Take Two

Last week I left you in hopeful anticipation of starting Monday off on the right foot with the house cleaned, clothes ironed and a new van in the garage.

My week did not go as planned.

Monday was just the beginning of a really tough week. While Demand had been sick on Sunday she seemed fine on Monday, Happy however was feeling under the weather. Fussy and clingy all day with a fever. We only got to use the new van once and that was just to grab a few necessities at the store. Tuesday Happy was even worse and rarely let me put him down. (I do not exaggerate) I sent Demand to school since she was fine all day Monday but she wasn't home one hour before complaining about her ear. This is when things really picked up steam. Both kiddos were sick all day Wednesday. I mean whiny- fussy-nothing will make me happy-sick. Even though it was the last day of CCD one of us had to stay home and logistically it made sense that it was me. Considering CCD starts around bedtime for the kids anyway the fact that they were sick should have made things easy for me. The use of the word "should" in that sentence should give you a sense of foreshadowing, and that would be correct. Happy screamed the entire time I read books to Demand which is not like him. So I kept him up until 8pm when Mr. Sloth came home and rescued me. This of course meant that I did not get my Bible Study done and it happened to be the last week ever and it also meant that I couldn't get any reading done for Friday's book club.

At this time I will mention that one of Demand's symptoms was a horrible cough. So horrible in fact that if it got too out of control she would "spill". Thankful she's old enough to head to a bathroom when she feels she's going to spill but our problem was getting the kids to sleep. Once we'd get Demand's coughing frenzy to stop Happy would wake up fussy if he didn't wake up from her coughing and then Happy's crying would wake up Demand again. We didn't sleep all week.

I didn't know what Thursday would bring. Early that morning I called the Bible Study leader and sadly told her that if I came at all I would be late. I couldn't stand the idea of Demand missing the last day after three years so when the children finally woke up we hastily dressed and headed out the door. I hadn't even opened my lesson for the week and had limited to sleep as well. I mostly just sat there blurry eyed with Happy on my lap for most of the time. There was a luncheon afterward and I had somehow wisely remembered to bring Happy's new portable high chair. That's about as peaceful as the lunch was however. While Demand was apparently feeling better she just sat there without eating and then asked to go home. Happy just made a mess and made it clear that going home was a wise idea. I freed Happy from the highchair before cleaning up and gathering our things so while sentimental speeches about the end of Bible Study were being made I was running between the table, the garbage can, and trying to find where Happy had gone. Of course he found a staircase somewhere but one time I honestly couldn't find him for a minute but my friend signaled to me that he was on her leg.

The day didn't get any easier. We headed home for nap time but Happy didn't nap well and if I recall he woke Demand up. Mr. Sloth was gone for the night so Obscure came by to help out with the kids. I had just put them in the bath when he came so I had him sit in there with them while I cleaned up stairs and got things ready for bedtime. Happy has really been liking Obscure these days so he was in a pleasant mood for once. After the kids finally headed to bed I cleaned up the rest of the and headed to bed myself. Around 1:30am I woke up and realized that Mr. Sloth still wasn't home. I read in bed (finishing my book for book club) until 2am when he finally came home but by then neither of us could sleep.

Friday was the light at the end of the tunnel for me. At 9am, exhausted from the previous days and lack of sleep I took a sip of my coffee, ignored the whining children and made a decision. We needed plans for the day if we wanted to survive and that's what it was about, surviving. I started leaving messages with all my friends. Within fifteen minutes I had plans that would bring me to 6:30pm when I would leave for Book club. First to a neighbors for some garage bike riding. After an hour or so she treated us to lunch as well and then we headed home for naps. As soon as everyone was up and social after nap time we headed to another friends house for an afternoon play date and homemade pizza for dinner. We arrived home three minutes before Mr. Sloth but Obscure was already waiting in case I needed a sitter. Mr. Sloth immediately took over and I got ready to go and headed out the door. With all the excitement of having time to myself I made the bad decision of staying out until 12:30am. As I drove home with a headache I just kept thinking. "This was a bad idea." See Mr. Sloth was going to be gone most of the day on Saturday as well.

Saturday was a slow start for obvious reasons. I had a potential play date but Happy was beyond fussy the whole morning crying about everything. For numerous reasons plans changed and the play date was moved to our house. We mixed things up by going out for lunch which was pretty nice but Happy ended things in a snap. It was home for naps again. I fell asleep in the kids room but woke up with a headache and headed downstairs to find Mr. Sloth's car, only to discover he was home in bed. Within a half an hour both kids were up screaming and I found myself on the couch consoling two children and secretly frustrated with Mr. Sloth. "Why was he taking a nap when I've had crying children all week??!" He redeemed himself by taking the kids for a drive while I cleaned up the house and stared dinner for friends.

And that my friends is how my weeks went. Sunday was peaceful and today was a new start, it wasn't perfect but it was much better than last Monday.