It’s been a whirlwind weekend for yours portly and Dr. Girlfriend. Dr. G is on a particularly brutal ER rotation at the moment, which sees her awake at 4:30 AM and out the door around 5:15 AM. It’s a rural emergency room in a very poor county, so she sees some truly heartbreaking and troubling stuff. She also had a schizophrenic patient throw an EKG machine and a bag of nickels at her, her attending physician, and a nurse. On top of that, she had to work a twelve-hour in-patient shift at a larger urban hospital Saturday, so she is beat.

My exhaustion stems from more self-inflicted sources: two late nights with Civilization VII. My nephew also had his birthday party yesterday morning, so I woke up at 4:30 AM alongside Dr. Girlfriend (in something of a show of solidarity, but also to make the party on time) and drove about three-and-a-half hours from Dr. G’s to see my family. It was a great party and I was glad I could attend.

I then turned around and drove back to Dr. G’s, and knocked out several things around her place. She has been so mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, I wanted to lighten her load. I managed to get some laundry done (still in the process of that), clean her kitchen, pickup dinner, take care of Murphy and her sweet dog, and get a few other small tasks done.

The elation that she experienced upon seeing all of these menial household tasks attended to was well worth the effort expended. We enjoyed a great pizza dinner and some tea before both proceeding to sleep for hours. I think I slept for about ten hours, which is a lot for me. Dr. Girlfriend slept for probably twelve hours, and is now dozing some more after her morning (well, early afternoon) espresso and Bible reading. I’m updating the budget after our nice Valentine’s steak dinner and a lot of gassing up from traversing the Carolinas the past few days.

I am so very thankful for the Lord’s many Blessings. The Sabbath is surely one of them. Dr. Girlfriend and I always attend church on Sundays, attending at either her church or mine. I made the executive decision, however, that we would “lay out” today, as I think the rest will benefit both of us spiritually far more than the contemporary rock band and lengthy sermons at her church (the sermons are excellent, but definitely a tad too lengthy). Instead, we’ll do a devotional together this afternoon and observe the Sabbath the way the LORD Did when He Created everything.

We are both very tired, but very happy. It is good.