In Sickness...

"Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family." - George Bernard Shaw

The last several days have not been easy, or much fun for that matter. There have been runny noses, sneezes, coughs, headaches, congestion, and those are just my ailments. The twins have also been fighting a cold with runny noses, coughs and a low-grade fever. I've been treating my symptoms with over the counter medicine, and Paige and Taylor have been taking an over the counter cold medicine as well as some Children's Motrin for pain relief per their doctor's orders. It has been a little wild at our house because we've been holed up inside pretty much since last Friday. My nerves have been a little frazzled from the combination of sickness and the cabin fever to be very honest and I'm really hoping that our colds dissipate in the next day or so so that we can escape some of the stir-craziness at our house right now. I did manage to take the twins to the park for about a 1/2 hour yesterday to give all of us some fresh air and to give the twins a chance to run off their energy, but today, we ended up staying inside because we all had the runny noses again today. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Since we've been at home more than we usually are the last few days, admittedly the twins have watched far more Noggin' network cartoons than usual. (And, all I can say to that is, thank God for cartoons when mom gets sick...it's the perfect entertainment for toddlers when you are the sick mommy and you are just trying to get well again). I have laid on the couch far more often than usual as well the last few days. (And, all I can say to that is, thank God for a computer and Facebook). Yes, Facebook, it's one of my and my other stay-at-home mommy friends' favorite places to waste time. And, when you're sick, wasting time comes so easily, doesn't it? So I went on Facebook today and chatted periodically with friends as I lay on the couch about the "Why? Who? What? When? Why? Why? Why?" events of our day. Some of the chats were about politics - after all, that's such low-hanging fruit these days and there seems to be something daily worth taking note of; some of the chats were about the mindless happenings in our day - I was naturally lamenting about being sick to my friends, and in turn, some of my friends were commiserating about their days dealing with toddler tantrums at their houses. And, boy, was I glad that Paige and Taylor were slightly under the weather as I too have been under the weather because honestly, I don't know if I'd have the stamina right now to contend with toddler tantrums. Chatting with my other stay-at-home mommy friends today on Facebook was just what I needed. It brought me some inspiration and brought me some changes in my perspective as I laid on the couch for much of the day today trying to nurse myself back to health on what is now day 5 of being sick.

I am really glad I had the opportunity to change my perspective and to take my mind off my throbbing headache, my inability to breathe out of both nostrils, and my smoker's like cough (by the way, I don't smoke, but nonetheless I sound like a smoker these days). Yep, sometimes all it takes is a little reality check to turn one's day around. Sure, going to the park to enjoy these great Fall temperatures today would have been really great, shopping at Target would have been fun too, but it occured to me that this downtime won't be around for long and I might as well try to enjoy it - cabin fever, runny noses, Noggin' cartoon shows and all. Paige and Taylor even seem to enjoy taking medicine along with me. They tell me that they get the pink medicine and I get the red medicine. They also enjoy drinking lots of orange juice with me as we try to load up on the vitamin C. We talk about how we're feeling, how we will get better soon and how we just get to stay at home until we're all better and they seem to like that too.

And, that's when it hit me - a quote by George Bernard Shaw - that seemed to remind me that even in the downtime moments, when none of us are feeling good, and when we feel unmotivated and lethargic as we're fighting off the common cold, even in these circumstances, the times we have as a family are pretty awesome. Here is the quote: "Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family." Of course, Shaw was talking about more lofty ambitions related to family life, rearing children and the contributions family can make to society, but I'm sick people, so just indulge me a little on this one for now. Okay, back to Shaw's quote...how true that sentiment is. As crappy and crummy as I have been feeling the past few days, due to the lingering cold I've had, I am still the luckiest and most blessed person in the whole world. Every day, in sickness and in health, I get a chance to 'bring up a family' and that's a pretty awesome way to live even if, like today, I was living that day on the couch blowing my nose, blowing the noses of my toddler twins, dinking around on Facebook and just trying to make it through the day. Thanks George Bernard Shaw for reminding me of that...