Don't eat the apple

Don't eat the apple. I said it too sternly, but she had to know how serious I was. We have been through 9 family members with the flu (two are teenagers that barely leave their rooms, so maybe they won't get it?) and dear hubby and I were really getting tired of all the cleanup. It seems like it has lasted for months, although it's really only been a week. I have been sleepy with one eye open so I can direct the next kid coming through my bedroom doorway directly to the bathroom when their stomach bug bites. Mind you, they have to pass two other bathrooms on the way to mine, but somehow they only feel better if they toss their cookies on me, beside me, or at the bathroom doorway. One kid, so far, has actually made it to the toilet before coming to me. We have Sprite and soda crackers on hand, jello in the fridge, and I have washed my hands so much they are cracked and scaled. I spent 14 hours in bed (only getting up to calm fights, find things in the cupboard that everyone thought we didn't have, and sipping a small amount if weak tea to settle my stomach.). What I keep trying to tell the others they don't want to believe. My advice? Stop eating and drinking and sleep it off. After losing everything that is possible, my twelve year daughter saw a small window of opportunity to scope out the kitchen. She reached for an apple. "Don't eat an apple. It will just come back up. Have a cracker." She stared a me as if I was speaking Egyptian. "I feel better and I am so hungry." I tried to be sympathetic, really. But I insisted an apple was not a good choice. She ate it anyway. A half hour later she came back to the kitchen. "Mom, I was sick again." Even with my warning, do you think she could have at least seen it coming? Couldn't she have walked 10 steps to the left to the bathroom? Nope. Today, she ate jello for breakfast. Still sick? No. She just didn't eat it yesterday because she wanted that apple. If she had eaten the jello yesterday, the apple would have been great for today. After going through 9 sick people in this house, you would think they would listen when I say, "Don't eat the apple!"