A few days of idle, but not for long...

This blog has been idle, and you know what they say about idle blogs...well, I dunno. Nothing devilish I hope. Not only has my blog been idle, but my dirty dishes, my mop and pail, my ever-filling hampers, and a whole lotta other stuff.


It's funny that my last post was about walking miles in any direction, as I've been particularly challenged in even walking downstairs over the past few days. I don't know if I've become particularly weak and kvetchy over the past year, or if the germs here really are stronger, or just different. This is twice now in a year, that I've been literally knocked on my back with some kind of illness. The first time was back in the winter when I had a terrible flu that lasted ten days, and took a full month until I was completely over it. This time it was a "simple" bout of strep, but seriously, there were moments that I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I'm not kidding. 


I spent most of three days in my bed whimpering in pain. Even with 4 (ok, 6, but don't tell anyone) Advil, I couldn't get my fever under 103 or my throat to stop feeling like someone was jamming a butcher knife down it. Even the unshakable PH looked kind of ruffled when I cried for him to take me to the emergency room and please, please get me an IV. Is that normal for strep? Is that normal for anything short of say, one's last dying moments?


Anywhoo, long story short I got a phone call from the doctor's office today telling me I have a strain of strep that does not respond to antibiotics and I have to wait for it to go away on it's own. Doctors and nurses alike out there, have you ever heard of such a thing?? I thought by definition strep is bacterial? Whatever. 


Thank g-d my strength is coming back, and I can stop texting my sisters goodbye messages. 


That's about it, just a quick update to let you know where I've been, and no more. Because you know what they say: A functioning blog means everything else around me is falling apart. 

Sick

I need a delete button for this week. Or at least a do-over. I don't know how it happened, but I have managed to lose almost an entire week of my life. There I was enjoying myself last shabbos at a friend's house for lunch and the next thing I knew, I was shivering with chills and a fever after my shabbos nap. It's got to be the flu, with the intensity that it's hit us; but I wouldn't really know because I literally cannot get out of bed and get myself to the doctor to find out. I can only write now sitting up halfway in bed high on my favorite cocktail of 3 Advil, 3 Extra Strength Tylenol and lots and lots of decongestant.  BAW has been the lifesaver, once again, admirably balancing work and a household full of sick and well people. 

Besides me being sick, B and R were hit really badly, too. B is hopefully on his way back in to school tomorrow after a FULL week of being out. R seems to be doing a little better, but his asthma seems to exacerbate everything. Just yesterday N came down with a whopping case of...whatever this is. I am not totally a delinquent mother; while I was in different states of unconsciousness, BAW did take R and B to the doctor, who told them it is just a virus. Just wondering...do they diagnose anything here, or is it always "just a virus"?


In addition to the flu, every phone call seemed to bring bad news (most of which I can't get into), TPH is super stressed, and one thing after another seemed to go wrong. Then came the phone call today from our landlords: they are selling the apartment and we can't renew our contract for next year. It's not terrible news (I've been saying from day 1 that I can't wait to get out of here) but it's another move, and not on our time, on someone else's. 


That's my rant for today. Just a bad week. My friend says I need a chat with the Boss, and should head to the Kotel, which I will do just as soon as I get downstairs without stopping to take a nap along the way.

Mazel Tov SM and EM!

We get a Mazel Tov! My brother "SM" got engaged to an amazing, sweet, beautiful and wonderfully kind and sensitive girl, with great priorities. (Did I miss anything? What more could there possibly be? She really is an amazing chickita!)


And as happy and excited as we are for the couple, it's hard to be so far away. BH we at least know her, so that makes it much easier. IY"H some of us will make it for the wedding, but so begins the next string of smachot that we'll be absent for :(. Needless to say, the past day or two I've been feeling kind of distant. 


Then Hashem sent me something to make me smile tonight, a reminder . BAW was saying Shema and doing the bedtime rituals when he urgently called me upstairs. I dropped everything and ran up, worried. He was laying in bed with S and R and told me to listen to S sing his daily davening. S started again for me in a sweet 6 year old sing-song:

משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם, ותן טל ומטר לברכה על פני האדמה. אבינו מלכנו שלח רפואה שלמה לכל חולי עמך ישראל. והחולה שירה בת מעיין. והחזר את חיילי צה''ל (צבא הגנה לישראל) הביתה בשלום. ואת החיל החטוף גלעד בן אביבה שליט 

שיר המעלות אשא עיני מעין יבוא עזרי

"Mashiv HaRuach U'Morid Ha'geshem, v'tein tal u'matar l'vracha al pnei ha'adama. Avinu malkeinu shlach refuah shelaima l'chol amcha yisrael, v'lichol cholei amcha yisrael, v'hachola Shira batMaayan. V'hachzeir et chayalei tzahal hganah l'yisrael habayta b'shalom, v'et chayal hachatuf Gilad ben Aviva Shalit.

Shir Hamalot Esa einay...."

"Make the wind blow and the rain fall, and give dew as a blessing on the whole ground. Our Father, our King, send a full recovery to all of the sick of Am Yisrael, and to the girl Shira Bat Maayan. And return the soldiers of Israel to their homes in peace, as well as the soldier Gilad ben Aviva Shalit. 

Shir Ha'Maalot...."

How beautiful is that? These 6 year old boys are davening every day for the return of Gilad Shalit. I don't know who the "cholah" is, and would love to hear if anyone knows who she is. I did a search but didn't come up with much. 

So while it doesn't make me miss my family and the current simcha any less, it's just another gentle reminder that we are here, and it is good.

It is very, very good.