when God sends poop

Frayed. That is how I feel.  I looked up some synonyms and the results were:  worn, tattered, un ravelled.  Those are all good words too.

The week has been rough.  A 48 hour stomach bug crept it’s way into the house starting with Janna last weekend.  Sunday and Monday it wreaked havoc on my poor little sweet Janna.  Monday and Tuesday it came after Jesse.  Tuesday and Wednesday my defenses fell (although, thankfully, not with the same intensity as the kids) and Wednesday and Thursday Robyn joined in the fun.   The POOP!  The cleaning.  The laundry.  The tears.  The night time wakings.  What a stinky and dirty blurrrrr....

There have been a few fortunate things I must comment on.   Firstly, Dave took a half day off as a personal day and surprised me at noon.  I may or may not have called the school and burst into tears???  But, when he asked if he should come home, I said, “no” and meant it.  But, that he did made me feel sooooo loved.  He sent me to bed, and then out of the house for some fresh air while he cleaned and took a turn with the mess.

Secondly, the extra kids I keep, found alternate arrangements of care for the week.  So, I only had my brood to deal with.  One of the families even dropped off a casserole one night to lessen my work load.  How sweet is that?  Also, I had a neighbor take Jesse out for a few hours yesterday on her bus run.  He was happy to get out of the house and meet some new people and get a change in scenery.

That is the hard thing about sick and contagious kids.  Nobody wants to come near you.  Understandably.  And getting out of the house is, likewise, not the fairest to the world.  And, with this stomach bug, we really needed to be NEAR a bath and toilet at all times.   It got a bit lonely. Especially since Dave was away.   That was the main unfortunate thing,  Dave was away for 3 days on a teaching conference.  So, I really was bound to the house, with the full work load pressing hard and heavy.  And missing my partner in crime.  No- I could never call Dave a criminal.   My partner in love :)

The second of the unfortunates is that my house is FREEZING!  We called the townhouse people earlier in the week when we didn’t suspect the furnace was doing it’s job.   They came and inspected it, and replaced the filter.   After that, we felt more air pumping through the house, but still not warm.  SO COLD in fact, I thought maybe I was getting sick as I couldn't beat the chills. 

Well, today, after having the actual heating people here for most of the afternoon and into the evening, I was happy to have confirmed I’m not crazy or sick.  The furnace, was, just pumping out air: not heat.   After several hours of stomps through the house and banging and in and out and in and out, I was hoping for good news- especially since they totally wrecked my freshly mopped and sanitized floors.   Bad news.  The universal switch won’t work on the model of furnace we have.  They can’t get the part until Monday morning.  So.... a cold house for another few days.  Oh well.  We’ll save a few dollars on heating costs, right?  I’m digging deep here to be positive!

But!  Tomorrow, is a new day.  The kids all made it through the day with solid poos and happy tummies.  Robyn is a teething machine, currently, and so was a bit wrecked.   But, we have a full family back in the house tomorrow, plans to be made, cabin fever to beat, and HOPE.

Thanks so much for reading.  I’m out.