a weekend being sick

i woke up on thursday with a sore throat.

 

it’s gone downhill from there.

 

i started running a substantial fever…and coughing up nastiness from my chest.  my throat felt like it had razor blades in it.  i’ve never been covered in so much vic’s vapor rub in all my life.

 

 

that’s a life-size sidewalk chalk card from aiden.

 

not everybody gets one of those.

 

friday, colt came down with it too.  his fever hit 105.  i know one thing for sure…the fact that i was still running fever this morning means that this virus is a wicked one.  i haven’t run fever with a virus since i was a little girl.  i would run a high fever when i would get mastitis…but that’s an entirely different story.  the point is…i don’t run fever.  until now, apparently.

 

you know you’ve hit a low point when the exterminator rings your doorbell…and you answer it with a goopy glop of vapor rub under your nose.  he had come to get the wasps nest out of the fireplace.  i waved him in…pointed him toward the fireplace…and then collapsed back on the couch, coughing…robe hanging out from under my blanket…hair knotted on top of my head.  colt was moaning on the other couch.  he tried very hard to focus on the wasps…and to avoid all eye contact with us.  i also think he was trying not to breath.  but i can’t be sure.

 

bless chad’s heart.  there’s a reason why God didn’t make that man a nurse or doctor.  he just doesn’t know what to do.

 

today…which was day 4 of the most ridiculous virus ever, he finally snapped into gear.

 

the man took down my halloween decorations, dusted the ceiling fans, decided to de-clutter the kitchen (top of the refrigerator included), and made colton and i soup.  i could get used to this.

 

there were two main reasons that i was upset about being taken out by, what is obviously kin to the ebola virus, this weekend.  one:  i had to miss playing in my soccer game tonight.  and two:  i didn’t get to decorate for christmas.  however i made myself feel better by telling myself that it was entirely too hot outside to decorate for christmas anyways and replacing the halloween pencils with these cuties.

 

at least my desk is ready for the holiday season.

 

tonight…we gathered in the “lodge” room as a family.  we started a family devotional on the names of God.  tonight we learned that God’s first name…in Genesis 1…is Elohim.  it means the great creator.

 

colton found him a comfy place in my great grandma and grandpa kelly’s cedar chest.  my gut reaction was to tell him to get down and to not smush my neatly rolled up quilts and blankets.  as i watched him listen to chad, i thought about how much my great grandparents would love seeing their great great grandson lounging in their old cedar chest…listening about our great creator…using their old, wool blanket as his pillow.  and i let him stay there.  because suddenly…my neatly folded blankets didn’t matter anymore.

 

and that’s what happens when we slow down…when we really listen to God’s voice around us.  we see things a little differently.

 

as chad was cleaning the dust from the fans and the top of the refrigerator and the baseboards…talking about how filthy our house was, it got me thinking.

 

on the surface, it looks clean.  as long as things are put in their place…and the glaring dirt is removed…then we think it’s clean.  it’s not until we look deeper…under the surface…that we see the truth.

 

i thought about how true that is for myself too.  i can easily look cleaned up and shiny.  but if my heart isn’t pure…it’s just a facade.  i saw what it looks like in our home if the “underneath” isn’t tended to:  disgusting refrigerator dust.  and it’s not too pretty when i’m not attending to my heart, either:

 

just a big ole’ dust ball made shiny with a lot of vic’s vapor rub.

 

here’s to spending more time letting Elohim make-over the dusty places in my heart.