January 2019 Ordinary Days

January can sometimes feel like the longest month of the year, and despite our cruise, celebrating our anniversary, and celebrating Rachel, it still felt quite long. And fast at the same time. Isn't time strange?

We always have a lot of reading going on at our house. All of our kids love books and can never get enough reading time. 

 I made a quilt top for Gabe.

 Fun fact: I haven't done anything with this top since I made it. Maybe January 2020.

Gabe discovered out StoneAge Man Riding the Dinosaur costume:

 Rachel drew a lot of pictures.

 We found this little treasure. My kids don't even understand how cool this was once.

 We went to the Dinosaur Museum for Release Night.

Not sure what this is that Rachel did, but it's pretty awesome. 

We finally introduced our kids to Mary Poppins. 

And cute Gabe couldn't quite make it through the day without falling asleep in a random spot. 

Poor little fella. It's hard when you decided to stop taking naps in the afternoon. 

 There was some more dressing up.

 And a few dog-piles. 

And one day, around January 18th or something, I took a shower and then I felt really wiped. Normally, I'm a no-sweatpants except to work-out in or to wear as jammies kind of girl. But on this particular day, I just wanted to be in sweats. Brian was working from home, so I went downstairs in my sweatpants and told him I don't know why, but I suddenly wasn't feeling really well and was just going to take it easy. I ended up getting a really high fever either that night or the next day, accompanied by terrible aches. I spent the next couple of days in my room just as miserable as can be. I tried to stay away from everyone, and I was grateful for the dog to keep me company. 

Well, I had my daughter's birthday coming up and no time for this sickness nonsense. I got back to the groove on Monday, but it was still a struggle. I think I ended up finally going to the doctor on Rachel's birthday, completely convinced that I must have pneumonia due to the fever, chills, and terrible ache in my lungs. However, when the PA listened to my lungs, she didn't think I had anything too serious, just a bad cold, but she gave me a back-up antibiotic to fill if my symptoms didn't go away. 

 So I charged into birthday preparations and such, trying not to be such a wimp. It was a struggle, but I wasn't going to be a wimp about this silly little cold. Finally, after everyone left after Rachel's birthday party and I had a minute to breathe, I thought to myself, I really, really still don't feel well. I should probably fill that prescription.

I spent Sunday in bed and headed into the doctor again on Monday. This time, a chest x-ray confirmed what I knew all along. I had pneumonia. I felt a little better about feeling so wimpy since that was kind of a big deal, and I wish that I'd pushed harder to have them x-ray my lungs when I first went in. Oh well. I spent 2 weeks not being able to do much of anything, and then another two weeks not being able to do anything for half of the day, and then another several months struggling to breathe still.

One day, Julie called while I was laying on the floor, struggling to breathe and chase Gabe. She asked how I was doing, and I told her how I was really struggling to keep up with Gabe because I couldn't breathe. She ended up calling in the cavalry. Lea picked up Michael from school and came and got clothes for Gabe, and then took Gabe, Rachel, and Michael to her house. Gabe went on to spend the night with Nana and Papa (Julie and Kirt for those who aren't as fluent in Saville titles), and Lea kept Michael and Rachel until Brian got home from work. It was such a boon to our sinking ship, and I'll be forever grateful that both ladies acted instead of just sympathethized with me.  

So, in the middle of my resting and recovering from potty-training-and-birthday-planning induced pneumonia, Brian worked from home a lot, the kids, read a lot, 

 And Gabe continued to be Gabe, and other people stepped up to help chase him.