Surviving the Stomach Flu

            I have been MIA from my blog for the past few weeks, for good reason.  My little family of four has been suffering through the stomach flu.  Yuck!  Believe me when I say “yuck” does not even cover the amount of grossness I have witnessed over the last few weeks; especially when my 2-year-old doesn’t understand (or rather is unwilling) to vomit into a bucket, rather than spraying it all over everything in a 10-foot radius.  She actually took off walking in most cases, leaving a trail as she went.

            It started with my son.  In the wee hours of the morning on 4/3, he woke us because he had vomited all over his bed.  Got him cleaned up and his bedding changed out, tucked him in, and not even 30 minutes later he vomited again.  That’s when we knew this was more than an isolated incident, and that we were in for a long road.  Cleaned him up again and all the commotion woke my daughter so I decided to bring him downstairs with me so I could take care of him without disturbing her.  I put him on the couch and I blew up our air mattress and camped out beside him. 

Have you ever tried to spring-into-action to get a bucket to your vomiting child from an air mattress?  It’s like trying to get off a blob that everyone else is jumping on.  You’re trying to get off, but it’s just not happening.  I’m not especially graceful on a normal day, so being in that place that is between awake and sleeping, then trying to shoot up like a rocket from said air mattress was a funny sight, I’m sure.  Sleep didn’t happen for either of us that night.  He vomited about every 30 minutes.  He finally dozed off about 6 a.m., just as the princess was waking up.  We were just dealing with vomiting until that afternoon, then it started coming out the other end as well.  He couldn’t even keep down liquids for a while…all he really wanted was milk but dairy is a no-no for a while with the stomach bug and he wasn’t happy about that.  The princess started her vomiting Friday afternoon, and my husband started his symptoms on Saturday. 

I thought for sure I would be next…but I wasn’t—not sure if my immune system is just that stellar, or if it was purely the grace of God, but I am thankful either way.  It is rough on a household when Momma’s down.  I felt sluggish and sickly a few days while taking care of everyone else, but maybe that is just because I was working around the clock with close to zero sleep.  Felt like I was back in the newborn-baby days for a while—where everything is just a haze and your days are running together.  In the middle of it, it felt like it would never end.  I’ve never washed so many loads of clothes and bedding that fell victim to vomit. 

Their stomachs were touchy until just a few days ago.  Last week—about 8 days after my son started with this, we decided to get out of the house for a bit and grab a bite in the drive thru.  It had been several days since he had vomited at this point, so we thought it was safe.  We were enjoying our meal, when he started screaming.  I thought he was hurt.  He was crying and trying to say something when I finally realized he was saying he was going to get sick.  He vomited everywhere before I could get a bag to him, which was useless because it ended up breaking under the weight of his stomach contents.  Hubby found an empty ice cream bucket (I keep those around and use them for all kind of random things) in the trunk and that helped with the rest of what came out. 

Have you ever tried to clean vomit out of your car, and your child’s car seat?  Believe me when I say it’s not a fun time.  Although I have to give credit to my hubby, he handled this gross job, once we got home, and I got the job of cleaning little man up, which was no joke.  Of course, I was not upset that he got sick, but it was a moment when you think ‘wow, parenting is hard.’  He was so upset about still being sick though—I know his poor little body had to be exhausted from the ordeal they went through. 

My house looked like a warzone.  I tried to keep up the best I could, but it was hard enough just keeping up with their needs, and the washing machine.  I’m finally digging my way out, just in time for Holy Week.  Many extra preparations go into Easter, for our sunrise and normal services, and this year, our church is doing a Maundy Thursday service, which is tonight.  I’m looking forward to the time of reflection.  Both our adult and children’s choir programs were last Sunday (I conducted the adult program and my kids were in the other one), so it has been a busy few weeks.  We’ll have/had something going on every night this week, so I’m hoping that next week, there will be some time with zero sickness, and a little bit of rest.

If any of you ever find yourself juggling a 2-year-old and 4-year-old who have bodily fluids coming out of both ends, let me encourage you with this phrase that my mother has said to me often (and continues to say): “this too shall pass.”  Meaning…this trying time will soon be gone from you.  It will not last forever.  God provides us grace to get through those tough moments.  I am not normally a person who can handle seeing others vomit without doing so myself, and yet I was able to hold it together over the past few weeks.  I’m also thankful for a husband who understands my trouble with this, and who helped clean some of these messes, but more times than not, you are capable of more than you think Momma’s…it will rise up when you need it.  Blessings!

Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers

            Have you ever tried a recipe that didn’t turn out very well the first time, but you felt like it had potential so you gave it another go?  That is what this recipe has been for me.  I love the idea of doing stuffed peppers in the crock pot, however, I have good and not-so-good things to share about this recipe.  My first experience with this recipe didn’t go as planned.  All of the ingredients were in the crock—I started my timer and about one hour into the 8-hour cooking time, our power went out.  There was no storm or terrible weather—it just randomly went out.  The power stayed off for about an hour before it came back on so I wasn’t sure if my results were accurate and felt like I needed to give this recipe another chance.  I found it here: Recipe

            Although as it turns out, the power outage had nothing to do with some of the problems I had the first time, because they were still an issue this time.  Before I continue, some of you might be thinking, ‘if this wasn’t a complete success why are you sharing it?’ and to that I would say—first because I’m just honest like that, and secondly because I think this could be even better with a little tweaking.  Lastly, because I’ve seen this all over Pinterest and thought some folks might appreciate an honest opinion.  Back to the review:

            First, how to put your peppers together:  Prep your peppers by washing them, then cutting off the tops, and removing the seeds/ribs.  You’ll need a 5-6 quart crock pot for this recipe. 
            You can use whatever color bell peppers you prefer.  I already had three red ones on hand, and bought a three pack that had a red, yellow, and orange, but green or any combination will work.  You'll want at least 6 peppers.

Prepare your filling:

I used my stand mixer for this—makes it a breeze to put together.  Mix until well incorporated, but not too long.  Stuff your prepared peppers with filling and place in crock pot:

Now, we come to one of my problems with the recipe.  It makes WAY too much filling for 6 peppers.  Not all of my peppers were huge this time, but the first time I did it, they were all very large, and I still had too much filling.  Here is how much filling I had left over:

I didn't know if it would stick together well enough to form meatballs, so off the top of my head, I decided to form some masses of filling that would hold up my peppers and keep them from floating around when I put in the liquid.  I put one large chunk in the center, and one on each side:

          The recipe says to cook these for 8 hours on low.  The first time I did these, one of my issues was that the peppers seemed to be mush... they completely fell apart when I tried to get them out and I had filling swimming around in liquid.  I thought it might be due to the one hour delay during my power outage the first time.  Turns out, I think they just cook too long or maybe this is just the texture you get when you do them in the crock pot.  Personally, I like my peppers to have a little bite, so I would like to try not cooking them as long (as long as the filling is done of course).  The recipe calls for vegetable stock, which I used the first time.  It was okay, but I used beef stock this time, and liked it better.  Back to the filling issue--the recipe calls for 1.5 lbs of ground beef--I think 1 lb is probably the better choice because it appears that I had about a half pound left over.  Or, if I had two or three extra peppers, I may have been able to stuff them all in my crock (the one I used was either 6 or 6.5 quarts, FYI).

Over all, I did enjoy the filling.  It was a little bland for me, so I plan to add some more seasoning next time as well.  The recipe needs to be adjusted a little for my taste, but I still think its a great recipe and plan to continue to use it in my rotation.  Hope you enjoy!  Blessings!