Little Acts of Kindness

...go a long, long way.   And never am I more aware of this truth than when I am ill.  When every tiny thing seems monumental to me.  When the smallest things bring me comfort, or relief, or just joy.

  And I have been sick, sick, sick.  Sine Friday night. I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday in bed. Almost continually.  Coughing, exhausted, slightly feverish (so says the Irishman, I didn't think so).  Absolutely unable to function. I'd get up, stay up for about an hour or maybe 2 (not usually) and go back to bed. I managed to drink enough water to not get dehydrated. I had lemon, honey and ginger tea each time I was up. I nibbled bits of food. And went back to bed. I was in bed so much that it hurt. lol  My back, my hips...ai yi yi...

  As most of you know, I still refuse to get flu shots.  I went to 2 AA meetings in a week, and I'm pretty sure that's where I got it. Maybe. My nephew was sick with something when he was here at Christmas, which my son and husband consequently came down with too.  There are so many people around here sick with various forms of something or other...I personally know at least 5 people who have been sick enough to be hosptalized.  Most of them have had flu shots.


  The Irishman has taken very good care of me and of things around the house. Yesterday I turned a corner and felt SO GOOD..that I immediately rushed outside in the warm spring-like air and did a few silly things, like scrape ice off the back deck and sweep down the front deck. I caught up laundry and vacuumed the house.  I hung the dog blankets and the people couch blankets out on the line to air out. I opened all the windows and shut off the furnace and aired out the house. I should be doing that window thing right now--it's 53 degrees out there !  But I don't feel quite so chipper today.  Thinking maybe I jumped the gun a little....

  Beth tells me they're forecasting about 2 inches of rain for us down here tomorrow. That means I really should get dressed  and go out  and do a little shopping so that I don't have to go out tomorrow.  But honestly...I just don't feel up to driving anywhere....I have enough coffee for tomorrow morning. So there's nothing I absolutely HAVE to get today.  I'm gonna play it by ear. I am a little stir crazy. But I'm thinking that a nap sounds like a good idea right now. I can't decide anything--that should tell me somethng. lol

 My Christmas decos are still everywhere, and I don't care. I got the piles of dog hair up yesterday, and things freshened up a bit, so now worries there. The dishes are done and  there are leftovers in the fridge, enough to get us by one more day, at least.  On Monday, when the Irishman went back to work,, I got out of bed around 9 and went out back to get the chickens out and promptly fell on the ice at the bottom of the back step. A solid sheet of it. And hit my bad knee hard and bruised my hip, elbows and knees. I just lay there for a minute, crying in that pitiful, snot-choked sobbing that only I can do so well...I just couldn't take one more thing, you know ?  LOL  I really hurt from that fall.  That was the evening that my neighbor called my husband at work to stop by on his way home, because she made supper for us.   I felt so blessed to have such a wonderful neighbor...and she made a whole meal: a comfort food casserole (chicken tettrazini), a lovely green salad, birthday cupcakes and bread.  That small kindness meant the world to me. People were calling and sending me Facebook birthday wishes on Sunday, and I was too sick to barely acknowledge them.  But just knowing that someone was thinking of me seemed like the grandest thing in the world at that moment.  The Irishman brought me home flowers and a lovely card and a get well card and a beautiful wooden Bobby Flay salad bowl and spoons. And he promised me that next weekend --WHEN I WAS WELL-- we would go out and celebrate twice to make up for my being so sick on my 60th birthday.  


  I am one lucky duck.  

  And now, I think it's time for a nap.


 Namaste...