“‘I cannot go to school today,’ / Said little Peggy Ann McKay.” So begins one of the Girl’s favorite poems, the famous “Sick” by Shel Silverstein. Yet in our case, the sickness is real, and the truism shows itself to be more than mere cliche: When Mama is sick, everyone suffers. Mama is the glue that holds everything together, and when she’s down with the flu, the rest of us start coming apart.

And priorities shift, like this silly blog.