What I Did Today: Play By Play

3:36 a.m. I awoke to a feverish nine-year old tunneling under our comforter from the foot of the bed to the pillow end. He used to do this--as stealthily as possible--as a toddler. I knew something was up, and my Sherlock senses were affirmed when he proceeded to unstealthily leap out of my bed to puke.

6:04 a.m. Gabe finally appeared to sleeping peacefully, this time on the couch with a puke bowl at his side, and I shuffled back to bed.

6:05 until 9:08 a.m. Assylum-worthy dreams reeled through their crickety film projector behind my eyes, one after another. I would have rested better not falling asleep.

9:10 a.m. I prayed a blessing on Rob for leaving me with some coffee, just enough to give me the clarity to brew another pot. Function level: minimum.

9:20 until 11:00 a.m. I turned off the cartoons that kept the kids occupied while I slept in (don't judge!) and got everybody breakfasted and dressed and started with school. Gabe still felt sick, but he listened to a couple of books on tape as he sprawled on the couch. I rebooted the laundry. Showered. Made the bed. Pulled leftover Mexican Turkey Soup out of the fridge for lunch, except that it is too spicy for anyone but Rob and me, so the kids would just have to have pb&j. Old faithful.

11:00 a.m. until about noon: Rob came home for lunch, at his usual time, and enjoyed his warmed up Mexican Turkey Soup, with fresh avocado and cilantro with me. It was fab. (There is a whole stockpot-ful to share; come on over. You'll have to BYOA, though, because we finished up the last avocado today.) Oh, and Rob, upon finishing his soup, took a look at Lily's 2nd loose tooth, and persuaded her to let me pull it out. Pop, out it came with barely a tug.

And before I forget...AGAIN...I'll be right back. I need to make sure the Tooth Angel (Lily says fairies aren't real and therefore it's the Tooth Angel that brings her a dollar) has come. Sit tight...

As it turns out, she just came. Whew, won't Lily be so excited that she wasn't among the last on the Tooth Angel's rounds this time. The Tooth Angel made it here before breakfast, before the very regretful and guilty looking momma finds Lily in her bed sadly holding her tooth instead of a new dollar. Before the momma must assure her that sometimes the Tooth Angel runs a little late and that she should check again after she eats her oatmeal.

Noon until, oh, I can't even remember: Read to Seth and Lily, American history: our freedoms and our country's symbols. And we practiced saying the Pledge of Allegiance. We don't say it every day here, and I realized that my little ones didn't know it. Well, we'll fix that. Then they went off to work on something fun in the back yard, and I decided to melt some old candles and fill up some jars and votives with the melted wax. Surprisingly, I had a stash of wicks for just this purpose. I've probably had these candle wicks for seven or eight years. I can't even remember where or when I got them. They came out of a box that I just recently happened upon. I've never used them before today. Most days, I have no idea why I've hung onto something...and I'm a big sucker for anything crafty that I might be able to craft into something else crafty...but today, I'm glad I didn't give away the wicks, because look what I made:

And what else? Oh, then I made dinner. (Lumpia rolls, fried potatoes and salad.) I worked off the lumpia with a two-mile jog in the dark, my first since the race; I felt pretty good. I showered--again--and then watched Chuck with the hubs. And now we circle back around to where I am, on the couch with my little netbook, updating my blog.

Hasn't my day been exciting? This is actually the only day this week that I don't have errands to run, and that reminds me, I need to either renew my library books online tonight or turn them in to the library in the morning before it opens to avoid a hefty fine.

Tomorrow will begin, hopefully not with puking, but indeed with a call to the doctor and here's why: Saturday, Seth fell down outside of the chapel and landed on his arm or wrist. He bawled, and he's tough kid. He has a very large bump on his bone, and though he doesn't complain of pain when he moves it throughout his day (and he seems to have full motion) he can't climb up his bunk bed ladder, and he can't hold anything, and he winces when the big bump is touched. The bump has not gotten any smaller since Saturday. We were hoping it was just a goose egg, but now doubts are creeping in. Time to call in the experts.. I will feel A.W.F.U.L. if it turns out to be broken.

And if Gabe is still feeling miserable (his fever never fully broke all day and he ate very little) then we might as well make it a family trip to the doctor.

Add to that tomorrow: speech therapy, children's choir practice, adult choir practice, and Christmas program practice. (In addition to more laundry, more schooling, more meal prep.)

It's going to be a two-pot coffee day, I can tell!

All of this day, all of tomorrow, all of the next day, I'm giving to God. It's His. What a relief that it's not about me, because of me, for me or to me. In that, I can find shiny nuggets of joy and peace, because they are there, let me tell you.

Get your sifter out and shake away the sand and grit and find yours, too.