Sick Days

Really, the title of this post should be Sick FOR Days, or maybe the clever quip, Sick Daze. You might recall back here on my birthday when I mentioned that Rylie was sick and that we would be postponing our plans for my birthday date. Well, we are still postponing, because we are all sick around here. The day after my birthday we headed to the mountains, and for the three days we were there, we all felt fine. Since arriving home however, something has hit us with a vengeance. It seems to hit one of us every other day. One day, Rylie and I will feel good, but Daddy will feel sick. Then the next day, Daddy and Rylie will feel good, but Mama feels sick. We've been bobbing along like this for a solid week now, trying to keep our heads above water and warding off cabin fever.

On Friday night, I sent Ryan a text and asked him when he would be home from work because I was feeling quite dreadful. He arrived soon after, but not without stopping at the store to pick up some provisions. He came home with no less than: 1 package Oscillococcinum, 1 bottle Chestal Cough Syrup, a bucket of Dead Sea salts, 2 bars of Dead Sea salt soap (one for face, one for body), a huge ginger root, the most recent issue of Mental Floss, and a pizza. That night I had the cough medicine, made some fresh ginger tea, soaked in the sea salts, ate the pizza, and we watched Into The Wild. I haven't felt that sick, the kind of sick where I could not do anything but rest, in a very long time. On Saturday, I woke up feeling loads better.

I have been drinking a ton of Emergen - C and ginger tea. I peel and grate fresh ginger and then I press it against a fine mesh sieve to extract just the juice. I mix a 1/2 teaspoon or so in with water that is just below boiling. The tea smells devine and it soothes my throat right away. You can add honey too for an extra throat coat experience. I save the extra juice in the freezer and break off little pieces when I want to make some tea.



Another thing that has been working wonders for us is green smoothies. Rylie drinks them from a straw and calls them wa wa because they are liquid. I mix a cup of any greens I have on hand (spinach, collards, beet or turnip greens) with a cup of mandarin segments (I have an assistant for the peeling part, see above) and a cup of apple chunks (sometimes I use berries or pears instead) and a cup of ice cubes. I'll add honey too, if I am so inclined, it really depends on how sweet the fruit is that I have on hand. I add in a little extra water, turn on the blender for a while until it is smooth, and drink it up. We have had these for breakfast and lunch for the past five days in a row hoping that a blast of nutrients would chase these colds away.

So, this morning I thought: ok, a brand new week we are doing better. And then, whamo! somewhere in the late afternoon I started feeling pretty run down again. Ryan had been in Dallas all day at a meeting and was flying home. I couldn't wait for him to get in so that he could hang with Rylie for a bit while I rested. When he walked in the door, he told me that he felt the sickest he has ever felt in his whole life - oh man, here we go again. It seems there is always a rough patch this time of year. Here's to brighter days ahead.