"The Land of Counterpane"

"When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day..."


Remember the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson? I hadn't thought of it in a long while, but had cause to remember it yesterday as "I was sick and lay a-bed." I seriously think this was the first time in years I'd spent the majority of the day in bed, but I got run over by a little truck called intestinal flu on Saturday. Wham!

Actually the last four days have been a foggy blur of illness. It started when the sweet girl threw up during math lesson on Thursday. No, math doesn't make her sick (I promise!) she was just the first one to succumb to the germs. She was sick on Thursday and Friday, spending all of Friday in her pajamas, a very rare event. She was definitely ill, but it never got too terrible...she was mostly just lethargic.

I dragged during those two days, not feeling too well myself, but when she turned the corner, I mistakenly thought I'd beaten the germs off too. Got up Saturday morning feeling more or less normal. By 2, I could hardly stand upright. I slept all afternoon. By Saturday evening, I knew I'd been hit with a much worse version of the illness. I'll spare you the details, but it was pretty awful and I was up most of Saturday night.

I didn't have any toys to keep me occupied yesterday, but I did keep a book next to me at all times, for those moments when I woke up and felt like reading before I succumbed to the next wave of sleep. The sweet girl kindly came in (after she and her Daddy got home from church) to check on me and tuck me in. She tenderly patted my head, then grinned her gap-tooth grin (finally lost that loose top tooth) and tucked my book in beside me, pulling the covers up around its binding. It happened to be a library copy of Sayers' Gaudy Night...somehow I've misplaced my copy, and I wanted to re-read it before I reviewed it. Somehow I was so moved the last time I read it I wasn't actually able to write a review; I needed to let it percolate for a while. I can tell I'm smitten with this book because I just read it in January (for the first time in several years) and already felt ready for it again.

Grateful just to have gotten through the past few days. I've still hardly eaten anything (though thankful for gatorade) and am feeling pretty weak and wiped out. But hopefully the worst is behind us...we're hoping D. never catches this!