Sick Days

One of the huge benefits of homeschooling is that, when one is sick, one can actually have the luxury of being sick. I wholeheartedly believe in the medicinal power of rest. Although I am a pretty solid Type B, I have to talk myself into resting, really.

This week I have read three novels already. I'm a fairly fast reader, but my reading time is usually restricted to 20-30 minutes (or until I fall asleep) in bed each night. All three books were astonishingly excellent. I have a review of The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb up on my SmallWorld Reads blog already, and if my head continues to clear, I'll have the other two—The Story of Beautiful Girl and Expecting Adam— up soon.

I figured I would get sick this week, since both Randy and Laurel had this nasty cold last week. Unfortunately for them, last week was one of those insanely busy weeks. Poor Randy took the kids to Winter Jam Friday night, at the height of his cold. If you aren't familiar with Winter Jam, picture this: 20,000 teenagers in an arena, listening to a dozen bands for 5 hours, plus finding parking and then getting out of a jam-packed parking garage after the concert. All with your head about to explode. It's nightmarish. And if that wasn't horrid enough, he had to be out of the house at 6:30 a.m. the next day to spend his entire Saturday at Boy Scout Merit Badge College. I'm pretty sure he deserves some kind of major award. I did make him apple pie.

I have a new box of herbal tea, thanks to my sweet husband, and two more novels to read at my leisure. We'll do a light day of school—a math lesson, some grammar, a little bit of Ken Burns' The War, and just reading. I have nowhere I must go today, nothing I absolutely must do. For the rest of this week, I have a small stack of essays to read and a bit of lesson planning to do, 423 shirts to iron, and a couple of articles to write. Again, it's times like this that I am struck with the simplicity of my life, the gift of choice, the shared vision that Randy and I have for this life of ours—a life that—most of the time—is simple enough for sick days.

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