Tuesday, October 25, 2011

It's All Coming Unraveled :(

If you'll remember my post from Thursday of last week, you'll know how strenuously I have been trying to organize myself. I have my entire day lined out in writing, from waking up at 6:00 in the morning to start a load of laundry, to ending my day between 10:00 and 11:00 PM writing, reading or editing photos. Most of my day is filled with work, but during the down times while the kids are napping or after they go to bed, I get a little R and R, again, reading, writing, or editing photos.

And things had been going great. Each day I would wash and hang-dry 3 to 5 loads of laundry, take them down from the line, and fold them, and I would make bread, and keep the kitchen clean, and nurse Baby Hippo to sleep, and play the piano at the high school for chorus .... until today.

I think things started to go downhill on Sunday. I try to keep the Sabbath holy by not doing laundry, deep-cleaning or making the kids do inordinate amounts of chores, but even so, laundry still builds up, which leaves me with an extra 2 or three loads to do on Monday. On Monday, however, I spent the morning feeding company, then, in the afternoon, John and I went out to lunch, alone. While I was so happy to have company for breakfast, and go on a date with John, I got even further behind. Also, when I tried to hang my laundry after our breakfast guests had gone, it started to rain immediately after I had hung about a quarter of the days loads, so I had to directly remove the laundry items from their clothes pins, put them back into the basket and take them back inside.

Fast forward to today. I woke up feeling achy and feverish. I couldn't believe it. On Thursday I am scheduled to travel to Utah for a blogging conference, which trip will be the first I've taken without the kids in over a decade. I needed to avoid this illness going full-throttle at all costs, so I decided to do almost nothing the entire day.

Here's what I did do....

-I made the kids pancakes for breakfast, because, after all, they do need to eat. I used this recipe, though, and I already had the mix bottled in jars, so it was no biggie.
-I made fires in the kitchen and living room, because I was cold, even though I didn't think anyone else was.
-I put at least three loads of laundry in the washer.
-I put my makeup on, in case a good soul decided to come visit me. Two people did. But I didn't do my hair, and it looked like a scarecrow's.
-I stopped by the only restaurant in town on the way to school and ordered 8 quesadillas and 6 burritos for lunch instead of making one from scratch.
-We set up a picnic blanket on the lawn and ate lunch outside, since the kitchen was such a mess. It was quite nice...

Photobucket

-I asked my babysitter who cares for the kids while I am at chorus to come anyway, even though I was staying home, to help me with the kitchen. She willingly obliged, because not only are we employer/employee, we are friends, and she comforts me when I stand in need of comfort. (Mosiah 18:9)
-I nursed Baby Hippo to sleep.
-I put a movie on for the twins.

Here's what I didn't do....

-I didn't clean the kitchen ever, and fruit flies seemed to mate and have babies all over the bits of watermelon that were left out.
-I didn't make lunch for someone I always make lunch for on Tuesday, but commissioned a substitute instead.
-I didn't hang laundry, but tossed it into the dryer.
-I didn't do my hair or get ready for chorus because I didn't go to chorus.
-I didn't make bread as I had planned to.
-I didn't get up out of bed while Baby Hippo took his nap and the twins were supposedly watching a movie when I heard one twin playing the piano. I knew this was a bad sign because it meant that he was no longer interested in the movie and would soon be getting into mischief.

And I was right. When I rose from my sick bed, I awoke to several eggs having been cracked on the floor, even though I had locked the food storage room door where we keep them. (They've apparently learned to quietly move stools around.) I was also confronted with spilled water on the couch, sidewalk chalk thrown and broken all over the kitchen, and a few water-balloons broken on the floor.

The rest of the afternoon, I received two visitors and after they left, I simply wandered around aimlessly. Thank goodness the kids were so helpful and babysat and helped keep the kitchen clean.

No, the house won't be clean when I leave for Utah, but hopefully my illness will have abated because I didn't stick to my schedule.

And I really don't know why I wrote any of this. But thanks, as always, for listening.


7 comments:

Sarah said...

Another thing you did do: listened to your body and did what you needed to to take care of yourself.

I find that hard to do, especially when it isn't illness but exhaustion or being overwhelmed or needing alone time. Still working on the mom-guilt of sitting still.

Anonymous said...

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Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Thanks, Anon! I have a Twitter icon at the very top of my side bar, by the other social media icons.

Expat Mom said...

I hear you on all of this! I've been so ill this pregnancy that I spend much of my time in bed or resting while working on the computer. Fortunately our house is small enough that I can keep an eye on things, but even so, I get WAY behind on stuff almost instantly. The good news is that kids tend not to care and they are happy with simple food and love. :) Hope you're feeling better for the trip!

loves2spin said...

Bless your heart. Be advised that often the achy and tired can be a prelude to mastitis. You really are running faster than you have strength. I learned the very hard way that is not a good idea. I think I thought that commandment was for other people. If you are scheduled wall to wall like that, it simply is not wise. It is hard to give up things, however, I learned (again the very hard way) that when I lost my health, then I couldn't do anything for anyone. That was the most difficult part - not being able to take care of our children. I am fine now, so don't be concerned, but it was a long and painful journey. Take care of YOU first, so then you can take care of others. I used to job 2.8 miles a day, 6 days a week. I felt terrific! But I wasn't using the extra energy so I could be healthy -no! I was using it so I could work HARDER. I think I thought that if I was "good enough..." Well, we can't save ourselves, no matter how hard we try. That is why we have a Savior, and he will do what he promised. He will save Us.

loves2spin said...

) I meant "jog"

Tamie said...

That's just kind of how it goes sometimes, isn 't it? Frustrating, but it happens. I have found that unexpected drop by visitors, as wonderful as they are, always lead to craziness for me afterwards.

Glad you got some rest, even though it lead to more chaos for you to deal with! I did the same this morning after two nights up with sick kids and almost no sleep...I dozed for a bit with them all up in the morning and ignored the little sounds of mischief I heard, just keeping an ear out for anything major.

Hope you are feeling much better!!!

~Tamie