A Week Away*

I took a little break.

I didn’t mean for a whole week to go by, but it did and here I am, a whole week later. I haven’t gone that long without writing in months. I can already feel old habits creeping back in so I thought I’d better get back on the horse and get writing again.

I was supposed to work today, but an hour after I went to bed last night I heard the kids door open and Miss S crept down the hall to the bathroom. It’s unlike her to get up at night, so I went to check on her. She wasn’t feeling well, and when I pressed my cheek to her forehead her skin was on fire. I got her some Tylenol and a cool cloth and tucked her back in, but I lay awake worrying for a long time after she fell asleep. I get so nervous whenever she has a fever. I know it’s irrational and fevers are actually a good thing, but I can’t help it.

(If you don’t know the back story, you can read about it HERE. Her “blog name” used to be Ruby, but I just go by “S” now. It’s still my beautiful girl.)

I was in and out of bed with her all night. She was restless most of the night, and between my worrying and going in whenever she woke, so was I. By the time my alarm went off for work at 5:45am, I was so done in. H woke up shortly after and crawled into bed with us, and I could feel the heat radiating off him. Sure enough, he was sporting a shiny new fever too. I called into work to cancel my day and declared it a “lay like a lump on the couch and watch Christmas movies day”.

They’ve been sort of up and down all day as the fever comes on and recedes. When S woke up this morning, I could see the fever was back again. I checked her ear temp and saw she was sitting at 104°F. She seems to be responding well to meds and a cool cloth on her forehead so I’m trying not worry like an insane person. P seems largely unaffected so far, and all three of my toadies are currently having a sleep so that they can get their strength back (and mama can have a much needed breather). I should probably be napping too, but I just wanted a few minutes to eat lunch in peace and enjoy the quiet solitude.

Part of me wishes I had tried harder to write this past week, but there was just no way I could do it. I was out almost every evening, and while they were all good things, it was a lot of things to have on in one week. My book club had our holiday get together to discuss our most recent book: Crazy Rich Asians. I thought I was going to hate it, but ended up LOVING it and can’t wait to read book two! Miss S had her school Christmas concert and she brought the house down singing Mele Kalikimaka and Santa Wears Shorts. I went into Toronto with some friends and went to see The Nutcracker, and it was… breathtaking. It was my first time seeing a ballet and I am now officially obsessed. Next stop: the opera.

Then, on Sunday evening we had our Christmas Canata performance. I’ve been rehearsing with a choir for the past few weeks, and on Sunday we performed to the biggest crowd I’ve ever been in front of. The entire church was filled, as were the seats added all the way to the back of the gym. There were still people coming after the last seats taken, so we ended up opening up the back stage and adding more seats there… and then there were still people who had to stand. It’s hard for me to put into words what it was like to be involved with music and singing again… as we began to sing it was like my soul was on fire.

And not to toot my own horn, but I think we sounded pretty dang good.

I wish I could have written individually about each experience I had last week, but instead of writing about them… I simply lived and enjoyed them. I chose sleep instead of writing. And I’m okay with that.

I hope not to take such a long break again, but this season is just so full of good things and I’m learning that try as I might, I just can’t do it all. So, even though I was supposed to work, I’m grateful for a “sick” day where I can catch up, snuggle my kids, watch Christmas movies and find a minute to write.