Illness and shopping and accidents, oh my!

The girls and I dropped DH off at work today so we could take the van to get groceries and school supplies.

They had hardly coughed at all this morning, so I thought we were over the worst of it. Now I regret taking them out and possibly spreading germs, even though we really needed to do some of that shopping and we had a great time.

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We met our friend "Morning" at Trader Joe's to pick up a few groceries, then headed to Wal-Mart and Goodwill to hunt for school supplies and a few other things we needed. We got all the important things like crayons, notebooks and pencil sharpeners, and the girls were so excited about getting to pick out those things (they chose Disney Princess folders, of course. For everything else we stuck to the cheap plain-colored things, but they still had fun choosing the colors.

At the Goodwill we found the perfect school desk for AJ, for only $4, and two child-sized desk chairs for $2 each. We also bought some bedding (including a Hello Kitty comforter, which M&M is overjoyed about) and some other things we needed, all at 99 cents a pound. I love the Goodwill outlet--so unpredictable, and we often make some really good finds.

I had to uninstall the older girls' car seats and shoehorn all three into the middle seat in order to get everything into the van. It's a tight fit, but it works. The girls were so patient and cooperative while we were shopping--I had several people tell me they were the most well-behaved kids they'd ever seen. That's always nice to remember next time one of them throws a tantrum in a public place. :)

Since we already had a desk for AJ, all we need now is to set up the Rubbermaid drawers for craft supplies and maybe a small shelf, and we'll have our school corner all arranged in the bay window attached to the kitchen eating area. I'll post photos when it's ready.

When we got home, my key got stuck in the front door. The lock has been sticking, but this time the key was so stuck that I couldn't get it out even after I took the deadbolt apart. My dad (bless him!) had to come over and fix it with some silicone spray so we could lock the door tonight.

I've been having a marvelous time reading teacher's manuals, buying curriculum, arranging the schoolbooks on a shelf and working out a daily school routine and lesson plans. I still have a lot of work to do, but it's coming along nicely and we should be ready to start by the end of August with no problem.

Meanwhile, the girls are so excited that they are begging to do school NOW. I'm having to come up with all kinds of pre-school activities and art projects for them to do. Yesterday we read quite a bit, played some games with numbers and phonics, did some pre-writing worksheets, and the girls memorized the first point of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, refreshed their memory on Gen. 1:1, started memorizing Gen. 1:2-3, and (at their request, after all that!) began learning a couple of poems and traditional prayers.

The girls both really enjoy memory work, and it seems to come so easily to them. I envy AJ's ability to remember things so well after going over them just a few times. Names, scientific facts, phonics rules, Bible passages, stories and songs alike, she seems to be rather gifted at grasping and retaining things she hears or sees.

So, those of you who read my blog and see us in real life, next time you see the kids you can ask them "What is the chief end of Man?" and they'll tell you, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

This afternoon and evening the girls' coughs have been worse again. They don't cough often, but when they do it's a long-drawn-out coughing spell that ends in sharp gasping and choking sounds. I was really worried about Baby E a couple of times, watching closely to see if she was turning blue when the coughing spells seemed to go on an especially long time. The older two girls are having pretty bad coughing spells in their sleep as I write, too.

I found out this afternoon that DH's sister's family (who thought they were having lung problems from being in a sandstorm just before leaving their home in an Arab country to come here for the summer) has pertussis. The one-month-old baby is very sick and has been hospitalized. We're quite concerned for them, especially the baby, and are keeping them in our prayers.

That makes two families we've spent time with recently that have been exposed to whooping cough--both of whom were at M&M's birthday party at the park. So I'm trying to give a heads-up to all the families who were there to be aware in case anyone in their family gets a persistent cough.

One of the families in our home group, who we spend a lot of time with, has a family member they are with almost daily who was sick for a month before he was confirmed as having pertussis, and our friends' kids have been coughing more mildly for some time. As is common, the people with possible and confirmed pertussis in their family have all been vaccinated--even the young children who should still have immunity from their vaccinations.

Everybody in these two families (whether vaccinated or not) and anyone they've had close indoor contact with for 6 hours or more is on antibiotics for the treatment and/or hopefully prevention of pertussis. SIL's family is under quarantine.

So I decided I'd better get my kids checked out. They have a doctor's appointment after my physical therapy appointment in the morning. It's a doctor in the practice that I don't think we've ever seen before, since our pediatrician isn't in the office tomorrow. I'm expecting that the doctor may pressure us about Baby E's vaccinations (the other two girls are fully vaccinated) and will probably suggest putting us all on preventative antibiotics.

I'm trying to find out if there are any effective options for treating pertussis other than antibiotics. My main concern with antibiotics is that I'm dangerously allergic to almost every antibiotic ever invented, and developed the allergies after being on antibiotics a lot as a kid. Since my kids (and especially Baby E) are allergy-prone, I don't want to put them on antibiotics unless it's absolutely necessary, and then we'll want to watch them closely for reactions.

I'm feeling quite a bit better today. I had quite a significant improvement yesterday afternoon. I think it's probably not a coincidence that I spent some time in focused prayer during the girls' naps, and also my women's pastor brought me before their prayer ministry yesterday afternoon. Almost immediately after that I noticed a significant improvement in my outlook and energy level, and especially in my ability to cope.

Also, though, I found out that the WP's family and a number of other people in the church have had the same symptoms, and now my DH is coming down with it. So I'm guessing it's probably some kind of virus that I've had.

Although I'm sorry that other people are getting it too, it's actually a relief to know it's something temporary that's not too serious. My back still hurts a lot (especially after lifting things in and out of the van and moving the kids' car seats to fit the desk in the back--that was probably a really dumb thing to do), but pain without so much fatigue I can handle. I'm feeling so much more clear-minded, energetic and functional. It's not debilitating any more.

As I was writing this post, an ambulance and fire truck pulled up to my neighbor's house. Mr. B two houses away had a seizure and will likely be in the hospital for a few days, but should be OK.

It's so nice to live in a neighborhood where when something happens everyone is immediately out in the street asking if there's anything they can do to help. The last neighborhood we were in, when an ambulance showed up at a house a couple of blocks away I think I was the only neighbor who went over to check on them. Here, everyone who was home was outside, concerned and wondering if they could help.

Among others, we're also keeping in our prayers my DH's mom, who is in severe pain with ankle and knee issues and my aunt (Dad's sister), who had a stroke a few days ago and is in the hospital. I hope everyone recovers quickly and fully.

Oh, also DH got his car back today with the new water pump and the new casing for the water pump installed. But now the engine is making funny noises and something seems off with the idle, so he'll have to take it back in tomorrow. His nearly brand-new computer also died--the power supply went out and apparently shorted out something in the hard drive as well.

We haven't heard back from the insurance company that's supposed to be covering the van's bumper repairs, so I need to remember to call them again in the morning.

What an unpredictable adventure is this thing we call life.