I had a big old post written for today, and when I went to edit and re-read, I depressed myself.
Sure, huge parts of our lives suck right now, but geez! If I’m getting tired of writing about it, I know you all are tired of reading it!
The short version of what’s happened this week:
Zac got another stomach bug. While I was away at work. While he was snowed/iced in at my parents. In the country. Running fevers and being sick. (THAT helped my stress and anxiety levels.)
Darrel got the same stomach bug while he was snowed/iced in at home.
The boys almost got stuck for good at my parents house. This would have been very bad, since my parents had almost completely run out of food for them. Miraculously, my parents were finally able to leave their house long enough to bring the boys home before we got more ice and snow, though I had entertained the thought of having Darrel drop me as close to their house as he could so I could hike in with supplies and get snowed in with them. Thankfully, my parents even made it home safely.
After Zac got better, my mom got the same stomach bug. (Apparently we’ve just passed the same stomach bug back and forth for the last few weeks. Fun fun.)
Remember when Jed had Mesenteric Lymphadenitis? That was in December of 2013. We JUST got a bill from the hospital dated February 3 of this year for the amount of $823.31. Yeah. 13 months for insurance to pay their part so the hospital could bill us. And you know we’ve got $823.31 just sitting around. Ouch.
Somehow Darrel’s parking sticker for work got misplaced in all the car shuffling we do when I go to work, and the University charged him $80 for a replacement. Yay.
All in all, we’ve had a crappy week. Tack this week on to the last two months and I wanted to crawl under the covers and not come out for a few days.
But you know what? I’m not nearly as dejected and depressed as I might have been from all of this. Jed saved me from sinking in to a pit of gloom bigger than the ocean.
On Monday, he just melted me in a zillion different ways, and my heart got so full of love, pride, and sheer awe of his sweetness and goodness that when I re-read my original, whiny, post, I rolled my eyes at myself and re-wrote it.
Instead I wanted to share how downright adorable kids can be, and how, if you let them, your kids can unwittingly pull you out of the darkest emotional holes.
For starters, Jed apparently saw a commercial for vacations in the Virgin Islands around the same time as I told him I had to ship a package to Virginia. Now he has combined the two and is making up imaginary stories about his Thomas trains leaving the Island of Sodor and traveling to the “Virginia Islands”, which tickles me to no end.
He wrapped up Monday night by ad-libbing a bedtime prayer where he thanked God for trains, Santa Claus, and told God “good job, God, for keeping Mommy safe when she was in bad weather”…an event that happened almost three weeks ago that he and Mom prayed for. I nearly cried when he said that.
But the biggest bout of adorableness came yesterday when we were running errands in town, and it happened at two different times and places.
Our bank has a bowl of lollipops on the counter for their customers. As a food allergy mom, I do my best to ignore the bowl and not call any attention to the free treats my kids simply cannot have.
Jed noticed it anyway.
He started begging me to let him have a lollipop, and when I reminded him that he couldn’t have one because of the Meanies he retorted, “Not for me! I want to give it to someone!”
Well. I picked him up so he could get a lollipop, which he promptly ran over to give to a lady standing in line behind us.
Then he gave a lollipop to the bank teller who’d been helping me.
When we left, he waved broadly and screamed out “Bye bye, everyone!” And everyone in the bank smiled, waved, and told him “goodbye” in response.
A little later, we were at the post office shipping an Etsy sale to Virginia. They also have a bowl of candy sitting on the counter, and once again, Jed wanted to give the candies away.
There was a considerably longer line at the post office than at the bank, but Jed gave a piece of candy or a lollipop to every single person before he was done.
After telling them the candy was for them, most of these folks tried to give the candy back to Jed.
Every time, Jed responded by saying “I can’t have it because it has BAD ingredients in it!”
I about fell on the floor wanting to laugh! Can you imagine what these people were thinking? “Gee, thanks, kid. You can’t have crap but you’re giving it to me??”
I restrained myself from laughing and explained more clearly to these folks. “He has food allergies and intolerances, so he can’t have them. He just really wants other people to enjoy treats.”
To their credit (and probably because they’d seen him get the candy from the basket on the counter), most people ate the candies right there.
Jed was thrilled! He had a huge grin on his face and was so happy to make everyone else happy.
By the time we left both the bank and the post office, you couldn’t find a frown or bad attitude in either business if you tried: everyone was smiling, laughing, and happy.
And that is why I’m not nearly as bummed as I have been, even though last week was challenging and hard.
My son has the sweetest heart, the kindest spirit, and the most natural charm and joie de vivre of anyone I’ve ever met.
Who could be cross in the presence of that?
What’s the most adorable thing your kiddos have done?
Sorry I haven’t been commenting. Strange computer issues. But I am back and love the way you make lemonade out of lemons… Even though you and your boys can’t drink it, your readers can and it reminds everyone to look on the bright side. And what an amazing kid to want other people to enjoy something he can’t have! That more than anything shows that you have done a great job of explaining his food issues in a way that doesn’t make him feel weird or outcast… And not resentful either. Great job, Mama.
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