Ten Life Lessons that having the Flu will teach you....

Yep. This post is all about the things that the FLU will teach you.

Its not about how to heal yourself, make yourself a miraculous syrup from elderberries that will keep the flu from your door, or a fool-proof way to stop your children from looking at you one minute and then vomiting on your freshly sanitized floor the next.

Its about honest-to-goodness, this-is-our-life-now-for-a-little-while,

TRANSPARENCY

about the sometimes little, 

(and sometimes late) lessons 

that having the flu invade your house teaches you.

As I struggled with the single word I wanted to gear the blog around this year, I realized there was something nagging around the back of my brain that I find it hard to put into words sometimes. 

Here it is in a Nutshell:

No matter where you go, there will ALWAYS be someone smarter than you, brighter than you, funnier than you, better at blogging than you, more invested than you, richer than you, organized than you,

 etc etc etc.

I don't want to be anything but what God has created me to be, so I have to somewhere, shed all that worry about measuring up, and make my posts to you the best that I can in the midst of my crazy life.

It means I need to be transparent.

I am a real mom to three real, crazy, fun-filled and super adorable kids.

I am a mom who is going through the Littles stages after a ten year break. Let's face it, I am a mom who got to sleep in for 5 years of Saturday mornings before the Lord blessed us with two Littles at once.

TWO LITTLES AT ONCE.

Digest that for a moment, and you will see how that can have a nasty learning curve to it at some places along this path we call Life.

Or Murphy's Law.

You Choose. 

Now the last six weeks we have been struggling over and over again with illnesses invading the house.

I have scrubbed, sanitized, broke down and bleached everything.....

tried every homemade remedy I know and have successfully used before.......

just to humbly come on here and admit, you know what, 

 this is where we are and who I am.

I don't consider it failing, I consider it learning.

Just like Benjamin Franklin, you learn from each experience, or you don't, your choice, right?

And these are the lessons I have learned.

I hope it injects a little humor into your day.

Sometimes I even make myself laugh.

:)

Ten Life Lessons Having the Flu 

Will Teach You

1. No matter HOW SICK YOU ARE, someone always needs you, RIGHT NOW, and will ask you to help them, even if it means you need to crawl to get there. Imagine all the things Mommies are asked to do (daddies too) and you can see the range of issues in life this covers.

Nothing..........NOTHING could possibly be left off this list.

2. Allowing your children to watch a continuous loop of the Disney/Pixar "Cars" movie for 24 hours is acceptable if it allows you to lay passed out on the floor, with a bucket near you as long as you can see them when alert and able. Oh, and if you position your body in front of the door so they can not escape. Be sure to groan periodically, enough to keep them wary that you still are alive and watching them. Kick once in a while too, and they will stay out of reach. Throw crackers randomly and you have a complete winning strategy that buys you a few extra hours or so.

3. A Case of toilet paper is cheap entertainment for said children during the time period of which #2 refers to as long as two rules are followed: it does not plug the toilet, and/or it ends up being used later. Of course, the second part only applies if it was used for decorating the room the children were confined in, not if used during the first rule.

4. Popsicles can and should be considered proper food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, when needed for fluid retention in sick children, and sanity retention in sick mothers of sick children. If you have enough energy to make your own popsicles of awesome nourishing herbal teas and your children suck them down instead of throwing them across the room, I thumb my nose in your direction. :)

5. Eating food of any kind, no matter the mess, in a previously off limits room is acceptable as long as you can beg, borrow, or steal the neighbors vacuum and carpet cleaner later.....and as long as it gives you another few hours to rest. Who cares about the crunch when you step on the carpet? If you die, at least your children will not starve for a few days.

6. No matter how sick you are, no matter how tired you are, when you child vomits from halfway across the room, you can, in one single leap, grab a bowl, and make one giant step to collect it before it hits the carpet again. Nah, strike that. If you can get up, and clean up the mess before the same child repeats the action, then you are doing good.

7. No matter how many towels/undershirts/PJs/washcloths/bottles of sanitizer/bars of soap/trash bags/cases of TP/blankets/sleeves of crackers/etc that you have..... 

it will simply not be enough. 

See lesson #2 as this could cause issues.

8. No matter how many times the floor is cleaned....it will immediately need to be cleaned again. This same rule applies to clean bedding, and beds, couches, and anything else within spewing distance.This lesson also applies personally. If you take a shower to wash out or off the smell of something disgusting, ten minutes later it will happen again.  

Learn to live with it. 

It happens to the kids, too.

9. It is totally acceptable to shove your husband off the bed at 2 am and screech: "She's throwing up again!!!", thereby watching him run like a maniac around the bed and out the door, while you put your head in the pillow and try to ignore the crying, muttering, and sounds of retching coming from the room across the hall. Better yet, you know you have a winner when he doesn't even think anything of it, just knows you have been super sick and understands 

you. simply. can't. do. it. again.

10. There is no magic cure that works for everyone. You can know everything there is to know about treating your family naturally, and still not be able to completely accomplish keeping everyone healthy at one time, and do it all right, all the time.  

And that is okay.

Just a glimpse into our lives the last six weeks.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I will be back with a list of things that absolutely DID help us through this time, and I hope will help you, whether you are in the midst of the flu, healing from it, or doing your best to avoid it this year as many are terribly sick from it.

Many blessings to you and yours

Heather

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