Heart at Home

It's not a good day today. I will warn you, gentle Reader, that there may be Too Much Information in this post. Our home is in the grips of a tummy bug, and I am too tired to censor myself right now. Oh, and I may come across as a bit whiny, that's the lack of sleep talking.

Last night at about 11:30, 30 seconds after I started to drop off to sleep, Joshua started vomiting. He sleeps in our bed so that meant that we all had to get up, bathe Josh, hubby also had to shower, bedspread and pillow cases in the washing machine, fresh quilts on the bed, towels under Josh in case of relapse, then try to get to sleep. At 12:30 he threw up again, so we had to rechange his clothes, get fresh towels etc. Then he had really bad stomach cramps. It was heartrending. He wanted to snuggle but the pain was so bad he was grinding his teeth. Even more amazing was that this pain only lasted about 10 minutes, we managed to figure out what the problem was, microwaved a wheat bag, popped it on his tummy and he immediately relaxed and fell asleep. I mean it was instantaneous! I have never seen anyone go from pain to asleep so quickly. So we all finally went off to sleep at about 1 am.

This morning my darling hubby had to leave for work at 6:30am, with suitcase in hand, as he is headed to a conference for a few days. And after only about 4.5 hours sleep. Josh woke to throw up again when hubby got up, so I figured I'd have a cup of tea and kiss hubby goodbye before trying to sneak another hour's sleep. Not happening. ALL the kids woke up, and the day had begun.

Christopher is supposed to be at school doing some very important exams today. In Grade Three all the kids in Australia do these tests to see where each child is at, and assess the general standard of the education. The kids are ranked, and it can make a significant difference in their education careers. But my poor boy, who was actually looking forward to the two days of exams, woke this morning with stomach cramps and was running to the loo all morning. I was not sure if it was nerves or his brother's bug, so we pressed on with getting ready for school. I was agonising over this decision, because if he was genuinely sick it could make a difference to how well he did his exam. We stopped at a bakery just near our house on the way to school. As we walked out Christopher threw up in the parking lot. Sooo, back in the car we got, turned around and went home. I called up the school, explained that Christopher couldn't get to the exam, ascertained that they will let him do it on Thursday instead, and told them that Samara won't be at school either (not driving 15 minutes each way with two vomiting kids in the car, no way uhuh!). The school secretary agreed with me on that one!

So here I am, Chicken Little on TV, two little boys tucked up on separate chairs. It's 10:38 am, not even lunch time, and I am pooped. I have done 3 loads of towels, sheets, quilts, loved stuffed toys in the machine. I am supposed to be writing an English Lit. paper, due next week, but I don't think I can get my brain around the 'isms' today. I need a nap. And it really stinks that noone is coming home to me tonight.

On the bright side, isn't my family beautiful! I love this picture of my gorgeous little family!