4th of July Thoughts

This past week I've been sick - something that rarely happens to me with my healthy constitution. It was the can't lift your head off the pillow sick - the leave the cleaning supplies in the bathroom because you'll need them again in three minutes sick! I don't want to milk the sympathy card here - just to tell you that these kids really, really helped out! I rented "John Adams" from Netflix, and it came in three dvds - a seven part miniseries, so I watched most of that while I was sick. I really enjoyed it, and for me it really opened up my eyes and expanded my knowledge about this great founding father, and I could relate to the feelings of John and Abigail, who were separated so much even though they had a great love, and how their letters got them through. I look forward to reading their letters next!
We had great plans for the fourth - great plans for the week, and those plans changed, but not for the worse. Madison got up and dressed up in red, white and blue and asked everyone to do the same. Looking very patriotic, Madison drove the four oldest to the church pancake breakfast (in the van), then to a festival at George Washington's boyhood home, and then to the movie "Wal-e". I watched Nadal win in the semi finals watching Cecily play with blocks and duplos, singing to herself. It kills me to not be able to get up when I'm sick and help my children. It is hard to hear that they are bored, sad, tired, sick of being inside, etc. I wish every minute of their day could be filled with laughing and happiness, but I guess that is not realistic, and it doesn't help them be better people in the long run. I couldn't fold the clothes when I was sick to they had made quite a pile on the bedroom floor - I asked everyone to come up and help fold, and they did. The socks also had piled up. I said I'd give anyone a dime a pair, and they got them folded up really quick. Each child rearned about $1.50! I had no idea we'd let the socks go for so long. Our ward is great about helping out, and I have some friends I can call and I know they will be at our door at a moment's notice, but yesterday seemed very quiet. One thing I love about our neigborhood is the amount of illegal fireworks smuggled into our subdivision. You only have to sit on your lawn and get the same fireworks (although less concentrated) than the ones in town. We lit our little ones we got at the stand, like the screaming bee, the cactus, the snakes. Our kids were totally petrified of sparklers - what's up with that? I loved sitting on the lawn and watching it all, and watching our kids watch it all.
My good friend Sachiko was just diagnosed with lung cancer - we are having a ward fast for her tomorrow. She has been through so much adversity, and this just seems almost too much to bear. I asked her what I can do and after saying "pray, pray, pray", she just said "be positive, always be positive... that is the only way to heal.