Despite recent illnesses that descended on our little family, we accomplished much. And I have been particularly productive in my job as homemaker.

Illness

Seeing symptoms very similar to last year’s experience with our daughter getting pneumonia, I held her out of school last Monday (Dec. 3) and took her to the doctor. Within minutes of the chest X-ray coming back, the doctor agreed that the girl had pneumonia again. I got her prescription and returned home.

That evening, the boy came home feverish and coughing just like his sister. The next day, I took him to a different doctor (the first one was unavailable) and he was cleared of pneumonia after an X-ray, but I was told to keep him home until his fever dropped. The doctor called an hour later to say — Oops! — yes, the boy does have pneumonia. So we got a prescription for him too.

So I had one child at home Monday, two children at home Tuesday and Wednesday, two visits to two doctors, two trips to pharmacies for medicine, and lots of thermometer use during those days.

The day after I sent them back to school, I woke up with my first sickness in three years — aching throat, hurts to swallow, weakness all over, lots of sinus drainage. I self-medicated and managed to get through my days. Today (Dec. 10) was worse, but I’m a big boy and I will survive.

The Last Room

The “office” (third bedroom) is the only room in our house that retains the original “builder’s brown” paint. It’s a very light tan, perhaps with a tinge of apricot. I’ve never liked it. Knowing that eventually it will be my son’s bedroom, I let him choose the color and he chose “Azure Adventure”, a beautiful happy blue color from Glidden.

I couldn’t paint the whole room in one fell swoop — because I use it daily — so I’m getting a few feet at a time, moving things as I go. As I move things, I’m trashing, recycling, and giving away a bunch of it. (Yes, it seems like I am always “getting rid of old stuff”, but that’s only because I have a bad habit of keeping old stuff.)

One of the biggest space-occupiers in the office is my stash of camera gear. It’s been sitting on the three shelves of our old Ikea changing table. While I look for a better, enclosed (to fight dust) solution, I rearranged all the CDs and DVDs on our entertainment center, leaving the bottom cabinets empty. I moved my camera gear into those cabinets for now, and took apart the changing table.

The next big chore in there will be the bookshelf. My wife and I (mostly I) will simply have to get rid of some of our (mostly my) books, because I’ve had this particle-board bookshelf since the mid-1990s and I don’t think it’s going to last much longer. Also, once our son gets this room, there will be no place for such a bookshelf.

The Chores

I dispensed with a few chores last week while the children were here and sick, and so I’m trying to catch up on them this week, while I’m sick.

The Photos

Those of you who still follow my Flickr know that I got behind early this school year, but also have noticed that I’m slowly catching up. I also managed to put together our 2018 holiday montage (see the top of this entry), and get it printed so my wife could mail out Xmas cards.

The Parade

Saturday (Dec. 8) was our city’s annual holiday parade, and our daughter got to be in the parade as part of her school’s after-school art club. We dropped her off with some teachers and then found a good spot to view the parade. It was cloudy, windy, and about 40°F, so we were bundled up for the Arctic. Even so, we got cold waiting a long time to see our daughter pass by. Once she passed, the rest of us cut some corners to the end of the parade route so we would be ready to hop in the car as soon as she arrived.

It was an experience.

The Blogs

You’ve likely noticed by now that you’re reading this in a new format, with an unusual URL. I talk more about that on my other blog.

The Shopping

Oh, and who can forget Xmas shopping? We did that too, though I don’t remember exactly when.