A Mom's Life in 7 Quick Takes

We had the flu here this week...it went thru the entire family.  The weather was really nice so it's kind of a pity we were all stuck inside.  Firstborn and Soccer Boy brought it home from church camp last week.  Soccer Boy was sick Saturday, Game Boy on Sunday night, Princess on Monday night and Toddler Boy was sick Monday night and Tuesday night.  By Tuesday night, after three nights of no sleep I finally succumbed and was sick that night and all day Wednesday.  It got pretty bad, but after Mom was totally out of commission for 24 hours my family came to a new appreciation for what, exactly, I do around here all day long.  Because my role in the family is so "behind the scenes" you really don't see it unless I'm totally taken out of the equation.  A mom has to be pretty ill to be totally taken out, here's 7 Quick Takes on what I currently do on the daily...

1.  Meals

One of the bigger things and obvious, someone had to make food for the remaining six people in our family.  Doug went in to the office yesterday morning while the older two kids held down the fort.  They made scrambled eggs for breakfast and Doug came home and made turkey sandwiches for lunch.  I recall him asking me sometime that afternoon what he should make for supper and I suggested just picking up a rotisserie chicken from Schnucks when he was out getting me Gatorade (a red one from the refrigerated section, because I could only gag it down cold).  I think he made baked potatoes to go with it, but since I didn't leave my bed all day I can't be sure.

2.  Home Maintenance

Someone has to do all those dishes the meals are creating!  That person isn't just me, we have a chore system in the house.  I am the one who makes sure the chores are getting done.  The world won't end if the recycling doesn't get taken out for one day.  However if we don't do dishes for a day we won't have any clean ones for the next day.  We have a dishwasher but the cups and plates for seven people will usually take up all the room.  Which means the pots and pans will have to be done by hand or you run another load in the dishwasher.

3.  Calendar

When I went to pick Soccer Boy up from swim practice this morning he mentioned that we missed the team picture.  Whoops, picture day was today, it was on the calendar and they sent out an e-mail reminder at the beginning of the week.  However, my family is not used to checking the calendar.  It seems at this point the calendar exists for my purposes.  I keep the family calendar at home and Doug keeps his at work and we coordinate them every so often.  Today I realized I need to teach my older kids the calendar system so when I'm out of commission they can keep everything on track.

4.  Chauffeur

His first swim meet went until 11:15pm
due to rain delay!

Speaking of swim team, Soccer Boy missed practice yesterday morning because I was just too sick to get out of bed to drive him to the pool.  In a couple years this won't be an issue because Firstborn will have his driver's license, but for now if Dad is at work and I'm sick you're not going.  I guess I could have called one of my girlfriends and asked them to take him but it was just one practice so not worth the inconvenience.  He has a swim meet tonight and our family is scheduled to work.  I had to tell them we wouldn't be able to work it because I'm not up to it and Doug appears to be coming down sick today.

5.  Take care of little ones

Toddler Boy loves his hot dogs!

Soccer Boy:  Toddler Boy wants hot dogs all the time
Me:  Yes
Soccer Boy:  I'd cut one up and heat it
up for him and then 5 minutes later he'd want another one and I'd have to do it all over again!
Me:  Welcome to my world...
Soccer Boy:  Luckily I have skillz so I was totally on top of it.
Me:  You need "skillz" to cut up hot dogs?
Soccer Boy:  (gives thumbs up)




Beyond the whole "getting snacks for the little kids all day long" there is the "taking Toddler Boy to the potty" which ranks a close second.  The youngest two in the house are not nearly self sufficient so a big part of being the mom of little ones is just that.  They need help getting dressed and fixing their hair (I'm pretty sure that didn't happen yesterday).

6.  Homeschooling

If it had been me, I would have let this one drop for the day but Doug wanted to do their math with them...

Princess:  I want to go to school next year.
Doug:  Why, didn't you like doing your math with me?
Princess:  No, you're not a good teacher because you say stuff like "you're            doing it wrong".

7.  Laundry

I guess laundry could have been stuck under home maintenance, but I figured it needed a whole section unto itself.  Because when dealing with the stomach flu we go thru an insane amount of laundry.  Normally I do one or two loads a day, but I need to double that this week.  Plus, Soccer Boy and Firstborn had just come home from a week at camp so I had extra from them.  I know Doug threw in at least two or three loads yesterday, we're running out of clean laundry baskets because he didn't have time to fold or put away any of it.  That's my project for today.

Hopefully next week will be a bit healthier!  Click over to Jen's to see more 7 Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.