On the Mend!

Well, my friends...at long last I am FINALLY on the mend. I am a long way from feeling 100%, but I am up and around and not in nearly as much pain and agony as I was a few days ago. At 2 weeks already this has been one of the worst illnesses I've had in a long time...possibly even worse (and definitely longer) than when I had COVID a year ago.

I ended up in the Urgent Care on Thursday evening. My right ear and Eustacian tubes were full of fluid, which had made its way down into pain in my jaw, teeth and neck. It was awful. A couple good days of antibiotic in, and I'm finally starting to feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

I am looking forward to starting today to get my house back in order. I have some cleaning to do, and I need to do laundry. There is a deer roast and vegetables cooking in the crockpot. I am going to try to get some school done with Alysia, as we are a bit behind since I was so sick last week. 

Deer Roast, Potatoes, Carrots and Onions

Aaron took the Christmas tree down the middle of last week. I am hoping this week to get the lights down off the front porch outside. I have decided to leave the pink lights up that I put in the bathrooms, at least for now. They are pink and go well with my décor, and I like the ambient lighting. The downstairs bathroom is pink and gray with roses. The upstairs bathroom is decorated in a pink and teal mermaid tail motif. 

Aaron and I have really been discussing trying to conserve energy and money by looking at alternative lighting sources. This, of course, means going back to candles and oil lamps when and where appropriate. And for those of you who know Aaron and myself, we are both very old fashioned and love the things of yesteryear. There are times and places that this simply will not work. For instance, there is no way I will put an open flame in my daughter's room. So she will still use her light. And there will be times that we will need more light than that provided by lamps or candles. That's all good and fine, but in the meantime we will save money when and where possible with alternative lighting. I am actually quite excited as I love the look and feel a home lit by lamplight. It is one of the coziest and warmest feelings I know of.

I just took some time to balance my checking account and pay this weeks bills. Each bill puts more strain on our already tight budget, but I am hoping that we will get enough of a tax refund back that I will be able to pay one or two of the smaller ones off and alleviate a bit of the strain. This is a hard time of year to get through, but we have almost made it.

Alysia is sitting beside me working on rewriting a corrected essay for school on a day in the life of a child during the Civil War. She is a bit behind in school since I have been sick, but we are going to work hard on getting caught up in the next few days. 

Alysia Works On School

I am a bit behind on things myself. I am going to sit down here in a bit and work on our menu plan for this week. I also need to make a grocery list and order the groceries to be picked up. All in all...a lot to get done, but the biggest hurdle is pacing myself so I don't overdo it and end up back in bed sick.

Here is to looking forward to a productive and healing week, and more time to visit with you!

Happy Monday!