Plague at our House!

My family apparently has the plague.  We have been sick, I kid you not, since early January.  It all started with a memorable Sunday at church when I was summoned out of Relief Society by Fionnula's new primary teacher, who informed me in the hallway that Fionn was "puking in the drinking fountain."  Great.  Don't worry, it is now the cleanest drinking fountain in the building.  I disinfected the bejeebers out of it.  The thing is, in a family the size of ours...even at it's current diminished size, one person coming down with anything can mean weeks of passing that anything around the house, and if multiple people bring home separate viruses, well goodness help us all. This time I think I can track at least two different infections that are making the rounds and possibly a third. It is no fun.  And any sympathy I demonstrated early on for the sickies has slowly ebbed away.  I am just so tired of it all.  Yep, with this many kids you want to be one of the first sick, when Mom is still willing to make you cream of wheat and jello and get you all comfy on the couch and bring you blankets and buddies (stuffed animals) and read to you and snuggle with you.... if you are near the end, she doesn't have it in her anymore and you find yourself filling up your own humidifier and making your own honey lemon tea while Mom plays one more level of Candy Crush.

I have to say, I prefer it when whatever illness it is just strikes everyone at once, there are a couple of really frightening days.... and then another couple days of cleaning up the aftermath, and it is over.  At least I do, right now, as I endure the endless days of one or two or three children at a time stumbling around in a stupor, and squabbling for rights to the couch and the remote.  Because I have lived through some hellish bouts of everyone sick at once too, and probably when I was in the midst of those I would not claim to prefer them over the days that go on basically as planned, if a little more slowly and with someone new every few days occupying the couch for 72 hours.
Like that time I had 4 children under five all puking.... we covered the entire living room floor with old blankets, gave them all a bucket, and hung out watching Disney movies and disinfecting one bucket after another.  Yeah, that wasn't fun.  Or how about eight children, including a nursing infant AND both parents all vomiting.  Seriously, I just puked right over the baby in my arms.  Not so much fun either.  But they were both over with within about 48 hours.  None of this lingering sneezing and coughing and moaning and whining and yes, even occasional puke that we have been dealing with for five weeks now! Five weeks! There aren't enough Disney movies on my shelves to get us through another five weeks.... ok, let's face it, there probably are, but that is beside the point!