In a large household (to me, anything over four is large), if one person falls, the rest may soon follow. And so, in my daughter's home, first the baby sitter caught something, then last week Snowdrop picked it up, and today her mom came down with the mysterious "it." Thankfully, not Covid it, just some random bug that seems to be on the prowl for new victims.
It used to be that we would ignore such stuff and tally forth with whatever plans were made. That was then. These days, when a household member is ill, everyone, and I mean everyone -- family, friends, sitters -- wants to stay away. Poor you -- nobody wants to see you! They don't want the baggage of feeling under the weather these days. You need tests. You need isolation, You need clearance to attend school. To see a dentist. To get a haircut. No one wants to go down that path and so we give a wave and say -- call me when it's over.
And so when my girl texted this morning that she was the next to fall, we all agreed that Sunday dinner should be called off.
A wet and cold day. Best spent on cleaning the house.
Cozy breakfast indoors.
But all this didn't feel right for the kids. They aren't sick. And we haven't had Sunday dinner here for weeks. Can't they come over without the parents??
Of course they can!
And that's how Ed and I end up entertaining the older kids at the table tonight.
Or is it that they entertained us? ("Let's eat wit the lights off!")
Evening: dishes done, house is quiet. But with the echo of little voices and the movement of small ones still lingering in the air.
