from the infirmary

we began last week with my suffering with severe allergy attacks which basically had me out of commission. i had to leave school one day and one night sienna saved the day and pulled together dinner and got herself and her brother ready for bed because mom was just to sick to function.

just as i was coming around on wednesday, jasper came down quite suddenly with a nasty virus that has wiped out half of our class. this virus is nasty and comes with a high fever and an awful cough. jasper had a fever of 104 for 5 consecutive days!

by friday night his dreadful virus had developed into pneumonia. he was such a sick little boy. (the above photo was taken during the first days of the virus before pneumonia hit.) his pediatrician was kind enough to come into the office on saturday to see him. within hours of leaving his office, sienna was feeling dreadful herself with a head cold!
it had been rainy and overcast here for the past two weeks (hence mom's severe allergy issues). wouldn't you know the sun came out and the temps climbed to the high 70s when we were all feeling too poorly to go out and enjoy it! a similar fate befell us last spring when they had chicken pox back to back. i remember the forsythia's were in bloom then, too.so we had snippets of sun time on the back porch. smoothies loaded with fruits and veggies, mom's sun hats, and their rocking chairs made for a lovely little stint in the great outdoors.
he actually smiled!! i couldn't resist breaking the camera out when these dappled bits of sunshine lit up his face. to my surprise he perked up a bit and became playful with the camera. this is the first time i had seen this sweet smile in five days. you can see how sick he is but his glow is starting to peek through again. he has such a bright spirit that it is such a shock to see him feeling so forlorn for so long.for five days i was by his side. he needed me to wipe his nose every five seconds, hold the water cup to his mouth, feed him the bits of food he would eat, carry him to the bathroom and hold him up while in there, and carry him back and forth from the bed to the couch. on top of that, there was the endless battle with his cough. trying different techniques and remedies again and again trying to get him some relief, especially through the night. we did not sleep for more than a wee bit here and there for several nights.

so yesterday when they were finally both at rest (both with fevers), this mama should have collapsed into sleep herself but instead i tiptoed outside to soak in a little more sun. that's when i spotted the violets. i guess they have been out for several days (according to sienna) but this weary momma had no idea of such! so i grabbed this cute little teacup i thrifted with just this very thing in mind and ran out to the yard. i dug up this sweet little violet and planted it with some moss and brought it inside to greet them when they woke.
sienna spent a couple of stretches out there doing some sewing. can't show you what she's working on here just yet though!
when she went out in the earlier part of the day, it was all sunhats and being mindful of heat exhaustion. after her nap, our porch was shaded so she bundled up with her fairy quilt and finished her stitching. she relearned the back stitch and was very proud of her work, indeed!

today we woke up to a fever free household!!! we actually slept for a four hour stretch last night. i showered today. jasper is walking and feeding himself again. they played together! sienna will return to school tomorrow. jasper will continue to cycle a bit as he recovers. he will have some more feverish times and we will be very mindful of taking things slow. i have read that the recovery time for pneumonia can be long and that the cough can take up two months to disappear!

here's to our increasingly good health,
rae