My Sister's Keeper

In the midst of what is finally (finally!) a week of gorgeous spring weather, I have been frantically trying to get ready to go to Florida on Thursday with Annie. She's so very excited, and so am I. It's just all the little things that need to be done before we go that are getting to me . . . stock the house with groceries for my mother-in-law (who is watching Jemma), clean (obviously), pack, pack more, pack a giant bag of distractionary items for the airplane, take Jemma to the doctor to find out that she has an ear infection, run a little, pay bills, do laundry, take books back to the library, do a Target run, pack . . .

So I am obviously doing a lot of lying awake in the middle of the night, wondering if I'm forgetting something and worrying about what might happen in my absence. Healthy, I know. (Sidebar: Connie and I had a conversation yesterday about how we are becoming crazy, and, more specifically, crazy like our mothers. We wondered if it's our age or our kids that's making us crazy; we decided it's the kids.)

And then, I started reading a new book: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (thanks, Heidi). Nothing like a book where someone's daughter is terminally ill to really pull things into perspective. And even though it's sometimes actually painful to read, I need this sort of thing from time to time, like a little wake-up call to my mommy side that reminds me that each second is truly so precious with my girls. I have a feeling that there's going to be some reading-while-weeping going on in my side of the bed for the next few nights. But in the meantime, I've regained a little more patience and am trying to just enjoy the sunshine here before journeying to Florida and enjoying the sunshine there. Less worrying, more sunshine. A good motto for spring 2008, I think.