Oh blissful peace

Halloween is over. And I have told my kids that next year they can dress up for the school parties, but as far as trick or treating is concerned, we ain't doin' it anymore. I told them that next year I'd rent them any movie they wanted and let them pick out bag upon bag of candy and we'd stay home. We go from our house to my aunt and uncle's house, to my dad's house (all within a 10 mile radius), then to Picher (a 25 minute drive) to Nana's, then to Miami to Papa and GG's, THEN we drive all the way to Grove (45 minutes from town) to see Mr. Diva's mom at the hospital (she works there, she doesn't get admitted there every Halloween). It's ridiculous! We start out at 5:30 and get home at 10:30, spending most of our time driving and just a few minutes at each house rushing the kids into getting their candy, giving hugs and thank you's and then we're off again. It's exhausting. You know it's too much when the kids are actually asking if they can go home and go to bed. Yeesh.

Sammy stayed home yesterday from school. The child who is usually up WAY before everyone else was still asleep when I woke up the girls yesterday morning. And even after I turned on his bedroom light he didn't wake up. When I finally managed to wake him up, he opened his eyes and said, "I'm gonna throw up." That's never good. After one trip to the toilet to barf he was fine, but I honestly think it was sinus drainage making him nauseous. I have been utterly amazed at the amount of snot in that child lately. His cough sounds horrible and you can just tell he doesn't feel good. So I let him stay home and he slept until 9:30. Poor little guy. He's run a fever off and on since last Thursday. He went back to school today, but I'm not sure that was a wise decision.

Yesterday morning Cute Big Baby started crying out of the blue. This is so totally not like him that it got my attention. He was inconsolable and I knew something was up, but kind of figured he was just tired. I went to the kitchen to get him some juice and I no sooner got to the kitchen that Sam and Kady both said, "HE JUST PUKED ON THE COUCH!" Oh the puking. I called his momma and she was substituting due to a sick teacher, so his daddy had to be pulled out of class to come get him. The stomach bug is going around. Gotta love this time of year.

I put all of my mommas on alert that a sick one had been in the house, told them to start looking for backups because if I happened to get it they'd be out a sitter. Usually TaterSis is the backup, but seeing as how she's still homeless, that just won't work. We have got to get them moved into that farmette. *sigh*

So today I had all my little ducklings back where they were supposed to go - school kids at school, babies here and not puking and life was supposed to resume normal. I took Kady and Chandler to Lab School and the babies and I headed to Wal*Mart. Driving from the LabSchool to the W*M I started feeling nauseous. I ended up leaving W*M and drove over to Mom's house where I stood in her bathroom willing myself to either quit it or else barf and get it over with. I ended up not barfing (and oh how I hate to puke) and got a Coke at Sonic to sip on. We made it back to W*M and did our shopping where I probably shared germs with all of the shoppers, but oh well. Gotta do what you gotta do. I still don't feel 100% and I stocked up on Coke and Sprite while I was there. I feel like everything I've eaten today is just sitting like a rock in my stomach. Bleh.

Tonight was karate and Sensei said that Sam is really falling behind. He went from being a stellar student and just flying through the moves to actually lagging behind. He was supposed to have tested Saturday, but we didn't go because he was coughing so bad. Sensei said it was a good thing he didn't test because he really isn't ready. He wants us to start bringing him back to Open Mat on Thursdays again. It was fine during the summer when it didn't matter if he got to bed at 10, but now that school's going on it's just too much. But at the same time, I hate for him to lose any more momentum. *sigh* One more thing I have to fret about.

Tomorrow is all three kids' 6 month dentist visits. And the usual headgear check. Ab's supposed to be wearing that thing 14 hours a day, but if someone could please tell me how we're supposed to get in 14 hours I'd appreciate it. She won't wear it in public and frankly, I won't make her either. She accidently wore it into Wal*Mart last week and nearly died when she realized she had it on and people were staring at her. She jerked that thing off her head and stuffed it in my purse so quick it made me laugh out loud. Now, whether or not they were really staring at her, I don't know, but still. I wouldn't want to wear it in public either. So she wears it 12-14 hours a day, depending on our schedule. BUT the last time we were there he gave me this incredibly condescending lecture about efficacy and effort and how if we were really serious about it we'd have it on her more and blah blah blah. I hate being lectured. So tonight before bed I told Abby that no matter what, if he asks how much she wears it to say that without fail she wears it 14 hours a day. I told her I didn't want another lecture. She nodded and said, "Yeah, I don't blame you. I felt really sorry for you the whole time he was griping at you, Mom."

Tomorrow Kady is also getting her flu shot. I totally believe in telling my kids what's going on and explaining things. I was so scared of shots as a kid because it was like this big scary secret and I vowed to always make sure my kids know what is going on. She knows tomorrow is flu shot day and while she's not particularly happy about it, she's okay with it. I explained that because of her asthma that getting the flu could be really bad for her and she might end up in the hospital. I said, "Now, don't you think it's just better to get one shot to keep you from getting really sick rather than get the flu and spend time in the hospital where you might get more than one shot?" She thought about it a minute and finally nodded and said, "Yeah, but Momma, I really hate my asthma." I said, "Me, too, baby. Me, too."

Mr. Diva is on straight day shift for the next two weeks and when I found out I was elated. We have been so busy and crazy lately that I announced to the family that for two weeks we'd have dinner at the table, all of us together, every night. But it's Tuesday and that hasn't happened yet. I don't see it happening any time soon either. Mr. Diva has committed every evening to Bub and TaterSis and getting them in the farmette. And I, of course, continue on with the ferrying of children from location to location. When we'd have time for dinner around the table I couldn't begin to guess.

I said something to Mom today about admiring working moms and I just didn't know how they did it. She said, "Kristin, I don't think you realize that your status has changed. You are a working mom. It's just that you are a work at home mom now." I guess I really hadn't stopped to think about it. I've been a stay at home mom for so long that I didn't really stop and consider that, yeah, I really do have a job even if I stay here to do it. I work 10 1/2 hour days with the whole daycare thing, something I hadn't even stopped to figure out! I've been too busy to stop and take stock in just how busy I am.

I just saw the lights of the big grey Dodge turn into the driveway and that means that my hard-working Mr. Diva is now home for the night. It's 10:38 and I guarantee he's just as tired as I am. I can think of few things better than snuggling in with him in our heavily-blanketed bed and falling asleep in his arms. Sometimes . . . that's the only thing I need.