Dealing with a non-ideal night.

Last night I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep.

I was exhausted because we had a HUGE day, my son David's Junior Saxophone Recital.  Technically, it started at 8 p.m. (although we'd all been preparing our separate parts for days, David for weeks and months).  The music finished at 9:30, and the reception was over a bit after 10:30.  By 11 p.m. we were driving home, and by midnight we had unloaded the van and put most of the leftover food away.

There is still a giant cooler containing a few cans of soda, sitting between my mudroom and my kitchen table.  A bin full of unidentified dry goods graces the family room.

There's only so much you can take care of when you are that tired.  I was tired enough to simply drop, but once I hit the sheets, I could not get to sleep.

No matter how I lay, one or the other of my arms was bent awkwardly and would go numb and tingly within a few moments.  I couldn't get comfortable.

I know I do not wish for an arm amputation.  I know that.  I had to keep reminding myself that.

My mind was so full of all the events of the night, I couldn't even focus on the attributes of God.

And this was after two cups of nice, hot Valerian tea.

Some nights you just have to give in.  You can't get too bent out of shape about it.  You have to let your mind spin, and lie there in the dark trying to be still and warm.  If you don't freak out and panic, you will eventually fall asleep.

At about 1 a.m. when we were all trying to go to bed, I told my younger son, Jonathan, "I'm too tired to get you up for school tomorrow morning.  You can get yourself up.  Or if you can't, I'll just get you up when I wake up, and I'll take you to school then.  You need your sleep, too.  It's a Monday for goodness' sake."

I fell asleep at about 2:23 a.m.  I woke up shortly before 8 a.m. without an alarm clock.  I took Jonathan to school after we'd sort-of-breakfasted*, arriving a little before 9 a.m.

And life continues.

*There is an odd phenomenon that when you are getting a ton of food ready for a holiday or special event,
 the normal cooking and shopping doesn't happen, 
and in the end you are often at a loss for, say, eggs... 
and bread that could be toasted for breakfast.