Rough Start To 2022

 

Our one and only hike we managed in January 2022, despite having plans to do about a dozen more.

Thirty one days into the new year and we've been through the wringer. At least it's felt that way. The hits have kept on coming. We started the first day of the new year out excellent, with cheap champagne toasts at midnight and sledding with family during a snowstorm. We had one solid, regular work week before things took a turn.

I developed a cold. Actually, symptoms were of a sinus infection, cold, and influenza all put together. I was miserable. Being the proactive person I can be, I immediately tested for Covid and went about life when I tested negative. Then, we learned our entire family had a possible Covid exposure, so we all tested. Again. Immediately after receiving negative results, and still having symptoms myself, we were notified we had a close contact Covid exposure. So, back to testing we went. For those keeping track, this was two plus weeks spent in quarantine due to possible exposures.

But we live in Iowa, where quarantines aren't a thing, so we had to manage as best we could. It basically meant I could run my business, my husband could go to work, but since we aren't assholes, we stayed at home to prevent any spreading we could possibly do. Then, just as we were out of our Covid quarantine bubble, we were hit with the stomach flu. This adventure has lasted just over a week for us and hit every single member of our family, including the dog, plus shut down daycare. 

Now, on this last day of January, I'm slowly losing my mind. We have done absolutely nothing with this month other than drinking an insane amount of teas, watching shows that I'd never in a million years usually watch (Virgin River and Emily In Paris tops that list), and have seen zero friends or family. Next weekend will be the first weekend since Christmas I'll get to spend in person with a few of our family members and it's for a funeral. 

If I ever find myself homeschooling my children again, I'm revisiting this to remind myself to book a cabin in a faraway place for the entire month of January. That way, at the very least, I can have interesting Instagram pics to look back on and not the same dust covered  TV stand I've capture over and over again just to prove I've watched entirely too much TV this month. Through all of this, I've managed to complete dry January, but let's be real. It's likely because I've either been too sick to drink, too stressed to remember to grab a drink, or too zen from all of the tea drinking. Here's a hint, it's not the third option. 

All I'm saying for this month is, maturely: January can suck it. 

Puke-aggedon 2022

Playing games with puke bowls, crackers, and Sprite (or Coke, if you're like two of the minis).

One thing we're dealing with this winter of "fun" illnesses such as influenza, colds, and the stomach flu. We've definitely not had the stomach flu hit our house since the pandemic began. We may even be reaching the three year mark. Or there's a good possibility I'm just blocking a stomach flu event out because they can be rather horrific. There's always at least one kid who can't make it out of their bed in time, another who makes it into the bathroom, but not to the toilet, and another who just sits and cries wherever they are, puking their guts out. All while mom tries not to puke herself. As I said, rather horrific.

But there's this thing called time that was on our side for Puke-aggedon 2022. Time made me forget the really, really not fun parts of having a house full of pukers. Time made the minis older, which means all but one made it to the toilet in time (and the child that didn't voluntarily cleaned up his mess without even being told to!). I'm not saying Puke-aggedon 2022 has been easy by any means. It's now been six days and this bug is STILL making its way through our house and daycare. However, unlike previous times when the stomach flu has graced us, this time seems to be easier. 

It actually even started off in a funny way. Setting the scene for last Friday night, the oldest was cooking dinner while I was packing bags for a weekend of hiking. We were supposed to leave early the next morning to hike a frozen waterfall in Minnesota. The middle and youngest minis were playing together. Everyone had been fine all day long. As I loaded a bag into the car, the youngest mini came into the kitchen with a smile on her face.

"Mom, Harrison puked and he didn't make it to the toilet."

"Wait, what?" Given the smile on her face I wasn't sure if I could take her seriously. I didn't know what to expect when I walked towards the bathroom. I was greeted by a child throwing up in my bathroom sink because he had indeed missed the toilet.....because the lid to the toilet was closed. He had assumed it was open when he ran in. You can imagine the mess that happened when he puked on a closed toilet lid. As I took in the scene in front of me, my only thought was, 'this kid was fine 10 minutes ago.' As with any other mom, I rolled up my sleeves and got to cleaning, while the mini who was not feeling good at all came into the bathroom and cleaned alongside me. It really was a sweet moment even if it had to happen with the smell of vomit wafting through the air.

Not twenty minutes later, the youngest mini came up to me again. "I think I should get my puke bowl." I'm so glad she did because she needed it not two minutes later. At this point, I was perplexed. I sincerely forgot how quickly stomach bugs can hit because I began questioning the two sick minis:

"Did you eat bad food that was sitting in Elizabeth's room? Do you have anything like that in there? Did you drink something you shouldn't have? Did you get into paint chips?" Upon hearing the paint chips questions, because sometimes momma tends to overreach with some things, my husband took over the sick minis, assuring me it was likely just the stomach flu. Actually, his exact words were, "where the hell do we have paint chips just around our house?"

It's been real "fun." I can't say I've missed having germs run through our house and daycare, but I guarantee my children will always remember me asking them if they happened to eat paint chips because I didn't quite want to believe that the stomach flu was making a comeback in our household.

Thank goodness it was a quick bug. Less than forty eight hours later and these two were sipping smoothies after sleeping A LOT all weekend long.