We’re Alive…

Did you realize it is entirely possible to lose a week of your life when suffering from a fever-laden flu? I was unable to hold off the attack from the rest of the family, and by last Monday evening, knew I was in for the duration. I spent days in bed just trying to bring the fever down and teh delerium at bay. The only time I have ever been that sick was from West Nile Virus.

Girlie, who had been the best of my patients, was recovered enough to hold the house together. She would come in and check my temperature, and wake me with a cold rag if it had gotten too high. Big Daddy, who now has a killer chest cold stepped up and made sure I was able to just sleep as they all had. My father stepped in an dropped a turkey and fixings on the front porch. My best friend, who lives a thousand miles away in Florida, managed to get a large pot of homemade soup delivered via her mother who lives up here. It is so good to just be able to focus on yourself when you are that sick.

By Friday, my fever had finally broken, but I was left with a nasty chest cold and lethargy. And a list of deadlines my arms lenghth. We spent some time Saturday out shopping for the necessary items the kids needed for their projects, and they were to have had the planning done and lists ready.

One thing I have noted by being this sick is how willingly Girlie has taken charge her things. She would come in with a notebook and her ideas, then ask me to help her see if she had forgotten anything on her list. She designed things on paper before she got to the display boards, and had a lot of great ideas. She is becoming very much a self-starter. If I hadn’t been so out of it, I might have done too much for her and not given her the chance to really shine.

While I called down and asked Scout numerous times if he had his planning done and his lists made, he assured me he had it covered. Suffice it to say, one child followed directions and was all ready to go, and one screwed around and played videos games. But that is for another post about irresponsible teenage boys…

We got started on them only yesterday, and Girlie finished her Audubon display over the afternoon. It really is quite cute, but she has forbid me to post photos until after the fairs (as she doesn’t want to share her secrects . Scout and Big Daddy built this amazing apparatus to hold the flashlights for the experiment , which I think entered into the too much parental involvment category, but let’s not go there either. He did some work on the timeline for his history display and then played on the computer all night.

I spent the afternoon getting everything organized as the fairs chairman. Trying to organize judges and students, and coordinate time for over 100 enteries takes lots of pre-planning at home. I have just enough judges, while I have to make a few phone calls and get just one more for the first hour. It is exciting, and I can’t wait to see how it will turn out. I will definitely be posting lots of photos!

Today Girlie plans on getting started on the science display, and doing some drawings of a plant cell. I pretty much let her go with it, and have been enjoying just jumping in to help with requests like “Where is a green marker that works?” or “I need more glue sticks!” makes it fun to watch her create. She has really taken to using the format gallery in Word documents, and fiddles with the computer fonts and such for hours.

Scout is procrastinating and not meeting agreed upon deadlines as usual, and this time I am not going to bail him out or coerce him into getting things done. It is a case of the proverbial “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” He is going to have to deal with his displays, whatever state they are come fair time.

I’m back now, and hope to keep you up to date with daily progress reports!