I am starting this blog post while sipping a cup of warm tea with local honey — Something I thought I would have to wait another month to have without feeling overheated. But luckily, the temperatures have dropped into autumn weather for a few days at least.

And of course, I have been drinking some warm tea in front of the air conditioner or fan to make it feel like fall anyhow as I have mentioned in previous posts.

I needed the warm tea to help relax me after a fairly busy week. It wasn’t the worst, but it was a lot of back-and-forth running to activities on some of the days. I was so grateful today to just lay in bed and enjoy the morning instead of rushing out the door to some activity or another.

For four out of the five days, I took Little Miss to a half-day Bible camp at a church about four minutes from our house. On Monday we had a 4H baking camp for about two hours in the evening and on Wednesday, we went swimming for 2 1/2 hours at my parents in the rain, which was actually very fun. On Thursday we took a break after camp and caught up on housework and just relaxed.

On Friday we went swimming again for another two-and-a-half hours but this time we broke up that time by getting out of the water and eating a little before we went back in again. I don’t swim a lot when I get in the pool, by the way. I mainly watch Little Miss and this week I watched her learn how to swim underwater for the first time, which was a lot of fun. She was so excited that she was able to do it and overcome her fear of having her face in the water.

Today, I am heading out to pick up groceries from Aldi and also swinging around and pick up a friend of The Boy’s. For people who are not familiar with the area I live in, “swinging around” actually means an hour-long trip for groceries and to pick up the friend. That’s one hour one way and another hour on the way back. That’s why we carve out a half a day to a full day for things like a grocery pick up because we have to figure in the driving time.

I usually try to make the grocery pick-up trips as quick as possible so that it isn’t as tiring. I actually do pick-ups now because walking around the store plus the half an hour to and from the store just seemed like a lot, especially when my autoimmune issues are acting up. Unfortunately, I never know when those issues are going to act up so the pickup is a better bet.

Circling back a bit — we had a little of a nerve-racking experience on Monday when we went to the baking class because in the middle of it, a tornado warning alert went off on all of the parents’ phones. We were all in a rather sturdy brick building and knew that running out and getting in our cars would not be safe so the class was continued to try to distract the children from the darkening sky outside.

Little Miss has been battling anxiety lately, and I am sad to say that I am certain it is my own battle that has caused her to deal with the anxiety as well. Sadly, when anxiety hits her, she sometimes becomes faint and has fainted three times in the past.

So far, she has fainted about once a year in the last three years after a fright or traumatic experience. Once she fainted after a non-venomous snake bit her and that time she hit the corner of a very hard wooden table on her way down. That required a trip to the ER because she went limp after hitting the table and couldn’t keep her eyes open or her head up. In the end she was okay and cleared by the hospital, but we kept a close eye on her (a.k.a. I woke up all night long that night and checked her breathing and shook her awake a bit to know she was okay)

About a year later, she drank some orange juice very fast and it burned her throat and she had a hard time getting a breath for a brief second. She became a little anxious and her body reacted by causing her to pass out. She came to less than 30 seconds later and was OK but frightened.

About two weeks ago she broke a glass at my parents’ and cut her hand. It wasn’t a big cut but at the sight of blood, she went down again on me.

What I am amazed at is how quickly her body reacts and how quickly she will faint in a stressful situation. I’ve started calling her the fainting goat of our family.

We had another slight medical scare last week that turned out to be nothing, but I had to work through it with her by putting a cold cloth on her face and asking her to tell me three things she saw around her, what the cold felt like against her skin, and what she’d liked most about our dog, Zoom The Wonder Dog.

She calmed down quickly that day and we were able to avoid a fainting spell.

When she heard about the tornado warning on Monday, I knew that I would have to ground her and help keep her calm or I would have to pick her up off the floor. My anxiety was pretty high at that point as well, but with a lot of prayers she and I both made it through even when the lights went out in the building and the generator kicked on leaving only dim lights in the hallways.

The other children played and ran, sliding in the hallway on the linoleum floors. This distracted Little Miss and she tried some sliding as well. Ultimately, the area escaped any major damage with only a few trees down. South of us there were trees down and power out.

Little Miss’s fainting spells remind me of the girl in Anne of Green Gables who was always fainting when something scary happened. I can’t remember her name at the moment.

 I know that fainting in children can be common but the first time it happened was terrifying. Now I know that she will be OK within 30 seconds so I simply hold her tell her she’s fine and that she’s going to be sitting up and fine any minute now. I do find it interesting that despite all my years of anxiety and panic attacks I have yet to pass out. I’m very glad of that as we can only have one family member at a time who faints so easily.

After such a full week I am looking forward to only having one activity on our radar next week – a second week of the beginner baking class. Hopefully there won’t be another tornado warning.

In the midst of all this running back and forth we’ve also been dealing with fleas on our pets because the flea medicine didn’t work last month. This is the second time this has happened in about a year so it is very frustrating. We heard that Dawn Dish soap can help but I was terrified of bathing the cats because – well – cats hate water. One morning, though, the youngest cat, Scout, was lazily laying on the bed so I took the opportunity and dunked her. It went better than I expected but I knew the cat we call The Beast would not be as easy.

It wasn’t. All I remember was flailing cat legs, splashing water, dark fur and me somehow narrowly missing getting any scratches or having my throat ripped out by her massive paws. In the end she was wet but not washed.

We just waited until we got the new dose of flea medicine a few days later. Unfortunately they no longer have the medicine that takes care of both ticks and fleas – saying it had been discontinued, which I highly doubt.

Treating our animals costs us close to $80 each month and the products aren’t working as well so it is very frustrating.

Busy summers and an uptick in fleas remind me why I love Autumn and Winter. For one, less fleas and for two, I can stay at home and not feel guilty for not “being outside in the lovely weather.”

I can always use chilly or bad weather as an excuse to stay home and not deal with some of the complications that come from leaving the house.

Of course, winter has its downside as well because when the weather is too bad you can’t leave your house for a long time and then come down with cabin fever.

One thing I forgot to mention above about our busy week was how on Wednesday we had a flat tire on our car and I was very down because I wanted to take Little Miss to the Bible camp. I was able to get the tire pumped up and decided to take her anyhow, planning to take the car to a mechanic afterward.

It was a hectic morning, but I had still remembered to brush my hair and didn’t think I looked the worst I’d ever looked anyhow. I stepped into the gathering to check on Little Miss at one point and a little girl, very loudly, asked Little Miss, “Is that your grandma or your mom?”

I do have some gray hairs sprouting up – more than I would like to see – but I didn’t think I looked that old.

After I went back to my car, I texted a friend who reminded me that children anywhere around the age of 5 think anyone over 25 looks old.

I also told myself that we have a lot of young grandmas here because of the high rate of teen pregnancies in the area so I’m sure that’s why the little girl wasn’t sure if I was Little Miss’s grandmother or not.

Ahem.

So that was my busy week – how was your week? Busy or sort of mundane? Let me know in the comments and join me again next week for an afternoon chat and tea.