I woke up this morning wishing I hadn’t. It was my day to be sick. Apparently this virus didn’t care that it was co-op today and my kids haven’t been out in 2 weeks and I had a class to teach. It didn’t care that I had loads of chores and schooling to get to and a crock-pot to stuff. It also didn’t care that we still have 4 sick kiddos and Jac has a mountain of stress and work to climb.
In short, today was not a good day to be sick. But what are you gonna do?
When I groaned and tried to wake up, Jac had me stay put. Later he brought me cold-medicine and kept the kids quiet. I felt guilty for not being more helpful, but was too miserable to act on it.
I finally pulled myself together around noon, in time to see Jac and Tess off on a trip to the bank. She looked good – all the kids looked good – meaning that she matched. Yes, my husband had not just fed and entertained the kids, but had bathed them and ensured they matched. It was impressive. Tess’s accessories for her outing were a little more wild, but again, what are you gonna do?
After they returned, I attempted to get the kiddos back on track schedule wise. It was snowing and perfect for cozying up together. We snuggled down into our bed with a few books and the box of tissues (5 sick people need A LOT of tissues). We made it through 2 books before Tess started to get restless. Up next was a chapter book and, in an attempt to get her to last through the pages without pictures, I pulled her up to lay on me. She wriggled and finally settled down comfortably. She was so quiet and her breathing was regular enough for me to assume she was asleep. In the brief lull between pages, she reached a hand up to my cheek.
“Mom?” she said groggily.
“Yes, baby?” I answered, sure she was going to profess her undying love for me.
“I don’t have any chonies.”
“What?!” I was thrown and wasn’t sure I understood. She started to repeat herself – this time without her paci and I looked questioningly at her brothers.
Philip sighed. “It’s true.” he said. “Dad couldn’t find her any chonies.”
“What?!” I repeated myself and BOTH Tess and Philip began to repeat themselves, too.
“No, no! You mean, you don’t have any chonies on NOW?” I clarified.
And that’s when Tess showed me to clarify.
That time it was all very clear.
Lessons learned:
It’s not enough to wash and dry the clothes. They have to be folded and put away in drawers to be fair game. Now I know.
Also, as my mom has always said, it really doesn’t matter how things appear on the outside. You never know what’s happening below the surface. Today certainly was a good reminder of that.
