Day One in the Trenches

Mr. Sloth left on a  business trip yesterday. I tried not to think about it for as long as I could while still trying to line up some plans for the week to keep me occupied. I had it all lined up, plenty of activities for the kids during the day and plenty of assignments for me to do at night.  Yesterday morning I woke up with the head cold that the kids have had for what seems like a week. Mr. Sloth had this cold last week. When he woke up with it I took the kids for the day, when I woke up with it he left the state.  Se la vie.

Here's how Day One went.

Moral was surprisingly high for the day considering I was sick most of the morning until the motrin kicked in. Demand and I got some work done before Mister woke up early from his nap. Then we all headed for groceries. As I got in line at Aldi I let a lady go ahead of me because she only had two items. She started to stare at us. I got the obligatory "my you have your hands full" comment. I don't mind this. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't true, sometimes quite literally. Then asked if "this" was a daycare.

"No. They are all mine."

She stares again, examining all the kids.

"My you are one ambitious mommy"

(I'm now faking a smile because I don't know what to say.)

"Are they all healthy?"

Yes. (?????)

"Good because that is what is really important."

Now maybe she just said something off the top of her head to end the conversation but I found the comment odd. First, what did she mean by healthy because they did have runny noses. And what if one WAS sick??? Anyway, I've now joined the "is this a daycare club".

Also, it  got me thinking. People ask if it's a daycare. If I were to say yes, would they then be ok with me taking care of four kids all day. What's the difference?  The only difference I can think of is that if it's a daycare I make money off of having children in the house, if they are mine I don't.  I don't want to even go down that road.

The rest of the day was fairly average although everyone took naps  except myself. This will come to bite me in the bottom later.

I made what I thought were delicious sandwiches only to hear, "What's that smell? It smells like throw up!" I guess it's cereal for dinner tonight.

Obscure was heading over to watch the kids while I went to the gym and adoration but the weather stepped in and canceled all of that. Obscure still came by to keep me company though. Which I appreciate.
It wasn't long until the kids were all in bed and I settled down for the night. Not a bad day one... or was it.

I fell asleep almost instantly and woke up when Mister started crying. As I got him out of his bed I thought wow what an easy night then I saw that it's wasn't 4am it was 1:30am and my night was just beginning. It was about 4:45am when I finally got to sleep "for the night" and by 6:45am I heard the inevitable "Mooooommmma! MOMMMMMA!!!!MOMMMMMA!!!!!!!" I had to drag my tired bones across the hall to 'shut it down' before Rooster (formally Pax) woke up Mister.

So two hours of sleep, children with colds, and four inches of snow is how we start day two. Part of my master plan was to utilize the two hour childcare at the gym but with the kids sick I can't bring them. Already one hiccup in my grand plans. I was also planning on showering at the gym so we'll see how that pans out. Right now the kids are finishing "The Muppet Show" from when I was giving them a haircut. When it's over we are going to try and normalize our life between nose wipes. Some school, some cleaning some room organizing before we head out for Feast Day activities later.

I've already managed to give Rooster a traumatizing haircut. The haircut looks great but the process was emotionally damaging to both of us.

This could be a long week.