My Lenten "sacrifice"

I gave up facebook for Lent. It was a fairly easy sacrifice, though I expected it to be more difficult than it actually was. I found that I really enjoyed the silence in my life and that, when I wasn't being filled with online interactions, I actually sought out real humans friendship. Amazing how that happens... :)

One of the best side effects of giving up facebook was that I tended to not think very negatively about a lot of people. I've realized that there really is virtue in our grandmothers' teaching, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I realized as I thought about this during Lent that there are some key people in my life whom I really, greatly admire and one of the things I have always loved about these individuals is that they didn't share all of their opinions with all people. I don't know why the internet gives humans the permission to share things that normal, well-adjusted people wouldn't share in polite society, but it does. I don't need to share what I think about every subject all the time. I realized that it's a good practice to guard speech, in real life, and online, and that there are many subjects that really require relationship with others before most people are able to breech said subjects. Peggy Noonan, Eugene Peterson, and some others get a pass. Most of the rest of us should probably still our fingers when something pithy comes to mind.

During my facebook-fast, I also found that, honestly, I just didn't think about a lot of people I "saw" all the time on facebook. And what I discovered was that I didn't miss them. I don't mean that in a spiteful way. It's just that those people are not in my everyday thoughts. And I realized during Lent -- I don't think they're supposed to be. I think relationships are supposed to be at different levels of knowledge and intimacy.

So, I logged in to facebook again in the evening on Easter. I was on it for about 7 minutes. I read about some friends I hadn't thought about for 6 weeks or so. I looked at some pictures. Then I deactivated my account again. I just don't think it's a wise thing for me. And leaving it behind is not much of a sacrifice.

Recovering

We all got sick here this week. Annalivia got the flu on Saturday evening. Daniel threw up on Tuesday. Emmeliese got sick Wednesday afternoon and I got it Wednesday night. We're all praying it will miss Daddy.

The four of us without a paying job have been inside since Saturday. Today, it was sunny and 32 degrees out, so we all got on our slippers and walked out to the front porch where the sun was shining. We came in when we were cold five minutes later. It was a good breather.

We are all in varying stages of recovery. I have a headache. Emmeliese is fussy and frustrated by everything. Daniel and Annalivia are both eating regular food now, but Daniel is getting very tired (and hence, fussy) in the afternoon.

BUT -- in the midst of this, as I was praying at some point for healing for a child, I realized that I really do take for granted the other 360 days in a year when we are all healthy beyond most of the world's populations' imagining. There are so many for whom that ratio works the other way. May I be mindful...

I'm having some issues...

...making things harder than they should be lately.

Ouch.

I managed to fall down the stairs at our house today. The inside stairs. I was still wearing my tights after church and my foot slid off the edge of the stair in one of the spots where the wood has been worn nice and smooth. Luckily, I only fell down three stairs, but I banged my broken wrist on the radiator, slammed my other wrist and ankle into the bannister and hit my back hard enough on the stairs to knock the wind out of me. And I scared the heck out of Dennis and Annalivia.

To say that I hurt right now would be a massive understatement. I had planned to spend the rest of the day in a frenzy of pre-Christmas prep, finishing handmade presents, getting the house picked up and thoroughly dusted, etc. But that didn't happen. And may not for a few days. It seems as though the universe keeps aligning to tell me to just let Christmas be what it will be. I think today I pretty effectively got the message. I'm not sure the delivery had to be so jarring, but it worked. I'm revising downward. Really, Universe. No need for any more intervention.

Things learned during illness

• It is unwise to mention out loud to one's sister that one's family has been remarkably devoid of the stomach flu for the last four years. It's basically writing out an invitation that reads something like this... "Dear stomach flu... Please, please, please come visit. All of us. All at once. And asap. Bring all the baggage you can carry. Looking forward to it. Love, April P.S. Dennis' birthday is later this week and I have big plans. We'll have the guest room made up by then!"

• I married a saint. He's also a hero and an angel, not to mention, a truly excellent chief, cook and bottle-washer (and yes, I intentionally made that phrase into three jobs). Well, maybe he has a ways to go with the "cook" part of the job description, but really... Dennis is totally the cog that makes the wheel of this family function. He has changed beds, changed and bathed and comforted and cradled kids, coddled me, done load-upon-load-upon-load of laundry, fed us -- but only what we requested, made trips to various stores, played, sang.... all while feeling terrible himself and missing a decent birthday celebration because of his own illness. The man is simply amazing. And he's ours.
• The smell of laundry being washed in the basement of this house makes the whole house smell fresh and clean. Which is really saying something when all four of the residents have the flu.
• At a certain point, it is impossible to fool one's children into thinking that Pedialyte is really apple juice. Even the young, gullible one.
• When one hasn't eaten for a day or so, saltines and ginger ale make a meal as delicious as any cordon-bleu cuisine.
• If I ever have the opportunity to design or radically remodel a bathroom, I will seriously consider covering the entire thing in tile, putting a drain in the floor, and making all storage units, lighting, etc. completely waterproof so as to be able to basically hose down the place at any moment.
• There are advantages to being sick -- lots of rest, thank you, Lord (and Dennis) -- the sheets all get cleaned -- the bathrooms get bleached -- cooking is pretty much optional as no one cares what dinner is going to be. The advantages, however, do not outweigh the disadvantages. I look forward to being well for a long time.

What the...?

Have y'all heard about the new Anne of Green Gables movie? It's being called Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning. It's being brought to us by the same folks that produced the first two great movies and the third abomination. Here's the description of the fourth, courtesy Wikipedia.

Anne, now a middle-aged woman, is troubled by recent events in her life. Her husband, Gilbert, has been killed overseas as a medical doctor during World War II. Her two daughters are pre-occupied with their own young families and her adopted son Dominic has yet to return from the war. When a long-hidden secret is discovered under the floorboards at Green Gables, Anne retreats into her memories to relive her troubled early years prior to arriving as an orphan at Green Gables and being adopted by the Cuthberts.
Still haunted by her early childhood, the impact of this difficult period has a far-reaching effect on this older woman, once she discovers the truth about her real parents. She begins a delicate search for her birth father. It is a journey through a past fraught with danger, uncertainty, heartache and joy. In the parade of humanity Anne encounters she also faces the root of her desire to find true "kindred spirits", an inspired imagination and the impetus to use her talents as a writer to inspire others.

Gilbert dead. Ick.
AND Barbara Hershey is starring as the grown-up Anne and, from the looks of it, they were able to use some of the props from Beaches.

I swear I remember that exact pose right before Wind Beneath My Wings kicked in.

Rotten-ness

I am feeling terrible right now. I have a horrible sore throat and almost no voice. It hurts to swallow and my ear is aching and ringing and full of fluid. My eyes are itchy and my nose is stuffed up and my wrist hurts and on and on and on...

This is VBS week -- not the time to be sick. And tomorrow night, we are supposed to have our community prayer vigil for the recent murders in our community. I am supposed to open the service, but I'm going to pass it off to someone else tomorrow morning. And then I'm going to pass off my VBS responsibilities to someone else. And then I'm going to curl up on the couch and pray my children are entertained by Kipper videos while I moan and try to feel a little better.

That's the state of things 'round here.

Ouch

I hurt my back today. I was doing a radical move of bending over to pick up mustard, salad dressing and jelly that a helpful little boy had put on the floor and the lower part of my back just sort of seized up. I have no idea how I did it. I was bending over angrily, though. Suffice to say, I have learned my lesson. Angry-me makes everything hurt.

This happened one other time in my life before Dennis and I got engaged and I attended a birthday party of one of his nephews. It was a bowling party and I was trying to be enthusiastic and energetic and very impressive, helping the little ones and spending most of two hours bent over. I wasn't angry that time. Just stupid. After it, I could hardly walk, but, I think, the pain went away the next day.

This morning, my crippling occurred as the kids and I were leaving the house. It got really bad after I had to rescue my son from an evil patch of grass that was ensnaring him, thus rendering him motionless and unable to walk. I came home, took some Vicodin left over from my wrist surgeries and laid on the couch. Dennis stayed home from school tonight and the drugs made me feel nauseous and sleepy, so I laid down in bed with Daniel about 6 a.m. and we both fell asleep. I got up at 11:30 p.m. and am heading back to bed now, with another dose of drugs. My back is feeling a little better, I think, but, truthfully, most everything is numb thanks to the codeine.

Is this what people mean when they say their backs "went out"? If so, I'm hoping mine comes in before morning.