Mommy and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Week(s)

The last two weeks havn't been nice for us. I'm tired enough that I can hardly remember the first week except that my son, D, had a double ear infection, and we had an ice storm. Then Super Bowl Sunday came. Although I do not watch football on a regular basis I had it on because it's something hubby and I would do if he were here (and I figured he might have stayed up late to watch it too- kind of like a long-distance date). After an amazing game (Go Giants!!!) I was excited about the prospects of an early bed-time when no more than 30 minutes after the game ended I heard D crying. I went in to check on him, and he had apparently gotten very sick. I will spare the gory details but will say that he required a full bath and new sheets. Not long after that I had to change the new sheets again, but fortunately the rest of the night he was fine.

Monday my 4 year old, H, had a bad sore throat so we skipped pre-K and ballet, and at the end of the day I did notice that the 3 year old, E, had an excess of sleep in her eyes. The next morning H woke up feeling better, but E had what appeared to be pink eye in both eyes. I got an appointment with the doctor and discovered that not only did she have pink eye, but she also had a bad ear infection which is what started the pink eye. I figured while I was there I would kill 3 birds with one stone and had him look at the other two. H was fine, but D's ear infection was much worse. We got stronger antibiotics prescribed and that was that.

Wednesday wasn't good at all. The girls woke me up in the middle of the night wanting to get in bed, and I was so tired I just let them. Quarter to 6 (in the morning) an alarm goes off. I have a bad history with our gas alarm (another over-long post) and it sent my heart into panic mode. However it only sounded once, but while I was up checking out what caused the alarm to sound, the electricity went off and stayed off. It would be one thing if I was used to dressing my children by candle-light and fixing coffee on the stove. However, although I had all of their clothing laid out and was up much earlier than intended, I still had a hard time getting out the door for school on time. Not to mention that I had to open the garage manually, and while I'm perfectly capable of doing so, the door does not stay open all the way, so I had to ask a very gracious neighbor to lend a hand. The lights eventually came back on and I went through the Starbuck's drive-through, but I couldn't get out of the funk that had started that morning. Plus, with all the unexpected illnesses I had to cram to get my assignment done for school, and the electricity kept threatening to go off.

On Thursday my husband asked why I was so grouchy, and I must admit that I just spewed off all my stresses and frustrations. Fortunately he just listened and didn't try to fix things and I felt better getting it off my chest. I even managed to get a few things done around the house since the kids were on the mend and no assignments were due. Friday was a slight return to normalcy, running errands and eating out with friends (all-be-it Chick-fil-A and the 15 month old HAD to throw his food in any direction.)

Saturday I had another unexpected awakening at 3 a.m. H entered my room and wanted to get in bed. She wasn't feeling well, so I let her and before I knew it, she was sick all over the place. Again, sparing the gory details, but I was up for several hours and am still looking for a way to get red Jello stains out of tan carpet. The rest of the day she wasn't much better, even slept for 3 hours in the afternoon and didn't eat at all. I stayed up late washing towels, sheets, clothing and couch slip-cover and got a few things scrubbed down in the house.

Today we stayed home, just to fully recover and the weather was really bad. Tonight it's getting BELOW 0*F with a windchill below -16. I've been able to reflect and rest today too. In spite of all the insanity, there is a silver lining. Dealing with sick children isn't easy especially without my hubby to help out, but we've had lots of uninterrupted together time lately since I haven't had to do my usual running-around. I've been able to cuddle and love on my little ones who are growing up so quickly. It may be miserably cold outside, but although it's less than clean, I have a warm, comfortable home. The recent tornadoes with such devistation put things into perspective for me. I also have friends who have called me just to make sure things are fine and to offer to get groceries. One even stopped by unexpectedly with soup, lasagne, bread, and salad. Plus, I just saw that school is delayed two hours tomorrow morning- YAY!! I hope that we return soon to normalcy- whatever that is...