It found us: The sickness that's had people dropping like flies finally invaded our home, even though we did everything we could to elude its grasp. So, at about 10 o'clock, last night, after a happy weekend of  dinner with friends, a party with more friends, my daughter's sleepover followed by a restful holiday topped by an evening of ballet class, she was stricken with a stomach bug and fever. (I know, busy weekend ... maybe too busy, and a lot of exposure to every illness making its rounds.)

Is there a more helpless feeling, than when your child is sick? I can't think of one that surpasses it. And doesn't it always seem like the worst hits at about 3 o'clock in the morning ... when the world is at its darkest, and oh-so quiet? And doctors' offices are closed? That's about the time foreheads are hottest with fever, the thermometer passing 100 and ever-edging upward. It makes the world an incredibly lonely place. As it was for me last night, as I took my daughter from her room into mine so I could check her through the night. She was so sick, and so uncomfortable. It seemed the new day would never dawn.

But it did, and with it her fever broke.  So the day, for my daughter, will be one of rest and hot tea. For me, it will be work at home mixed in with laundry and snow shoveling. But all is well, or getting there, as I proceed with a sense of relief mixed with equal parts exhaustion and accomplishment. May your days be healthy ones!