How Quickly a Day Can Change

Last night one thing was on the minds of my family, breakfast! My son is in the third grade and the state English language Arts exam starts in the morning. His teacher has been doing a fantastic job getting his class ready for the exam. My son is as prepared as he can be. His handwriting may be terrible but when they do decifer his answers they will see that he knows his stuff.

The school has sent home letters to parents, and talked to the student about how to be mentaly and physically ready for this exam. Practice has been completed in the classroom. The students have been told to get a good night sleep and to fuel their bodies in the morning. The school is even giving the whole third grade class free breakfast.

My son is takig this make sure you have a good breakfast to heart. He talked his father into bringing home a breakfast sandwich, he made me look up the menu for breakfast at the school so he knows what he is going to eat there. Then he did this.

I think this along with him telling me last night that he loves when I make muffins, especially blueberry ones is a hint. So I started to set up to make muffins when the phone rang.

It is pretty late at night, usually my husband calls home at this time if he wants me to check the score of a hockey game or look up some silly trivia on line. I looked at the caller id and it was my brother. Still I didn't expect what happened next.

He sounded upset and said he was going to put my life in perspective. I could tell he was holding back tears. The next words out of his mouth were that his house was on fire.

I instantly lost the grin on my face and asked if he was okay. Was his family okay? What happened? How could this happen? I wanted to rush out there to be with him and I even reached out to a neighbor that I am friends with. I asked if she could sit in my house so my kids wouldn't be alone. I explained that my brother' house was on fire and I wanted to be there to help comfort him. I wanted to hug him I wanted to do something. She was about to go to bed and didn't want to. Okay, so I was not able to get to him.

I can't imagine how he was feeling. I was heartbroken and it wasn't even my house. I do have ties to it. It was my Nana's house. My father grew up in that house. It has been a part of the family for four generations now. It is a part of our history, but it is my brother's home.

Later he called me back, the house is still standing. The interior sounds like it just suffered from smoke damage. It could have been much worse. They are staying with neighbors and the boys will be going to school in the morning. They are going to try to get back to a normal day. My brother is so shaken, I can't help but worry about him.

Now when the phone first rang I assumed my son was asleep. He wasn't. He heard my voice change and knew something was wrong. He came out of his room and I could see that he was worried. He is like me, he takes a worry into his heart and holds it there. It becomes part of him. I explained that his Uncle's house was on fire but everyone was okay. A house is just stuff, what is important is his Aunt, Uncle and cousins are safe. He wanted to know where they were going to sleep, and even thought I invited them to our house, I did't know.

He went back in his room and came back out with a blanket. He said this was for them so they could have a blanket to keep them warm. He then went back in his room and brought out three more blankets. One for each of them. I was so proud of my son. He was willing to give up his blankets to help another family.

It took me a long time to get him focused on sleep again and the exam that he is taking in the morning. After he finally went to sleep knowing that his relatives were safe and warm I made those blueberry muffins for him with blueberry glaze. So much had changed since I started making them, things can change so quickly.