The other day I was yucky sick. Try as I may, I just couldn't act normal or pretend I felt well any longer. I wanted to just curl up on my bed and moan. Come 7:30pm, I couldn't take it anymore and dismissed myself from our pizza and movie night (we were watching "Ratatouille" which only caused my already nauseous self to want to cover my mouth and flee the room). As I made my announcement that I was going to go take an early bath and lay on my bed, the three kids bolted up right and ran upstairs. Chuck held me back, telling me that they had a surprise for me.
The last thing I wanted was a surprise. I wanted to not think, talk or be nice. I just wanted to close my eyes to the world and make the pain stop. But I held out this long, what's a few more minutes? Once they came back downstairs, I was allowed to go up.
To my utter astonishment, they had prepared my bath for me. Not only that, they cleaned it, ran my water, put in bubbles, lit the candles and put on some Yo-Yo Ma background music. I was humbled and overwhelmed by love. My bath was that much sweeter and relaxing.
I know Chuck organized this little relief effort for me, but the kids had been feeling awful all day that there was nothing they could do to help me feel better. Once Chuck gave them an idea, they ran with it and were just so happy to do anything at all to help.
You know how Gavin asks me ten times a day, "How are you doing today Mom?" just to make sure I'm good so that all can be right in his world? Well, when my answer is, "I'm not doing so well today, Honey." he doesn't know what to do. There is no back-up plan in place. Now that I'm not good, he's not good. Bennett spent the majority of the day rubbing my feet and asking to cuddle me in my bed and read books together. Chloe would rub my hair and face and do her best at her feminine nurturing techniques. She even told me the next day, "Mom, we hate it when you're sick. It feels like we're all in mourning until you get better."
How lucky I am!
