What a Difference a Day Makes

I woke up this morning, singing this little tune to myself, because oh my gosh, what a difference a day can make!

Bless the families who have had ongoing sickness this winter, I feel for ya. We stiff-armed the stomach flu for weeks, hiding away in our house in the woods, washing hands constantly, even asking family to stay in a hotel when they had gotten the bug right before visiting us. So extreme! But it attacked in the night, the sick stalker that it is-- and we fell like dominoes last week. Like the warrior woman I am, I held out the longest, eating each meal like it would be my last and got sick a few days ago. Nothing more fun then having the pukes nonstop for 12 hours with a 7-8 lb baby in your belly. Noooothing more fun.

So thanks to lots of Gatorade and like 1,000 mg of Zofran (but seriously, everyone MUST have this wonder drug on hand. It is mostly safe. Ask your doctor, don't listen to anything I say) yesterday was my first day back "on the job" and Hubby merrily went off to work at 6 am with his hot coffee and whatever drive-thru deliciousness he picked up for breakfast while I woke up to three little beggars who wanted to eat everything that we didn't have in the house and fought like wild animals throughout the day.

Here Archie, please dear God let this kleenex box entertain you while Mom lays on the couch.

Mom hack: set a box of Kleenex in front of your toddler, then later have the older kids put it all back in the box calling it a game named-- "Do This Or I Won't Give You Dinner"

Archer is at that get-into-everything find-all-the-dangerous-spots-and-climb-them-nonstop phase. His ambition throughout the day is to move this chair around to leverage his little body on top of chairs/tables or as a launching pad to get inside the kitchen drawers.

"Now I lounge, later I destroy..."

While I was trying to "rest" he brought me 2 pouches of taco marinade, an opened pouch of applesauce, an opened fruit cup (he bites through these with his savage little teeth), each piece of tupperware, and cleaning products from under the kitchen sink-- all within 90 seconds. Don't worry, the cleaning products prompted me to shoot up and bind all the cabinets shut with rubber bands.

I did manage a little rest in the bathtub for 45 minutes during his morning nap where I laid with my eyes shut surrounded by bubbles with my side-kick Mack sitting next to me throwing toys in the tub "just checking to see if they float, mom" and asking me non-stop questions about hockey and the female anatomy. Awesome.

And then nobody napped in the afternoon, because I wanted it too much-- and it seems like they only stay in their beds these days when their dad puts them down which he did for two straight weeks when he had his time off. "Back to the previous scheduled programming, Mom!" Their little cries for water and complaints that their rooms were simultaneously "too dark" and "too bright" kept me away from a cozy bed and the hope of 25 minutes of uninterrupted Netflix.

One of the highlights of my day came with a knock at the front door at 4 o'clock from my BFF the UPS man (funny story about that: he really is our friend because many days he is the only other adult I converse with so I chat him up non-stop until he starts backing away and I know my time is up. For Christmas we bought him this lovely container of Macadamia Nut Caramel Corn and it sat on our counter for a week before I could catch him at the door. The kids ADORE him and call him "their buddy" and will run outside in their skivvies to say hello and give him a high-five each day so they decorated a card and helped me wrap the popcorn. Well, a week is a loooong time for a pregnant woman to have fancy, unopened popcorn sitting on her countertop. So I gave in, ate half the container in one standing after a particularly bad morning, and swapped out the note and bow for a box of fancy cookies. That same afternoon, I heard the side door open and when I went to see which kid was escaping, I saw Emmy standing at the door with a package, waving good-bye to our beloved UPS man who was getting in his truck. With a container of half-eaten popcorn! I chased him down with his cookies and couldn't stop laughing about it when he told me that Emmy insisted that this popcorn was for him, even though he could clearly see it was almost gone!) Since the front of our house is windows and that means if there is a knock at the door, it is very hard to hide-- I had to answer wearing my post-sick outfit, which all the mamas know is a ridiculous assortment of stained sweats, no bra, and in my case, as I realized after I signed for the package and quickly bid him adieu, a dozen pieces of popcorn (it's a thing) all down the inside of my shirt.

Next came dinner time where I attempted a meatloaf and homemade rice pilaf-ish-dish and halfway through cooking I felt so tired and frustrated that I sat down at my computer and ordered an instapot (have you heard all the rage?!) and am hoping that it also comes with a person to cook the meals and clean my house. And cheer me up because I started to feel REAL bleak about this day.

So definitely by 6:00 pm, when I called hubby to see when he if he was almost home only to learn that it would be an hour or more, the tears started flowing. Gosh it is hard, people! I know I'm not the only one and maybe yesterday was your first Monday back to normalcy after Holiday break too. Or maybe your little one has started throwing tantrums and you fear this is your "new normal." Or maybe everyone is still acting spoiled or doesn't have a sleep schedule post Christmas crazies. Or maybe the New Year isn't looking any better than the last so you're freaking the freak out and trying to find some kind of hope to grasp on to.

To get through the rest of the evening, I rushed my little people to bed without baths, clinging to the promise of the Bachelor being on tv, abandoned the kitchen cleanup, and YET AGAIN laid on the couch only to look into the face of my adorable offspring 4, 5, 6, 7, at least 8 more times as they came to me with their complaints of belly aches (probably valid, the meatloaf looked a little iffy) a finger that "hurt from the inside," inability to regulate their body temperatures: "I'm too hot" (put on your summer jammies) "I'm too cold" (get a damn blanket), the fakest cough you've ever heard, and finally the breaking point was Mack telling me his knife wasn't sharp enough to fight the dragons that get into his room at night (um, where is this knife?)

Mack showing his concern for sick Mama

At this point, the hubby came home, tamed the children, cleaned the kitchen because he knew I was a woman on the edge-- and he really loves me, and we watched the super slutty episode of the Bachelor until he realized the National Championship game was on, jumped up, yelling at me that he had to watch two teams that he cares nothing about RIGHT AWAY.

As I fell asleep last night, googling "how to be a good mom," I vented all my fears to Mike about my inadequacies and impatience and loneliness and inability to do it all. I told him I felt so guilty because what was the point of having all these kids when all I wanted all day was to be left alone! And we're having another one! Any day now!

He reminded me that a. I had the stomach flu 24 hours ago, of course it was a bad day b. it would be better tomorrow c. I am a great mom d. Our kids are well loved e. God's grace will give me what I need, when I need it

SO if you don't have a Mike, I hope you have a GREAT friend/sister/mama who can talk you off the ledge of mom-guilt when the days are long and the minutes are FOREVER. And just to remind you...

It will be better tomorrow (and if it's worse, let's put our hope in next week)

You are a great Mom

Your kids are loved

God's grace will give you what you need, when you need it.

Exhibit A: This morning I woke up confused at 8 am wondering why nobody had came in my room yet asking me to look at their poop in the toilet or feed them jello for breakfast-- only to find three fed children, coffee brewed, and time for a quick shower before the interstate opened back up and Mike could go to work. Alleluia, God sent an ice storm! I feel like a new woman today even though I've got the same things as yesterday on my to-do list-- my to-do-list exclusively reads: "keep children alive", and nothing else, fyi. I am reminded that sometimes, you can't save the day. There is no fun activity for the kids, no vacation to plan (does anyone else obsess over this?!), nothing fun to order online (I mean you can try, but it doesn't always help-- let's see how much joy the instapot can bring us), no fancy popcorn to hide in a closet and eat, you are just stuck. And on the really bad days, sometimes the best thing is realizing at 10 pm you can go to bed and start it all over again tomorrow. Womp, womp...

As I've been ending my recent posts, here's another great memo to cling to, from a fav hymn:

"Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord God unto Me...

Strength for today, Bright Hope for tomorrow...

Blessings all mine, with 10,000 beside!"