{A heart trillium, drawn by my true love }
We’ve been sick for over a week. Well, not me, the kids and, to a lesser degree but still impactive, Bradley. It hit last Tuesday afternoon, and since then we’ve been to the doctor twice and have a regiment of heavy medications we are giving our kids at regular intervals. It stinks to have sick kids. Both have/had a weird form of strep that has/had them throwing up, boiling with fevers in the 103’s and flat on their backs. Jude is finally on the mend in a big way (read: overly energetic and less than patient), but Gigi has it bad. She was kind of funny, as Spring Break wore down and she wished it wouldn’t end. She even wished she could be sick, just to avoid school! Well, she got her wish in a big, bad way and she now wishes she could take her wish back! The poor kiddo.
Within that matrix we’ve just been keeping our heads above water. We are rife with laundry and needy kids, snuggles, trips for Slurpees and have been crashing into bed at 8:30 at night. We are clean tuckered!
I wish I could say I’m cruising along beautifully, losing weight, running like a pro, but I’m just maintaining. I keep thinking that maybe I need to take a break from this, that perhaps I should pick the weightloss and exercise project up again when the school year is over and I can really focus, but that is what quitting kind of sounds like too. I was remarking to my husband that to is the longest I’ve ever kept weight off after a loss. Usually when I have any success I turn around and gain it all back in a matter of months. This time I’ve been keeping it off for a while. That feels like progress. I don’t want to go backwards. I can’t ‘take a break’. That’s simply letting go of this project. I have to fight for this.
We’ve been walking a bit, running too. Nothing too strenuous as I feel like we are both teetering on the edge of getting sick too. I’m sure it’s just paranoia, but this stuff is tenacious! Usually when illness is going around and I’m in a solid run cycle I can outrun the cold or flu. I feel like breathing like that, when I’m running, really flushes out my lungs. Maybe I’m crazy, but, whatever. Since I’ve started running I’m hardly ever sick. I also know that once, when I was on the cusp of being all better, I went for a run and exasperated my lungs to the point of getting bronchitis. Maybe not, but I know that I was feeling better, went for a run, then battled for two more days after that and had to get antibiotics.
…As I’m writing that, I smell an excuse. Really, I just don’t want to run. I’m tiiiired. Wah wah, right? Quit whining and work out. Do something. Stop it, Tamara! Ugh. So annoyed with myself right now. I saw Jennifer from fat chick to fit chick just finished her first half marathon. I have total running envy. I should be running that too. I should at least be doing regular five milers. I really need to kick my ass into gear. Tomorrow there are no excuses. Tomorrow I will run.
My favorite Easter Egg ‘hiding’ spot of the year goes to 3 foot Vader and his pal Spider-Man:
Amy
Tamara-you are so right about taking it easy when you have sick kids-it’s ok to be nice to yourself and take a break. Having sick littles is exhausting, and if you don’t watch out, you will get sick and that will be even worse. I think that maintaining your health is a good thing to be doing-and a good skill to practice. None of us want to gain all the weight back when we reach our eventual goal. I think that weight loss should be like a set of stairs. Lose some, maintain. Go down another level losing more, and then maintain. To me learning how to maintain is the most important skill we could all learn on our journeys. Hang in there.