We Get Knocked Down, But We Get Up Again...

In what may be the worst winter for us in five years for illnesses, I find myself utterly exhausted from caring for sick children and a sick spouse, all while trying to do my own recovering.

In the last few weeks, we've hosted a stomach bug, a nasty cold, and then the flu.  Every time we all appeared to be recovering nicely, we'd get hit with the next illness.  Cleaning the house has fallen by the desperate wayside, I may have forgotten how to cook (we've been between reheated soups and total lack of appetites), and the bathrooms...  Sweet merciful Lord, my bathrooms...

My laundry managed to continue to be washed and dried!  Folding, however, is another story.

Today, for the first time in nearly a month, I have felt well enough to make things happen.  The living room is looking picked up and vacuumed.  I swept the kitchen floor and did the dishes.  I may even put away our Christmas decorations later tonight or tomorrow.

Since my husband managed to miss the stomach bug, he went on a rather shocking book purge.  If you know my husband, you know he's a total bibliophile.  His books have been the one thing that have been non-negotiable in all aspects of cleaning, moving, redecorating, etc.  But he told me late last week that he was going to box up about half of them in preparation of doing our built-in bookshelves project (which has been moved to sometime this fall or even next year, depending on when we can get our fencing installed and new floors to replace this awful, awful carpet).  He then followed through!  Half of his books are in boxes, waiting for the pallet in the basement to dry out before being moved down there!  It has streamlined and simplified the living room in such a way that looks absolutely wonderful!

My sewing/craft desk, in contrast, looks like a few shelves peeking out from underneath a gigantic pile of yarn/fabric/notions/paper vomit.  Since I have moved my sewing machine to the laundry closet (it's easier for me to spread out and work on projects at the dining table), I'm thinking of converting that desk into a place for the kids to work on school stuff or their own little crafting and building projects.  We'll see.

Like I said, I just got back into the basics of keeping a a home post-illness marathon, so my project list is strictly a list.  Nothing more.

Yet. :-)