Diary of a Homemaker's Week: A Short Version

Thursday:  I was sitting here typing a few minutes ago, adding to the other posts of the week when my whole screen went blank.  Control Z pressed several times over only netted me a line of z's across the screen.  All this week's work was lost.

So, in a synopsis I'll share what I did without being too long winded about it. 

Monday:  John still not feeling well.  Katie has been under the weather for a week.  Her tests reveal an old auto immune illness has reared its nasty head.   Caleb was running a low fever and didn't act as though he felt very well.  

I felt fine and used my energy to prep meals ahead for the week.  Glad I did.  By evening, I'd succumbed to a bit of the current plague myself.

Tuesday:  Katie didn't bring Caleb and I was too sick to text and ask why.  I pretty much slept all day.  John said he was feeling better, but he wasn't much inclined to doing anything.

Wednesday:  I felt somewhat better in spells but decided to continue to take it easy.  John claims he feels lots better but no activity on his part to prove it.  Caleb was in high spirits.  No nap for him, no nap for me and by evening I was dragging hard.  

Bess texted that she'd carried all three of her children to doctor and let me know later they tested positive for Covid.  She came by in the evening to pick up something.  We did a distance transfer of items we were swapping.  Said she wasn't feeling any too good herself at that moment but thought her failure to eat before her long morning out was the culprit.

Based on mine and John's symptoms, we have good old-fashioned flu.  Not any of the worrisome things but by golly just old-fashioned flu pretty much hits hard, too.

Katie will not be getting Taylor for the next two weeks due to her own and all the rest of the illnesses here.  

Thursday:  I was about to put my feet up last night after doing dishes.   Katie texted she was at the grocery and her car was not running correctly.  Lots of drama in my home with this statement.   No one could go to her rescue except me.  Every suggestion for help was shot down and lots of words spoken that might best have been left unsaid but weren't.  Lots of how to pay for repairs scenarios running through conversation, leaving us feeling more upset. I left home alone to go pick up Katie and Caleb.  Whatever else was the matter, they had to be gotten home somehow!

We called the travel service we have been paying for through our insurance company.  Not impressed when we were told that they had to see if they could find a tow service for us to use.  It was now about 8pm and I just wanted to go home. Over the past hour or so, Katie had spoken to three different people who all had Indian accents.  I suspicion an overseas call center was responsible for taking the calls, which is fine but it's a bit worrisome when you're sitting in the middle of sort of nowhere Georgia and they are not and are saying that they will try to find you a service.  We cancelled the service call and went to plan B.

We limped her car to a repair shop within a mile of the grocery, parked the car and drove home.  I then turned my car over to Katie to go home in.  I came in and went straight to bed.  I'd had more than enough of everyone and everything at that point and bed seemed the best place to take my weary body and mind.  I went right to sleep.

Thursday:  Those meals I made ahead on Monday have been such a boon to my life this week.  Pattern of the day remains same.  I feel fine and then I don't.  I feel fine...Drove over to the repair shop to turn over the key to Katie's car.  We took every precaution, washing hands, sanitizing key, washing hands again, masks.  We did not stay.  Only John went into the place.  He distanced himself from the clerk.  We will return when the car is ready to be picked up and not until then.

While there, John asked for a guesstimate for a repair on our own car that we know we must have done sooner rather than later.  It came in twice higher than we'd thought it would be.  John refused to inquire what Katie's car would cost to be repaired.   After a conversation with Katie last night about the cost of aftermarket parts which this place will not use and adding in labor, I felt I had a fair idea of what it might cost.  I wasn't expecting it to be cheap.

When I was called with the estimate for repair this afternoon, I felt sick and immediately started to cry after hanging up.  My guesstimate was a 3-figure sum.  It came in at 4 figures and was well on its way to another higher 4 figure sum.  It must be done and there's nothing to be done about it.  Thank God we have an option for paying for it.  Not an ideal one but we have it and we shall do it. 

Katie told me this evening that Bess went down on Wednesday with the illness and Sam succumbed today.  That explains why when we drove by their home at 6:30pm this evening the house was dark as pitch.  I expect everyone is sleeping as much as we have this week.

Not impressed thus far with 2022...Just saying.

Friday:  We took Caleb with us yesterday and again today while we were doing the car repair things.   He is a great little traveler and enjoys people watching so is as happy in the car waiting as he is when I've shopped with him and Katie in the past.  I told John this evening, while I certainly wouldn't want to constantly take him out of the house, I am seeing that we might manage errands during the weekdays now with more ease than we might have previously.

This morning, I was out of eggs, had no milk, John said apples were low, we had no mozzarella and only 8 ounces of cheddar, flour was nearly gone and potatoes, too.  I asked John to stop at the grocery store on the way into town so I could fill my list.  Texted house next door to see if they required anything at all.  Katie had dropped off a basket of mandarins and helpful medications yesterday, but I felt they might need foodstuffs if everyone was down.   They didn't require a thing.  

I donned a mask and kept well away from people and picked up the items I needed only and nothing more except a pink grapefruit and some more dill pickles.  I have actually been craving the pickles since I've no longer had to eat them for that blocked saliva duct! Oh yes, deli roasted chickens were on sale and I got one for tonight's supper.  

Quick report on outages in our Publix in the sections where I went today: Electrolyte drinks were scarce and the shelves mostly empty in that section.  In the breakfast meats section no smoked sausages of any sort nor turkey sausage and little pork sausage.  Lactose free milk was scarce and except for one carton of organic it was all fat free.  I really prefer to give Caleb whole milk but often must sub in 2%.  The organic carton I purchased was whole milk.  Cream cheese shelves were bare except for four packets of what was described on the package as "Cream cheese like spread" which didn't sound appealing.    I went into produce, down the baking aisle, past the breakfast meats counter, and down the dairy aisle.  I didn't go into any other sections so can't tell you what else might have been missing.

I drove Katie's car home from the repair place, while John kept Caleb with him and drove our car back.  I was pleased to hear that Caleb took a short nap of about 20 minutes duration which is more than he probably would have had here at home.

I feel better overall but still feel weak and struggle with energy.  Never mind that the house looked like a war zone.  Three loads of laundry were in various stages of being done.  I'd unloaded the dishwasher, had a sink full of dishes, and things were stacked on counters, our bed stripped and not remade, toys everywhere.  Honestly, I wanted to just sit down and cry.  I'd made bread, two meals, made a phone call to cancel the roadside assistance program, changed multiples of diapers, fixed multiple snacks and cups of 'juice' aka water, and pretty much worked steadily since I left bed this morning.  I felt overwhelmed looking at all the work that remained this afternoon at 3pm when we returned.

After his ride and short nap, Caleb was super frustrated with everything he put his hand to and screamed bloody murder over it all in his outrage.  It must have been intuition made me start supper early this evening because the moment he realized we were about to eat he climbed into his chair and began to plow through his food.  Then he asked for seconds of every single thing and ate all that as well.

Katie came in looking more healthy and cheerful than she has in two weeks.  John swears he is starting to feel better.  The car is fixed.  I too feel better but definitely am not quite over it yet.   The family across the field announced they are surviving just fine.  I'm glad we could come to Shabat from this vantage point rather than my frustrated one yesterday!

And so ends week one of 2022.