God's blessings, today.

I haven't been feeling well. Since Friday I've had a horrible stomach virus that seems to want to linger and linger, not getting the "unwelcome" feeling. Ethan had it a couple weeks ago and his lasted 5 days. It was 5 days of finding him laying in odd places around the house, hearing him moaning from his bed at night, having him come in our room around 3am, asking if he can lay in between us, hoping that would make his tummy all better. Five days of us not realizing he had the flu and thinking he was constipated. Poor boy. As a result of that, Ethan has enough fiber in his body to feed all of Washington State ;-)

I spent Saturday-Monday cooped up in our bedroom, laying in bed, wishing I could just get up and feel well. If any of you know me well at all, you know that spending one day {let alone 3 days} cooped up in bed is like pure torture for my get up and go personality. I try to make the most of "bed time" when I'm sick, but this sickness was bad. Reading made me more sick, sitting up didn't feel well at all, sleeping was impossible and journaling {which I usually do a lot of when I'm not feeling well} also made that stuck-on-a-tire-swing feeling exaggerated. 

I woke up this morning to the sound of the girls in the playroom, playing house. I laid there contemplating how I felt. "should I stay in bed another day, or just get up, get back to life and if I walk around throwing up every 30 minutes, so be it." I talked myself into getting up and making breakfast for the girls. I figured that was low key enough and would give me a good indication of how I was feeling. We had our favorite whole grain, flax pancakes with blueberries. I had 2 bites and knew my stomach was still not up to par with normal food yet. Did some dishes, swept the floor and read some books with Kara. 

I kept thinking about going back to bed. It was like my bed was calling to me. I was letting Jason sleep in, since he's been on Daddy and Mommy duty since Friday. But I can't tell you how badly I wanted to crawl back in bed and pass the baton off to him. 

But as I sat reading to Kara, its struck me, again. I love being a Mom. I actually miss all the things so many people "warned" me about before I got married and before we had kids. I missed the dishes, the laundry, the wiping bottoms, the sweeping endless amounts of crumbs off the floor all day long. I missed cooking for my family, I missed giving vitamins to the kids in the morning, brushing 3 little sets of teeth at night, tucking babies into bed, filling sippy cups with ice water, reading books, coloring with Rachel, bath time, playing outside - all those Mommy things we do day in and day out, sometimes out of habit, not even giving them a second thought. 

Even though I'm not feeling 100% today, it felt so good to just be back to being Mommy. To being a wife, to being a homemaker. I found myself getting all giddy when I got the vacuum cleaner out this afternoon :) 

Tonight the kids and I ate our dinner out on the back deck. The weather was gor-ge-ouso today and we enjoyed every moment of soaking up every ray of sunshine that we could. Washington had the most beautiful, mild winter this year, but hasn't quite began summer time weather yet. I hear today was the beginning of good weather patterns and I'm crossing my fingers, hoping its true. Half way through dinner Ethan looked up from his plate, smiled at me and said "its great having you back, Mommy. The world isn't the same when you're in bed all day." Ha! I laughed so loud, I'm sure the neighbors could hear it.  Rachel felt very defensive for Jason and added "Daddy does a great job pretending to be you... but he's just a good Daddy."

I sat on the deck, feeding them dinner, feeling very thankful for this life God has given me. Just like anything else in life it has its bad days. The stress level sometimes gets the better of me and some days dinner is no more than grilled cheese sandwiches, dipped in tomato soup {the soup is supposed to be the healthy part} and ice cream for dessert. But its a wonderful, wonderful life I've been given. I wish I could see the hidden blessings in every day.

but then... with faces this cute, every day should be a good day :-)