An Inauspicious Beginning

Good Sunday evening. 

Welcome to December. My December is off to a slow start, very slow, in fact, as I've been in bed all weekend. I had a lot of plans for the weekend, including seeing a movie with Trey Friday night, attending my sister-in-law's baby shower yesterday morning, & taking the kids to pick out a Christmas tree with my parents yesterday afternoon. Nada, nada, nada.

My kids didn't miss any of their standing appointments. Thanks to Trey & my mom, Reagan was in attendance at yesterday's baby shower, & both kids were on hand to select Nana & Papa's soon-to-be-delivered Christmas tree. The children are mildly curious about why I drove home erratically from school Friday & collapsed, but otherwise they've had a nice weekend. 

So far my favorite thing about being thirty-seven is the crippling sinus issues that devolve into bronchial/lung/asthmatic issues when you ignore them & try to live your life & take care of your kids & go to work. I'm tempted to relay the sordid details of my health to you, but I don't have the energy, & I suspect the details would bore you anyway. Here's a clipped version: I took one day off work last week & drug myself to the doctor Wednesday morning, something I probably should've done a week or more ago. I was actually running fever. I almost never run fever. I should've maybe suspected it given my sad attempt to shower & make it to work Wednesday morning. I did get in the shower, but soon thereafter discovered I couldn't stand up for long intervals due to exhaustion coupled with a coughing fit coupled with nausea from a sinus headache. I sent a distress signal to Trey letting him know he needed to get the kids to school as I would be toweling off & throwing myself at whomever would see me at the local walk-in clinic.

Around midday yesterday I began to feel a little better. I attribute this in no small part to the fact that I finally got some sleep Friday night. Between coughing fits & sinus medicine that disrupted my sleep, the last few weeks have been reminiscent of the months after my kids were born in terms of sleep duration & quality. Plus, you know, when my kids were born I was younger than I am now, & I wasn't stumbling into the shower at five in the morning to attempt to dress & drive to school & say coherent things. I kept telling myself to get up & make it one more day, to take more sinus medicine & drink some extra coffee & push through to the weekend, but Wednesday morning I hit a wall, almost quite literally as I collapsed in the shower.

I'm taking baby steps health wise. Today was not bad. For example, I suffered only one debilitating coughing fit. My students, whom I plan to see bright & early in the morning, will be glad to read I *think* I am past the part of this illness where I sound like I have Tuberculosis. I was, as I mentioned, in the bed almost all day today. I watched two completely cheesy, predictable romantic comedies on Netflix while I finished grading research papers I should've graded over Thanksgiving Break. Since I know you're curious, I watched Made of Honor (with Patrick Dempsey) & Leap Year (Amy Adams). Both were especially predictable since I've seen them both maybe ten times already.


Moving on. While my December has begun inauspiciously, December always promises merriment, celebrations, & carbohydrates. Trey turns thirty-nine on Wednesday. A look back:

Wednesdays are pretty busy days for us. The kids & I are at school all day, Reagan has piano lessons after school, & then we race home to feed the dog, drop off all our school bags, eat a little dinner, & race back to Bible class. I'm not sure much in the way of partying will happen to celebrate Trey on Wednesday, however the two of us have discussed rescheduling last Friday's cancelled plans for this Friday. We've yet to see Justice League, & I haven't eaten a huge plate of nachos in a good while, so I'll continue to nurse myself back to health this week in preparation for a wild weekend. 

Whatever we do to celebrate Trey, it will happen soon because we are on the clock. Next week Miss Reagan will turn seven on the day her Papa also celebrates his birthday. December is just this unending fireworks display of presents, carbs, & potential stress headaches for me. I should probably begin every December by spending a weekend in bed watching mindless romantic comedies.

I walk away from my weekend in bed cognizant of how much I covet my health & thankful for people like my husband & my mom who alleviated me of my responsibilities to the kids on Wednesday so I could go to the doctor & then made my weekend in bed possible. I am still tired, y'all, believe it or not, but I am not nauseatingly exhausted. I'll take tired. I need to be on my game the remainder of this month if I am to properly celebrate everyone's birthday, lock down the semester at school in an orderly, timely, & adult fashion, make Christmas merry & bright, & finish reading Little Women in time for the greatly anticipated end-of-year book club meeting. 

I'll leave you with a few teasers. First, our house is decorated for Christmas, & one of these days I'll take some pictures to share with you. Second, a few weeks ago my aunt texted me to tell me she had a copy of Little Women that belonged to her grandmother (my great-grandmother). She sent me a few pics & asked if I wanted it. 

The copy she offered me is now in my possession, & it is gorgeous. I will share pics soon, I promise. I will also share some thoughts on the novel as I slowly make my way through it. I don't know if you've ever tried to read it, but Little Women is not a short book. Luckily for me, while plans are not finalized, it looks as if the book club meeting may not be until after Christmas, which means there is a *chance* I might make it through the book before we meet. 

Here's to the first week in December: may the weather be frigid, our turtlenecks cozy, & our sinuses clear.

AZ