sickness, Rorschach, and good friends

{Eva reading to her babies.}

So all three of my kids are currently sick. Max and Lucas were home from school the entire week, but they were pretty happy playing together. Eva's the one who gave me a major case of cabin fever -- it's hard for me to get anything done even when she's healthy, but when she's sick, well... let's just say I really look forward to naptime and bedtime!

I took Eva to the doctor on Tuesday (bad cold + impetigo), Lucas on Wednesday (double ear infections); now they're both on antibiotics. It's looking like I will have to take Max in tomorrow since he has had a nasty cough for 10 days now and I really need him to be able to go to school! (Jill says we should have a punch card for co-pays at the pediatrician's office, considering the frequency with which we have to go there -- or at least a fast-track through the waiting room. I couldn't agree more.)

Marc suggested I go out and take a break yesterday. I resisted at first, knowing that I had things I needed to get done at home, but then I relented because I really did need to get out of the house. Jill happened to call right as I was getting ready to leave and asked if I needed a break. Serendipity! We met at Target, ate a leisurely lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and did a little shopping at Archiver's. It was an afternoon of much-needed rejuvenation. (Jill documented the outing with her camera, since we rarely go out together except on our birthdays.)

Marc has been a little under the weather and I wasn't feeling well today either (though it may be attributable to the fact that I didn't get much sleep last night), so we all ended up staying home from church. I think even the kids were feeling a little oppressed by staying in all week, but that wasn't changing today so they had to get creative. Eva started a new game of getting in bed and reading to her dolls (more often having one of us read to all of them).

Max and Lucas decided to play a new RPG (Max/Lucas-speak for role-playing game). Are you ready for this? They built one of their fort towns in the family room and Max set up shop as a psychoanalyst. (Apparently Max was reading in the encyclopedia this morning, came across an article on mental illness, and was very intrigued. Should I be worried??) He made his own Rorschach test and administered it to Lucas, then me, then Marc. We had so much fun comparing answers that Lucas decided to make his own set -- they each made about 8. Here are a couple of samples, in case you would like to weigh in on what YOU see:


I've gotta say, I never saw that game coming!

Marc went in for the last hour of church and two hours after to work on his financial clerk stuff. (They won't give him an assistant and no one else knows how to do it, so he has to go in even if he's feeling sick.) While he was there, my VT companion and one of my visiting teachers asked him how we were doing, as they noticed we were absent. He reported that everyone was sick. Imagine my surprise when there was a knock at the door -- before church was even over -- and my companion handed me this:


One of the cards she made in my card class last week with a very nice note, and a homemade frozen lasagna! Then, about an hour and a half later, she returned with a dish of vegetables and a plate of warm cookies, and my neighbor and visiting teacher came over with homemade bread, clementines, and flowers.


Well, I have to say, I had been feeling a little down again, but this show of kindness really lifted my spirits!

Hopefully, after tomorrow we will be finished with doctor visits for awhile, the kids can return to school soon, and life can return to a bit more normalcy. But for now, I am so grateful for my great friends and neighbors.