I've spent the last few weeks feeling pretty sick. It started with a little cold that I had around Thanksgiving. We are trying to move to using homeopathic and holistic treatments whenever we can as more often than not traditional medicines do not actually heal the body, they just temporarily treat the symptoms. This started when my littles had a cold/cough and we bought her meds for it over the counter than did nothing to help her at all. In fact, they seemed to be making her worse, so we stopped them, and moved to homeopathic treatment that had her not only feeling better, but actually healed within two days. So, when I came down with a cold, I used the same treatments that seemed to be working the week prior to Thanksgiving. Two days after the holiday, the cold came back and almost instantly morphed into a sinus infection. I hate going to the doctor for anything I can fix myself, so I tried to do so with natural remedies and kept telling myself it wasn't that bad. After two weeks, it reached the point that I was having pain in my face and head beyond anything that could be treated at home--my headaches had reached the point of migraines, actually making me physically sick from pain. I finally broke and went to the ER late on a Saturday night. The doctor found that in addition to the one in my face, the infection had spread through my head and into my neck, which is actually quite serious. I was given a high dose of IV antibiotics there, then put on two long weeks of high dose ones at home three times a day (!), with the warning that if the headaches didn't stop by Tuesday I would have to return and it would mean a hospital stay and surgery to clear out the infection.
Thankfully, that didn't happen. I would love to say that I faithfully took my meds like a good patient....yeah, right. I did, for the first week. And then I started to feel better, the headaches stopped, and my face didn't hurt quite as much, so I started slipping into a habit of taking them whenever I happened to remember to. Ace was pretty patient about it at first, reminding me that I didn't want to run the risk of a hospital stay and of course He was right, so I tried to be obedient and remember. But, after a few more times of forgetting (over the course of a few days, give me a break!) He put His foot down and spanked me soundly for it. Now, almost two weeks later, I am feeling almost completely well, and thank goodness because I don't have any more time to be sick!!
Littles had her fall dance recital, her birthday party with her friends (which was extremely hectic!) and now she has a Christmas program tonight and her birthday on Monday, followed by crazy Christmas week. She is also excited because today her new cousin will be born and we cant wait to go visit my sister in the hospital tomorrow and meet this precious little girl! :) (On a side note, she is being named somewhat after me, with a first name that is close to mine and my middle name, and I couldn't be more honored or thrilled that her mother chose this name for her!!)
There has been a little tension around Ace's family. I am chalking it up to the holidays and a difficult situation that has come up regarding his grandmother. His mother is looking at the real possibility that her mother will have to be put into a care facility, as it has reached the point that Ace and I do not feel we can competently care for her here at home. His mother blames me for this, she thinks I am being selfish and I just don't want to do this. In reality, His grandmother is not right in her mind, and constantly engages in activity that could cause great harm to herself or us, often without even realizing that she is doing it. She swallows things that she thinks are food, she leaves the house and wanders outside, she has set the house on fire.....its a daily struggle, and we feel she could be better taken care of by those whose job is to watch and protect the elderly. Its very hard for us to do this around all of our other obligations. We cannot guarantee she will be safe here at home any longer.
On a more positive note, I've just submitted the final assignment of my college career. I am the first person in my family who has ever attended college, and I will graduate with honors. There is still some regret tangled up in all of this, but for now I am stepping back away from it and trying to focus on the fact that this is an accomplishment for someone like me, who never had any hope of going to college when I graduated high school. I found a way to make it work, and I finished it (even though its not the program I wanted to complete) and that's enough for now.
Finally, I want to re-post something I put on social media earlier this week. I grew up in an uber-religious home and community, so all over the social media everyone has been shouting about putting Christ back in Christmas and how wrong it is to acknowledge or celebrate any other holidays or ideas that don't center around Christian ideals. I personally find it ridiculous that they are arguing this around a holiday that actually has nothing to do with Christ, except for that someone somewhere once decided to make that the day of observation of his birth (there's ALOT of evidence that he was born nowhere near this time of the year!). I am not trying to bash anyone or their beliefs, I just do not understand why those who profess to be "Christians" have the most hostile and in-your-face tactics for announcing what they believe. I have never seen Jewish people insisting that we should say "Happy Hanukkah" or Africans insisting we should say "Happy Kwanza"......its only the "Christians"--the ones who are supposed to personify God's love--who feel it necessary to insist that we say "Merry CHRISTmas" because it is their holiday, so therefore more important than anyone else's (you can probably tell, I was a thorn in the side of my "religious" community growing up, its just too hypocritical for me to accept). And so with all of the arguments flying around, I posted a status on social media about it. I will tell you that it was not well-received by those I grew up with, but those I know now and who truly know me get it:
"This has been on my mind a lot so here goes: This season, I'm saying "Happy Holidays". Why? Am I anti-Christ or something? Do I want to take "Christ" out of Christmas? That would be a resounding no. Folks, holidays broken down is actually "holy days"....by saying happy holidays, I am really saying that no matter who you are, what you believe, or what you celebrate, my hope for you is that, especially during this season, you will be happy, blessed, and know the joy of having friends and family near you. Its not a proclamation against any religion or belief system, but rather an all encompassing wish to everyone as they celebrate the many special days that fall in this time of year. So, on that note....I hope you have very happy holidays (whatever they may be to you)!"
And that, my friends, is my wish for you also. I hope this season finds you happy and surrounded by those you love and who love you. That's what it should be about.
~sugar
