grateful

Tuesday night, I came down with the flu. Or food poisoning. Or both. How do you really tell? Both ailments have the same miserable symptoms. I spent the night in the bathroom, grateful for my bed's close proximity to the toilet. It was bad. I felt awful. I actually WISHED for pregancy over that mess.

Through the night, between toilet sessions, I prayed that I'd be able to get my girl to her tumbling class. When I woke up, bleary eyed, mouth coated with throw up taste, I realized, I'm okay. I can do this. Belle woke up and asked - knowing I was sick - "Can I still go to tumbling?" I told her that yes, I was feeling okay. And I did feel okay all through tumbling. And then at the grocery store where I was picking up a few things, I realized, wow. I'm not okay. And we went home, where we watched movie after movie, and I half-slept the gross away, grateful for the tender mercy that allowed me to get Belle to tumbling, if nothing else. She learned new tricks yesterday, and I was so grateful we made it, so grateful I got to watch her little mind run like a mill, calculating how in the world she was going to manage a backbend with her leg in the air. (She can almost do it already.)

By the evening, I was feeling relatively normal, and last night, although combined the girls woke me up three times, I felt so very well rested. Sleep without the interruption of the bathroom - dreamy. This morning, as I've walked around picking up the house that I willingly let the girls run like a very disorganized business yesterday, I just feel gratitude. Gratitude that I can pick up the toys. Gratitude that a shower seems in the cards today. Gratitude that the sun is shining and my windows are open. Gratitude that I have two of the best little girls who somehow knew to tiptoe around Mommy yesterday. They've never been as angelic as they were yesterday, my grown up Annabelle especially.

It was less than 24 hours of feeling blah. It was nothing really. But just those handful of hours where I wasn't at my best have made the regular, day-to-day hours of this lovely life all the better.

So grateful.