When is your bedtime?

I have a friend who has very precocious children. She always tells me how much she loves me and hugs me at church. I've been over to her house and read to her kids and have watched them several times and had a good time with them. I even went to the mall and watched her kids while she shopped for the oldest and left me for several hours at the play area with her two and three year olds... that was crazy! One day I was talking to her and I happened to mention during my last term when I was taking 16 credits and that I rarely got enough sleep and two times a week I'd have to suffer without sleep at all because I had so many papers to write and huge art projects to complete, not to mention all the tests I had to study for.

Needless to say I got really, really sick and stayed that way almost the whole term. I had stressed myself out so much, with getting good grades and lots of personal struggles at home.

I missed a lot of church last term. I missed a lot of classes too. I had a really hard time getting out of bed. I would lay there and want to throw up and usually was in the bathroom being sick for much of the time.

My health suffered. I'm still not very well. I have very high blood pressure and am on water pills and heart pills. I also have asthma and have to take medicine for that every day because my heart/lungs feel constricted much of the time and I also probably have adrenal burnout. (I have another trip to the doctor this week.) Not to mention the severe carpal tunnel I have that keeps me up at night because I lose feeling in them when I lay down. I also have IBS that becomes aggravated with stress. (I know I'm only 33 and too young for all of this, the Dr. said I'll die by the time I'm 40 if I don't pull it together.)

Ok, so you get the picture, right? I have some serious health issues that I need to tackle and overcome. So back to my friend...

Her child came up to me two Sundays ago and told me he knew why I was sick. I asked him why, and he said because I don't have a regular bedtime. So it's kind of funny that a kindergarten child would say that to me right? Because he is right, I didn't have a regular bedtime, I just worked and studied and didn't bother about going to bed until I got all my homework done. But what bothered me was that this child wouldn't have known that unless his mom was talking about me at home. That's what bothered me and it didn't feel very good and I think it is not very nice.

So this past Sunday, her child came up to me again and asked me if I now had a bedtime. I laughed and told him I don't sleep EVER. He said, but why? And James said it was because I am a robot and robots don't need sleep. He asked me why I was a robot and I told him I was made that way. So we sort of dismissed him and left.

So I hope he discusses that with his mother this week. AND this Sunday, if he comes up to me again and asks me about a bedtime, I am going to tell him... (in a robot voice)... "I am a robot, I like to dance."

So instead of telling the child to mind his own business, I'm gonna mess with him a little. I hope that's not too mean!!! And I guess the lesson of this whole thing is if you mess with me, I'm gonna mess with you!!!
The other lesson to learn from all this is don't be like me! Stress can seriously kill you, so make sure you know how to relax and take time for yourself. I didn't realize I was doing the damage I was to my body until it was too late.