A Tiring Reality

Sometimes life gets harder.

About a month ago, I suddenly got quite sick—headache, chills, fever, shakiness, etc. Most of the symptoms passed after a couple days, except for the tiredness. And I was very tired—at first I could hardly be up for an hour before I had to lie down again. I've been slowly improving, but even now I have to lie down a couple times each day, and I don't really have the energy to take the kids to the park or go shopping.

As you can imagine, this has made life a lot more challenging. Running around after two very active, independent little ones is not exactly compatible with resting and recovering. Even the ordinary tasks of caring for a household can tire me out and leave me without the energy to play music or write or do other things that I enjoy.

It's hard, and frustrating, and discouraging.

The doctor thinks it was just the flu, aggravated by the heat, dehydration, and all the smoke that was in the air at the time. I'm taking some supplements, and trying to eat more and drink more water. I am improving. But it is so easy to do too much and have another setback.

And part of my frustration is that "there is nothing wrong with me" and "I don't look sick". From an outside perspective, nothing seems any different. But the kids are fussier, because they don't understand why mommy can't run around and play like she usually can. It's been way too long since I've been able to take the kids to the park, and we are all going a little crazy because of it. Every time I try to do something that takes extra energy—going to church, getting groceries, even having a games night with some friends—I feel significantly worse afterward. I've been out of the house so little that I'm starting to get cabin fever!

And I'm really lonely.

Hopefully this will be the last you hear of this, and I'll be feeling better soon, but I wanted to give you a little picture of what life has been like for me lately. I'm so thankful that Jesse and the rest of the household have been so willing to help out more around the house so I can lie down when I need to!

Despite the rough past month, it has been a pretty good summer. Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to:

Garden love

Keeping cool

Picnic time!

Family hiking

Fire Creek

All rocks must be climbed!

Coastline near Bella Coola

Humble beauty

My munchkins

'Tis the last rose of summer...