My tulips are blooming, but it's been so stinkin' rainy that I haven't even been brave enough to run out and pick any.

It's clear for a moment--right now, as I type, I can look out the window and see white clouds scudding across blue sky...but if I crane my head and stand up a little to get a better view, I can see another big mass of gray clouds swooping in right behind them.

You would think, then, that I would take advantage of this moment to throw on some shoes and poke my nose out of doors for the first time today and pick myself a nice bouquet of tulips for my dining room table. I've got some gorgeous red-and-yellow ones out there, and a few creamy white ones, and I seem to recall planting some pink ones that I'm hoping will be opening up their buds any time now.

Except that I can't pick them myself. Beth has been begging to pick tulips for a week, ever since they first started blooming. And last week I told her no, because only a few had opened up and I wanted to leave them there to look pretty outside our house. Now, though, we've got a plethora of them standing tall under the not-yet-blossomed rosebushes, and it would be the perfect time for her to steal a few for a bouquet. She just loves making bouquets.

No, Beth would be broken-hearted if I picked them myself. So why can't I send her out to pick them? Because the poor little thing is curled up on the couch, all feverish and pathetic. She's moved from that spot exactly twice all day, once to go to the bathroom and then later to sit on my lap while I worked at the computer, her hot forehead pushed up against my chest.

I mentioned casually to her that today might be a good day to pick some tulips, thinking maybe she might perk up with the chance for a little fresh air, but she just groaned and ignored me and rolled over again on the couch.

So the tulips will get to live another day. I promised my chief flower-picker that their stems belonged to her, and mama can't go back on her promises, no matter how much she wants to see something pretty on her table.