Sick of Sick and other Updates

I used to think my family had good immune systems. We seemed to avoid a lot of illnesses and were never struck too hard with whatever was going around. Our visits to the doctor were generally limited to well-visits. Not anymore! I am not sure what has been going on the last couple of years, but we have had some rough winters! I honestly can't remember the last time all 6 of us were healthy. Granted, most of it is very minor. I am counting colds, but still! The latest annoyance is Anna's pink eye. She woke up on the 20th (a Thursday) with a little bit of pink, watery, eyes. It wasn't too bad and I thought it might be related to a little sty in the corner or her eye, so I sent her to school. The next day it was clearly pink eye. We kept her home. We have fought pink eye before and I know that the vast majority of cases are viral and eye drops won't help.  We treated with cold cloths and colloidal silver. She stayed home again on Monday, but seemed back to normal on Tuesday. We thought it was all over. She looked great on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, I noticed her eye looked slightly watery again. To shorten this story, by Sunday she couldn't get her eye open and it was the worst it had ever been. I broke down and took her to urgent care and got the darn antibiotic drops. We have never had pink eye clear up and then reappear, so maybe it is a rare case of a bacterial infection (as opposed to viral). Meanwhile, Thomas has flu-like symptoms and has been miserable all weekend. But, I need to say again how thankful I am that our heath challenges are minor and simple inconveniences.

In better news, we went to the school's annual Sock Hop last week. Everyone had a good time, it's one of the few things we've done every year, so now it feels like an unbreakable tradition. They always do a silent auction and I generally place bids, but have never won anything. This year, we bid on a Nintendo Switch and a book basket. The kids loved monitoring the bids and Anna and Kara "guarded" the sheets and would run to us every few minutes to let us know if we were still winning. We were outbid on the Switch, but won the book basket. Jack was so disappointed, but handled it well. They also had fun dancing and playing with their friends. Luke had a great time. He loved holding his "ticket" and handing it to the volunteers to redeem his root beer float and brownie. And, he was super cute dancing with the big kids.

Jack had his first baseball game Saturday. His team lost by one run, but fought a good fight. Meanwhile, Kara had a soccer game. Her team lost, but Kara scored her first goal! She was very excited. Her team can be difficult to watch, unfortunately, they haven't won a game yet. In fact, they didn't even score a goal the first two games. But, Kara has maintained a positive attitude and played hard. We have been very proud of her, it is easy to be a good sport on a winning team, but it's definitely more challenging when you are down by double digits week after week. 

Jack and Anna had their 3rd grade recorder concert. It was enjoyable and fun to see how much progress they've made. I like that they start teaching them to read music and play an instrument in 3rd grade. 

In conclusion, here is a side-by-side of Jack and Luke. The other day, we were playing in our neighbor's sprinklers and Luke was wearing Jack's old swim suit. I was struck by the resemblance. For a moment, it was like Jack was 3 and standing in front of me again. It was a sweet moment and a reminder of how quickly time goes by.