New Year's Recovery

Welcome to 2020! So far it's been a bit of a rough one, and we're not sure we want to see what the rest has in store.

Last week, we left off with Hannah, Avey, Carver, and I in Colorado Springs while Kira took care of some very sick little boys back home in Indiana. That all continued into the rest of the week, Merritt finally started feeling better from his ear infections after getting some medicine in him, but it sounds like it was a very dull holiday for them back home:

Hakan seemed to be getting worse, so Kira took him into the doctor, who tested him for strep and the flu, but both came back negative. We were both concerned because it seemed like he would start to get over his illness, and then a new one would start up. Anyway, he is acting normal now.

In Colorado, things were not much better. Carver and Avey were both struggling a lot with their colds. Carver's cough finally disappeared Monday sometime, and so he felt much better. Avey was doing okay, too, probably much spurred on by our plans to see The Rise of Skywalker early in the morning. We'd heard such mixed reviews about it that I was apprehensive, but I was impressed with the final result, and thought that it was a nice way to wrap up the story, despite a few critiques I have. We spent much of the rest of the day discussing the film.

Carver, who stayed with my mother during our movie, was excited to go New Year's Eve to see Frozen 2 with Kira's mom. Avey went along also, and said that it was very good, so the rest of us are looking forward to seeing it. They then went to pick up their great grandmother and played some games at their Grandma's house until it was about bedtime.

Without the kids around, my siblings and I chilled out playing some team video games and we all cooked and enjoyed a meal of dips along with a chocolate fountain. We then stayed up and chatted with each other.

We spent the morning of the First packing up and getting ready for our long, exhausting trip home the next day. Then, after lunch, the kids and I went to pay another visit to Kira's mom. The kids made themselves at home, playing together and making some progress on Grandma's latest puzzle. It was really nice to get Carver to do something else besides wallow in his stuffy nose and stare at the screen in my mom's basement: he was clearly feeling better. I helped out with a couple of small projects Grandma needed done: mostly just reaching a few things, and we caught up.

Our car drive home was long and trying, though the weather was just right. We even found out that we missed a blizzard from a few days before, so we were glad of that. I was especially exhausted after a rough night of sleep. Maybe it's the high altitude that I'm not used to, but I just couldn't seem to feel rested the whole time in Colorado. In any case, we made it home just before midnight, and had a warm welcome from Apollo and Kira. Kira impressed us all with how clean the house was. With the boys finally feeling better, she had them help get the place tidied up, and even scrubbed the stove cleaner than it's been since we moved in.

Friday, Hannah went into work for a rough day of catching up and dealing with grumpy customers and such. I did a little bit of catching up on work from home in the morning, and then got to work on putting away some of the Christmas stuff Kira had gathered up. We took down the tree and got many of the other decorations boxed back up, shocked again how much we have accumulated. It seems like every year we need a whole new tote to store all of our stuff. Kira took the younger two to a park, even though it was very cold, because they were all so done with their cabin fever. They'd had the van to go places, but their sicknesses just kept them from feeling well enough to go anywhere. Now that they felt more normal, they were aching to get out. The older two and I were so sick of being away that we stayed home to keep recovering from the trip.

I finally felt like I had some energy back on Saturday, so I was motivated to start some projects I'd had in mind. I was especially excited to move a tool shelf in the garage out of the way of our big freezer. It didn't take long, and now the organization makes much more sense. I then kept on the kick, and moved an old dresser we had from a neighbor into the garage for some extra storage. I installed some handles on it, and decided what to put where.

I took down some of the Christmas lights, but it snowed most of the day, so I figured I should wait to do the roof or tree lights. I'll have to get to all of that this week.

The kids start school again tomorrow, although Avey is still not quite feeling herself. She seems to have come down with the worst of her cold the day before we left Colorado. It's still hanging on, too, as she stayed home from church today. Although it will be hard to get back on normal schedule, it will hopefully provide the motivation for me to really start cracking down on preparation for my semester.

I'll end with a little fun Kira told me about. Yesterday, I gave Hakan a temporary tattoo of The Flash's iconic lightning symbol. It's on his forearm, and he has really liked it. Today, he refused to wear a long-sleeve shirt because he needed to be able to rub his tattoo in a certain way to become The Flash, as he demonstrated for Kira at church. He seems convinced that he really is a super hero, so it's probably best if everyone plays along for now...