Good Mood

I’ve felt pretty miserable the past two days. Yesterday morning, I woke up at 1:30 – that’s right, 1:30 in the morning. I was painfully sick, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up, had my morning devotions, read a book (not from a book -- a whole book), looked at some baseball sites on the Internet, read some more, went grocery shopping, even did some pushups and sit-ups. Finally, the morning came and I got Jada ready for day care. I trudged her to day care, trudged to work, trudged through work, and trudged home. My wife, who was feeling just as sick as I was, offered to take care of Jada through until bedtime so I could lie down. I was in bed before 6 and fitfully slept until past 6 the next morning.

Today, I felt even worse at work. Jada spent the day at home, so I didn’t think I could count on Amy taking my evening responsibilities on for a second night, but sure enough, just as I got to our front door, she and Jada were leaving for a walk – Amy said she’d be out for an hour, so I could rest a bit. What a saint she is. She closed the door behind her and I trudged upstairs to shed my work clothes, have some semblance of dinner even though I had no appetite, and wallow in the pain of my headache and sinus pressure and drippy nose.

The two of them got home an hour later, and I met them downstairs. Jada puttered towards me with a big grin on her face. Amy reported to me that she had been a good mood all day. It was a breath of fresh air, given how worn down I’d felt and how fussy she’d been all week. I played with her for a few minutes, got her ready for bed, and then kissed her goodnight and put her in her crib for the night.

Even now as I write, I feel awful. But because my little dumpling was in a good mood today and because she shared that happiness with me, even for just a few moments, I can kind of have a bit of a smile on my face.