It's a Vivas Thing!

You are here: Home / Archives for Family

Laughable Moment #3

For those of you who read my week in a nutshell blog, you'll understand this. For those who haven't, let me sum it up for you.

Exactly one week ago the Smart One was seriously ill. So ill, in fact, that I was ordered by his doctor to bring his fever down by placing him in tepid water for 20 minutes and repeating every hour until we could get his extremely high fever down. This was not only torturous for my son, but also for his mother. He would scream that he was freezing, was going to die, and more. When he was finally let out, he was shaking and shivering and not allowed under a blanket to warm himself. It was pure torture for us both.

Fast forward to today:

I now have his plague. I have the fever and the chills, although not nearly as high as his. To be honest, I feel lousy with a mere 101 temperature, I can only imagine how he felt at 104.6! At any rate, as I was shaking and shivering in misery, he decided to become my nurse. He's good that way. He was checking on me and wanted to know if my fever had come down. No, it hadn't. His reply?

"A freezing bath will bring it down for you!"

I seriously love that boy!

But seriously, what else?

Is it not bad enough that I have a house full of sick people? The two teens are sick now, too, and to top if off, so am I! My chest feels like it's on fire and as my loving son pointed out early this morning, "Mom, you sound like you're going to die! Are you OK?"

Thanks, son.

Apparently I did sound bad, because it was enough to wake up dear hubby who offered to take him to school this morning so I would not have to go out so early.

I managed to make the teens some hot tea and load them up on goldenseal, echinacea and orange juice before they headed out for the day. I felt bad for them, at least I can crawl back into my bed and write this blog; they have a whole day of school ahead of them. I have the Drama Queen next to me working on her school (their are definitely advantages to homeschooling this morning!) and the Smart One  is still sound asleep downstairs. I'm starting to wonder if he'll make it up before 10 am anytime this week!

But seriously, I'm didn't start this blog to write about the plague that is making it's way through our house right now. I wanted to write about appliances. Yeah, really.

In the past few months, I've managed to break my son's straightener (ok, please don't go there, we are the Vivas' after all!), break my blow dryer, break same son's blow dryer and then I found my straightener broken on Sunday. We are now down to a little, itty bitty blow dryer thing that doesn't really work that well, but hey, finances are tight, so hair appliances are just going to have to wait.

But then…this morning while taking B-Boo to school, I really thought I was going to hurl before I got back. I think it's the coughing, but it took all I could do to make it home safely. I almost rear-ended the truck in front of me as I was dropping her off due to my coughing episode. I could just imagine trying to explain to the officer,

"Sorry, officer, I really didn't mean to hit the truck, it's just that I couldn't see in front of me because I was coughing so hard." I mean, I think it would have worked given the fact that I look awful and was in my flannel pj's and robe, right?

I did manage to stop right before we collided, so the conversation with the officer was only imagined, not real. That alone should tell you my state of mind this morning.

All this coughing is not doing my bladder issues any good either. I have a bladder that has survived five children and a hysterectomy. I've become an expert at the *cross your legs and squeeze real tight* dance whenever something is funny or if I'm coughing or sneezing. I managed to make it home safely and ran up the stairs, calling out to the Drama Queen to please put some toast in the toaster and I'd be out in a minute.

A few minutes later, I made it back downstairs to find her sitting on the counter by the toaster, proudly making mommy breakfast in hopes that the hurling feeling would go away. The toast popped up; but it was only toasted on one side.

Apparently the toaster is broken. I know this because my Drama Queen patiently explained to me that you have to flip it over and toast the other side because only one side works.

OK then. I'm going back to bed!

My week in a nutshell

Or not. Feeling like a nut by the end of it though. Whoo!

Hubby and I spend last weekend in Arizona with the youth at a Dare2Share conference. I was exhausted by late Sunday night and wanted nothing more than to just have a relaxing week catching up. Apparently the higher's that be had other plans for my week!

Monday: The Smart One wasn't feeling well. I knew this since mother-in-law had called on Sunday to let us know he wasn't feeling himself. By Monday it was starting to hit. I spent most of the day trying to catch up on laundry and comfort him as much as possible. He doesn't do illness well, so getting him comfortable is no small feat! No karate for him tonight!

Tuesday: After being up some through the night, I was pretty tired by Tuesday. The Smart One was really sick by now and his fever just kept going up no matter what I did. I was alternating Tylenol and Motrin and it still didn't help. by 11:30 am, he was crying that he was hurting so I figured I'd better call the doctor. By the time we got to the doctor, his fever was 104.6 and rising. Doc said his throat was raw and on fire and took a culture for strep. He's been our doctor forever and is normally a pretty laid back doctor, but he firmly told me to go home and start baths for the Smart One. 20 minutes in tepid water, then out for an hour and repeat. He said if he got worse or the fever didn't go down he'd have to admit him to the hospital. When we got home, I drew up a bath for him to get in. We pulled the shower curtain shut so I could stay in there with him because he didn't want to be left alone. For the next 20 minutes, I had to listen to him scream that he was freezing, he felt like he was going to die and every minute he'd ask me how many more minutes.

This has to be one of the worst moments as a mom. There is nothing that makes a mom feel worse than having to torture her child on purpose!

This went on for hours, but we finally got the fever down to 102 by 8:30 that night. It was indeed the toughest day of the week! We obviously ended up missing swim lessons!

Wednesday: Wednesday was just more of the same. Fever hung around the 101-102 range all day. He was just miserable and hasn't been out of bed the whole week except to go to the doctor on Tuesday. I was starting to get a little stir crazy after being stuck in the house for three days, but motherhood called first! No Karate again tonight. Hubby was good enough to go to the store for me to purchase things I need for Thursdays' Steven's Soup.

Thursday: Can you believe the man was still running a fever, and now the Drama Queen was sick, too! This meant I wasn't going to be able to deliver the soup as planned. In addition, I was out of children's Tylenol and Motrin. I called a friend down the street who brought me enough to get me through the morning. Then I called my friend and asked her to come pick up the soup instead of me delivering it. That was totally a God thing, because she ended up bringing me some magazines, 7-Up, more meds…and we got to talk about the new bible study that we're starting next week and she's going to join us. I was thrilled! The rest of the day was spent with the kids on the couch dozing off and on while I dusted, vacuumed and stayed on top of laundry. Obviously, swim lessons were canceled again.

Friday: The Drama Queen seemed to be a little better. She was running around all over the place. I could not settle her down for anything even though she had the cough and a slight fever. The Smart One was still not well enough to get off the couch and his cough was much worse. Doc had called and said it was NOT strep and that it just needed to run it's course. I managed to get the upstairs vacuumed, the kitchen and dining room swept and mopped, as well as clean the bathrooms. I guess being stuck at home does have some advantages. Hubby had to go out and get some more cough syrup. Again, no karate tonight.

Saturday: Drama Queen woke up SICK! 102 fever and all the drama she could bring up with it! In addition, the Smart One was still running a low grade temp! I pretty much resigned to myself that I was never leaving the house again. Hubby had soccer stuff and church stuff to do, so that meant I was stuck at home again. I did get the house windexed in between shuffling back and forth with the kids. Hubby finally got home around 3:30 and I was out of there!

I got to have a short visit with a friend, get the oil changed in the van and then share an appetizer with my oldest son while I waited for B-Boo to finish bowling with her friends. By the time we were done, I was so exhausted, I couldn't wait to get home to my bed! OF course, the whole time I was gone, my phone kept ringing…the two little ones were begging me to come home.

And now we're up to speed. It's Sunday and I think they're on the road to recovery. I stayed home with them this morning while the older ones went to church. The Smart One slept until noon! We managed to make a great lunch and they're actually up now.

I'm headed off to church for children's choir (without my two) and youth….but before I go, I need to stop at CVS. Apparently the Talented One, 15, is now coming down with it. What's a mom to do?!

Laughable Moment #2

Not a whole lot of laughing this week with sick kids, but the Drama Queen came up with a funny one today. We were sitting around the table at lunch talking about how Bible study went this morning. I had stayed home with the two sick ones while the older children went to church with dad. I didn't get to teach the class this morning that I was REALLY looking forward to teaching. It was such a great study! Anyway, after discussing Mother Theresa, using your home as a homeless shelter and more, the drama queen pipes up.

"Mom, it's kinda nice that you get to be with them (meaning the two teenagers) at church and at home. This means that you can correct them at home and at church!"

Guess it was kind of a "you had to be there moment," but for those of us sitting around the table we got quite the laugh out of it!

On a side; I'm so blessed with teenagers who actually want me to be a part of their youth and enjoy my teaching rather than trying to run away from me!

Steven’s Soup, In Memory of Joshua Stevens

Art, josh, mike
Art, Josh, & Mike

I can't believe it's been six months today since Joshi went home to be with our Lord. We miss him so much. Drew, Barb, Shelbie and Sammie, we love you so much and pray for you daily; you are never far from our thoughts and prayers.

For my friends and others who are reading this blog, today is Joshi's Day. We've kind of made a little tradition where on the 5th of the month we make a cheesy potato soup for the Stevens to help them get through the day. My kids LOVE this soup and look forward to it each month. They start asking for it a few days before, knowing that Mom is going to be making this soup. The other day, I was telling Barb that my kids were asking if I was going to make the Steven's soup. We kind of laughed and said that is how it should be. It is the Stevens Soup, because it has so much love poured into it for the Steven's family and whenever we eat it, we smile and remember Joshi and what he meant to us.

So, I thought I'd post my recipe, which started out as a recipe from Allrecipes.com and grew into much more.

Ingredients

Love, as much as you can put into it

1/2 cup butter (I use earth balance to keep this dairy free)
2 qts organic chicken broth
1 diced sweet onion
5 lb bag red potatoes, peeled, chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 12 oz tub sour cream ( I use tub Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream)
1 8oz  tub cream cheese (I use tub of Tofuttie Better Than Cream Cheese)
1 heaping tsp dill (fresh is best)
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup chives (fresh is best)

Place onions and potatoes into a large pot. Add chicken broth, garlic, cayenne, pepper, and salt and bring to a boil. Continue boiling until potatoes are tender. Mash potatoes with a potato masher (or a larger spoon thingy) until there are small little chunks of potato mixed in. Add butter, sour cream and cream cheese, chives and dill and simmer for about 15 minutes. If soup is a little watery, you can add in a bit of potato starch to thicken it up.

For those who can have dairy, top off your bowl with colby jack or cheddar cheese and enjoy.

But before you take a bite, please remember Barb, Drew, Shelbie and Sammie in your prayers…and if you knew Joshi, share a few memories as you sit around your table eating the Stevens Soup!

Joshua Dennis Stevens
1995-2008

I am Josh
by Josh Stevens

I am Athletic – like a precise machine, running smoothly and efficiently.
I am Competitive – like the sun, fighting to shine through the clouds on a cloudy day.
I am Fun Loving – like a circus star, wanting to give joy to others.
I am Kind Hearted – like a favorite family pet, wanting to give love to all.
I am Persistent – like a skilled quarterback, never giving up till the ball scores.
I am Obedient – like an athlete responding to his coach.
I am Respectful – like a player accepting of the ref's call.
I am Beautiful – like a gem stone, with beauty for all to see.