Coming Along

We are ever so slowly getting back on track after this long winter of illness. Finding that daily we are chipping away at what feels like an avalanche of stuff that had been shoved aside by the urgent and life sustaining demands during the last month. I cannot yet look at the whole mountain of stuff because it would send my head spinning into utter despair but each day taking on a little corner of untidiness that is a reminder of what we have passed through will get it done before long.

I am feeling pretty much back to normal. I still have a lingering cough and my energy is not yet fully back but I am functional. I am trying to pull us back into a normal routine so that the kids will benefit from regular school hours and routine. It also gives me a small sense of accomplishment, that if nothing else has been accomplished for the day at least the educational part has been covered.

The kids are all back to their bouncy selves. I marvelled at how well Sweetpea did with the whole hospital experience. I wondered as we went through it if it wasn't a little insulated capsule of bonding that we got to experience to speed our way through to a better place relationally. One story in the hospital is endearing to me. When we woke in the early morning she was really thirsty and I gave her small sips of drink. I asked her if she would like a popsicle as she was allowed to have them. She said no she did not want a popsicle as it was before breakfast. I asked her who made that rule as I had never made such a silly rule and certainly if I was offering her a popsicle it was not against my rule (at least for this one day, all others would be exempt of course). She just could not hurdle over this "rule" in her head that there were to be no popsicles before breakfast. As I knew that she was not going to get "breakfast" as she knew it I really wanted to get something into her. It became almost a battle of wills over this popsicle thing. I got the popsicle and opened it. Sliding into the bed beside her I told her that she could either "eat it or wear it" and began to apply it like lipstick upon her lips. She could not resist long before her grins turned to giggles and her giggles turned to licks. Soon the popsicle was no more and her lips were bright red. She still was in shock that I, her mother, had forced her to eat a popsicle before breakfast. I had broken a cardinal rule. She was sure that I would be in trouble somehow, but she was innocent even if she bore the evidence of guilt on her face. It was one of those special moments with your kids when an inside story is forged and made even sillier by the keeping and telling of it. It has been a special thing between us.