I had planned to blog so much more in January but life hit hard. And not in a good way. I hope to remedy that in February but I’ll be honest, February isn’t starting off on the best foot. Here’s an update on the things going on in our household and what January looked like for us.
Back to School
The first week of January brought an end to Christmas break for us. Our school district requires teachers to return to school a day before students to attend professional development meetings so I headed back to the high school that I teach at on January 2. Since students didn’t return to school until the third, all five kids got an extra day at home with Dad, which they, of course, loved! I, on the other hand, had a hard time going back to work and was so ready to cuddle my babies when I got home that evening!
January brought other back to school moments too! On January 17th, I started my last semester of graduate school! I’ve been working since June of 2015 on my master’s degree in history. My bachelor’s degree is also in history. I graduate in May and I absolutely cannot wait. It feels like it has been a long time coming. I’ve enjoyed the classes I have taken but it definitely hasn’t been an easy task to accomplish while I’m working full time as a teacher, keeping up with three active kids, and adding another set of twins last summer. I’m currently driving to the university I attend two nights a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is over an hour drive one way and each class lasts three hours so it makes for a long evening away from my family. I’m exhausted and so glad the end is in sight. At one point in time, I had seriously considered pursuing my PhD. While that may still come to fruition, it will probably be quite a while before I put any active thought into that. I need a break and I need some more time with my kids.
Extracurricular Activities
January also brought the return of what I call our “busy seasons.” Our three oldest children are very active and keep us running on all four cylinders. I’m sure these new babies will be just as involved when they are old enough. Our oldest daughter is a dancer. She’s been dancing since she was three. This year she is dancing tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, and musical theater. Our middle daughter is also dancing tap, ballet, and jazz this year. Their dance classes started in September and will continue until their recital at the end of May. Their dances classes have at least one parent and them at the dance studio three nights a week! My poor husband has to take all five kids to dance practice on Wednesdays while I attend my graduate class. He is such an amazing dad with all these kids! Christmas break afforded us a nice little break from dance but we jumped back in on January 3.
While I call it our “busy season,” things are still pretty mild right now. Soccer will start in March and we usually have two kids that want to play and our son will start baseball in April. By May we will have two kids dancing, two kids playing soccer, and one playing baseball on top of work, school, and graduate classes. That is when things get really crazy. We wouldn’t survive those crazy months without an amazing family who helps us by getting various kids to any practices or games that overlap.
Business Trips and Sick Kids
The fourth week of January is where things really went downhill for us. Daniel left for a business trip on January 23. I picked the babies up from daycare the next day and noticed that Harrison was pretty fussy and didn’t have much of an appetite. He crashed around 7 pm which is very rare for him. We usually can’t get these babies to sleep until ten or eleven. Around 11, I checked on him and found that he was burning up. I managed to take his temperature without waking him and found that he had a 102 degree fever. I gave him some Tylenol. He slept without waking until 2:30 am. When he did wake up, he screamed and was inconsolable for almost two hours. I requested a sub for the next day at three in the morning.
Both babies woke up the next morning congested and coughing. Katherine’s eyes were matted shut almost as if she had pink eye. I called their doctor as soon as the office opened and they set up an appointment for that afternoon. Both babies ended up being diagnosed with RSV.
Since Daniel was out of town, I spent the next three days home from work rocking babies and trying to keep their fever down. My mother was an absolute angel and took the three older kids for the rest of the week so that I could focus on the babies. By Friday night, I was so ready for Daniel to get home. His plane was supposed to land around six that evening but ended up being delayed several times. It was after ten before his plane finally landed and he made it home to us. I’ve never been more thankful to see him and have him here to help with sick kids.
Rough Start to February
While the babies are still a bit congested and coughing, they were fever free and were able to return to daycare at the end of this past week. The rest of us, however, aren’t doing so well. By the time that I left work on Thursday, I was running a fever, had a horrible headache, and couldn’t hear out of either of my ears. Daniel made me a doctor’s appointment for Friday morning. She diagnosed me with a double ear infection and severe sinus infection but I tested negative for the flu!
When I picked Emily up after school, she was running a fever and feeling terrible so Daniel took her to an after hours clinic where she, unfortunately, tested positive for the flu. She will have to stay home from school on Monday. We’ve quarantined her upstairs so that the rest of us hopefully don’t get it.
I’m over all the illnesses and am so ready for spring and summer! I’ve never been a fan of winter and it seems like this is always the time when we all end up sick!
I hope you all had a healthier and easier January than we did! There are so many things coming up over the next few months that I am so excited about and can’t wait to share with you!
