For all of you music nerds out there, sorry if the title got you all excited. But I will not be extolling the therapeutic qualities of Christina Aguilera’s music.
I will however, share a Valentine’s Day recap with you.
I went to bed excited for V-day this year. I had purchased some books from the library book sale using change from my car, purses, and re-using grocery bags to give to each of the kids. I joked to Dan saying, “I love them so much I am giving them the gift of reading”.
I love Thursdays–two kids go to preschool and I almost always get TONS done while they are there and Addi is napping.
For V-day, we were planning to go on a double date to Outback Steakhouse on a gift card Dan earned at the Orange conference (that graphic design degree does come in handy!). Then we were going to head out to the cabin for a change of scenery, and evenings filled with copious amounts of HDTV cable-watching.
That dream was squelched around midnight last night when we realized Elli was pretty sick and running a temp. She woke up every few hours either hot or cold, wanting light or wanting total darkness depending on how badly her head was hurting, needing some water, a sweater (not that one daddy, that’s a sweatshirt, I want my sweater), etc. This morning, Liam woke up with scarlet cheeks and burning up as well.
Chagrined, I called the preschool to let them know neither child would be at school today, but that we were still planning to drop off the custom-made Valentines Dan, Liam and I had worked on to give to all his friends.
I asked Dan to call our chums and cancel our double-date to Outback. And we knew going to the cabin with sick kids wasn’t a good idea–we don’t want to fill that wonderful space with sick germs!
I started getting myself mentally prepared for a day that was totally different than what I had been expecting. I was afraid it would automatically be a “down” day with all the unexpected challenges and disappointing changes in plans.
But as I talked to my mom on the phone, I realized I was doing OK. I was making the best of a crummy situation. I wasn’t ‘down’ like I had expected to be. I don’t know whether to attribute that to meds, friends in similar sick-kid situations supporting each other by e-mail (yup, that’s you Alicia), my mom’s Bible study group praying specifically for me and Dan today because they’ve ‘been there and know what it’s like’, my husband checking in to see how the day was going, or just a really loving God who zapped a little more sanity, a whole lot of patience and just enough joy to make it through a very different day than I expected.
Thanks God, I needed that. I love you, too.
life.after.baby 