Well, the stomach flu has hit two of our family houses this week. Pam’s boys and little girl have had this malady. Emmie Jo stayed overnight with us on Saturday, and at 1:30 she woke me up saying, “I frowed up.” And did she ever throw up. We thought it was something she ate as we stripped the bed clothes as well as our clothes and got her back to sleep.
The next morning after washing sheets and cleaning up in our bedroom, she is sick again. Yep, stomach flu. We muddled through the weekend, and then on Monday, the big man started his nauseating trial of the affliction. Except, his was, as he explained to me, much worse than the baby’s had been. He spent his day in bed, I spent my day washing sheets AGAIN. We have a deep well out here. If not, I doubt we could pay our month’s water bill without assistance. I pretty much became his nurse for the next five days.
I am not playing down how sick he was or how sick anyone is with this particular bug and certainly do not mean to take away from a man’s virility or strength and tenacity as I say this, but have you ever realized how much sicker the male is than compared to the female? I have gone through this illness many times over the years and it was horrendous but I plowed through the discomfort, sometimes not well but moving on. I have a friend’s husband that has been sick with this same virus, and he was way sicker than her children were with the same thing.
I believe, in my case, my husband is so used to being the strong, take care of everything, handle all problems that when he gets to the point that he can't take care of me and everyone else, he feels devalued in his usual role of caretaker and he completely comes undone.
I saw a video on TikTok once that showed a man hooked up to some type of belted device that simulated labor pains a woman has giving birth. They wanted to prove that they could breeze through this difficulty with no problem and certainly easier than the weaker sex. About 10 minutes into the experiment, just when labor was beginning, they started to beg and plead to be released from the device. We, at this time cannot be released, so we just ask for drugs and carry on. Are we really the weaker sex? I think that men are made to react to things completely different from women. We were made for childbirth; men were made to hold our hands through this miracle.
So, I leave you with this. If your man befalls to this stomach bug, be patient because he is much sicker than others have been.
Fresh strawberries are abundant now, and I love a strawberry dessert.
One homemade or bought angel food cake torn into bite size pieces. Two flats of strawberries, cut up and mixed with 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla flavoring and macerated for about 30 minutes. One box of cream cheese flavored instant pudding mix, prepared and one large tub of whipped cream mixed.
Place angel food cake in bottom of a trifle dish, and cover with pudding mix and whipped cream, and then layer on strawberries. Layer until used all and top with crushed vanilla wafers and extra whipped cream.
