Under the Weather

I've spent the week under the weather, and I don't just mean the tornadoes we had here on Tuesday, which thankfully didn't cause us any trouble. I was really wondering how come I was having such a hard time. I've been more sick than this before. When I was teaching, I would go to work, even if I couldn't talk. So why was it so hard now?

That's when it hit me, aside from the obvious (of having two or three assistants while I taught), was the other fairly obvious thing that had escaped me... Before when I was sick, I would come in, work 8 hours or so, and then go home to a quiet house. I'd likely take a nap, almost certainly put no prep work into dinner, and vegetate all night. At this point none of those three things is an option.

So, despite the fact I've been ill, I've prepared meals and snacks for the munchkins, taught Kate, paid bills, run errands, made butterfly wings, made late night trips to break up squabbles in the girls' room, and so on.

So, while I have the greatest job in the world, being on call 24/7 has made being ill a little more trying. So, it's okay if I have a load of laundry or two that still needs to be folded, I don't bake fresh bread for dinner, and if I had to cut back on the read alouds this week because of my scratchy throat. I forget to give myself permission to be human sometimes.