Monday Holidays

Today was President's Day. I was planning to teach today. We were going to have school. That was the plan.

Unfortunately, I started the day ... tired. It's as simple as that. Not to mention, my ears were plugged and that means extra noise, and even just my own talking, makes my brain crazy. All I really wanted was to be alone.

So, we can usually get through a morning like that and just get a later start. No biggie, since I didn't have to work today.  But no ... instead, my mood went farther south. Along the lines of depression, or mourning. Could it be because my good friend's grandma is dying and she posts the most beautiful status updates about her latest visit with her? This reminds me of my own father's last days ... I recognize the moments she's describing. Yes, I think this could be it. And as much as I'd like to avoid her posts in order to avoid these feelings, I just can't. You'd have to read these posts to understand their beauty and why I wouldn't want to NOT read them.

Anyway, all this is to say: Momma didn't feel good and didn't want to do anything with her kids today, so school was cancelled ... it just happened to be a holiday.

The funny thing is, when a holiday-no-school-day happens to fall on a Monday, and the kids have had no school all weekend ... Andrew. gets. bored! He managed the day pretty well, but by about an hour before bedtime, he couldn't keep it in anymore. "I'm bored!" he cried.

No problem. By that time, Momma was feeling better and was ready for some interaction. (Not our first of the day, but the first that I wasn't forcing myself to do it.) Luckily, Andrew and I had started reading a book about Thomas Alva Edison last week (he loves non-fiction, historical fiction, biographies ... and just about anything else that I'm willing to read to him so he doesn't have to read it himself). I started to pull it out and he complained "No, not school!" (Obviously he wasn't THAT bored!) However, he didn't know what I was pulling out. When he realized what it was, he was more than happy to curl up with me. We read a few pages, with a lot of discussion as well, and some internet research into where Milan, Ohio is and what telegraphy is, and a telegraph machine, and the Universal Morse Code.

We didn't get very far in the book, but it was ... like my friend's posts ... a beautiful moment. We ended because he was yawning, ready for bed.

This was the most precious moment of my day, this time spent "doing school" with my 9-year-old son, when he thought we weren't. How thankful I am. How thankful I am.