Back to Normal

Return to Family Fun

Back to Normal

It was just the flu, just a virus, just a few days of moaning and cursing our germy burden, but still when it passed we were left with an appreciation of life.

Reporter: Jessica Rassette

Email: news@momseveryday.com

Story
Comments
Photos
Related

Back to Normal

Jessica is a writer and amateur photographer in Lincoln, Nebraska. She began writing after the birth of her second child when she found she needed an outlet for her creative energy. Soon after she began taking pictures, and since has used her blog as a "canvas" for pairing her unique photos with poetic writing. She finds inspiration for her writing through her husband and their two boys.

On Saturday we woke up at a groggy nine a.m., Bub and Teebs rubbed their eyes and piddled around the house, walking around with slaps of their bare feet on the cold wood floors while Tom and I high-fived each other with our eyes. Nine a.m., we had slept in.

We felt refreshed, rejuvenated, almost new, and as we began our day I could feel the familiar blanket of normalcy slowly warming us with its soft routines and stitches of familiarity. The flu had passed, we had survived, and normalcy was blanketing us once again. There was nothing else to do but wrap ourselves in hats and coats and leave our house to play in the cold, distant, but still present, sun.

It was just the flu, just a virus, just a few days of moaning and cursing our germy burden, but still when it passed we were left with an appreciation of life. Like that first meal after laying like a curled up rag on the bathroom floor for a whole night, when plain, dry toast tastes like the most savory cuisine that has ever entered your mouth. That was the kind of appreciation we had.

Luckily, there was a lot to appreciate. Just the little things. Like funny faces and pine cones and sunshine.

And quiet moments that move slowly with thoughts that are soothing but powerful. And sunshine, and sunshine, and sunshine. Let's not forget the sunshine.

That blanket of normalcy, it fell down on us like a leaf weaving through the wind and we felt so good we almost forgot that just a day ago, just a few hours away from where we were, things were different. But normal came back with the solid assurance that everything always gets better.

Even when everything feels heavy and bad---

The heavy and bad passes---

And we are left with so, so much to appreciate.

Saturday was our savory dry toast. Our day of appreciation for just being. And that kind of appreciation almost makes being sick worth it. Almost.

Now we've been normal again for so many days that our difficult week of stomach flu is nothing but a fizzling memory of something bad that happened, but passed, because there is too much to appreciate here. Like kissable, bulging cheeks, that used to be seeping with sadness but now are absolutely exploding with chubbiness and life.

Chubby cheeks. Sunshine. Wrapping ourselves up warm enough to play outside on a January day. These are our dry toasts of life. Our simple pleasures that are actually, really, really worth appreciating. After a long, hard week, our everything finally got better, and of the things we are spending time appreciating, our normal is definitely at the very top of our list.

Read more from Jessica at bubandteebs.com