getting better

Apparently there is an Art of Getting Well!    I am not one of the chronically ill who are described in this book, but I do feel like I have been sick for a long time.  I got ill with a severe cold or possibly flu in the earlier part of October, and now it is late November, and two mornings ago was the first time during that time that I woke up feeling some energy.

I think it had to have been some kind of walking pneumonia.  It wasn't really that bad because I could still sit and write, and if I REALLY had to do something, I could get it done.  But I cut way back on everything during that time.     Perhaps I should have gone to the doctor, but we were traveling so much that it seemed difficult to schedule it in, and I was feeling very resistant to taking antibiotics. 

When I was a child I used to love the day or two after being quite ill, like with a stomach flu or a fever or in adolescence, with severe monthly cramps and nausea.   Everything seemed brand new, like the outdoors when the sun is shining right after a rainstorm.  There seemed to be so many possibilities.  Just feeling no pain was a blessing.   And then added to that, you could actually enjoy the things around you again -- like the difference between surfing and barely keeping your head above water.  Or like Dorothy in the movie when she steps out of her house into Oz.

The same sort of thing happens after you have a baby, I noticed during my childbearing years!    They say it takes six weeks to recover fully, but I usually think I feel better after about two weeks.  I always pretty much tried to do everything as I normally would, and get somewhat irritated at myself when I flake out.  Then a day comes when I actually DO feel better and realize that I was just managing before.   There is no mistaking the difference, but it simply takes time, and though you can will yourself into functioning, you can't will yourself into being better.  

Being sick for over a month, though not much of an ordeal compared to what many suffer chronically or acutely, did give me a preview of what it might be like to have an ongoing health condition.    It was hard not to be able to count on normal resources.   You adjust, but it sometimes feels like you are living in a different body.  

This Sunday, though I still didn't move around much, I actually spent planning and putting things together, and I've started a notebook for listing household and holiday things to get done.   Even though I do a lot of planning on the computer I still seem to need paper to actually write down the tasks as I go along through the day.  And not only that, but I could focus on my husband and kids' conversations, which I was not doing very well before.  SUCH a difference.

Then on Monday I actually cleaned the house!  And got the kids helping too! 

While I was on a roll on Sunday, I listed a bunch of Advent resources over at Top Meadow Study Center,  and wrote a pre-planning post over at Take Up and Read.     I'm going to actually try to work some of them.    I am finally starting to understand Pinterest a little and it is actually not so overwhelming as it was at first.    It seems you have to kind of adjust your brain and eyes a certain way in order to get something out of it besides confusion, but if you can make the switch, it's rewarding.


My daughter is coming home for Thanksgiving, but my older sons aren't going to be able to make it.  That is a first, and sad!  But it is so close to Christmas that I can live with it.


I have a few prayer intentions I could use prayers for, though they concern other people and will have to stay private for that reason.  

Also, Matt Wise who is in the ICU still could really use prayers to turn a corner.   Some things are improving, but other things are not looking good.     If you have anything difficult going on during this season maybe you will feel called to offer some of it up for him and his family as well as this little premie whose mom I last saw as a teen (she's a little older than that now but not much).