illness

last week FLU by….

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Yes. I did just write that. LOL.

My husband (a big fan of puns & word play) is clearly influencing the way I think!

But it is true. Unfortunately. The last week has just whizzed by in a blur of stomach flu and laundry.

Last month seemed to be defined by colds and I feel that February will be defined by this. I think we are on the winning side of it now at last and Vince has been able to return to work. I somehow seem to have escaped it all so I could focus on looking after my little family in the best way I can. If that isn’t the power of prayer I don’t know what is!!!

Thankfully there have been moments of reprieve and little highlights of happiness throughout the last week despite the awfulness of battling viruses.

block building

**Cousins playing with building blocks**

haircut

**Emma helping to cut daddy’s hair**

emma on bridge

**Getting some much needed sunshine and fresh air**

Having these bugs going around our house lately has made me think a lot about how I clean our home. I’ve spent so much time using anti-bacterial, germ killing cleaning products there was a point that my hands smelled of chemicals even after I’d washed them.

I figure that this can’t be a good thing. This led me to think about all the chemicals that are used on a daily basis around our home from kitchen surface sprays to fabric softener and after a little reading made me feel really uncomfortable. Not least because most of them live under my kitchen sink which is easily accessible by my mischievous 2 year old! Ack!

So I am in the process of overhauling our store bought cleaner lifestyle. We are going to be making a change for more green, non-toxic and not to mention frugal ways of keeping our home.

I knew there was a silver-lining to this cloud of illness that has been hovering over us this year. Hopefully it will lead to us having a happier, healthier home!

I hope you have been enjoying February where you are 🙂

Naomi x2

A rough start….

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Ok. I’ll be honest I haven’t enjoyed the start of 2014 all that much.

I know it has only been 12 days but seriously, they’ve pretty much sucked in some way or another.

Actually to be fair days 1, 2 & 3 were not so bad and on the 4th we had a lovely family meal to go to with all my cousins and my uncle who lives in Australia but has been visiting the last 2 weeks.

That said on the 4th, Emma caught a little cold, I could feel that I had one on its way… oh and I was in a car crash, with just myself and Emma in the car (a bit a fear I’ve had ever since having her.)

Thankfully, it really was a minor accident and no one was in any way harmed but the shock and adrenalin rush that followed was less than pleasant. Happily, Emma seems to have been oblivious to the whole thing!

Over the next few days Emma’s little cold turned into what I can only term the COLD OF DEATH. Not to be over dramatic or anything…..

But seriously on Tuesday I was feeling pretty rubbish and we took Emma to the doctors because I have never heard a cough so terrible in my life. The doctor did say it’s just a cold/flu/seasonal virus that just has to run it’s course but there’s basically nothing I can do to comfort her. It’s awful, last night nearly a week on I still had to go and calm her out a coughing attack that was pushing 40 minutes at 2am.

I also now have the same cold of death and it is truly the worst cold I think I’ve ever had. I can barely hold a conversation for collapsing into coughs, I have lost all sense of taste and therefore my appetite, I don’t think anyone is getting any sleep for all the coughing going on, and my nose…… Oh. My. Word. I will spare you the details but it is NOT pleasant.

I have even lost the will to crochet. CROCHET! It’s serious people.

I had started the Crochet Mood Blanket 2014 which I was going to share with you last week but I have so little energy and motivation. I am now 4 days behind I think.

On top of that my darling husband who has been fantastic at looking after us sickies, reset his counter to 0, as we say. Vince has epilepsy and he has been on such a good long stretch seizure free. On Thursday evening he had a seizure, on Friday morning he had another seizure. In the nearly 6 years we have been together he has never had seizures in such quick succession, our doctor seems to think we have our cold of death virus to thank for this aswell. Which means any day now Vince will be as sick as us and until this thing has run it’s course we are in a heightened state of epilepsy watch. Which perhaps wouldn’t be quite so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that we have no warning and no idea when a seizure is about to happen. (Read: On edge all the time.)

Of course, while all this happens day to day life still struggles on, meaning Vince must of course work while I have sick toddler with the ‘terrible twos’, and brings all of its daily challenges that suddenly feel so much bigger when there is illness in the mix.

I know that really we are incredibly blessed to lead our lives in the way that we do and that plenty of people are far worse off than us. But for me personally, I can’t tell you how stressful we have found the beginning of 2014. So now I am just willing January to an end so I can start fresh in February.

Anyway, thats pretty much why I haven’t been around here much.

I hope your start to the year has been far better than ours!

Naomi x2