Ah, another week...

...another illness.

Yes, now it's the dreaded stomach bug, and yours truly woke up feeling HORRIBLE at 4:00 am. It lasted until 11:00 am, and I'm thrilled to say that, while I'm in no mood to chow down on anything, I can at least hold down water. Whoo hoo!

Knowing that this is only the start, and others will be dropping like flies this weekend, I thought I better take the time NOW to blog... since I'll probably not have much time later on.

There's been a lot to be thankful for, however!

1. We live in a house with only one bathroom. In all the time we've been here (12 years) we have NEVER all been hit with a stomach bug at the same time. NEVER. When you take a moment and do the math (one toilet+nine people+the desperation from a stomach bug) you'll see why I say that God has been sooooooooooooooo gracious to us.

The addition out in the carport will give us a second bathroom, and some of the pressure will be off. For now, however, God continues to space these things out, so no one is left throwing up in the bushes outside.... or worse.

(gross, I know, but I'm really, really thankful for this!)


2. The kids did a great job taking care of themselves while I stayed locked away in the bedroom. Nine kids flew SOLO for several hours until dh was able to come home around lunchtime. They emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it, cleaned up the kitchen, changed diapers, made beds, started laundry, and made both breakfast and lunch... AND I could hear them saying grace before lunch, and including a "please let Mommy get better quickly" prayer at the end. It was so amazing to know that they could take care of things as well as they did!

(lest anyone think that I have superchildren, let me just state, however, that I did need to TELL them what needed to be done...)


3. Great friends, lots of prayer.


4. A super-wonderful dh who came home from work, took over everything (including homeschooling!) and let me sleep until after 4:00 pm. He also took over dinner duties (frozen pizza, but who am I to complain? The kids loved it!), rented a movie for us (Sound of Music), and helped me fold clothes this evening (because, let's face it... I'm sensing a lot of laundry in my immediate future). I love that man!!!


I wasn't able to do much reading, unfortunately, but that's OK. In terms of what we're suffering here, it's all small stuff. If the worst I have to complain about is a stomach bug, we are so very, very blessed!