Has it been that long?

I wish I could report that I had been off on a fabulous adventure, but I was lost amidst sneezes and coughs, hot tea and naps. Just as I thought the bug had left me, it decided to head south to my chest and linger another week. I had no mind to write anything coherent, let alone worthwhile.

I could have predicted that I would get a head and chest cold. You see, DH took a new job, and we had a two week window without health insurance. Of course I woke the first morning without insurance ill. Honey and I had a great many discussions on the health care situation, and just these two weeks reminded me how unfair many of the haves are being in their outright disdain for the have-nots. The stress of worry that it would turn into phnemonia was very real, and the monetary hit we would take was the biggest stresser of all.

I cannot tell you what a blessing it is to have an older daughter. Honey just took the lead and did most of her school on her own. I would lie down for a nap, to wake to a cup of hot tea. She picked up slack on chores and just let me rest through the worst of it.

Poor girl ended up getting the head cold too, so she spent a few days doing the resting and drinking the tea. We made fires and watched movies, which we haven't done in a while.
KingBee was out of town on business, which was a blessing as we just let everything go to just recouperate. Added plus is we did not have to suffer through any reality television as we do when he is here!

I managed to read two books, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. I enjoyed the newest adventure of Robert Langdon a great deal, and would recommend it . I wish I could say the same of Jamie and Claire's latest saga, but the end of the book was so disjointed it seemed as if Gabaldon just tacked a half dozen cliffhangers on the end and stopped because she was bored with it all. A disappointment after two years wait since Breathe of Snow and Ashes.

Last week we were on the upswing, and tried very hard to get caught up. While my cough was ebbing, my mind was much slower in returning to a fully functioning state. I managed to give Honey a chapter test for the wrong chapter in Algebra. She and I were both disappointed with her 80%, and her claim that she didn't even recall learning the process for some of the problems worried us both. As I was entering the grade into the book, I realized that she was due test #4, not #7, and suddenly that 80% looks pretty good! Yikes!

The illness did make me realize a few things though, and as such a few changes have been instituted. Buzz flits in and out of here much like his nickname-sake, but leave behind more mess than honey. It's just not quite fair for the rest of us to be cleaning up after him, when most of his flitting about keeps him from contributing to the family as he used to do.

We discussed it ,and he oddly felt that one of the "womenfolk" should be picking up after him, since he takes the garbage out once a week and is, afterall, in college now. We laughed. Honey reminded him that he might be able to find a wife someday willing to agree to that arrangement, but it certainly would not be her. He is now in charge of his own dishes and cleaning one bathroom, as well as his laundry. I think this will take a lot of tension away between the siblings, and one time-stretched mother.

I finally got caught up on the blog-reader, and though I didn't comment much, it was great to see how everyone is doing. It is so good to be up and moving again!