First things first: I’ve been mired pretty deep in a “woe is me” funk for the last couple days, so this post could end up quite whiny. We shall see.
It’s been a really busy couple weeks. Getting back into the swing of things at work during the day, and working through one (or two) too many projects at night because I overcommitted myself on pattern design work (again). Plus our usual family life on top of all that. Plus new floors in my sewing room and the upheaval that caused in the house.
QuiltCon, which starts later this week, was supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel, but then those plans got thrown into disarray when my mom got sick. She was supposed to come to Houston to take care of the girls while Jose and I went to Nashville for QuiltCon + kid-free vacation, but now she can’t. (She is on the mend though, thankfully.)
So I’m going alone. Which is great! I’m glad I still get to go, I’m looking forward to the show and classes and socializing, and I hugely appreciate that Jose was willing to say “go ahead, I’ll stay behind with the girls.” But there was a flurry of plane ticket cancellations and changes and hotel reservation changes and figuring out what makes sense now that I’m traveling solo vs. with Jose.
Also? Charlotte has had a fever since Friday night and this morning at the doctor she tested positive for the flu. YEP. Weirdly (but fortunately) she has been acting pretty normal, except for the fever, so it seems to be an extremely mild case. We all had flu shots, and it’s already been several days, so I am hopeful that the rest of us have escaped unscathed.
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Every time we have a period of time like this — where things just seem to pile up on top of each other, and not in a good way — it can be a challenge for me to keep my mental state from spiraling right on down with the rest. I’m not a very spontaneous person, and when I have to change plans suddenly and unexpectedly, it’s a stressor. Jose says we’re “touch fragile.” We don’t have any family around to help out. When one domino falls, it takes a lot of other things with it.
(We do have friends, of course, but they all have kids of their own and asking a friend to keep your kids for 5 days while you go on vacation is…a LOT. There’s probably a good argument for improving our local support system, but that’s clearly a long-term process.)
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So I wrote everything above yesterday, but didn’t get around to hitting “publish” until today. I’m home with Charlotte, who still has a fever but remains in fairly good spirits. I’m feeling more positive today as well. Sometimes life — and especially life with kids — is all about rolling with the punches, right?
The no-family around thing is definitely hard! We had my parents down over the weekend so we could have our first away trip from our son–ever! It was a nice overnight but now I want more, but I can’t really ask my parents to ‘come on over’ since it is a 4 hour drive.
Hope everyone is on the mend over there!
Can you get a run in? Even a short one? It’ll probably help burn off some of the stress, just your feet and the sidewalk and the rhythm.
I went to Orange Theory this morning and it was great!
Sick kids is definitely a challenge. But, if your kids are like mine, they are building up amazing immunity and someday might even get perfect attendance awards! (After suffering through many, many germy illnesses when he was younger, my son had perfect attendance in both 3rd and 4th grade! I was truly amazed!)
So hold on! It will likely get better!
We definitely have less illness now than we did a couple years ago, so the immune building is working!! 🙂