"Come What May, and Love It."

I am still sick.

I've been on an antibiotic for two days, yet I feel worse and sound worse each hour that passes!
I've been trying to rest as much as is possible with a 2 year old, and am hanging onto hopes that tomorrow I will wake up feeling 100 times better than I did today.

A friend of mine nearly died while giving birth to her baby this week. She and baby are doing better now, but witnessing her family go through this traumatic nightmare has been a humbling experience for me. This event, combined with all the recent company layoffs, the unexpected death of one of my mom's friends, the crumbling self worth/sanity of another friend who only 5 years ago, in my eyes, seemed to "have it all", and the blessing of peace that came from spending Saturday in the OKC Temple, has brought me some new perspective. More than anything, a simple reminder of the truths that our lives here on Earth are relatively short, trials are followed by blessings and tender mercies of the Lord, and that there is always joy and happiness to be seen in difficult situations-if we look hard enough to see it.

I felt like crap today. I mean total CRAP. So sick that I actually had to take a minute this morning to convince myself that I would be able to find the strength somewhere in my body to get up and do the things that needed to be done today...and that somehow, I could experience the joy that was hiding behind my fevered, aching body. I just had to be willing to try.

I've been pondering the uncertainty of what lies ahead in our lives. If a simple illness can knock me out of commission for 4 days... how drastic might the effect on my family be should a more significant trial come our way? A talk recently given by Joseph Wirthlin has crept back into my thoughts a lot lately. He gives the advice to face trials "Come what may" and "love it", and talks about choosing to see a positive outlook in adverse situations.

He points out that finding humor in life is critical. Well thank goodness for that. Aren't we ALL laughing at some of the things that happen to me? The next time I find poop on the carpet and look to the heavens and ask, "Are you kidding me?! Is this a JOKE?" I'll remember that, yes. It IS a joke...so why not just laugh about it?

This morning, as always, the strength came, and with the help of a God who heard my simple prayers, I was able to enjoy these things today, fever or no fever:

The relief of modern medicine that temporarily took away the flamey (is that a word) burning, tingly, feeling that for the past 2 weeks has taken up residence in all of my joints.

A two hour nap. In my bed. Uninterrupted. Thanks to Hillary, for watching this little lovely for a few hrs and giving me a break to get much needed rest and a much needed shower while Reese was in preschool.
Overhearing a conversation between my children, where Reese explains to Quincy that other kids won't want to play with her if they know that she bites.

A clean kitchen.

Finished (well, almost finished...but something had to go) laundry.
Not caring that the laundry is only partially done, and probably will be that way all week.

Fun at the park with good friends on a cold, but very sun-shiny day.


Watching Quincy attempt to walk in the sand. It took her awhile to realize that she could move her legs. Reese went through a similar phase at this age, but she downright refused to walk in the sand and would stand there screaming until someone (usually a slightly older kid) would come carry her or help her around.

Quincy found one of those too. Bryn is 5 and more than willing to let Quin tag along every where she goes.

Eventually, it just got too cold and we headed home, where I enjoyed:

Scooping up an entire bottle of "Barbie Princess Genevieve" Bubble bath solution (dumped out by Quincy) off the bathroom floor and into the tub with my hands as quickly as I could, before it could ooze off the tile and onto the carpet.

Scrubbing the park sand out of sudsy, blonde hair, 20 fingers and 20 little toes, and watching my girls giggle as they take the sudsiest, foamiest, bubbliest bath they have ever had (thanks to the syrupy contents from decapitated Princess Genevieve that didn't get rinsed out of the tub before bath time. Oopsie.)

Clipping and polishing wrinkly fingers and toes. PINK, of course!

She loves this Dora nightgown. It was Reese's. Well, it was Reese's until 3 days ago, when Q discovered it, and now she bites when we take it away from her. Reese finally gave up and sighed, "You can just keep it, Quincy."

Putting a half-completed dinner back in the frig, and having frozen pizza instead.

Eating half a family size bag of crunchy Cheetos and snuggling with A on the sofa after the girls went to bed.

Tomorrow will be another day of crossing my legs in a feeble attempt not to pee my pants while I cough up my congested lungs, pulling Quincy down off the kitchen counter, telling Reese "sweet dreams" 100 times and fixing her blankets "just right" so she will take her nap, running errands, babysitting for a friend, cooking dinner, making necessary phone calls from my master bathroom-because sometimes it's the only quiet room in the house--because it's the only room in the house with a lock on the door, ignoring the unfinished laundry, starting reading lessons, giving "share with your sister-she's your best friend" lessons, and attempts to make myself and the house look presentable so my hard working husband doesn't have to come home to a chaotic mess.
Hopefully, it will be sunny and warm(ish) again.
Hopefully, I will feel better.
Hopefully, I'll make it out of Walmart with only one cart full of groceries, and without running into any freaks that want to tell me their life story and give advice on how to raise my "unruly" children.
But no matter what we do tomorrow,

'Come what may, we'll love it.'