little mommy

This morning when I woke up, both the kids were downstairs already. Little C, who's been sick with a fever for the past three days, was watching TV on the couch. Beside her was an ottoman, on top of which was a tiny cordial glass full of water, and a big empty bowl.

"What's all this?" I said to Annika, gesturing at Celyn's setup.

"She was coughing SO hard, I thought she needed a bowl in case she threw up." She looked very proud of herself. "And I got her some water."

"You could have gotten me, you know."

"Nah, it's FINE, mom."

Wow, my little six year old is becoming quite responsible. (Although, she didn't really need to use the new cordial glasses ... )

MultiHyperFocus

Well, it's been a messy week. The day after my last post was spent almost entirely in bed, getting up only for bathroom trips and rarely, to do something child related. My kids are almost of an age where they can fend for themselves in dire straights. I warned them in the morning that I was sick and wasn't going to be doing much, and that I was going to have an instantaneous no tolerance policy on sibling fighting.

Consequently, Annika filled my water bottle for me, then they both came and massaged my hands and feet with their cool little hands. (Their idea, not mine.) I had a fever and I was just useless. Annika even made them both lunch, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pouring drinks, and putting crackers on the side. So cute. They also fought very little, and were industrious and found plenty to do, even though I forbade screen time.

Yesterday was a little better, and I only did some picking up, vacuuming and laundry.

Today I'm nearly normal, and have been painting the hallway again, and made an apple crisp, and next I think I'll do some laundry and bake something else. Or maybe a pudding from scratch. Mmm.

It was actually really nice having Annika home when she wasn't terribly ill. The kids played really well together. What happened once she went back to school -- and I KNEW this would happen -- is that Celyn is bored and all up in my face the entire day, and then all over her sister the minute she gets home. Problem is, her sister is a pissy little grump when she gets off the school bus, and the fighting and sniping commences.

I'm seriously re-entertaining homeschooling.

I know I've been away from the dojo too long, because I've been feeling the urge to hit things. While I was doing laundry, I walked by this old "heavy" training bag I had in the basement that I'd been ignoring for years, did a double take, grabbed it and brought it upstairs with me. I hung it on a hook in the mud room and started beating on it. See, the problem with this bag is that it's an "aerobic" boxing bag, meaning it's not very heavy at all, and it has a d-ring on the bottom, so that you can tether it down. Well, I have no tethers. So hanging it against the wall is the best I can do at this point. And the thing is pretty useless for kicking. But it's a start. And I need something, especially with Celyn up in my face all day whining because she's lonely without her sister. OMFG. Must! Punch!

Ahem. But with any luck, I can get back in there tonight for a weapons class at least, even though I have a love-hate relationship with weapons right now. At least it's not really strenuous. So there's that.

Now back to painting and cooking, not at the same time.

It's Not Pig Related

So after three days of 102-103 degree fever, I had to take Ani to the doctor to have them check her out. Clear lungs, clear ears, clear throat. Un-fun-swab up the nose for swine flu, negative. Today she's better, but due to the 24 hour fever rule, she's home with me again today.

And now Celyn has her own version, of course, because the concept of isolation in a house with two small children is absurd.

Celyn, unsurprisingly, is a different kind of patient. Her main annoying "sick" habit is her penchant for waking up all night long to have discussions.

I didn't catch their ick, but I do have a slight cough. So last night, during one of her wakeups, she felt it necessary to relate this to me:

"Hey mom? Know what my sister told me? She said that when you hafta cough or sneeze, you do it in your elbow, like dis," she demonstrated.

"She's absolutely right," I murmured sleepily.

After a few minutes, she piped up again.

"Mama? ... you didn't do dat."

"Thanks, Celyn. Go. To. Sleep."

She also woke up to use the bathroom, and that whole process took way longer for me to recover from, sleepwise, and I was awake for probably an hour on top of the numerous random wakings. So ... I'm slightly grumpy today. Celyn's not. She wanted to talk endlessly over breakfast, but her choice of breakfast conversation -- made up knock knock jokes -- while I tried to give myself a blood transfusion drink my coffee, and I started to crack a little.

"Please ... I can't talk anymore. I need to be quiet and drink coffee and stare at the ceiling. Thanks."

I know, I'm a bad mom. But this is what a three year old's knock knock joke is like:

"Knock knock!"
"Who's there?"
"What did the other chicken say to the other chicken?"
"What?"
"I SAID, 'What did the other...?"
"No, I heard you, I meant, what did the chicken say?"
"Cockadoodle doooo! ... Mom? Did you hear me? Wasn't that funny? I said, 'Cockadoodle doooo!' ... Knock knock!!"

So you see my dilemma. Ask for quiet to drink my coffee, or have a nervous breakdown.

Argh

I suck at blogging these days. I have no TIME for it anymore. I have no time to keep up with it. Apparently, I used to have way too much time on my hands, back in the day. Which is not to say that other bloggers have too much time on their hands, it's just that I am crap at time management.

This weekend has been a Stuck Around the House weekend, because the Big Kid is sick. She is not an easy patient, which is hardly surprising. She hates every form of medicine out there, which makes her totally hard to take care of. I can't give her much relief. If there is something she HAS to take, she makes a huge deal out of it, and throws up a lot when she has a fever or has to take something she finds objectionable. I was able to con her into eating yogurt laden with ibuprofen, which was an enormous and unprecedented victory. She still has a fever, though, so I suppose we're off to the doctor tomorrow.

I'm pretty much giving up on ever getting to yoga again, since I have had one week since school started where they have both managed to be in school at the same time on their regular schedule.

School is a drag. That's all I'm going to say about that right now.

I'm trying to ignore the tickle in my throat and the tightness in my lungs, because I refuse to get sick. I'm too busy and having too much fun to be sick, dammit.

So we stuck close to home this weekend, and I did a lot of cooking Friday and Sunday. Friday I made a chicken in the slow cooker, warm red cabbage salad with pecans, pumpkin pecan muffins, and pumpkin anadama rolls. Today I made hamburger soup (which is a pretty good soup with a pretty lame name), brussels sprouts with dijon/caraway butter, yeasted dinner rolls, and leftover cabbage salad. (I am in LOVE with this warm red cabbage salad, it's so bizarre.) Tomorrow I will probably be stuck close to home again, except for doctor's appointments, so I will probably be cooking my ass off again. I had planned to do more house painting this weekend, but that didn't pan out. Painting is something that's hard to stop and start and do little bits of at a time ... for me, anyway.

Another reason I don't want to get sick is that I'm learning so many cool new things at the dojo! I got my brown belt two weeks ago, and now I'm working on judo throws, a new kata, and bo staff. I don't want to take any time off for any reason. So there.

Stupid school and its stupid germs.

Quoted out of Context

Him: "You know, I am irrationally offended when you say things like that."

Me: "Well, good, because I am irrationally trying to offend you."

Him: "... I'm glad we can talk about these things."