The Two Week Contrast

(These two were first to bite the dust. Thankfully, thankfully, I spent this day cleaning and grocery shopping for anything that could be loosely counted as the BRAT diet) 

February (and my life for that matter) are going by like a whip. I remember toward the end of January looking at the calendar thinking how crazy this month was going to be and then it got here and we ALL got some sort of stomach flu. We all just laid there like slugs. All meetings, lessons and obligations were cancelled, our house was under strick quarantine and that first week of February disappeared into a black hole somewhere. 

Thankfully, by the Monday of the second week, we all had retained our health and were ready to get back to our normal lives--which was good because our schedule wasn't throwing us any softballs. In fact, after reflecting on a week of our usual stuff plus doctor appointments, additional church meetings, hair cuts and Valentines Day--I'm beginning to feel like that first week of sickness was a distant memory.

However, I must state here and know, that out of the two, I prefer the latter. We had been on a good run of health and during such you sometimes foolishly fall into the trap of thinking it might be kind of nice to snuggle sick kiddos, let them watch obscene amounts of TV while having an excellent excuse to bow out of your usual obligations. Complete foolishness, I tell you! Complete and utter foolishness. 

(One evening they were all feeling so rotten, the only thing I could think to do to cheer them up and kill time before bed was a bubble bath. At one point Ryder said, "Ahhh, this is the life." And Penny replied, "You said it, Brotha!"

And just to bring my message home, here are a few things that I would like to remind myself when I'm basking in a long, wonderful phase of great health and the lines of pain vs enjoyment get blurry, and I begin losing my good, common sense: 

-Despite your state and the kindness and understanding of others, you feel like a flake for cancelling everything and having to call the school morning after morning to tell them yet again your child won't be coming in that day. 

-Food. Wonderful, delicious food no longer holds any joy. 

-It's a little lonely (...sniff). 

-You also have to cancel on the fun stuff. Like playing with cousins and book club. (Luckily, book club was the week before...phew!)

-Shockingly, it's not doing the work that's hard--it's the lack of motivation to do the work and then still having to do it, that's hard. And who has motivation when they're sick? So you sit there in pain, like a sloth while watching your house take on new layers of dirty dishes and dust. 

-Finally, not that I'm going to go to the extreme of saying I miss working out, but I do miss the option of working out--ya know if I wanted to. Or to go outside... breathe some fresh air! Feel the sunlight on my face! Okay, I'll stop now. 

So, just to be clear to my grade-school self: it is not fun or relaxing in any way to be sick. The end.