December 22, 2009

Hello everyone! I can’t believe Christmas is on Friday. Where has this year gone? I think I am starting to wonder that every year. When you have children the years seem to fly by and you wonder how that’s possible. I’m sure that Christmas 2010 will be here before I know it, and I am looking forward to this New Year. My son will turn 5 and start kindergarten. My daughter will begin preschool, and a new baby will join our family in the summer. If I thought this year flew by, next year is already destined to be a whirlwind!


This past weekend I got really, really sick. I woke up Sunday morning and I couldn’t keep anything down. By evening I was completely dehydrated, and I ended up going to the hospital where they kindly injected me with anti-nausea medication and IV fluids. Once the medicine began coursing through my veins I was in heaven! I no longer felt like I was going to die. Even though Sunday was horrible there was a definite bright side to it that I wanted to share.

We have a two story house and my bedroom is upstairs. I spent the entire day lying in bed, with intermittent trips to the bathroom. Thank God my husband was home that day because I would not have been able to take care of my children. At first I was bummed because I had the entire day to myself to lie in bed and couldn’t even enjoy it because I was so sick. I was so nauseous I couldn’t even really sleep, so I just lied there and listened to my family downstairs. I could hear my kids fighting on occasion and my husband getting annoyed with them. But I also heard lots of laughter, my husband reading countless books to them, playing games, and making them lunch and dinner. Every once in awhile my son would yell up the stairs, “You ok up there?” I would always say yes even though I clearly wasn’t. I enjoyed listening to them so much for several reasons. First, it was incredibly rewarding to me to know I have a husband who can take care of me and the kids and who does such a good job of it. He never resorted to sticking the kids in front of the television or calling someone else to come over and take the load off. He was fantastic with them and I was proud of him and happy for our children. They had such a great time with their dad. I’ve always known what a good dad he was, but on this day I was able to really listen to him with the children. The other great thing about the day was to see how much my children love and worry about me. They were genuinely concerned and they lavished me with hugs and kisses. I felt so loved! I learned on this day of being so sick how many blessings I really have. I often get caught up in what’s missing from my life – the perfect house (our house is in remodel hell), a great career that lets me be with my family whenever I want and still make a ton of money, the perfect body. When you are physically well, all those things seem important. Only on a day when I felt like dying in my bed could I really hear the beautiful music of my life.

There will of course be many days in my future when I will not be able to hear the beauty in the pitter patter of little footsteps, or the shrieks that my daughter is famous for. The tears and whining will sound like fingernails on a chalkboard and the only drum I will notice will be from my pounding headache. However, one day, when I am old and wrinkly, my house will be too quiet and I will long for days of noise and chaos. In the meantime, I hope I can look back at my sick day and remember how much I enjoyed listening to it from a distance, and remember how lucky I am to be smack dab in the middle of it every single day.