NotSheep

Yes, that’s me. Missing. Missing in action. Well, more missing from action really. I’ve been sick for nearly a month - I’ve looked back in this blog and discovered that I started getting sick on October 20th. That’s way too long. I’m tired of being sick, and sick of being tired. The flu has just wiped me out - left me in bed, shivering and shaking and then too weak to even do that. Yes, I’m whiny. Get over it. Somebody has to, and I’m not doing any kind of job of it.

The boys have been generally fantastic. They’ve kept things ticking over, made breakfasts and lunches, fed and walked the dogs (who have otherwise been sadly neglected), looked after me and each other. Oh, I’m not saying they’re perfect - George and Barney are currently grounded with no computer games or DVDs after sending numerous horrible text messages to one another - more of an exercise in how-rude-can-we-get than anything else, but nasty enough that they haven’t even complained about the severity of the consequent restrictions on their lives. They should count themselves lucky: if I wasn’t so knackered I’d probably have said no tv at all, but since I’m using it as a babysitter when I just can’t do anything but lie down, I figured I’d be punishing myself more than them. Otherwise they’ve all been helpful, notwithstanding the grumpy noises emanating from their room right now (they’re tidying up - in theory). Toby has been getting raised not by a village, but by his siblings, and he’s learned some interesting new skills. As well as impressions of stroppy teenagers and Joey Trebiani, he’s also now been taught the hand-sign for “Live long and prosper” - he can’t keep his ring-finger and little finger together though, so he goes and borrows Barney’s mood-ring and puts it over the top of the two fingers so that he can do it right

I think I’m over the flu now, apart from the odd bout of coughing, but I’m still very low on energy - I do tend to take a bit longer to get over things sometimes, ever since my bout of CFS, and it’s often frustrating, but this has been beyond reasonable. I dragged myself to Beavers last week because the only other option was to cancel it and spend hours on the phone trying to get hold of all the parents, but I missed this week’s meeting, which is really annoying since it was not only Investiture and Swimming Up, but Jack’s Investiture and Freddy’s Swimming Up. Freddy wouldn’t have been going anyway, being grounded, and Jack can be invested next week. I’d have liked to see all the rest doing it though; there were three others Swimming Up, all of whom I’m going to miss, and about seven new boys and one girl being invested.

I have to get out of bed and the house tomorrow though, because Toby has an assessment with the speech therapist. I’m supposed to be going out tomorrow night too, to a Pampered Chef thing, but whether I make it remains to be seen. Next week sees dental appointments for all of us, a review for Toby with the paediatric cardiologist, and Barney’s 13th birthday, so I really need to be much more energetic before then.

I’d never have been able to do school-runs for the last few weeks; at least with home-ed, we’ve been able to do some bits and pieces when I’ve been able (that is, when I’ve been able to sit up rather than lying in bed or curled in a ball). Barney was looking at literal and figurative language, and described figurative language as being used in fiction, to which I replied that although it often was, it certainly wasn’t exclusively used for that. That led to a look at the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”, and how Wilfred Owen used figurative language to describe his experiences, which then led into some talking about war. By fortunate timing, there was a documentary on about Owen, so we watched a recording of that, which gave us all plenty of food for thought. We’ve just received a shipment from The Book People (five boxes! - I only order once a year now that they charge more to deliver to us than to any other part of the British Isles) which included the Usborne Internet-Linked Histories for both the First and Second World Wars, and I think those are subjects which will make for some interesting learning over the next few months. I daresay I’ll learn just as much as the boys will: I wasn’t keen on History as a school subject and it took more than a decade after I left school before I realised that actually I was quite interested in the lives of everyday people through the years (rather than the politics and plans and dates of battles, which was what school history lessons always seemed to focus on). Over the last few weeks, we’ve read Carrie’s War together, and worked through a nice little literature study of it that I found on-line somewhere, and we’ve plans to “do” Anne Frank’s Diary shortly, so it will all tie in quite nicely. Funny how that works.

Right. I’m going to lie down again now, in the hope that I might have gathered enough energy to get up by Christmas.