Forced Time Out

Today my youngest is home sick. Two nights ago he complained of feeling tired which is usually something my kids will never cop to at bedtime...during homework time-yes, when it's time to clean their room- yes, during shopping of any kind-oh yes, but rarely at bedtime do they express exhaustion or a readiness to go to bed. That was my first clue. Clue #2 came at approximately 12:30am when he came into my room and said, "I think I'm sick." When I asked him what made him feel bad he responded, "I threw up in the hallway."...yeah, that pretty much clinched it. He stayed home yesterday with a fever and enjoyed the company of his daddy who had a random and spontaneous day off due to weather and they watched cartoons and Indiana Jones.

This morning when he woke up and said his stomach hurt, I wasn't about to take any chances of barf happening outside the control of home. If you've ever cleaned out a car or car seat from a barf episode, then you get it. And you may have even shouted out, in empathetic agreement, an "Amen" and I would shout it right back because we can attest no matter how well you clean out that car seat and deconstruct it to get to all those nooks and crannies...it's never the same...never. Funkified forever.

I'm not sure if all mom's feel this way, but I sort of secretly love it a little bit when they are home sick..Not because I enjoy their discomfort at all. I want them well, always! But when they are sort of feeling "punky" and are at home and snuggling with you and calm and sweet...it reminds you of a time when they were like that all the time and life was perhaps less busy...though at the time, I thought life was crazy and that I was so busy. Hindsight..yeah, I get it. Nowadays, life does get pretty busy and this month especially is packed with celebrations of birthdays, mother's day, graduations, VBS meeting, Ladies Retreat writing, we have 5 field trips, an open house, a play performance and in the middle of that, I'm squeezing in my usual 6-7/days of work in the ER...and even now trying to recall all that is going on this month is making my brain start to hurt. Ok, well that could be caffeine withdrawal too, as I'm out of my favorite coffee. :(

These sick days can really throw wrench in a busy mom's schedule. The little things like having to get more dog food or helping out in one of the other kids' classes or having to miss an exercise class you were really excited to try, but it's all ok. I gladly forego these types of things for a day to snuggle and take care of my lovies. The secondary blessing for someone like myself who can tend to overfill her schedule with, what are, ALL good things..is that it is a forced time out. A day to snuggle, make snacks, watch cartoons and love on your boy....I will get some things accomplished that are "need to's" like running the dishwasher, cleaning out the guinea pig cage, maybe start some laundry, bake a large cookie for my oldest class play tonight and sneak in a blog post...hee hee because I have a hard time JUST sitting all day...well, that's not entirely true. I CAN sit all day and watch movies and relax, it's just that later tonight I'll be angry at myself and while wallowing in my sense of failure I may eat one of those hostess mini donuts....and from there the snowball grows. So, I'll sneak in some productivity amidst the hugging and loving on my boy and enjoy the forced time out God has given me. The good news...no barfing, no fever and he's perked up so far this morning. YAY!