Slowly reentering normal life….
Look at me. Showing up two days in a row. Ha!
I am feeling better each day. Last night I even made dinner. It felt so good to do something normal again. It was an easy dish and I am planning to share the link to it at end of this because it was so yummy. Check my notes under the link for how we fixed it.
This probably sounds dramatic, but I don’t know when I have been hit this hard with some kind virus. Talking to friends who have been through it, the course seems to take 10-14 days for full recovery. That’s a lot of life gone missing, if you ask me.
For the first two days if I wasn’t asleep, I sat and stared off into the distance. I tried to remember if I had always felt this way and what it was like to care about anything. Towards the end of the second day I attempted to put names to what I was and wasn’t feeling.
Miserable
Apathetic
Disinterested
Isolated
Malaise
That was it.
Malaise kept rising to the surface of my thoughts.
If you had asked me to write a definition for it, I couldn’t have done it but I felt the definition in every component of my body.
So on Day 3 when I had a tad more attention, I looked up the definition.
Malaise is described as a general, vague sense of being unwell. It is accompanied by lack of energy and a discomfort that makes you feel like you are tired even after you have rested. You are unmotivated and unable to perform normal actives.
That is exactly what I was feeling.
A total lack of well-being that was sapping my mind, body and spirit.
However what I discovered is that when you have the flu, your body can suffer from “flu fatigue”.
It turns out that the same chemicals released to fight the virus cause the body to feel very tired and the brain to fog over. The energy to fight the virus is redirected from other functions so that we are left feeling drained and fuzzy headed.
This serves to force us to rest and in resting we heal.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
Pushing through was not the answer.
Shaking it off was not an option.
I had to sit in the somewhat uncomfortable space where the minutes ticked by and I accomplished nothing until the work was done.
In the space of this, there were times when tears slid as I wondered if I would ever feel like myself again. Rationally I knew I would, but talking to friends who had been through it recently helped assure me what I was experiencing was part of the process and it would come to an end.
I pray for those who are in the throes of this current strain of flu going around. I pray for those who suffer chronic illness that sap their strength as a regular course of life.
I am thankful for the beginning return of interest and laughing again. I am thankful for my husband, children and friends who kept checking on me.
I am thankful for a God who heals in His timing. And I am thankful for you <3
https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/4-ingredient-ravioli-lasagna/
I made half a recipe. The pan I used is probably a 7 x 10 ish smaller casserole. I think a 9×9 would work.
We had sausage and cheese ravioli from Sam’s club (not frozen). I used one container (a pound), one jar of sauce and a little more than half the cheeses for each layer. I did chop up about 3/4 cup of spinach/arugula mix and added to last layer of ravioli.
Baking directions were accurate for non-frozen ravioli.
It was delicious and super easy.