Respect and thankfulness

We're on day four of six of Mitch being out of town - Thursday thru this afternoon with his dad and now in Chicago until Tuesday night for a conference. This has been a tough one. I had an extra hard time with him leaving on Thursday morning for a number of reasons - six days, miss him, knowing he was going to be with his dad because of his cancer, three crazy boys, feeling sentimental and reflective after a great week with him, our kids, my parents and close friends, all kinds of things. At this point I was already thinking about the strength of my friends who parent as a single whether by choice or circumstance. Thursday evening's news that Ray's cancer had grown in his liver and chemo would start on Friday morning was unsettling and enforced the wish that I was with Mitch. By Friday night I was feeling better as we had one night behind us, the kids were being good, we went to the Iowa vs. Wisconsin swim meet with friends and then back to their house and my parents were planning a brief visit over the weekend. I was ready to concur Saturday. So I thought.

12:07 a.m. - Pierce coughs in bed and gets sick. I spend most of the night up with him and doing laundry. What sleep we do get is in Max and Graham's bed while they peacefully sleep in my bed.
6:00 a.m. - I get sick. Pierce gets sick again. Long morning ahead of us but the big kids are troopers and aside from small fights and me having to raise my voice, we survive pretty well.
9:30 a.m. - Pierce gets sick again and I continue to be sick every hour or so until noon. This is fun.
2:00 p.m.- Help arrives. My parents are here! They are unbelievable help for the next 25 hours. Raised bed for my gardening next year done. Halloween lights up. Carpet in living room and Pierce's bedroom cleaned. Rug cleaned. Laundry done. Odd jobs complete.
2:50 p.m. - I get some much needed sleep and wake feeling better.
5:45 p.m. - Iowa defeats Michigan
6:00 p.m. - Graham gets sick, goes right to sleep
8:00 p.m. - Graham gets sick again
9:30 p.m. - Wisconsin defeats #1 Ohio State
3:00 a.m. - Pierce and Max are sick
2:00 p.m. - Max and Pierce both down for nearly three hours of napping.
8:00 p.m. - Graham and Pierce are sound asleep.
9:15 p.m. - Sliding glass door vertical blinds fall - on me.
9:30 p.m. - Max is still awake. House as clean as it's going to get.
Point made that this is a nasty weekend in our house thank goodness for two (I'll admit the WI one was the more impressive one) important Big Ten victories today.

Respect and thankfulness?

Respect has grown for those friends who single parent. Six days is a long time to do it on my own and then you add four of us being sick.  Even with 25 hours of unbelievable help, I'm wiped and we have two days to go. Hats off to those friends.

Thankfulness for my parents and all their help. We look pretty good tonight because of them. Thankfulness that this appears to be a 24 or 36 stomach flu that in a couple of days will be completely in our past.