Convalescing

What happens when a mom is flat on her back for 36 hours, with fever, vomiting, and severe abdominal pain...all while her husband is a six-hour plane ride away enjoying a conference and sunset ocean cruise?

* the kids enjoy a dream day...a Monday marathon of tv watching...they develop slightly square-looking eyes.

* the house transforms from one that was relatively tidy on Sunday to a flipping tornado zone.

* mysteriously, there are crumbs all over the family room floor, surrounding the television...very interesting given that food is normally never consumed in front of the tv outside of pizza/movie nights every 4-6 weeks.

* every household blanket is piled into a huge mound in the family room...whether to form a mountain or some sort of fort or a giant resting place is unclear.

* the kitchen counters and table are covered with dishes, smears of honey and salsa, empty cereal bags, fourteen apple cores, and a lot of peanut buttery knives.  The floors are sprinkled liberally with tortilla chip crumbs, cheerios and granola bar wrappers.

* Matthew transformed into a one-day, take-charge kinda boy, feeding his siblings three meals and various snacks (which I'm guessing included a lot of peanut sandwiches, chips/dip, cereal, granola bars, and apples) and keeping relative peace while his mother contemplated the next life upstairs.  Thoughtfully, he also occasionally appeared at this mother's bedside with water and peanut butter sandwiches and muffins, not knowing that the mere sight of those love offerings prompted further vomiting.

* the mom magically loses five pounds...an amazing feat that has been attempted for some time but with little success until now.

Can you tell what I've been up to around here since Sunday evening?  And now that I've been out of bed and downstairs for almost two hours, my energy is totally gone again and I'm heading to the library chair for a rest while the kids actually get some fresh air on the trampoline.