And Now For Some Gratitude.

When you have an illness that makes you essentially useless for a good 10/11 days, there are a lot of people to thank for the continued function of your family. And just because I posted a less-than-upbeat update of what life has been like and I got real honest and raw about how difficult and chaotic it's been, doesn't mean that I'm not super-ridiculously grateful for the people that encouraged life along while I was down for the count. Because I am. Some days, in the throws of fever and sleeplessness, I would sit in my bed and think about how lucky I am for these people.

And many of them may never see this, but I wanted my gratitude immortalized, anyway.

Husband.
He gets most of the accolades because he had to do all of my crap while still doing all of his. He missed a week of TKD to take care of life for me. He cooked every meal and packed every lunch. He did laundry and dishes on the daily. He got my kids to bed each night and off to school each morning. He filled in for me in the most complete way, and I'm sure, burnt himself out in the process. I wish I was capable of giving him an actual vacation, because the man deserves it.

Luke.
My first born, my oldest child, the leader of my little man cub pack. He checked on me often, fetched me freezy pops and drinks, hushed his brothers when they got too loud for my rest, and acted as Matt's right-hand man. He was a real leader and helper when our family needed him to be and I was so incredibly proud of him.

Grandma + Grandpa.
When I was feeling my lowest (after daaays of endless fever) I felt urged to reach out to my Grandma and ask for prayer. I won't get into the whole nitty gritty of my faith and all that, but I believe in the power of prayer when the pray-er wholeheartedly believes it. I also believe that it's the human brain's method of connecting with the God-power within (I believe that our souls are made of tiny fractals of God Himself), and that my Grandma is the Mack Daddy of prayer. She and my Grandpa prayed for me and said the rosary, and I woke up the next morning having made more progress than all the days before combined. She then checked on me daily and continued to pray for me, and it really warmed my heart and made me feel supported.

My Sister.
She had this illness the week before I did, so she had a lot to offer: commiserating our symptoms, sympathy, encouragement, leftover meds for me to try. She also brought me a coffee one day, peppermint m&m's just because, and a pair of gloves for Jake because I complained that I was too sick to make it to Target and I was so annoyed by that (since winter showed up weeks early). Her help and contributions really perked me up and made going through this thing a lot brighter.

A Whole Host of Friends & Family.
I had a lot of people on standby - checking in to see how I was, encouraging me, listening to me complain, and letting me bitch about how unfair the flu is and how much my life sucked the last two weeks. They didn't have to listen to me, and they certainly didn't have to respond, but they did, and they made being sick a lot less lonely and miserable.

A Specific Friend That Would Be Embarrassed If I Used Her Name.
For not only driving Luke home for me when I felt awful, but for offering to do it every single day. I didn't take her up on it, because I didn't want to overdo it, but she would have done it unquestioningly and I'm so grateful for that.

My Doctor.
Well, actually, she's my doctor's NP but I super love her. She was incredibly sweet and understanding, and even though I had that weird phenomenon going on where you feel like a garbage truck for 10 days and then you show up asking for help and your body seems like 1/3 as sick as it has been, she totally accepted how sick I'd been. She knew exactly what I needed to get better and didn't hesitate to prescribe me some relief.

Ibuprofen.
For offering me little hits of relief and rest when I really, really needed it, and for helping every single one of my awful, terrible symptoms.

Freezy Pops.
For being my main source of nourishment for many days on end and for being so darn satisfying when I had fevers and nothing else helped.

Hallmark Channel.
For lulling me to sleep with stupid predictable perfect love stories.

Billy On The Street
For making me laugh when I was feeling particularly low.

Disney+
For giving me something to be excited about in the middle of a really unexciting time.

Christmas Music
For infusing joy, hope, and lightheartedness to my really dark and low days, no matter what.