The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside still waters.
~Psalm 23:1-2~

We live a pretty low key life at this point.

Home, and family, and church, and friends, and a few weekly appointments and activities that go along with raising kids. Our weeks usually feel rather normal and routine. I like the feeling of knowing what happens on specific days of the week. Sometimes, though, it does feel like the days and weeks run right smack into each other, without much of a real “stop what you’re doing and lie down” sort of rest. We had one of those this past week or so.

The Tummy Bug hit.

Hard.

Mom was the first victim, getting sick on a Sunday night, completely out of the blue. I spent Monday on the couch. Nana and Pop-Pop swooped away the active Toddler Boy, leaving me with just a Tiny Boy that stayed right next to me in the Pack ‘N Play or swing. As long as there were bottles and diapers and snuggles, he was happy. Hubby had to work, but he ran the errands and brought home ice pops, diapers, Gatorade, and a rotisserie chicken.

The next morning I felt a little better, but we called off Tuesday’s Tot School with the grands just to play it safe. Wednesday, Tyler was acting mildly sick and wouldn’t eat much, so we decided we’d better stay home from church and not spread any germs. And thank goodness we did… Hubby woke up at midnight with the same hard-hitting yuck that attacked me three days earlier. Tyler’s version was mild, so we kept watching him like he was a time bomb, waiting to explode at any moment. Thankfully, he didn’t, although he barely ate anything all week and was very droopy and tired.

The “yuck’ part of this lasted only a short while, but the “wiped out” part lasted for days. Every day I woke up feeling slightly better, but ended up needing to sit still after cooking something or washing some dishes or folding a bit of laundry. On Friday night, I turned the remnants of the rotisserie chicken into soup. By Saturday, I was feeling energized enough to go to the grocery store, but when I got back I slept all afternoon. We took one more day to rest on Sunday and then I began slowly pulling the house back together on Monday. The parents of the grands were still boycotting any potential germs, so Tuesday’s Tot School was cancelled again.

Ten Days of Rest.

Rest that interrupted our plans of fellowship, family
activities, and work, but evidently was much needed.

It made me think of how the Good Shepherd had to MAKE his sheep lie down and rest in the cool, green pastures. How He had to LEAD them to drink the cold, still waters. I wonder what those sheep were trying to do or where they were trying to go? Were they so busy doing sheep stuff that they forgot to rest and be still for a little while? Sometimes we all need a few days of forced rest.

Also… Isn’t it interesting that the prescription for
getting over illness is plenty of rest and lots of fluids?

Green pastures and still waters.