Sickos, Birthday, Weather

We had a round of sickness last week, our first real one this winter.  Everything else has hit one person and we've kept it from the rest using essential oils, but last weekend we got a tummy bug that went through the three littlest girls.  It was really easy on them, though.  Carolyn, who always acts super offended when she gets sick, like "why would this happen to such a sweet person like me???" (see picture below, note the tear drops on her shirt), and with her already meatless body, usually seems to take her longer to feel back to normal again, but she bounced right back.  Crazy what a few drops of essential oil can do.

After that was done, Madeleine started a round of croup.  I have lovely memories of sitting on the porch late at night during the winter with each of the kids.  Coats on, cuddled up in a blanket, we look around and see whatever we can see in the quiet of the night, getting their air pipe opened up again with the cold air.  Madeleine and I noted the icicles on houses, the tracks the kids had made that day in the snow, and counted the street lights we could see.  Crazy what 15 minutes in the cold air can do.

Her cold hung on for several days, though.  She would fall asleep on the couch pretty early (6:30-7ish).  It was sweet seeing all the extra love she was getting.  Lots of kisses on her cheek while she was laying there.

I've been wanting to have a map live on the kitchen table for a while, and I finally did it.  It was funny how quickly everyone set up shop there.  Like it just FELT more educational.

Friday was my birthday - one year older and wiser (which I love! - especially with great examples like those listed in this article).  I didn't get either of the things I asked for - for the kids to be nice to one another and for everyone to come to scriptures with smiles on their faces - but the kids did have me take them to Sam's Club so they could buy me a bag of my favorite favorite treats, which was very sweet of them.  During choir I took some of the kids to the library so Madeleine didn't spread her cold to all the kids in choir, and I spent most of the time chasing her around rather than sitting and reading.  Because of that, when it was time to change choir groups I decided we could just sit in the van and read together.  Madeleine got hit with a big coughing fit (she wasn't coughing much, but when she did it was a fit), and threw up.  Then another fit and again.  And another.  By the last time I had her out of the van, but yah, happy birthday.  After several things combined (partially due to my lack of patience because of a lack of sleep from sick kids), I decided that I was going to try my birthday again the next day.  We were home most of the day and I mainly just cleaned the house, but it was still better than the day before (especially since I also got more sleep!).  We didn't even get to my birthday cake until Sunday, and Melanie did a great job making it.  It expanded so much in the oven it was dripping all over the place.  Angel Food Cake - yum!

The weather has been pretty wild lately.  We've had more snow in the valleys than we've had for several years (just got another 5 or 6 inches yesterday), and last week we had freezing rain which is pretty unheard of around here.  Jamie was out of town during it all, and heard about it before I did.  He was sending me texts telling me to keep Adam home from seminary since the roads were so bad, but I think the main problems were on the freeway so he went.  It was the first day of the new semester and he was getting a new teacher, so I'm glad he was there.  Later in the day we learned more about the effects of freezing rain.  The driveway and porch were covered with a layer of ice.  Pretty crazy stuff.

This was after salt and kicking away at it.  Still a good chunk of ice there.

Huge snowflakes Sunday!

Carolyn's crochet friends were "hanging around" one day.  :)