Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever. As cold and flu season abounds, it seems we can all relate to being cooped up inside for days, weeks, months?...and I wonder if the inside of other people's homes look as disastrous as ours does?!

Our past week was exciting at first: Hooray! A great big snowfall! But that quickly dissolved into a week of staying indoors - literally going nowhere for seven days as the kids started throwing up, coughing, crying...

Ellis was both sick and working a ton, so me and the kids spent a lot of time together. You would think the week would be difficult, which it was, but it was also surprisingly sweet and doable even though it was exhausting.

We ended up spending hours reading books together, painting and doing crafts, and telling more jokes. I would have enjoyed being out and about, seeing people and doing our normal activities, but I found that I wanted to be exactly where I was. For instance, when I would read a book to Corrie, I would think, "this is exactly what I want to be doing right now." And so the week was fulfilling, even though the circumstances were not the greatest. I believe God really blessed us.

But I do have to be honest and say that I spent about all of Saturday crying. On Friday Ellis came home and said that he had tested positive for the flu, which resulted in the rest of us getting prescriptions for Tamaflu.

It seems though, especially this morning, that we are all turning a corner. Little D, who has been doing nothing but crying inconsolably for a week, seems to be returning back to his old laughing, little self. I almost forgot what his smile looked like! So glad to have him back.

I mentioned that we have been telling jokes to pass the time. By that I mean that the kids are telling me what they have decided to call "jokes," which really aren't jokes...unless your definition of a joke is something that is not funny, but makes the person telling it laugh hysterically. 

For instance, here is the joke (the ONE joke) that Mac tells: 

"Hey Mommy! I have one! I have a joke!"

"Okay, what is it?!"

"A pickle becomes a friend with a clownfish." 

When Mac tells that "joke" to someone for the first time, there is always a pause as the listener waits for the punchline. But that's it...that's the whole joke. And Mac laughs so hard. Bless his little heart.

The crazy thing is that if you are trapped in Cabin Fever for a long enough time, even that joke becomes funny. In your delirium, you become so stimulation deprived that when Mac says, "Oh! Mommy! I have one! I have a joke!," you genuinely think, "Oh, a joke? Yeah tell me!," and then he tells the pickle joke, with the same passion and enthusiasm as he had the first time he thought of it...as if he truly did just think of it, and somehow YOU are now laughing hysterically! "How did I not see that one coming? The worst joke ever!...TELL IT AGAIN!"

Corrie has been pretty funny too. Her joke repertoire is slightly more varied, but is still not composed of actual jokes. For example:

"What kind of nose eats a fish tank? (I don't know, what?) "A picture!!!" HAHAHAHA

"What kind of mommy is a refrigerator?"...."A PICTURE!" HAHAHA

And on and on it goes. I now know Cabin Fever has taken it's hold on me, because I actually laughed out loud as I typed those last ones.

And, as this new week begins, Ellis has been called away from us again. As we wait expectantly for Daddy to return, I am encouraged to continue leaning upon the passage of scripture that was so comforting and which sustained me through last week's challenges: 

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act. 

(Psalm 37:3-5, ESV)

I look forward to the opportunities to see His faithfulness in our difficulties together at home this week as we laugh, cry (and hopefully no more hurling) together. We look forward to emerging from our house cocoon this week, hoping to see friends and family. Well, I have an appointment at the dentist today, at least!