Weekly Update: 12.23.23
When I published last week's update, I was optimistic that we were going to escape a family-wide Covid fest. As of Saturday afternoon, however, my nephew was sick, followed by each of my nieces in the following couple days.
We tested the kids for Covid, and the tests came back negative. After talking to our nurse dad, unfortunately, we think the kids had something else -- probably something they brought home from a trip to Wonders of Wildlife last week.
Midweek, my mom and I both started feeling under the weather. Jeremiah followed right after. Others started to cough more as the week wore on.
We gave up on getting anything done in the bunkhouse, enjoying the opportunity to focus on the lighter work of holiday prep. We had fun being creative with our cooking -- using the air fryer to make cookies, and the grill to make pretzel turtles. We have also enjoyed the antics of our nieces' and nephew's visiting Elf on the Shelf -- who, incidentally, got a girlfriend this week. We are thankful that we got so much of our holiday cooking done ahead of time. Most of the gifts are wrapped (aside from a few items yet to arrive). With so many adults, we are confident we will be able to pull off Christmas -- even if we aren't at our best.
On Wednesday, we celebrated my birthday. I was gifted a day off -- something that has possibly never felt so good. My family showered me with presents. Among other goodies, I received a gift certificate to a hair salon for a much-needed haircut, a beautiful apron, books, and new overalls -- my last pair was both worn out and too big, thanks to all the healthy manual labor out here. I spent most of the day reading, first from the novel Charis in the World of Wonders by Marly Youmans, then aloud from my new copy of Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn. Though I wasn't feeling the best, I couldn't have had a better day.
This holiday season isn't exactly what we would have chosen. In an ideal world, we would be healthy and attending church each week of Advent. Still, as I said last week, we feel so blessed to be living our dream. Being sick during the holidays doesn't matter so much as it used to. We are thankful to be right where we are, doing what we believe God wants us to do. Celebrating Christmas on our land is a dream come true -- and being sick while we are doing it doesn't really change anything.