Sick Day

A while ago I cursed myself by bragging that I haven't had a cold in a long time. I told Adam (because no one else will listen to my shameless bragging as nobly as he does) that I must have a really great immune system. Really great immune system=really great person. That's the conclusion I drew at least.

Well, pride cometh before the fall. I got a cold. Yesterday I felt miserable. I told my kids that while they could do some of their school work without me, we wouldn't do the things I had to be involved in. Braeden tried to act sympathetic but the other two didn't even try. When there's no substitute to call, it is a great day when the teacher calls in sick.

They did their token school work then did who knows what. I was too sick to notice. Being a mom means you can't ever be really truly too sick to function so I did drag myself to the kitchen to heat up some soup for lunch. I instructed Braeden to be in charge of chocolate milk for Mark and throughout the rest of the day when my kids were hungry because soup is never enough for them, I'd tell them to go eat something. They'd say "What?" and I'd reply, "I don't care." It's a nice thing about not having toddlers anymore. You couldn't exactly turn a hungry two year old loose in the kitchen.

I sat in my living room, in my green chair with the ottoman...the one everyone fights over during our afternoon silent reading time...and I read. It was nice but my eyes got tired.

I drank five cups of hot apple cider.

I felt like I really should do something productive so I made some phone calls and tried to make some appointments. My cold also caused me to lose my grasp of the English language so that didn't go too well.

I gave up and decided I'd just watch TV. I (patiently) waited until The Clone Wars: Star Wars Episode 2 1/2 was over before I kicked Mark out of the family room. (It's a really stupid movie so if your five year old son isn't addicted to it, you have my respect and admiration.) I watched Ellen Degeneres and the Bonnie Hunt Show. I also watched a PBS travel show. They were in Norway. It's partially the homeland of my ancestry. I saw a lot of people with skin as pale as mine. I imagined my Dahl forefathers on the shores of the fjords, wearing great looking sweaters. I even saw a guy that looked a lot like my brother Ammon except with slightly longer hair and a Norwegian accent.

My one nod towards doing anything worthwhile was driving my kids to their piano lesson. (They walked home...I had only one trip in me.)

It was a pretty lame day. Besides the bright spot of my sister-in-law Jennifer calling me, I was bored and felt sluggish and just sick.

Here were the good things that happened though.

1- The world didn't spin off its axis because I didn't even have a to do list.
2- Adam made a wonderful salmon dinner and made our children clean the kitchen.
3-Mark snuggled with me--and actually sat still--during scripture reading last night.
4-I realized that I'm really glad that I'm usually too busy to watch daytime television.

This morning, in a very patronizing sweet voice, Braeden asked me how I was feeling. I told him, in my raspy sickly voice that I was better and we're having school.

He fought hard to make his face look happy that I feel better but I can tell. He was really hoping for another sick day.