Still Sick, My 36th Birthday

Well, I did not get better by my birthday. Though I tried to spend the weekend resting, the cold ramped up in intensity by Monday. I've felt absolutely horrible with one symptom or another since then. It seems like they keep trading off; one thing gets better but another gets worse. Since Monday, I've had a horrible cough, extreme fatigue, headache, and overall malaise. I had a few good nights of sleep, but last night I coughed a lot and kept waking up. I'm glad to be at home where I can rest. I've tried to do the bare minimum, but that's easier said than done. We're leaving for Rexburg tomorrow, and James and I will be in D.C. for a good chunk of that, so I really need to get better!

My birthday was all right. I'm glad we celebrated Sunday since I didn't feel horrible yet. I made devil's food cake, and Joseph made cookie dough ice cream. I got books and chocolate, both of which I've worked on this week. One big indicator that I'm not feeling well is the lack of appetite. That only happens with the worst of illnesses.

I've been this level of tired before, when I was pregnant with Samantha. Obviously I wasn't coughing a lot, but dang, I don't know how I survived that. I know I'll be doing a lot better in a few days. I already am, or at least I feel like I'm over the worst of it. This cold is like the one I had last year after NC, but I haven't lost my voice to that degree.

Time for a nap. I'm glad the kids can pack their own stuff now.

Rexburg, Sick, Pressure

James and Katie had a good trip to Rexburg, but it wasn't restful for anyone. This week has been a bit of a drag since everyone has a little bit of a cold. Naturally, that means headaches and fatigue for me, plus a sore (though mostly just scratchy) throat. It's a good week to be sick since we're not traveling, and I don't have any projects I'm working on yet. (I'm still excited about Phase 3 of the Head photos because it means I can finally make James's epic photo book.)

Over the weekend, we watched several movies: the Eras Tour, Wonka, PotC, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I had a RS brunch and broadcast Saturday and Sunday and kept busy during the days so only the evenings got lonely. I think this is the worst cold I've had all winter, and it's the first one that has progressed beyond headache/fatigue. I'm getting impatient because I want to be all better by Monday (my birthday). Though I haven't had a big project to work on, I've still been busy with my regular stuff. I'm also making a Holy Week book so we can study and sing about Easter all week long. I've been meaning to do it for a few years, ever since I made a Christmas Advent book, but I've never gotten around to it until now.

I keep getting the questions about when I'll start working. Here's the thing: I still have no idea. I know because of the photos project that I only have a part-time number of hours to spare in a week, maybe 15-20. It takes a lot of time and energy to take care of a house, husband, 5 children, and myself. I've been volunteering in Samantha's class once a week for 2 hours, and I don't feel particularly excited to go start teaching. I'm an introvert. Having hours at home alone has been amazing for my level of patience when the kids get home. They deserve a happy mom who isn't stressed out from being around other people's kids all day. Because of various projects this year, all the spare time I've had has been spent on canning, family history, and taking care of sick children in between. I've had very few instances of getting bored, even though I've had 4-7 hours alone every day.

Our neighbor mowed his grass already, and that's another kind of peer pressure I don't enjoy. We don't need to water till it gets to 70 degrees, and we're not there yet. It still makes me feel a little bad this his yard is so perfect. Yeah, we have grass, and we spend a fair amount of time maintaining it, but we don't go all out like he does. And yeah, that's a silly thing to feel pressure over, but it happens every year.

I resent feeling rushed in any way. I have my own timelines for things. I can be decisive about things when I need to be, but thinking too far ahead has only led to more anxiety, which I don't need. Today, I'm staying home with my children and not mowing or watering my lawn, and I will not feel bad about it.

Chill

I've had a fairly relaxing few days, or at least I've tried to. Since Saturday, I've read 4 books and done 0 projects. The time change on Sunday was a bit rough, and I didn't feel my best, but it turned out to be a minor cold and PMS on top of regular old fatigue.

It's nice to have nothing to report. A few of us have a minor cold and I have a presidency meeting soon, but that's about it for this week. James and Katie will be leaving for Rexburg tomorrow, but there should be enough going on during the weekend to keep me busy.

Photos

The photos project is almost finished! What I have left today is to sort through a few videos, add the new photos to my PC from 2009 and later, and double check to make everything is on the right drive. Not counting 2ish hours today, I spent a total of 100 hours on the project and ended up with an album of 6, 253 items. There is another album with 128 that don't have dates yet because they're very old. All the photos for the Phenix family and Head family are sorted by year, month (when possible), correctly dated, uploaded to Google Photos, and saved to the correct locations, depending on the family.

Well, it's a day later, and that didn't work out like I expected. I asked Melodie about putting everything on her Google Photos account, and she gave me her password, so I found myself with more work than I anticipated. I cleaned up random older stuff, added all the stuff I'd scanned, and then sorted through the years 2016-2023 since I hadn't seen most of them before. I also downloaded those photos to the external hard drives. Rather than sort them into months, I left them in zip folders. On Google Photos, I created a self-updating album for my household so when any photos of us are taken, we'll get them automatically. I added all those photos to my own account, computer, and external hard drive. We ended up with at least 1,000 new photos.

I stressed myself out a little too much yesterday, but I've found the end of the project for now, or at least for the next week until James goes to Rexburg. Melodie has some scrapbooks she wants me to scan and another box to sort through when I visit next, but I think there won't be a lot of new stuff to add. I kept up on my house and family for the most part, but yesterday did not have a good balance. I hate it when I get close to finishing something but it ends up taking longer than expected.

Next week, my plan is to sort through the videos of my kids from Melodie, edit where needed, and get them up on YouTube. I also have a pile of books I haven't looked at, so I'll work on those in my spare time instead of anything relating to pictures. This has been a great project, but at least for now, I'm tired!