The bright side

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post.  It's been almost a year!  To be fair, my life has not changed a whole lot so you haven't missed much.  In a nut shell in the last 8 months, the kids finished up another year of homeschool (grades 7, 4, 2 and kindergarten respectively) we had a slow start to our summer since it was still cold in July! That meant we didn't get to the beach as much as we would have liked but Augusts and Septembers weather made up for a cold June and July. We even managed a beach day or two in September which is usually unheard of.  August was an extremely busy month with the girls taking part in the two week Spotlight Theatre Company's musical theatre camp as well as "T" going away to camp for the first time, then little miss Sweet Pea's 6th birthday, a conference "J" and I worked at for our church and J going away for camp following that. By the time September came around, I was ready to return to the routine of school and fall activities.  This meant though that we had to say goodbye during the days to our sweet T who decided he wanted to try grade five in public school. We as parents decided that if he wanted to do that then that is what we will let him do even though in my heart I hated the fact that he would be away for so much of the day each day.  So we slid into routine, T fit very well in school as we knew he would because he is just such a likeable kid and the other three started their homeschool year. I found with one less child to teach, it was easier to focus on my little grade 1 student and getting her to learn how to read. We decided to skip a grade with "I" who is now doing primarily grade 4 work (and some grade 5) and he is moving along smoothly as long as I can make sure he focuses.  "J" is plodding along in grade 8, not particularly enjoying school but glad to be able to stay home and do school in her pjs if she wants.

So here we are. I'm going to try and fill this post with bright sides... you know those silver linings that are hard to see when we are having  a miserable day/week.  We just began our fourth week of school. Let me tell you about how our week has gone so far. Let's start with Friday night.  What a fun night. We had friends over for supper. A supper that has been long overdue considering our busy summer.  After supper we got a phone call from other friends of ours who were in town. We were just about to play a new game we just got called The Resistance (get it, try it, it's a blast and you may not ever trust anyone again lol) so we invited them over too. This meant even more kids to play with for our own. I think with all the families combined plus neighbor kids we had 11-12 running around. So the adults sat down to play the game and the kids ran outside to play at the cul de sac behind our house.  We adults were having fun mistrusting each other when our friends 8 year old daughter came in the house saying someone was hurt.  After trying to figure out which kid she was talking about hubby jumped up and looked out the back door. He comes in and says "It's "J" and the boys are carrying her home."

At this point I jump up because if she needs to be carried home then it must be serious. Just as I get to the door, I hear them coming and her saying "ok I'm good". I relax.  She wasn't crying as she hobbled in so it must not have been too bad. She just said she twisted her ankle.  So we get her ice, everyone starts packing heir kids up ready to start home. Hubby had plans with other friends later in the evening so he left as our friends left. As soon as everyone was gone, I look at "J" and she burst in to tears saying how much her ankle hurt. The little stinker downplayed her injury while everyone was still there.  So since both boys left with our friends for sleepovers, I put Sweet Pea to bed and "J" and I cuddled in my bed watching a movie.  As she went to bed later that night, I hoped that by morning, the pain would have subsided.  It didn't..  the next morning, she complained that it hurt more and that she didn't sleep much of the night because of it.  Sooo I made arrangements for Hubby to cart Sweet pea and our neice to their dance class and took 'J' to the ER.  Seven hours of waiting in the waiting room ensued.  Finally we are called in, see the dr for all of 1 minute, get some xrays and get a diagnoses of a sprained ligament and instructions to stay off it for a week.  On the bright side..... my sweet aunt let us borrow some crutches that she had so we didn't have to rent them.

Fast forward to Monday... yesterday... I wake up to get the boy off to school and get my day started.  Hubby is just about to walk out the door for work when a full bottle of vanilla (big bottle from costco) jumps out of the cupboard and falls on the tile breaking the cap off.  On the bright side.... I managed to grab it before we lost too much of it.  Hubby helps to clean it up as much as he can before rushing off to work.  I end up getting the mop out and mopping the kitchen floor and since I had it out, I may as well mop the living room floor as well. The bright side now?  The house smells like delicious vanilla!  As I am doing that, I send "T" up to the attic to retrieve some little people toys for the little girls I was babysitting later on that morning.  So there we were, mopping the floor and rummaging in the attic.  As he comes back down, we happen to look at the time..  What do you know.. it's 8:19 and his bus comes at 8:25.  He scrambles out the door and I watch as he makes it to the bus stop.  I look at my watch, whew he made it and it was only 8:20.
Ahh.. as the other kids start straggling out of their beds, I realize I hadn't had time to eat breakfast so I start my daily routine of making oatmeal.  Just as I am about to get it into the microwave to cook, "T" comes into the house saying, "I think you need to drive me to school"  I look at my watch... 8:33. CRAP!  School bell rang 3 minutes ago and we had 2 minutes to get there before school started.  The bright side is we literally live a one minute drive from his school and 'J' is old enough to stay with the other kids while I ran out so I didn't have to pile everyone in the car.

So I got T to school, got the other kids started on their schoolwork, welcomed my little 21 month old nephew in who I babysit on Monday mornings and the two other little girls that I babysit on Mondays as well and went on with our day.  It was a fairly easy day.. The baby (9 month old) was super easy and had two naps for me. Even the other little girl (2 years) napped in the afternoon.  Things finally seemed to be running smoothly.  Until I started to feel dizzy, scratchy throat and my nose started filling up.  Ugh.. I had finally caught the cold that had run it's course through our household and so had 'J'   The bright side is I had gotten paid for babysitting so I had a little extra money and it was half off day at Greco so I ordered pizza for supper and didn't have to cook.  Hubby even took "I" to karate for me.

That evening as we started to wind down, three kids were in bed and I was watching a tv show with J when I heard  what I thought was hubby coughing.  Then a weak little "MOM" came from the bathroom.  Yup, it was 'T' throwing up.   After he was done though, he was convinced it was that he had ate too much junk that day and that he felt perfectly fine.. Since he sleeps on the top bunk, we decided it would be safer if he slept on the couch anyway just in case.  Boy was I glad he did.  Now normally, all our kids do very well getting to the toilet in time when having a stomach bug.. it's very rare to have any mess to clean up.  Last night was one of those rare times.  At about 11:00, I see him run past our bedroom to the bathroom.  I go to check on him and what a mess.  There were literally piles of puke from the couch to the bathroom.. probably a good 10-15 feet worth.  Here's the bright side.... my hubby has always been one to get in there and help clean up these kinds of messes.  If he weren't, I think I would have cried.  As we got 'T' into the shower and started to clean, we realized that I still had the steam mop out from that morning.  Perfect!  It took probably 20 minutes to get everything clean but the bright side is my living room, hallway and bathroom floors all are very clean and mopped.  We got 'T' settled in again this time on our "sick mat" on the floor with a nice big bucket.  He continued to throw up all night long and into the morning.  The bright side is we got to keep him home from school and enjoy him for the day and he is starting to feel much better.

My lack of sleep + cold symptoms has turned into a massive sinus headache but the  bright side is I am here... I'm alive and it's just a cold.  I will survive.

Based on how my week has started I could be miserable and complain but I choose to look at the bright side of things and know that tomorrow is a new day full of new silver linings!