Fathers

Hubby was sick for the past 5 days (or was it more?). He had horrible stomach pain with obvious symptoms to boot. He was nauseated and tired- lethargic and sweaty. No, he had no fever- but he did have one of the signs of the virus.

So, I had him stay put in the room of his choice- and would occasionally bring food and drink around so that he could lay in bed. Twice he went outside to sit in the yard so he could get fresh air and Poke hunt at the same time- but other than that, he was indisposed to the rest of us.

He finally went to the doctor for bloodwork the other day- and the doctor did not believe he had COVID, but he still needed to take it easy. 

I allowed him time to rest- unbothered by the menial task of parenting our offspring.

Mothers

To provide an analogy of my symptoms so that you can fully understand, it feels as if I ran a marathon that I was not trained for either physically nor mentally- and was unable to catch my breath nor slow my heart rate. Add to that image the feeling of back labor and the sharpness felt within one’s lungs when they are uncontrollably panting; as each exhale provokes an unstoppable cough… further restricting the “stirrer” type straw found at WaWa for coffee usage – aka: my airways. Additionally, because it feels as if I portrayed Brittney in Brittney Runs a Marathon, I am exhausted all the time- but unable to rest due to the above examples.

Now that you have an understanding of my symptoms….

I’ve removed the piled pool chairs from under the deck, dragged them to the pool area, dragged the power wash down the hill from the garage, found a gas can and took it to retrieve 5 Gallons of gas (did not realize how heavy that would be), added the gas to the can, and while feverishly trying to pull the throttle 15 times to keep the machine running so that I could power wash all 8 chairs, I broke down to call for hubby’s help.

In the meantime, while waiting for him to “feel better” as he was feeling “winded,” , I went inside, washed all 2200 square feet of floors, steam cleaned the bathrooms…. yes, bathrooms, changed my sheets, did my 5th load of wash, folded the 6 overflowing baskets filled with my children’s laundry- that had been sitting in my room- that clearly they did not need, since they’ve not changed from their original jammies put on the day they found out school was out, and continued my short order cooking for my Fraternity/Sorority Rushing offspring- who don’t wake before 12:30pm…. flipping flapjacks- stirred rice with broccoli, all the livelong day………. and only after hubby fixed the power washer hours later, did I then, complete my task of hosing off the deck chairs. 

But it’s not a “competition,” he says.