June 8, 2011 3:20 p.m.

Little by little I have improved each day.  Each day I have more energy and less joint pain.  Today is the best day yet, although I still need to recharge my batteries once or twice a day (usually I can keep going all day long on an “overnight” charge).  Anyway, Fifth Disease really surprised me.  I had scarcely even heard of it before this year, never realizing how insidious, and how commonplace, it is.  Yesterday evening I was able to remove my rings from my left hand (my fingers had swollen up so much that it was impossible).  My knees are still a little stiff, and my fingers and toes are weak and sore to use after awhile, but I am not in any severe pain.  As you see, I can even type!

Anyway, my children have been very helpful, volunteering to serve me in any way they can (even as Chips has been dealing with the rash and swollen feet from this illness, himself).  The other day, Chips just began to straighten out the lower shelves of my pantry.  He did it on his own initiative, without even a suggestion from me, and it made a big difference.  Sweet Girl has cheerfully brewed some iced tea and made some instant pudding.  Chips is really maturing.  This week, when Sweet Girl claimed not to be able to find a library book  anywhere in the house, and after hearing that we would have to pay for the book, Chips went into her room and did a thorough search – enough to recover the book.  He also did not hesitate to telephone his violin teacher after leaving music at her home and request that she mail it to us.  When a friend of mine could not open up a Word file I sent to her, Chips went ahead and converted the file to a different format and sent it back to her.  So you see, Chips is really growing up.

Another word of praise I have is for the Calvert curriculum, once again.  Even when I was fatigued and sore, I was able to continue to homeschool without missing a beat.  I barely even had to think about it.  Chips, as you know, does most of his work independently, but Sweet Girl was able to assist me in teaching her because of the layout of the Calvert Lesson Manual.  All she had to do was look ahead to the next subject, go get the materials, and sit next to me as I did some “recliner homeschooling”.  She could then get the answer keys and wait while I checked over everything.  In this way, we have been able to keep up our normal pace of a lesson a day, with allowances for me to recharge (nap) as needed.  So that has given me real peace of mind.  All it takes is a week like this to make me really appreciate my health, and my kids, all the more.