Sick, our tree, the pigs

I left work very early Tuesday morning. I should not have gone in, but I do not have any sick time left so, I thought it best to tough it out. That was not the best choice. When I got home, I laid down and ended up spending most of the day in that position. A very rough night Tuesday night led to me calling in Wednesday. So far, December has not been a good month for me. I missed the first week due to our trip to Honduras. (Loved that part of my absence.) Then, I missed the last two days due to sickness. Fortunately, we have enough savings to make up the loss I pay, but it definitely was not my first choice. It has just worked out that way.  I was feeling too badly to go to the funeral for a church family member on Tuesday and still too sick last night to go to church. Victoria ended up going to church by herself. Mama, too, was feeling poorly. Hopefully, today will be a better day. I seem to be on the mend, but time will tell. I still will be no help with the singing at our Christmas Cantata on Sunday.

It is interesting that three other people I spent Friday with are also sick. All with much the same illness I am experiencing. Two of the three returned to work today – as did I. One is still out. I am not sure if there is anything related to the illness, but the coincidence is hard to ignore. Regardless, the commonality of the illness is enough to make me wary about exposing some of the more susceptible church members to whatever we all have. I am told that being on antibiotics for 24 hours solves the infectious nature of any particular sickness, but I am not convinced that I am really non-infectious. Especially since Mama seems to be showing the same symptoms I had at the onset. In Mama’s case, it would be very inconvenient for her to get sick since it would postpone her surgery. She is very worried about that consequence. So far, she has managed to successfully battle the germs. We are praying she continues in that.

While I was recuperating yesterday, Mama and I set up the Christmas Tree I bought on clearance last year. I was pleasantly surprised by the tree. Mama was very pleased with it. I snapped together in three pieces so, setting it up was very easy. Once we splayed out the branches, it was very full looking – enough to satisfy Mama. We did not decorate it yet. That will follow later this week as we find all the needed totes of Christmas decoration. Where to place the tree is still not decided. There are some possibilities – all of which require moving furniture around. A couple of the prospective places require moving furniture out of the house. I am confident we will have the placement finalized by tonight; regardless of the extent of rearranging required. It is nice to have a tree up although, I am not at all in the Christmas spirit. I spent that energy in Honduras. Maybe having Andrew, Brittany and the twins here next week will help, but I have not bought any presents – for anyone. Mama and I agreed no to buy for each other. Whether or not we follow through on that remains to be seen. But with only a few days to go until Christmas, it looks like we might hold to that decision.

Our two new charges, the pigs we recently bought and brought to the farm, are almost as wild as those born in the wild. I am letting Mama do all the tending right now to see if they calm down some. So far, that has not happened. It is a good thing that I checked the fencing in the enclosure, because they have tested it pretty thoroughly over the past few days. We have never had a problem calming those of our animals that seemed to be wild when we got them, but so far, I see little improvement in these two.

If anyone can do it, Mama can.