What WAS That??
This particular post will probably go entirely too long. Consider yourself warned. In fact there is nothing informative or probably even at all entertaining about what you are about to read. It is simply a way for me to vent and release over the craziness that took over my life for nearly 36 hours.
Tuesday morning I woke up and did the usual thing - getting the kids ready for school and out the door. As soon as the last one was on the bus, I thought it would be a good day for my newly formed Timmy's habit, so I grabbed a book and headed out. Yes, it was a delight as usual, but after a bit, it became busy, hustled, and bustled and I knew it was time to come home. As I was soon to find out...that was my last calming moment for many hours to come.
I arrived home, ready to tackle my June Cleaver-esque tasks of the day. But before long, hubby showed up at home with a request to run his cell phone up to the Verizon store as it appeared to have "died" for no reason. Off I ran, and made it home just before monkey child #3 was due to get off the bus. Once he was home, I began my daily lunch parade, fixing lunch for the child, lunch for the hubby when he arrives, and FINALLY...lunch for myself. By the time that parade passes by, I have a few moments, and then it's off to the school to pick up monkey child #2. (Child #1 has musical rehearsal). Child #2 & #3 and myself head out to Walmart (never a simple task) for a new shower curtain and baking pan, arriving back home just before child #1 gets home from his rehearsal.
At this point. It's the homework battle. And when the battle is waged with a child who struggles with ADHD, it's an AGONIZING battle. Add to that, he came home complaining of an extremely sore throat, so he has ZERO desire to concentrate as it is!
Right about this time I was in the kitchen starting dinner. I remembered that I was scheduled to take a meal to a sick friend's house the next day, and there was a good chance I would see her husband that night at church. Why not just take it out to church with me, and give it to him? So I tried calling my girlfriend to give her the head's up to my super smart plan. No answer. (of course) Decided to go ahead and make it anyway. I was off and running making dinner for two families.
Back to homework time with the sore throat monster. Not going well. I take a peek, and I see red spots with a bright red throat. As any mother will instinctively say.."STREP" I grab the phone to call the pediatrician, and realize there was no dial tone. Still trying to cook dinner for both us and my friend, keep D-man focused on homework, and now trying to figure out why my landline is not working. Yes I am the ultimate multi-tasker, because I just added "calling Verizon" to the list. Except I couldn't call Verizon because I couldn't find their service number in the pile of {ahem} "poo" stacked on my hubby's desk.
Finished preparing dinner, gave up on the house phone - we have cell phones, I can deal with that later - and the pediatrician didn't trust my diagnosis of my own child and wouldn't see my kid that afternoon, which only aggravated me more. Sat down to dinner with the family, and then the princess and I quickly headed out to church where she had Kids Choir rehearsal. After dropping her off, I headed down the street to Target. After all, if child #1 had strep, he would need a new toothbrush head for his electric toothbrush. Arrived at Target, and found 2 of my favorite people working that night, so I did get to say a quick hello as I wandered through the store. Scoured the personal hygiene area, and the store did NOT have the refill head. (ggrrr...), ran back to the toy section for lil' D's birthday ideas, and then realized my hour was up and I had to get back to church.
Got to church, and met Mr. D who had arrived with the boys and was sitting on all 3 kids waiting for me to arrive, so he could go to his board meeting. We switched vehicles, and I drove myself and the 3 kids home. Lil' Mr. Strep Throat was wanting some ice cream, so I handed out the treat prior to putting them to bed. Mr. D got home a short while later, and he promptly shoo'd me off to bed at 9:30, knowing I had to be awake extremely early the next day.
(ahhhh.....snoozing happily, not a care in the world....)
For whatever reason, I was wide awake at 3:45 am on Wednesday morning. I wasn't upset with myself, I actually had to get up at 4:30 for my woman's Bible study group that meets at 5:30. But did I get out of bed? No...I just continued dozing in and out, not realizing that the craziness from the day before had not ended.
At 4:30, I awoke, and quickly threw on my clothes from the day before and tied my hair in a ponytail. Grabbing my can of caffeine and driving out to church for my time with my girls - A small group of moms who have busy lives with their families and some with jobs outside the home, who have committed to praying for our families and our church and meeting for Bible Study on Wednesday mornings at 5:30.
I arrived back home at 7:30, to discover that (SURPRISE!)child #1 still had a monstrous sore throat, and lunch needed to be made for child #2 to take to school. Threw together the princess' mandatory PB & J, and called my neighbor making alternate arrangements for the two youngest children to get to school so I could take #1 to the walk-in clinic.
Made it to the pediatrician where $20 later he was diagnosed with ~duh~ strep throat, and the prescription was immediately sent to our pharmacy for us to pick up. Drove to grocery store for soup, apple juice and applesauce, over to the pharmacy where there was an apparent delay, so it wasn't ready to pick up. Drove to the school to inform school nurse and make arrangements for his homework. Drove to Tim Horton's for a much needed hot chocolate, back to pharmacy where his meds still weren't ready for some lame reason, waited in the parking lot for 10 minutes before going back inside for the 3rd tim and FINALLY getting the much needed antibiotic. Finally, able to go home.
NOTE: It is now 10:00 am, I've been up for 5 1/2 hours (more or less) but have been unable to take a shower.
Getting D-Man settled and medicated, folding laundry, and before I realize it - time for child #3 to arrive home on the bus. As soon as he gets home, the boys and I jump in the van to drive 45 minutes to my girlfriend's house and take her the dinner that I made last night. Although it was good to spend a few minutes with her, I knew that I would have to rush out to make the 45 minute drive back home in time to pick up the princess at school.
Home with all 3 kids at 2:30, still no shower, and no plans of one as Mr. Verizon was capable of showing up at any time to fix our dead landline from yesterday. At 3:00, he graced us with his presence, while I supervised the princess during her homework time and started dinner. He didn't leave until 5:00. Still waiting on that shower. Mr. Verizon left, and we sat down to dinner...Enchiladas...the high point of my day. Mr. D would have clean up duty though, because I had to hurry off for a PTA district-wide meeting at 6:30, followed our elementary meeting at 7:30.
Finally walked into the door at 9:30, and fell asleep by 10:00. I quit.
This morning I, once again, did the "getting the kids ready for school and out the door" routine. Miraculously, D-Man was feeling amazingly better and was ready to go to school today! The Princess followed along, and Lil-D? He hopped on the bus at 8:35 right on schedule. I walked back into the house. Silence. It was almost as if the world had finally...just...stopped.
I took a deep breath and thought about making a Tim Horton's run to enjoy this moment. And then I remembered that was how this whole mess started 48 hours before. Ummm...no thank you, I think I'll pass. But I did finally get to take that shower!
Tuesday morning I woke up and did the usual thing - getting the kids ready for school and out the door. As soon as the last one was on the bus, I thought it would be a good day for my newly formed Timmy's habit, so I grabbed a book and headed out. Yes, it was a delight as usual, but after a bit, it became busy, hustled, and bustled and I knew it was time to come home. As I was soon to find out...that was my last calming moment for many hours to come.
I arrived home, ready to tackle my June Cleaver-esque tasks of the day. But before long, hubby showed up at home with a request to run his cell phone up to the Verizon store as it appeared to have "died" for no reason. Off I ran, and made it home just before monkey child #3 was due to get off the bus. Once he was home, I began my daily lunch parade, fixing lunch for the child, lunch for the hubby when he arrives, and FINALLY...lunch for myself. By the time that parade passes by, I have a few moments, and then it's off to the school to pick up monkey child #2. (Child #1 has musical rehearsal). Child #2 & #3 and myself head out to Walmart (never a simple task) for a new shower curtain and baking pan, arriving back home just before child #1 gets home from his rehearsal.
At this point. It's the homework battle. And when the battle is waged with a child who struggles with ADHD, it's an AGONIZING battle. Add to that, he came home complaining of an extremely sore throat, so he has ZERO desire to concentrate as it is!
Right about this time I was in the kitchen starting dinner. I remembered that I was scheduled to take a meal to a sick friend's house the next day, and there was a good chance I would see her husband that night at church. Why not just take it out to church with me, and give it to him? So I tried calling my girlfriend to give her the head's up to my super smart plan. No answer. (of course) Decided to go ahead and make it anyway. I was off and running making dinner for two families.
Back to homework time with the sore throat monster. Not going well. I take a peek, and I see red spots with a bright red throat. As any mother will instinctively say.."STREP" I grab the phone to call the pediatrician, and realize there was no dial tone. Still trying to cook dinner for both us and my friend, keep D-man focused on homework, and now trying to figure out why my landline is not working. Yes I am the ultimate multi-tasker, because I just added "calling Verizon" to the list. Except I couldn't call Verizon because I couldn't find their service number in the pile of {ahem} "poo" stacked on my hubby's desk.
Finished preparing dinner, gave up on the house phone - we have cell phones, I can deal with that later - and the pediatrician didn't trust my diagnosis of my own child and wouldn't see my kid that afternoon, which only aggravated me more. Sat down to dinner with the family, and then the princess and I quickly headed out to church where she had Kids Choir rehearsal. After dropping her off, I headed down the street to Target. After all, if child #1 had strep, he would need a new toothbrush head for his electric toothbrush. Arrived at Target, and found 2 of my favorite people working that night, so I did get to say a quick hello as I wandered through the store. Scoured the personal hygiene area, and the store did NOT have the refill head. (ggrrr...), ran back to the toy section for lil' D's birthday ideas, and then realized my hour was up and I had to get back to church.
Got to church, and met Mr. D who had arrived with the boys and was sitting on all 3 kids waiting for me to arrive, so he could go to his board meeting. We switched vehicles, and I drove myself and the 3 kids home. Lil' Mr. Strep Throat was wanting some ice cream, so I handed out the treat prior to putting them to bed. Mr. D got home a short while later, and he promptly shoo'd me off to bed at 9:30, knowing I had to be awake extremely early the next day.
(ahhhh.....snoozing happily, not a care in the world....)
For whatever reason, I was wide awake at 3:45 am on Wednesday morning. I wasn't upset with myself, I actually had to get up at 4:30 for my woman's Bible study group that meets at 5:30. But did I get out of bed? No...I just continued dozing in and out, not realizing that the craziness from the day before had not ended.
At 4:30, I awoke, and quickly threw on my clothes from the day before and tied my hair in a ponytail. Grabbing my can of caffeine and driving out to church for my time with my girls - A small group of moms who have busy lives with their families and some with jobs outside the home, who have committed to praying for our families and our church and meeting for Bible Study on Wednesday mornings at 5:30.
I arrived back home at 7:30, to discover that (SURPRISE!)child #1 still had a monstrous sore throat, and lunch needed to be made for child #2 to take to school. Threw together the princess' mandatory PB & J, and called my neighbor making alternate arrangements for the two youngest children to get to school so I could take #1 to the walk-in clinic.
Made it to the pediatrician where $20 later he was diagnosed with ~duh~ strep throat, and the prescription was immediately sent to our pharmacy for us to pick up. Drove to grocery store for soup, apple juice and applesauce, over to the pharmacy where there was an apparent delay, so it wasn't ready to pick up. Drove to the school to inform school nurse and make arrangements for his homework. Drove to Tim Horton's for a much needed hot chocolate, back to pharmacy where his meds still weren't ready for some lame reason, waited in the parking lot for 10 minutes before going back inside for the 3rd tim and FINALLY getting the much needed antibiotic. Finally, able to go home.
NOTE: It is now 10:00 am, I've been up for 5 1/2 hours (more or less) but have been unable to take a shower.
Getting D-Man settled and medicated, folding laundry, and before I realize it - time for child #3 to arrive home on the bus. As soon as he gets home, the boys and I jump in the van to drive 45 minutes to my girlfriend's house and take her the dinner that I made last night. Although it was good to spend a few minutes with her, I knew that I would have to rush out to make the 45 minute drive back home in time to pick up the princess at school.
Home with all 3 kids at 2:30, still no shower, and no plans of one as Mr. Verizon was capable of showing up at any time to fix our dead landline from yesterday. At 3:00, he graced us with his presence, while I supervised the princess during her homework time and started dinner. He didn't leave until 5:00. Still waiting on that shower. Mr. Verizon left, and we sat down to dinner...Enchiladas...the high point of my day. Mr. D would have clean up duty though, because I had to hurry off for a PTA district-wide meeting at 6:30, followed our elementary meeting at 7:30.
Finally walked into the door at 9:30, and fell asleep by 10:00. I quit.
This morning I, once again, did the "getting the kids ready for school and out the door" routine. Miraculously, D-Man was feeling amazingly better and was ready to go to school today! The Princess followed along, and Lil-D? He hopped on the bus at 8:35 right on schedule. I walked back into the house. Silence. It was almost as if the world had finally...just...stopped.
I took a deep breath and thought about making a Tim Horton's run to enjoy this moment. And then I remembered that was how this whole mess started 48 hours before. Ummm...no thank you, I think I'll pass. But I did finally get to take that shower!
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