It’s been kind of a rough week for the Tjerngrens, with every single one of us felled by miserable cold. All four of the kids at home missed school the first four days of the week, and even Lydia was home feeling poorly for a couple of days. I went down to Uppsala on Monday morning and figured that I’d miss out on the fun, both because I rarely get sick and I was not in proximity of the germs. I wasn’t so lucky this time, however, and during my few hours of restless sleep on Wednesday I started to see the writing on the wall. I felt like hell on Thursday, but after resting up and drinking copious amounts of tea with honey that evening, I felt some better on Friday. Even so, the pressure in my head made my flight home that evening less than ideal. When I met up with Olof at the airport, I could see that he was starting to feel the effects himself, and the two of us have spent the entire weekend feeling sorry for ourselves and doing our best to foist parenting duties off on the other one.

I think (hope) the kids will go to school again tomorrow. They did all go on Friday, but Petra, especially, was still looking pretty peaky. Tage, too, seems like he might need a bit more rest. The little girls are coughing like crazy, but I think they’re pretty much okay. At this point Olof is probably feeling the worst among us. He has to go to work tomorrow for a couple of meetings, but he says he might come home at lunchtime if he’s not feeling a lot better. As for me, I’ve got quite a bit of work to do this week, but at least most of it is reading, so I can get it done while curled up on the couch with a hot beverage. I’ve had worse jobs.