Quarantined!

This was a first for the McCarthy family. Liesel, Joshua and myself were each diagnosed with a virus this past week. In fact, all four of us had an appointment with a doctor within 48 hours. It started on Tuesday, when Nath was diagnosed with Strep. Fortunately for him, he was prescribed some antibiotics and he was back to his normal happy self 24 hours later. Liesel, Josh and I went to the doctors on Thursday. We all tested negative for Strep, so the doc's best conclusion for our symptoms, it must be a virus.....

So needless to say, with 75% of the McCarthy family feeling under the weather, we spent most of the weekend in the comfort of our warm house. This was a great idea considering this was the coldest weekend recorded so far this season. When we woke up on Saturday morning, the temperature outside was a frigid 5 degrees (-15C) and we found ice on the inside of our windows!! Nathan and I did venture outside at 2pm (when the air had warmed up to a balmy 17 degrees/-8C). Every few weeks, we sign Nathan up for the Brick Builders Club at our local library, where children 6 - 13 years of age get an hour to play with a huge selection of Lego. He loves this time and uses his imagination to come up with some remarkable models!

That evening, we still had our regular family fun night. My choice was to play the board game, Ticket To Ride. Liesel suggested that we make a fire in the fireplace and play on the carpet in front of the flickering flames!

We decided to skip church on Sunday morning, and again spent the day indoors, although Liesel did brave the weather for a quick grocery shopping trip for a few essential items. Throughout the day, Hurricane Josh struck multiple times. The first wave hit when he discovered that the cushions on the couch are removable, and soon the couch was stripped bare, and had become his new "boat"! The second wave hit shortly afterwards, when a bowl of popcorn that he was snacking on was directly in the path of the storm. Once the storm had passed, the playroom was covered in a layer of what Nathan called "snow". The strength of the hurricane became evident when Josh toppled his wooden activity table and the proceeded to push around the house! The fourth and final wave hit when our backs were turned for no more than 10 seconds. Josh had found the family size box of tissues, and managed to liberate them one by one, all over the play room floor! On the bright side, we survived the weekend and Hurricane Josh's destruction. After a bit of cleanup, everything was back in its place, the boys were put to bed and Liesel and I could finally rest our "virus-ridden" bodies ;-)