Lara and I were running hard. I was trying to limit my work week to five days, she was picking up two extra 12-hour shifts at the hospital, usually on my two days off so I could be home with the kids. Tag-team parenting at its finest, which led to marriage at its worst. “Next week, let’s try to have at least one day when we’re both off,” I proposed. And that was the plan. I would take Wednesday (mostly) off to school and take care of the kids while she worked at the hospital and later in the week we would both have a day off at the same time. It was very exciting.
But then Wednesday afternoon came and with it, a nasty stomach bug. It hit me first. Happy Girl was having her first nighttime drive on our way to church. I wasn’t feeling quite right and finally said “you need to turn around.” I collapsed in our front yard. My blessed wife, after taking care of others for 12 hours, came home to care for her sick and cranky and irritable husband. By the weekend it had taken all six of us down.
We finally started to feel like getting out of bed and then the ice came. We’re still suffering a bit from cabin fever, but at least the real fevers have subsided. And this is my gratitude list from the week.
- a few badly needed days in bed to rest, recover, and edit my film reel
- the end of the stomach bug
- a warm, dry house
- sledding time with my boys
- movie matinée with Happy Girl
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