Glorious Saturday

I live for these kinds of days in the winter -- days when I can sleep until 8:30 and I wake up and my husband already has a pot of Dunkin' Donuts Original coffee on. Days when the sun is shining but I don't have to go outside. (For those of you who live in warmer climes, a January day in Minnesota where the sun is shining brightly usually means the temperature is somewhere far below "fit for human habitation"). Days when getting dressed means switching from fleece jammies to sweatpants. Days when I have no commitments to anyone and I can plan a satisfying dinner meal that takes hours to cook because I am not going anywhere, my friends.

This week had one of those roller coaster bumps that can't be predicted and that take a lot out of a mom. Spencer collided with another child while he was in the bus line after school Thursday. Said collision resulted in Spence bleeding all over creation, a call to me to come and get him, and an emergency visit to first our orthodontist's office, then a trek across the hall to the oral surgeon.

Yikes.

His upper lip was terribly swollen and the inside of it was actually caught in the braces wires. Ulp. Thank goodness for nitrous oxide. (And for the iPhone, which kept me busy playing Words with Friends so I wouldn't accidentally look up and see whatever the surgeon was doing.)

His teeth were saved by the braces. If it hadn't been for those silver wires, his two front teeth would have been gone. As it is, they are loose. So loose he is not to bite into anything with them for a couple of weeks to a month. So loose that, while we don't know who the other kid was, I can not imagine she did not have a colossal headache and/or a goose egg, or blood on her at the very least.

And I kept it together, internet. I did not cry or faint at the sight of my injured boy. He was so brave, and I was a puddle inside, but I did not crack. Yay me. There were moments it could have gone either way, believe me.

He was home from school yesterday. Has a script for amoxicillin and is taking ibuprofen regularly. His lip is swollen but he is in remarkably good spirits. He is eating soup and jello and pudding, and this morning he is out shopping with Dad for a new Wii game that he has wanted for a long time. Hooray for birthday windfalls.

Speaking of birthdays, we had his party scheduled for last night. I postponed it on Thursday night, not knowing how he would be feeling, and it looks like we'll be able to pull it off in a week or so but he is 10, and he handled that disappointment with remarkable grace.

It could have been SO much worse, but it was stressful, and I fussed and fretted as any mom would, and it took the gee-whiz right out of me. I was in bed ridiculously early last night.

And this morning I woke up late, had my coffee, hatched a plan to make steaks for dinner, along with popovers and P-Dub's Burgundy Mushrooms, and sent my husband out for a few ingredients and some errands that Evan and Spence wanted to run.

I will get some reading done today, work on a few crafty projects, and be grateful for my cozy house, the fireplace in the family room, the healthy kids, and the husband who keeps it all together.

Yes, definitely one of my favorite kinds of days.