The cuteness just about absolves them. Not when they eat the meat though. Mine have managed to salvage all manner of meat produce that is in various stages of preparation. Nothing makes me rage more!
Oh, meat pirating is an offense of the worst kind! No amount of cuteness can absolve T-bone stealing treachery! I raged by association just reading that, the horror of it!
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We fight the battle with both boys in school and had the ick go through not long ago. Hopefully you can throat punch this ick out of you soon.
Jeff, who my dad worked with at the Napa for years in the town I grew up in, was a big red head biker with a big red beard and I will always remember how he dealt with sickness. He would drink an entire bottle of Nyquil, cover himself in blankets and spend the night sweating the sick out. I've never had the nerve to try it myself.
That's how my husband deals with sickness too! Although he's only been sick exactly three times in the entire twenty-three years we've been married. I mean, I am happy for him, but also slightly jealous lol!
And one of the downsides of not homeschooling any more is the increase in ick infestations in the house. Thankfully both our kids take after their dad immune system-wise so they don't get sick too often, but it's still more than it used to be.
And I will work on throat punching this stuff, but I probably won't take the Nyquil route, seen too many Nyquil chicken memes lol lol!
Hope you all stay free from any plagues for the rest of the year!!! And beyond!
!PIZZA
With such concern and care from your pets, you'll be alright in no time. :) Get well soon!
They definitely don't want me down for too long, I am the giver of the food and treats lol! Thanks so much for dropping by and for the well wishes, I am definitely on the mend!
!PIZZA
!CTP
Hope you'll feel more better! 🤗
Thank you so much! I am feeling much more Kat-like today lol! Hope your day is going splendidly!
!PIZZA
Pets really are great medicine! Hope you are back to 100% in no time!
They really are😊 And thanks OGP, it's so good to hear from ya, I hope all is well back yonder!
!PIZZA
sorry to hear that. I wisgh you'd be okay soon
Thank you so much! I am feeling quite a bit better😊 Hope you are having a fantastic day!!
!PIZZA
I do and I hope you too
Not caught that awfulness, but am dealing with another... At least the pets are offering comfort in their way.
I am sorry to hear that, I hope it doesn't keep you down for too long. And hopefully there are new Christmas movies for you to view!
And that probably doesn't make sense, I am going to blame it on the lingering congestion lol!
!PIZZA
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