This morning my son Theo and I woke up with sore throats. Not only were we not quite recovered from the many-weeks long whooping cough business, but now we seemed to have caught some sort of cold. Arggh. My nose was also stuffy so I felt super sluggish as I climbed out of bed and began my morning routine of cleaning, getting dressed, making breakfast, feeding the animals, making lunch, getting Theo off to school. Theo rolled around in his bed for a few minutes complaining about his throat and asking for water. Once he’d had a drink, however, he seemed a lot better so we decided he could handle going to school. I told him he could call if he was feeling worse, and I’d bring him home.

A couple of hours later, that call did come from Karina, one of the wonderful administrators in the school’s front office, explaining that Theo had a sore throat and a tummy ache. I trudged back to school to pick him up, carrying with me a tin of Japanese green tea, of which I seem to have quite a collection, which I planned to give to Karina as a thank you for always being so sweet and friendly to Theo, David and me over the past few years. Her name Karina means “pure” and “loved” and her warm, loving approach to the kids and families makes her very loved indeed. David refers to her as “super nice” and when asked to describe her, Theo calls her “nice and really friendly.” I always enjoy our chats when I stop by the office, though I feel guilty for taking up her time when she has so much work to do and so many other people to deal with.

When I arrived at the office, Karina had me fill out the usual school release forms and shared some caring suggestions as to what might make Theo feel better. One of them included drinking tea. At that moment, I held up the can of green tea and told her I’d like to give her it if she liked it. Fortunately she did, as that made today’s Giveaway delightfully easy… And it’s just as well. Earlier in the day, I had made an attempt at what could have been my biggest Giveaway ever – in physical size, that is. Instead, it ended in disaster as the item was smashed to smithereens. Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened…