It's amazing how something invisible can totally take everything out of you...

Last night was the first night I've slept through the night since I had the flu. Yeah, that sore throat last weekend wasn't strep, it was the first stage of the flu. So I woke up this morning feeling really, really great. I spent about the first half hour with my cup of coffee and coughing...coughing a lot. But I hadn't woke up coughing in the night (NyQuil is really, really great!) so I didn't really mind coughing this morning. The sun came out which, frankly, has been a very infrequent occurrence lately. So I got out my to do list and at the top was to rake the leaves that are piled everywhere around our house. I took the kids to school (except for Sara...she has the flu now) for the first time this week, came home, changed my clothes, and promptly sat down to catch my breath. But I was still feeling pretty good and was very tired of sitting on my couch staring at all those leaves. So I went outside, started the fire in the pit, and tackled those leaves. After about 5 minutes I realized this was going to be much more draining than I realized. Okay, so I'll lower my expectations and only do part of them. I cleaned off the driveway (you couldn't even really tell where our driveway was) and then I was done raking. The gutters had to get cleaned out before it rained. So now it is 10:38, and after many breaks (helping Sara with her homework) I raked the driveway and cleaned out 2 of the 4 gutters. And, yep, I'm done for the day. It's back to the couch to stare at the leaves for me.

The secret to good cooking

I spent most of my weekend on the couch. The body couldn't hold off the germs in the house any longer. I'm doing much better now thanks to a great husband who kept me medicated with ibuprofen and tylenol all weekend (and made sure I didn't OD on any of it as I kept asking for me). Almost back to normal except the excruciating pain that I have whenever I swallow. My throat is so very sore. Ahh, swallowing is overrated. Joe keeps hinting that a doctor visit in my future. Anyway, since I was on the couch and Joe was watching the herd I got caught up on a lot of my DVR'd shows and then some. I'm fairly TV'd out at this point. I actually watched QVC for part of the weekend. They were selling Rachael Ray's kitchen equipment so I didn't feel like I was completely wasting my time. And I picked up a very important cooking tip. It is the secret to great and perfect food. Cooking food in Rachael Ray's stoneware makes the food taste good. Who know that was all it took? I'm sure it's true...the sales lady said it so matter of factly. And here I've wasted all that money on my cookbooks. I just needed good Rachael Ray stoneware! I bet my kids would even eat creamed spinach if I just made it in that.