Took One for the Team, and Me

     J'ever wake up feeling as if you'd been beaten thoroughly with a baseball bat?  I mean knowing full well there is not a thing in the world really wrong with you, but unable to stand, move or think without something hurting and resulting in groans and moans and carrying on coming from somewhere - oh - wait - those sounds are coming from me!  I took one for the team for two whole days.  But mostly, truth be told, I took one for myself.
     I took Friday off (mandatory use of vacation time - thanks Township) to clean, prepare and set up and decorate for our annual St. Patrick's Day celebration (with a little St. David's Day thrown in to keep me honest to my core) and I demanded from myself just what I demanded when I was 25 or 30.  I pushed past the envelope and relished in being in my most favorite place...in my home...alone...doing all the things I (can you stand it?) truly love.  I sought out those dust bunnies who one day will take over the world....I steam cleaned all our floors with my newest most favorite toy - the Steam Shark - I did windows (yes, yes, I do do windows), I did mirrors, scrubbed bathroom fixtures, got all the laundry done, even the cold water wash pains in the neck that I never find time to do....I was a whirling dervish and I was humming and/or singing the whole time....I am such a 50's throw-back....it made me happier that most anything else can do.  I fitted in some piano practice (tho not as much as I should) but I never did fit in any reading...the other most fav.

     That night when Lar came home he offered to take me out to dinner....and I realized that if I were to try to change and get into an automobile, something might break off!  So I declined, and then reclined and stayed there until time to put the corned beef into the great crock pot and to brown the onions and beef for the Guiness stew and put that into another crock pot for the 'morrow.

     We had some take out on the patio, and for a little bit we relaxed and then I gathered up all my various mangled parts and eventually went to bed.

     And then came Saturday....one of my favorite days in the year...my family and friends were coming to gather around our table for our St. Patrick's repast.  This year there were 16 of us around that table....and it was such a delicious melding of people....everyone with their own story, with their own concerns, with their own particular background, joy and grief, coming together as family and it gives me such joy to host such an event.  Lar and I don't stop beaming the entire day....it gives back so much that when I "take one for the team", I am very much taking one for me and my dear husband...we get back so much more than we give.  When Ian arrived, he was decked out in his hand-made leprechan hat and brought us a "stained glass" window decoration that "I made that!"  So cute.  I had made the required corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes, Guiness stew (beef not lamb) and potato leek soup along with Irish soda bread. 

     It's Sunday now....it is still gorgeous weather outside....spring has come and hope abounds....for sick family members, for grieving friends, for expectant parents, for all the dear ones in our lives....thank You Lord.  Amen