Sick Day

I was soo looking forward to this weekend: drinks with friends on Friday night, brunch with some other friends Saturday morning, then dinner with our neighbors Saturday night (who knew we had so many friends in Edmonton?)--until everyone in my house started dropping like flies.

Kevin's been fighting a sinus cold for going on six weeks now, and, by Friday, it had finally caught up with me. Then just as our friends arrived for brunch, Colin started throwing up--and continued throwing up for the next 24 hours. Instead of my fun-filled Saturday, we spent most of the day in bed, drinking fluids, blowing noses, and trying to be good to our bodies. But I can't help feeling that if I had made time for us to spend more lazy Saturdays in bed, our hectic lives would not have attacked us with such a vengeance.

Sometimes, you just need to be babied.

There's no doubt that I "burn the candle at both ends." My mom has been complaining about that since I was a kid (and she's a pretty intense woman herself). Kevin has long asked me to slow down and relax more--if not for my sake, then at least for his. But only now--when I see how my busy lifestyle affects my son--am I finally starting to heed their warnings.

Now, I know that I didn't give Colin the stomach flu. I'm pretty sure that he caught that at daycare, the same place he got last month's ear infection and the eye infection the month before that. But it's all interrelated. More importantly, I don't want Colin to become infected with my gnawing restlessness--the restlessness that compels me to book three social events in a 24-hour period or to spend all weekend every weekend (and many weeknights) undertaking massive "projects."

Of course, by Sunday, when I was feeling a little bit better and Colin's flu was down-graded to a fever, I did do 10 loads of laundry, cook and freeze two dinners for the week, and dig 60 square feet of vegetable and flower beds. But recovery happens one day at a time I'm told, and I did also make time for several naps and more family cuddling on the couch. I think, though, that I might have found the perfect "project" for the summer: learning to Slow. Down.

Colin, on the mend.

The detritus of our fun-filled weekend: cups of herbal tea and soggy handkerchiefs. I think, though, that colds pass much more quickly if you have lots of cheerful vintage handkerchiefs on hand.