An Update and some "Sick-Day" Activities

Two-weeks since my last post? Oi. Sorry, but I've really had a case of the "don't really cares," especially when it came to this blog. Just been in a FUNK. I got hit hard with 2 weeks of PMS {WTF?!} that left me feeling physically blah - cramps, fatigue, bloat, and the blues included. Add to that the fact that I was just getting really into swimming laps at the pool and they decide to close it for TWO weeks for cleaning and maintenance {double WTF?! I want the pool back!}.

Last week, I only worked out once. One single, solitary time - a 40-minute spin class. The rest of the week, I was a bum. This seems to happen once every couple months - I need a break from it all to just be lazy and sleep a little more than usual {which I totally did last week}. Since yesterday, I've felt more energized, rested, and very "go-getter!" Perhaps I needed a lazy week to re-energize and get myself back in the right place? Last night I rode 10 miles on my bike and it felt GREAT. Had Valentino not woken up from 2:30-3:30am this morning, I had a 4-mile run planned {I obviously slept until 7:15 instead}... hopefully I'll be able to squeeze that run {or another workout} in this evening. Tomorrow morning will be spin, and we'll see what the rest of the week has in store. I sense an active long weekend in our future!

Valentino is sick right now - poor guy! I can usually tell when he's going to get sick because he gets really grumpy and acts "not himself." This was not the case this time - he was an angel all day Sunday, but then as I was putting him to bed, his nose started getting stuffy. At 11:30pm, he started screaming and bawling his eyes out {plus vomiting mucus} because he was so stuffed up that he couldn't sleep. I gave him some Mucinex, which seemed to help and let him fall back asleep. He woke up so pathetic on Monday morning that we just couldn't send him to school... so home we stayed. There was lots of TV watching, cuddling on the couch, and computer games played, but I also wanted to *do* something as to not totally rot his brain for the day.

I've been really wanting to do some activities/crafts from my Pinterest boards. Enter my inspiration from this pin, originally from a bird and a bean's blog:

White cardstock with a bike made out of painter's tape and a sick boy

 

{Notice all his sweeping aparatai to the right - the boy loves to clean!}.

Let 'em go wild with the watercolors - Valentino was very methodical with his paint application.
Remove the painter's tape once the paint has dried {to avoid smudges}.

The finished product, framed in our sad "gallery" wall.

The longest part of this project was creating the bike out of tape - that took way longer than I expected! It was worth it though, since we now have an interesting and personal piece of art for our walls :-)

Now, I'm not the type of mom who would ban her kid from the outdoors when they're sick - afterall, sunshine {Vitamin D!} can cure so much! It was a warm, sunny day yesterday, so I allowed Valentino to ride his bike for about 10 minutes {I didn't want him to overexert himself or get too tired}. He and I also did some side walk painting, a la Katie's post {and my pin}:

The recipe from Katie:

1/4 C corn starch

1/4 C water

4 drops food coloring

The product:

He loved it {and I found a great use for those Easter egg dying cups!}

Welcome Home message for Daddy {Valentino wrote the "HI!"}

Yeah, I know - I made staying at home sick a little too FUN. However, the thing he wanted to do most {play with his friends down the street} was OFF LIMITS. So trust me, it was not all that fun for him ;-)