On the Bright Side

I hate being sick!  I hate not being able to care for my family.  I hate seeing important stuff like school, laundry, and groceries fall by the wayside, and I hate sleeping my days away. Our life is not that exciting, but I love every stinking moment of it, and it really brings me down when I can't be a part of it.

grrrrrrr . . .

Yesterday, in spite of feeling crummy and grimy, I made a promise to myself that I would just roll with the punches. I would not fret that my boys had only cereal and Eggos to eat or that they had packed in a year's worth of screen time in just one day. I would not freak out that our four year old refrigerator had just died and everything in the freezer had defrosted.  I would not cry that in my feverish state and with my hubby in class all afternoon, I would have to clean out the freezer all by myself in order to rid my house of the awful odour seeping from it.  I would not complain that thanks to one of my most recent grand ideas, where I allowed our dishwasher detergent to run out so that the kids could start doing the supper dishes and learn a valuable life skill, I now had to wash all those containers by hand. Nope. I was going to be cool with it all, and for the most part, I was.

I laid in bed and watched Netflix on my computer.  I got up, emptied out the freezer, and sent the boys on five trips to the compost bin.  I went back to bed.  I slept for two hours.  I woke up and put all the containers in the dishwasher and texted Mr. Level-Headed to bring home some detergent . . . tee hee! I laid on the couch and watched a movie with the boys.  I slept some more. I texted Mr. Level-Headed again to convince the repairman that we cannot wait until Monday as he originally told me, to bring home supper, take Avery to an activity at our church, pick Zoe up after volleyball practice, then help run the activity at our church because we were short a person, get a few groceries and finally, come home and give me some much needed attention.  I really have the best husband in the world!

Finally, night came.  Mr. Level-Headed put the groceries away, Zoe went on a tirade about how it had been the worst day ever (Really? I would know nothing about days like that), and the boys jumped, squealed and ran around the living room until they were eventually safely secured under all their pillows and blankets.  I dragged my warm, lifeless body to our bedroom.  I managed to get my jammies on but that was it.  As I came out of our bathroom, I saw Mr. Level-Headed kneeling in prayer. I don't know if you have ever walked in on someone as they are praying, but it is a humbling experience. I remember walking in on a co-worker once while we were away on a work trip, and the sight stopped me dead in my tracks. I had not prayed in years, and seeing this woman, who I barely knew, kneeling by her bed, unconcerned that I may see her, touched me.  In fact, it touched me so much, that when I returned home from our trip, I began to pray again, and it was those prayers that started me on my journey to becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There is power in prayer! But, that is a whole other blog post, one that I am not ready to share just yet, but if you are interested, message me, and we can talk.

Anyhoo . . .

Seeing my husband kneeling in prayer, humbled me. Being sick, all I had thought for the past two days was how this illness had inconvenienced me and how it had been really tough on me.  I had not, up to this point, thought about how it impacted my already very busy husband, who unlike me, had not even complained once.  So, I turned myself around and headed back into the bathroom, where I knelt down beside the bathtub and prayed.  And that's all it took for me to be able to put a positive spin on this most miserable day. Sure, our school week has been pathetic, we have not eaten a home cooked meal in two days, and I am pretty sure everyone is wearing their last pair of undies, but:

• After playing four hours of Mindcraft, the boys were finally able to find a precious stone they have been looking for.  Mission accomplished!
• I have been complaining that I needed to clean out my freezer for the past three months and now it is finally done.  Yay!
• Betty finally kicked Don's cheating butt out of the house. (yet another Mad Men reference) You go girl!
• We finally have dishwasher detergent once again!!!!!  What was I ever thinking!

Mr. Man woke up "not feeling well", but miraculously, as soon as school was cancelled and a few video games were played, he felt better . . . tee hee!

Picture this along side a counter filled with Rubbermaid containers . . . eeeek! No wonder I caved.  

Mr. Level-Headed's idea.  We put bowls of snow in the fridge to help keep the few things left in our fridge cool.

Look at how clean my freezer is!

All in all, I really had nothing to complain about, and the best part is that today is looking even brighter: my fever has broke and the repairman is coming.  

Hallelujah!