I had plans to share more pictures from our trip here today, but figured you’d be much more interested in hearing about our week while we’ve been under the weather. I knew you’d really like to know details like just how many tissues we’ve gone through (actually toilet paper rolls at this point, we ran out of tissues a long time ago) and how we’ve been rationing the last of our Vitamin C.

I’m joking, of course, I won’t bore you with those kinds of details, but seriously the amount of nose-blowing-material we’ve used up in such a short period of time has been crazy. It started out with Bracken getting a cold, and then me, and then Jeff. (The nice thing about the staggering? The person feeling the best that day could help the person feeling the worst that day, and we were better able to help take care of each other.)

We cancelled activities last week and over the weekend, and hunkered down at home. Some things we were sad to miss, like celebrations that only come once a year. It’s funny, though,  how illnesses often come at times when you’re really needing to slow down more and just have some home time, and we have definitely been needing that. I had been feeling worn down on so many levels, in hindsight it wasn’t all that surprising my body slowed me down for some rest and regeneration time.

In the beginning I thought I would be a bit congested with a cold, but wouldn’t feel terrible, and could keep getting a lot done around the house. I was surprised by how knocked down I got, though. My entire body ached, and I couldn’t stand for very long at a time before feeling so weak I would have to sit down. Jeff was the one who finally noticed that many of our symptoms looked more like a flu than a cold. (Coughs, sore throats, mega mucus and congestion, runny noses then stuffy noses,  body aches, and tiredness… and then Jeff got a fever, so signs definitely pointed to a flu at that point. Either way, it has lasted a lot longer than any of us expected.)

We’ve been drinking huge amounts of tea, eating homemade soups (and broths), and going through (yet another) jar of Jeff’s homemade elderberry syrup. I’ve been loading up on garlic too. (Yesterday I read Wellness Mama’s tips for getting over colds and flus faster, and really liked it. I thought I would link to it here in case any of you found some helpful tips there as well. I always appreciate reminders of things I already know, too. I know our Vitamin D levels could use a boost, for one. We soaked up a little sunshine during our trip, but not much.)

Our old wood stove in our house is either going or not going (regardless of how much we adjust the amount of air we let in), meaning our house is either so hot it’s sauna-like, or cooled down with no fire in the wood stove at all. There’s no medium. It can be annoying at times, when we are wanting the house to be warm and cozy, but we don’t want to be sweating buckets. But I think having the house so warm and sweating a bit has done us some good while we’ve been sick. I joked that people spend money to go to saunas, but we have one right at home.

When we’ve needed a mellow activity to do, we have spread out my favorite, fuzzy cotton blanket and grabbed a game. We’ve been enjoying playing Wildcraft, which friends of ours gave to Bracken for his birthday in the fall. It’s fun to play, and we learn a lot too. Learning about herbs is something our whole family enjoys, so this game is quickly becoming a favorite. (On another note, the one thing Jeff likes about getting sick is actually having time to read books!)

I would like to say we’re all better now, but I’m still on the tail end of it (only slightly miserable) and Jeff is a few days behind me, so he’s still pretty miserable. I overdid it today, thinking I was mostly better, and set myself back a bit. I was so surprised that we needed to cancel more activities this week because we weren’t fully recovered yet, but we’ve had friends with flus this winter that have lasted for weeks and weeks. There has been some nasty stuff going around this winter. My grandma and I were e-mailing back and forth, sharing remedies. What are you guys doing to stay healthy this winter? Share your favorite tips in the comments, if you feel inspired to!