sick day

how i wish a mommy could get sick days.
if only i could have called in a sub for wednesday because after coming home from a week & a half in florida, we hosted three new york marathoners (my mother-in-law, father-in-law, & sister-in-law) plus one spectator for four nights.... i came down with the flu/cold yuckiness.

luckily, my husband was all hands on deck and came home early wednesday to help with the boys, eat homemade chicken noodle soup, and make me hot tea.

in the midst of being on the couch or in the toddler bed, i started reading this novel. i finished it last night (less than 48 hours from when i started).

it is a tale of an incident resembling columbine in small town new hampshire. it is also about how the various people cope, deal, instigate, cause, and heal from this horrific event.

i was gripped... whether it was feeding on my own fears as a parent, as a parent of boys, my fear of parenting teenagers.... or what, but i HAD to finish. i was almost too engaged to go to sleep before i could finish. i had to find out if there was redemption.... for the kid who did it, the kids who picked on him, the parents that were clueless....

i think i was looking for redemption in case that were my kid. what if my sweet, tender-hearted two & a half year old gets bullied on his first day of kindergarten? what would he become? how will i teach him worth, identity, and significance?

how quickly i forget the gospel.... that i believe all of those things do not come from man or even what i can muster up for myself.... but from the fact that i believe in a big god that is also personal...
that is what i teach my boys.