Ok, I don't mind telling you that I hate, hate, hate winter.  I am one of those people who mourn the shortening of the daylight hours and sees no reason for the season following Christmas.  This year my angst is well founded.  Mark came home from school three weeks ago with a fever.  I got the call from the school at noon telling me that he had fallen fast asleep in a snow bank in the school yard. When I picked him up he was burning with a fever that had not even remotely presented itself at the start of the day.  Since then he subsequently infected both his sister and his Mother with the flu plague that he picked up there.  This has been one of the worst cases of flu that we have had to weather together and it has been no fun at all.  Two sick kids with a Momma coughing hard enough to induce a stroke has tested me to the limits.  Three weeks of this plague and I am still coughing but hopefully seeing light at the end of the tunnel.  Thank-goodness Daddy is holding his own.  I think he has been staying in the barn as much as possible to avoid exposure.  So far his strategy is working!  So here are some shots of what two sick kiddos look like.  I dare not show you the Momma because that would just be too scary for anyone to see!

 Watery eyes, runny noses, fever and cough...not much fun.
Lucky for them the worst is slept through with lots of medication on board.

 A few moments of brave faces, but mostly just needing to sleep and sit on Momma's lap.
Momma's heart breaks to see them sick but thankfully they are back on the rails again.  Mark was able to go to school this past week.  When this happens everything grinds to a halt.  No suppers made, no routine, no schedule to follow.  Appointments are cancelled, groceries are left to Daddy to pick up the essentials and you just go into survival mode.  As a Momma all you can do is sit in the chair with them and let them fall asleep in your arms.  Even when your own body aches and your fever threatens to have your blood boil inside your veins...you sit with two overheated children in your arms and pray for the fevers to break.  I cannot even imagine what it would have been like in the past where each event like this could potentially end tragically.  Thank goodness for modern medicine, vaccinations and the expectation that this too will pass.  Never, never will I take it for granted that my children are safe because science has found the cure for most of the deadly childhood illnesses.  Everyone do you hear me...VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN...it is the only assurance that you have done your best to protect them and others from harm...to risk otherwise is irresponsible and could be fatal.  In the end you wait and pray.  Pray and wait.  And then one day you realize that the fevers are gone and the smiles are back and everything is good in your world again.  When that happens you send up another prayer, one of thanks and gratitude that your world is back in order.