Being Sick

(Image from dsimple.wordpress.com)

Okay, it's been a week now, and I'm still sick. Some of it is exhaustion, I'm sure, as I've been pushing my rather non-pushable body far past what it can handle. And some of it is just plain illness: dizziness, nausea, lack of appetite, runny nose, sore throat, cough, and just general unwellness. The three older kids have had it, too -- everyone but our youngest and Keith. So this week has been spent indoors, doing some home schooling, watching a lot of daytime television ... and far too many Jon & Kate Plus Eight reruns. And Say Yes to the Dress. And Criminal Minds. We've watched a few movies, too. Or more like rewatched a lot of movies. Twilight (which I also read this week in preparation for our Logos meeting on Sunday). Singing in the Rain. Mamma Mia!. I'm kind of in the mood for Dead Again, my favorite film-noir-wanna-be.

I also met a bunch of deadlines for my Brave Writer MLA course, including spending almost 18 hours reading and commenting on the students' rough drafts; their final drafts are due on Monday although today was technically the last day of the six-week class. This is my first six-week Brave Writer class since 2003, and it has thoroughly exhausted me, especially since I was writing the class posts as we went. The next time I teach this class it will be MUCH easier as the class posts will be already written for me, and I will only have to respond to the students' work. For running through this class for the first time, there were very few snags -- a lot fewer than I had anticipated. The only major change I'll definitely do is post the assignments on Fridays so that students can work over the weekends if they would like to, something I couldn't do this time because I was composing the posts on Saturdays and finishing them on Sundays over the entire six weeks.

This weekend I don't have to do anything with the MLA class except answer questions, but I do need to write up The Arrow and The Boomerang monthly subscriptions for Julie. Each subscription takes hours to write, and the first is more complicated than the latter. For ages 8-12, The Arrow this month will feature the book Pippi Longstocking while this month's The Boomerang for 7th through 9th grades will revolve around The Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I need to get these both to Julie by next Saturday at the latest -- together they will involve 10-12 hours of work.

Due to our illness, we missed Class Day, our twice-monthly co-op classes, something I have not done in years. The co-teacher, Mindy, covered the 4th-6th grade Poetry Class which I regretted as this week my favorite poet, e.e. cummings, was scheduled. An in-class prompt was given to my high school class, and they will turn in their papers this Thursday as we have three meetings this month to make up for having only one each in November and December.

I also had to miss our usual Friday Morning Prayer and Holy Communion with Father Acker at Victoria Chapel, plus J's weekly guitar lessons that usually follow the services. And I didn't drive down the hill to my weekly chiropractic appointment either; I only drove Elizabeth to work at the camp and picked her up. I even missed tonight's MECAC presentation of artist Moki Martin at the Community Clubhouse. Two of the boys walked over to the clubhouse to help set up chairs and such, but I'm still lightheaded enough that sitting up for dinner is difficult enough, much less showering, dressing, and sitting through an hour's presentation, no matter how wonderful.

So anyway, I hope to finish mending over the weekend and be back to normal ... or as close to "normal" as I get, very soon as we have quite a bit of school to make up next week.