Top 5 Ways to Lose a Day

1. Wake up sick (probably because you didn't take care of yourself earlier in the week).

2. Don't get enough sleep the night before and be half- awake and barely functional the next day.

3. Skip a meal so that your blood sugar plummets and you are a zombie until your body levels out again.

4. Let your kids wake up before you so that you are one step behind them all day long. If you have a toddler, this means your child will tear apart the house while you clean up their messes behind them. This one in combination with any of the others on the list will make the day unbearable.

5. Acquire a migraine that is so horrible that it's lucky you are able to feed yourself and your child. (Especially one that makes you sensitive to sound and light and with pain so bad it makes you sick to your stomach and makes you feel like you are burning up). 

I had #5 today- the worst I've had for awhile. Aside from managing my stress better, it seems like the one I am least likely to control. I barely was able to change 2 diapers and feed my son and I breakfast and lunch. Somehow I also precooked dinner. But then I got to the point that my pain was so bad that using ice packs and taking 3 Advil didn't help. 

My 2 year old son took advantage of this. He trashed the house with toys and papers. When I put him down for nap, I was shocked to find that it was 2:30 already! He usually lays down for nap between 12:30 and 1pm. It does explain his naughty behavior, but under the circumstances I did the best I could. Upon exiting his room after I put him in his crib, I noticed that the laundry chute door is open. Knowing his obsession with throwing everything he can find down the laundry chute, I can only imagine what went down there today. The worst part of this all is that now that I am finally starting to feel better... my 5 year old will come home from school any minute. It is very frustrating. I am trying not to rely on pain medication, but when you need to be present for your kids and the pain is preventing that, what can you do?

Beware the Bouncy House!

Where did the last three weeks go? My daughter went to a indoor Bouncy House place for a birthday party 3 weeks ago and came home with a multitude of ailments. On Wednesday morning (three weeks ago), I could tell that she had come down with pinkeye. We were glad we had medication left over from her last infection. However, we didn't avoid the doctor visit. That night she had a fever of 104 as her body tried fighting off all of the other germs. She wasn't talking, dancing, or eating. After a restless night, I took her to the doctor in the afternoon (the first appointment they had available). Not only did she have pinkeye (which had now spread to both eyes), but she also had a viral ear infection in one ear, a bacterial ear infection in the other ear, and Strep Throat! The doctor said that my daughter fought off most of the germs that she was exposed to, but she couldn't fight off everything. ...Which makes me wonder what she successfully fought off. This was my daughter's first and last trip to an indoor bouncy house. I am never taking her again! Especially not in the winter.

Anyway, the doctor thought my daughter would be better by Saturday (1/22), but her immune system was weak... so instead she got a really bad cold that lasted the full 9-10 days. As for me, my body went through fever and chills that Friday night as I fought off everything. On Saturday I had a terrible head cold. I felt a little better on Sunday (1/23), so I ran some errands.

By then, I guess my husband wanted in on the action. While working on some wiring in the basement, he cracked his head open on the jagged end of a heated vent. Don't ask me how. When I walked in the house, he calmly told me that we might have to go to the emergency room. Half of his head was so full of dry blood that he looked like a red-head. He had planned on showering, so I told him to wash up. Head wounds bleed profusely, even when they are small... and I couldn't see how bad the cut was without him cleaning it up. He fully showered- including shampoo! Ouch. The pressure of the water was enough to make his wound start bleeding again. His wound seemed borderline. However, when I pushed the two sides of his cut together, I did notice a difference and the blood flow slowed. So... we pulled our daughter out of bed (I had just put her down for nap 10-15 minutes before and she wasn't asleep yet) and threw her into the car. I packed a bag of toys and drove her to my parent's house, calling them on the way. They weren't thrilled to babysit a sick kid (who hadn't napped) during the playoffs, but they understood the circumstance. However, my daughter gets extremely hyper and naughty when she misses her nap and I heard that day was no exception.

My husband got 6 staples put into his head... and he developed a slight cold too. My mom received pinkeye and strep throat from my daughter. My daughter shouldn't have been contagious on Sunday, so I'm guessing that my mom got it sooner and didn't know it. (She helped out at my house several times while we were both sick). My mom didn't go to a doctor until Thursday (1/27)!

On Tuesday (1/25), I woke up with my eyes glued shut. So, both my daughter and I went to my doctor. He said my daughter still had pinkeye (and so did I) and I was getting a sinus infection. My body doesn't handle antibiotics well, so my doctor wanted me to wait it out until Saturday (1/29). If I wasn't feeling better by Saturday, we'd figure out what to do then. I was miserable, but I started feeling a little better on Friday night, and a tiny bit better on Saturday. Finally, on Sunday (1/30), I could say that I was going to successfully kick this sinus infection without the dreaded antibiotics. I left the house for the first time since my doctor appointment (5 days). My husband had his staples removed last Monday (1/31).

On Tuesday, I declared us "no longer sick". I was finally ready to leave the house with my daughter when we were hit with that massive snowstorm. Our activities were canceled for three days, so we had to stay home... For the most part, we are all doing much better. However, my daughter is still occasionally sneezing green dreadlocks out of her nose. And I am getting post-nasal drip that only comes out through my mouth. Gross! Both of us only have these symptoms a few times a day, but it's enough to make me wonder if we are still sick. Or maybe our immune system is so weak, we should still be playing it safe and avoiding playgroups and the library. I can't believe it is Feb 8th and the party where it all started was on Jan 16th! Almost an entire month has passed and we still haven't fully recovered!

So, beware the bouncy houses. We saw them washed once or twice while we were there, but it's just not enough. My daughter went through this one particular bouncy obstacle course/slide about 30 times in an hour. Multiply that by the 100+ kids that are also going through it several times. There were at least 4 other large birthday parties that overlapped the one we were at, plus all of the kids who weren't there for a party, so 100 kids is a low guess. My daughter had a ton of fun at the party and in all the bouncy houses. We ended up staying until close. But three weeks of sickness that wiped out my daughter, husband, mother, and I... it just wasn't worth it. Next time we are invited to a bouncy house party, we will decline and mail a gift instead.

My New Year's Goals

Wow! I can't believe that it has been 8 months since my last post! I always considered this a slow blog, but that is really slow! There are some reasons for this. 1. I've been busy with my daughter who is extremely active. 2. I've been trying to keep up with the chores while organizing/purging the junk in my basement. 3. I've been focusing on other noteworthy goals (or resolutions).

Too many times, people create New Year's Resolutions that are too close-ended (I want to drop 20 pounds), or too open-ended (I want to be thin), or unattainable (I want to be as thin as the Victoria's Secret Angels). This leads them to be unhappy when they fall short of the goal or even if they reached the goal (they lost 3 inches off their waist and went down 2 sizes, but the muscles they gained in the process added weight, so they never achieved losing 20 lbs). If someone doesn't know what their goal loos like, they won't know when they achieve it. They will get frustrated and give up. That's why I think of resolutions as goals that I want to focus on this year. I revise the goals list when my goals change and something needs to be added or erased).

I've created some beautiful goals, along with some ideas of what that goal looks like underneath them. Last year I only had three focus areas, but leaving time for writing wasn't one of them. Since writing is therapeutic for me (or at least just gives me some "me time" during the day), I am adding it to my list as well. So, it looks like this year I have six goals I want to focus on this year:

1. Be Healthy (plan & cook healthy meals, exercise 3-6x a week, take yoga class, complete Presidential Challenge...)
2. Be Organized (find places for everything we want to keep, sort boxes in basement, update & prioritize house projects & actually do them, prep before we need to leave the house...)
3. Strengthen Marriage (weekly plan every week, date night 1-2x a month, do something fun together at least once a week, do the exercises in the couples communication skills books...)
4. Strengthen Parenting Skills (stay calm during tantrums, take Love & Logic class & continue to utilize its strategies, pick my battles, but be more strict about bedtime and nap time...)
5. Control our Finances (revise budget, prioritize spending, track receipts, research areas to make spending cuts...)
6. Schedule Me Time Daily (this includes anything fun like yoga, writing, reading, video games & is not typically a To Do item...)

My husband saw my list and told me that he wanted to adopt my goals/resolutions too. Having the same goals and supporting each other throughout the year means we are more likely to see improvements. Wish us luck and good luck writing your own New Year's Goals!