Welcome October!

I still can’t believe we are this far into 2021. I am here for it, though.  October usually ushers in a bit of cooler weather for us.  We’ve had our False Fall a couple of weeks ago when it was in the low 60’s and breezy in the mornings and only reaching into the lower 70’s during the day.  It felt absolutely heavenly! It was just the thing I needed to dig out the Fall scented candles.  It lasted only one glorious week, and now we are back to temps in the 80’s.

My husband absolutely loves Fall and Halloween, so before I even made it downstairs this morning he was in our storage digging out the decor!  We had to make our Walmart run and he couldn’t wait to go check out the Halloween costume selection.  He always dresses up on Halloween to hand out candy to the kids.  He’s like a big kid himself!  He didn’t really find a Halloween costume he liked, so we will keep looking.  On the way home, we passed our local produce and feed store and they had the most beautiful fall-colored mums for sale.  I mentioned to him that I wanted to get some of the purple ones to put up on our balcony.  I took a nap after the Walmart run and woke up to these beauties on our patio table!

When we passed by, these were facing the other way and I had no idea the pots had jack-o-lantern faces painted on them, but how perfect for Halloween?  If they live long enough, we can just turn them around to the plain orange side and keep them out through the Thanksgiving season as well.  I was so excited to add these to our outdoor decor!

In The Trenches

So, for the unpleasant thing we have recently dealt with.  After a whole 16 months of doing our best to be “safe”, Covid finally found its way into our home.  It’s been three weeks now, but we noticed on that Saturday evening that our son was coughing.  He does have seasonal allergies sometimes, and it’s now “Delta Crud” season where we live.  He was still coughing when he went to bed Sunday night and I actually had to get up and give him some cough medicine during the night.  However, by the time we got up Monday morning, his cough sounded really strange…almost like a bark.  It reminded me of a croup cough.  I called into work and promptly took him to our urgent care clinic.

He was tested for Covid and it came back positive.  I sort of had a small panic moment.  It would be up to me to do the sole caring for him, and I’m considered high risk due to diabetes and heart disease.  My husband was traveling for work.  We know our nurse practitioner, so she immediately wanted me to be tested even though I had no symptoms.  She wanted to refer me for the infusion treatment in case I had it as well.  Thankfully, my test came back negative.  So, this is what my countertops looked like for a little over two weeks:

Our son did as well as one could with this virus.  He slept A LOT.  Like, a whole lot!  He coughed and slept.  He had very little appetite and wouldn’t eat much.  He did, however, stay very hydrated.  He ran a fever, but only for a little while and always at night.  I constantly monitored his oxygen level and took his temperature.  My husband stayed with my mom after he had a clean test so as not to expose him any more than he had to be.  I just mainly felt so sorry for our son because he was probably one of a handful of kids at his school who wear a mask (his school doesn’t require it) and he has tried to be as safe as possible during all of this.  Thankfully, he soldiered through this and is ok, besides a lingering cough that the NP says will probably hang around for a while.  One more huge blessing is that the whole time I was caring for him, I did not come down with this virus.  I have no idea to explain it but that the good Lord protected me.  I still pray for that protection every single day.

Getting Back To “Normal”

So, we are getting back to some normalcy, although very slowly.  Our son returned to school this past Thursday and he has done well.  I also went back to work and I’m playing catch-up with my library lessons.  We’ve been in school for two months and I have been quarantined 4 weeks since the beginning of school.  I feel so behind at work.  I’m also trying to get through some professional development training online, so this has taken up some extra time.  I’ll be glad when this is done!

I’m just thankful that, for now, we are all well.  These are such uncertain times and I know we are all going through so many different emotions and circumstances.