Sharing

A week and a half ago, Josh started feeling bad. Just a little bad, maybe a sore throat. Well, a week ago, the sore throat turned into a lost voice, but he felt fine. That was Sunday. Monday & Tuesday he didn't feel fine and stayed home from work. (I made some REALLY good chicken soup Monday night. I was all proud of myself.) By Tuesday night, he was feeling better, and went to work Wednesday. Well, come Wednesday night, I had a 100 degree fever and did nothing after work, while Josh was wonderful making dinner & cleaning up while I lay on the couch. Thursday morning, I didn't have a fever, so I went to work. Friday I was definitely feeling better, but, sometime between lunch and when I left work, my voice gave out, which was funny because I was supposed to babysit Friday night, and I was squeaking. Well, I babysat anyway, and it was fun. All weekend, my voice was going in and out, but I was feeling OK. Last night, we both started coughing again and had sore throats.

We're married, and we share everything, germs included. It's a happy life.

Speaking of being married, I had a certain Gerig friend get engaged a week ago, but I'll let her tell that story, if she wants to. Until then, everyone will have to wait and wrack their brains trying to figure out who I'm talking about.

The blessing: Although all this sickness stuff sounds like no fun, it turned out to make for a pretty good weekend. Due to the sore throat the last couple Wednesdays, Josh has missed choir practice. The choir was performing this weekend, and that was what was on our calendar. A "choir weekend" at our house means "a choir weekend and nothing else" - the choir keeps Josh busy 2-8 on Saturday and 8-12 Sunday when they perform, so trying to plan anything else wears us out. Well, our schedule went from packed-full to empty when he missed the practices, and opened up a joyful weekend of freedom. Thursday, my dad was out of town, and we had my mom over for my favorite comfort food, chicken pot pie. Yummy. Friday we rested & played games. I got yarn for a new knitting idea I have. Saturday we were having a lazy day when we got a call saying there was a family party in Lebanon to visit with extended family in town from Kansas, West Virginia, and southern Indiana. Because we had no plans, we were able to drop everything & go visit with family. I brought my camera along & got some good pictures of the kids. Two boys there had lost a tooth through the course of the day, and were very excited at the prospect of the tooth fairy coming. One baby was making her first appearance at a family event (That's right, HER appearance! Another girl in the family! To tally the kids up, there were 2 girls and 6 boys at the party. More boys would have been there, but 2 of our nephews couldn't make it).
Sunday a similar thing happened- we made new friends at church and went to lunch with them spontaneously.
The thing I love about an empty schedule is the ability to have room to say Yes to opportunities. When I'm busy, I have obligations that require I forgo spontaneous get-togethers, where real community is formed. Planned 'events' are well and good for some purposes, but having margin in my schedule is healthy as well.