Someone has been sick in our house every day for the past three months now. Tonight, I was ready to die. Eric sent me upstairs to relax (what a guy!), so I thought I would add text to a few photos I uploaded a few weeks ago...seriously, I should probably be taking photos to document what we're doing here, but they would all consist of thermometers, medicines, and a bleary-eyed mama. When I look at pictures of healthy people, I remember that there will come a day when it doesn't seem like life is falling down around me...right? Please comment and say yes.
In February, my sweet sister Page came to visit us. She's 18 months older than I am, but somehow she ended up four inches taller. It's so great to get to spend time with someone who knew you from the very beginning. I love to stay up late talking to her and remembering all the fun (and fights) we had growing up.
Page has four children, too, so eight children in my tiny house was a little loud and crazy, especially considering the fact that it poured rain the whole time she was here. But cousins play together so well, and all the noises were happy ones. We did go out to lunch together...here's the gang!
I snapped this picture too late, but there had been a huge, beautiful rainbow right behind Alia, and we'd gone out to admire it together. She said, "Mom, isn't it so neat to see a rainbow? I wish there were rainbows in the sky all the time." Then she thought for a second and said, "But I guess if they were there all the time, we wouldn't appreciate them." I love hearing her insights. She's absolutely right. I need to remember that on days like this, when I've only had two hours of sleep, when my head is pounding, when I wonder if I'll ever be able to have fun again. We've got plenty of rainbows ahead. And we'll surely appreciate them when they get here.
Ethan and I went back to the tennis courts one day after school because they had been full during our mother-son outing. I made him a little peanut butter sandwich to eat on the way, and he begged me to let him eat it inside the tennis court. "No, Ethan," I said. "Just eat it in the car, and then you won't have to carry it in there." Well, he begged, and begged, so I let him, and within thirty seconds, he had dropped it, tripped, and stepped in it. You can see the "smush" on his shoe there.
Oh, I love that little boy. Last night, he was up from 1-3:30 because he had a high fever and couldn't sleep. I had him lay down next to me, and he kept asking random questions like, "Where do they sell cotton candy?" and "What's the date today?" I wanted to tell him to be quiet and let me sleep, but there was something so sweet about his questions. I answered a few, and THEN I told him to be quiet and let me sleep. And he did.
This little video is one of my favorites. My mother-in-law gave us a CD of my brother-in-law's high school choir (Thanks, Peggy!), and there is this one song on there that just speaks to me. I was listening to it over and over again on our way to church one Sunday, and tears were streaming down my cheeks. Alia and Grace asked why I was crying (because on days like today, I'm crying because I think I'm going to die), and I told them that my tears were because of the violin.
I went on to explain that if someone asked me to bear my testimony of Jesus Christ, only by playing the violin, this is what I would play. The girls took the CD out of the van and brought it into the house, and now whenever I'm having a rough patch, Grace turns the song on and spins to it in the living room. It's like they're reminding me that the Lord loves me, and He's here with us.
I went online tonight and read a few articles about what to do "when mommy is sick," and a lot of the advice was good, but the best advice I know is that we must cling to the Lord, thank Him for His atonement, and let Him carry our burdens. The rainbows really will come soon.
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