In Stride

Life has been busy. Work, play, kids, family, fun, sickness. Lately, it's been a lot about the sickness. When you have an extra family of five living with you, sickness becomes a part of life. That being said, I'm amazed we haven't been rocked by more sickness. These past 2 weeks saw the first rounds of it and really, I don't know of many families who haven't been dealing with a stomach bug, nasty cold, or flu-like bug. Grace and Luke got hit this week--Luke taking the brunt of it. It's been a while since my guys have been really sick and I'm always struck by the parental adrenaline that kicks in when you know they need you so, so much.

So life kind of slows down and lots of things get put on the back burner. My class preps have suffered somewhat but more in the way of energy. I just haven't had it when I go in to lecture. I did redeem myself today with an outstanding lecture and discussion on antebellum slavery. A few of my students were tickled that they totally understood the flack surrounding the NY Post political cartoon depicting the polic shooting the rampaging chimpanzee stimulus bill. Just last week we had dealt with 19th century political cartons and the depictions of African Americans. Regardless of how one feels about the current cartoon, it was very, very exciting to me to see them making connections.

A little while ago I had decided to hang up my running shoes. It was really stressing me out struggling to find the time to run and I wasn't enjoying it. It just seemed like one more stress factor in my life. So I decided to give it a break and return to it when I was ready. That lasted a few weeks before I really missed it and I've been off and on with it since. With the kids being sick, it's made it hard to get up in the morning or even to sneak one in during the day. When all they want is to sit and snuggle with you under a blanket, I'm hard-pressed to say not now. I've toyed with the idea of a duathlon this summer and have been running and biking off and on and enjoying it. The emphasis needs to be on enjoying it or I simply won't do it.

I've had it with winter. Had it. I've had fantasies of moving to warmer climates in a way that I've never experienced before. We all feel the cabin fever. The kids are rammy. I'm depressed when I look a the temps. It's time for some spring. We're outside people and it's been calling to us.

So that's about it for around here. While life had been full of its challenges lately, I remind myself every time I look at the news that our lives are good and how fortunate we are. Spring will come. Illness will pass. I will run and bike and teach. And it's all good.