Mister, I'll make a man outta you.

I'm a mean mom. Today Jamie forgot to feed the chickens and was falling asleep in his bowl of scrambled eggs, so I launched into a lecture on responsibility so eloquent and vehement it was on par with Henry The Fifth's St. Crispins day speech. Then I made him do extra work, just to prove a point. Then I felt his forehead and realized he had a fever. Poor little son of mine. But did that get him out of doing school? No.

It's the bane of homeschoolers. While other kids get snow days and sick days, kids who go to school at home would have to be facing some pretty serious weather problems if they couldn't succeed at getting from their bunkbed to the kitchen table. The puny after affects of last week's cold wasn't going to stop us, so to school we went! Jamie sniffled and dozed, while I prodded and cajoled. Charlie wasn't much better. They were sick all last week and I was just done with the whole sick thing. Done with the whining. Done with having three kids hanging off me at all times. Done with getting up two dozen times in the night (and I wish that was actually as hyperbolic as it sounds... I'm good with getting up two or three times a night...it's when it passes six or seven that I start to get really cranky)

But as today wore on, I started to think maybe it was a little more serious when I caught Charlie batting at invisible flies around his head. "Do you hear that mommy?"
"The dog snoring?"
"No...the bugs."
And every time I turned the vacuum on, he clapped his hands over his ears and started crying. Not a good sign.

Jamie sounded like a tuberculosis patient and between the two of them, I didn't get much done except realize they needed to go to the Doctor. I wasn't successful. Insert a ton of drama with their pediatrician and their insurance...and we finally sought help from our beloved Aunt Patti who came to the rescue. Charlie has a double ear infection and Jamie has a chest infection.

And so now we're all nebulized and medicated. Feverish little bodies are tucked into bed and prayed for, and I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow will be better.