The last few weeks of blog silence found us with seasonal ups and downs. The front end of the second semester - spanning January to March - is the longest stretch of time without long vacations. At school you can see people dragging, students getting sick and the sniffles and fevers coming and going before people can adjust. The school becomes a hot spot for such bacterial and viral connections and so our story was just a microcosm of the school. All of us went down at some point or another, with Natalia taking a night off to sleep of a major headache, Laurence missing three days of work a couple weeks ago and the girls taking turns staying at home to recuperate for a number of nagging, but minor, ailments.
The thing is, when the girls are sick or tired, or both, the crankiness is at high octane and the whining has hit high gear. Tensions are thick, frustration on overload and everyone's nerves are wound up tight. For a couple weeks there we were like that nearly daily. And then, gradually enough that we didn't notice, things shifted to better moods, less complaining, less crying, happier interactions. Laurence must have noticed just a few days ago when the girls were out on the balcony mopping up the place with their mini-mops they brought back from Colombia last summer.
Then, today, the morning sunshine shown through the living room doors as the girls woke up and immediately decided that the balcony was 'where it was at' as they say. The brought out books, sat chatting and reading and talking to the turtles, giggled and laughed. Irini, who was up first, even brought daddy out to watch the sunrise together, with it's bright oranges and calming pinks. No tension. No frustration. No bickering or fighting. It was as if our health was back and with it our sunny disposition. Life's little moments may have been happening all along - it's hard to say - but now at least we're back to paying attention to the things that matter.
