The Sun Came Out Today...

...literally and figuratively.

After a rainy morning and some recent cloudy days, it was nice to see the sun shining brightly this afternoon. I was sitting on the couch, reading Christmas books to Josiah and David when I happened to look up and notice that even though it wasn't raining on the front side of the house, it was raining behind the house...but the sun was still shining. Josiah immediately piped up and said that there should be a rainbow. I got up from the couch to look towards the east; and sure enough, there it was--just a piece of one, but enough to brighten our day and put excitement in our hearts.
The recent clouds outside have only mirrored the clouds inside, it seems, as our family has gone through the longest, most drawn-out spell of sickness we've ever had to deal with. I'm grateful that none of the illness was truly serious--when dealing with sickness, I always think, "It could be so much worse"--but for several weeks, it seems like we've been passing the germs back and forth to each other, but never getting rid of them. As soon as one person gets better, another person (or two or three) gets worse.

First, it was Josiah and my mother and me.

Then, it was Tobin.

Next, David.

All three boys.

Jeff. (Don't miss his comment on this post about "baptizing the restaurant toilet with vomit"...he has a way with words, doesn't he?) :) He even stayed home from work yesterday, something that he "never" does.

And all along the way, I've had plenty of days of simply not feeling great.

If you'd only read our blog during the past month, you'd think we were a sickly family. I'm surprised I don't have health "experts" emailing me to tell me that if we'd just "take more vitamins...grow our own wheat...never eat at McDonald's again...remember to make the boys wash their hands every single time after feeding the calves...avoid dairy products completely...(you fill in the blank)...and especially, never eat a chocolate raisin from Costco again!" we'd be fit as a fiddle! Actually, we're usually quite healthy, believe it or not. We've just had a streak of sickness that has lasted longer than we would have liked (or would have even thought possible, a month ago!).

Today was a good day though, with all five of us feeling basically well--hooray for that! In fact, I've gone almost 24 hours without having to clean up anyone's diarrhea (David being the latest offender in that category). I even had a larger-than-normal-for-this-stage-of-pregnancy portion of energy today. Life is looking up! :)

Thankfully, my spirits have been good this whole week though; and I think a huge factor in that is my surrender to it all. When person after person kept getting sick, I sort of just threw up my hands, plopped on the couch, and laughed at how ridiculous it all was. That ability to not fight it but to laugh at it goes a long way in preserving a joyful heart. :)

Another thing that helped was cancelling all the invitations we had extended (or were thinking about extending) to people to come over for dinner or whatever. Since we're not having anyone over, if the house still has a faint smell of vomit, if the dust on the unvacuumed floor is an inch thick, if dear old FlyLady hasn't been seen around these parts for weeks, it's really OK. Really.

I still have a week and a day until any guests are due to arrive for the holidays; and that's plenty of time to air out the house, try to figure out how to use the vacuum again, and even do a Swish & Swipe or two!