A day like any other ????

Pancake breakfast for seven (Olivia had a friend sleep over) - wet snowpants and boots now sit next to gifts under / near the Christmas tree - batches of hot chocolate all day (actually - Enzo only drinks cocoa - Milo hot chocolate - same stuff - wink wink - I tell them they are custom batches) - melty sandwiches - talk of middle schooler shopping outing - Olivia's basketball game - phone call from Mom - hanging paper preschool angels on the tree.

ANY OTHER DAY (with snow :-).

Except - my husband and I were in a pretty bad car accident. We're OK -sore ribs, big red slash where the seatbelt was (through my freakin' coat!) - I've iced a big sore knot on my knee - a little nauseous and sore..... My poor little black 2000 VW Jetta (Olivia and I named her Gwendolyn Delilah) might not make it, though I hope so -don't need another expense - not ready to let her go (they told us to take some of our personal stuff - I took the carseat and this little paper "cell phone" that Olivia made for me years ago and that I kept in the car on the door - Marcello took paperwork and an umbrella - we felt crappy / shaky.... probably should have taken more - feeling weird - we had such a close call - the first car I ever bought on my own - if it would have hit us another way, what would have happened - ??? Thoughts racing, obviously). Anyway - some careless idiot was going (per witnesses) like 60 - 70 mph coming towards us - hit slush on a curve (that's when I saw him coming right at us) - and almost hit us head on (officers said we could have flipped) - instead hit side and knocked us head-on into a stone overpass (then hit another car). We're lucky. All I could think of was - what IF the kids were with us. Enzo and Olivia ride to school in that car with Marcello all the time. Enzo is little - looks small for his booster (though it is "regulation") - Olivia would have been where I was - Little Milo almost rode in it the other day - someone would have been near the door / window. Scary. The impact was awful - several hard impacts.

Anyway - trying to count blessings. Hard right now. Feeling an odd mix of blessed and cursed (one more thing in a long list - sappy, feel sorry for self stuff). Currently right back on the dinner, laundry, games and books with kids (between refereeing their fights), etc. Have not had time to think. Everything - insurance, Enterprise, police, attention to minor injuries, etc. - OVER in like three hours. Right now, lamenting our shopping / lunch outing that never was. In an hour will realize how much could have been lost.

Marcello keeps telling me how much worse it could have been - how I should not have lost my temper with the guy who caused it, acting like a victim. Very grateful to our lovely neighbor who came to get us (and his family who lost him for an afternoon) - the nice guy who's car was also hit and who was very supportive - the very helpful and kind policemen. Anyway... I'm not being terribly gracious right now, but I'm trying :-).

As always... thinking of those who have lost so much and are hurting now. Maybe more so today....