Sick Days

The last couple of days I have had my hands full with a miserably sick child. It has left me with little desire or drive to write but here I am, doing my level best. Rose is sitting orange tea with honey to sooth her little throat and has aloe wipes to ease the rawness of a runny nose.When you are three, a big snotty nose has somewhat of the equivalent of a world ending event. You are, however, mollified by the fact that by being sick, you are given the best blanket in the house. You are make cherry and rose hip tea, sweetened with liberal honey. You are given a host of storybook shows, which you love so very much and attend to with loyal diligence. You are comforted that because he knows you are no feeling your best, the cat comes to snuggle you. He stays with you for four hours straight, until it is time for your nap. My daughter knows that a house of six people fusses very much and lovingly upon a sick child. She might have a cough and a runny nose but she is as content as she can be.

Such where the days of my youth, my own mother sitting by my bedside while I was fighting off a sickness. When I had pneumonia at the age of six, I was so weak at one point my mother had to carry me like a newborn lamb, folded in a blanket. She boiled down a chicken to stock and hand pulled the meat, cutting up extra carrots to go in my favorite soup because they were my favorite vegetable. She safely ensconced me upon the couch in the living room where she could monitor me from the kitchen, putting on The Wizard of Oz or Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego? My favorite nightlight was a LiteBrite, of which she would help me design a rainbow. I would drift to sleep blanketed in a handmade quilt and a bath of rainbow light. I was as content as I could be.

While Rose plays, I go back to doing something that has become a ritual in our search for a homestead. I go to LandandFarm.com and take up the Search again. Looking for land, for a house and land, or for a farm where a home could be built. I search Granger County, TN, North Carolina, Colorado and other places in hopes I can find the perfect place. I just noticed one of the properties on my saved list is still on the market. I have contacted the Realtor to get more information on the house's status and whether I could come see it anytime soon.

So while it is a sick day here in the Clanhold, is also a day of discovery. Zoe Mulford's voice rings out while I type in the dinning room, thinking of love and reminding Briar Rose to go drink her tea. A cozy day of recovery spent near the heater and with our hands wrapped around warm mugs. Soon I will be fleshing our the rabbit furs and making a report on the pyment Colin and I bottled a week ago. It came out very good.

We will come out good.