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The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas are admittedly pretty indulgent months.

Lots of sugar, lots of TV watching, and lots of movies. Every year when I pack up the Christmas decorations, I also pack up the Christmas movies - or "specials" as I have referred to them for 40 years. We call it our Christmas detox. The TV goes off and we get back to a balanced diet. This is painful for everyone involved but it usually only takes a few days to for our bodies to forget the sinful pleasures of the holiday season.

Except this year.

The day after Christmas I got everything put away - including the specials - and all seemed to be going according to plan. Then Ellis got sick - for 5 days. Then Logan got sick - for 5 days. Sick kids in our house = TV watching, and lots of it, so the television has been on for two weeks solid.

Because of this, Logan has been introduced to infomercials. She said, "Hey mom... you could get space bags and the Alumawallet and roll over them with your car and your stuff wouldn't get damaged." She has added "Press Dough", "Slushy Magic" and "Wugglepets", which she thought really did "come to life before your very eyes." She is utterly fascinated by every product and is mesmerized by the brilliant marketing techniques. Needless to say, Logan will never be introduced to credit cards. I think there's just wisdom in that. Her flesh is too weak.

This sick has been the most wicked the DeJong girls have ever experienced. I have been in heavy combat with fevers around the clock for nearly two weeks between the two girls. Their poor kidneys and livers are getting a workout from all of the fever reducing meds. Praise God for a couple of things:

1. They are both excellent patients. They take their meds pretty willingly and humor my obsessive-compulsive temperature taking. The only problem was last night at 11:00p when I woke Logan up to take meds and she refused stating that "it's embarrassing". Clearly a fever induced stupor.

2. I have friends who will make runs to the store for me. I ran out of ibuprofen (gasp) and only had the chewable kind. When that triggered the gag reflex in Logan I had my friend Melissa make a liquid ibuprofen run for me. I have friends who talk me off the ledge when I am losing my mind. My friend Shawnna brought me back to sanity when Logan's fever was skyrocketing and reminded me to put her in the tub. She hated every second of it but it worked.

3. So far, I haven't had to clean up any vomit. The Lord has whispered in my ear at just the right times to be near my kids and my OCD with the barf buckets has paid off. With each girl, there was a period of about 2 hours that this horrible virus took over and caused the chills so bad they each vomited. This was not your ordinary vomit. It was so powerful and the duration so long it reminded me of the scene in "Stand By Me" when everyone was throwing up at the pie eating contest and it looked like a barf hose was turned on. Had I not been there with a bucket, it would have been catastrophic. Thank you Jesus.

4. I have learned to trust my ther-MOM-eter. None of our 4 thermometers seem to give me an accurate reading. What has been the most helpful is the ol' cheek-on-the-forehead trick. While it doesn't give me a number to obsess over, it does tell me how many other fever reducing techniques I need to employ.

Although we have now added PINK EYE to the mix of things to medicate, I think we are on the other side of this monster now. I just keep reminding myself that I have kids who are sick with an illness that will pass. There are millions of parents who would pay a lot of money to only have to deal with a fever and a little barf. Seasonal illnesses are nothing compared to the nightmare many parents are living with terminally ill children. God faithfully reminds me to rely on Him by pushing me into positions where I can't handle it. He gives me more than I can bear so I have to give him the load. Too bad that lesson has to hurt so bad each time :)