Things aren't peachy-keen here at the Ball household. It all started Wednesday night; Julie wasn't feeling well – sore, tired, sick, etc. – and I ended up staying home on Thursday to make things a little easier for her, though I'm afraid my nursing skills are far below par (sorry Mom...).

That same day, Sarah had her appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor – Sarah was referred there by her allergist and our family doctor in the hopes that her allergy symptoms can be reduced. The “ENT” recommends that she have her tonsils and adenoids removed, so that'll happen some time after school is out.

To top it all off, Rebecca has been pretty sick – very congested and uncomfortable, and incapable of sleeping more than two hours at a time, even during the night, so sleep has been a precious commodity.

Friday started out pretty normally; Julie was feeling a lot better, so I went to work. Unfortunately, I got what she had and was feeling pretty bad by the end of the day. So Julie was up most of the night taking care of Rebecca, since I was all but useless, which wasn't great preparation for a busy day on Saturday.

We didn't get much done on Saturday morning, though Sarah did make it to a friend's birthday party. Julie's parents came on Saturday afternoon to help us with what was certainly the highlight of the weekend – we now have a new kitchen window! It's a garden window, so it helps our kitchen to look a bit bigger, and certainly nicer – Julie's dad did a great job of installing it for us.

Unfortunately, at one point during the day, Bethany accidentally scratched Sarah's eye with her fingernail, so after dinner, we ended up taking Sarah to the emergency room while Julie's parents kindly watched Bethany for us. Sarah was in a lot of pain, and has a nasty scratch on her eyeball. She's doing a lot better now, and is using topical antibiotics to prevent infection. Thanks again to Julie's parents, who went above and beyond the call of duty yesterday!

After another sleepless night, our family was clearly not going to be able to make it to church today, so I'm afraid we had to skip. Julie has been doing a great job of taking care of the family, and me in particular – I sincerely hope that I'll start feeling better by tomorrow morning.

All in all, I thank God for Julie, and I feel for all of the single parents out there. Days like these are hard enough when there are two parents – I simply can't imagine what a single parent must go through when they get sick...

Time for me to go and get some more rest. Here's hoping for a good week!